Welcome to RHEI

You were looking at one of your favorite transformation erotica stories- you were amazed no one had used actual transformation magic to do it in live porn yet. It is just another average (weekday:), the time is (current-time:). You got up to get a glass of water before you started re-reading it and by the time you got back, the document had been edited! There was a line of text in a new paragraph: (text-colour:purple)[//*I could do you better than this smut.*//] You cocked an eyebrow and typed below it on a new line: (text-colour:blue)[//*Excuse me?*//] (text-colour:purple)[//*ACK! I can do you ONE better- typo!*//] You glanced at the bottom right of your screen and seen the IP address connected to your PC. You had installed a program that let you remotely connect to your PC, because you are not the best with computers and needed your friend to take a look at it. Since she hasn't lived anywhere near you for some time now; she connected remotely. And now you notice you forgot to tell it to not turn on with the PC, and also did not change the access code since she visited- giving her free reign of your PC. You ask Olivia why she is in your computer. (text-colour:purple)[*You left it open. But I did not want to contact you about this normally, because it might get traced or something. Look... you know how I moved away to work at Binton University as a professor on Theoretical Bioarcanistry?*] (text-colour:blue)[*Yes?*] (text-colour:purple)[*Well for starters that isn't an actual position that exists. Secondly, I am not in Binton and have never been here. The IP is a decoy. I work for a conpany called the Rebuilding Humanity Effort- RHE for short. They operate a secret island fo coegirls!*] (text-colour:blue)[*...coegirls?*] (text-colour:purple)[*Stop pointing out my typos!*] (text-colour:blue)[*Stop making typos and I won't have to point them out!*] (text-colour:purple)[*Grrr. Look, buster. I have been pulling some strings, because I know how much you like your cowgirl smut. And also because I am bored and we haven't seen each other in foreverrrr. RHE is super secretive, but I vouched for you and managed to get approval to bring you to the island of RHEI, for one full day and two nights. Tour the island by day, hang out with me for the night, get shipped back home free of cost.*] (text-colour:blue)[*Okay, so assuming this isn't the most elaborate prank I have had pulled on me in a while- what is the catch?*] (text-colour:purple)[*The catch is that they will have to brand your tongue with a sealing curse. It just prevents you from talking about RHE or anything directly related to it. Well, and writing or typing.*] (text-colour:blue)[*You... realise that would make talking to you impossible from then on?*] (text-colour:purple)[*Nah, because I already know about RHE, I can just make up a code word we can use to talk about it in place of the actual name. Trust me; I am clever when I need to be. I may not be a real professor but I am a real Bioarcanist.*] You decided to go along with it… even if it was a prank- what is the harm? Olivia gave you a specific time and place to be picked up at tomorrow before leaving your PC. She made sure to tell you to mind your manners and not do anything ‘//weird//’ before logging out. Really? Did she take you for a caveman? She has always teased you since finding out about your enjoyment of large breasts, and particularly udders. It wasn’t mean spirited anyway, and she only half intentionally ended up supplying you with some nice pictures for your stash in her attempts to tease you over the years. Transformation magic is well known, so the existence of cow-halfs is not anything new, but what she was explaining is an entire island worth of women who have had their actual genes altered to be bovine or a hybrid mix of other creatures. Unlike magic, those transformations would not wear off. Honestly the most unbelievable part of her story is the organization and island working in complete secrecy. To build enough homes for an entire town worth of test subjects they need materials… how do you buy that much building material without anyone asking why or where you are taking it? If no one knows the company exists, how does it hire anyone or find people for tests in the first place? Then there is also the factor of cost, how do you make and spend that much money without anyone else knowing? Olivia was always pulling the wool over her parent’s eyes so the fact she duped everyone as to what her job is was not that big of a surprise. She chose a real nowhere place like Binton because no one would want to go there to visit her- so she could say she lives there and no one would ever confirm it. So the next day you wake up and get ready to go out, wearing comfortable, casual clothing. You were at least half expecting Olivia herself to pop out and yell ‘//gotcha!//’, but you were okay with it whether it was real or a prank. You walked up to the baseball field you were supposed to meet at and started to do some basic stretches just to pass the time. It was early morning still and the air was cool and damp with morning dew. You check your watch often- you arrived early against your own judgement. Olivia was never one for waking up early, so if it is a prank; she would probably show up late and half asleep. You are startled by a low flying helicopter that managed to get very close to you before you noticed it- it was built for stealth so it is much quieter than any normal helicopter. It landed in the middle of the baseball field! (set: _Dawn to (random:1,5))(if:_Dawn is 1)[You had been calm and collected till now- now your heart beats a bit faster as you realize Olivia may have been telling the truth! An island paradise of huge boobs and heavy udders awaited on the other side of this ride! Plus, a free helicopter ride- this will be fun regardless. Though a bit shy, you ask the co-pilot about their destination a few minutes into the flight, but he tells you that he does not have permission to say. The rest of the trip is awkwardly silent and longer than you were expecting- the island was not at all close to your town. The helicopter was very fast and you were still in the air for nearly five hours. Now you wish you had brought your Dotenin Swap console to play along the way. They stopped at an aircraft carrier in the ocean, and you were treated to lunch on the colossal ship but unfortunately that is because the island was still nowhere near you. The helicopter refueled while you and the pilots ate. You ended up falling asleep in the back for some time. Watching the rolling waves and large, tall cloud formations rolling by was real pretty, but after several hours even that became old. The sun was starting to lower and the baby blue sky started to turn a darker tone as evening approached. No wonder the meeting time was so early in the day- it took an entire day just to get to the island! The co-pilot turned his head and told you they were finally arriving. You have been in the helicopter for so long your mind has learned to tune out the sound of the blades. You are approaching the island from the west, and their landing pad was in the north, so you got a clear view from the side window over the island as the helicopter turned. It is shaped like a giant bowl! Aside from a mountain a bit toward the middle- most of the island was a very gradual downward slope. The higher edges was covered in forest and then it abruptly switched to sheer cliffs and mountains that hid the contents of the island from any ships that may pass by. Sure enough, the grassy valley was filled with small but modern looking homes. Tall lamp posts bordered the more populated areas and the homes and swimming pools were networked by shale stones sunken into the soft ground as pathways. There is no roads and each house is on its own independent foundation, so not all the homes lined up with each other. The way they are arranged is more dynamic and free flowing than any modern city. There was a giant elevated plateau that housed the main RHE facility, and the complex was quite large. The helicopter landed on a very tall tower that was separate from the main facility but only divided by a parking lot. You are a bit paranoid of getting your head lopped off by the chopper blades above, and because you have been sitting in the vehicle for so long your first step almost puts you on your face. The air here is quite warm, and quite fresh. This island is a very far way off from the smog and other pollutants of modern society. The inside of the tower was huge round containers, beads of condensation collecting on their surface. Cold storage- this is where the milk is stored before being shipped out. The entire tower was storage! It was seven floors tall and it was all just cold storage on every level except half the ground floor, which was just general storage for supplies that have come in but have not yet been sorted and distributed. You smile in a bit of a daze from it all at your friend Olivia as she waits for you on the ground level. Her bright eyes are a seafoam blue, and her golden hair is tied in a high pony tail. She was wearing a rather casual outfit as well- but unlike you; Olivia wore a white lab coat over hers. Before you even have time to think of what to say to her, she takes your hand and dashes back toward the main facility, almost dragging you behind her. She did not just sit through an 11 hour helicopter flight- Olivia has a lot more in her than you do right now. Olivia brings you across a parking lot, past some vehicle hanger doors that contain the shuttle service vehicles that taxi women here and there when they do not feel like going on foot- generally when they need to use the milking stations in the main RHE complex since it is high up and on the most northern point on the island. Olivia excitedly points things out to you as she pulls you along to the doors leading into a huge gaming arcade. You see pool and ping-pong tables, dart boards, arcade cabinets and a golem-operated mini bar. At the back was an elevator but she took you up the stairs beside it. The elevator was usually only used for bringing equipment up and down from the labs, not people. Olivia brought you to a rather chaotic looking office place. There is computers set up on desks all over but also clearings made around a large arcane projector, dry erase boards, and a large section dedicated just to shelves of special racks. The racks contained the tinctures for the transformations, and each vial is suspended in a magnetic field so they do not rattle around or clink together on accident. “And this is my desk!” She plopped down in a spinning office chair, motioning over a very cluttered desk- the side of her PC obelisk was absolutely covered in stick-it notes. ”So! Welcome to RHEI. This is the island paradise I was telling you about. You can stay here for one day and two nights. It is already getting kinda late and you are probably tapped from the long ass flight, right?” You just nod. “Yea, that is fine. You can stay here in the admin level. The smaller building connected to this one by that overpass is where all the living spaces for the staff are. We actually have more compact living quarters than the test subjects, haha. We downsized a bunch so there are several empty quarters, so I just gave you the one closest to mine. So… what sort of tour do you want of the island tomorrow?”](if:_Dawn is 2)[You are almost immediately glad that you brought your tablet to play around on because this was no quick ride. You were promised two nights and one day, because it will be night by the time you reach the island- it will take essentially the entire day to fly there. Sure, the ride is great at first- just below a carpet of scattered clouds the helicopter zips off over the sea. The waves below turn from the dark blue calm waters to the white and teal tipped waves as it undulates with the wind and tide. As beautiful as it is; looking at it for hours on end is a bit much. You do get a break at a halfway point to eat lunch with the pilots at an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean. A helicopter cannot remain airborne for that long without running out of fuel, so they needed to stop on the carrier either way. There are expansion spells that can be used to basically convert local mana into more fuel, but mana is most dense in places of high traffic… the ocean is not high traffic. At least not above water. So after reminding your body that you still have legs by walking around the aircraft carrier’s titanic deck, you spent your afternoon mastering the art of lining up gemstones on your tablet. There were a few false alarms along the way, where you saw an island and had to ask if you had arrived early only to be told that was not it. When you arrived the island is even bigger than you imagined. It used to be a caldera long ago, so it was shaped like a bowl. There were no major air or sea traffic routes anywhere near it, and if any ship got lost and passed it by; they would not see the island past the mountains forming its border. You see a town scattered down the middle of the island, leading up to a huge plateau that houses a massive complex. You know the complex is the RHE main facility you are landing at quickly because the landing pad for the helicopter is the highest structure on the island. The tower where milk is stored to fly out has the landing pad on the roof. You see Olivia waiting for you, wearing just a casual outfit- though with a lab coat draped over it; her arms were not even in the sleeves. Her golden hair is pulled back in a high pony tail, and she looks up at you from the roof with her seafoam blue eyes and an eager smile. After being cooped up in a helicopter all day, Olivia has a lot more energy than you do. As soon as the helicopter lands she scoots over and takes your hand, leading you from it before the blades even start to slow down spinning. “Heeey~! Long ride huh?” You just nod, afraid if you open your mouth you will yawn. “You can sleep in the main complex on the admin level- there are more staff residential rooms than there are staff these days so you can just crash in an empty. It isn’t quite dinner time yet, maybe take a quick nap if you want?” You shrug, she chuckles. “Okay, let’s get away from the chopper, can’t hear myself think over the rotor.” She leads you past the giant hypothermic tanks of milk waiting to be shipped off, across a parking lot and into the main building. “So, what sort of tour are you looking for? This is your time here, so you can enjoy RHEI however you want. I mean… not much left of today, so we can do a little catchup over dinner for tonight. But you have aaaaall of tomorrow ahead of you. I had to pull strings to get you here in the first place, so it isn’t like RHE runs tours of the place- how you want this to go is on you.”](if:_Dawn is 3)[You are almost immediately glad that you brought your tablet to play around on because this was no quick ride. You were promised two nights and one day, because it will be night by the time you reach the island- it will take essentially the entire day to fly there. Sure, the ride is great at first- just below a carpet of scattered clouds the helicopter zips off over the sea. The waves below turn from the dark blue calm waters to the white and teal tipped waves as it undulates with the wind and tide. As beautiful as it is; looking at it for hours on end is a bit much. You do get a break at a halfway point to eat lunch with the pilots at an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean. A helicopter cannot remain airborne for that long without running out of fuel, so they needed to stop on the carrier either way. There are expansion spells that can be used to basically convert local mana into more fuel, but mana is most dense in places of high traffic… the ocean is not high traffic. At least not above water. So after reminding your body that you still have legs by walking around the aircraft carrier’s titanic deck, you spent your afternoon mastering the art of lining up gemstones on your tablet. There were a few false alarms along the way, where you saw an island and had to ask if you had arrived early only to be told that was not it. When you arrived the island is even bigger than you imagined. It used to be a caldera long ago, so it was shaped like a bowl. There were no major air or sea traffic routes anywhere near it, and if any ship got lost and passed it by; they would not see the island past the mountains forming its border. You see a town scattered down the middle of the island, leading up to a huge plateau that houses a massive complex. You know the complex is the RHE main facility you are landing at quickly because the landing pad for the helicopter is the highest structure on the island. The tower where milk is stored to fly out has the landing pad on the roof. You see Olivia waiting for you, wearing just a casual outfit- though with a lab coat draped over it; her arms were not even in the sleeves. Her golden hair is pulled back in a high pony tail, and she looks up at you from the roof with her seafoam blue eyes and an eager smile. After being cooped up in a helicopter all day, Olivia has a lot more energy than you do. As soon as the helicopter lands she scoots over and takes your hand, leading you from it before the blades even start to slow down spinning. “Heeey~! Long ride huh?” You just nod, afraid if you open your mouth you will yawn. “You can sleep in the main complex on the admin level- there are more staff residential rooms than there are staff these days so you can just crash in an empty. It isn’t quite dinner time yet, maybe take a quick nap if you want?” You shrug, she chuckles. “Okay, let’s get away from the chopper, can’t hear myself think over the rotor.” She leads you past the giant cryothermic tanks of milk waiting to be shipped off, across a parking lot and into the main building. “So, what sort of tour are you looking for? This is your time here, so you can enjoy RHEI however you want. I mean… not much left of today, so we can do a little catchup over dinner for tonight. But you have aaaaall of tomorrow ahead of you. I had to pull strings to get you here in the first place, so it isn’t like RHE runs tours of the place- how you want this to go is on you.”](if:_Dawn is 4)[Olivia herself takes a step out of the helicopter to take your hand and lead you in, though you are nervous of the rotor over your head- paranoid it will take the top of your head off. The helicopter did not even cut its engine, it just touched down and then took right back off again since you were all they were here to collect. Olivia has seafoam blue eyes and golden hair tied in a high ponytail. She is wearing a lab coat but it is not closed nor is her arms even in its sleeves. Under the coat was an incredibly casual outfit- clearly RHE had no dress code. When Olivia spoke her voice was mirrored by one in your head, formed of your own thoughts. She was using a minor telepathy spell- it is used commonly in vehicles like this where the constant sound of the engine or propellers drown out physical sound. “Bet you didn’t think you would see me on this end.” You reply that you honestly did not know what to think of the situation. You were not even sure if she was telling the truth till now, so the helicopter showing up at all was already a mild surprise. “Fair. This is going to be a (text-style:"sway")[reaaaally] long ass ride, so, hope that seat is comfortable. We will be in the chopper till late afternoon. The island is (text-style:"buoy")[kiiiinda] far.” You are a bit disturbed by that, telling Olivia that you did not have that big of a breakfast and asking why they did not use a teleportation spell instead of a physical transport. “A teleportation spell for that distance would cost an obscene amount of mana, and teleportation is always a bit risky- if an organism or object passes into the same space you are teleporting to you can telefrag it, or yourself. We will be stopping for lunch so don’t worry about starving. The helicopter doesn’t have enough fuel to make the entire trip in one go.” You ask Olivia why it doesn’t use mass expansion spells to swell its existing fuel mid-flight. “Spells won’t work over the ocean- there is very little ambient mana. We could take mana cells onto the vehicle I suppose, but we need to go to the bathroom and eat anyway so they might as well make a stop. There is an aircraft carrier at about the halfway point we will touch down on. Our legs will probably be numb by then from sitting for so long.” She lets out a long sigh. “''BUT'', at least you and I have plenty of one-on-one time now to catch up!” She starts by explaining RHE itself a bit better. It was founded by Dess Winehal- better known as the //Paragon//; ''Moth''. She created the group to research human-animal hybridization on a molecular level, rather than just metaphysical illusory magic or transitory form swapping. After that, RHE remained after she was done to continue her research for its own curiosity, and stuck with mammalian species to start with so they could produce and sell the milk to both help others and fund itself. RHEI was funded by Moth originally, who had the authority to essentially do whatever she wanted, so hiding its formation was not hard. The island is privately owned so not dictated by any country, and they outsource materials from multiple countries so the borders between prevent any one person from gathering enough information to trace it back to RHE. They leak just enough information online to attract people TO the island, but no one leaves, so information cannot escape back into the world without RHE authorizing it. The citizens of RHEI basically live in paradise. All they have to do is give the milk their bodies produce anyway, and they can live their life completely care-free. Free house, free food, private island, good company. They took care of each other, and filled in any additional needs on their own. Art gallery, a trade based market, swimming pools, nature trails, mountain climbing, beaches, forests- even island getaways from their island getaway! There is two smaller islands by RHEI they could swim to- Little Light and New Eden. Not all test subjects are created equally of course- as is the nature of testing. Sometimes things went further than they were supposed to or their mixture did not turn out the way they intended. Accidents range from someone simply getting a bit// too// busty and becoming nearly //immobilized//, women growing into a colossus, shrinking, and even one woman who became so genetically unstable that she was nearly reduced to a pool of //quivering goo//. Though there were several close calls, no one has ever died as the result of a test. Test subjects that are too handicapped by their new bodies and require the attendance of someone else to survive are taken to a special facility below the main complex and given the ‘XV’ suffix to their test number, indicating an //Extreme Variant//. It was at this point you cut in with a question that had been eating you since hearing all this for the first time yesterday. What do the test subjects think about all this? RHE allows you to visit RHEI and tour the place, but what about the test subjects? This is an island paradise- not a zoo. Yea, you love cow hybrids and big mammaries, but do these women want you to be looking at them? Olivia originally advertised this as some sort of show for you, but it also sort of felt like intruding on someone’s home. “Aww, well it is good that you are thinking about things like that, but don’t worry! It isn’t as though they are in cages on display. It is a town- you won’t get inside of their houses unless they invite you. If they don’t want you to see them, they just won’t show themselves. RHE did a consensus so it isn’t like you will be taking anyone by surprise- they all know you are going to be there. If anything a lot of test subjects might swarm you with questions on the outside. They get television and internet to see the world with, but, y’know, talking to someone actually from the outside is a curiosity to them. Unlike what you are used to seeing- women transforming themselves to flaunt or have kinky sex with- these people are changed for good. Those forms are their actual default body- they are used to them. They have gotten to know, respect, and love those bodies and the bodies of those around them. So just make sure to keep //THAT// in mind above anything else. Their bodies are not a sexual thing, as much as they might function as one.” When you landed on the aircraft carrier at lunch, Olivia slapped you on the shoulder and dashed off- reminding you how immature she can be sometimes. You chased each other around the colossal deck of the carrier playing tag while the helicopter refueled. A quick meal, trip to the bathroom, and a run around to wake your legs up and you were back into the vehicle for the last leg of the trip. The carrier was actually over the halfway point, so the remainder of the ride was shorter than the first section. It landed in RHEI on a tower at the edge of the main complex that housed the hypothermal containment tanks for milk to be lifted out. The two of you walk across a parking lot to the main buildings, and she turns to you as you both walk through the front doors. “So, what sort of tour did you have in mind? I mean… obviously RHE doesn’t run its own tours, so how you want to do this is up to you really. I could show you around, or…?”](if:_Dawn is 5)[The helicopter touched down but did not cut its engine. Olivia peeked out the back doors and waved you over- though you were a bit paranoid the rotor would grab your hair and yank your head up into the blades. When she spoke to you it startled you a bit because it was literally in your head. Because of the noise of the rotor; minor telepathy spells were used in vehicles like this. She spoke with her physical voice but a mental one mirrored it so she could be heard. “Hey you~ didja miss me?! I came all the way over to see you! That is how good of a friend I am!” You chuckle lightly, telling her it only made sense for her to come get you herself. You had trouble believing in a secretly organization running a half-human island paradise. If the helicopter landed and no one familiar was there to invite you in, you were not sure you would have even agreed to get on. Olivia is your only connection to all this. “Well, yea, but also it is an 11 hour flight…” You let out a startled ‘(text-style:"rumble")[what]’ at that. “O-oh, I didn’t mention that already? Yea, we won’t actually arrive on the island till, like, dinner time, or late afternoon at best. So… I have already been flying foreeeever. But I did it, for you~” She leaned toward you almost as if you kiss you and you leaned back away and cocked an eyebrow. She sat up straight again like nothing happened, but you sensed something off. Olivia was acting odd… maybe the long flight was just messing with her head. You tell her you didn’t have that large of a breakfast- you were not expecting to have to go the entire rest of the day without food. Not to mention a person can only hold their bladder for so long. She waved her hand dismissively and giggled. “Oh don’t worry about that- we are stopping on an aircraft carrier on the way over. It is physically impossible for the helicopter to have enough fuel to stay airborne for that long, so even if the humans inside didn’t need to refuel- the vehicle would. We can stretch our legs and have a lunch on the carrier.” Olivia’s seafoam blue eyes glittered as she told you about RHE, how it was founded and why the island came to be in the first place. Panta rhei becoming a motto for RHEI as a whole, as each new subject had a different form and RHE was always changing- always looking for the next evolution. Aside from having the island’s own abbreviated name in the phrase- it translates to ‘everything flows’, and is quoted from an ancient Greek philosopher, who believed no two things can ever be the same. You were a bit distracted though. Olivia was acting odd. True; you had not seen her in person for a long time, but there was something else you could not put your finger on. Eventually you stopped at the aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean, after having nothing but scattered puffy white clouds to look at above and tumbling waves below for miles, and miles. You ate a quick lunch together, and then went to the bathroom. You and Olivia wandered around the titanic deck of the carrier to stretch your legs while the vehicle was refueled. Olivia started to enthusiastically tell you about various test subjects when it finally hit you, and you cut her off mid-sentence to call out her lie. It was an 11 hour flight to the island. She had spoken to you just the other day, and then arrived in the morning. She did not have time between messaging you, to be able to have flown all the way out there to pick you up and then all the way back! Olivia laughed, and then her voice abruptly changed to a deeper but still womanly one. “She was busy with some work in the office too, so even if she did have time, she could not have made it personally. Olivia is waiting for you at RHE. But since letting you visit is sort of a favor from everyone, she wanted to work extra hard to make up for it, and can’t afford to slack.” You then ask her who she is, and how she managed to pull off a perfect Olivia impression- both in appearance and mimicking her voice perfectly. Her form turned pink for a moment, and on the surface became momentarily translucent as it shuffled around a bit and took the form of a completely different woman! She took a short bow. “Test Subject 42, Faith at your service.” She has long base brown hair to her mid-back and her eyes were a pale pink- but almost magenta around the pupil and the edges of the iris. She held out her hand and told you to touch it. Just before you made contact, her skin seemed to squirm and turned a translucent pink again on her hand. When you touch it, it is very soft and oddly smooth, like she had no pours. She pushes her arm forward and rather than press your hand back, her hand spread out and wraps around yours! She isn’t solid; Faith is made of super-dense pink goo! Faith explains that her test was going to be on adaptive genetics; trying to induce evolution. Rather than give her a specific form, RHE was trying to incite her genes to evolve on their own, and become better at whatever she enjoyed doing and places she liked to be. This instead caused her to become extremely genetically unstable however, which was very dangerous and her life was actually threatened by it. If she were any less stable, she would have been devolved into a puddle of formless biomass. Faith’s subconscious did not take her situation as lightly as her conscious mind and was never fully able to cope with her situation. Luckily- that is what allows her to hold herself together. Her mind cannot fathom being 100% different from what it was, and unconsciously forces her old shape on the new amorphous form. She becomes progressively more formless as she gets tired- and turns into a jiggly sphere of goop when she sleeps. The jelly that makes up her body is far too dense to transfer easily to anything, so it is not like she can be absorbed into fabric. Your hand passed through hers because she consciously flowed around yours- if you were to strike her, you would hit her rather than go through because of the density. You would still cause her to jiggle all over the place though. And now she explains to you the side-effect of having a formless body. Her genetics did not evolve on their own, but they DID become adaptive. Faith can perfectly imitate the body and even voice of any organism she makes physical contact with. For a moment her face reformed into a perfect copy of yours, and then back to her own. She laughs at the face you make on seeing her ability to steal your identity. She had touched your hand- so her body now remembers your genes. Olivia only had to give her a high-five, and then Faith was able to mimic her perfectly to go meet you. Faith admits she was about to lose her shape anyway, so was relieved you figured it out on your own. Her genes are quick to study samples of other DNA, but do not have the best memory. Her body gradually forgets over time, and Faith was really straining herself to keep Olivia’s form for so long. Without concentrating hard on it, she usually forgets a form after an hour or two. On one hand you were a bit uncomfortable now knowing your only familiar contact was actually a fake. On the other hand, you had been talking with Faith unknowingly for hours already, so you had somewhat gotten to know her on accident. That pass she made to kiss earlier was because she was not entirely sure of your relationship with Olivia. Faith can copy the body, but not the mind of a person. When you finally arrived at the island, the helicopter touches down on the top of the highest structure- both because the tower itself is tall, but also because it is built on elevated ground. The real Olivia is waiting for you on the landing pad when you arrive. Faith tells you she hopes to see you around- telling you that her house is at the base of the Great Plateau, on its south side if you wanted to visit. Olivia thanked her for picking you up, and then leads you down through the building. The soft hum of the hypothermic containment, keeping the milk cool and ready to fly off the island fills the entire tower. Olivia turns to you as you both reach the ground floor and asks what you wanted to do. Olivia arranged for your time on the island, but how you spend it is entirely up to you.(set: $Faith to true)] [[I will just wander around and see what I see, I think.->Selfguided]] [[Eh, kind of want to sleep in. Hang out with you a bit more.->Late Start]] [[After a glance at the roster... I think I know some subjects I want to see already!->Targeted]] [[Chef's choice? Guide me, sempai!->Olivia Guide]]

(if:(history: where its name contains "Arrivals")'s length is 1)[(set: $Kalha to 1)](set: $Freedream to (random:1,3))(set: $ThirdC to (either:true,false))You tell Olivia that you want to just wander around and see what you see. Running between targeted objectives risks missing all of the things in between, or wasting time trying to search for someone if it turns out they are not where you think they are. You only have one day to spend on the island, so you have to make sure you spend it wisely. “''Well''. Sounds like you’ve considered your options thoroughly.” You say you had nothing else to think about the last several hours of staring at the ocean. “(text-style:"rumble")[Hah]. Yea, your brain is probably tuned out from the flight. I remember when I first flew here I was so nervous about my first day on the job when I got on the helicopter. By the time I got off I was acting like I was stoned, because the flight was so mind-numbing.” Olivia led you across the parking lot motioning to various parts of the building and telling you what was inside where- not going into too much detail since she doubted you would remember half of what she was saying. The RHE main complex was made up of three structures- the first being the tower the helicopter lands on that contains the cold storage units for all the milk they ship out. Then attached by an overpass across the parking lot is the largest structure which is also covered in the most windows; this is where the offices are, but also a restaurant, arcade, massage clinic, milking machines, a garage for a shuttle service, etc. The third building which is in turn also connected to the main one by an overpass, is the living quarters for all of the RHE staff; it is an apartment building. Olivia brings you to her desk in the office area, showing you around and calling up a map to point out the general location of test subjects you might want to see- you try to remember them all but it is a lot of information for one day. It has felt like forever since you actually seen Olivia in the flesh, and you forgot how good looking she is. You are surprised she is still single, but you suppose working for a secret company on a remote uncharted island probably doesn’t help. You two get an early dinner from the restaurant and Olivia basically orders for you- you are having a hard time concentrating like she said you might earlier, and she knew the menu already. The chef is a golem using conjuration, so staff and test subjects alike have been adding family recipes and cultural dishes from around the world to the menu over the years. Because of how spaced out you are from the boring flight you are a bit quiet, but Olivia understands and doesn’t mind- she does enough talking for the both of you. Working for RHE meant she was unable to tell you what all has been going on in her life since university when you two originally started to drift apart. Now that you are on the island, she can finally tell you what she has been doing. Every so often another RHE staff member will walk by in the office to see the ‘outsider’ and Olivia will briefly introduce them before immediately going back to her own stories. You are not physically tired at all, so you and Olivia end up spending quite a bit of time hanging out and talking- well into the night. She even takes you up onto the roof of the main building so you can look out over the lights of the homes in the valley in the darkness. At the end of the night Olivia returns you to the apartments and takes you to an empty one right beside her own. RHE has been downsizing a bit and ramping down all operations because their main tests are all done already, so there are several staff apartments that are just empty other than the default furniture. You do not spend long getting used to the apartment, and get to sleep as quickly as you can. When you wake up tomorrow your one day timer starts ticking, so you want to wake up as early as possible to get as much as you can out of the day. (text-style:"blur")[(if:$Freedream is 1)[(text-style:"upside-down")[''DREAM SIMULATION NOT FOUND'' ''ERROR 239'': RAM requirement exceeded Prime Hub’s allotted partition ''SUGGESTED RESOLUTION'': Do not nest simulation functions within themselves.]](if:$Freedream is 2)[You wake up slowly but as you turn your head there is something rubbing against your face, and once you turn enough it flicks out from under your head and twacks you in the nose! Your eyes shoot open but it takes you a moment to focus enough on it to realize it is a giant nipple! You push yourself up and look down to see that it is not a pillow your head is resting against but rather a pair of huge breasts! Then your eyes start to scan around and you realize you are not on a bed, but rather a colossal boob! There are nipples and teats all around you! The entire room is gone, the walls and everything are just made of boobs and udders pressed together in a way that they roughly form the shape of a room- and whoever all they are attached to is not visible past them. You slide off the curvature of the huge boob you were using as a bed and immediately sink into the ‘floor’. The tits are soft enough that the cleavage can swallow your limbs but too tightly squeezed together for your body to fit through. The taught, firm but also soft and wobbly flesh is hard to move on, and you spend quite a long time navigating the fairly small space, trying to figure out what to do. You hear what sounds like moaning and occasionally a giggle, but it is like the sound has been slowed down so much that it almost just sounds like a hum. Using the three breasts that made up your ‘bed’ as reference you push into the ‘wall’ where the door would have been before and manage to shove your entire body in between all the breasts! You compress them enough that their nipples and teats start to leak milk. You pop out the other side and are almost blinded by the morning sun! There is a stream to your right but you notice it runs with milk, not water. Behind you is just an amorphous hill of disembodied mammaries. It looks the same on the outside as it did on the inside, so it wasn’t attached to anyone. A huge cow rides past, slowing when it spots you. It has a huge udder and its teats just barely clear the ground. Lying across the back of the cow is a naked busty woman who seductively welcomes you to ‘paradise’. As you look around you notice the curvature of the horizon is steeper than it should be. Because of how large the scale is, it takes you some time to notice- you are not standing on ground, it is flesh. There is a crater some distance away that you realize is a giant belly button! The twin mountains you see on the horizon are breasts! You are standing on the upper crotch of a colossal woman!](if:$Freedream is 3)[You wake up to find a cute looking cowgirl riding on your penis! Her udder slaps your belly every time she slides back fully over the shaft, and you can feel the tassel on her tail whipping around wildly behind her, brushing your legs. It feels like she is squeezing your tighter but you can see a growing bulge on her lower gut- your penis is growing inside of her! Your heart jumps a bit at that thought. That is not normal. What happened to you while you were asleep? She huffs and slows to a stop for a moment, picking herself up carefully and then flopping onto her back- your cock is too large for her to ride! You were already brought so far though, you needed to get off. You sit up and start thrusting into her while she is laying down. As soon as you resume sex though, you can feel it pulling tight. The veins are so fat and taught you can feel your heart beat all the way up the length, causing the already purpled glans to throb with pressure. You start to thrust with less force but greater speed- you need to get off fast so you can figure out what is happening to your junk. Soon a bit of your cock pushes out of her body, no longer able to fit the entire thing inside of her. She is grinning as she looks down at the exposed shaft- more amused than you are. You are in a bit of a panic, which makes it harder to get off. This isn’t supposed to happen, penis do not just grow spontaneously on their own! This is too big! You can’t entirely fit inside of her even though you started while being already inside of her! You try to thrust as fast as you can without pounding into her cervix. Slowly, more and more of your cock becomes exposed as it gets longer, bigger, and longer again. Her thighs slip from your grip as she is slid up the bed by your dick alone. Half of it is not even inside of her, and the bulge in her lower gut looks like someone tried to stuff a basketball into her pussy! It is harder to get off when half of the cock isn’t even inside of anything anymore! She started to grunt with exertion- you can feel her pussy wrapped around your shaft like an elastic band- your cock is too wide and still trying to grow larger- she cannot fit! You try desperately to thrust but her body rocks with the thrust- she is wrapped so tightly around your dick that you cannot move separately from her! No no… there has to be a way? You aren’t supposed to be this big! With a sharp cry and then a laugh- she gets shoved forward by the force and pops off your dick entirely without trying to move at all! You no longer fit at all! Your dick is as thick as her thighs and a bit longer than her torso! The head of your phallus is as large as your actual head! Another woman you did not even notice was there reaches out suddenly and rubs the softer malleable skin of the surface of the shaft. The first woman grabs either side of the glans lovingly and kisses the urethral slit. Another woman, and then another reaches over and they are giggling softly and moaning as they rub themselves against the shaft, and it continues to grow larger and larger! You feel extremely dizzy- your blood pressure is plummeting to feed the colossal erection! Soon it is so large to bends off the end of the bed and starts to lurch across the floor! It cannot even get fully hard anymore, so although you feel extremely aroused and pent up; the cock is soft.]] You wake up suddenly from your dreaming. Wow… that was an odd dream. You are in a strange place, and are thinking about hybrid women and their mammaries, so you suppose it makes sense your dreams will probably be a little odd. You wander out to the offices and Olivia spots you and waves you over to her desk. “I am trying to work extra hard to make up for asking for favors like smuggling you onto the island, heh. So I will be here if you need anything but you should be okay on your own, right? Anyway, the restaurant is across the way, I suggest you get yourself at least something to eat for breakfast. We can have dinner again together once you get back, but don’t go running around the island all day without eating anything first. Oh.” She spun in her chair to point over at some coat hooks. “My jacket is the royal purple one- you might want to borrow that in case the weather gets kooky, there is a chance of rain today, but you never know on RHEI. The island is big enough to generate its own weather systems, and the mountains interrupt most outside weather, so it is hard to predict.” You point to a narrow golden slate on a small shelf under her jacket. All of the staff and test subjects alike have onyx slates that have a looking glass enchantment that links them to a central processor obelisk on the roof of the main complex. If you had one you could look up information on test subjects on the fly. The slate by her jacket is gold though, and more narrow than the standard ones. “O-oh, no don’t touch that thing. That is //not// a normal slate; that links to Alua and the crystalized memories we have in archive of the initial transformation of test subjects.” Wait, that sounds //awesome//. Why wouldn’t you want to touch that? Never mind discovering their current bodies, you could literally be looking at their actual transformation into those bodies! Olivia lowered her brows. “Because that is //classified information//. You would need the explicit consent of the test subject to access their memories. Or, ''RHE staff'' would need it I should say- you are an outsider, you shouldn’t even have access to the memory slate in the first place.” Olivia sighed and spun back around to resume typing on her PC. “Don’t try to jack the memory slate- it is password protected and the test subjects themselves will not know the password, so you would have no way of using it even if you had it.” She glanced at you. “Don’t try to brute force any password entry panels anywhere on the island, either. If you get it incorrect three times in a row- every successive attempt will cause it to release an //electrical charge//.” And so you hustle over to the restaurant to eat a nice omelet for breakfast and then pause in the hallway between the offices and restaurant. You could tell the golem to give you a meal to go and pack yourself a lunch to take with you. Which item do you choose to bring with you? (text-colour:red)[//(you can only select one)//] |Item>[(link-reveal:"Olivia's Jacket")[(replace: ?item)[(set: $Item to "Jacket")You grab her jacket as she suggested and head out. [[Head toward the second pool->Second Pool]] [[Wander toward the library and gallery->Between Library&Gallery]] (if:$ThirdC is true)[[[Head to the Western Plains->Western Plains]]]]] (link-reveal:"A lunch")[(replace: ?item)[(set: $Item to "Lunch")You decide to bring a lunch- you want to keep your energy up to get the most out of the day. You could share some with whoever you are with at the time as well. [[Head toward the second pool->Second Pool]] [[Wander toward the library and gallery->Between Library&Gallery]] (if:$ThirdC is true)[[[Head to the Western Plains->Western Plains]]]]] (link-reveal:"Memory Slate")[(replace: ?item)[(set: $Item to "Memory")Eh, she can't tell you to not do something and then expect you to not actually do it. Her telling you not to do it only makes you want to do it more. You casually type in the password and get it right on the first try. You slip it into your pocket, though it is tall enough that you can still see it poking out- so you leave the offices quickly before Olivia notices that it is gone. [[Head toward the second pool->Second Pool]] [[Wander toward the library and gallery->Between Library&Gallery]] (if:$ThirdC is true)[[[Head to the Western Plains->Western Plains]]]]]]

"Really, you don't want to...? Okay, sure." Olivia is busy tonight, and you are very tired, so she unfortunately would be unable to be with you for dinner. She told you to head to the second floor and on the far side is a large dining area that looked a bit like a classy resteraunt! There is a lot of windows in this area so you can look out over the valley from your table. In a wave, you watched all the lanterns turn on in the valley, from the main complex to the south end. You ordered your food from the golem attendant and he quickly conjures it for you. Since none of the transformations required mana on the island- there was plenty of ambient mana to use for everything else. Conjuring food out of thin air obviously would take a //disgusting// amount of mana to pull off, so there is basic food elements stored in a kitchen area. From these actual food elements, magic can then be used to transmute it into the desired dish. Like an actual resteraunt however, there is still a menu you had to select from. The golem has no brain of its own- it can only use the spells to transmute what it has been taught already. You slowed your eating several times as you spot several test subjects in the distance, but they are much too far for you to make out much detail. Even at this distance you can tell they are wearing little or no clothing at all, and their breasts are huge! You see Olivia speaking with several other researchers on your way to your room later on and stop to listen for a minute. Olivia is definitely smart, but a bit of a goof too, so it felt a bit odd to see her having such a serious discussion. "So with animal traits off the table, we cannot simply patchwork in salamander genes to regenerate... though, we ''DO'' know that is an option, and it ''HAS'' worked. Test Subject 47 being the prime example here." Benson nodded. "The problem is the unique structure. If the person has one missing limb, we can use a spell to copy the one the subject still owns, and transmute doner biomass. This is no longer applicable if the subject has lost both limbs however. We cannot copy someone else's limb in its place because that would carry with it all the same problems as transplanting limbs and organs- the body may choose to reject it." (link:"Listen longer...")[ Daniella raised her pen into the air. "We also cannot use a mana stimulant to trigger the body's natural regeneration because you would have no way of telling it where to stop. Without specific instructions it would just keep trying to generate more, even after the limb was complete, wouldn't it?" The overseer Mahogany shook her head. "It would not even get that far. Cells diversify to split up the task- cells taken from a leg are not identical to those from an arm. If the limb is completely missing, there are no remnant cells that know how to do that task. A failsafe would be to imprint one's form in a transformative spell and imbed it into a physical medium for storage. It would keep a sort of back-up copy you can reset to- using a biomass doner like Benson mentioned. It requires that pre-emptive step however. If they do not foresee it coming and have that backup when the limb is lost- they are out of luck." (link:"Listen more!")[ Olivia held up her clipboard confidently. "And that is what lead me down this path of thought. Assuming the subject has done no backup measures themselves and has come to us after losing both limbs- what can be done to restore them? Automancy can create prosthetics, what people tend to forget is the existence of //Flesh Golems//. Grim as they generally are- they ''do'' function. I am not saying this will be easy by any stretch of the imagination- but I believe we can use a simple duplication spell to regenerate biomass from the subject and use said mass to sculpt flesh golem limbs." Daniella cringed at the thought and raised her pen again, but Olivia cut her off. "I mean as a base- not an end result. From there, we can use ''memory'' of appearance and function to sculpt a more accurate copy of the original." Now Benson spoke up again. "People cannot remember the micro-scale biological functions of their body..." "But that also isn't dynamic unless the subject had some sort of deformity or birth defect. We can instruct the functionality of the limb using a copy of anyone, because that remains static between test samples." You yawn so hard you bring tears to your eyes. As interesting as this all is, you had a long day and really should go to sleep.]] That night, you fell asleep quickly and had many dreams.(set: _Dream to (random:1,3))(if:_Dream is 1)[(text-style:"blur")[You have a dream of being on the Aircraft carrier again, but this time it shakes violently and what looks like Godzilla emerges from the waters! When it straightens up however you realize only her backside resembles the kaiju- the front is a naked woman with massive boobs and pale blue glowing nipples! She shouts 'oh yea' while arching her back and two beams of atomic fire blast out from her nipples and cut the front of the aircraft carrier clean off as she moves her tits!]](if:_Dream is 2)[(text-style:"blur")[Olivia wakes you up, bursting into the room, startling you! She has a giddy smile on her face as she thrusts out an udder in her hands! You thought it was some sort of plushy or something, but after a moment you realize its actual flesh! It's a big, disembodied cow udder! You sit up and lean forward, asking her why she has a flesh and blood udder that isn't even attached to anything. She replies but she is speaking jibberish? Boobs of several different sizes start to roll in from the room behind her, which should be the hall leading back to the offices. They are sort of like giant stress balls- soft and squishy but mostly round still. You realize then that you are still dreaming...]](if:_Dream is 3)[(text-style:"blur")[Before you can get fully asleep, you are disturbed by a sharp prick on your neck! You roll over and sit up, seeing Olivia standing there with an empty syringe! You only start to ask her what the hell she is doing before she cuts you off, giggling and saying she did this because you like boobs and cows so much. Wait... did she...? You look down and realize you have small breasts, and they are growing fast! The nipples are dividing, stretching your areola into a four-leaf clover shape! They tingle as the nipples stretch and firm up into narrow teats. Your chest is filled with a soft pressure and intense heat as your boobs swell very quickly, getting so heavy you are forced back into a laying position!!]] [[Wake up, you slept in!->RHE]]

You decide to look around the island yourself, using Olivia’s computer as a guide. She can call up a full roster of the test subjects with a brief description, then you can assemble a list of the ones you want to see most and have Olivia tell you where to actually find them- roughly. You are tired as heck when you arrived, so Olivia quickly guides you to the main building, using an overpass that connects the tower to the second floor of the main building. The overpass also connects behind the restaurant, so she can get you into a comfy seat quickly and you both order up a nice meal. You get a rather enjoyable view of the island from the restaurant as well- two of the four walls are almost entirely windows so you can see a good portion of the town in the valley, even if it is from a good distance away. Olivia nodded as you explained your plan to make a list. “Keep your expectations within reason too, though. Remember; you only have ''one'' day to be wandering around RHEI- you can only do so many things at once. I will call up a map of who lives where too… I will try to line them up for you- so you are not walking back and forth between distant locations, wasting time travelling.” She paused a moment in thought. “You should also make your list with ‘//fallback options//’ too. I can tell you a rough estimate of where the subject is most of the time but there is no guarantee they‘re actually there when you are. People move around and RHEI is actually a really big island. Just knowing who you want to see and where they commonly hang out isn’t any sort of //guarantee// you can find them.” After a nice dinner Olivia takes you back to her apartment in the offshoot building. Apparently there is no door on the ground floor of the building- the only way inside is an overpass that connects straight to the offices, or the fire escape. She pulls out and dusts off an old video game console- the Playbox 260! You two lay side by side on her bed playing multiplayer games like the olden days. You and Olivia used to go everywhere and do everything together. You started to fall out of contact when she went to university and since she needs to keep her real job a secret- she became a rarity in your life after university when RHE picked her up. It is actually surprising Olivia isn’t taken. She is beautiful and funny, and obviously smart. You aren’t sure how you would react to finding out she had a boyfriend, but at the same time you want her to be happy too. You suppose her chances of finding anyone really plummeted when she came to RHEI to work. Unless she finds someone among the staff- she isn’t going to find anyone. She can leave the island and take vacation time- she would get branded with the same curse seal they are going to give you when you leave, and then just remove it when she returns. But she has never actually taken advantage of it. She leads you to your own temporary apartment once it gets late, right across from her own. Both of yours are on the second level of the building so you are not far from the overpass that takes you back to the offices. The apartments are pretty small- a bathroom with a narrow single-person shower, no bathtub, the bedroom which is also the living area, and then the tiny kitchen. To help give the living area more space, there is no dividing wall between it and the kitchen. The TV is on a panel that faces the bed, but is at the edge of the kitchen. It actually folds back to become part of the counter. In your room there is nothing blocking the bed from the front door, but in Olivia’s there is a short but long bookshelf with a wall of small potted plants across the top of it that blocks the view from the front door. Since your apartment is an unoccupied space, there is not much here- you would need to go to the restaurant to eat because there is no food in the kitchen in your place. There is still a television since it’s literally built into the counter, but you are too tired to watch any before sleeping. The next day you see Olivia talking with someone by the coffee machine and just help yourself to her computer while she is away from her desk. You bring up the registry and start to write up a list on a sheet of paper you swiped off the stack at a nearby printer. Though not very detailed, the registry does give a brief summary of the test subjects- telling you what their test was on, what species were used, and if applicable; what went //wrong//. The person Olivia is talking to points to you after a bit and Olivia immediately puts her hands on her hips and marches over to you. “What are you doing peeping my computer?” You laugh, telling her she is one to talk after invading your computer to start all this. “Technically I was //invited//- you just forgot to rescind the invitation. Oh Gods, remember when I guessed your password back in high school? You were so mad, but you didn’t change it either, haha! I still remember- your password was JU71U5_.” You shake your head both for the fact that she still remembers that for some reason, and also how frustratingly easy it was for her to guess it. You thought it was a good password; a mix of letters numbers and an underscore. It has to be something you can actually remember too- it isn’t like you can mash any random letters and numbers in. She glanced at the list of test subjects you were making, nodding and humming in thought. Olivia went to the window of the offices and pointed to several structures, then looked at you nodding along and her brows gradually lowered. “You aren’t going to remember any of this, are you?” Not for a lack of trying- but no, probably not. “(text-style:"shudder")[Siiigh], okay, give me that paper, I will try to write some simple instructions for you.” She smiles as she hands it back a minute later. “You might be the only living person able to //read// my shorthand.” Her hand has several scratches on it; those were not there the night before. You ask what happened as you take the paper back. “Oh, just Vanessa’s cat. Juno likes to play, so sometimes when you pet her she will randomly bat at your hand, and her claws are super sharp.” It is kind of surprising there are pets in the facility. Everyone lives so close together in such small places- and it connects directly to the work place. What if someone has an allergy? There would be no where safe! Olivia laughed. “Do you really think that would be a problem for RHE? Allergies are immunity system over-sensitivity. We hybridize and occasionally make custom genetic coding- do you think we couldn’t make a slight adjustment to an immune system?” You motion over to the storage racks for the tinctures. They hybridize with animals in the first place because building a genome from the ground up would take an entire lifetime at best to do properly. Building from scratch and meshing two things together are two completely different things. “True, but we can take base samples for immunities just like we can animal traits. And we have made custom tweaks here and there- it isn’t as though we don’t know how to build new genes, it is just //impractically difficult//.” She smacked you on the back so hard you almost fell out of her chair. “Anyway! Let’s get you some breakfast and ''coffee''. You have a big day ahead of you, and you will want to head out as soon as possible if you want to cross off most of that list.” [[TS00, TS19, TS20 / Zero, Eve, Vivienne->Main Complex]] [[TS05, TS28, TS57 / Lulu, Julia, Hazel->Tennis Court]]

You have an early dinner with Olivia that night to rest and relax, catching up a bit on old times. Olivia also tells you an abreviated version of her experiences here working for RHE over the years. You have a big day tomorrow, so you go to sleep early. Your apartment is right across from Olivia's, and the are rather... compact. There is a television across from the bed, but you decide to sleep early anyway to prepare for the next day. When you wake up, Olivia is already awake and makes the first stop on today's tour the coffee machine in the office, to make sure your eyes are open. You two head over to the restaurant and have a nice, classic breakfast. The golem even follows your direction to make the bacon ''extra'' crispy, without burning it. Olivia orders her in an odd format- she basically has a rolled omlette, but the inside is stuffed with fried, diced potatoe and bacon bits- essentially mixing all the parts of breakfast into one thing. Afterwards you two wander back to the offices, but rather than go back to her desk she just idles at the coat rack. Olivia smiled. “I wanted to crack down on some work in the office to sort of make up for nagging them to let you tour but, I also wanted to spend some time with you, so sure. Work will be there tomorrow- you won’t.” She wandered over to the nearest window. “Who… well… hmm. What sort of test subjects do you want to see the most?” She lowered her eyebrows. “Udders or boobs?” You roll your eyes. You have seen both udders and boobs aplenty on the //internet//- transformation magic exists everywhere. It is real expensive for the average Joe to pick up, but you can also make a lot of money back transforming in front of an audience on a stream and basically make the magic pay for itself. What made this place unique is the community created here, the lifestyle changes, the feelings of those transformed! The changes in the test subjects are permanent unlike transformation magic. You tell Olivia you want to see a ''variety''. A sample of //everything//. Olivia laughs and crosses her arms. “That doesn’t narrow it down at all. There are no repeats among the test subjects aside from the twins, and I certainly can’t take you around to see all 89 of them- we only have a day.” She hung her lab coat on a coatrack and took a black and purple jacket instead. “How about I show you the more obvious cases of RHE helping people? There are two test subjects who would not be able to even walk without prosthetics RHE had special made. TS87 is almost entirely feral- an odd case who almost became an XV subject, but is able to get by on her own, so she was not admitted to the Hidden Bunker. TS94 is sort of on the opposite end- she is very human but came to us in a rather grim condition we were able to repair.” She pauses a moment before speaking up again. “Oh, and to maximize your time, we don’t want to be hitting up locations randomly, we should have a set path. So this is a one or the other deal- So who do you choose to visit? [[TS87; Danalah->North West Woods]] [[TS94; Yuko Sarukiba->The Grotto]]

(set: $Options to "0") You decide to head to the beach. Thanks to sleeping in, you are full of energy- which is good because it is also almost lunch now, so you completely missed the morning to be able to look around. The walk there is rather long, so Olivia has a shuttle car take you there. There are no roads leading to the beach on the West side of the island, but the ground is level so the shuttle can easily drive there anyway. To the right between the fields and the main complex is a dense forested area. To the left is the Great Plateau raising high into the sky. The middle from where the houses are to the beach is just flat, grassy plains. The beach on the West side is actually the only real one, since mountains bordered the entire rest of the island it is sheer cliffs against the ocean, so if you wanted to suntan on the sands; this is the only place to do it. As soon as you arrive you see three women here, and they also see you. They briefly whisper something back and forth, one giggles and then they resume what they were doing. One of the three women is naked and facing toward you at the edge of the water- the incoming waves caused the water to lap at her thighs. The other two faced her, forming a triangle with the three bodies. No cows here- one is a fox, one is a dog, and the other; a snail! (link:"Test Subject 54: Vicky")[It was hard to see her without getting much closer, because her tails formed a wall behind her. Vicky is part fox, but arranged like a mythological version of one- the kyuubi kitsune from Japanese mythos. Even one tail was large and bushy for the size of her body, but she sported nine of them! When relaxed; each tail rests on the ones beside it in a perfect row, and because she is sitting down right now they all curve upward and form into a half-sphere around her back. They are bright orange-red; vermilion except on the tips where they turn snow-white. The bushy fur ends at their united base and she has normal pale peach-toned skin everywhere else, except her arms and legs turn black at the elbow and knee down. The hair on Vicky’s head matches the vermilion of the tails perfectly, and her eyebrows are stark white. Her hair has long bangs and is perfectly straight down to her shoulders and her eyes are deep brown. She has the long narrow ears of a fox, but positioned in the place human ears would be. On her chest she has two DD breasts, then two Cs, then two As, and then two nipples entirely without breasts. The areola of each set also shrank in diameter with each set- the bottom nipples had no areola. They are colored a dark brown that looks black in most lighting. Vicky is wearing clothes but no bras, and you can still see most of her third set of breasts and her fourth nipples exposed. She is wearing a white top but it only snuggly fit her upper breasts and just draped loosely over the lower ones. Because the wind off the ocean is crisp- her top nipples tented the fabric a bit and were very noticeable. She wore very tight fitting jeans and had sandals with her, but was not wearing them right now. The jeans were obviously special built for her- with an open circle in the back to let out her forking tail bone. When Vicky is standing, their relaxed configuration changes to a circle at the base, making them sort of look like one gigantic tail. ] (link:"Test Subject 77: Laurane")[Laurane is the only one present that is entirely nude, and she is also by far the most unusual in appearance. She has what appear to be D cup breasts- but they are entirely devoid of nipples or areola! They are just spheres of fat! Her skin is a soft grey color, and her hair is also grey- though a much darker shade- and hangs to her upper back. Laurane’s hands only have three fingers and a thumb, and her digits are a bit pudgy looking. Still less human in appearance; her legs get progressively thicker as they go down, and she does not appear to even have feet; her legs just have a stump-like end. Right now she is sitting cross-legged like the other two women, so the bottoms of her legs are rounded, but when she stands up on them they squish flat on the bottom. What you will notice first about her is her tail. She is part snail, so her torso ends in a gigantic amorphous tail, but from the very end of this tail grows a shell like that of a monstrously huge turban snail! There is a slight indentation on the upper shell where it normally presses against her body- so the dent wraps around her body when her shell is lifted as far as she can. Mixing it with human genes though, even the shell is not entirely normal. If you were to look at a cutaway view of it- it would look like a giant arrow! Rather than spiral chambers, the entire shell was hollow like a bell, with Laurane’s tail fused to the top middle of it. This meant the shell was surprisingly light weight for its colossal size and also rather roomy on the inside- if she squishes her tail up into a big bubble of flesh she can draw herself into the top of her shell and invite other people inside of it like a mobile home. The shell is still huge and made of solid calcium, so she is very slow moving usually- her tail is huge but still not big enough to lift the shell completely off the ground, causing it to drag behind her. ] (link:"Test Subject 95: Grace")[The most human looking of these women is Grace. She is one of two test subjects on the island that are designated ‘runners’; acting as messengers between the residents. Grace was not built with lactation in mind- her mammaries are tiny and actually hard to spot at first because they aren’t even where you would normally look. She has a red kerchief tied to her neck and a bikini bottom on, but nothing on her chest- because there is nothing on her chest to cover up in the first place. Her chest was completely devoid of even nipples like a man would have- it is utterly blank! Instead she has a six pack of neon pink nipples, all on her midriff! Her bikini bottom had a hard time containing her, because her vulva had gone partially canine, giving her unusually pillowy labia- so she often had a ‘camel toe’ when wearing clothing that was form fitting. Where the foot would normally be was a cannon bone- stretching the distance between ankle and toe considerably longer, and then ending in a fully canine paw tipped with blunt black claws. She has a tail behind her that almost never holds still, but unlike her present company; Grace’s tail is small and thin and devoid of fur like the rest of her. Her hands are perfectly human, but the tip and end of every digit as well as the base of her palm has puffy neon pink pads of skin, and her fingernails are black- though if you did not know that was their coloration you would just assume she has nail polish on. Her ears are long, broad and floppy- folding over themselves, and because they are also hairless, the skin around their bases looks a bit wrinkly. Her torso is quite narrow and her stomach sunken in a bit. She is half Whippit so her genes prevent her stomach from rounding out- it is a racing dog. Grace’s face looks entirely human, though her black lips are not colored with lipstick- glossy black is their default. Her hair is pulled back in a tiny pony tail, pale sandy brown in color and just long enough to match her folded ears in length. ] You say hello and introduce yourself, though they already know your name. Olivia said RHE gathered a consensus to determine if you were allowed to visit, so all the residents knew you were going to be here today. Olivia obviously must have told her about you coming already, but you did not entirely trust her to not introduce you in an embarrassing way, like unnecessarily bringing up your udder fetish. The three women introduce themselves by both name and number and invite you to sit with them for a bit. The sand was almost too hot at first, startling you a bit but you adjusted to it quickly enough. The salty wind off the ocean was very refreshing and cool. The women talk to you about random things, starting with this area and the island just off shore- close enough that you could hit its shore with a rock thrown from THIS shore. The much smaller island was called New Eden and is a wildlife preserve. You could hear from this shore the sounds of chittering creatures, and especially the many singing birds that roosted there. Unfortunately, the position of the sun in the sky also reminded you that you were on a strict time budget and slept the morning away. If you wanted to see any more of the island, you really only have time to spend with one of these three women… (link:"Who do you spend time with?")[(dialog: bind $Options,"I will be with...", "Laurane","Vicky","Grace")[[Continue...->Beach B]]]

And so you decided to stay in the offices with Olivia rather than explore the island. You had been sort of mentally psyching yourself out about wandering among the mostly naked hybrids and it was making you nervous about it anyway. It had been ages since you seen Olivia in person last and you really missed what a fun, goofy person she is. Some may say you wasted a golden opportunity to see a sexy paradise, but you had a hard time thinking of time spent with a good friend as a waste. Besides that; she got you to the island once, what is stopping her from doing it again? Olivia had to leave you for an hour or so to talk to one of the other researchers about something, leaving you to entertain yourself with her computer, and you found a full roster for the island residents- the test subject registry. (text-style:"condense")[ (text-colour:green)+(bg:black)[= Test Subject Count: 106 Test Subjects Currently On Island: 89 Lactation Enabled Subjects: 58 Male Subjects: 18 (text-colour:cyan)[XY Subjects: 2] (text-colour:orange)[XV Subjects: 12] (text-colour:yellow)[Subjects Released From Island: 10] (text-colour:grey)[Deceased Subjects: 6] --- 00: 'The Hunter' Zero (Homunculus) (text-colour:grey)[01: DEAD] 02: 'Libra' Nancy (Cow; gene equilibrium required for stability) 03: 'Siren' Lorelei (Killer Whale;taur) 04: 'The Chimera' Lauren (Giraffe, Cow, Slug, Dog) 05: 'Invert' Lulu (Cow; inverted configuration) (text-colour:yellow)[06: REDACTED (Bovine, leg only)] (text-colour:orange)[07-XV: 'Omega Boobs' Mel Tranquillen (None; vorpal based, Giga)] 08: Ceba (Dog;taur) (text-colour:orange)[09-XV: 'Super Cow' Tolli Burganred (Cow)] 10: Audumbla (Bovine; multiple) 11: Esther (Cow) 12: Jacob (Horse) 13-2: Saanvi (Oryx, Horse) (text-colour:yellow)[14: REDACTED (Additional set of breasts)] 15: 'Hydra' Kiri (Sea Serpant; fused with mate) 16: 'Hydra' Luan (Sea Serpant; fused with mate) (text-colour:orange)[17-XV: 'Insatiable' Nancy Dewrain (Goat;feral)] 18: Ranos (Bat) (text-colour:orange)[19-XV: 'Milkshake' Eve (Cow; nervous system error) 20-XV: 'Were-bull' Vivienne (Komodo Dragon, Bull; bull only temporary)] 21: 'The Bulldozer' Angus (Rhinoceros) 22: Kalie (Pangolin) 23: Jun (Cat, Dog) 24: Suzy (Sheep) 25: Marcene (Wolf; gender altered) 26: Marcus (Horse; gender altered) (text-colour:grey)[27: DEAD (Dog, division)] (text-colour:grey)[27-2: DEAD (Cat, division)] 28: Julia (Cow) (text-colour:yellow)[29: REDACTED (Third breast, targeted lactation)] 30: Lilac (Unicorn; incorrect genitals) 31: Beau (Cow) 32: Amour (Centipede) 33: 'Omega Udder' Amber Tahltry (Horse, Cow; hyper) 34: Taylor (Porcupine) 35: Opal (Horse) (text-colour:yellow)[36: REDACTED (Semen production, scrotal expansion)] (text-colour:orange)[37-XV: Julius (Hippogriff; phallic mutation detected)] 38: Rosemary (Donkey; vocal abnormality) 39: Aleiha (Snake, Bird) 40: 'The Colossus' Tria (Blue Whale, Elephant) 41: 'The Minitaur' Gabby (Goat;taur) 42: Faith (Omni-potent; low cellular stability) (text-colour:orange)[43-XV: Mercy (Kangaroo, Cow; mutation detected)] 44: 'Twin' Pepper (Mouse, Cow) 44-2: 'Twin' Mint (Mouse, Cow) 45: Xiangxin (Liondog) 46: Marcy Whiteflag (Bovine; recovered XV) (text-colour:grey)[47: DEAD (AGE-X program)] (text-colour:grey)[48: DEAD (AGE-X program)] (text-colour:yellow)[49: REDACTED (AGE-X program; Immortal)] 50: Chastity (Fennec Fox) 51: 'The Kraken' Nemia (Octopus) 52: 'The Knight' Moby (Hermit Crab) 53: 'The Bard' Viola (Cricket) 54: 'Ninetails' Vicky (Fox) (text-colour:orange)[55-XV: 'Yggdrasil' Ambrosia (Alraune)] (text-colour:grey)[56 DEAD (Shark)] 57: Hazel Nutmeg (Mantis, Goat, Cow) 58: Rachel (Sow) 59: Nail (Boar) 60: 'Kamadhenu' Soma (Cow, Peafowl) 61: Lace (Spider) 62: Amunet (Camel) 63: Ruby (Weasel) (text-colour:orange)[64-XV: Kaila (Cow; extreme multi)] (text-colour:yellow)[65: REDACTED (Bull, Horse; muscle and bone mass)] 66: 'Six Ball' Barrus (Bull) 67: Janette (Goat, Cow; feral) 68: 'The Minotaur' Ariadne (Bull) (text-colour:orange)[69-XV: Lucria (Mink, Cow)] 70: Okra (Phoenix Fowl) (text-colour:orange)[71-XV: Dannis (Human; hyper) 72-XV: Lucia (Human; hyper)] 73: Roxi Roseheart (Dog) (text-colour:yellow)[74: REDACTED (Canine, minor) 75: REDACTED (Enlarged breasts, lactation) 76: REDACTED (Small talons, oviposition)] 77: Laurane (Snail) 78: Jack (Cow; accidentally half-female) 79: Jill (Horse; accidentally half-male) (text-colour:yellow)[80: REDACTED (Provoked evolution)] 81: 'The Angel' Kalha (Donkey, Deer) 82: Maple Augustine (Cow) 83: Jinx (Cat) 84: 'The Mancer' Rayzel (Horse;taur, Pig) 85: 'Elder Stag' Tiffany (Stag) 86: Bernard (Horse; pig, deer, shark, whale as minor traits) 87: Danalah (Horse; 95% feral) 88: Nada (Cow; formerly homunculus type 0) 89: Snow (Human; formerly feral rat) 90: Sage (Red Dragon) 91: Gina (Kangaroo) 92: Yu (Tanuki) 93: 'The Gemstone' Beryl (Cow) 94: Yuko (Bovine; extremely minor) 95: Grace (Dog) 96: Fate (Wolf, Sheep; nearly feral in form) 97: Basil (Wolf) 98: Nebela (Rabbit; error in mammary configuration) 99: Qo (Rabbit, Ermine, Canine, Vulpine, Feline, Bovine, Tiger, Equine, Cervine) 100: 'The Flux' Julie Hedgewall (Bovine) 101: 'Sleeping Beauty' Io (Bovine;taur) (text-colour:cyan)[XY: Allen Richter (Equine, Bovine) 102-XY: Duncan (Whale, Dog, Horse, Stag, Pig, Snake, Shark; genital only)] 103: Aloe (Cow, Honey Bee) (text-style:"expand")[(b4r:"dotted","none","none")+(b4r-colour:green,white,white)[Thank you for accessing the RHE Registry, and have a nice day.] >END]] [[Continue...->Dud End]]

Olivia woke you with a gentle knock on the door. The living quarters of the RHE staff are like dorm rooms. There is a bathroom, and then a living area only large enough for a bed, a night stand, a small closet, and a desk. And even then you sort of had to shuffle sideways to fit between the bed and the wall. There was a window that overlooks the valley as well, but the view was partially obstructed by the stray mountain that stood more toward the middle of RHEI. Olivia tells you it is rather late, but she figured you were exhausted from the long trip so she did not want to wake you before you were ready. Today the office place was rather empty- there were no pressing matters to discuss right now so everyone else was wandering around the island or in the game arcade having fun. Olivia sat in her chair again and used her foot to hook a chair from a nearby desk and drag it over beside her, patting it with a smile to invite you to sit. "So. I gave you a pretty brief explanation before... anything you want to know more about before heading out?" (t8n-time:1s)+(link-reveal:"Why was RHE formed?")[ "Well, originally it was just a gathering of disciples around the Paragon, Moth. Or, Dess Winehal- Moth is just her nickname, but a lot of people don't even know her real name. She came from another dimension- same planet, different reality. Her world was in danger of a plague, so she came here to do research after finding the book of all-knowing that the God Psimance wrote. She eventually created the homunculus Zero- also known as Test Subject 00, and then we co-created Serene Stonewall; Test Subject 01. After that, she had what she needed and left. So, we continued to play with what was learned from Moth to further our own understanding, and see what can be done with the human genes- using magic but not relying on it. RHE continued to rely on mammals and espeically bovine after Serene, because of their ability to make milk." (text-colour:navy)["Oh, so it had nothing to do with the love of giant boobs."] Olivia bopped you on the head. "What sort of pervs do you take us for?! Of course we didn't found a company just to make someone's fetish island! Producing hybrid bovine-human milk created a very valuable food resource for some, and for us it provided the funds we needed to keep our research going, so it was win-win. RHE branched into research into other species- even those whithout the ability to lactate- but, boobs is what kept us going ultimately. (text-style:"rumble")[NOT] because they look hot.] (t8n-time:1s)+(link-reveal:"How does RHE even operate?")[ "Well, Moth originally flipped the bill to create RHE in the first place, and the building materials we are still using today- they were brought to RHEI by the giant ship; The Ark, which is carefully hidden away. RHE gathers any additional resources it cannot make for itself from multiple countries, as well as dividing its funding to many different bank accounts, which makes it extremely hard to track down. In order for anyone to put together a full trail of breadcrumbs back to RHE, they would need permission to access records in multiple jurisdictions." (text-colour:navy)["Aand the huge island?"] "Moth purchased the island as part of her research, which means it does not belong to any existing countries, it is privately owned and autonomous. Ships passing by on off-chance will not be able to see past the mountains surrounding it." (text-colour:navy)["And planes?"] "Middle of nowhere- there are no air traffic routes that pass over this island."] (t8n-time:1s)+(link-reveal:"How many tests can you possibly do on cows...?")[ "Well, I call this cowgirl island because that is the part you would have been most interested in. And, cow is the most used traits. But, there is a wide variety of species used in our tests and even multiples in a single test. Test Subject 99 has nine different animal traits in her alone. We have done slugs, giraffe, snails, whales, dogs, horses, donkey, chicken, dragons, unicorn, griffon, pangolin, elephant, pig, boar, goat, mink, fox, peacock, lots of stuff! We sometimes jokingly call subject 99 'The Kitchen Sink'." "What? Why?" "Because RHE seemed like it had covered everything but the kitchen sink. And then we made the nine-animal hybrid, Qo. So she is the kitchen sink. Basically it means that when we made her- we had essentially made everything."] (t8n-time:1s)+(link-reveal:"How does magic work?")[ "Oh for crying out- do you know how complicated that question is? ...are you really sure you want to hear this?" (t8n-time:1s)+(link-reveal:"Yes, wall-of-text me bb.")[ "(text-style:"buoy")[Oookay]. Well, energy cannot be created nor destroyed, right? Well you need to eat and sleep every day, because you are constantly burning off energy... but you can't destroy it, so when you burn it off you are radiating a form of life energy; but it is far too dissipated for you to see or interact with. Mana is a state of energy above this- still lower than something like electricity, but condensed enough that you can interact with it. With a special type of meditation you can even be trained to perceive mana. If you etch a rune, ambient mana passes through the object you etched it into, and it can flow more freely through the gap the rune makes, giving the mana a shape which causes a small reaction. One rune isn't enough to do basically anything, but put a series of runes and have them trigger at roughly the same time and suddenly you have a spell." (text-colour:navy)["But what about written runes? And can't some people cast spells without writing anything?"] "You would need a photo-realistic memory or be a master level Mage to cast without the use of any runes at all, but it is possible. Your body lives off energy- your brain sends bioelectric signals through your body to operate it; that is energy. Collectively your body's energy network is known as your chakra. Now, if you were to picture a series of runes so accurately in your head that the neurons create that rune out of your own biological energy, you'll cast a spell. As for writing the rune, its the same principal as etching. Specific inks and chalks conduct mana better or worse than other materials, causing the rune to either be formed of an excess of mana or an absence of it. Not all runes are created equal, either. Depending on the spell, some runes are more mana efficient than others. There are different ways to write each rune, and some are better for specific tasks than others." (text-colour:navy)["And how do the tinctures here work? Are they not spell based? Why the physical medium then?"] "The tincture is a transfer medium. By being injected with it, your body takes the material in and digests it- which spreads and saturates the spell effects around your body. The physical medium is basically the delivery system. It is also a matter of how complex the spell is, because we are altering the body on a microscopic level- the actual genome. We extract the essence of the creature using alchemy, which also serves as the blueprint for the spell. That way we can skip the infinitely complex step of having to make a cellular transformation spell for the entire body." (text-colour:navy)["Hmm, complicated."] "Bioarcanists are rare for a reason. Jobs hard. Can't argue with the results though."]] (t8n-time:1s)+(link-reveal:"Where did Moth get her powers?")[ "Technically she has no 'powers'. What Moth has is infinite knowledge. She has a book that was stolen from Psimance by people from our world aeons ago. They used the book to transport themselves to Moth's home world and then ended up getting themselves killed, and the book found its way to the hands of Moth- an event Psimance already fortold. Moth has the book from Psimance, a Frozen Flame pendant from Desfernus, and since she can teleport between realities, she must also possess a relic from Diovllun. All seven members of the Lost Founders once stood in our world, and they are the source of magic here. Psimance the God of Knowledge Aluslone the God of the Hivemind Desfernus the God of Fury Harmelodious the God of Judgement Teveraek the God of Thieves Qorelle the God of Shapes and their leader; Diovllun the God of Infinity.] "Whenever you are ready, you can head out and do whatever. I am really glad RHE is confident enough in itself now to actually let me smuggle you into the island, haha." Her face became a little bit more serious. "It is really good to see you again. I could never explain any of this to my parents, and my only other friends are right here on RHEI. So you be sure to have fun!" [[Actually... hybrid women are cool and all, but I sort of just want to hang out here with you, Olivia.->The List]] [[I kind of want some catchup time with you. How about you give me a tour of the complex itself?->RHE Staff]] [[On our descent to the tower, I seen a beach...->Beach A]]

You ask Laurane if she could ferry you to New Eden so you could look around the smaller island and she happily agrees. Her shell curves inward around the opening, allowing you to sit on the inner lip as she slipped into the water. The air pressure of all the oxygen trapped in her shell keeps the inside dry even if she dives under the surface, so she paddles her way over to the island while you remain entirely dry. New Eden is so close to RHEI that at low tide you might be able to walk to the island without having to swim at all- the water isn’t very deep. The edge of the lesser island was bordered with huge rocks which helped keep the sand of its narrow beach contained from melting into the surrounding water. The soft beach sand took no more than a few steps to transition to more fertile soil however- compacted and held firm by the roots of plants. The forest that covered almost the entire island was so dense that it blocked almost all of the sunlight, causing the inside of the forest to be pretty dark even in the middle of the day. You see many little animals and hundreds of birds gathered in and around the trees, skittering out of the way as you wander around exploring. Laurane remains by the water however- she is very slow on land due to having to drag her colossal shell, and on New Eden she cannot get onto the island proper at all because her shell can’t fit between the trees. The trees here block the brunt of the wind from both this island and the beach on RHEI. You follow a more formed pathway beaten down by footsteps of those who visited before and hear what sounds like an arguing couple up ahead, speeding up to see what test subjects you have run into this time. You pause when you get to the small sort-of clearing, surprised by what you see. There is only one person here… but two test subjects. (link:"Kiri & Luan")[Test subject 15 and test subject 16- Kiri and her husband Luan; their test mixed their genes with… a Hydra. The two of them became fused into one, but only from the shoulders down- they still have two heads and two necks… and three tails for some reason. Their feet are like paws, a very long, raised sole extending from the ankle and their weight on padded skin toward the front, but unlike a paw the digits were still fairly long- long enough to grip something in. The skin on the inside of their hands was padded as well but only at the base of their digits, and the padded skin did not stand out enough to be noticeable at any sort of distance. Their hands and feet were tipped in very large, narrow, hook shaped claws that were kept only somewhat dull at the tip from constant wear. Though the hydra was composed of two complete people, their body compressed closer to the overall size of one- they were definitely bigger than you, but not by a lot. Their chest was much wider than normal and their midriff much longer- the wider chest was sort of necessary since it branched into two complete necks at the top. Their collar bone looks like a figure eight. Though their size was not very far off from your own; the fact they stand on the ends of their feet only, and have a longer midriff made them considerably taller, and their spine is actually closer to three times the length of yours- once again as long in the tail and their narrow, flexible necks. At the end of each neck was what looked like a snake-like head, though a bit longer muzzle than most snakes. The two could be told apart rather easily by the additional adorning features on their heads. Luan had a second set of fangs that grew from his stiffened lips on the last third of his muzzle, and had several small scutes by his nostrils and on his chin that made the end of his face rather spiky and intimidating looking- it also gave him trouble pronouncing some words because his lips were not particularly nimble. These facial features were entirely absent from Kiri’s head, and in their place she had three sets of horns! Two large pairs of horns were fused together- they grew so close to one another they merged so you could only partially see the indentation of where one horn was semi-divided from the other. One set was just straight back at a very slight arch; the other coiled around it and hooked downward at the end, dividing fully from the other set only at the tip. The third set was actually not horns at all but tusks- growing from the back of the upper jaw and then lancing through the skin at the back of her face, they were much narrower than her actual horns and arched around from either side rather than top down. Their chest is adorned with three breasts to make up for its increased width and the fact they formerly would have had four nipples between their two bodies. Not especially visible- there genitals were fully hermaphroditic, but split by how the reptilian traits blended with them. Their hip had a rounded triangular plate that juts forward- known as a //‘pelvic wing’// it was more common on aerial type draconids. The underside of the plate had a round divot that was filled in instead with what was effectively the male’s sheath- the opening where his phallus emerged is the point of the plate. His balls were at the base, but only half outside of his torso, held in place by taught flesh rather than a loose scrotum. Further back at the base of the tail is not an anus but rather a cloaca- a fully female cloaca. The hydra’s flesh is soft human on the underside, but then transitions to diamond shaped pads of thick skin of a maroon color. It looked like scales at a distance, but was not actually scaled; it is still thick and firm like leather. Their body was devoid of hair entirely, and both of their eye colors were overridden with aquamarine.] Kiri looked at you, seeing you stunned silent a short distance away. “Oh. You must be the guest Olivia invited, didn’t think we would see you here.” Luan sighed, telling her that you did not even know who they are, and properly introduced themselves. You ask what they were having an argument about out here, and they both speak up overlapping each other- neither one pausing when the other spoke. From what you manage to decipher from that; they came berry picking on the island because wild strawberries grow in abundance. Luan had a good share but Kiri was now upset because there was not enough berries for her. In truth- there was berries left for her, but she did not want to take the last of them because then they would be leaving no berries left for the wildlife here or any other visitors. She did not eat the rest because unlike Luan; she considers other people’s needs. Yup, sounds like an old married couple alright. Kiri huffed. “I am always right. He is just what is left.” Her cheeks puffed out as she tried to suppress a laugh. It was a pun- her head is on the right, his on the left. The look on Luan’s face told you that he had heard that particular joke more times than he would have liked. The two of them look to you as if hoping you would act as an impartial judge. |Choice1>[(link:"Side with Luan")[(replace: ?Choice2)[“See? It is unreasonable to hold me accountable. You expect me to take into account all the animals and residents of the island? There are not enough strawberries to give even a single berry to everyone in the first place! If you want to donate your share to whoever comes next, then that is your choice- does not negate the fact that there are berries you could take.” “But you never offered me any of the ones you took- you just assumed I would go take more! You never asked if I wanted to leave any for the wildlife.” You interject; telling them it was more the fact that she never mentioned anything before. What made the argument seem lopsided is that Kiri never told him she wanted to leave some left for the wilderness. That isn’t something most people would consider, so the fact she did is the outlier. It is Kiri who should have spoken up about it- Luan would not have assumed that on his own. Kiri huffs and crosses their arms- but Luan quickly uncrosses them realizing what she didn’t- they were unintentionally hiking their three tits up and there was a guest present. You timidly also ask if they both share a stomach- and the answer is yes. Anything Luan eats, also feeds Kiri. So really the argument was about whom got the taste in their mouth, not who ate.]]] |Choice2>[(link:"Side with Kiri")[(replace: ?Choice1)[You start by asking if they share a stomach- yes, they do. So they are both equally fed, no matter what. What their argument was over is the experience of eating and having the flavor in their mouth. But that means even one or two berries would have been enough for both of them- beyond that they would just be eating to be fed… which they already are. You say that you have to side with Kiri on this one, just because it seems rude that Luan would have eaten enough strawberries to be satisfied hunger-wise, and not have offered a single one to his wife. He just assumed she would be taking her own. The balanced thing to do would be to go back and forth, alternate heads while eating- but Luan shoveled enough into him to be done before she had gotten anything. Kiri nodded quickly. “Right! See? Imagine sitting down to eat dinner and then eating everything on your plate before the other person has even had a chance to start eating, and then wandering off from the table because you are already done. RUDE!”]]] After the little awkward debate, you follow them as they wander the island a bit more themselves. It seems the two of them can walk upright on two legs, but generally only do it in small spaces or distances- they move much faster on all fours. You ask what it was like transforming into a hydra- since their bodies not only changed; they fused. They took turns explaining the different aspects of it. Turning into this form meant that Kiri no longer has periods- instead she releases a dud egg every month about the size of an ostrich egg; so they both had to get used to that happening. Kiri also had to get used to how male hormones build up over time- at first she had a hard time keeping her hands off their shared shaft. They were only supposed to have one tail apparently- the other two tails were actually created as a byproduct of Kiri’s left and Luan’s right arm, since those limbs were lost in the fusion. They both have control of the entire body, minus the neck and head of the other person. If they both attempt to use the same part at the same time, it just freezes and doesn’t do anything because they have equal control. Before you know it, the shadows grow long and the sun turns a metallic orange as it touches the water on the horizon. As much as you would love to keep wandering and talking- it seems your time is up. You better get back the main complex before it’s too dark. (set: $Hydra to true)[[Continue...->Hydra End]]

You have to head back toward the main complex for the night anyway, so you choose a location that is along the way. The huge plateau the RHE complex is on leads down into the town by a long, gradual slope, and to the north-east of that is the palace. So the back of the palace is against a forest, on its sides are the slope from the main complex on one side and the graveyard on the other, and then a huge hedge maze in the front. Olivia was on her way down toward the beach to find you and see how you were doing, so you met her on the way over. Olivia radioed in to the main complex and told them to shuttle down some extra food to the palace- you two could eat there instead of back at the complex, since it was about dinner time now anyway. The woman who lives there is named Io, and is often everywhere but her own home because it seems too empty, too often- so she would appreciate the company. Unlike other structures on the island, the palace looked very old fashioned and ornate. Both owners the palace has had were quite large and taur-like, so the front doors were colossal and actually difficult to open because of how much they weigh. The inside walls and pillars are white marble, bordered by faux gold. The floor is polished slabs of amethyst with quartz veins. Again because the owner is a taur-like; the roof was very high up, each hall and chamber massive. Io met them in the main foyer, which was actually down a long hall and past two sets of doors already. The foyer went up two floors- the halls on the second bordered it along balconies so there was an uninterrupted view of the huge glass dome that capped it. The sun from the dome above filtered down, making the room quite bright and helping to feed a single tree and a collection of shrubs that grew in a round central garden. Io herself surprised you a bit- she did not appear to have any animal traits at all… she looks entirely human to you. Olivia was quick to explain that whenever Io sleeps her form reverts to human- she has the ability to choose what parts to change and how much whenever she wants, and use sleep to reset. She has two forms, but at what form or variant between the two she is, is up to her. Io also suffers from narcolepsy- so she falls asleep often, at complete random. Io’s eyes are a beautiful shimmering cyan and bordered by stark white eyelashes. Her skin is very pale, and all of the hair on her body is snow white. She looks at you with a playful smile. “I bet I know what you wanna see most on the island~.” She leaned forward and rocked her torso gently; causing her breasts to wobble and it took only a moment for you to realize they are growing! They go from pert C cups to jiggly Ds, then start to elongate in her huge loose top as they approach Es and then squish against the front and start to billow out sideways. At F cups her shirt started to pull tight and lift at the bottom as her boobs struggled to find more fabric to wrap around them. Io stopped them about there- though they could get bigger. She stood up straight again, gave a laugh and then slapped the side of her left tit, causing them both to surge to the right and quickly wobble back in place! Her shirt looks like it belongs on someone three times her size- and she filled it. “I better hold back; I don’t want to spoil the main course~” You thought she was referring to dinner, but it seems Olivia arranged for something else as well. The RHE general staff brought in the food for the extra guests so Io wouldn’t have to scramble to make extra portions of her dinner. You and Io went on a quick tour of the palace- but Olivia snuck away to tend to another guest Io had apparently already smuggled in from out of special containment. An XV subject, normally living only with the extreme variants in a hidden bunker. Apparently a lot of the palace was a show piece- a monument of sorts. A lot of the rooms were entirely dedicated to a display of one of the Lost Founders- a group of otherworldly Gods that sorceress Moth had… or //still// has connections to. Desfernus the God of Fury, Psimance the All-knowing God, Aluslone the God of the Hivemind, Teveraek the God of Thieves, Harmelodious the God of Judgement, Qorelle the God of Shapes, and their leader; Diovllun the God of Infinity. While none of them existed in the world today- all seven had once been in this world at the same time. They are the origin of magic in this world, so obviously pretty fundamental to the existence of RHE. In spite of the size of the palace, there are actually only three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a dining hall, a massive study/library, and a lounge area at the back leading out onto a huge balcony overlooking the forest. Which sounds like a lot, but given the size of the building, not THAT much. (link:"Ask for a tour of Io instead.")[As she shows you the lounge room you ask if she was planning to finish the transformation she started. As much as you enjoyed this tour of the palace- you came to the island to tour the people more than anything. “(text-style:"buoy")[Oooh~] you want me to get naked, huh?” You blush and shake your head. You just wanted to see what her fully transformed state is- she can keep her clothes on! “Nah- doesn’t work. I don’t fit in my clothes when I transform fully. Well… my top still fits, but definitely not the skirt.” She rolled back onto her heels and then forward onto her toes and stretched her feet- standing on only the fronts. As soon as she did you could hear the bones in them creak and pop as her feet actually stretched longer! She is bare foot so you can see the transformation well. The big and pinky toe get pulled back as her foot narrows and becomes much longer- the collection of bones in the sole merging into a cannon bone. The middle toe regressed and vanished entirely as the two flanking it became much wider and the remaining toenails started to bulk up tremendously, turning a shade darker with each added layer till they were charcoal grey- nearly black. She coos softly and her pants suddenly pull tight around the hips! Io grins at you and slips either thumb slowly under the fabric on either side of her skirt and shimmies her hips a bit as she slides them down. Before her legs changed, Io was the same height at you- now she is around two feet taller than you at least. Her snow white hair starts to grow longer, forming a mane around her head and billowing over her shoulders. Io playfully kicks her skirt off at you and you manage to evade- the skirt flopping down onto a comfy looking chair behind you. The lighting in this room was very warm, contrasting Io’s own pale colors. The room is constructed of darkwood, with scarlet rugs and illuminated by a large hearth- so half of Io’s body was illuminated by the orange glow of flames. This deepened the contrast of the shadows, so every little movement or curve of her flesh was highlighted. Her panties were white lace- but they are about to be scrap cloth; you can hear the cloth fibers straining. Her hips were getting much longer- the bone expanding in the back into a rather boxy structure. Her thighs started to stretch out backward too, straining the panties even more. Io was a bit flush- most likely because the pressure was pulling the panties backward- which means it is squeezing the front against her labia. The muscle and thus skin over it started to suck inward in the middle of her double long thigh at the same time the strap of the panties snapped and they launched forward! Io let out a gasp and then smiled again, looking at you. She has transformed in front of a lot of people by now, she is completely comfortable with her body- so showing it in the nude doesn’t bother her in the least. Just over her pussy is a patch of snow white hair- though her labia blushed a tone of pink far more vibrant than the skin around it. Inside her legs the bone and then muscle, then flesh divided- the new branch mostly bovine. Her hips divided above that as her tail bone continued to get longer, keeping pace with the hip growth. Io’s transformed state is almost exactly like the body of the original test subject- the late Serene Stonewall; TS01. It is technically a taur but… the bottom portion has no body. Io has human hips, then the upper part of human legs that transition into bovine legs. Then almost immediately behind those hips and legs are another set that is entirely bovine! Her tail bone kept growing even when the rest stopped, forming a long thin cow tail. Under her, between the four legs a cow udder quickly formed. The teats formed first then started to rise up on a neon pink hill. When it first formed it was actually perfectly smooth and round- it was not till it started to get bigger that the soft fatty tissue started to push past where the muscle ribbing allowed them and the four quarters of the udders became outwardly visible. Because of where the vulva face on either hip- Io has two; a cows in the back and a woman’s in the front. You were so fascinated watching the lower body form from the expansion and division of excess mass that you did not notice her head also grew in massive horns- though they looked more appropriate for a bull than a cow. Her ears became huge and leaf shaped, hanging lazily straight out on either side of her head. At this point she was so tall your head was only level with her stomach. “Well, satisfied?” You just nod, unable to find actual words. She chuckles. “I am restricted to this form, but I can choose what part I get and how much. For example, I can potentially make myself huge by taking the full set of bovine genes associated to size. Or I can stay regular human sized, concentrate all of the growth into my breasts alone, and give myself tits big enough to crush a car like an empty can. It is fun being me.”] When you returned downstairs with Io and were lead into the banquette hall you finally met her other guest. She could only half-sit on the chair because she was too large to fit into it properly and just casually waved to you in spite of being entirely naked! Olivia was silently smiling from her seat at the table and Io had a mischievous grin. They knew what you would be thinking and are just waiting for you to make some comment that could be misconstrued as perverse. (link:"Kaila")[Test subject 64-XV is named Kaila, and is surprisingly human. Her ears are giant and leaf shaped with candy pink skin on the insides and a light layer of fuzz on the back matching her very dark brown hair. She had a tail but it was small, at first you thought maybe deer but looking over the rest of her; came to the conclusion it must be a goat’s big tuft of a tail. You cannot see it from where you are standing, but her spine projects further off her back than normal, because each vertebrae is much more dense than a humans, and her torso is a bit longer than normal too but not by much- it is hard to notice. Everything else on her looked perfectly human… except her mammaries, which are in a league of their own. Even without any clothes on, her pussy is always covered by the lower curve of her six-pack udder! Her udder was made of six segments, capped with six teats, but every two of them were from a different species! The biggest and fattest were on the bottom, bulging so far around that the curvature covered her genitals- this is also why she could not sit fully in the chair; the bottom curve of the udder would get smushed and jam all of her tits up so far it would smother her face! This lower segment belonged to a cow, so the body was very large and round, and capped with teats long and fat enough to comfortably fill the grip of an adult human. Above that are two smaller segments, but to make up for their lack of size; the teats are gigantic. Half again as long as the cow teats and three times as wide at the base, they are shaped like cones- the teats of a goat! Above that is the smallest of all- each of the two segments about the size of a C cup human breast which look tiny in comparison to their company. The teats on these were thick but very short- this is a horse’s udder, though perpetually engorged thanks to the influence of the others. In order to get into a sitting position Kaila needed to pop the huge round cow segments behind her legs- wedging her legs against the muscle ribbing that divided cow and goat udder segments. The flesh of her labia trailed onto the base of her cow udder because they were so close together, and even then the horse udder was just barely below her belly button! But wait- there is more! On her chest, Kaila has yet another four mams; this time of the human variety. Looking to be around a K cup in size- if they fit into any standardized bra at all- the four human breasts were huge and her areola formed soft curves off the front. Her nipples were partially inverted, at least until she needs to be milked- once she gets full they pop out fully on their own quickly enough. Kaila’s impressive tits are why she became an extreme variant subject- she is incapable of living normally entirely on her own. Even with her enlarged, reinforced spine she can barely move around. In a normal sitting position, her lower breasts press into her lap, which causes the top breasts to shove into her chin. That is completely ignoring the udders below them. While sitting her horse udder is actually in the cleavage of her lower breasts- if she sat fully on the chair the cow udder would shove the goat udder up, shoving the horse udder harder into her lower breasts, which would shove her upper breasts completely into her face and either force her to stare at the roof or suffocate in her own fat flesh. She officially has ''too many'' boobs.] Over dinner you all talk about island life and ask Io and Kaila how they get along with their bodies. Io can transform quickly, so accidentally passing out and reverting isn’t that big of an issue. She has lived with narcolepsy long enough by now that she knows better than to be in situations where it could harm her- like trying to swim alone, would be a terrible idea. As for Kaila- with her extremely hindered movement, there are things she just cannot do alone, but that is why RHE has the hidden bunker. RHE are the ones transforming these women, so if the woman cannot do something because of that transformation; it is RHE’s duty to do it for her. Each subject in the hidden bunker has their own sort of enclosure where all their needs are tended to by staff. Kaila even has cratered chairs and bed, so she can fit each of her tits into one of the pits and be cradled without just smooshing out and fighting for space. You did not even notice the last orange beams of sunlight filtering across the room from the banquette hall windows. It was Olivia who finally pointed out that it was already dark out. As much as you would love to stay and continue chatting- your time on the island is up. (set: $Io to true)[[Continue->Goddess End]]

After hanging out with Vicky you decide to wander toward the forest. It is not too far, and if your eyes were not playing tricks on you- there should be an almost-cow wandering these woods. It did not take you too long to find her… cows generally move quite slowly, and her bulky body does not maneuver too well in the tight confines of a forest. The light in this area took the shape of the gaps between leaves, so the pillars of light fluttered with the wind. You immediately spotted the human in Janette- the torso was not shaped like a cows. Her limbs, tail, and even her head was fully animal but not the body- her torso was still relatively human shaped, though still cow sized. An actual cow’s body is shaped kind of like a giant rectangle. Janette was not just cow however, she is also part goat. It was very hard spotting where the fur ended and the skin began because cow fur is so fine to begin with, and her skin had the exact coloration the fur did. Janette’s back is cow hide, then it fades to bare skin on her underside. On her limbs the fur gets shaggier down toward her hooves- this is the goat traiting. The tassel on the end of her tail is unusually soft as well compared to an actual cow hair due to goat influence making it fluffier. Instead of short cow horns, her horns are large and heavily ribbed- forming large backward hooks. Her limbs were a bit lean looking for a bovine as well- the true animal has wide triangle shaped thighs; but Janette’s were much narrower. It was hard to tell if that was an influence of the goat or human. Although it faded to the same coloration as her fur- Janette still had human hair on her head that was otherwise fully bovine. Her body is a white base with blue-grey splotches, and her nose and lips are blue-grey as well. You could not help but stare at her underside since that is where the feral got mixed up the most. Her hips were bovine to match her legs, so she is incapable of standing up on two legs, but she still as the sunken in midriff of a human woman making the full sized cow udder between her legs look all the larger in comparison. Fat milk veins trailed some of the tender neon pink flesh off the udder’s base onto her torso. If she moved too quickly she may hurt herself, because the udder is so heavy and large that if it swings around too much it will tug at the connective flesh. The pink of the udder trailed right to her vulva, which you tried your best to avoid looking at in embarrassment. Janette still has at least some of her human intellect- which means she won’t appreciate you gawking at her exposed privates. On her chest though were still more mammaries- and you had to take a very long look at that to grasp just what you were seeing. Her torso is human shaped, so at a distance it looks like she has breasts. They were breasts at some point- they aren’t now. Her breasts had grown fat and heavy, pink and bloated; they fused together at the middle forming instead into a two segment udder. Her nipples became nearly ten times their normal size, swelling into fat teats, bloating so large at the base that they consumed the areola as well, turning to squishy soft cones- goat teats! So she has a goat udder on her chest where breasts should be, and then a cow udder between her legs! Janette stopped plodding forward when she heard you coming up behind her and turned to look at you. When you looked her over, she swats you with the tassel of her tail a few times. You grasp her tail to get her to stop but then she resumes walking forward and you realize that she is leading you- she got you to grab her tail to make sure she did not lose you. Deep in the woods, against the stone wall of the mountain’s sheer cliffs you find what looks like a cabin somehow formed of the roots of the surrounding trees! It has the uniform shape of a man made structure but the wood is not cut, the roots just grew into that shape- it must have been magic. There was a short flight of very broad stairs of actual cut wood and then a large platform with a floor that slightly dipped down, covered in straw to form a bed for her. So Janette does have a home- just not a regular human home. She lets out a gust of hot air from her large bovine nostrils as she plops herself down. She has to be careful how she lays herself, since she has an udder on either end- her body sits on a mat of soft squishy flesh. You are not sure what to say, since you have no idea how intelligent she is. You tell her your name and she lets out a long ‘maa-a-a-aw’ in a very low voice. She bleats like a goat but her voice is boomingly low like a cow. You talk about random things, like your experience here so far, how you think she looks cute- she lets out a grunt when you say that. You place a hand on her back uncertain if that is ok, but she responds by shuffling a little bit closer. Before you know it you flop over her back- laying over her sideways and the two of you just lay in comfortable silence, listening to the breeze whispering through the leaves for a bit. In the forest the wind is deflected, and the sun is shaded, making it the perfect temperature, and very tranquil. You tell time by the lean of the shadows at the forest edge as the sun moves across the sky. You could fall asleep here resting together with Janette, but already slept more than you were supposed to today. You tell her you must be going and she makes a low humming sound, nudging you with her cool nose and then slaps you gently on the back with her tail as you stand. [[New Eden, ahoy!->New Eden]] [[Dinner at the palace sounds nice.->Io's Palace]]

(if:$Options is "Laurane") [“Do you know how to swim?” You nod. And she smiles and takes you by the hand. Her hand is very soft- the structure is not as defined as a normal human. Though you do not do it- you feel as though if you were to squeeze her hand hard enough it would simply deform to your grip. She was made half of an invertebrate- so her bones are probably closer to cartilage, and bend further than they would have before breaking, making her entire body a bit rubbery. Laurane was already right at the water edge, so you have to quickly ditch your shoes before she tugs you into the water! You ask her how she doesn’t sink like a human anchor with that gigantic shell, but when she slips into the waters just ahead of you; the answer is obvious. The shell floats. Not only is it entirely hollow, but it’s filled with oxygen trapped by the surface tension of the water. Laurane vanishes under the water, but her shell does not break the surface. The cool ocean feels good- especially on your rump where the sun managed to scorch you even through your pants. You hear her say something but she is submerged so its muffled by the water so you dive under to see her usher you toward her, before vanishing into her shell. You swim to the opening and pop your head inside! The shell is so huge there is enough room for you to climb in. It curves back inward at the opening so you can put your butt on one side of the lip and your feet on the other to sit fully inside of her. Laurane’s body was filled with rubbery bones but her tail had absolutely no bones at all- it can either be long or very, very wide and short. She scrunched it up to yank herself back inside of the shell and now hung by it, over you at the inner peak of the shell. Laurane’s shell sunk into the water a bit from the added weight, but remained at least half above. The inside surface is extremely smooth- the outer surface has more of a sandy texture and dull-tipped spikes here and there. She giggled. “I can breathe above and below water, so I don’t actually need to take my oxygen directly- I can filter it through the water. So if I trap air in my shell I create a floating base for people to hang out in. Still only really room for one other though as you can see.” You ask how she gets around on the surface with such a massive thing attached to her. Her shell is after all part of her body- her skeletal structure. The shell grows out of calcium that bleeds from the end of her tail, so they are fused together; she cannot drop the shell and leave it behind. The shell goes wherever she does, which means she cannot get through most normal doorways- her shell is too big to fit. “Well my place is on Little Light- the island to the north of RHEI. It is super close to RHEI like New Eden is. I need a special house to fit me, but there are a few other test subjects with extra big doorways that I can fit in. Honestly I have slept right here on the water quite a few times too. The gentle rocking of the water puts me to sleep~. On land though I am super slow. I can lift most of the weight off the ground with my tail, but the shell is still physically too large for me to lift entirely off the ground so it drags behind me. Which I guess is appropriate for a snail… they aren’t known for moving very fast.” You cock your eyebrow and ask if she is afraid of drifting out to sea when she sleeps on the ocean. It seems like it would be a pretty big risk. “Haha, no, no. I sleep right here between islands, so the tide either pulls me to the shore of New Eden or the shore of RHEI. No risk of getting lost at sea by accident!”](if:$Options is "Vicky")[She flourished her many tails as she stood up, brushing you lightly with each. The look in her eyes was seductive but the grin on her face playful- she is clearly someone who enjoys teasing. Vicky slipped her sandals on and nodded over toward the grass. “Why don’t we sit somewhere more comfortable?” The grass cools quickly at the touch of the wind just on the surface- like a fresh set of bedsheets by an open window. As soon as you were far enough from the beach, Vicky turned and flopped right over into the grass, sighing happily, not even caring that her fast descent revealed three of her four sets of nipples from her shirt billowing up. “So… this is our little paradise. Nice, eh?” You agree, and say that it is no wonder outsiders are not told about its existence. If everyone knew this island was here, everyone would be fighting to join their ranks and overcrowd the place in the blink of an eye. “Yea, and the government are prudes, they wouldn’t look too kindly on the whole human experimentation aspect of RHE. If you think about it, it is a bit karmatic as well.” You ask what she means by that. “The ads for RHE are pretty few and far between, and relatively hidden… you have to be searching pretty far and wide for a job to even find it in the first place. Then you have to be pretty desperate to want to sign up; knowing you are essentially selling your body to scientists. You don’t know about the island paradise when you sign up, or the wonderful community here. You don’t know how pleasurable the changes can be, or how fun and exciting life will be after. So you have to be in a pretty dark place to want to sign on to RHE as a test subject at all… and then you get rewarded with this… perfect life. We all took a gamble coming here, and won hard.” She pats the ground beside her to get you to sit with her. The grass is tall enough to hide your ankles but not too tall- RHE mowed the field every so often. There is only a few scattered bushes; it is almost 100% just grass, and the occasional clover patch. You see something out of the corner of your eye as you plop down beside Vicky on the soft grass, and it doesn’t even fully register for half a minute. It looked like an animal so you passed it off as one, but then you realize what it looked like is a cow. You ask Vicky if there are any barn animals on the island, since it seems strange there would be any, given the women on this island are the source of milk so why would there be a need of an actual cow? “Oh, you probably saw Test Subject 67.” She glanced toward the forest at the north of the fields but did not see her. “Janette is almost entirely a feral animal- her animal aspects smothered her humanity. She grazes here and returns to the forest to sleep… she doesn’t really have a house, she is wild. She still has some of her human intelligence though- if you speak to her, she seems to understand most of what you are saying.” You lay back in the grass and try to spot shapes in the clouds rolling overhead with Vicky, and she occasionally tickles you with one of her tails playfully.(set: $Janette to true) ](if:$Options is "Grace")[You were nervous about it, but just had to ask about her nipples. They were all concentrated to her lower torso, and she had no breasts! Was she already flat chested before? What did she think about it? “I wasn’t… flat. I wasn’t huge either. I was fine with it, I was one of the relatively few people who had someone at RHE reach out to me to try and recruit me. I was a runner already, but it is hard to make a career out of it unless you are crazy good. Now I run like lightning. Hard to do that with big tits flopping around.” She looked at how you were glancing between her paws and hands and sighed. “You can touch them.” This was far from the first time someone wanted to ask to touch her ‘toe beans’. She held out her hand with a bit of a blush on her face. You very gingerly squeezed one of the pads between your thumb and index and then pressed in on the front of it with your index a moment later and rolled it around, feeling how soft and bouncy it was. Unlike a dog she washes her hands with soap and water every day, so her pads were super smooth and felt really good to touch! You also noticed her tail wagging behind her- she was embarrassed but liked the attention. “I was worried at first when my feet were changing. My hands were fine; they remained human and just got the pads so I could run on them without hurting the palms. But my feet completely transformed into paws, and for a full day I could not walk at all. They were transitioning between foot and paw and for a time did not function as either, so I was stuck at home worrying if the test would turn out okay and give me the ability to walk again. Like I said- I am a runner, if I can’t run… then what am I?” You make note of the fact she is test subject 95- RHE had already created 95 working test subjects by then; the odds of her test failing would seem slim. “True, also I am not the first runner, either. Test subject 73- Roxi- is also half dog, and the original runner-type. She was originally made for lactation, but as RHE was already producing so much milk, her speed became more valuable, so she stopped expressing milk, her tits leaned up, and she became a messenger girl for the island. So I am technically a copy of her, except that I was mixed with a different breed and meant to run from get-go. That is why my breed is Whippit. Born to run. I can outrun most anyone on the island when on two legs. On all fours? No competition- I will break the speed limits of most major cities.” As a bit of fun; Grace challenges you to a run. You are not that athletic, but curious as to just how badly she can beat you, you accept anyway. She lets you start so she can see how fast you are, as to not leave you in the dust immediately. Her legs are narrow and long so her stride is already quite large. Being on paws puts more spring in each of her steps since it means her ankles never even come close to touching the ground, reducing the area of friction against the ground. She caught up to you after your head start in only a second on two legs, then fell forward onto all fours and ran so fast that she is able to literally run circles around you- while you are still running. It is wild seeing a humanoid creature on all fours. When she is in a full run, her front limbs go between her back and all four limbs leave the ground for a split second- then her front limbs touch down, then back, then they cross again as she leaves the ground. ] Afterwards, you stand up and dust yourself off of any clinging beach sand and look around. There is still some time left of today, where do you want to go next? Laurane may be able to ferry you over to New Eden which is just a jump across the way, or you could head over to the palace which is on the way back toward the main complex anyway. (if:$Janette is true)[[Find 67 before moving on->Janette]] [[New Eden, ahoy!->New Eden]] [[Dinner at the palace sounds nice.->Io's Palace]]

|Rerun>[You sit at your computer, about to re-read one of your favorite transformation stories, but hesitate. It… just doesn’t hit the same since your trip to RHEI. Transformation itself and the forms it can create are great but… you wanted to know about the resulting life style too- the feelings behind it all are what sell it. The curiosity of something entirely new and the experiences tied to it. When a transformational porn artist stops filming, their body goes back to normal for the day. When a transformation story ends, it is over- what happens after is up to you to imagine. But not on RHEI. On RHEI, those forms are life. In a way; RHEI is the ‘happily ever after’ of transformation. [[Check your keepsakes.->Trophy Room]] It is (current-time:) on an average (weekday:). It has been a week since you visited RHEI, but you still can’t get it out of your head. Your dreams have been fuzzy and you forget them quickly when you wake up- but you are pretty sure they have been about RHEI too. It is a big island with a lot of places to visit and at least a hundred different faces to see. Suddenly you catch out of the corner of your eye the fading popup in the bottom right corner of another IP connecting to your computer. God damn you really need to remember to turn that program off (set: $Staff2 to false) (t8n-time:0.5s)[[....?->Re:Arrivals 2]]] (if: ($Io is true) and ($Olivia is true) and ($Hydra is true) and ($Aloe is true) and ($Esther is true) and ($Faith is true) and ($Brimstone is true) and ($Lucky is true) and ($Bookmark is true) and ($Sketch is true) and ($Homunculus is true) and ($Bushido is true) and ($Blossom is true) and ($Memory is true) and ($Skalie is true) and ($Wolfwool is true) and ($Shark is true) and ($Piano is true) and ($Kumis is true) and ($Wisteria is true) and ($Eitr is true) and ($Oppai is true) and ($Fromage is true) and ($Sword is true) and ($Coin is true) and ($Ring is true) and ($Salt is true) and ($Charm is true) and ($Bull is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Brandy is true) and ($Moth is true) and ($Canon is true))[(replace: ?Rerun)[[[Ω->Almighty]]]]

(after:4s)[(text-colour:blue)[Hello? Olivia.]] (after:7s)[(text-colour:purple)[Hey~]] (after:10s)[(text-colour:blue)[Hows work?]] (text-colour:purple)[(after:15s)[Better with you here.](after:16.5s)[ The helicopter should be there tomorrow morning.](after:18s)[ Some of the other test subjects are a bit disappointed they missed the chance to see the outsider, let’s fix that.]] (after:20s)[ Well, how would you like to spend your return trip? [[I will just wander around and see what I see, I think.->Selfguided]] [[Eh, kind of want to sleep in. Hang out with you a bit more.->Late Start]] [[After a glance at the roster... I think I know some subjects I want to see already!->Re:Targeted]] [[Chef's choice? Guide me, sempai!->Olivia Guide]]]

(set: $Moth to 1)“Well, you won’t have to leave the offices to find your first target.” Both you and Olivia looked around for the source of the voice, but only seen one other researcher on the opposite end getting a coffee. Olivia put her hands on her hips. “Eavesdropping again, Zero?” When it spoke again, the voice was closer. “I was just hanging around- you two came up to me and started talking, what did you think would happen?” You hear something slither around behind you and turn to see one of the office chairs spinning on its own, but do not see anyone there either. The voice had been coming from the other direction though. When you turn back the air simmers over you and Olivia. Test Subject 00, simply named Zero. The air seemed to shimmer a rainbow of colors as it dropped its active camouflage- an ability built into its genes. It is hanging upside down from the roof over your heads- what spun the chair behind you was its gigantic tail. Zero’s actual body is stark white without a drop of color on it, which also matched its hair and even eyelashes perfectly. Zero’s hair was short and a bit bristly, combed back. Zero has a few offspring on the island, and they all share their ability to turn invisible. Because it is harder for their camo to cloak the finer features and many smaller muscles of the face- whenever they enter stealth they curl their huge, leaf-shaped flat ears over their face like the petals of a closing flower. They then apply the camo over their ears- thus not needing to cloak their face. You wanted to see Zero because it is the very first test subject- from before RHEI was properly founded. It is also extremely unique because Zero was never a human in the first place. It is a homunculus- Zero was grown, not born. Its legs are structured as if they were ungulate- having a cannon bone, but then also what appeared to be a full foot, that actually looked more like a hand than a foot. The only thing unlike a hand was instead of a thumb further down and to the side away from the fingers, there was just a slightly larger fifth toe. It is also used as a hand more often than a foot, because even when it rarely stands on its legs- it isn’t its feet that touch the ground. Running out from and off the back of the cannon bone is a huge blade of bone- it stands on the points of the blades. Zero’s hands and arms looked entirely human… at first. Its forearms were fake- the fingers hinged at the elbow. What looked like forearms were actually a long additional segment of each finger- and could split apart, though were held relatively together by a membrane of skin shared between them. Zero has the figure of a young man, but utterly lacked any nipples on its chest and any genitals, leaving its crotch barren. A featureless slit marked the border between hip and tail. Even its stomach lacked a belly button- Zero was never in a womb to have an umbilical cord. Looking a bit freaky; Zero’s iris are also pure white like the rest of it, which means there is nothing to define them against the rest of its eye. It looked like it only had pupils and nothing else. The pupils also did not have a static form- they can stretch or narrow to better track different types of motion. The most notable feature of Zero and his kin however is their tails. Many, many times longer than their body- its tail is so large that it actually has a second heart in the base of the tail in order to circulate blood properly. Zero will travel by slithering around on its tail only, as it is many times stronger and more mobile than its small feet. It only uses its feet when clinging to walls or crawling on the roof- Zero is able to do this by focusing mana through his tiny claws. Since your first target managed to find you instead of the other way around- Olivia shrugged and wandered off, leaving the list and instructions on where to find them with you, and leaving you in Zero’s hands. The genderless homunculus slithered around you in curiosity before plopping itself down into the chair Olivia had been sitting in. Zero’s tail remained slithering around the floor around both of you. (link-reveal:"What has life been like without parents?")[ (set: $Moth to it + 1)“RHE are my mother! All the researchers are mom to me! Moth raised me while the island was originally being put together. I can’t really say how I feel about it in contrast to other people, because I never knew what having a normal family was like. I didn’t know I was missing anything in the first place. Also being in the company of so many genetic researchers helped me understand what humans are, even though I am not one myself. The genders and their sexual attractions sound terribly annoying, so I am really glad I have no part in that.” You mention Olivia seeming a bit annoying at him being stealthed in the office… so you are assuming this isn’t the first time they were caught sneaking around. Zero shrugs. “My job is stealth. Humans feel uneasy when you stare at them. When you are around they feel the need to interact with you in some way even if they do not wish to. I remain in stealth so no one feels the need to speak with me. It is fun to observe as well; fun things happen when people are not aware you are around. I am not the only test subject skilled at pulling the wool over people’s eyes, but I am the first.”] (link-reveal:"You ask about Protocol Zero- according to the registry on the PC, he has his own protocol?")[ (set: $Moth to it + 1)“Me and my kin are used as trackers. If anything goes wrong, or someone goes missing- we are dispatched to find them. In the early days, I was left to roam wherever I wanted in the outside world to look for new test subjects who may want to sign up, and I monitored test subjects who were released back into the outside world- subjects with minor enough changes that keeping them on the island was unnecessary.” You were surprised by that- there was RHE test subjects in the outside world, and their secret still didn’t get out. Everyone who is let back off the island is branded with a curse seal on their tongue that prevents them from talking, typing, writing or otherwise communicating about RHE directly- preventing them from informing anyone of RHEI’s existence. You will get one yourself when you return home. Either because their test was always meant to be minor or it just did not pan out- there are test subjects who were released again. As further surprise; Zero name-drops a porn actress you have heard about who calls herself ‘Thrini’. Her actual name is Trini Oaklodge, or as RHE knows her- Test Subject 29. She is entirely human, except between her perk C cup breasts is a DD cup breast; she has three tits. Online, she tells everyone it is an advantageous birth defect, when in reality that third boob is thanks to RHE. Her test was on their ability to localize effects within a single genetic system. Her original two breasts produce milk; swelling up large enough to match the size of the middle breast, and then shrink back down when emptied. The middle breast does not produce milk- though it still has the ability to. If she were to become pregnant, the middle breast would then start lactating. The tricky thing for RHE to pull off there is that the third breast was added thanks to the tincture- which also added the constant lactation, but the destination for those two changes were different in spite of their natures being directly linked. Their tincture was able to distinguish one breast from another even though genetically they are identical. This would help RHE in the future if they needed to correct asymmetry within a body- a limb shorter than another thanks to injury, or even a breast slightly larger or smaller than its counterpart. They can now just grow one without interfering with the other. But other than her triple-threat sweater puppies there is nothing inhuman about Trini, so now she uses her unique traits to make a fortune off making fetish porn in the comfort of her own home. It is also mildly surprising to you that Zero itself would be allowed to roam free outside of the island. It is the least human test subject of all, after all- it literally is not human. After seeing how easily it was able to turn essentially invisible though- it made a lot more sense. Zero can go wherever it wants, because no one will see it if it does not want them to see. As long as Zero avoids brushing up against someone or making too much noise- no one will know where it is. And avoiding brushing up against people is easy since Zero can walk on walls and roofs upside-down. It was in the room directly over your head just a short while ago and neither you nor Olivia had any idea Zero was present till it essentially announced itself.] (link-reveal:"How does the alchemy work into RHE’s tests? How is a homunculus made? Wouldn’t it still need organic material donors- and then wouldn’t the donor technically be Zero’s ‘parent’?")[ (set: $Moth to it + 1)“Oh, living in the labs- this is an easy one for me. The alchemical compound is the essence. You know how a fossil of a bone isn’t actually bone, right? It is minerals that replaced the bone, creating a perfect copy of it, sometimes down to cellular structure if you are super lucky. Distilling an essence is basically doing that, really fast. It imprints the information from genetic material- or anything really- into something like a liquid that can be stored and preserved easily. In this case, it is being used to program traits into a spell. Then you ingest it and your body breaks down the physical medium of the potion, causing the spell portion to then transfer to your own genetic material and induce the transformation. Unlike a transformation spell alone- it is altering your genes from inside of them, so when the mana burns off- the change doesn’t.” As for material donor for Zero- it is a similar process. Alchemy is about distilling down the true essence of what everything is, to rebuild it as something else. While it is true there had to be some organic compound to start with- at least one living cell- any traits it originally had were overridden with entirely new instructions. Moth needed to make sure she understood what makes a living being; a living being. So she built one from the ground up. Zero’s kin are technically its children- Zero is able to reproduce asexually. None of them have genders, so gendered titles like //‘son’//, //‘brother’//, or //‘father’// is inapplicable to them- they simply call each other ''//‘kin’//''. Zero spawned Null and Void, and Null spawned Nada. Nada would go on to become Test Subject 88 when RHE decided to test its ability to induce their custom forms onto something that is not human. Technically Nada is the only female among them- having gained female genitals thanks to the cow traits blended into hers. Void, Zero, and Null remain as the hunters of RHEI- awaiting the call to track someone down or bring a test subject home. These days, there is not really a need for them though, and life is quite relaxing. Zero can basically do whatever it wants, including fly off the island and chill somewhere else. ] Zero informed you that two of your other targets were also inside the main complex at the moment- if you move quickly. Test subjects 19&20 are both XV subjects, which means to get to them; you would need an RHE staff member with level 4 authorization to open the hidden bunker for you. But those two were outside of the bunker at the moment, so if you hurry you can see them before they return behind password encoded doors. The hidden bunker is well hidden from sight- but almost everyone on the island knows it exists, so it isn’t a secret bunker by any stretch of the imagination. What a lot of people don’t know is only one of the doors is actually hidden. There is a huge hanger door hidden under a grassy slope at the side of the plateau that the main complex sits on- that is the opening everyone knows about, but is hidden from sight. There is two other entrances to the bunker however- one in the basement level of the tower you entered the island from to get milk out easily from the subjects inside the bunker, and then another locked door inside of the main complex for maintenance and researchers to get in easily. Following Zero’s guidance you hustled from the office level down to ground floor. On the ground floor of the central structure where you were there is a huge arcade- pinball, arcade cabinets, dart boards, and pool tables filled a large area leading to the front wall which was entirely glass, looking out over the parking lot and island below. The two extreme variant test subjects were not hard to spot. Eve was playing an arcade cabinet, but as you approached she froze up entirely for a second and then started crying and let out a weak ‘no…’. Eve was an experiment on making the process of being milked more pleasurable- her mammaries themselves were supposed to be able to orgasm. Her test worked far too well however and Eve’s physical and emotional feelings became double strength- so even something as minor as losing a video game was enough to bring her to tears. Though she lacked any fur at all, her skin mimicked that of a cow hide perfectly, covered from head to toe with black and white asymmetrical splotches. The nipples and areola on her breasts, her udder, her lips and her nose were all neon pink to contrast the rest of her. Eve’s overall frame is actually rather petite- but she is quite tall. From the knee down her legs are those of a scrawny bovine, and her butt is adorned with a long tasseled tail which in turn was decorated with a large pastel pink bow. She had huge leaf shaped ears but they were pinned to her head with earmuffs- her ears are super sensitive to sound as well, so outside of her sound-proofed home she needs something to muffle it. Unfortunately the earmuffs were not the ideal solution either- it caused her own heart beat to be incredibly loud to her. Her udder was actually reasonably sized to her body- about the size of a basketball but still made soft plapping sounds when she moved too quickly because the underside bounced off her inner thighs. The teats on it were quite small- still as fat as a thumb but only half as long. Her breasts were a much more impressive E cup- hanging low enough that half her torso was eclipsed entirely. Eve has long hair but it is always folded in half and tied up with a gigantic frilly pastel pink bow. Her head has two horns on it, but they have no points, so they are basically like bubbles of exposed bone. She did not wear any clothing aside from her adorning bows, but since she is out and about today; she has a black leather jacket draped over her shoulders, placed there by Vivienne who acted as her guardian. Vivi sighed at her overreaction to losing the game and pats Eve’s shoulder to console her. Vivienne is actually has two forms; the one she is in now is her repressed form. Vivi is wearing an extremely stretched white sleeveless shirt and blue jeans that were so badly worn and tattered that they were almost rags. She had no shoes, because her feet were large and almost hand-like. From the hip down she was mostly Komodo dragon, which meant it is also covered in charcoal grey scales. Hidden in those pants is a cloaca that is oriented the way a vagina would be, with a pair of twin clits. Her huge tail slithered through the air behind her randomly. From the hip down was lizard and normal human from the hip up- at least until she becomes aroused. Vivi is considered a ‘breeder’ subject; she has sex with the other test subjects when they need physical attention, because when she becomes aroused her gender shifts. When Vivi turns male, those twin clitoris turn into two bull shafts- though because of the mutated orientation the sheaths that form up at the base of either shaft do not actually fuse to her underside; they remain free hanging. When male, her upper body turns from perfectly human to full bovine, matching the black scales of the dragon half with the hide of a black bull. Her personality remains the same in both forms, but her intellect plummets to that of a feral bull when turned so she has almost no control over herself. There is no risk of her turning now though- she is wearing a large pack on her back that is filled with sub-zero temperature gasses that cool her body if it heats up too much. Because she is half reptile, her energy level is controlled by how much heat she is exposed to- so the freezing pack can pacify her. There are cables running from the pack to small circular devices on the back of either of her hands as well to spread the cold. The pack automatically monitors her vitals to administer the coolant as needed. Vivi is effectively a werebull. You don’t want to spend too long in one place as there is a lot of other test subjects you want to visit, and only one day to see them all. Which of the two here do you address? |Vivienne>[(link:"TS20 'Werebull' Vivienne")[(replace: ?Eve)[You give a half-wave as you walk up to get their attention and give yourself a quick introduction. You know everyone on the island knows who you must be already, but it would seem rude not to introduce yourself. Eve wipes her tears away and beams a bright smile. “Oooh, I told you we might see the guest if we spend today out and about!” Vivi smiled and crossed her arms. “Mhm. If RHE is allowing friends and family visit the island, it must be getting more confident. Makes sense. Just don’t… use us as a gauge for the rest of the island, haha. We are the freaks among freaks. Extreme variants are tests that didn’t go quite as planned.” Eve started to cry again and buried her face in Vivi’s shirt. “We aren’t freaks! Meanie!” “I didn’t mean it like… okay, now you’re getting my shirt wet, c’mon.” You ask what it is like living as an XV subject. Their life is different from even the rest of the island, because they are restricted to the hidden bunker. “Well, we can leave the hidden bunker sometimes. I have my coolant unit, and I am not at risk of transforming at least two days after I… uh… let off steam.” She blushed and glanced away. “Eve can go wherever she wants too- she is just too sensitive to handle a lot of the outside world. It is not like the XV are imprisoned in the hidden bunker- we can’t live normally in the outside world for one reason or another, so the bunker gives us a place we can.” She explains that each subject in the bunker is given a habitat, which uses a mixture of technology and magic to create whatever environment they are most comfortable in, and then between staff and specialized equipment; they are given all they need to live fully in spite of being cooped up in the bunker. Subjects in the bunker don’t really miss out on anything- through simulation or other means, they all get what they need, and they are all part of this paradise. You blush a bit yourself as you ask which gender she proffers. She turns male when aroused, but was fully female all the time before, so unlike most people she has experienced sex as either gender. “Oh gosh… that isn’t an easy answer. I have thought about it a lot before- given the sexual nature of my current existence. See, it feels more intense as a woman but that is assuming you are with a good partner. It is easier to get off as a male regardless of who you are with…” Eve pipes up. “So basically female sex has a higher skill ceiling. More potential but much harder to pull off.” “Y-yea, that.” She hums in thought a moment. “Now that I think about it… I guess I haven’t had sex as a female since coming to the island.” She shrugged. ]]] |Eve>[(link:"TS19 'Milkshake' Eve")[(replace: ?Vivienne)[You give a half-wave as you walk up to get their attention and give yourself a quick introduction. You know everyone on the island knows who you must be already, but it would seem rude not to introduce yourself. Eve wipes her tears away and beams a bright smile. “Oooh, I told you we might see the guest if we spend today out and about!” Vivi smiled and crossed her arms. “Mhm.” You ask how Eve deals with her double feelings. She must frighten a lot of people unintentionally, making them think something has gone terribly wrong- only to find out it isn’t a big deal at all. “Well… originally, sure. It took a while to get used to, for sure. Like, whenever I touched an edge on anything I kept checking my hand to see if it cut me. And when it comes to pleasures- it is usually so explosive that I am completely exhausted afterward and pass out every time. But I got used to it. Everyone knows not to take me too seriously- I swing around like a rubber band. Cry one moment, laugh the next. I live life in stereo!” After a moment of thought you ask if RHE ever actually completed her experiment. The sensations were out of control, but did the original effect work? Can her breasts and udder orgasm? “Y-yea, heh. Well, there is a muscle layer that connects the fat to the outer skin anyway; mine has just been wired to spasm once the tension buildup from pleasure hits a certain threshold. The udder has the muscle ribs that divide the four sections too. And the shuddering creates movement, which triggers pleasure nerves, so it really is like an orgasm. Plus- the rapid contractions in the shuddering causes milk to flow out quickly, so I squirt all over the place if I don’t empty out.” Her face turned red. “MILK. From my boobs, not- … never mind.” Vivi laughed. “Eve was the test run for the trait, but it has been successfully used in other test subjects. I know TS26; Marcus has it and it works. There are others but I don’t know them off the top of my head.” ]]] You thank them for putting up with your questions and flick a quarter to Eve so she can try another round of her game. You wander out of the main complex; eager to meet as many people on your list as possible in one day- but that means you have a good bit of legwork ahead of you. It is a big island after all. Looking over the possible locations to find people at, you can either take a hard left at the bottom of the slope and head toward the lake or keep going straight into the town and then turn left- there is a tennis court there. (if:$Faith is true)[[[Faith gave you directions to her house...->Faith]]] [[TS02, TS11, TS12 / Nancy, Esther, Jacob->Tennis Noon]] [[TS35, TS38, TS40 / Opal, Rosemary, Tria->Lake Sagara]]

You head toward the town and the first homes at the base of the slope are arranged in the shape of a backward D- round on one side and straight on the other. The straight row of buildings on your right framed the edge of one of the two larger forests on the island as well as pointing toward the open fields leading to the beach on the west. On the left though- the half circle of homes was filled with color! Even the shale stones sunken into the ground to act as paths through the soft grass were colored with spray-paint. Every inch of these homes- including the roof- is entirely covered with huge spray-painted murals. The middle pathway leading down between either side from the ramp was several sheets of shale wide and split around a large rectangular pool shared by either side. There are several pools like this in the valley but this one was where the largest of the pool parties were held. Filling the space between the side of the pool and the rounded section of homes were simple wooden stands, webbed and canopied by thousands of cloth streamers hung from the buildings across the entire clearing, casting it in comfortable shade. This is the market place- but as attractive as all the sights were, your destination right now is the tennis court. To get to the court, you have to pass between some of the homes here on the left, slipping through the market on the way over. It felt weird because it seemed like you were cutting through someone’s yard going between homes like this- but the valley did not really have any predetermined yard boundaries, so the entire island was just one big shared yard. Behind the homes it was easy to spot the tennis court because the mesh fence surrounding it was almost 12 feet tall to make sure the balls remain inside the court. It was not just tennis though, either- there is a basketball hoop on either end as well; if you take down the net it becomes a basketball court. You imagine there must be some special rules in place depending on body type, because you can’t see someone with a 60 pound udder making a slam dunk, and there are some test subjects who can literally fly. [[Head to the opening in the fence to see the girls in the court.->Tennis Court 2]]

You see three women here right now- two were facing off in a tennis match while the third simply watched, blowing bubbles with gum in her mouth. |Reflex>[=[[QUICK, DODGE!->Dodgeball]][(after:7s)[(replace: ?Reflex)[Your head is knocked back and your vision explodes into stars for a moment and your right eye throbs! Hazel dashes over to you asking if you are alright but you are too dazed to answer right away. When you open your eyes fully, the vision in your right eye is a bit off and you realize you got //smashed in the face with the tennis ball//! Welp… that is most likely a ''black eye''. When Hazel hit the ball, it caught on the frame of the racket and was deflected sideways rather than forward- just as you were standing at the opening of the tennis court. Hazel bowed and apologized. Lulu shook her head at Hazel and hopped up onto the shoulders of her golem to walk over at a more leisurely pace, while Julia looked on concerned from the bench at the side she watched from. You explain that you will be alright, a black eye never killed anyone. (link:"Hazel")[Hazel is the one who fired the ball at your face unintentionally, though in her defense she was up against a powerful opponent and was already struggling to keep up. Her mammaries were in an odd configuration, and because of that; entirely exposed. She wears a poncho that covers most of her upper torso, but she has no breasts- instead her crotch has all of her mams. Starting just below her belly button are two breasts, then below that a goat udder, then below that two of the four segments of a cow udder fused to the bottom of the goat udder. This effectively covered her vulva, so while she wore no clothes down there she was not especially exposed. In a tennis match she has a severe advantage in her odd arms- a full segment longer than any other human. Their backside is shelled in dull green chitin protecting it- and the chitin on her forearm is hinged; it can flip around and re-collect over her hand off the end of her arm, or encase the forearm and go off the elbow. The chitin there is razor sharp and able to be used as a blade- the arms of a praying mantis. She also has the wings of a praying mantis, collected under a thin chitin outer casing that almost looks like a cape behind her. Hazel is able to fly- but not especially well, her wings cannot be directed really so she can only go straight up or down usually. Still- if she needed to get to a flying tennis ball really quickly; her wings could give her a sudden burst of speed. Because of her unusual udders and breasts being between her legs and still perfectly human hips; it is very awkward for her to walk normally. She has two alternatives- her arms are long enough for her to walk on all fours while still in a mostly upright position, or she can hover across the ground using her wings. Her skin is a dark tan and her nipples a shade of brown that almost looked black. Her hair is currently in a long braid of sandy brown, and the braid is tied up into a large bun to make sure it doesn’t get in the way when she is jumping around the court.] (link:"Lulu")[Lulu was up against Hazel… or, it would be more accurate to say that her ''golem'' was. Lulu is an inverted cow half- with most of her bovine features up top rather than down low. Instead of an udder between her legs, she has two massive blushing pink tits capped with teat-like nipples and plump areola of the exact same pink as the breasts they crown. Her feet and legs are perfectly human, but her hands are replaced with cloven hooves. Her head is that of a cow, but the muzzle is only half size and her neck and the size of her head is still human. Lulu still has human hair as well; most of it is black, but her bangs are white. Lulu also has a cow tail flicking around behind her- the lowest of her bovine features. She is wearing sneakers on her feet, yoga pants, and then a cloth band around her chest. Yes, literally just a band. Even with a shirt custom made for her, Lulu cannot wear it when she is doing a lot of moving around because her big teat-like nipples will rub against the inside and chafe. So she ties a long cloth strap around her boobs, running between the twin sets of teats. It does absolutely nothing to cover her- but it holds the giant globes up and… well, more still than they would be without. Because she has no hands to hold or manipulate anything with- she has a golem. Built by Moth herself, the golem is powered by Lulu’s will and looks like a tall, fit human man. His face is emotionless, and his movement works like a ball-joint doll. This is why Lulu is a bit of a demon on the tennis court- she doesn’t actually do anything herself, her golem does. So Hazel wasn’t really up against a fellow hybrid- she is up against an immortal stone giant who never tires. A match against Lulu isn’t about whom wins, it’s about how well you can do and how long you can last before the golem inevitably wins.] (link:"Julia")[Julia is extremely human looking- her body had very few cow traits, though the traits she did have are noticeable from a mile away. Her limbs and body are perfectly human, so she does not even have a tail. She has small cow ears that occasionally flicked her hair around when something made them itch, and she has horns but they are short and perfectly straight- making them more like spikes. Her hair is down to the middle of her neck but only in the front- it gets progressively shorter toward the back, and her bangs are mid-length so her eyebrows were still exposed under them. Exactly half of her head of hair is black, and the other white- this carries over to her eyebrows but their color is backwards. The left side of her hair is black, but her right eyebrow is the black one. Julia is wearing simple sandals to show off her metallic purple nail polish on her toes. Above that she is wearing blue jean cut-off shorts. Her primary bovine feature ensures that the top she wears is the same at all times- because she could not so much as stand up without it. Even with an extremely dense, reinforced spine behind her and Julia constantly working out to make sure her lower back muscles are in tip-top shape, nothing natural born could possibly carry the amount of weight centered entirely on her chest. As test subject 28 she was still a relatively early subject- they leaned too heavily into bovine specifically on her chest. She doesn’t have breasts; she has ''udders''. Two full sized dairy cow udders. They both lean slightly out toward the sides because there isn’t even enough room on her chest for them to comfortably face forward! Her top is a band of form fitting cloth similar to a corset that wraps around her midriff, and then from the front of that two titanium rods hold her udders up like support pillars! At the end of each rod is a soft, curved mat that cradles the underside of her udders. For this reason- to watch the tennis match properly she was sitting with her elbows on her knees leaned forward with her giga tits hanging between her legs. If she were to sit up the bottom half of her vision would be eclipsed by udders and she would only be able to watch them from the shoulders up! She also had a simple gold band around each of her eight teats- this kept them from flopping around so much but also made them stick out in a lazy arc.] Lulu draped over the shoulder of her golem. “So, quite the intro(text-style:"sway")[ouu]duction for our guest, eh?” She made a bit of an unintentional //moo//- a side effect of her mini muzzle. You tell her it is fine. Hazel is still blushing. “On the up side; I bet you are fully awake now.” It is still early in the day, so the air is still warming up from the night before. There is a stark contrast between areas that are shaded and areas kissed by the rising sun- the difference is even more notable here on the court because the paved ground of the court absorbs the heat from the light. To the east of here there is a lake still entirely in the shadow of the border mountains, and from between the lake and here is a mostly open, giant field. There are only a few scattered trees through the whole field, but they are all very large. Because that is also the direction the sun raises from- the shadow of those few huge trees are stretched all the way to the buildings here, so there is a stripe of shade across half of the court. The side of the court Lulu is playing on is chilly; the side the other two are on- and where you entered from- is quite warm. Julia remained seated, both because it is a hassle heaving herself upright with her twin udders but also because the sun was warming her back pleasantly, but she still introduced herself properly. Since you were here to get to know them and the island better, they each shared their origin story here on the island. Lulu is the earliest of them by a long shot- and one of the first subjects ever. She bragged that she was the one who finished up work on the tincture storage units the main complex uses in its offices to store all the materials for transforming people. It was also because of that though, that she was unintentionally exposed to the contents of one, when a researcher named Morgan tripped over the power cable when they were testing the storage unit. All her transformations are top heavy, and she lost her hands so she was unable to do anything for herself for a bit, before Moth created the golem servant as a solution. Hazel explained her biggest problem was learning how to move again. When her udders started to come in she was tripping on her own flesh- if the soft squishy udder flesh caught on her inner thighs when she was walking juuuust wrong- it would get pinched and she would trip on herself. When the chitin blades grew in it took a while to get used to controlling them- because their muscles are entirely new to her body, so they would trigger by accident sometimes when using her hands. Then when her wings came in; she did not even attempt to use them till she was sure they were fully grown. Even then, learning to balance herself while not touching the ground was hard. Her wings only work straight up and down really- to go forward she needs to lean her entire body forward. So if she accidentally starts to tip in any direction while airborne- she will start flying in that direction. When she first started, she would lift off, hover for a moment, start tipping and then launch herself sideways into the wall of someone’s house. Hazel had to learn to use the antennae that adorn her forehead- she has to sense the flow of air around her and compensate, so a small breeze doesn’t send her spinning out of control. She technically has no real maximum height she can fly at- as long as the air pressure is enough that her wings can beat against it. Hazel rarely ever gets more than a foot or two off the ground, just because the risk of hurting herself if she crashes gets too much. Julia’s problems when transforming are pretty obvious- doesn’t take a genius to guess that with those massive things she was immobilized. Before RHE designed her titanium harness she could not even get out of bed. Julia was almost sure she would end up being marked as an XV subject and sent to the hidden bunker to be looked after. Even when the RHE staff came to help her eat each day, she had to drag herself into a sitting position with the bottoms of her udders resting in her lap. They also had to make a custom milk machine for her because the automilkers in the main facility do not have a configuration for two mammaries with four teats each. She can technically just milk herself, but her udders are rather large so reaching around them isn’t easy- and they work like those of a cow so each side has four reservoirs to drain. Hazel nodded, saying she had the same problem with the automilkers, but does just milk herself by hand since her udders are in a much easier to reach configuration. Not only does she have breasts down there by her udders- the goat and cows have completely different teat proportions, so if the suction cups fit one set; they won’t fit the other. Lulu commented that she just got her golem to hand-milk her and the other two just sighed. Lulu had her golem do literally everything for her- including pleasure her in bed. It is not as though she could milk herself since she has no hands anyway. And automilker would work on her perfectly fine too though- while it may look like a giant slightly-off shaped udder on her chest, the milk production inside is a hybrid of human and cow. Lulu has four large teats, but they only lead into two milk reservoirs, so you only need to milk two of the four to empty her. Of course, milking all four at once would speed up the task. You make a slight adjustment to your pants and Julia notices- giving you a coy smile but not saying anything. There wasn’t an issue down there! You just wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be one. You are surrounded by beautiful hybrid women after all, with boobs like no other. Julia and Lulu’s endowments especially were impossible to ignore, because they are just below their faces and so huge they project off their bodies some distance. After they tell their stories, Lulu and Hazel resume their match and you sit beside Julia to watch. The air blowing in from the east is crisp and carries the subtle scent of wildflowers. Beyond the lake is a forest bordering the mountains edge where all sorts of plant life grow. Julia leaned far forward again to watch properly. Whenever she got excited and cheered, her udders would rock forward and leave their pedestals and then flop back into place before slapping together lightly with a *plap* and then jostling to a stop. Lulu had to tighten the strap holding her own up, because this time she rode on her golem as it played- which was like riding a wild bull. Golems have no intellect of their own, so doing two tasks at once isn’t their thing. It is either tending her or playing the game- it can’t do both, and it was told to play. Being tied together her breasts were unable to swing and bounce all over the place so mostly just flopped in unison- though her long teats were flicking this way and that. You were so mesmerized by the display of bouncing tits that you could not break yourself away from the game long enough to think of any further questions for them. When finally Hazel admitted defeat, you realize how much time you have spent here and say your farewells to the women- you had other destinations and people to meet too! (set: $Reflex to "N")[[Head back and take a look at the market you passed.->Market]] [[Go deeper into the town to check out the Art Gallery.->Art Gallery]]]]]

You want to maximize the number of test subjects you can see on your trip, so naturally choosing locations close together will reduce the travel time between. You only have one day after all! You wander from the tennis court back the way you came, stopping now in the market. The subdued light that filters through the wide ribbons of cloth webbing the area from above paints the ground in rainbow hues as well. The area is quite active, quite often- though not so much for the market but as a popular spot to host parties. The market is fairly busy now and seems like a very pleasing place to be, but you attention gets drawn to an extremely huge woman looking rather disappointed. There are two more test subjects beside her talking- the stranger of the two sighs and looks rather defeated while the other vanishes from your point of view around a corner to do something else. The huge woman is TS03; Lorelei ‘the siren’. The other, odd hybrid is TS53; Viola ‘the bard’. (link:"Viola")[Her ankles are raised from the ground like an ungulate’s would be, but hers are very much insectoid in nature. From the knee down her legs are entirely encased in dark grey chitin carapace. Viola still has skin on her lower legs but only in the very narrow gaps between chitin plates- where her limbs need to bend, and the skin here is grey to match the rest. Her legs end in a small pad tipped with two sharp-pointed toes. The back of her lower leg had a series of shallow but still sharp spikes on them, formed from the chitin. From her elbows down her most important feature is the chitin on her arms and hands. Her fingers and entire hand are encased in it- but the inside of her hand still has fingerprints textured onto the chitin casing to allow her grip to hold objects still. If it were completely smooth, smooth objects would just slip out of her hand, like a drinking glass. Though encased in the carapace- her arms are still entirely human in shape. Though it is very hard to see at any sort of distance, up close you can see her forearms are covered in tiny sparse hairs- similar to the peach fuzz a human arm has, but more sparse and the hairs quite different in nature. The base of each is a very shallow cone, holding the hair rigid- so rigid that if you were to rub her arm tightly from elbow to wrist you would cut your hand numerous times on the hairs. They point toward her elbow so they look harmless, but they are about as touch-friendly as a cactus’ thorns. Viola herself on the other hand, can touch them in whatever direction she wants because her hands are protected by the very same chitin. She is a hybrid of a cricket- rubbing her fingers or even her other arm together will produce musical notes depending on where and how lightly she touches. Viola can perfectly imitate her namesake instrument. She can even produce an ultrasonic sound similar to a dog whistle in a short burst when she snaps her fingers. Though she rarely takes advantage of it, her legs also allow her to jump quite far and run quite fast. On her face she has four sharp but thin mandibles that hinge over top of her regular human jaw, allowing her to close them over her lower face to look like a mask. They serve no practical purpose really though, since she retained her normal human mouth through her transformation. She is wearing a loose white shirt over her B cup breasts- you can faintly see her aggressive nipples lightly poking the fabric, and judging by the loose threads around her shoulders; the shirt used to be a t shirt but she ripped the sleeves off. Covering her arms would disable her musical ability, so she removed the sleeves from all her tops. She is wearing jeans but since her soles are stretched out like a cannon bone would be- the pant legs can only cover two thirds of her legs at best, and the spikes on the lower back made the ends of the pant legs frayed. Her pants also did not fit properly, part of her left thigh was exposed- if she straightened her jeans they would probably fall right off without a belt. Viola is a pretty small woman, but her extended legs put her back up to roughly the same height you are. Her hair is brown, but so dark it looks black when indoors, and it hangs flat to chin length, held out of her face by a small blue amethyst flower hairclip on either side. Like Hazel- who is also an insect hybrid- Viola’s iris are an unusual steel-grey. ] (link:"Lorelei")[Looking at her body shape, you wonder how Lorelei even got here in the first place. From the hips down, she is a killer whale! She doesn’t have legs to walk here with! Her hips are absolutely gigantic and take the place of the collar bone- the whale sternum branches off from the bottom front of her hip. Her breasts are huge and unnaturally taught, allowing them to hold up in wide teardrop shape in spite of their size- an F cup if not larger. The coloration of the whale skin continues onto her human torso; her entire body is either black or white. Her front is white, the back is black- though the black coloration wraps around her sides to cover the outer facing sides of her large breasts as well, and both the front and back of her hands are white. Her hair is straight, a shimmering black, and extremely long- it reaches past where her human half ends by a half foot. Lorelei’s eyes are a beautiful shade of brown that in most lighting looks red. To better match the whale half; her upper half is quite large for a human, but not so large that it is abnormal. She is still huge overall, because the whale half on its own is the size of a truck. The front limbs of a whale are not actually fins; they are flippers. If you look at the skeletal structure of them; they have fingers inside. The flippers on Lorelei are a bit more developed- a bit longer than normal. On the siren, the flippers are actually what used to be her legs- the same muscles that used to control her legs now operate the flippers, so that is how she moves on land. Not well, mind you. In order to move while grounded, Lorelei basically has to scrunch her tail up then leap her flippers forward and repeat like that- essentially doing a belly flop over and over. Obviously not very easy to do- she does not enjoy having to move around on land, which is part of her disappointment here.] You ask the two of them what is wrong. Lorelei is surprised seeing you- a perfectly human person- among the island residents, but Viola is much more emotionally desensitized and so is the one to answer.(if:$Reflex is "N")[ Or perhaps she is looking at your fresh black eye- the bruising is probably quite dark by now but you obviously cannot see it yourself without a mirror.] “We came to see if our friend Lauren wanted to jam… buut, it seems she isn’t home. She went with Sage into the mountains to tag some rocks.” Lorelei speaks up- her voice quite powerful but also deep and womanly. “And of all days, today I decide maybe I will actually head inland too. Now she isn’t here and I am stuck grounded.” Lorelei perks up a bit, announcing that you must be Olivia’s friend- the outsider come to tour the island! Viola cocks an eyebrow at her. “Well… yea? Who else would it be?” To get more comfortable while she is stuck here, Lorelei with you and Viola in tow head to the nearby pool at the front edge of the market so she can plop into the water. In the water, the weight of her large breasts is almost entirely negated, and even her long hair flows seemingly weightless behind her like a black streamer. She is so large though that she takes up a quarter of the pool by herself. She can get to the other side of the pool with two flicks of her tail. You and Viola sit on the edge and you ask Viola how her musical arms work. She gives you a bit of a demonstration, holding it up as she brushes it with her other hand. It is the rigid hairs that make the sound- not rubbing the arm itself. Tensing her muscles below caused the chitin on the surface to swell out a bit which in turn tightens the base of the hairs and causes the pitch of the notes to rise sharply. She grins wickedly and tells you she can also replicate the sounds of nails on a chalkboard and Lorelei quickly stops her before she does a demonstration. You ask them both how they came to be on the island originally. Why did they sign up for the RHE test? Viola explained that she had been a violinist on the outside, but as passionate as she is about music, she was unable to turn it into a career. She was backstabbed by family members and her friendships were shallow. It caused her personality to appear disinterested or uncaring; because she has been burned so many times her heart grew numb. Viola did not have a real job on the outside and wanted to distance herself as far as possible from her family- she was desensitized enough by then that the fact that her body is what she is signing over did not even phase her. She kept to herself for the most part, but she liked to share her music, so her music connected her to the other test subjects of the island, ultimately earning her friends unintentionally through that. Lorelei’s answer was a simple one- she just signed up because she assumed it would be helpful. RHE testing on humans meant it was likely to be toward something that would eventually improve human life, so she simply signed up to help. Unlike Viola; Lorelei had no musical knowledge outside of humming tunes in the shower before coming to the island. Since being hybridized with a killer whale though, her voice has become quite powerful, like a whale’s singing. Viola’s house is standard, like most homes in the valley- though cluttered with sheet music and diagrams of her arms and how to produce specific sounds. Viola only really goes home to sleep, so her house is mostly unused- she occasionally drops something off or writes up some new sheet music and then puts it down and never puts it away. So her house just got messier and messier gradually over time because she is never around to fix it. Lorelei’s house is entirely custom built, requiring moonpool access to enter it directly from the ocean waters. There is a shallow pool and then a waterbed directly beside it, so her human half can sleep on the bed and the whale half in water at the same time. She also technically does not live on RHEI- her home is on a separate, tiny island to the north called Little Light. It is home to both Lorelei and TS77; Laurane. There is a lighthouse on Little Light as well, but it is long abandoned- the light never turns on. The last time the lighthouse was actually used as something other than a lookout tower for test subjects to enjoy is when RHEI was originally being set up. All of the building materials and such were carried to RHEI originally on a gigantic ship called The Ark, which used the lighthouse to find the island safely. The Ark hasn’t left the port far enough since then to ever need the light again- it is only rarely taken out of port a ways for test subjects to fish off the sides and then return right after. Since the majority of test subjects were built for it- you must ask what their milk tastes like, if they have ever tasted their own. Viola shakes her head. “The world will never know what cricket milk tastes like. Wasn’t built to lactate.” They both looked at the uncomfortable face Lorelei was making, trying to think of the best way to describe her milk without grossing you out. “Uh, you wouldn’t drink whale milk by itself. Not unless you wanted to go into cardiac arrest. If you think the fat content of untreated cow milk is brutal, you haven’t seen anything yet. Whale milk has the consistency of soft butter.” Lorelei glanced away. “It also has a very mild fish aftertaste….” “Yea, if you tried to drink it you’d be able to feel your arteries harden, haha. Lorelei’s milk is processed into butter or even further processed into cooking oil- that is where it shines.” The pool’s surface is a perfect reflection of the puffy white clouds gently rolling across the blue sky above. The sunlight shimmers off Lorelei’s body, and the occasional deep giggle from her as she plays in the water is musical. Viola softly played some random melodies- you can swear you hear a few notes from the Star Wars theme in there too. Occasionally Viola deliberately misses a note and smiles as Lorelei flinches from the melodic discord. Since she is hybridized with a cricket, you ask Viola if she can actually produce the same sound as one. “Yea- that is the easiest sound to make; takes zero precision.” She just raised both arms and rubs one forearm against the other. The result was a rather flat note back and forth with a very high, rapid reverb- a cricket’s chirping. You then turn to Lorelei though and comment that you have heard Viola playing but not Lorelei’s singing. She pauses in the water and her smile becomes more subdued- a slight blush glows on the white skin of her face. Viola chuckled. “She still gets stage fright. She likes to start before the audience arrives and be humming or something before she starts the show. If she starts up from a dead-stop after everyone is looking at her, she gets nervous.” Lorelei hums a moment, then hums at a lower frequencies, then hums at a frequency that makes your rib cage feel like its vibrating! “(text-style:"buoy")[Doooo~], re, me, fa, sol, la, ti- ''do'', ti, la, sol, fa, me, re, (text-style:"buoy")[dooo].” Her voice carries far naturally- its volume not always obvious as her tone is not abrasive in the slightest as louder sounds tend to be. By now several other test subjects in the area had stopped what they were doing to look over, realizing that Lorelei was getting serious. She is called The Siren for good reason- her voice is so sweet people will listen to her talk about literally anything just to hear her talk. (align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"expand")[“Lost in the clouds Like tears in the rain Winking alone All the same~ Sleeping below We never mind her diligence Watching us all Lie awake~ When she shines for me at night And her skies show green and (text-style:"sway")[whiiite] She will keep us in her sight We all lie beneath her (text-style:"sway")[liiiight~]”]] Lorelei giggled nervously, taking a deep breath and awkwardly looking at everyone gawking at her. There was absolute dead silence for a moment- she stole everyone else’s breath away and everyone was afraid to so much as move at risk of interrupting any further sound from her. “W-well someone say something!” You quickly applaud her and say it was very good. You would have liked to elaborate on that, but were honestly still stunned by her singing. It was sort of like watching a long movie you get really involved in. Once it ends there is this awkward moment of ‘//ok, now what? I was so absorbed into that I forgot what else my life involved//’. You realize something else that completely slipped your mind- the position of the light’s reflection in the pool tells you it is getting late! You have other test subjects to meet too and only a day to meet as many as possible. The two women ask who you had in mind to find and you pull out the rough list Olivia helped you put together earlier. Viola shook her head. “Oof, several of these are XV subjects.” You ask if that is a problem. “Well, all extreme variants are in the hidden bunker. That makes them easy to find, because you know exactly where they are at all times… but you also can’t get into the bunker without level 4 clearance. Your contact in RHE is Olivia right? She is a Bioarcanist- she only has level 2 clearance. Most test subjects are only level 1.” Lorelei pointed to several test subjects on the list. “Oh, I am pretty sure these are in the Library right now, you can probably catch them before they leave. Most people find they procrastinate and get distracted if they bring a book home to read, so most test subjects read while in the library rather than actually take the book out.” [[Library->Library]] [[Hidden Bunker->Hidden Bunker]]

You decide to head down to the art gallery in the south part of the valley. Because of how the buildings are arranged, the art gallery and library both look like they are part of the central town, not southern. There was a good breeze when you arrived, but the winds have seemed to die down, emphasizing the head of the sun. There are very few clouds in the sky- the type of clouds that look like they are built tall like drifting mountains of cotton. All of the locations in the valley are connected by paths of sunken shale plates, so it is hard to tell just where the path you are currently on takes you, as they form a complex web of not directed connected stone- you are better off ignoring the set paths and just walking in a straight line. All the houses you pass look the same in shape, but each one has something to define itself from the others and give you a hint as to who lives there. An apple tree, a group of shrubs or rosebushes, rock gardens, flower beds. There are no set boundaries between yards, or rules as to what a test subject did with their home- so each was left to expand and express themselves however they wished. It is interesting to see the society that formed from that freedom. The art gallery is a great example of that- RHE provided them the material to build the structure but the gallery was started and run entirely by the test subjects themselves. You could see the art gallery from a distance away, so it was real hard to miss. Not only is it a large structure at least three floors tall matching only the main complex and library in height- but the entire front of the building is a colossal relief of a moth grasping a sphere containing a lit candle wick. The home world of the sorceress paragon is named Wick- this represents her saving her entire world with the same research that founded RHE. Though it was treated and painted to look like stone- the giant relief is actually made of wood. It is giant enough to cover the entire front side of the building but is shallow and does not project far off it. Below the relief is a cloth canopy covering a wooden deck with metal filament tables and chairs. It is an outdoor café of sorts- though the one in charge of preparing the coffee and tea is a machine. It does not charge money since no one in the valley would have money in the first place- it is stocked from the same supply of materials any test subject would get teleported into their fridge anyway. There is a single test subject sitting at one of the tables enjoying the shade from the glaring sun- sipping a cup of tea slowly. TS85 is Tiffany ‘the Arbiter’. Her torso is almost entirely human except a bushy cervine tail sticking through a small metal hoop at the back of her skirt- just below the waist. All four of her limbs however are changed toward hooves. Her legs from the knees down are those of a deer- so long and quite narrow, ending in dainty little cloven hooves. Her hands are the first hoof-hand hybrids RHE ever created, making her test an important one. Tiffany’s hands look like cloven hooves at a distance, but up close you can see the digits above the hoof segments are longer with more complex joints, especially behind the dew claws. Essentially the primary segments act as two large fingers, and the dew claws evolved into two thumbs. The arm on the teacup is rather small, so she can only fit a single of her two hoof-fingers through the loop. Though she is fully female- Tiffany was actually blended with a stag- her grey hair is parted around the base of two large antlers. The antlers themselves have rings slid around several tines that created a web of fine chains between. Her hair is just barely past the top of her shoulders and mostly grey, but has a faded tone of brown from her old hair color. Her face is weathered- the lines in it have grown deep. Tiffany is quite old now, though still unusually strong. She is wearing a simple deep grey top and black skirt. She smiles as she spots you approaching the building. “Hey there, cutie. Come all this way to see me, have you?” Before you can reply she laughs. “I am just kidding. There are mirrors on the island- I know I am an old raisin. You are here to see the busty, milky gals. We’ve no shortage of fat busts on this island.” You are quick to defend yourself, telling her you are not here just to drool over huge mammaries- the internet already provides all you could need on that front, that isn’t what makes this place special. “Ah, well that is something that cannot be put fully into words. RHE does amazing things with their research- alchemical and magical alike. The test subjects have done a great job forming a wonderful community too- and turning this house into a home.”(if:$Reflex is "N")[ She motions her teacup to your face and her expression hardened a bit. “Getting into trouble already in your short time here?” Oh right, the black eye. Tiffany is known as The Arbiter- she is in charge of settling any disputes on the island and governing the overall peace of the valley. If she sees you walking around with a black eye she is going to think you have gotten yourself into a fight. You quickly tell her what happened at the tennis court earlier. “Quite the ill-fortune you have. The odds of getting hit that directly are already low to begin with, but on top of that; right when you stand in the only opening in the fence, hah.] You ask her how life is as the Arbiter in the valley. Are there really that many incidents to regulate? “Not fights, really, no. But I settle disputes as well, so people come to me with any sort of argument and I act as an impartial third party. There have even been times when the test subjects have questioned RHE’s actions and I mediated between the two. Especially back when RHE was testing the Age-X project.” You ask what Age-X was about. “RHE had unintentionally extended the life expectancy of test subjects several times- transforming their cells basically reset their expiration date. So they set out to extract the essence of an immortal species of jellyfish, to try and create a test subject who never ages. To make someone immortal. This involved recruiting several elder people as test subjects.” She paused a moment, her smile renewing. “I was not part of that project, before you ask. Two test subjects died of old age in a relatively short span of time- RHE was unable to reverse their time, but their third try worked. They did create one test subject who is effectively immortal. So the Age-X project ended a success ultimately.” You ask if all the women on the island are eternally young now. Tiff laughs, and holds her arms out a moment. “If I were immortal do you think I would look like this? Only one test subject has ever been made immortal- and she is not even on the island. She still looks perfectly human, so she was released back into the outside world with a curse brand on her tongue to prevent her from talking about RHE. They have offered me the Age-X tincture, but I declined.” You ask why she would turn down immortality. Tiffany’s smile became more subdued as she stared at the leaves in her tea. “Life is precious, but to live forever I would think is more of a curse than a blessing. I live each day the best that I can within my power- so that I have no regrets. I don’t fear death. When it finally comes for me, my bags will already be packed.” Tiff is a very strong woman; at least on the inside. She is fun loving but you can tell she is the type to come to a conclusion quickly, and rarely ever changes her mind- part of what makes her a good Arbiter. When Tiffany came to the island originally, it was by searching for a means to repair her hand that did not involve temporary mana-dependent spells. Tiff was a police officer- had her gun shot right out of her hand, which also destroyed her hand. They could only partially restore motor function with medical treatment, and because she could not operate a gun; her work with the police degraded to a tedious desk job. She still can’t use a gun- but her ‘hands’ work just fine for everything else now. Now she polices paradise; no firearms necessary. Tiff tells you to get going- there are other far more interesting and far, far bustier women to be seen. Beryl is in the gallery right now, as one of the island’s most prolific artists- at least when it comes to drawing. Leaving Tiffany to enjoy the rest of her tea in the shade, you enter the huge art gallery. It is three floors high, but the third floor is nothing but a narrow balcony around the outer edges- the entire middle of that floor is an opening for the full skeleton of an Ettin Drake- a two headed dragon. The bones were perfectly preserved in obsidian and needed to be chiseled out when they were found. The dragon was recovered from a desert in the middle of a giant pool of obsidian- the flame energy released as it perished melted all of the surrounding sand and turned it into volcanic glass. The middle floor was lit by the skylight roof past the skeleton of the floor above, and is made up almost entirely by statues. Some sculpted by test subjects, and a couple of ancient ones that formerly belonged to Moth- when she was still in charge there was several stone gazebo structures scattered around the islands housing statues- though the structures still remain scattered, the statues themselves were brought here. There is even a giant bismuth crystal on the second floor you can stand inside of! Bismuth forms in abnormally symmetrical fission, always taking on the shape of a square, with increasingly large or smaller squares, naturally forming stair-like structures. This crystal was so large that the concave square steps leading into the larger crystal body was large enough for a person to climb and stand inside of it without damaging the crystal. There are many rectangular pillars all through the main floor, but they do not support anything- they are just extra wall space to hang drawings and paintings on without completely blocking the way to walk. Climbing the stairs between floors was a bit unnerving for you- the stairs are made of glass, making you a little paranoid you will fall through. Even though test subjects three times your weight can jump on them without breaking it. You see two test subjects talking- a woman who was dusting the skeleton on the top floor and one of the rarer male subjects who was talking to her about something. By the time you get to the bottom stairs, the male subject is returning. It is not too hard to guess which male subject is which because there is only 18 total. The one passing through the second floor as you come up is TS86; Bernard. (link:"Bernard")[Bernard is actually a hybrid of a lot more animals than you would think just looking at him, and even some custom parts. He can thank Tiffany for his hands- he bares the same hoof-hand hybrid that RHE originally made in Tiff. His legs however ended in horse hooves- so just one solid hoof segment. He had no fur on his body, but he did have a horse tail behind him that matched his dark brown hair, including the fact the tips are dyed red currently. Even the parts of him that are still human shaped, are still as strong as a horse- not only does he appears to be over eight feet tall, his muscles are gigantic. Bernard could probably pick up and twirl a car around in his hands. There are a few randomly sized spots of black skin concentrating toward his crotch, transitioning to veinier skin to help support his ebon balls- each the size of a medicine ball and probably similarly heavy. They do not hang far- his smooth black scrotum holds them close, so they sit on the front inside of his thighs when he walks. He has one thick horse sheath, but two penises. The twin shafts thanks to shark genes, their overall shape and color thanks to a horse, and the shaft length and tapered shape thanks to a whale. When erect- both his dicks are taller than he is… and he is really tall. That is why the shaft needed to be tapered- so they can still fit into smaller women. The only clothing he wears is a loincloth- since there is no way he is stuffing that junk into any normal pair of pants. He is so large that when walking on the tile floor his hooves sounds like someone slamming half a coconut against the ground. His neck is half horse and half human- not as long as a full horse, but still longer and much thicker than a human, and it also trails his hairline in the back to form a short mane. Bernard’s ears are fully equine, and his nose bridge is a bit longer and a lot wider than a normal human. His enlarged nostrils are circled with cool black flesh which also connects to his lips- so while he does not have a muzzle, if you look at him straight-on his face resembles that of a bull.] You were expecting some thunderous or bestial voice to come from him, but he actually just sounded like a normal dude. “Hey, you must be Olivia’s friend everyone has been wondering about. I was just dropping off something from a friend of mine to get put up here.” He motioned around. “Lots to look at by now. Some of it more… interpretational.” He motioned to a sculpture of… you aren’t sure what. The sculpture is made of clay, and you can tell from several impressions that whoever made it had cloven hooves. It had what looked like what was supposed to be sculpted hair and limbs… but the overall shape is sort of like a really thick disk. Well, art is supposed to make you feel something, and this sculpture does its job- you feel confusion. You tell Bernard he is one of the test subjects you were looking for. There are not many male subjects, and your view of the island paradise would be a little skewed if you never talked to at least one. Bernard is mixed with a lot of animals, though still has a relatively simple looking form, so you ask him what his transformation was like, and how the new… equipment works. “Works great, haha. Actually, I was looking forward to the enhancements at first but when I started to change I started to realize other stuff I didn’t think about beforehand, like bigger equipment- bigger needs. I was getting nervous I would just become a giant set of genitals and all I would be doing is getting off all the time. I was the 86th though; RHE knows its stuff. After the crazy period while transforming things settled back down to normal. I actually don’t have balls at all- my scrotum has two additional giant prostates- so I don’t get flooded with hormones and devolve into a cave man.” As a ‘breeder’ Bernard got to know quite a few different test subjects in a short amount of time, so he had plenty of people to support him when things were chaotic. He certainly could not complain about the sex; both his own body and the bodies of the women were more than well suited for some wild times. Besides that though, the island is a paradise, and all the subjects are great company in or out of bed. RHEI is like its own private world, and the population is small enough that everyone feels important. No one ''has'' to do anything, but everyone has something to do. Bernard told you he had to tell his friend her art was accepted, so he bid farewell for now and headed out. You turn to the second flight of stairs to climb up to the skeleton to see Beryl, the best pen and paper artist on the island. (link:"Beryl 'the gemstone'")[When Beryl needs to get from point A to point B she will usually just walk on all fours, though she is able to stand and walk on two legs as well. Her hips look a bit sharp, being half human and half cow. The hips have a slight boxy shape to them and are quite large, but not so large that they surpass human proportions, and her leg joints still allow bipedal motion. Beryl also still has the round butt cheeks of a human. She has a cow tail though it is unusually long before the tassel; just a slight mutation that is more liked than not. Her arms from the elbow down and the legs from knee down used to be completely bovine- but Dr. Hedgewall later modified her original tincture so that she has the hoof-hand hybridization that Bernard and Tiffany have. Her hoof segments do not really allow her to grip a pencil well, but that was a simple fix; she has textured rubber caps she can slip over her hoof segments that allow them to grip pencils and pens. Thanks to her wide hips she has just barely enough room for a full sized cow udder between her legs. Beryl is one of the test subjects with the expansion gene though- her udder is not always the same size. It is only slightly enlarged now- here in the gallery. It has the capacity to keep growing with the load of milk it is holding back, to the point where it presses too hard on the inside of her legs to allow her to walk! Her breasts altered as well but in a different way. Beryl’s breasts themselves were a pert DD cup, but her areola expanded outward to the point where their angle became equal to the base of her nipples, making them look like chubby cones! Though still very much still breasts, her chest resembled the udder of a goat. Which sort of makes her a much more controlled version of TS67. Beryl wears no clothing- her udder below and her teats above would get irritated if there was cloth rubbing on them all the time. Beryl’s hair is very slightly wavy and to her mid-chest. The hair on the upper part of her head is black however, while the latter half is silver-grey, making the outer and under layers of her hair two different colors. Her skin had cow splotches as well scattered about- and similar to her hair the spots are black but bordered with a blue-grey outline. She has two spots on her long tail, one on the outer facing side of both thighs, her left ankle, three on her upper back that arguably together resemble a heart shape that has been cut into thirds, she has one on her upper neck that almost looks like she is wearing a choker, her right arm from just below the elbow, and one directly over her left eye. The spot on her left eye covered the eye itself and then expanded wider to touch her left cheek bone and temple. The blue-grey rim of the spot encompassed her eyebrow on that side. This helped underline the fact she has heterochromia; her eyes don’t match. One is a pale purple like morganite, the other is blue-green like aquamarine. Both very rare eye colors on their own, and she has both.] Beryl is on the far side of the third floor and you could see her through the giant opening in the roof of the second floor even before you were on the third floor- so you have plenty of time to look at her before you are close enough to reasonably start talking. On the second floor you had a great view of her endowments. You could see the steep underside curvature of her udder as it transitions at the back almost immediately into her still human vulva. Between her round butt cheeks and her udder, her anus and pussy are in a very deep three-way cleft and well hidden. Even with an upward angle toward them you can just barely see a hint of it in the shadow of her udder. At the lower angle you could not see her breasts beyond her udder, but you could see the large cone teats from them. She looked rather precarious, leaning forward on narrow cloven hooves clutching a long handled broom, brushing dust off the giant skeleton. Though the gallery has no official curator- Beryl is the one who started the gallery and had it constructed originally, so she takes the lion’s share of the responsibility. As you approach you comment that it looks like a hard job maintaining such a colossal skeleton. You also notice; now that you are actually on the third floor, that there are many weapons, shields and even some armor on display around the outer parameter that are all hewn from solid obsidian- the very same obsidian that once entombed the dragon. She smiles and rests her broom, leaning on the guard railing with her little hoof-hands hooked over the edge. “Oh you have no idea! There is no floor under it, so all the dust I am sweeping off needs to be swept a second time- it is raining down on the displays on the second floor, waiting to be cleaned up again! When I asked if RHE had anything to put on display I was not expecting items from Moth’s personal collection… especially not an entire dragon.”(if:$Reflex is "N")[ She looks a bit concerned a moment, motioning to her eye with one of her large fingers.] (if:$Reflex is "N")[You sigh and explain the tennis incident again for her. You manage to make her laugh anyway which makes having to explain it again feel a bit more worth it. ]She has a pretty voice, so her laughter is a wonderful sound to hear. You introduce yourself properly, even though she already knows who you must be. You then ask her how she came to be on the island and how her transformation went. “Oh, well my story isn’t anything special. A lot of people come to RHEI because they just couldn’t cut it in the outside world. No real talent, not enough education, or they had all the skills and there just wasn’t any jobs to apply them to. Their job hunt gets desperate enough that they find an ad for human testing and actually sign themselves up, heh.” Beryl explains that her transformation was smooth and felt really good, so she just sort of enjoyed it on her own. She never had a ‘day-one’, but Kalaha was the first to really get to know her and start to introduce her to other test subjects and show her around the island. For the first few days Beryl just kept to herself until her body was fully transformed and she had adjusted to using it. The hardest adjustment was her hooves. When she originally transformed her hands were completely hooves- so she could only really hold things by pinching items between both front limbs. While they are very sturdy; her hooves are also a lot smaller surface area than her feet had been, so Beryl also had to get used to less grip on the ground under her and balancing properly on two legs again. People would occasionally joke about how her tail whips around instinctively whenever she loses balance, trying to find something to grip- but because her tail is unusually long she ends up swatting everything around her. Beryl had resigned herself to a more animal state and an overly simple life- but when Julie got to her and restored her hands, she started striving again to be an artist. “I don’t want to say I gave up really… I was still happy even without my art, but… I could have been happier, y’know? I was in such a hurry to distance myself from the old me- my old life. I failed at the old life so I wanted a clean slate and didn’t quite think it through entirely, heh. Well, everything turned out in the end.” You talk to her across the corner of the hand railing, so while you are facing each other from only a foot away, you both have hand railing to lean on between you. You ask if it is hard to move around with the udder, it looks like it is heavy. Beryl blushed and smiled. “Want to find out?” She slid her hooves off the railing and walked around the corner, thrusting her hips forward a bit to present her udder. You pause a moment, not sure she is serious, but she waits. You crouch down and gingerly touch the underside of her udder with both hands and then pull up. At first all that happens is your hands sink into the surface getting swallowed in the soft tissue, but it gets much denser quickly and you heft the entire udder up. It feels like trying to lift two bags of potatoes- or one very large sack of potatoes. If you were deliberately lifting weights to work out- this would actually be too much weight for a casual workout, and she carries this around ALL the time. Granted a hip can carry weight a lot easier than your hands, which are far out from your center of gravity. You gently put it down and she laughs at how gentle you were with it, saying you could have just dropped it- it doesn’t have that far to fall. “Granted, it also isn’t empty, so some of that weight is milk. That is why I walk on all fours whenever I need to go any sort of distance; it is just easier than pushing my udder back and forth on my thighs to walk upright.” You say that you heard Beryl is the best artist on the island when it comes to pen and paper, but who is the best artist of the other mediums? “Ooof, that is a hard one because by choosing a best, you’re implying the rest are worse. Art is subjective, you know. I was hard on my own artwork for the longest time- it is the artist’s curse. When you look at a drawing you see the drawing and think ‘oh sure, that is cool’. When the artist looks at their drawing they see all the shortcuts they took to get there, all the compromises, all the erased or covered up mistakes. They see what the image was originally supposed to be and how simple it is compared to how vivid it was in their minds. Someone else gets to look at it and enjoy what it currently is- the artist looks at it and can see all the things it is not.” Nancy is apparently an artist to rival Beryl, but she rarely draws. Nancy’s friend Lauren is famous on RHEI for her spray-painted murals, but it was actually Nancy who taught her to spray paint in the first place- the student succeeded the teacher. Mel is the best at digital art- there are two pieces of hers in the gallery that were printed off. Eve is very good at making clay sculptures, but all of her work is small scale- slightly larger than action figures at the largest. The married couple Moby and Nemia are great with clay too- but only do pottery. Xiangxin is an excellent sculptor when it comes to full stone statues- though she takes a very long time to finish a piece, so there is only one in the gallery and one in her own yard. There are tons of test subjects who have donated at least something to the gallery over the years but do not work on it regularly, or are good enough to be of particular note. Everyone on the island is talented at something. Nail was apparently a glass blower outside of the island- but he is still waiting on RHE to construct a kiln for him to do it here so the gallery is eagerly awaiting his work. (if:$Reflex is "N")[ Beryl suddenly took your hand with her hybrid hoof. “Now. Let’s see what my art can’t do for your face.” You ask what she means. “I have a makeup kit in the ground floor storage room, I can fix that shiner you got a bit, so people don’t think your some kind of thug getting into fights, haha.”] After talking with Beryl for a bit, you tell her you must be going. The sun is starting to tip the other way in the sky, and you still have so much of the island to see. Beryl tells you that if you want to learn about as many test subjects as possible- she would suggest the Valley Labs at the very southern end of the valley. It is a more public-friendly version of the RHE labs, run by Julie Hedgewall; a researcher that turned test subject. [[Take her suggestion and go to the Valley Labs->Valley Labs]] [[Head toward Valley Labs, but...->South Road]]

You evade an object you only had chance to glimpse mid-flight only to realize you almost got hit in the face with the tennis ball! You don’t know whether to consider yourself lucky to have dodged it or unfortunate that it came at you in the first place. Because of the fence around the court the only way it could hit you without you entering is if it flew directly at the opening, which is exactly what happened as you were walking up. When Hazel swung her racket, the ball hit the edge and got //deflected// rather than going forward. Hazel bowed and apologized. Lulu shook her head at Hazel and hopped up onto the shoulders of her golem to walk over at a more leisurely pace, while Julia looked on concerned from the bench at the side she watched from. You explain that you will be alright, it only glanced you anyway. (link:"Hazel")[Hazel is the one who fired the ball at your face unintentionally, though in her defense she was up against a powerful opponent and was already struggling to keep up. Her mammaries are in an odd configuration, and because of that; entirely exposed. She wears a poncho that covers most of her upper torso, but she has no breasts- instead her crotch has all of her mams. Starting just below her belly button are two breasts, then below that a goat udder, then below that two of the four segments of a cow udder fused to the bottom of the goat udder. This effectively covered her vulva, so while she wore no clothes down there she was not especially exposed. In a tennis match she has a severe advantage in her odd arms- a full segment longer than any other human. Their backside is shelled in dull green chitin protecting it- and the chitin on her forearm is hinged; it can flip around and re-collect over her hand off the end of her arm, or encase the forearm and go off the elbow. The chitin there is razor sharp and able to be used as a blade- the arms of a praying mantis. She also has the wings of a praying mantis, collected under a thin chitin outer casing that almost looks like a cape behind her. Hazel is able to fly- but not especially well, her wings cannot be directed really so she can only go straight up or down usually. Still- if she needed to get to a flying tennis ball really quickly; her wings could give her a sudden burst of speed. Because of her unusual udders and breasts being between her legs and still perfectly human hips; it is very awkward for her to walk normally. She has two alternatives- her arms are long enough for her to walk on all fours while still in a mostly upright position, or she can hover across the ground using her wings. Her skin is a dark tan and her nipples a shade of brown that almost looked black. Her hair is currently in a long braid of sandy brown, and the braid is tied up into a large bun to make sure it doesn’t get in the way when she is jumping around the court.] (link:"Lulu")[Lulu was up against Hazel… or, it would be more accurate to say that her ''golem'' was. Lulu is an inverted cow half- with most of her bovine features up top rather than down low. Instead of an udder between her legs, she has two massive blushing pink tits capped with teat-like nipples and plump areola of the exact same pink as the breasts they crown. Her feet and legs are perfectly human, but her hands are replaced with cloven hooves. Her head is that of a cow, but the muzzle is only half size and her neck and the size of her head is still human. Lulu still has human hair as well; most of it is black, but her bangs are white. Lulu also has a cow tail flicking around behind her- the lowest of her bovine features. She is wearing sneakers on her feet, yoga pants, and then a cloth band around her chest. Yes, literally just a band. Even with a shirt custom made for her, Lulu cannot wear it when she is doing a lot of moving around because her big teat-like nipples will rub against the inside and chafe. So she ties a long cloth strap around her boobs, running between the twin sets of teats. It does absolutely nothing to cover her- but it holds the giant globes up and… well, more still than they would be without. Because she has no hands to hold or manipulate anything with- she has a golem. Built by Moth herself, the golem is powered by Lulu’s will and looks like a tall, fit human man. His face is emotionless, and his movement works like a ball-joint doll. This is why Lulu is a bit of a demon on the tennis court- she doesn’t actually do anything herself, her golem does. So Hazel wasn’t really up against a fellow hybrid- she is up against an immortal stone giant who never tires. A match against Lulu isn’t about whom wins, it’s about how well you can do and how long you can last before the golem inevitably wins.] (link:"Julia")[Julia is extremely human looking- her body had very few cow traits, though the traits she did have are noticeable from a mile away. Her limbs and body are perfectly human, so she does not even have a tail. She has small cow ears that occasionally flicked her hair around when something made them itch, and she has horns but they are short and perfectly straight- making them more like spikes. Her hair is down to the middle of her neck but only in the front- it gets progressively shorter toward the back, and her bangs are mid-length so her eyebrows were still exposed under them. Exactly half of her head of hair is black, and the other white- this carries over to her eyebrows but their color is backwards. The left side of her hair is black, but her right eyebrow is the black one. Julia is wearing simple sandals to show off her metallic purple nail polish on her toes. Above that she is wearing blue jean cut-off shorts. Her primary bovine feature ensures that the top she wears is the same at all times- because she could not so much as stand up without it. Even with an extremely dense, reinforced spine behind her and Julia constantly working out to make sure her lower back muscles are in tip-top shape; nothing natural-born could possibly carry the amount of weight centered entirely on her chest. As test subject 28 she was still a relatively early subject- they leaned too heavily into bovine specifically on her chest. She doesn’t have breasts; she has ''udders''. Two full sized dairy cow udders. They both lean slightly out toward the sides because there isn’t even enough room on her chest for them to comfortably face forward! Her top is a band of form fitting cloth similar to a corset that wraps around her midriff, and then from the front of that two titanium rods hold her udders up like support pillars! At the end of each rod is a soft, curved mat that cradles the underside of her udders. For this reason- to watch the tennis match properly she was sitting with her elbows on her knees leaned forward with her giga tits hanging between her legs. If she were to sit up the bottom half of her vision would be eclipsed by udders and she would only be able to watch them from the shoulders up! She also had a simple gold band around each of her eight teats- this kept them from flopping around so much but also made them stick out in a lazy arc.] Lulu draped over the shoulder of her golem. “So, quite the intro(text-style:"sway")[ouu]duction for our guest, eh?” She made a bit of an unintentional //moo//- a side effect of her mini muzzle. You tell her it is fine. Hazel is still blushing. “On the up side; I bet you are fully awake now.” It is still early in the day, so the air is still warming up from the night before. There is a stark contrast between areas that are shaded and areas kissed by the rising sun- the difference is even more notable here on the court because the paved ground of the court absorbs the heat from the light. To the east of here there is a lake still entirely in the shadow of the border mountains, and from between the lake and here is a mostly open, giant field. There are only a few scattered trees through the whole field, but they are all very large. Because that is also the direction the sun raises from- the shadow of those few huge trees are stretched all the way to the buildings here, so there is a stripe of shade across half of the court. The side of the court Lulu is playing on is chilly; the side the other two are on- and where you entered from- is quite warm. Julia remained seated, both because it is a hassle heaving herself upright with her twin udders but also because the sun was warming her back pleasantly, but she still introduced herself properly. Since you were here to get to know them and the island better, they each shared their origin story here on the island. Lulu is the earliest of them by a long shot- and one of the first subjects ever. She bragged that she was the one who finished up work on the tincture storage units the main complex uses in its offices to store all the materials for transforming people. It was also because of that though, that she was unintentionally exposed to the contents of one, when a researcher named Morgan tripped over the power cable when they were testing the storage unit. All her transformations are top heavy, and she lost her hands so she was unable to do anything for herself for a bit, before Moth created the golem servant as a solution. Hazel explained her biggest problem was learning how to move again. When her udders started to come in she was tripping on her own flesh- if the soft squishy udder flesh caught on her inner thighs when she was walking juuuust wrong- it would get pinched and she would trip on herself. When the chitin blades grew in it took a while to get used to controlling them- because their muscles are entirely new to her body, so they would trigger by accident sometimes when using her hands. Then when her wings came in; she did not even attempt to use them till she was sure they were fully grown. Even then, learning to balance herself while not touching the ground was hard. Her wings only work straight up and down really- to go forward she needs to lean her entire body forward. So if she accidentally starts to tip in any direction while airborne- she will start flying in that direction. When she first started, she would lift off, hover for a moment, start tipping and then launch herself sideways into the wall of someone’s house. Hazel had to learn to use the antennae that adorn her forehead- she has to sense the flow of air around her and compensate, so a small breeze doesn’t send her spinning out of control. She technically has no real maximum height she can fly at- as long as the air pressure is enough that her wings can beat against it. Hazel rarely ever gets more than a foot or two off the ground, just because the risk of hurting herself if she crashes gets too much. Julia’s problems when transforming are pretty obvious- doesn’t take a genius to guess that with those massive things she was immobilized. Before RHE designed her titanium harness she could not even get out of bed. Julia was almost sure she would end up being marked as an XV subject and sent to the hidden bunker to be looked after. Even when the RHE staff came to help her eat each day, she had to drag herself into a sitting position with the bottoms of her udders resting in her lap. They also had to make a custom milk machine for her because the automilkers in the main facility do not have a configuration for two mammaries with four teats each. She can technically just milk herself, but her udders are rather large so reaching around them isn’t easy- and they work like those of a cow so each side has four reservoirs to drain. Hazel nodded, saying she had the same problem with the automilkers, but does just milk herself by hand since her udders are in a much easier to reach configuration. Not only does she have breasts down there by her udders- the goat and cows have completely different teat proportions, so if the suction cups fit one set; they won’t fit the other. Lulu commented that she just got her golem to hand-milk her and the other two just sighed. Lulu had her golem do literally everything for her- including pleasure her in bed. It is not as though she could milk herself since she has no hands anyway. And automilker would work on her perfectly fine too though- while it may look like a giant slightly-off shaped udder on her chest, the milk production inside is a hybrid of human and cow. Lulu has four large teats, but they only lead into two milk reservoirs, so you only need to milk two of the four to empty her. Of course, milking all four at once would speed up the task. You make a slight adjustment to your pants and Julia notices- giving you a coy smile but not saying anything. There wasn’t an issue down there! You just wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be one. You are surrounded by beautiful hybrid women after all, with boobs like no other. Julia and Lulu’s endowments especially were impossible to ignore, because they are just below their faces and so huge they project off their bodies some distance. After they tell their stories, Lulu and Hazel resume their match and you sit beside Julia to watch. The air blowing in from the east is crisp and carries the subtle scent of wildflowers. Beyond the lake is a forest bordering the mountains edge where all sorts of plant life grow. Julia leaned far forward again to watch properly. Whenever she got excited and cheered, her udders would rock forward and leave their pedestals and then flop back into place before slapping together lightly with a *plap* and then jostling to a stop. Lulu had to tighten the strap holding her own up, because this time she rode on her golem as it played- which was like riding a wild bull. Golems have no intellect of their own, so doing two tasks at once isn’t their thing. It is either tending her or playing the game- it can’t do both, and it was told to play. Being tied together her breasts were unable to swing and bounce all over the place so mostly just flopped in unison- though her long teats were flicking this way and that. You were so mesmerized by the display of bouncing tits that you could not break yourself away from the game long enough to think of any further questions for them. When finally Hazel admitted defeat, you realize how much time you have spent here and say your farewells to the women- you had other destinations and people to meet too! [[Head back and take a look at the market you passed.->Market]] [[Go deeper into the town to check out the Art Gallery.->Art Gallery]](set: $Reflex to "Y")

As your next stop, you head down into the valley to check out the tennis court. It is behind the group of buildings to the left of the main path, at the edge of a field that traits to the east side of the island and a lake. The tennis court has hoops on either end, so if someone takes down the net in the middle; it is also a basketball court. It is in the very north end of the town, so the closest area from where you started at the main complex, so it made the most sense as your first stop in the valley. To get to it you had to pass through a marketplace and slip between some of the homes that enclosed the outer edge of the market. The area here was extremely colorful; even the stones of the walkway were spray-painted. Entire homes were used as murals, and the market was shaded from the sun under a canopy of cross-crossing cloth banners of a rainbow of colors. You could smell hamburger from the market, but they do not sell food in the market. Someone was having a BBQ for lunch out in their yard. You groan a bit, realizing in your enthusiasm for mapping out how to find all the hybrids you wanted to see- you never left yourself any time to eat lunch. It is a good thing Olivia sat down and ate breakfast with you before you set out this morning. With all the leg-work you have to do to look for these people, you will be starving by dinner time. There is a pleasing breeze blowing in from the east, carrying the faintest smell of flowers from the forest bordering the mountain foot on the east edge. The court is caged up in a mesh fence as high as the homes nearby to make sure the balls stay in the court. You see three test subjects there- one is on the sidelines cheering on the only male present, who is competing with another female hybrid. (link:"Test Subject 02: Nancy 'Libra'")[TS02 is named Nancy- which is only slightly confusing since there are two test subjects with that name. The other is Nancy Dewrain; an XV subject, but everyone uses her last name to distinguish the two. This Nancy has an entirely bovine head and neck except for the human hair still on her head. Her body was fully human from the looks of it, and clothed in a white T-shirt and short black skirt. Swinging like a pendulum under that short skirt however was a neon pink wrecking ball of an udder. Every time she moved, it was set into motion and refused to stop on its own- so her bovine tail would curve forward and nudge the back of the udder to stop it from moving. The opening in the fence is behind the male test subject, so it was Nancy who signaled to him to stop because you had arrived. When they stopped their match, Nancy smiled at you and started to wander over, and her body shifted as she moved. By the time she got to the side of the net, she shuffled her sandals off her feet because they were rapidly lengthening as the ends compressed and devolved into cloven hooves! At the same time, her neck shrank in length and girth as did her head, becoming rapidly more human. She kept only the ears of a bovine above her shoulders now- to make talking easier. You see; Nancy has the ability to control her transformation and shift it at will, but her body attempts to always keep a balance of 50% human and bovine together. So in order to make part of herself more human, she has to make another part more cow. She can force the transformation to go off-balance, but it will inevitably slingshot itself back the other way afterwards as a consequence. Her feet transforming sounded like it might hurt, but it did not. Because the surface skin on the feet is relatively thin with no fat padding it, the bones are closer to the surface so when they shift- it is much easier to hear them. When her feet simplify, the bones fuse together to get rid of the excess joints no longer needed, but doing so shoves the cartilage out of the way and dissolves it- creating a sound much like the loud popping of a knuckle. But a human foot actually has a LOT of bones in it, so that sound happens in rapid fire as it stretches and mashes together; dull, hollow sounding pops. There is so many sensations going on at once when it happens though that her brain can’t even focus on just that, and it does not actually hurt at all. When you ask her about it, she compares it to a stress ball- you squish one side, the other is going to bloat out. Unless she tries to fight it, her transformation is always 1:1, as soon as she wills one part to change another attempts to go the other way, so it is like there is a mass of cow floating in her and she is just shoving it around to however is most convenient at the time.] (link:"Test Subjects 11&12: Esther & Jacob")[TS11 and TS12 are husband and wife- they came to the island as a couple, soo, you could technically consider Jacob a breeder- but he is exclusively for Esther only. Their transformations were very similar to each other, except Jacob is horse and Esther is cow. They both have completely transformed limbs- Jacob has the tennis racket tied to his right hoof because he does not have any hands to actually hold it with. Their hips are not changed however- so they can both stand upright. They both have tails- a long flowing horse tail for Jacob and a thin tasseled tail for Esther. They also have fur on their transformed limbs, but it stops at their bodies where the torso turns totally human. Esther’s skull is still somewhat human shaped and she still has long pale brown human hair. She has a muzzle but it does not extend as far as a full bovine face. As one of the earlier subjects, Esther was leaned hard into the lactation aspect. There is a bench to sit on, on either side of the middle court here- but she is leaned over with her butt against the fence instead because she would be unable to sit properly. Her breasts are absolutely colossal- so big in fact that the front half of her body is resting on them! Her boobs are sandwiched between her body and the ground, squished extra wide by the weight. She is wearing a long navy blue skirt, but obviously no top in the world would fit her upper body. She has teat-like nipples, but they sized up at the same rate as her breasts, so even they were impossibly huge. Even considering how squishy they are- the teats are too thick to hold in a single hand, and more than long enough to overfill someone’s entire mouth. Esther cannot even stand fully for more than a couple of seconds- requiring her husband’s inhuman strength to help lift them, or to just move in bursts. If Esther tried to sit on the bench; because it is so low to the ground, her tits would rest on the ground too quickly in front of her and obscure her view of anything else. Unlike her, Jacob’s head and neck is fully equine- dark brown fur but black mane. They are both able to speak, but their voices are distorted and sometimes difficult to understand- it is halfway between animal and human. Jacob is wearing an extremely form fit black long-sleeved that can barely contain his muscle mass, and a tabard on his lower body so when he dashes from side to side you can still see his massive nuts swing out from behind the cloth. He has an equine sheath and full sized horse dong- but his nuts are double-big, even by horse standards.] They know why you are here already, and welcome you to the island. You ask them about their lives here and they each share their story of how they came to be. Esther and Jacob were bankrupt in the outside world- their home town was destroyed thanks to a series of unfortunate natural disasters and what appeared to be a disaster relief effort turned out to be a scam to prey on the weak, leaving them unable to recover their losses. With nothing left in the outside world, they came here. Since they came as a pair, they had complementary transformations. Jacob was built to be ultra-strong and be able to have sex repeatedly to keep Esther happy and stimulated. Esther was built to lactate, a LOT. Since she has Jacob to help her all the time, RHE did not have to worry so much about going a bit overboard on her tits. Esther laughs and says that she does not mind it one bit- like she is doing now; they make great mobile pillows. Whenever she wants to rest she just flops over onto her boobs and wedges her chin into the cleavage- although if she fully lays on them she will need Jacob to stand back up. Nancy explains that she came to the island as a pair too- but the other is another woman, her best friend, and they never told RHE at first that they were together. Because they joined after a slight delay to hide the fact they came together; there ended up being a test subject between them. Nancy was the first solo test subject RHE was supposed to have, but TS03 ended up transforming before her because she had stupidly forgotten to take off an earring that also happened to be a ward stone- it prevented magical effects and the tincture is magically based. There were several days between when she got injected to when she actually started changing, so RHE had already considered the test a wash and released her and her friend Lauren back into the outside world. Lauren and Nancy transformed in the outside world, and after nearly getting caught by several random onlookers- Zero showed up to save the day and bring them back to RHEI. Like Jacob and Esther, Nancy joined the program because she had no money to survive in the outside world. It was not disaster that caused her situation though, just terrible luck finding a job after her original career fell through. You mention the market you passed through on the way here looking interesting, and they tell you there is a huge library and art gallery as well on the island- all set up by the residents, not RHE. Apparently one of the island’s artists made a statuette for Jacob and Esther- it is made to mimic the famous statue of the Titan Atlas holding the world on his shoulders- except it is of Jacob holding Esther’s breasts on his shoulders! Jacob laughed and told you if you like it; you should ask RHE to sign you up. You smile and tell him they are not looking for any more test subjects- that is why they have enough free time to allow something like a guest tour to happen in the first place. Esther just randomly blurts out ‘do you want a taste’? You blush brightly and glance at Jacob assuming she must be joking, but no, she really is offering a taste of her milk. You seize up a bit in nervousness and embarrassment, but everyone else is super chill about it. This sort of thing is normal on RHEI- a lot of women produce a lot of milk, and let their endowments hang free on display. At this point it would be more embarrassing to not accept, so you walk in front of her and kneel down. Esther places both hands on top of her left boob and pulls back on the skin, causing the areola and nipple to rise up to your face. You wonder if you can even fit it in your mouth in the first place. Nancy casually half-sits on the right breast beside you. “Careful not to squeeze or pull too hard- it will go off in your hands and hose you down.” Esther laughed. “I am noout that fuuull.” You take it into your hand and notice your fingers do not close all the way around it- there is a gap between your index and thumb still. It is very warm and you place it in your mouth quickly, at first afraid your teeth might scrape against it, but it is very squishy and can conform to much smaller spaces. You suck once with no effect, then again and the surface of the nipple becomes moist. The third time you suck the huge teat-nipple starts sweating sweet, hot milk! Esther’s milk is still entirely human in spite of her bovine traits greatly aiding in its production, so it is very thin and sweet compared to a cow’s milk. While you suck you have a wall of smooth flesh glistening in the sun to look at. With your head up against it you can’t even see Esther’s face over the curvature of the boob! It tastes good, but you also do not want to be greedy and don’t really know how much to take, so only a few sucks in you pull off. You are almost about to lick the last bit off the end when you remember where you are, and use your thumb to brush the last drop off and then suck it off your thumb as you stand. Esther renews her smile. “Guuud, eh? Depending on their hybrids; there are a lot of different tasting milks oooun the island. Aloe even makes a hooooney-milk blend.” Nancy glanced at the big floppy teat and gave a nose laugh. “Those things are almost unmanageably big though. Your nipples are so big you could use them as dildos…” Esther rolled her eyes. “They don’t get hard.” Jacob hummed. “Well, the-eihehe-y do when they get cold. Put an ice cube up to the-hehe-m and they get shorter and stiff enough to stand up.” He looked at you with a smile. “Then you can twack ‘em like door-stoppers, haha.” After talking with you, Nancy and Jacob resume their match and you sit on the bench beside Esther. Her right breast is so close to your arm you can feel the warmth coming off it! When you first arrived the sun was rising in the east, casting the shadows of the large and scattered trees of the field beyond across the entire area. The position of the sun made itself aware to you by the increasing heat though- and the round surface of Esther’s boobs started to glisten even more from perspiration. The higher the sun got, the shorter those shadows became and the actual trees were some distance away- so it did not take long for the shade to disappear. The paved ground of the court attracted the heat of the sunlight and made this a particularly hot spot to be in. By the time the two finished their match you realized the sun was starting to dip the other way! It was getting late- you have to get going! You want to find at least a few more test subjects before you have to return to the main complex for dinner! You stand up rather abruptly as you realize the time and say a quick farewell to the three of them as you hustle to the next location! [[TS44, TS44-2, TS103 / Mint, Pepper, Aloe->Aloe's Home]] [[TS24, TS33 / Suzy, Amber Tahltry->North Pool]]

You travel south, keeping close to the backs of the long row of buildings to use them as a guide. The huge mountains that frame the island dipped further toward the valley in the middle- on the east side of RHEI. The mountain range there was hollow apparently- housing a hidden area known as The Grotto, which was home to many natural hot springs as well as the final resting place for The Ark- the monstrously huge ship that originally brought the building materials to establish the island. Forest bordered the mountains nearly all the way around the island but got much denser in specific nooks- here it was not particularly wide. Your destination is between the rest of the homes and the thin strip of forest at the foot of the mountain. You pause at a good sized farm plot behind one of the houses- this was a landmark you were looking for. The valley farm is owned by Ariadne- TS68. Looking to your left from the back of the farm plot, you see a home a bit off by itself; this is your destination, the home of TS103: Aloe. While idle a moment by the farm though, you hear quiet whispering and then a giggle. You do not see anyone, but you see the stalks of corn shuffling about. You are being watched by someone. You smile and approach, asking who is there but just hear another giggle and the maize shuffles around as the test subject dashes away. You are about to chase them but a brief ring can be heard from a bell. It is a dull, not sharp ring- the sound of a cow bell from behind you. You turn around just fast enough to see a tiny hand almost reach you, then pull back into the maize and dash away. You almost are about to walk into the maize after then but feel a small hand tap your shoulder from behind, and as you turn she dashes away back into cover- but you catch enough of her form to identify your prankster. TS44- you seen a long ropy tail and big ears. That is also why she is quick enough to appear to be in two places at the same time- there is more than one. There is TS44 and TS44-2; Mint and Pepper are identical twin sisters. You glance at Aloe’s place and remember you do not have a lot of time. You do want to play along and catch at least one of the 44s, but you might have to let them get away with their little prank if you cannot catch them quickly. |Options>[(t8n:"slide-left")+(link:"Only one of them has a clacker in their bell, you decide to hunt Pepper because you can hear whenever she moves.")[(replace: ?Options)[You try to track Pepper by the sound of her bell, but it does not work quite how you planned. Pepper is deliberately using the sound to lure your attention away so Mint can tap you on the back and then dash off before you can turn around. Mint won’t allow you time to get to Pepper, and Pepper keeps your attention off of Mint! They are twin sisters- they are experts at teamwork. After several minutes of this you sigh and tell them they win. You cannot afford enough time to chase down the cow-mice.(set: $Tag to false) [[Onward...->Aloe's Home 2]]]] (t8n:"slide-right")+(link:"Mint is the more energetic of the two- she will try to taunt you the most, bait her into coming up to you.")[(replace: ?Options)[You decide to try and use Mint's energy against her. You deliberately turn your back to the most open space available on the farm plot and then pretend to be listening for the bell sound. You are tensed up; your senses on high alert waiting for the slightest sensation. The moment Mint taps you, you spin around- and because you had your back to the most open area, she has the most distance to travel before being able to get back into cover! You scramble after her and trip in your frantic movement, but as you go down you manage to grab onto her very long tail- stopping her in her tracks! You caught 44-2!(set: $Tag to true) [[Onward...->Aloe's Home 2]]]] (t8n:"slide-left")+(link:"The farm is not that big and it is not all corn; just herd them into a corner with your movements and they will run out of places to hide.")[(replace: ?Options)[You decide to try and use the size of the farm to simply force them into the open. The twins are smart enough not to fall for that. When they run out of room near you to strike without getting caught- they just don’t strike. You’ve already been tagged, they are on the defensive now. If you cannot get them; they win, so all they have to do is remain in the places where they can continue to hide. You are running out of time- they are not.(set: $Tag to false) [[Onward...->Aloe's Home 2]]]]]

The shadows started to come out again as the sun became angled; high noon come and gone now. You did not want to waste time wandering around so you made sure to pick targets relatively close together to minimize the time spent between. This target proved to be even easier to find however. Her house is in the lowest end of the middle section of town but it turns out she isn’t home right now. You slipped between buildings bordering the south edge of the market area on your way toward the house of TS33 but you hear someone shout and look over and just so happen to see Amber right there! Rather than you needing to go down to her home, she came up north to use the pool by the market! All you seen of the one who yelled is the pillar of water displaced by her cannon-balling into the pool. You approach the pool and give a half-wave as Amber spots you almost immediately. As a normal, dressed human- you stand out like a sore thumb on the island. The other girl at the pool popped her head back out and pulled herself up on the side of the pool, whipping her head back to throw a huge arc of water into the air from her hair. TS24; Suzy, the sheep. (link:"Suzy")[Suzy’s body was a petite 4.5 feet tall, which helped make her mammaries all the more impressive. On her chest she had a pair of A cup bumps, capped with nipple and areola nearly the exact same tone as her normal skin, making them rather stealth. Her skin is a mocha tone, which helps her hair stand out because it is a much lighter tone- a soft cream color. Much darker than the rest on the other hand is her sheep udder- each segment the size of a watermelon and the skin black. The chubby short teats leaned outward to either side a bit rather than hang forward. Suzy is wearing a huge white t-shirt, but she always wears it for every situation so the bottom of the shirt had a few small holes and was starting to go thread-bear. It is also soaking wet right now so you can basically see right through it. Her horns formed titanic, tight spirals on either side of her head and were heavily textured on the surface. Suzy’s pale brown eyes had large rectangular pupils like a sheep. She technically has a tail too but you would have to look real hard to even see it- sheep just have a tiny little nub of a tail and Suzy’s doesn’t even have any fur on it, so it looks like her tail bone is just unusually long opposed to being an actual tail. You cannot see them right now because they are underwater- but her legs end in little cloven hooves. Normally her hair would form a massive mane on her head, but she just emerged from the water- so her extremely tight cream colored curls have been yanked down by the weight of the water they quickly absorbed, making her head weigh a ton. The curls have been pulled into massive spirals, turning her mane of curls into a wall of ringlets!] (link:"Amber")[Amber is looking rather tranquil, sitting in the place she is most often found in- the pool’s edge, with her udder bobbing in the water in front of her. She has a figure you could spot from a mile away- Amber’s udder is absolutely colossal. The overall mass of her udders is greater than the entire rest of her body. If she were to stand with the udders resting on the ground in front of her, the top of the udders would be level with her chest! If you were to drink from her, you would only get the very end of each teat in your mouth, because they grew with everything else, so the teats were thicker than your arm and longer than your hand. Appropriately she is referred to within RHE often as the ‘Omega Udder’. That is what she is best known for- which is a shame, because even if you completely ignore the monolithic udders; she is absolutely gorgeous. She speaks with a slight southern belle accent and has a head of golden blond ringlets, and her eyes are a soft olive green. She has wide hips, a long horse tail with hair identical to on her head- ringlets and all- and her legs end in horse hooves. She has tight six-pack abs and well defined leg muscles, leading up into large but taught, round butt cheeks. Hidden between udder in the front and tail behind; her vulva and anus are completely those of a horses. As you can imagine from having to deal with an udder that big- she is extraordinarily strong. When she walks around her house she has to walk backwards to drag her udders with her. When she goes out; Amber requires a modified dolly lift to sit her udder on and help it roll around. That is why her favorite place is here at the pool- her udders float, and so it is weightless here. Her skin is tanned a light golden. Amber’s human breasts look to be D cup and quite pert. She has another pair of breasts in her crotch that are completely black- the coloration and position of equine teats, but the structure of human breasts. The lower breasts are almost never seen, since her giga cow udders completely eclipse them. With a form like hers, clothing has little purpose, so she never wears any.] You are about to introduce yourself but Amber cuts you off, smiling and telling you that everyone already knows. All test subjects were told you were coming ahead of time. You knew that and just wanted to be polite, but Amber isn’t one for formalities. Suzy is quick to fully pull herself up onto the ground and dash up to you to ask you questions about the outside world! When she ran up to you her udder went into a wobbling fit- it is quite taught so it bounces rather than flops, but eclipses her legs almost to the knee, so when she walks her thighs shove it forward over and over. You answer her rapid-fire questions as best you can and then ask some of your own. You ask her and Amber how they came to be on the island, and how their lives changed. Suzy tells you she was trying to look into permanent magical solutions to her size. She used to be abnormally tall for a woman, and absolutely hated it. Finding good looking women’s clothing in sizes most women didn’t have was a pain in the ass. Finding a date when she is taller than half the guys? Pain in the ass. Magic only lasts as long as the mana that powers it, so a permanent solution did not really exist- at least till her search found RHE’s ad for test subjects. She came here to get a new, smaller body- and she got it. Amber tells you she came here simply because she was not particularly good at anything else. She was having a hard time getting a job, her parents were nagging her about never having a //boyfriend//, and as a good looking woman she felt like she was always looked at by men as prey. It was like the outside world was trying to force her into marrying a //‘big strong man’// and just living off his income for the rest of her days. The mere thought of it makes her (text-style:"fidget")[gag]. She leans forward and pats the surface of her udders, making it bob in the water. “This was sort of my fault- RHE did not originally intend for this. It was originally the size of a basketball if I remember correctly, when it stopped growing. I like the feeling of the weight in my lap though, and feeling it jostling around when I walked… I wanted more, they gave me more. They recommended I only take half of the second dose they gave me.” She chuckled. “Of //course// I drank the whole thing immediately. But it also did not go as planned- the second dose piggybacked on the first and instead of adding, it was more like ''multiplying''.” Suzy crossed her arms and nodded. “It is because the first dose had to grow the udders from scratch and the second dose only needed to make it //''bigger''//.” Amber huffed. “Oh, don’t try to sound all smart in front of the guest.” She looked at you again. “I just got here… guess I slept in. But it is good another set of hands happened to show up.” With a grin she pointed a dainty finger toward a table nearby with a bottle of suntan lotion on it. “I have a lot of surface to cover, you see. Help a woman out, sug’?” At first you think she is teasing you and going to call you out the second you made a move for the bottle, but Suzy trotted over to it and grabbed it for you- apparently also going to help. Suzy called Amber’s shoulders and back- that means you get the breasts and udder? The bottle is placed beside Amber for either of you to take some and Suzy casually walked behind Amber and got to work. The click of Suzy’s hooves against the stone ground was adorable. When you squirt some of the lotion into your palm, Amber told Suzy to scoot back a bit. Amber grabbed the top of her udders from either side and with a mighty heave managed to yank it out of the water! It was still half over the edge- but the firmness of its structure kept it from sloshing back into the water. You are nervous as you touch down onto the soft flesh, and her smile tells you that she knew you would be- she is teasing you, but at least the act itself wasn’t a prank. The skin tightens slightly at your touch as the lotion is cool- but matches the surface temperature of her udders quickly enough. It is a bovine udder, so it is divided into four sections by two ribs of muscle; one vertical and one horizontal. This meant the skin was tightest in the crevice, and got looser and more wobbly the further out from those you got before tightening back up toward the other rib. Between the skin already being extremely soft and the lotion in your hand; it felt like you were touching the smoothest surface in the universe. The weight of the body of the udders pulled the skin toward her torso tighter, so it is up there that you could not only feel but outwardly see the soft curvature of milk veins as thick as your thumb- dedicated to delivering the materials to swell her teats. The skin is quite elastic, so while it is extremely soft, if you press into the surface it doesn’t take too long for the flesh to start resisting your push. Amber explains that she ultimately ended up being a test of muscle structuring. Not only are her muscles enhanced with equine genes to help her heave around such immense weight but the muscle layering of the inner udder is also enhanced to keep its shape in spite of its gargantuan size. Aside from the muscle ribs, there is a fine, thin mesh of muscle that encompasses the entire inner level; more similar to the structure of a breast than an udder, but taken even a step further than that. After a few moments of watching you squirm, Amber continued talking, though in a much softer tone. “It is crazy, I know. But as inconvenient as it all is, I still love the damn thing. It is so large I can roll forward onto it and sleep on it like a pre-heated beanbag chair, even though it’s connected to my crotch, haha. And sometimes I deliberately hold off milking, because it feels good to be (text-style:"sway")[//sooooo//] ''full''.” You say that you are surprised her body can handle the circulation of blood to such a large extremity. “Oh, I don’t have a human heart. My heart is fully equine, giving it the strength to handle something like this- since my actual body isn’t nearly as big as a horse.” Now she blushed. “That is the part that bothered me the most… my privates changing. They needed to give me the strength of a horse, and I got an extra pair of boobs out of it, but I wasn’t expecting to get a horse pussy too. Eh well, I got used to it. At least my privates didn’t get shuffled like Lilac. She was my day one, you know.” You ask what a ‘day one’ is. Suzy pipes up to answer this one. “Everyone on the island helps each other out. When a new person comes, the subjects who came before will offer to help them out with their changes- because they went through the same thing already. Plus, it is fun to experience the changes with them and see how the new body turns out. The person who helped you first, and became your first friend on the island is called your ‘day one’.” She paused in thought for a long moment. “I don’t really have a day one I don’t think. I guess technically Kalie and Jun- she offered to help me with anything or to talk if I needed on my first day. I never really took her up on the offer, though. I was pretty shy when I first arrived and sort of spent the first like… week and a half by myself just exploring my new body.” She blushed. “Not that kind of exploring!” She lowered her voice. “Not (text-style:"shudder")[JUST] that kind of exploring…” Your hand started to slip around the curvature of Amber’s udder and she spoke up again. “You don’t have to be too thorough- half of it will be in water and immune to the sun. The sun reflects off the water surface, so as long as the part still above- getting hit twice with sunlight in either direction- is covered, it will be fine.” She loosely cupped either of her breasts from the sides. “You can do these though if you want~.” Suzy hovered her own hands over Amber’s shoulders, waiting to grab them if you don’t. You tell Amber she doesn’t have to go out of her way for your sake- you are not here just to grab hold of some tit flesh, you are here to get to see the women behind all that flesh. Suzy flops forward into Amber’s back and immediately reaches around to grab her tits. Amber furrows her brows at her. “They didn’t say ‘no’ yet, you fiend.” She looked back at you. “Well, that is sweet. You don’t have to hold back though, either. Nudity and… exploration-“ She motioned to Suzy going to town on her boobs. “-is normal on the island. Here~.” Amber scoot her rump forward and her udder rolled forward and plunked down into the water again, bobbing back up from buoyancy. She pats its surface, offering it as a seat. You were embarrassed and had no idea how to sit on someone’s tits, but she insisted, grabbing your hand and pulling you closer before you could back away. She got you to face her and then straddle the pulled-taught connective part of the udder where it is most narrow and then sit back onto the body of it. It sunk deeper into the pool water, but not far enough that you get wet. You still have the bottoms of your feet on the edge of the pool, but your weight is rested on the soft tender flesh of the udder, bobbing in the pool water! Suzy is already done putting the lotion onto her boobs, yet continued to squeeze and manipulate them for a minute or two just for the fun of it, giving you a show of flopping boobs as a side effect. Amber lifts her legs up and hooks her horse hooves around your legs, pulling your legs straighter to match hers and then forcefully shoved backward into Suzy, knocking her down. When Amber lay fully back- her head lined up with Suzy’s sheep udder and plopped into its single crevice as a pillow, pinning the smaller woman to the ground behind her. “Sublime comfort, welcome to paradise outsider~.” (t8n-time:1.8s)[[Dose off...->Esther's End]]

(if:$Tag is false)[Having run out of time, you tell them they win. You must continue to Aloe’s house to meet her before the day is done. It is getting pretty late in the afternoon so you are actually starting to worry if you will be interrupting something at this point. Aloe may be preparing to make dinner by now, depending on what she is having. You still feel eyes on you as you walk down the path though, and after a ways you turn around and see the twins behind you about two paces! You ask them why they are still following you. “We just happen to be going this way.” “We already beat you, so no need to rub it in.” “Yea… you’re kinda bad at tag.” “I just said no need to rub it in!” “I am just giving them some advice!” “Telling them they’re bad isn’t a tip!” You sigh. They seem to also be going to Aloe’s to visit- your destinations are the same. The twins just dashed onto the farm for cover to prank you.](if:$Tag is true)[Once Mint is caught, Pepper dashes over as well. “You are pretty good at tag!” “Yea, figured you would be tired out by now from touring the island.” “Oh, were you looking for Ariadne?” “Oh yea, what were you doing back here in the first place?” You explain that you were on the way to Aloe’s house to see her- you only paused here because you heard the twins plotting something. “Haha, that is ironic!” “Funny coincidence you mean. That is the improper use of the word ‘irony’.” “That is ironic.” “…yes, that would be ironic.” Pepper let out a short snort of laughter. “Anyway- we were going to see Aloe as well.” “We only dipped into the farm for cover when we saw you coming!” “We knew you were Olivia’s friend right away.” “Yea- we may not have seen every test subject on the whole island ourselves but a regular human def’ stands out.”] The twins might be mistaken for children when viewed from behind from their tiny size. Both stand only four feet tall. In spite of their tiny size though, both are adorned with four D cup breasts, which look especially big on such small chests. They actually have six nipples, but the last two have no breasts and cannot lactate as they are not properly developed, so they are almost entirely hidden in the shadow of the second pair of breasts. Neither sister wore any clothing- occasionally they wear sandals since their feet are not padded nor hooved, but today they were just barefoot. Their toes are a bit unusually long, and like their fingers are tipped with very small but sharp, translucent claws. Their hands and feet are also a brighter shade of pink than their skin. They have a tasseled tail like a cow, but it is much longer than it should be and thicker at the base, being also mixed with a mouse tail. Whenever Mint and Pepper stand close enough to each other, their tails will naturally seek out the other and twine their tips together. Their teeth are slightly bucked- when their mouths are closed you can still see the very tips of the teeth. Their ears are very large and very round; being mostly rodent- but the bovine influence still gave them a slight point at the very apex. The twins are part human, part mouse, and part cow. Their bangs are just long enough to eclipse most of their eyebrows, and the rest of their hair is straight cut at chin length. Pepper has a red streak dyed in her hair, Mint has a green streak and their hair is base brown otherwise. Aloe’s home is very unassuming. It looks just like the standard homes in the valley, and it is behind the other homes on this side, so while it is technically part of the central area it is off on its own- because it is also the last one constructed. It did not take her long to answer her door once you knocked- she was apparently already waiting for the twins to arrive and invited you all inside. Aloe has spent the least amount of time on the island, so today was the first time her milk had been processed into cheese, and the twins were going to be the taste-testers. Since Pepper and Mint are half mouse, they are considered experts when it comes to cheese. The twins had to get on their tip-toes to properly see across the table all the snack dishes Aloe had set out, including sweets for dessert, since she always has a ton of sweets in her home due to her dietary restrictions. The cheese was not yellow, white, nor orange… her cheese is golden. Freakishly sweet tasting, because Aloe’s milk is part honey. (link:"Aloe")[Aloe is a very unusual mix of cow and honey bee- a beevine! Her legs are structured like an ungulate, but from the knee down they are encased in a chitin shell which makes her joints sort of look like those of an action figure- segmented between the plates. Rather than a hoof, the ends of her legs have two large toes, entirely encased in chitin, ending in claw-like points. Her crotch is actually blank- her genitals re-routed as well as all the former muscles of her pelvic floor to create a massive bug-butt behind her covered in chitin that felt a bit like hard rubber- it is not so hard that it is rigid, and is quite bouncy. Aloe has a stinger on the end, but it retracts when she is not tensed up so there is no risk of hooking it on anything by accident. The bovine and bee coloration both influenced her huge abdomen; giving it black and white stripes. Even if her pussy was where it normally would be, it would be covered- not by clothing, but by her cow udder. The breasts on her chest were a good size on their own, but her udder was full dairy cow grade. She had full cow ears as well- each about the size of an entire hand from wrist to fingertip, and the insides are powder pink. On her forehead are not horns, but instead antennae that extend her perception. Unlike the twins Aloe wore a white long-sleeved shirt; the body of the shirt made very baggy to fit over her large breasts and still drape loosely over most of her torso. Her very unique lower body however made it impossible to fit into any conventional clothing, so she wore nothing down below. She is of Gaelic descent, so her complexion is pale and spotted with freckles. Her hair is wildly wavy and blood red, and her iris emerald green.] You wanted to see Aloe especially- not only is she the last test subject, but she returned from death as well. Plagued by breast cancer, she has no breasts at all when she first arrived on the island. The transformation gave her back her breasts, and then cancer took her life- only to have it restored by Desfernus, God of Fury. The sorceress paragon Moth herself summoned Desfernus back into this world briefly. While the twins tasted the cheese, you ask Aloe what it was like to have died and come back. “Heh, a question I got asked a lot. Sorry but tha’ answer in’nt a good one. It felt like nothin’. Like a deep sleep ya wake up from an’ don’t remember a damn thin’ o’ your dreams durin’ it.” You suppose it makes sense- the soul is the bioelectrical energy the body uses to operate on, and for a short time hers completely dispersed from her physical body. Even if it was still ‘together’ enough to comprehend what was happening to it while outside of the physical host- any recollection of that would have been lost when it was re-condensed and shoved back in. Aloe looked to the twins. “So? How issit?” The two looked at each other and then shrugged. “It isn’t bad… but…” “It is unexpected.” “Yea, like if you drank from a jug thinking it had apple juice in it, but it had orange juice instead.” “It isn’t that you don’t like orange juice, but you’d probably gag at first because it isn’t at all what you expected.” “It is super sweet like a dessert, but it still looks, feels, and has a flavor similar to regular cheese.” You take a small cube of the golden cheese and taste it yourself. They are right, it is very sweet. It has a very rich flavor- the taste of honey is definitely still there even in its cheese form. It clings to your mouth as well- the cheese is dense and very creamy. The first thing out of your mouth after tasting it is that it would probably make a great ice cream, and everyone’s eyes lit up at that! It is already pre-sweetened, it would make the perfect ice cream flavor! After eating all the snacks, you all sit around the table to talk. Aloe explains her choice to mix with bee to take her milk a sweet treat and also mildly medicinal. Aloe’s milk is the best and most immediate cure for a sore throat- TS03 Lorelei often drinks Aloe’s milk to keep her throat in tip-top condition. Her milk is also a perfect addition to tea or coffee. Mint and Pepper explain they came to RHE at first because they were looking into transformative magic, or cheaper alternatives. They wanted to alter their bodies to be more womanly and since they are perfect twins, they wanted to both do it to remain identical. Most of the transformation magic they found was too expensive for them to afford, so they continued to look in increasingly more obscure places and eventually found the ad RHE had out for test subjects, floating around on the deepweb. Time goes by without anyone’s notice, but as Aloe is enthusiastically rambling about random locations she likes on the island, the twins’ heads *clunk* together as they lean into one another. Both look pretty drowsy, and its then you look out the window and notice it’s completely dark out! You ask Aloe what time it is and she tells you it is early evening already! Oh no- you are supposed to eat dinner tonight with Olivia before your trip back home! The twins say they better get going home too- they are ready to drowse off in their chairs. They are very much either ‘on’ or ‘off’ people- completely full of energy until they run out, then they are utterly dead in the water. You all say goodnight to Aloe and thank her for the snacks and putting up with your questions. You walk back into the main road with the twins. They are few and far between so you did not even notice them in the daytime, but in the evening there are tall lamps here and there loosely following the shale stone pathways. They are meant to act just as a guide between locations- the light isn’t nearly frequent enough to fully illuminate much. It is weird seeing the twins actually quiet and calm for once, but they lean on each other like they are both ready to fall over even while walking. Crickets sing in the dark to make up for the lack of conversation and occasionally you hear an owl hoot. You see a dark figure leap from rooftop to rooftop and recall there being a test subject that is part bat. There are so many unique people on this island… you only wish you had more time. You split up from the twins when you get to the middle of the main path and say your goodbyes. The twins shuffle off toward their home and you pick up the pace and jog the rest of the way back to the main facility to see if Olivia hasn’t eaten dinner without you. (t8n-time:1.8s)[[Hustle!->Beevine End]]

With the light of the day gone behind the horizon now, you return to Olivia for a nice dinner to end the day. The ride home will be no shorter than it was coming out here, so it will be tomorrow; first thing in the morning. You have a lot more to think about on your way back though. I seen you looking over Kaila. Surprised you didn't tent your pants- you got that thing duct taped to your leg?" You just roll your eyes at her. She is an entirely unique body, of course you are going to examine it to some extent, sexual or not. You say you feel a bit bad for Kaila. Having giant tits like that must feel good, but the immobility sucks. It is like a comfortable bed- doesn't matter how comfy it is, you don't think you would want to live with the bed perminantly tied to your body. Olivia took a drink of her water. "You know, there is an old Russian saying //'the same boiling water that softens a potato will harden an egg'//. People deal with things differently so something that seems aweful to one person might be fine with another. Kaila ''did'' have a hard time at first, but she learned to adapt long ago now. RHE makes sure she lives her best life, and she is happy. And that is in no small part thanks to the community that has grown here on the island. Io invited her over for dinner before she knew we were coming over. Kaila is an XV so she is in the bunker most of the time- Io goes out of her way to use her taurid form to carry Kaila out, so she can visit the palace. (if:(history: where its name contains "Janette")'s length >= 1)[You recount your encounter with Janette as well- particularly memorable. You could tell by how she was looking at you that she was listening. You were not just talking at her- you were walking ''to'' her. It was a surprise to see a test subject turned so far toward a beast, but she was certainly happy. Her place in the forest was so tranquil and comfortable. There is no way you could find a place like that to calm and re-center yourself back home. Olivia nods. “There are two women like that, actually. Janette has the north west woods to herself- but in the north east there is also the almost fully equine Danalah- TS87. With Janette the imbalance of animal versus human happened because of the dosage. She had the correct dose of either animal, but //''together''// it was too much, smothering her human self. She has always been a source of conversation among the islanders, but everyone agrees that she is happy, so the details aren’t so important.” You ask about Danalah now- if Janette was a dosage problem, how did RHE repeat the same mistake with another? “Oh no, Danalah was not a dosage issue. A failed test. RHE tried to basically create a were-mare. She was supposed to be triggered by lunar radiation, so her transformation would not trigger till within a threshold- a full moon, but would not trigger in sunlight. Since, technically sunlight and moonlight is the same thing, it is just that moonlight is refracted sunlight. Anyway, the trigger worked- the reversal did not. She remained human till the first full moon, then became 100% horse, then became slightly human again and... became stuck in that almost horse state permanently.” When you mention the root shelter Janette had, Olivia pipes up again. “Oh, that is actually made by a test subject too! Ambrosia; TS55-XV. The only XV subject that is not in the bunker, because she requires natural sunlight. She is almost entirely plant, so Ambrosia formed that shelter out of her own roots.”] After dinner, Olivia sees you off to your room to make sure you remember which door is yours.(if:($Canon is true) and ($Coin is true) and ($Staffer is true))[ [[* You question something... *->Overlord]] ](else:)[ ]In the morning you head out back homeward- you hope you can see this place again... but even if you do not, you will always remember the time you did get to spend on RHEI. Before you got on the helicopter to leave the island though; Olivia smiles and hands you a cushion- it is shaped like an udder! Pastel pink with erect thick teats and all, it looked like a disembodied cow udder! A novelty item and a good head pillow- the teats cradle your neck and lower head if you want to lay upright to read at night or something. She explains that it is a keepsake from Io, to remember the island by. Well that is cute. And strangely a little kinky. Yea, that sounds about right for Io. (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

With the daylight fading to a purple glow at the edge of the night sky, you return to Olivia for a nice dinner to end the day. The ride home will be no shorter than it was coming out here, so it will be tomorrow; first thing in the morning. You have a lot more to think about on your way back though. The resteraunt you eat dinner in is for the RHE staff. Half of the walls are almost entirely glass, letting you look out over the valley from your seat, or across the table to Olivia. Even looking out from inside the main complex you can see so many stars in the night sky over the island. It is very, very far from any big cities so there is no pollution to disrupt the view. Olivia grins and asks how your day on the island went. You tell her your time on the beach went well- how you spoke to the girls on the sands and eventually went over to New Eden to explore that. You feel like you had gotten the most out of the day you had, considering you slept through the first part of it. You hope that Olivia can smuggle you into RHEI again. The beach and sub-island are just the very edges of RHEI- you had yet to really get into the 'meat' of the island. You have seen some at least vaguely similar forms elsewhere; people using transformative magic, but... this was still totally different. Even though it changed their bodies, transformative magic is at the end of the day essentially a costume of sorts. Just a mask. These were real people; they live like this. Their bodies change the way they act and live. Not to mention it is an entire island of these people- where every single person is different. (if:(history: where its name contains "Janette")'s length >= 1)[You recount your encounter with Janette as well- particularly memorable. You could tell by how she was looking at you that she was listening. You were not just talking at her- you were walking ''to'' her. It was a surprise to see a test subject turned so far toward a beast, but she was certainly happy. Her place in the forest was so tranquil and comfortable. There is no way you could find a place like that to calm and re-center yourself back home. Olivia nods. “There are two women like that, actually. Janette has the north west woods to herself- but in the north east there is also the almost fully equine Danalah- TS87. With Janette the imbalance of animal versus human happened because of the dosage. She had the correct dose of either animal, but //''together''// it was too much, smothering her human self. She has always been a source of conversation among the islanders, but everyone agrees that she is happy, so the details aren’t so important.” You ask about Danalah now- if Janette was a dosage problem, how did RHE repeat the same mistake with another? “Oh no, Danalah was not a dosage issue. A failed test. RHE tried to basically create a were-mare. She was supposed to be triggered by lunar radiation, so her transformation would not trigger till within a threshold- a full moon, but would not trigger in sunlight. Since, technically sunlight and moonlight is the same thing, it is just that moonlight is refracted sunlight. Anyway, the trigger worked- the reversal did not. She remained human till the first full moon, then became 100% horse, then became slightly human again and became stuck in that almost horse state permanently.” When you mention the root shelter Janette had, Olivia pipes up again. “Oh, that is actually made by a test subject too! Ambrosia; TS55-XV. The only XV subject that is not in the bunker, because she requires natural sunlight. She is almost entirely plant, so Ambrosia formed that shelter out of her own roots.”] After dinner, Olivia sees you off to your room to make sure you remember which door is yours.(if:($Canon is true) and ($Coin is true) and ($Staffer is true))[ [[* You question something... *->Overlord]] ](else:)[ ]In the morning you head out back homeward- you hope you can see this place again... but even if you do not, you will always remember the time you did get to spend on RHEI. Olivia walks you to the front doors of the main complex, but stops when the morning sun nearly blinds her indoor adjusted eyes. “Oh right, and here- Luan and Kiri told me to give this to you. As a souvenir.” Olivia pulls a seashell out of her lab jacket’s pocket. It is the cream colored upper shell of some bivalve with small smooth spikes along its rim, and the coloration faded to a pale pink toward them. The shell was found on the beach of New Eden- the couple decided to collect it for you to remember your time here by. If you put the seashell up to your ear, you can sometimes still hear the two of them bickering with each other. (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

With the sun sank behind the horizon now, you return to Olivia for a big dinner to end the day. You can see out over at least the northernmost part of the town in the valley below. The ride home will be no shorter than it was coming out here; so it will be first thing in the morning. You have a lot more to think about on your way back though. "I can't believe you spent your entire trip in this stuffy office with me." Olivia let out a slight giggle on the other side of the dinner table as you two ate. Two of the four walls of the resteraunt are almost entirely window, so you can see out into the valley while you ate. This is where all the RHE staff eat. The black sky above was filled with such bright stars that you could still see them even from inside the lit room. You smile and say you just really wanted to catch up with her. It seemed wrong to come here thanks entirely to her, and then ignore her. She got you here once, she can do it again, right? "Mmmm, I don't know about that." She toyed with her food a bit. "Maybe. I guess I could have just gone to visit you to do this, but I honestly did not expect you to stay with me the whole time. It was really fun though... didn't realize how much I needed this. Life here is great and all but I guess I was missing the faces I used to know without even realizing.... y'know?" (if:$Staff2 is true)[After dinner the two of you head up onto the roof of the building- the stairs at the back of the main complex are the only ones that connect all the way to the roof. They are also the only ones that go into the basement level. The stars are so bright and the night sky so clear that you can actually see the curvature of the Milky Way Galaxy you are inside of! Olivia uses her cell phone to call up a cantillation identification app and holds the camera lens up to the sky so the app can mark constellations for you. Olivia reminisces about old times; you two used to be together all the time before she went to university. In the quiet moments you can hear crickets, though very faintly since you are on the roof of the complex and they are all down on the ground. Both you and Olivia were startled by a woman appearing suddenly out of the darkness, slamming down onto the edge of the roof! “Hah! Beat you!” She looked at the two of you. “O-oh, uh… hey.” Another woman appeared behind her, unable to stop in time and slammed into her back, did a front flip and flopped back-down onto the roof winding herself slightly. The first woman to land has an impressive set of wings that belong to a dragon. Sage is a Red Dragon hybrid! Her face is half-hidden by a gas mask she wears to filter her smoke breath so she doesn’t make people cough everywhere she goes. The one who collided with her is Ranos; a Bat hybrid! Unlike Sage, she does not have a separate pair of wings; her arms double as wings. Not helping her ability to stop quickly behind Sage is the fact that Ranos was born entirely blind. Sage has a rather intimidating aura about her, while Ranos is quite adorable. Sage has a cross of tape over her nipples but no actual top on, and then tattered jean-shorts. Ranos is entirely nude save for a huge cloak she has pulled back behind her when she is flying- but wraps around her when she lands. The two of them had apparently flown here from the top of the Great Plateau- they were racing one another. Sage won- but not by a lot. Ranos’ wings are larger, so she has more force behind each flap- but Sage is quite aerodynamic and can dive quickly to pick up speed. The two hybrids sit with you and Olivia for some time on the roof and point out star formations they were already familiar with. The moon is out but it is only a thin crescent. It does not take Olivia long to start telling embarrassing stories about you. The two subjects tell you of hidden nooks they have found in the mountains, and there are also two camps that are set up by test subjects. There are no paths to the higher summits of the perpetually frozen mountain peaks around RHEI- so the only ones able to get up there are the few test subjects capable of flight. It is difficult to fly that high as well, and also harder to breath because the air is thin that high up. There are many trails and valleys between the mountains to be found though, for those seeking a longer walk or a bigger adventure. Olivia’s watch beeped at midnight and startled her with how late it has gotten. Your ride out tomorrow is very early in the morning, so you need to get to sleep! The two hybrid women nod and take off back into the night air. They stand on the edge of the roof, fall forward and kick off, and then vanish from view. Once they distance themselves far enough from the lights in the lot below they become invisible in the darkness of night. Olivia takes you to your apartment to sleep since hers is right across from yours anyway.](else:)[After dinner, Olivia sees you off to your room to make sure you remember which door is yours.](if:($Canon is true) and ($Coin is true) and ($Staffer is true))[ [[* You question something... *->Overlord]]] The next day on your way into the tower up to the helicopter to leave the island again, Olivia stops you a moment and hands you a small slip of folded paper. It has a phone number with a weird extension on it you have never seen before; causing you to ask her if it was even a real number. Olivia rolled her eyes. “Of course it is. It will let you call me directly here on the island. And… here.” She slips a tiny ring of braided copper off her pinky finger and gives it to you. “That is a keepsake from my childhood, you remember me wearing it back in the day? It used to fit on my ring finger when I was younger, haha. Anyway, you have it for now- let it act as my promise to see you on this island again, okay? And next time don’t go wasting the whole trip on me.” She smiled and smacked you on the shoulder. “Me and the island will be waiting.” (set: $Olivia to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

Faith told you were to find her in the valley, so you take a shuttle down to the south side of the Great Plateau. It is the very south end of the town. The base of the platformed mountain encloses the area between itself and the mountains that surround the entire island. The area is even further enclosed by the forest that borders the mountains, connecting the base of both. There was a few homes that followed the base of the Great Plateau and helped frame the more hidden of the two trails leading up to its summit. Where the trees and cliffs do not touch, there is only flowers. The encapsulated field in this hidden nook of the island had no grass; it was entirely wildflowers of all sorts! The path to Faith’s house is shaded by the forest trees- her house itself nestled in the woods at the edge of the huge field of flowers. The only home further in from here was that of the ‘Mancer’ Rayzel. The house was a bit difficult to find because from in the main town it did not look like there would be any more buildings in this direction- if she had not told you where it was you doubt you ever would have found it. You are startled by a voice behind you before your hand hits the door to knock. “Oh, are you here to see Faith? She snuck off somewhere last night and hasn’t been back since.” You are about to thank her for telling you but as you turn around you see Faith standing there with a wide grin. She was using the voice of one of the RHE staff to mess with you again. She laughs as soon as she sees the look on your face at her little joke. “Sorry- it was too easy. Honestly sometimes I worry that I am forgetting myself. So many unique bodies on this island to try and blend together that I am almost never in my own shape~.” You ask her what she means by ‘blend’. “Oh, well I can copy the genes of whatever person I physically touch for a while. If I touch more than one person- I get both. So I can pick and choose which traits from who to have at a time and mix and match to make a unique body to play with. The RHE staff nicknamed me the ‘Omnipotent’ because I can essentially have the traits of every other test subject.” She clapped her hands together. “Oooh, I know! Instead of just hanging out with me, why don’t I give you a demonstration? What is one of the locations you wanted to go to on the island? I will go with you and hijack some traits, then we can come back here later and I can show you their bodies in action!” [[Have a little Faith->Tennis Noon Faith]]

(set: $Aloe to true)You see Olivia walking across the parking lot of the main complex on the way back, wearing a heavier jacket for the night than her usual lab coat. She smiles when she spots you- you get surprisingly close before she notices because Olivia has her back to the well-lit complex while you blend into the dark. There are lights along the way but they are quite spread out and meant more as guiding light rather than proper illumination. “Oh hey- just the person I was looking for. I was coming to find you.” You apologize for being late for dinner. “It’s fine, as long as you were having fun.” You have quite a big dinner- Olivia kept ordering food she recommended and then sliding it across the table to you to try. This place is such a contrast to the hustle of everyday life in the outside world that it feels like a dream. Like it is too quiet and calm to possibly be reality. You end up losing track of time again- but this time so does Olivia so she cannot point the finger at your for this one. Long after you finish eating the two of you remain at the restaurant just walking with each other. The waiter and cook here is a golem, so it has all the patience in the world. After staying up late giggling like fools with Olivia(if:($Faith is true) and ($Aloe is true) and ($Hydra is true) and ($Maple is true))[[[* You cannot sleep... *->Make A Monster]] ](else:)[, you fall asleep quickly and sleep deeply till morning.] You slept well enough, but the sting of knowing when you get up you have to leave still made it quite hard to force yourself properly awake and out of bed. You open the door to leave through the offices and Olivia calls out and jumps back almost getting swat by the door! She was coming into your room at the same time you came out! Olivia holds out a wide metal cylinder with a glowing rune on top. “Aloe said to give this to you before you headed home.” You are no mage, but you still recognize the simple glowing rune on top to be one of ice- the cylinder is a cooling container. It contains honey ice cream, made from Aloe’s own honey milk! She must have taken your suggestion and made it last night- which means you might be the first person to ever taste it! You aren’t entirely sure if you should be excited about that, or afraid. (if:$Tag is false)[“Oh and…” She unfolds a small paper she had in her pocket to read. “Mint says to tell you to //‘maybe invest in new running shoes’//?” You sigh.](if:$Tag is true)[Olivia then takes out a small paper with a reminder written on it for herself. “Oh, and Pepper said to tell you; //‘you’re a pretty cool guy, so she isn’t mad that you touched her sisters tail’//? Guess you left an impression on the twins.”] Olivia walks you to the base of the tower, telling you she could try to get you a return ticket one day- but no promises. You thank her for getting you here even once- it was a real good time. You wave goodbye and climb the tower to the helicopter waiting for you, taking one last look out over the island as you get on to return home. (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

(set: $Esther to true)You and Amber wake up so abruptly you both almost collapse together into the pool water! You had both been so comfortable you dozed off! It is already completely night time! Small moths hovered around the guiding lanterns around the area. It takes your brain a few seconds to register the fact Olivia woke you up- you were supposed to return to the main complex to have dinner with her, so she came looking for you when you were a no-show. Amber chuckled, still quite groggy. “Oops, stole your friend for longer than intended. He isn’t due back till tomorrow, so it should be fine, right?” Olivia sighed. “Well yea, but I haven’t eaten anything yet because I was waiting for them.” Olivia helped you get off the udder without dipping into the water. You say goodbye to Amber and head up to the main complex with Olivia to get some dinner and finish the day. You talk as you two walk up to the complex. Billions of stars twinkle overhead- the island is miles and miles away from any pollutants to block the view of the cosmos. You had quite the experience today with a pair of gigantic breasts and an impossibly huge udder. You feel like you seen a good bit, but also can’t help but think of how little ground you covered. The complex, the tennis court and the pool… all locations on the northernmost part of the island- a tiny fraction of the island overall. There was still so much to see and so many unique people to meet. If only your time were as limitless as your thirst for more. Dinner with Olivia was very good and filling up in the main complex where all the RHE staff eat- and it had a good view over the north end of the valley too. You make sure to apologize again to Olivia for making her wait for you and she just laughs it off. She was most likely more worried you were lost somewhere on the island or had somehow gotten yourself into trouble. Cradled on the soft, smooth flesh of Amber’s udder is about as far from danger as you could ever get. Since you slept in the late afternoon and early evening, you have trouble getting to sleep this night. You remain up for some time, just thinking about the people you met earlier.(if:($Faith is true) and ($Aloe is true) and ($Hydra is true) and ($Maple is true))[ [[* You cannot sleep... *->Make A Monster]]] You are slow to wake up the next day, but Olivia makes sure to keep you moving forward as tired as you are- not because she wants to get rid of you, but because that helicopter has a schedule to keep and it is your only ride off the island. “Okay sleepy head, off with you now.” She pushed you forward a bit at the halfway point of the main complex parking lot to walk the rest of the way to the tower on your own. “And here- Jacob told me to give this to you before you left.” She handed you a thermos that was cold to the touch. Olivia explains it is a canister of Esther’s breast milk! They gave it to you so you could take the taste of the island home with you- seeing you enjoyed your sample of it the other day. Aww, well that was thoughtful. You will enjoy this! (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

As your next stop, you go check out the tennis court on Faith’s recommendation. It is behind the group of buildings to the right of the main path, at the edge of a field that traits to the east side of the island and a lake. The tennis court has hoops on either end, so if someone takes down the net in the middle; it is also a basketball court. It is in the part of town closest to the main complex… which makes it the furthest from Faith’s house. She insisted it would be a good place to check though- the court is pretty commonly used by a lot of people but it is also close to the market and the most popular pool. To get to it you had to pass through a marketplace and slip between some of the homes that enclosed the outer edge of the market. The area here was extremely colorful; even the stones of the walkway were spray-painted. Entire homes were used as murals, and the market was shaded from the sun under a canopy of crisscrossing cloth banners of a rainbow of colors. You could smell hamburger from the market, but they do not sell food in the market. There is a pleasing breeze blowing in from the east, carrying the faintest smell of flowers from the forest bordering the mountain foot on the east edge. The court is caged up in a mesh fence as high as the homes nearby to make sure the balls stay in the court. You see three test subjects there- one is on the sidelines cheering on the only male present, who is competing with another female hybrid. Faith happily introduces them to you. (link:"TS02 : Nancy")[TS02 is named Nancy- which is only slightly confusing since there are two test subjects with that name. The other is Nancy Dewrain; an XV subject, but everyone uses her last name to distinguish the two. This Nancy has an entirely bovine head and neck except for the human hair still on her head. Her body was fully human from the looks of it, and clothed in a white T-shirt and short black skirt. Swinging like a pendulum under that short skirt however was a neon pink wrecking ball of an udder. Every time she moved, it was set into motion and refused to stop on its own- so her bovine tail would curve forward and nudge the back of the udder to stop it from moving. The opening in the fence is behind the male test subject, so it was Nancy who signaled to him to stop because you had arrived. When they stopped their match, Nancy smiled at Faith and you and started to wander over, and her body shifted as she moved. By the time she got to the side of the net, she shuffled her sandals off her feet because they were rapidly lengthening as the ends compressed and devolved into cloven hooves! At the same time, her neck shrank in length and girth as did her head, becoming rapidly more human. She kept only the ears of a bovine above her shoulders now- to make talking easier. You see; Nancy has the ability to control her transformation and shift it at will, but her body attempts to always keep a balance of 50% human and bovine together. So in order to make part of herself more human, she has to make another part more cow. She can force the transformation to go off-balance, but it will inevitably slingshot itself back the other way afterwards as a consequence. Her feet transforming sounded like it might hurt, but it did not. Because the surface skin on the feet is relatively thin with no fat padding it, the bones are closer to the surface so when they shift- it is much easier to hear them. When her feet simplify, the bones fuse together to get rid of the excess joints no longer needed, but doing so shoves the cartilage out of the way and dissolves it- creating a sound much like the loud popping of a knuckle. But a human foot actually has a LOT of bones in it, so that sound happens in rapid fire as it stretches and mashes together; dull, hollow sounding pops. There is so many sensations going on at once when it happens though that her brain can’t even focus on just that, and it does not actually hurt at all. When you ask her about it, she compares it to a stress ball- you squish one side, the other is going to bloat out. Unless she tries to fight it, her transformation is always 1:1, as soon as she wills one part to change another attempts to go the other way, so it is like there is a mass of cow floating in her and she is just shoving it around to however is most convenient at the time. Faith whispers in your ear that she is unaffected by the balancing act- if she steals Nancy’s genes, she can transform to a cow or stop anywhere in between without any consequences. Although Faith’s body can only retain the memory of those genes for a limited time. After a few hours her stolen traits will always go away again, forcing her to re-copy them or find someone else to imitate.] (link:"TS11&TS12 : Esther & Jacob")[TS11 and TS12 are husband and wife- they came to the island as a couple, soo, you could technically consider Jacob a breeder- but he is exclusively for Esther only. Their transformations were very similar to each other, except Jacob is horse and Esther is cow. They both have completely transformed limbs- Jacob has the tennis racket tied to his right hoof because he does not have any hands to actually hold it with. Their hips are not changed however- so they can both stand upright. They both have tails- a long flowing horse tail for Jacob and a thin tasseled tail for Esther. They also have fur on their transformed limbs, but it stops at their bodies where the torso turns totally human. Esther’s skull is still somewhat human shaped and she still has long pale brown human hair. She has a muzzle but it does not extend as far as a full bovine face. As one of the earlier subjects, Esther was leaned hard into the lactation aspect. There is a bench to sit on, on either side of the middle court here- but she is leaned over with her butt against the fence instead because she would be unable to sit properly. Her breasts are absolutely colossal- so big in fact that the front half of her body is resting on them! Her boobs are sandwiched between her body and the ground, squished extra wide by the weight. She is wearing a long navy blue skirt, but obviously no top in the world would fit her upper body. She has teat-like nipples, but they sized up at the same rate as her breasts, so even they were impossibly huge. Even considering how squishy they are- the teats are too thick to hold in a single hand, and more than long enough to overfill someone’s entire mouth. Esther cannot even stand fully for more than a couple of seconds- requiring her husband’s inhuman strength to help lift them, or to just move in bursts. If Esther tried to sit on the bench; because it is so low to the ground, her tits would rest on the ground too quickly in front of her and obscure her view of anything else. Unlike her, Jacob’s head and neck is fully equine- dark brown fur but black mane. They are both able to speak, but their voices are distorted and sometimes difficult to understand- it is halfway between animal and human. Jacob is wearing an extremely form fit black long-sleeved that can barely contain his muscle mass, and a tabard on his lower body so when he dashes from side to side you can still see his massive nuts swing out from behind the cloth. He has an equine sheath and full sized horse dong- but his nuts are double-big, even by horse standards. They know why you are here already, and welcome you to the island. You ask them about their lives here and they each share their story of how they came to be. Esther and Jacob were bankrupt in the outside world- their home town was destroyed thanks to a series of unfortunate natural disasters and what appeared to be a disaster relief effort turned out to be a scam to prey on the weak, leaving them unable to recover their losses. With nothing left in the outside world, they came here. Since they came as a pair, they had complementary transformations. Jacob was built to be ultra-strong and be able to have sex repeatedly to keep Esther happy and stimulated. Esther was built to lactate, a LOT. Since she has Jacob to help her all the time, RHE did not have to worry so much about going a bit overboard on her tits. Esther laughs and says that she does not mind it one bit- like she is doing now; they make great mobile pillows. Whenever she wants to rest she just flops over onto her boobs and wedges her chin into the cleavage- although if she fully lays on them she will need Jacob to stand back up.] Nancy explains that she came to the island as a pair too- but the other is another woman, her best friend, and they never told RHE at first that they were together. Because they joined after a slight delay to hide the fact they came together; there ended up being a test subject between them. Nancy was the first solo test subject RHE was supposed to have, but TS03 ended up transforming before her because she had stupidly forgotten to take off an earring that also happened to be a ward stone- it prevented magical effects and the tincture is magically based. There were several days between when she got injected to when she actually started changing, so RHE had already considered the test a wash and released her and her friend Lauren back into the outside world. Lauren and Nancy transformed in the outside world, and after nearly getting caught by several random onlookers- Zero showed up to save the day and bring them back to RHEI. Like Jacob and Esther, Nancy joined the program because she had no money to survive in the outside world. It was not disaster that caused her situation though, just terrible luck finding a job after her original career fell through. You mention the market you passed through on the way here looking interesting, and they tell you there is a huge library and art gallery as well on the island- all set up by the residents, not RHE. Apparently one of the island’s artists made a statuette for Jacob and Esther- it is made to mimic the famous statue of the Titan Atlas holding the world on his shoulders- except it is of Jacob holding Esther’s breasts on his shoulders! Jacob laughed and told you if you like it; you should ask RHE to sign you up. You smile and tell him they are not looking for any more test subjects- that is why they have enough free time to allow something like a guest tour to happen in the first place. Esther just randomly blurts out ‘do you want a taste’? You blush brightly and glance at Jacob assuming she must be joking, but no, she really is offering a taste of her milk. You seize up a bit in nervousness and embarrassment, but everyone else is super chill about it. This sort of thing is normal on RHEI- a lot of women produce a lot of milk, and let their endowments hang free on display. Faith nudges your lower back, trying to make you do it. At this point it would be more embarrassing to not accept, so you walk in front of her and kneel down. Esther places both hands on top of her left boob and pulls back on the skin, causing the areola and nipple to rise up to your face. You wonder if you can even fit it in your mouth in the first place. Nancy casually half-sits on the right breast beside you. “Careful not to squeeze or pull too hard- it will go off in your hands and hose you down.” Esther laughed. “I am noout that fuuull.” You take it into your hand and notice your fingers do not close all the way around it- there is a gap between your index and thumb still. It is very warm and you place it in your mouth quickly, at first afraid your teeth might scrape against it, but it is very squishy and can conform to much smaller spaces. You suck once with no effect, then again and the surface of the nipple becomes moist. The third time you suck the huge teat-nipple starts sweating sweet, hot milk! Esther’s milk is still entirely human in spite of her bovine traits greatly aiding in its production, so it is very thin and sweet compared to a cow’s milk. While you suck you have a wall of smooth flesh glistening in the sun to look at. With your head up against it you can’t even see Esther’s face over the curvature of the boob! It tastes good, but you also do not want to be greedy and don’t really know how much to take, so only a few sucks in you pull off. You are almost about to lick the last bit off the end when you remember where you are, and use your thumb to brush the last drop off and then suck it off your thumb as you stand. Esther renews her smile. “Guuud, eh? Depending on their hybrids; there are a lot of different tasting milks oooun the island. Aloe even makes a hooooney-milk blend.” Nancy glanced at the big floppy teat and gave a nose laugh. “Those things are almost unmanageably big though. Your nipples are so big you could use them as dildos…” Esther rolled her eyes. “They don’t get hard.” Jacob hummed. “Well, the-eihehe-y do when they get cold. Put an ice cube up to the-hehe-m and they get shorter and stiff enough to stand up.” He looked at you with a smile. “Then you can twack ‘em like door-stoppers, haha.” After talking with you, Nancy and Jacob resume their match and Faith pats Nancy on the shoulder, telling her that she and you need to get going since your time on the island is so limited. You two wave goodbye and head back toward her place. “I got Nancy’s genes, hehehe. When we approach the valley labs, I am going to split off and do a quick scan and see if I can catch Bernard- he is one of the breeder boys. You just head back to my place directly- the doors open so just go in and wait for me if I don’t catch back up.” [[Return to Faith's house->Faith TF]]

Faith is able to move a lot faster than you since she knows the island much better, so she is able to catch back up to you as you are still double checking you have the correct path in the woods. Once inside, Faith sits you down on the couch in the living room, uses her foot to shove the table out of the way against the wall, and tells you to enjoy the show! The reason she chose those two specifically is because Nancy’s genes are malleable making them versatile- and are notably female, while Bernard is a multi-mix of custom traits but is notably male. Faith’s clothes turned translucent pink, revealing that she has actually been naked the entire time- her outfit was just sculpted out of her own biomass. She stretched out one nude foot after the other and when she did it stretched quickly into the shape of an odd hybrid of cloven hooves from Nancy and a mono hoof from Bernard- there was two dew claws, but the front section was one solid mass. Unlike Nancy shifting her feet, there is no bone popping from Faith, because she technically doesn’t have real bones. The only sound the shifting produced sounds sort of like someone lightly running their fingers across the surface of a balloon, and the changes happened quite quickly. Faith has all the same body parts as a normal woman, but they are all made of the same generic biomass just trying to imitate her. All of her cells are multi-purpose so they are interchangeable. Technically Faith was reduced to a formless blob- all that is left of the original Faith is a permanent impression on that blob. Her greatest impersonation- is herself. Faith slowly traces her hands up her legs from the hooves and the leg shifts form. Since stretching into hooves she gained at least a foot In height from the sole fusing into a cannon bone. When her hands passed over her knees the leg firmed up and then quickly started to swell out, creating indentations around massive muscles inside. Her thighs swelled big and muscular which also made her butt larger and rounder, but then with the sound of someone striking the surface of a fully inflated balloon- her hips expanded greatly in a burst! Even Faith was not entirely ready for it and almost fell forward, smiling at you a moment after she catches her balance so you know she is fine. She cannot stand back upright however- her hips shifted to bovine, which means her legs do not bend at an angle that would allow her to stand upright on two legs. Her arms were much smaller than her legs at the moment however so a four legged posture doesn’t work either- her arms don’t reach the ground! When her hips expanded the bone pressed out on the surface, giving it a very boxy shape and also stretching her muscular thighs longer width-wise. Her pelvic floor also shifted, pushing her vulva and anus close together and yanking them back quite a ways- so their position relative to her tail bone remained the same in spite of the distance around her hips increasing dramatically. So where the vulva would normally be on the front of the hips- there was now nothing. Faith placed her hands between her legs and wiggled her rump a bit as her tail bone stretched out long and thin! It grew in length greatly like a long thin cow tail, but then bloomed into a long flowing horse tail! The horse portion essentially replaced the tasseled end of the cow tail- so she has a horse tail on a cow tail. You were unable to see at first because her hands were blocking the view, but when she placed them instead on her thighs to help balance herself in this awkward bent over pose; you see a large tube of flesh forming up from her vulva back to where the blank section of her crotch is! It’s a perineum! She hiccupped suddenly as her insides lurched- her ovaries expanded and then split. The second set quickly started to expand and evolve into testicles as they are rejected from lack of room inside of her torso. The skin on the front of her large hip was already loosening into a soft, malleable scrotum to catch the descending orbs. Her legs dipped into a squat looking like a bird trying to lay an egg as one and then almost immediately the other testicle popped out, stretching the proto scrotum out. For a brief second they stretched the skin enough that it started to look translucent pink again before resuming the structure of normal flesh. A large nub formed in front of them- the end of the perineum. At first you thought it was going to form into a penis but then it almost looked like it was going to drip- stretching out downward and then pulling away from the main body it divided into two! Two penis? Well, no, not quite that either. They both became very wide, and as the scrotum stretched out to lower the balls into a more relaxed posture the skin built up around these two fat bulges forming soft folds. With a quiet wet *smeck* sound an opening formed at the end of each and expanded quite wide. They were sheaths- the cocks were still forming much deeper within from what will be their inner walls. The opening of the sheaths alone were large enough you could sit a 2L bottle inside either one and joined into a single double-long opening when fully formed. When the dicks actually started to emerge they were equine in shape already. As the dicks slid out, the balls continued to expand larger and heavier- mutating even more, because Bernard doesn’t technically have testicles in the normal sense. Faith flexed her muscles and her arms bulged, but more than that they became longer- and her hands rapidly started to devolve into hooves. Her middle finger shrank and vanished entirely as the index and ring finger grew large- the nails on the end thickening and overtaking the entire end of the digits. Her thumb and pinky started to change and pull back and inward a bit, but then her hand stopped there. Bernard has hoof-hand hybrids. While resembling a cloven hoof closely- what should just be mere dew claws were actually more like two thumbs, allowing the two front segments to be used as fingers. Her arms were also long enough that she could flop forward onto her demi-hooves and be on all fours, though her rump was still much higher in the air than her head because her limbs were not balanced still… just, balanced enough to all touch the ground at least. Taking more traits from Bernard; the bridge of Faith’s nose expanded greatly as well as the nostrils, pulling the upper jaw and lower nose into a single rounded curve- a demi-horse muzzle. She used Nancy’s traits to give herself large leaf shaped cow ears and then used the mobility in the ears to shuffle her hair back out of her face. Astoundingly, her balls and twin shafts were still growing- which is why the next phase of the changes had to happen. Her heart started to beat much harder, throbbing a bit bigger each time. Faith took a deep breath and her ribs all expanded, making her chest a bit more barrel-shaped. With the ribs, the collar bone also expanded and then with increased blood pressure the veins in her neck, and then the neck itself grew. It became longer but not quite the full length of a horse- it is tremendously thick though. The growth of the neck also extended her hairline down the back to continue all the way to her shoulders, which gave the illusion of her regular hair just being a lot longer than it actually is. Faith was humming in automatic pleasure now- as the twin phallus continued to get longer beyond what any horse would be, the base was becoming increasingly wide and it was already two cocks to one large sheath, so it was squeezing them together at the base. The testicles stopped at around the size of a medicine ball each, and about as heavy as one as well. They were no longer testicles however, as much as they still appeared to be the shiny black balls of a horse. Inside the scrotum was effectively two gigantic, mutated prostates… which means it actually feels ''good'' to have her balls squeezed! What was the point of taking from a cow though, if you forgot the best part? Four chubby pink nubs started to grow on her upper crotch, but as the skin under them blushed pink and started to swell out; Faith tried to bow her mid-section either way to squirm around and get more room for it, but failed. The problem with cow mams is that they occupy the same space her male genitals are currently. Faith had to plop down into a sitting position onto her boxy rump, so she could once again use her half-hands to hold the cocks away from her torso to give the growing udders space. The vertical cleft of the fattening udder pressed into the base of the upper cock just above where the sheath ended, and it started to shove them away from her body on its own! The two dicks were now perpetually squeezed into each other from lack of room- and angled downward when on all fours thanks to the weight of the udder on its base. Luckily the udder did not grow abnormally large or it would have put the cocks on a painful angle. “(text-style:"sway")[Tadaah~]! I know my transformation is more… smooth than most, but y’know, take what you can get. Ain’t nobody got a body like mine!” She flinched a bit from the feeling as her cocks throbbed, squeezing her udder enough to draw a few beads of white to the end of the teats. “It seems I need to get rid of a little tension though. Here is an idea- imagine what it is like to have this equipment between your own legs, and if you want, you can follow along- pretend you’re looking into a mirror. If not, just //enjoy the show//~.” Because her udder squeezed the shafts together so tightly she had to wedge her thumbs between, wrapping her fingers around the rest of the furthest shaft. She took advantage of her longer neck and managed to pop the closer of the two cocks into her mouth before the flared head tightened too much to get past her teeth. Her tongue immediately wedged itself into the deep crevice around the urethra and ran circles around it while she sucked on as much of the upper cock as she could manage. Faith had one hand near the medial ring of the outer shaft and the other just under the glans so her thumb and index finger bopped against the stiff corona as she pistoned the turgid meat poll. She wished her legs still bent like a humans so she could fold her legs under her cow tits. She occasionally shook the shafts a bit, which wobbled the udder or squeezed it against her since it was perpetually wedged into the crook between body and dick. The shaft was too stiff to bend back close enough to her torso to be in her human cleavage, but if she twists herself quick enough she can still slap the upper shaft with a boob. Her prostate balls pulled the black skinned scrotum smooth from their size so it was hard to tell if they were clenching or not- they did not have much wiggle room. You could see the larger veins toward the base of the shafts start to throb aggressively though, and her taint and urethral bulge become more defined as it clenched hard. The length of the pleasure contractions was extending and she let go of the further dick and paused her mouth movements to see if she could edge herself back down, but the pleasure kept raising- she stopped too late, Faith was already tipping over the edge. Rather than place her hands back on the outer shaft, she grabs either nut in her hand and squeezes down into them, causing a pleasure spike and every sensation in her body other than pleasure became completely muted. You realize nearly a second too late that you are in the splash zone and practically leap to the side just as a wad of white fires past you- so close to hitting you that you can feel the heat radiating off the liquid as it flies past! Each volley of heavy cream hits the floor with enough weight to make a loud slapping sound and she keeps shooting for some time. The twin shafts buck so hard that they force a steady trickle of milk out of her cow teats! She could not remove the shaft from her mouth even if she wanted to right now- the glans are flared so large that her mouth is forced fully open by it and its still lodged too tightly to move! When it is finally over, she leans forward heavily and lets out a long (text-style:"buoy")[grooaan]. Faith for a moment turns pink and translucent on the surface as her body seems to melt a bit and then pull back inward, compacting the added traits back into her true form. After a few moments of silence for her to catch her breath she starts to stand back up. “I don’t suppose you want to stick around and help me clean this up now?” “Uhhh-“ “I’m (text-style:"rumble")[kidding]! You only have one day on the island, right? You need to get going. Don’t worry about me.” A pink shimmer passed over her and her body rippled a bit. “Mmm, that took a lot out of me, so it is getting tricky to hold myself together anyway. Probably go for a nap soon~. Anyway, hope you had as much fun as I did~.” [[If you hurry you can still make a visit to Aloe's house->Aloe's Home]]

(set: $Rosemary to (either:false,true))You decide to head to the far east of the island, above the hidden grotto but below the northern forest and the palace. Lake Kshira Sagara is named after an ocean of milk from mythology, and acts as a tranquil nook to relax at in reality. There are several pools around the valley, but swimming in an actual lake was always going to be a bit different- though there are critters living in these waters too; so be careful an angry crawfish doesn’t nip at your toes! At the far side of the lake there is an island covered in grass and shaded by a red maple tree. This is considered the best reading spot on all of RHEI. On the shore of the far side of the lake is the only house in this area, surrounded by magic staves, forming a barrier around the home. Space is distorted around it, allowing a normal sized home to fit the gigantic owner. As you approach you see the test subject Rosemary clopping around the sand of the narrow lake beach and then suddenly seem to vanish into thin air! The giant Tria reached down to pick something up right where she vanished. Rosemary entered the range of the barrier around Tria’s house- which distorted space to make her seem tiny and no longer visible to you at this range, and Tria picked her up to carry. With you outside of the barrier and Tria inside of it- she actually looks normal sized but that will change the moment you step through. Well… normal in overall size- her bodily proportions are still pretty wild. Her thighs are each as thick as your entire body. She is an extreme pear shape- her breasts are real big but still nothing compared to her hips and thighs which are just titanic. The distance to her front door from the edge of the barrier is only about twelve or so feet, but when you step inside it will seem more like several yards, because you will shrink in comparison while the path remains the same. For that reason you employ the foresight to wave Tria over first so she can carry you like she is Rosemary. If you try to walk, not only will it be a long distance, but she might step on you without knowing you are even there. As it turns out, she is actually carrying two people- Opal is present as well! She invites you inside and you step into the barrier’s range. Your body doesn’t feel anything but your mind and vision reel for a moment as your perspective is completely changed by the effects. Tria carefully picks you up- you are only about the size of an action figure to her now. That fact will not change whether inside or outside of the barrier. It changes the proportions of people versus their surroundings- not in regards to each other. (link-reveal:"Tria")[ Tria Amalie bares a French name but has no traces of an accent. Known as ‘The Colossus’ or TS40, she is hybridized with the largest mammal on land and water- elephant and blue whale. The first thing anyone will notice is her thighs- which are huge even compared to the rest of her. And outside of the barrier, she is taller than the island homes by almost twice over, so, she big. Because of how large her butt and thighs are in comparison to the rest of her, she cannot walk without swinging her butt back and forth. Most women would have to deliberately walk like that, but that is just Tria’s default walk, there isn’t enough space between her thighs for her to walk any other way, unless she waddles like a duck. It doesn’t look like she has feet or toes at all, but she does in fact have both. Her entire body is still the soft, supple human flesh she always had, but her legs are structured exactly like an elephant- so they are shaped like pillars. The structure of her toes and feet are completely buried in the thick legs leaving only the huge blocky nails exposed, spaced around the bottom of the foot. An elephant is technically an ungulate- they stand on their tip-toes only. No clothing can fit her odd proportions, so if you were standing on the ground looking up; all you would see is mountainous thighs and a pussy big enough to swallow you whole. Tria has a tail that looks like a thick whale tail, but has no fins on it because of elephant and human genes clashing with it, so it just came to a tapered end. Her breasts are massive and tear drop shaped- looking to be almost three times the size of her head each! Tria’s hands easily encompassed them though, because from the elbow down her forearm became flat and increasingly wider as it went down, continuing into her hands, which caused them to have no real definition against her forearm. Her fingers look really short and stubby, but it’s because of a thick webbing between them that blends them into the rest of the arm- they are actually pretty long. She has no hair on her head- her scalp forever shiny and smooth. Tria’s ears are very long and pointy, but also very narrow like the ears of an Elf, and her face is divided by a trunk large enough to reach down and slap her own thighs from a standing position!] (link-reveal:"Rosemary")[ While you sit in Tria’s left hand, Rosemary and Opal are in the right. Rosemary is TS38, and although she is hybridized with a very ungraceful beast, she is quite beautiful. The teeth of her upper jaw were larger than the lower jaw, so whenever she opened her mouth even a little bit you can see the upper teeth- but when completely closed her mouth was still able to cover them. Her eyes are a soft brown and her hair a very dark brown and wildly wavy. Her hair is to her shoulders normally, but if you pulled the waves straight it would probably reach the bottom of her rib cage. Rosemary’s hair was much longer in the back, because her hairline trailed a stripe all the way down to her shoulder blades, giving her a mane. The bottom of her nose was wider and rounder than a normal human, her nostrils bigger. Her upper back and shoulders have a single black stripe across them and her chest looks like that of a boy! She has nipples and areola but absolutely no breasts at all- instead she gained the endowments of an equine; in a shade of brown that was virtually black her crotch is filled with a two segment equine udder, capped with short but very wide teats. Her rump is guarded by a tasseled tail with hair identical to that of on her head, and her legs from the knees down are structured like an equine. From the knee down she has fur, starting very fine and progressing to shaggy just over her hooves. She has the anus and vulva of an equine too- but her tail hides the anus and her udder hides the vulva. The most eye-catching of her features though is likely her ears. Standing over a foot tall each and had furred backs. She wears a long green, knitted shawl over her shoulders. Rosemary smiles at you but then becomes self-conscious of her large upper teeth and subdues her own smile. Rosemary is a hybrid donkey.] (link-reveal:"Opal")[ The island gossip. Never tell Opal a secret because fifteen other people will know it before she even leaves the room. Right now she looks quite lean and pretty- but she has expansion genes that grant inhuman elasticity to her body allowing her to swell huge and round like a human egg! Because no test subject is capable of having children regardless- RHE replaced her womb with an organic storage tank for her extra milk. Rather than overflow when her mammaries are full- Opal’s belly just swells up like she is pregnant. Opal’s hair is to her lower back but currently tied back over itself into a pony tail, her equine ears flick any loose hairs back before they get in her face. Over her rump is an actual equine tail, also tied up in a loop because it is twice as long as the already long hair on her head! Both are the color of cherry-oak. Her eyes are baby blue and her skin rather pale. Her arms and legs are completely human- but her feet and ankles are inside of a mechanical boot forged by automancy that replicates the cannon bone and hoof of a bovine. Basically prosthetic hooves to use as footwear. Opal’s body is also oddly symmetrical, both side to side and top down- the D cup breasts on her chest are mirrored at the other end of her torso! The only difference between the breasts on her chest and the ones in her crotch is that the top ones have red-pink areola and nipples, and the lower have black. Right now Opal is empty- her body between her twin sets of breasts is perfectly flat.] Tria carries the three of you over to the kitchen counter and sets you all down, saying she will prepare a snack for you. You look around at the kitchen, marveling at the sight. The salt and pepper shakers are as tall as your stomach! A banana would be taller than you in Tria’s house! Her 35” TV would be like a movie theatre screen! Rosemary seems a bit torn- she says that she was going to hang out with Taylor, and was not planning to stay much longer… but then you showed up. It would seem rude to bolt right after you came, but she did make the plans with Taylor first. Opal on the other hand rushes up to you as soon as you are all on the counter and bombards you with a million questions. From what you can make out, she is mostly asking if you have seen or know about various test subjects but she changes topics and questions so fast you can’t really keep up at all. You do see a unique opportunity here though. Opal likes to stick her nose where it doesn’t belong and holds onto juicy little details… you came here to see Tria originally, but if you ask Opal, she may be able to tell you about the test subjects who are not even on the island anymore. Opal likely knows and remembers the test subjects who were released, and show up as ‘redacted’ on the RHE registry. (if:$Rosemary is true)[[[Spend time with Rosemary!->Rosemary]] ][[Ask Opal->Opal]] [[Spend time with Tria as planned->Tria]]

You decide to stay the course and enjoy the present company rather than try to chase secrets. Rosemary sticks around, but notes she can only stay long enough to try some of the snacks and properly say hello- then she had to go see Taylor. You ask Tria what having such a giant body is like- and what it was like to grow. All of the test subjects know the feeling of transforming, but none know the feeling of growth more than Tria. Tria smiled at you re-adjusting yourself a bit on the shot glass seat you were offered, before reaching forward and plucking you up off it! “That doesn’t make a very comfortable chair, does it? Here.” She let you go over her breasts and you bounced onto the surface of the huge orbs! Both huge boobs together were just large enough for the cleavage to make a perfect seat for someone normal sized. “Hmm, now let’s see… I would say it is more like a feeling of everything else shrinking, rather than a feeling in itself. Once my proportions were set my entire body grew at the same time- which means my nervous system was also growing, so internally there wasn’t any difference- it was my body in comparison to everything else that was changing. There was a feeling to it, but it was subtle… I don’t know if I could explain it properly. Outward tension? Sort of deep down, like my muscles were very subtly tensing up to draw up more mass from deep inside.” Rosemary laughs and almost spits cracker crumbs everywhere by accident because of it. She had been there when Tria started to really grow. This modified house was a second pass by RHE- her original house was in the middle of the valley town and she completely outgrew and demolished the structure! Rosemary’s volume as she spoke kept flocculating, and it took you a bit and several unintentional donkey brays before you realized why. She cannot control her braying- but it doesn’t happen when she speaks softly. So she was trying to be as quiet as possible as to not bray like an ass, but she still had to speak loudly enough that you hear her, and her own excitement of recalling the event for someone who has still never heard it caused her to unintentionally raise her voice slowly as she spoke till she hit another bray and quieted down again. When you properly sat with your legs along the cleavage below you- so you could face Rosemary as she spoke- you almost slipped between the boobs but luckily Tria clapped a hand to either side and pressed them together enough to catch you. It seems Rosemary is Tria’s ‘day one’- the test subject that first met her and tried to help her out, so the two have been close ever since meeting. Since you were all eating snacks, you decide to ask what Tria’s milk tastes like. She is blended with two animals you have definitely never drank the milk of before. Tria explains that TS03 Lorelei already gives whale milk, so Tria was designed to give elephant milk- it isn’t influenced by her whale genes. She then explains that elephant milk is surprisingly similar to human in both taste and composition. Elephants are large but they are not really fat, and their young develop fairly slowly, so they do not need a ton of nutrients up-front. One noted difference however is the lactic acid content is very high- so if someone is lactose intolerant, elephant milk will absolutely destroy them. Rosemary chimed in after, saying that equine milk is also quite similar to human- including the subtle sweetness thanks to how the grains they consume break down. Rosemary’s milk is that of a donkey. Opal has traits of a horse, but her traits are so subdued her milk is just standard human milk- thin and sweet. Rosemary apologized for having made plans already for this afternoon, and then left to meet up with Taylor- having to hustle now because she was nearly late. Tria showed off her body for you a bit more; starting with showing you her hands up close. It was large enough to comfortably hold two people in it, since it is so wide and her overall size is so large. You pushed in a bit on the membrane and traced it up till you felt a muscle ridge below the surface and found out just where her fingers actually start. On the surface the webbing between digits is at the same level as the skin on the back of her hand, so you can’t tell where the hand ends and the fingers begin. They had been hybridized with a whale’s front fins to create a sort of flipper-hand. Flippers- unlike fins- still have digits like a hand or foot inside of them, but Tria’s arms were still more humanoid than that. She lacked fingernails on her digits as well, so the ends were perfectly rounded. Another thing you noticed only when examining it up close is that her arms did not seem to have pours. From the shoulder down her skin got progressively smoother feeling- more like the flesh of a whale. Her tail was the same thing- the smooth flesh trailing up her back slightly along with the muscles that control the base of the tail. Encouraged by Opal- when letting you see her tail, Tria was talking into lifting her tail a bit and shaking her monumentally huge ass. For better or worse- her rump is her most prominent feature. Even her thighs were absolutely tremendous and shook when she swung her hips. Tria tried to cut her off, but Opal blushed and told you about her custom toy she has hidden away. Tria’s vulva is many times over too large for any of the males on the island- the breeder men would have to shove their entire body into her to be able to do anything, so the only way Tria can get a little tension release is with a toy afflicted with the same special distortion barrier that makes her house seem huge. Afterwards, you three go to the waterside and Tria relaxes in the sun, lying down. Even though Opal’s stomach is starting to round out now she challenges you to a game of tag and dashes off, walking over Tria’s body like a hill! You chase after her and you two go back and forth several times- several times Opal used Tria’s tits to hide behind, trying to circle them and squeeze through the cleavage to stay on the opposite side as you. You two kept at it while Tria just relaxed- but Opal started to tire out faster and faster. Opal’s belly was looking more and more pregnant as her milk chamber filled. Having eaten snacks earlier, her body was cutting the calories in half and converting the other portion to milk, causing her to fill up faster. The bigger her belly got, the heavier she became and so she tired herself out easier, till eventually she just plopped down in Tria’s belly button and surrendered. You wish Rosemary had the time to stick around, but you are glad you got to see her briefly anyway. After some time relaxing with Opal and Tria you notice the sun starting to dip, catching on the ripples of the water on the lake, causing the reflected light to look much brighter. You tell the women that you have to get going. You are due back at the main complex for dinner with Olivia later, and you want to try to meet some other test subjects. Tria got up; groaning as she noticed how much sand clung to her from laying on it for so long. “You might have some trouble now actually. Approaching late afternoon- most people are probably heading back home to prepare a dinner for themselves, which means you won’t be able to find them out and about. You better get going before you options dry up!” You ask if they have any recommendations. Opal speaks up first. “I saw Saanvi heading into the west forest near The Grotto entrance; you might be able to find her there still, if she isn’t inside The Grotto anyway. The door leading there is password protected, so you wouldn’t be able to get in.” Tria pointed with her trunk to the mountains straight east. “Sage and Lauren are in the mountains hanging out- I haven’t seen them come back down and we have been sitting out here most of the day. Not sure who all you were originally looking for- but if you need to be sure you can catch your target, those are three you can confirm the location of anyway.” [[TS13 / Saanvi->East Forest]] [[TS04, TS90 / Lauren, Sage->Mountains]]

You decide to see how easy it would be to get Opal to go off on a tangent about the ‘lost’ test subjects. Rosemary had to leave to meet up with Taylor anyway, apologizing that she could not stay to chat and slipped away even before the snacks arrived. Tria could only really serve snacks that can be eaten with your hands, since there is no silverware in her house small enough for anyone other than herself to use- and the snacks themselves are impossibly big so no one was going to stick it into their mouth as-is. For servings guests drinks- she kept thimbles in the kitchen and filled them like glasses. Tria sits on a stool by the counter and Opal sits on a matchbox as a seat- Tria slides an overturned shot glass over for you to sit on. You tell Opal she sure seems well informed and ask if she knows of any of the redacted entries in the registry. “Oh of course! I was really curious about them too, and I have been on the island for some time now so I have had pleeeenty of time to do some poking around.” Tria nodded. “Opal feeds off secrets and rumors like some sort of vampire… but you know, the redacted entries aren’t really secret test subjects. They are test subjects who are no longer on the island. They had mild enough physical changes that there was no reason to keep them here. Little do they know what they are missing by not being here, heh.” Opal hummed and crossed her arms. “Wellllll, there was one exception. Anyway, who did you want to know about?” (link:"TS06")[TS06 “Oh, Zoe- she was well before my time here. It is funny looking at the older test subjects and seeing where trends started up. TS02 and 04 were rogue for a bit, and TS05 was an accident, so when Zoe came along they were still trying to figure a lot of things out. Zoe was given bovine legs from the knees down, making her quite tall… but that was it. Nothing else changed. Tincture was too weak, and it was not inject… no, in… what is the word?” Tria laughed. “Ingested. It wasn’t ingested quickly enough by her system, so by the time it took root in her genome it had collected in the point furthest from her heart, where the blood flow is weakest- her feet.”] (link:"TS14")[TS14 “Valerie! I know her best because she was the base they used to make ME! Valerie just got two extra boobs- in her crotch, just like me. In her case, the dose was correct but she had some sort of rare genetic… thingamawhatzit- and her body actually resisted the tincture. Giving her a second dose was too likely to turn things chaotic so they just called it there. Because my test was on the newly developed elasticity cell genes; they deliberately went with a very mild hybrid model- because the test wasn’t on what they could mix together, it was if the new cells worked. So I ended up with Valerie’s build, only my belly gets big and round when I fill up with milk!”] (link:"TS29")[TS29 Opal blushed. “You can actually find her pretty easily online. Trini Oaklodge- or ‘Thrini’ as she calls herself online. She became a porn model after being released back into the outside world. Hers was a test on localized effects. They gave her a slightly larger third boob between her existing ones. Online, she just tells people it was a convenient birth defect, but that third boob is all RHE’s doing.”] (link:"TS36")[TS36 “That was Ken. He was basically RHE testing the same thing they did with me, only on a male. His balls continue to produce semen slowly all the time, and can expand like my belly does to be huge. There is a tanuki hybrid male subject on the island now with the same thing! But Ken had no animal traits at all- that was the only test on him. RHE was considering doing the experiment on another woman only with her breasts expanding, buuut it was deemed too similar to my test to be worth another test subject on its own, and they had a male applicant next, so they switched their plans for what TS36 would be to Ken.” Tria nodded. “They did mess with the expansion in mammaries with Beryl though- her udder expands and contracts with the milk load.” “Yea, but she is part cow- it isn’t JUST her expanding milk sack they worked on. There is also TS62 who has an expanding hump that acts like my belly does.”] (link:"TS49")[TS49 “Gloria… she looks totally human- nothing they did to her is visible. She is the last subject of a project called Age-X… a bit controversial. Gloria was given traits from a jelly fish- when she reaches a certain age, her cells collapse back to a previous state, resetting her to 19 years old. Gloria is immortal. If her age keeps resetting past a certain point, she cannot die from old age.” Tria nodded, taking a sip from her tea. “I also hear she has ultra-fast reflexes, as a side effect. Because jellyfish do not have brains, but have a very complex nervous system. It allows her to react without consciously thinking.” “She is one of three elderly people who were signed up to RHE as part of Age-X. Being the final one- she is the success. As you can imagine; the other two rest in the graveyard.”] (link:"TS65")[TS65 “His name was John-“ “Juan.” “Oh, right. Juan. He has a little horse and a little bull- his bones were stronger than a normal human and his body built up muscle extremely easily. He was ultra-buff. They managed to do it without any of the animal features manifesting though, and he could be let go.” She switched the position of her legs because one was falling asleep. “RHE deliberately shot for that, though. They were seeing if they could improve a human using animal traits, while keeping them human. His uh, junk still shoots duds though. The genome his sperm carry are slightly off because of those traits- enough of a miss-match that he cannot have kids.” She laughed. “A shame, because I am sure women are lining up to get knocked up by the mega stud.”] (link:"TS74")[TS74 “Gaeui. She had dog traits but very minor. She had a thin lil tail and subdued pads on her hands and feet and that was it. This was a continuation of Juan, sort-of. Gaeui had almost no sense of smell because of a job they used to work having shitty safety measures. She got minor dog traits, but it also restored her sense of smell to a normal human level. They used animal traits to fix her, without changing her enough that they needed to pluck her out of the outside world. This was a running theme at the time, and applies to the next two subjects as well.”] (link:"TS75")[TS75 “Lait! She looks human but her boobs are huge and unnaturally pert for their size! She has a subtle mix of camel genes in her, though you can't tell by appearance. Her body basically just stores fat like a camel does- only instead of two humps, she has two tits. Her body weight remains stationary- only her boobs gain or lose weight. So if she eats like a pig, her boobs will keep getting bigger and fatter till she stops. If she starves herself, her boobs will shrink.”] (link:"TS76")[TS76 “Cleite. The nails on her hands and feet are small-ish hooked talons, so she needs to file them down constantly. Whenever she would have had her period however; she lays a chicken egg! No internal bleeding or annoying cramps and mood swings for her! Cleite is hybridized with a chicken as you can imagine, but again, her changes are minor enough that she can just hide them on her own and doesn’t need to be on RHEI. She also never needs to use birth control- as you can imagine, chicken eggs can’t be fertilized by human sperm. They do make good breakfasts though.”] (link:"TS80")[TS80 (set: $Moth to it + 1)Opal and Tria exchange glances, and there is a deafening silence for a moment before Opal speaks up again. “The one that got away. Jade is a bit of an urban myth around here. According to RHE, her test was on adaptive genes, similar to what they did with TS42… except TS42 is a genetic catastrophe. Supposedly their ‘held back’ version was too weak to do anything at all, and Jade was released back into the outside world as a failed test. Simple as that…” Tria chuckled, putting her tea cup down a moment. “Except if you look at her entry in the valley labs instead of the main complex you get a different story. In the valley labs there is a museum showcasing the progress of test subjects and hybrids over time. Jade is the 80th test subject… they knew what they were doing by then quite well so it seems very strange for there to be a test subject who was just a complete flop. Her genome was given the code for ‘transmorsive cells’, which would allow them to flash-evolve.” Opal cut in again. “It seems more likely that she would have transformed too much, instead of not at all. Especially if you look at Faith who is basically her prototype. Also, if you ask Zero about it instead of the RHE staff, they ALWAYS act serious. They never act serious about anything! So everyone assumed RHE are hiding something. Maybe she did transform and RHE were somehow unable to recover her? In any case, she is referred to as ‘the one that got away’. Zero is the only one who regularly visits the outside, so if anyone at all knows; it would be them. And they ain’t telling.”] It is Tria who points out the time- out her window she can see the shadow of the other homes creeping across the field toward her house. “You better hustle, outsider. Later afternoon- everyone is going to be heading home to prepare dinner. The number of test subjects wandering around the valley is going to go down pretty fast. Although there are people who stay up at all hours- things are never completely quiet.” Luckily you have sort-of cornered the last few options you were looking for. Saanvi is in the east forest today according to Olivia, and Sage and Lauren are in a hidden little nook in the mountains. You have been outside with Tria and Opal for the last while- if any of the other three had gone home already, they would have to have passed this area first, and you would have seen them. [[TS13 / Saanvi->East Forest]] [[TS04, TS90 / Lauren, Sage->Mountains]]

With the three gathered together, you take the chance to ask them how their transformations went and how they came to be on the island. Both Opal and Rosemary met Tria early on when she came to the island, but Rosemary was first, being her ‘day one’. Tria had the most trouble when she arrived because her size was a possibility, not a goal of the test- so she had a regular house originally. Tria outgrew the doorways before she could get out and became trapped in the house with Rosemary- eventually growing large enough to annihilate the entire building. Opal is so human still that her largest problem was figuring out what her diet should be. Once she started lactating from four breasts, she had to essentially double everything she would normally eat, because her body dedicates half the calories to her milk production. Rosemary’s largest problem is one she still faces. When she speaks, she keeps her voice as low as she can while still being heard. When speaking at a normal tone, she will randomly bray like an ass without being able to control it. Rosemary seemed to think it was some sort of curse, and often remained a silent observer in many situations to avoid braying in front of everyone. You tell Rosemary it isn’t that bad, but she doesn’t believe you. Seeing you try to argue that her voice was fine, Tria takes this as a chance to try and convince Rosemary- using you as a neutral third party. She whispers with Opal and the two set you up with Rosemary, saying that Tria needed to work on some things and dismissed everyone from her home for now. Opal then said she needed to get home before she got too big to move around properly- her milk is starting to build up in her belly. As she is about to leave Opal tells Rosemary that she should take me for a walk around the lake, and then leaves before she can protest. Rosemary looks at you, one ear level and the other up. She seems reluctant, but then motions toward the lake and tells you she can walk with you. The air here is crisp and filled with the mild smells of fresh vegetation. The surface of the lake ripples softly and occasionally you can hear a *plunk* from a fish briefly breaking the surface. Her silence makes things a bit awkward. As you walk along the shore, you try to think of what to say to draw a conversation out of her. You decide to comment on her shawl, the only clothing she wears. You ask if it was imported to the island or not. She shakes her head, holding the shawl with one hand. “Oh, thanks, no it is not imported. I knit this myself.” You ask her to speak up; the wind is in your ears. Rosemary tucks her ears back a bit, giving you a mildly annoyed look. She knows you can hear her just fine, but begrudgingly raises her voice anyway. “I knit this myself- even the materials are from the valley. The knitting needles I-hEE… I use, are quills from TS34; Taylor. The yarn w-hAAs made from TS96, Fate.” You learn that Rosemary likes to read often and is quiet skilled at knitting. She is a smart woman which makes it a shame she tries so hard to keep her mouth shut. Though she is hybridized with an ass which is generally not considered an attractive beast- Rosemary is undeniably very beautiful. Her personality seems more… refined than a lot of the other women of the island. She is cultured and polite- a true lady. You also can see out of the corner of your vision her ebon udder flopping as she walks. It is big enough that her thighs nudge it forward a bit with every step and then it bounces back into place quickly. The tissue seems quite taught and bouncy- much more firm than a large loose bovine udder, which would flop and swing around much more energetically. As the two of you start to turn around the east end of the lake nearest the island you ask her about her meeting with Taylor. She mentioned before having already made plans with TS34 today- if she needed to go, it is okay. “No, no. You ha-Are only here for one day. Taylor is always heEE-ere. It wasn’t like an appointment or anything formal anywa-HEEe.” She sighed at her own braying. You chuckle, though your face is an expression of sympathy. You tell her again that it is fine- if anything it is sort of cute. Sure, if she were to try to give some long winded speech and brayed every three or four words- yea, that would get annoying real fast. But just talking casually? It is fine. “Thanks, but it still annoys m-mmheh…HEEEEEeee-AAAW, damnit!” That was a big one. You can tell from how she inhales immediately after every bray that it expels a lot of air from her lungs; it explodes out of her like a sneeze, and also like a sneeze; once it starts there is basically no way to stop it other than physically sealing her nose and mouth. And even if you could abort it- it probably won’t feel good. That also means it isn’t just an annoyance to her though, it is actually a minor physical strain on Rosemary. As you two walk, she glances your way a few times and catches you glancing at her. But you were looking at her beautiful face and long mane, so you make her blush. Her ears remained lowered, but rather than tucked back they relax and stick straight out the sides. Again, silence. But this time it does not feel awkward. She walks quite close to you, and appreciates you not trying to egg more brays out of her. You two take your time enjoying the area, following the lake line all the way back to the west end, nearest the valley and all the other homes. Rosemary takes a deep breath, looking at you with a subtle smile. “Well, I suppose you better get going- I aAWW-sume you planned to see more test subjects th-AAh-n just us.” You thank Rosemary for the wonderful, relaxing walk. Before you head off blindly, you also ask her for rough directions to your next goal. You can either go to Saanvi in the east forest or to Lauren and Sage in the mountains. The tricky part about those two locations is they are off the established paths and nowhere near anyone’s home. Saanvi would be near the door to The Grotto, but luckily not behind it. Rosemary recommends cutting through the forest and using the mountains as a landmark to follow- once at the base you can follow them to find the clearing by the door. The path to Sage and Lauren isn’t an easy one unfortunately. The path is hard to spot because it isn’t especially well used, but it is the ONLY path up the mountains in that area. There is a clearing wedge into the tall rock cliffs where they hang out. You will have to do some climbing to get to them.(set: $Ass to true) [[TS13 / Saanvi->East Forest]] [[TS04, TS90 / Lauren, Sage->Mountains]]

(if:$Moth is < 5)[You found several trails leading through the forest, but none of them particularly easy to follow. Some were packed down by test subjects, and some by small animals. There were no larger animals like bears, wolves, or deer on the island even in the wilds, so there is nothing in the wilds to cut a trail large enough for a human to easily traverse. The woods in this area of the island were not nearly as dense as in some other locations though, so it is not as though you were being slapped in the face with branches and whatnot. The ground was extremely uneven, causing the trees to have oddly shaped trunks, because they all grew up toward the sun but the base of some trees were almost sideways to be able to grow around or between boulders sunken into the ground. To the east is the largest of the mountains surrounding the island, and they cut a ways into the valley portion- inside the hollow mountain range are The Grotto hot springs and a well-hidden port. While the entire island used to be a caldera- The Grotto is the only portion of it that remains semi-active. Test subject 13 isn’t going there thankfully- you would be unable to follow her there. Your legs were getting sore after not even travelling that far. Because of how rocky the ground is, you have to do a lot of up and down on the trail over huge rocks and an endless maze of tree roots, so it is hard on your knees. The stones are encased in moss and mushrooms too, which although is quite soft on your feet- it is also borderline slippery so you have to be careful how you step. There are no shrubs or medium sized plants in this area which is why it is often used by test subjects- it is the perfect area to grow herbs. You brush up against several tea leaf plants on your way in. When you finally see her, she is illuminated by the sun as she stands in a large clearing against the stone walls of the mountain’s base. She holds a bag of plucked herbs, and you can tell which herb she was here to harvest; she is wearing a small bouquet of teeny-tiny purple mint flowers tucked behind her left ear. The sky has become mostly cloudy- and judging from how dark the silver clouds are becoming, it will most likely rain tonight. There is still many gaps between the clouds though, and the clearing lit up when each gap passed the sun. The sunny breaks caused Saanvi’s hair to look like it is glowing briefly, as the sun danced along her golden, honey-colored hairs. (link:"A closer look...")[Saanvi has a very narrow frame, though also extremely tall- most of which is legs. She naturally had longer legs, but then when she was mixed with oryx genes and her soles stretched into cannon bones of an ungulate, she gained almost another two feet of height! Her legs ended in dainty cloven hooves, and the very last bit of her legs has fur on it, but it is hard to tell. Her fur is extremely fine and only fades into existence after her ankles- from a distance it just looks like her skin changes to a more golden tone. She has the tail of an equine, though it is extremely long as if to match the rest of her body- the hair of it is long enough to touch the ground- so slightly longer than even her legs! It is the same honey colored hair as on her head, but to keep the end off the ground while wandering the wilds; Saanvi looped her tail back up and tied it to itself with a large decorative silver ribbon, tied in a large bow. The hair on her head is quite long too- voluminous but straight and to her hips where her tail takes over- ensuring she is covered from head to toe with hair. Her skin is naturally a golden tone, and turns bronze when tanned- which it currently is. So between her hair, skin, and ribbons- she is gold, silver, and bronze all in one. Her ears are a longer leaf shape- but lack the muscle structure and thinner cartilage of an oryx or horse, so her ears were closer to those of a mythical Elf. Saanvi’s head is adorned with absolutely massive- though narrow- horns that are heavily ribbed on the forward surface. The horns of oryx are very long and sharp, and the breed she was mixed with had only a soft curve to the horns, which means hers go mostly straight up making her even taller! Her house had to be modified with a high roof or her horns would be dragging trenches into the roof as she walked around her house. The horns grow from in front of her temples on her forehead- partially eclipsing them with their base. Her eyes are a pale, sandy brown, and her lips a very dark blood-red. She is wearing a form-fit white long-sleeve so you cannot directly see, but she actually has nothing at all on her chest. Not even the nipples and areola a male would still have- hers is totally blank. Instead she has a cluster of four breasts in her crotch! They looked to be about a C or D cup at most, and were tightly packed together as if to imitate an udder the best they could while still being human breasts. Each was capped with a human nipple but no areola- the nipple was the same color as the rest of it. Saanvi wore a white bikini bottom to cover herself- the top of it cradled the bottom of her lowest two breasts. The mint she has been picking is stuffed into a knit bag she has on one shoulder and surrounds her with an aura of its refreshing scent.] Saanvi heard you before she seen you- looking into the darker forest from the lit clearing was much harder to see than the other way around. She was looking at you as you emerged into the clearing but did not speak till she seen who you were- immediately knowing based on the fact you look entirely human. “Olivia’s friend, I presume? You have certainly come some distance out of your way to see me.” She plucked a leaf from out of her bag and offered it toward you. “Mint?” You take the offering of mint, and explain that since it is approaching dinner time, most of the test subjects on your list are off preparing their meals, so the number of people you could find quickly narrowed. Even if she is quite out of the way, you knew you could find her here still so it was worth the walk. You enjoyed the forest anyway- even if it made your knees start to creak. When you bite down on the mint leaf, the fluid that escapes is bitter for a moment, but everywhere it touches is painted in the powerful scent of mint that remains with you for a good time after. She sat in the grass as you approached, but you could tell from when she was still standing that you are only about as tall as her belly button- she is so tall you are like a child’s height in comparison. She asks why you chose her among those you wanted to see. You reply that it was mostly due to her species- there are no other oryx hybrids on the island, and the animal itself is an endangered species; there are not many of them, period. “Seems like an odd choice then, eh? I suppose it was a mix of appropriation and testing. To tell you the truth, everyone considers me just ‘13’ but my official designation is ’13-2’. My tincture was used on someone before me, named Amon. The original 13 died of old age, but recommended me for RHE testing, and I inherited the 13th tincture.” You cock your eyebrow and ask what she means by recommending her. Did Diya know Saanvi outside of the island? Wouldn’t it be RHE researchers reviewing possible test subjects? “Diya is a researcher herself, but she was a medical researcher, trying to look into the outbreak of Kolath in India.” In a world where magic exists- naturally some lifeforms were evolving around or with magic in mind. Unfortunately this also extends to viruses. Kolath is a magic-based virus that has been on a rampage in India for some time, killing thousands every year, and has no known cure. Luckily it is much less potent against the immune systems of anyone outside of a specific heritage range. Someone whose ancestors were not Indian will be almost immune to the virus- so the outbreak never really leaves the country. Because it is magic based- it follows the flow of ambient mana, and can pass through solid structures to get at people. Only magic wards can prevent it from reaching you- dispelling its means of transferring. Anyone who can’t afford a ward is forfeit to the virus. “The paragon Moth had similar problems in her home world- in another dimension of the multiverse. Kolath is nowhere near as deadly as the plague Moth faced, but Diya was planning a similar solution. The virus is attuned to a specific gene pattern- it is very inefficient at attacking immune systems it is not already familiar with. If you can use alchemical means to change a person’s genes, the virus won’t be able to overtake the new system. Her research eventually leads her to find RHE’s ads, and approached them about their testing. She donated herself to their cause in hopes that they could one day use hybridization to help the world, and make diseases like Kolath a thing of the past.” Saanvi looks a bit distant a moment, just staring at the blades of grass waving in the wind. “Diya is my mother.” You enjoy some time with Saanvi, as she tells you about the various herbs that grow in these woods and how calm and peaceful life on the island is. Mint becomes considerably less potent once it has flowered, so the mint she is picking is starting to pass its prime, which is why she came to pluck as much as she could. She compared it to gathering fiddlehead ferns in the early spring to eat. Cooked with a bit of butter melted on them, they can be a nice veggie to go with a meal- but you have to collect them when they are still fully curled up; as soon as they open they become carcinogenic. You can tell from speaking with her that Saanvi is a very dignified person- she is not particularly one to play or joke around. She is very orderly and neat- employing proper manners and protocol to everything to maintain order. If something is out of place, she immediately becomes irritated. The grass and flowers in the clearing are much taller than in the forest thanks to the direct sunlight, but they also unintentionally hide just how deep the crevice between rocks are, making the ground in the clearing look much more even than it actually is. There is even a few cattails bobbing in the wind around here- some of the dips between rocks are low enough that they collect rainwater to form small stagnant pools for aquatic plants to take root. You both hear some pitter patter and scan the tree line for anyone else approaching. As it speeds up you both realize quickly enough that it is not anyone approaching- it is rain drops against the leaves of the trees! The spaces between clouds had slowly vanished and now the grey clouds have grown too heavy and start to fall! Saanvi ushers you to follow and quickly dashes into the woods to take shelter below the trees. They are not especially close together in this forest though, so there is still scattered gaps between them where there is only rock and moss- but no soil to take root in. Saanvi apologizes on behalf of the weather, but you just chuckle and say it is alright- you had to get going soon anyway. You are due back at the RHE main complex for dinner with Olivia tonight, and it is getting late. The fading sunlight behind the grey clouds makes it even darker than it would normally be, and hard to find you way. Since you are both stuck in the rain dashing between the shelters of trees, Saanvi sticks with you as a guide back to the complex. Unfortunately you both end up getting soaked even though you are running. The slope up to the main complex is long and gradual- there is no trees and buildings between to take shelter under.](if:$Moth > 4)[You found several trails leading through the forest, but none of them particularly easy to follow. Some were packed down by test subjects, and some by small animals. There were no larger animals like bears, wolves, or deer on the island even in the wilds, so there is nothing in the wilds to cut a trail large enough for a human to easily traverse. The woods in this area of the island were not nearly as dense as in some other locations though, so it is not as though you were being slapped in the face with branches and whatnot. The ground was extremely uneven, causing the trees to have oddly shaped trunks, because they all grew up toward the sun but the base of some trees were almost sideways to be able to grow around or between boulders sunken into the ground. To the east is the largest of the mountains surrounding the island, and they cut a ways into the valley portion- inside the hollow mountain range are The Grotto hot springs and a well-hidden port. While the entire island used to be a caldera- The Grotto is the only portion of it that remains semi-active. Test subject 13 isn’t going there thankfully- you would be unable to follow her there. Your legs were getting sore after not even travelling that far. Because of how rocky the ground is, you have to do a lot of up and down on the trail over huge rocks and an endless maze of tree roots, so it is hard on your knees. The stones are encased in moss and mushrooms too, which although is quite soft on your feet- it is also borderline slippery so you have to be careful how you step. There are no shrubs or medium sized plants in this area which is why it is often used by test subjects- it is the perfect area to grow herbs. You brush up against several tea leaf plants on your way in. When you finally see her, she is not alone. It seems as though you got very luckiy; the paragon Moth stands beside Saanvi! You not only found a test subject but the very person who founded RHE and created this island in the first place. Saanvi holds a bag of plucked herbs, and you can tell which herb she was here to harvest; she is wearing a small bouquet of teeny-tiny purple mint flowers tucked behind her left ear. Moth appears to just be tagging along as company. The sky has become mostly cloudy- and judging from how dark the silver clouds are becoming, it will most likely rain tonight. There is still many gaps between the clouds though, and the clearing lit up when each gap passed the sun. The sunny breaks caused Saanvi’s hair to look like it is glowing briefly, as the sun danced along her golden, honey-colored hairs. (link:"A closer look...")[Saanvi has a very narrow frame, though also extremely tall- most of which is legs. She naturally had longer legs, but then when she was mixed with oryx genes and her soles stretched into cannon bones of an ungulate, she gained almost another two feet of height! Her legs ended in dainty cloven hooves, and the very last bit of her legs has fur on it, but it is hard to tell. Her fur is extremely fine and only fades into existence after her ankles- from a distance it just looks like her skin changes to a more golden tone. She has the tail of an equine, though it is extremely long as if to match the rest of her body- the hair of it is long enough to touch the ground- so slightly longer than even her legs! It is the same honey colored hair as on her head, but to keep the end off the ground while wandering the wilds; Saanvi looped her tail back up and tied it to itself with a large decorative silver ribbon, tied in a large bow. The hair on her head is quite long too- voluminous but straight and to her hips where her tail takes over- ensuring she is covered from head to toe with hair. Her skin is naturally a golden tone, and turns bronze when tanned- which it currently is. So between her hair, skin, and ribbons- she is gold, silver, and bronze all in one. Her ears are a longer leaf shape- but lack the muscle structure and thinner cartilage of an oryx or horse, so her ears were closer to those of a mythical Elf. Saanvi’s head is adorned with absolutely massive- though narrow- horns that are heavily ribbed on the forward surface. The horns of oryx are very long and sharp, and the breed she was mixed with had only a soft curve to the horns, which means hers go mostly straight up making her even taller! Her house had to be modified with a high roof or her horns would be dragging trenches into the roof as she walked around her house. The horns grow from in front of her temples on her forehead- partially eclipsing them with their base. Her eyes are a pale, sandy brown, and her lips a very dark blood-red. She is wearing a form-fit white long-sleeve so you cannot directly see, but she actually has nothing at all on her chest. Not even the nipples and areola a male would still have- hers is totally blank. Instead she has a cluster of four breasts in her crotch! They looked to be about a C or D cup at most, and were tightly packed together as if to imitate an udder the best they could while still being human breasts. Each was capped with a human nipple but no areola- the nipple was the same color as the rest of it. Saanvi wore a white bikini bottom to cover herself- the top of it cradled the bottom of her lowest two breasts. The mint she has been picking is stuffed into a knit bag she has on one shoulder and surrounds her with an aura of its refreshing scent.] Saanvi heard you before she seen you- looking into the darker forest from the lit clearing was much harder to see than the other way around. She was looking at you as you emerged into the clearing but did not speak till she seen who you were- immediately knowing based on the fact you look entirely human. Moth is hard to read, because she currently has her giant hooded cloak fully over herself, so her face is hidden in its shade. The hood is so large that there is an amethyst pendulum that hangs from the front of the hood to prevent wind from catching in it and pulling it off suddenly. You see only a single bare hand out of the sleeve holding up a tall wooden staff tipped with a lit lantern. She holds a book in her other hand, but you can only see half the book past her large sleeve. “Olivia’s friend, I presume? You have certainly come some distance out of your way to see me.” She plucked a leaf from out of her bag and offered it toward you. “Mint?” You take the offering of mint, and explain that since it is approaching dinner time, most of the test subjects on your list are off preparing their meals, so the number of people you could find quickly narrowed. Even if she is quite out of the way, you knew you could find her here still, so it was worth the walk. You enjoyed the forest anyway- even if it made your knees start to creak. You also managed to catch the paragon, who you were definitely not expecting to even be on this planet. When you bite down on the mint leaf, the fluid that escapes is bitter for a moment, but everywhere it touches is painted in the powerful scent of mint that remains with you for a good time after. Saanvi sat in the grass as you approached, but you could tell from when she was still standing that you are only about as tall as her belly button- she is so tall you are like a child’s height in comparison. Moth on the other hand is a bit shorter than you are. Her appearance is stunted at an earlier age than she actually is, because she virtually never ages while on this planet. Time flows differently in the world she is from, so in comparison she ages so slowly here that it is basically at a standstill. She ages normally when she returns home. Perhaps that is why she still enjoys visiting this version of Earth so much- being here extends her lifespan. Saanvi asks why you chose her among those you wanted to see. You reply that it was mostly due to her species- there are no other oryx hybrids on the island, and the animal itself is an endangered species; there are not many of them, period. “Seems like an odd choice then, eh? I suppose it was a mix of appropriation and testing. To tell you the truth, everyone considers me just ‘13’ but my official designation is ’13-2’. My tincture was used on someone before me, named Diya. The original 13 died of old age, but recommended me for RHE testing, and I inherited the 13th tincture.” You cock your eyebrow and ask what she means by recommending her. Did Diya know Saanvi outside of the island? Wouldn’t it be RHE researchers reviewing possible test subjects? “Diya is a researcher herself, but she was a medical researcher, trying to look into the outbreak of Kolath in India.” In a world where magic exists- naturally some lifeforms were evolving around or with magic in mind. Unfortunately this also extends to viruses. Kolath is a magic-based virus that has been on a rampage in India for some time, killing thousands every year, and has no known cure. Luckily it is much less potent against the immune systems of anyone outside of a specific heritage range. Someone whose ancestors were not Indian will be almost immune to the virus- so the outbreak never really leaves the country. Because it is magic based- it follows the flow of ambient mana, and can pass through solid structures to get at people. Only magic wards can prevent it from reaching you- dispelling its means of transferring. Anyone who can’t afford a ward is forfeit to the virus. “The paragon Moth had similar problems in her home world- in another dimension of the multiverse. Kolath is nowhere near as deadly as the plague Moth faced, but Diya was planning a similar solution. The virus is attuned to a specific gene pattern- it is very inefficient at attacking immune systems it is not already familiar with. If you can use alchemical means to change a person’s genes, the virus won’t be able to overtake the new system.” Moth nodded. “In Wick- my version of Earth- I created a global spell reaction by creating a metaphysical stone through alchemy that replicates a spell effect constantly as a reaction to its environment- I turned the entire world into animal-human hybrids. Because it happened suddenly instead of through any evolutionary means, there is no virus in the world able to understand their current genomes- making them effectively immune to diseases entirely. At least till another eventually evolves around their current forms.” “Diya’s research eventually leads her to find RHE’s ads, and approached them about their testing. She donated herself to their cause in hopes that they could one day use hybridization to help the world, and make diseases like Kolath a thing of the past.” Saanvi looks a bit distant a moment, just staring at the blades of grass waving in the wind. “Diya is my mother.” You enjoy some time with Saanvi and Moth. Saanvi tells you about the various herbs that grow in these woods and how calm and peaceful life on the island is. Moth mentions that mint becomes considerably less potent once it has flowered, so the mint Saanvi is picking is starting to pass its prime, which is why she came to pluck as much as she could. She compared it to gathering fiddlehead ferns in the early spring to eat. Cooked with a bit of butter melted on them, they can be a nice veggie to go with a meal- but you have to collect them when they are still fully curled up; as soon as they open they become carcinogenic. You can tell from speaking with her that Saanvi is a very dignified person- she is not particularly one to play or joke around. She is very orderly and neat- employing proper manners and protocol to everything to maintain order. If something is out of place, she immediately becomes irritated. Moth on the other hand is more aloof- though she still carries an aura of power with her. Even had you not known who she is, you could still tell she is an important figure. She is casual and carefree, because with her God-granted knowledge, she has been able to save her entire home planet from extinction. She can fully relax and enjoy life now, because she already dragged herself through hell. You look at Moth- this close you can see her iris have a dim glow to them, an unnatural orange. You say that Moth managed to turn her entire world into animal hybrids… are they born that way now? “Oh, no. It is personality based and since infants are still in the developmental stages of their ego- the spell has nothing solid to grasp onto. There are even older people who are so devoid of individuality that they remain human even still. If a person is too caught up in their persona and mentally unstable as a result, the effect can even go the other way- reducing them to feral animals. Even though the effect is created by a non-spell based means, the effect can still be warded like a spell- so if someone does not like what they become, they can simply put on a spell ward and remove the effects.” You smile timidly, pointing out that; that would mean Moth too, has an anthro form. “Haha, yes, it does.” She (text-style:"rumble")[//thunked//] the end of her staff into the crevice between rocks so it would remain standing on its own and then used her hands to grab and yank off her cloak in one swift motion. Moth of course is simply a nickname- her real name is Dess Winehal. Her hair is quite voluminous and billows down to her chest- though probably can go as low as her stomach if it is wet or otherwise pulled straight. It is a vibrant orange in color, almost exactly the same as her iris. She was wearing a white top and some strange dark grey pants of a style you have never seen before, but before you are able to full take them in they are gone. Dess simply snapped her fingers and her clothing dematerialized off her body. You wanted to see her transform, right? Don’t need clothing obscuring your view. She has a birth mark on her left thigh that looks like a slash mark- except it projects out and is deep brown in contrast to her rose hue flesh- it is the same brown her nipples and tiny areola are. Her own breasts a modest C cup, but quite well formed- perfect tear-shape whether viewed from the side or dead on. A bush of vibrant orange crowns her pubic mound. She is not the slightest bit fat, but she also utterly lacks any muscle definition- it is clear she does not go out much. As Dess concentrates a moment with her eyes closed, her smile renews when she opens them- and you can see the wood of her staff writhe around as if made of some sort of liquid for a moment. The staff was born from Qorelle; God Of Shapes, and former member of the Lost Founders. Dess held up her hands to both look at them and show you at the same time- a lump formed and lengthened from her wrist up the middle of her hand, forming what looks like an extra digit. Her skin started to get shiny looking as materials from her bones leaked out and re-condensed on the surface. Her bones thinned and vanished entirely as an exoskeleton formed on the surface instead. As it hardened on exposure to the air, it turned progressively darker- a glossy black when finished. The chitin continued up her arms toward her shoulders, but more interestingly dug into the meat of her lower arms! It created a crevice, and with a high pitch splintering sound cracked all the way through her arm, splitting it in half! The oddly placed sixth digit on her human hands revealed itself to be a second thumb- when her hands split in half it created two hands; each with two fingers and a thumb. There is a tiny gap between the chitin plates where her joints are to allow them continued flexibility- in these gaps human flesh remained. Once covered in chitin, her fingers and thumbs no longer had fingernails- but each digit ended in a point of chitin, sharp enough to pierce but not sharp enough to pierce without intent. The split in her arms followed the advance of the carapace’s formation up to her shoulders fully dividing them, and then also split her shoulder blades. Normally you do not see it outwardly, but the thorax of a bug is made of three sections, but on Dess the split was only partial since she is still half human even fully transformed. Her shoulder blades also remained, though became a bit brittle. Chitin formed across them on the surface still but the advance stopped there- so bone remained below the chitin there as well, half-changed. Because the chitin is black the growth of hairs was very noticeable because they are a very pale grey. A fuzz formed on her forearms that quickly consumed them and started to lengthen, making it bushier and bushier. The fur here was so incredibly dense that at a distance it did not even look like fur, it looked like a large, round white forearm. Even though she was clearly still changing, Dess offered an arm to you so you could feel it. The hairs were packed so tightly together it took effort to penetrate the fuzz, but they are also very soft. Just brushing your hand lightly over the surface of it is powder-soft. The fur did not grow anywhere else on her arm, just the forearm. Dess cooed and shivered at the feeling of more fur coming in, but not on her four arms. Starting at her collar bone and working its way up her entire neck, another huge plume of dense fur started to grow in and puff out- again, it is pale grey. The hair on her head and her eyebrows started to fade to grey as well, starting at the roots the color drained from each hair. Thin stalks sprouted on her forehead just above her brow- it seemed to form from her skin but was like stiff rubber- a flexible chitin stem to form her antennae. As they started to slow their growth, her antennae sprouted millions of bristles of its own, expanding to make them look huge- more like giant soft feathers than antennae in appearance. You noticed her shifting herself around but only now do you look down and see it was not just nervous anticipation- her legs are changing to match her arms. Her feet stretched as if to become ungulate but not all of her toes fused. The ends of her feet remained with two large toes instead of five, and like her fingers they end in points of chitin. The carapace follows up to encompass her thighs but not her butt cheeks. Even Dess blushes as her anus becomes very puffy, and then her entire pelvic floor starts to push out! She spreads her legs a bit and tenses at the mild prickly feeling as the chitin of her legs starts to bloom into near-white fur. Unlike her arms the fur seems to consume her entire legs, though gets shorter toward her feet and does not cover her twin toes. Like her forearms; on her thighs the fur is extremely dense, and makes her thighs seem much larger and rounder than they actually are. Dess bows forward a bit and her antennae twitch as she cups her crotch with her two lower hands and then holds her upper butt with the other two. Her pelvic floor sinks but only in the back, and you can visibly see the skin squirm as rings of muscle divide into the new section and pinch it off from the old. Her vulva remains on the old pelvic floor section, and is cut off from the changes by the contraction of the new muscle ribs. Her anus however is centralized on it. As soon as Dess has enough muscle control and flexibility she flicks the growth backward so she can close her legs better, and then turns sideways so you can see its growth better. The chitin here followed the growth almost exactly, and is shadowed almost immediately after by fur. The fur here was very short, but still dense- completely hiding the black of the chitin but not the shape of it. It looked like a large bump when it started, then turned to a bubble when the muscle rings gave it an individual shape. Then as it expanded larger it started to look like an oval. It stopped growing at about two feet long- and was shaped like a football. It is her abdomen- though Dess quickly points out that it is sort of backwards from an actual bug. Normally the abdomen is heavily modified for reproduction in moth and butterfly at least- but her vulva never moved. The abdomen on Dess is exclusively her intestinal tract and anus at the very end. The fur on it progressed up from the base to form a short stripe on her lower back, but did not go forward on her torso’s underside, except for her formerly orange bush turning into a patch of power soft pubic fur. She hunched forward a bit and you could see stems growing off the curve of her upper back looking like her antennae did while forming- but becoming much more massive, and there are four. As they got longer they started to shiver rapidly. Their rapid movement started to stretch and billow the skin up off them almost as if it were made of a liquid- like watching someone wave a bubble-wand in the air. Dess made a few desperate sounding moans and twitched a few times from the odd feeling. Massive veins started to branch out from the original stems, forming a complex maze through the stretched skin. The flesh was membrane was stretched to the point that it was somewhat translucent, making the veins even easier to see form. In actuality they are not veins at all- they contain blood vessels and nerves, but what you see is the larger outer casing that houses them- the ‘veins’ you are seeing act as a framework to strengthen the forming wings. Another layer formed over this quickly, extending from her skin that colored the wings and made the framework no longer visible. This outer layer is the ‘powder’ of a moth’s wings- however it is actually made of billions of extremely tiny scales. You are startled a moment as four huge, demonic looking eyes appear floating in the air around her! Two are huge and blood red, with golden iris and slit-like pupils. There are rounder, smaller eyes further out that are white with cyan iris and round pupils. Dess laughs at your reaction as she slowly straightens her back again. She waves a hand over her outstretched wings and the eye momentarily vanishes. It is like waving your hand in front of an image projector- the eyes are not actually there, it is an optical illusion created by her wing scales. Because of her magical prowess, her natural illusory ability is above and beyond what any normal moth can produce- generating a 3D image of an eye that appears to be hovering around her wing rather than actually attached to it. Even if the wing is put at an angle, the eye appears to turn at the same angle, as long as you can still see the patterning on the wing. Her lower set of wings have long tails with bulbous ends- this is where the illusion of the smaller more distant eyes come from. Dess notes that her wing orientation is modified for her human frame- on an actual bug the wings would grow from the middle and lower back, not the upper back. Insect wings never share the same space as their forelimbs. Dess crosses her lower arms and holds out the top. “Tadaah! As a surprise to absolutely no one- my anthro form is a Moth.” She let you feel her hands- still soft human flesh in the tiny gaps between chitin plates, and the plates themselves stiff and smooth but not rigid- if you press hard enough you can still bend it. You ask her what it feels like for her. “Well when it forms it just feels like tightening of the skin. Like, when a nipple hardens because of the cold, only all over my arms, haha. The sensation through it is like feeling through a callous- I can definitely still feel fully through the chitin but the sensation is more distant.” Dess kept her outfit de-materialized, but picked up and tossed her cloak back over herself, causing the terrifying floating eyes around her to vanish. You ask her about her name though; if her name is Dess, why does virtually everyone call her Moth? Did she always used to take on this form, and you just somehow never heard about it? Most people aren’t even aware Moth is a nickname, and think that is legitimately her real name. Saanvi spoke up with a smile. “Oh, I remember this one. It is because of her long hours of study.” Dess nodded, motioning to the lantern on the end of her staff. “Before I was named the Paragon and treated as an envoy for the Lost Founders; people always used to find me studying. I would often go to the neglected, more ancient sections of the libraries to find rare books, so I would usually be sitting in the dark reading by candle or lantern light. So, like a moth- people found me hovering silently by a light. I had my nickname long before I had an anthro form. But the transformation is personality based, and my nickname was also granted because of a personality trait- so naturally the two aligned.” The three of you pause as you hear some pitter patter and scan the tree line for anyone else approaching. As it speeds up you all realize quickly enough that it is not anyone approaching- it is rain drops against the leaves of the trees! The spaces between clouds had slowly vanished and now the grey clouds have grown too heavy and start to fall! Saanvi ushers you to follow and quickly dashes into the woods to take shelter below the trees. They are not especially close together in this forest though, so there is still scattered gaps between them where there is only rock and moss- but no soil to take root in. Dess vibrates her wings creating a loud humming sound as she repels the water droplets off them. “Well, time to find a dryer dimension, haha. Here-I will drop you two off at a building, where do you need to go?” You tell her you are due back at the main complex soon to eat dinner with Olivia and in a moment both you and Saanvi appear immediately inside the front door of the main complex! Dess teleported you both to the same place, before jumping out of this dimension herself. Saanvi apologizes on behalf of the weather, but you just chuckle and say it is alright- you had to get going soon anyway. Since you are both at the main complex now, you offer for Saanvi to join you and Olivia for dinner and she can see little reason to refuse at this point.] [[Continue...->Lucky End]]

You decide to head into the mountains to try and track down Lauren and Sage. They went far from any homes or well-worn paths and the only way back was going through the fields where you would have seen them while you were with Tria and the others, so you know the two of them must still be up there. There are pathways natural or not that lead up the mountains all around the island, but only one specifically in the area you are looking for. The forests trace the mountains almost all the way around but there are clearings. The place you walk to the fields lead right against the mountains. Because the area where the two meet is relatively small you are able to find the path they must have used. It is a hard zig-zag, the path made of gravel and crumbled stones between the much larger, sturdier rocks that made up the cliff face. Every footstep makes a loud //crunch// as the small stones below your feet grind into one another. You are a bit uneasy climbing this pathway- it is narrow and if you fall off there is nothing really to catch you. There are no plants or trees growing here at all- the rock is too sheer. You see what must be the place- a large clearing between rock, though from below you cannot see far enough into the crevice to know. There are a lot of valleys and dips between the hundreds of peaks of the barrier cliffs. They are formed as the rain and wind carves away the softer stone from the harder. The soft stone turns to dirt and soil and washes down into the valley to feed the forests and fields, while the harder stone remains standing as a shield to encapsulate it all from the outside world. Aeons ago this island was a caldera- a very shallow but incredibly wide type of volcano- so the barrier mountains around the island are the outer edge of the volcano, the valley is the now long dead innards that would have been glowing with heat long ago. When you are nearly there, you can smell spray paint in the air and know you are close. As you approach the opening finally you can hear rock music playing from a mono speaker- a song you are familiar with to boot. The clearing is almost perfectly round and the cliff around almost the entire clearing is covered in spray paint, but much of it is just guiding lines and borders- only a fifth of it fully filled in yet. Sage spots you first because she is just bobbing her head to the music, leaned against a stone wall with her arms crossed. The music is coming from an Orange brand uTune. An elaborate mix of magic but mostly technology- it is a small square block when folded up, but two speakers flip out to make it a long rectangle that plays music. The only annoying thing with this particular model is that the holographic interface to switch songs and that is on the reverse side the speakers face, so you have to flip it over to change songs. Sage looks over to Lauren and gives a short ‘Yo’ to get her attention, and then Lauren spots you as well. She is a bit intimidating in person- she is many, ''many'' times taller than you are. (link:"Lauren")[Lauren is known as TS04 ‘//the chimera//’ for having been mixed with more animals than she was supposed to originally, due to an error in her transformation. The initial effects were repressed by a ward she had completely forgotten she was wearing, so RHE attempted some alternate plans which also failed for the same reason. Once Lauren finally removed the ward, all of the effects hit at once. Lauren was a bit of a mess even before her genes were put through the blender. Her arms and legs are extremely long, but end differently. Her legs end in strange hooves that are made of three segments. Two segments, the primary portion of a cloven hoof but no dew claws, and in between these two segments is a single long claw. Lauren’s hands are humanoid but the end and base of every digit has a thick paw pad on it, and her fingernails are instead the blunt claws of a canine. Her non-sharp claws allow her to shred on her electric guitar without needing a pick. Her torso is relatively untouched by transformation, but she has eight breasts instead of simply two. Two pairs on her chest that are a C cup- a perfect handful each. The two pairs of breasts on her lower body are G cups. There is a bit of a gap between the two sets, but not too big since her torso only has so much room- the size of her breasts is also somewhat in flux; her perceived body weight changes pretty drastically according to whether or not she is properly hydrated. When she drinks a lot her body can retain extra fluid as wobbly chub- if she is dehydrated she can look withered. Her neck is long; taking its size from a giraffe but its flexibility from a slug. She has what looks like bull horns on her head, but they are actually soft and retractable- they are slug tentacles. Her tongue is a bruised tone of red-purple and extremely long, capped by a spike stud piercing. Lauren has the face, but not the head of a bovine- her lower face pushed out into a short muzzle but the rest of her head is still human. Her nose and mouth are connected by moist, pitch black skin. Her right arm is a full sleeve tattoo- impressive given how long the limb is. From shoulder to elbow it is a classic art motif of angels at the top and devils below, each fighting over possession of human skulls in between. From the elbow to wrist is the more recent ink- very similar to the top half, this section depicts human at the top and the imagery gets progressively more bestial toward the bottom. She has a tattoo of a man over her original right breast- her nipple lined up to where the man’s penis would be. On her crotch is the tattoo of spider eyes- her labia tattooed to look like spider mandibles. Or at least, the human front portion. Her labia are extremely long- they trail some distance backward onto her long semi-amorphous slug tail, forming soft fleshy frills at the bottom edges of the tail. She is wearing a loose black shirt but it is full of tears and holes- some larger holes are pinched closed by safety pins, and you can see one of her nipples fully through one of the tears. The shirt does nothing to cover her four lower G cup breasts. Skirts work with her, but pants do not fit her- right now Lauren improvised some leggings for herself. She took a pair of jeans and tore them in half- slipping just the legs onto her own and then tying them in place with a black leather strap on the top and bottom. Because of how long her legs are- the jean legs only cover her from the hip to ankle, acting somewhat like custom leg warmers.] (link:"Sage")[Sage- TS90- is half red dragon, so she has a good deal of scales on her body. Her scales are small and almost perfectly round- all metallic red in color. The dragon scales cover her shins, the backs of her hands, shoulders, wings, tail, and the back of her neck trailing to the edges of her face. Where the scales end and her flesh begins shifts a little bit- there are a few scales disconnected from the rest, and will not always re-grow in the same place once shed. Her fingers are tipped with claws, her toes tipped with talons- white at the base and fading to translucent tips. Her feet are digitigrade- the ankles raised from the ground at all times but not as far off the ground as an ungulate, the base of her toes is heavily padded. The only possesses three toes per foot, but they are quite large as are the hooked talons that cap them. Her tail is quite large and the scales on it get progressively more narrow and sharp toward the tip- the end of her tail grating like sandpaper, but the base smooth. Similarly, the scales on the backs of her hands are quite sharp. Her wings are each longer than her entire body is tall in order to carry her, and the membrane of the wings is semi-translucent and looks very soft to the touch. It is bigger than the frame of the wing, which causes it to billow out when she flies, and when her wings are tucked back it looks somewhat like a cape on her back. Her hair is platinum blonde and cut unevenly around her shoulders, hanging perfectly straight- it was obvious she cut her own hair. Her eyebrows did not have hair- they are a ridge of five tiny bone spurs each. Sage’s iris are a deep, blood red with tiny flecks of gold. Her skin is fairly pale peach, but becomes redder to meet where the scales start. She has horns that are extremely large for the size of her head- from the start of where the temple would be all the way to the top base of her ears was entirely taken up by the base of the horns alone. They are mostly straight, but have a soft waving curve to them, as they arch back and up both lazily- going more straight out to the sides than any other direction. That means she cannot sleep on her sides- she would spear her bed through her pillow. The horns are heavily textured- pale white on most but fading to golden at the ridge between each segment where it is more worn. Each horn is actually made up of multiple layers; the ridge is where each layer ends. Sage wears a gas mask at all times with a canister filter on either side- this is not to keep pollutants away from her; it is to keep her breath away from everyone else. She can deliberately breath a gas that ignites on contact with nitrogen, but even when she suppresses that ability she still breaths smoke and embers- she cannot entirely hold it back, so she must wear the mask when she is around others. She has several black leather straps around her body randomly, with rounded metal spikes adorning them. Her actual clothing is just an X of duct tape over her nipples on her modest C cup breasts, and then a very long narrow tabard-like loincloth. Rather than let it hang and drag over a foot on the ground, the loincloth was loosely tied around her upper legs and then pinned to itself by the pin of a band you are unfamiliar with, and a squat teardrop shaped breast pin. It looked like a skirt when worn in this manner.] Lauren grinned and rolled the peas in the spray can slowly as she walked over to you and the size difference between you and her was underlined. Standing right in front of you, she had to bow forward a bit to see your face past her lower tits. You stood about as tall as her crotch, so the larger boobs hung at a level perfect for you to motorboat all four at once- if you had a death wish. When you look up to her face you almost wobble and fall back- all the fumes from her spray painting is making you a bit light headed. The clearing is wedged in the stone cliffs so it is sheltered from the wind entirely. Lauren is used to the smell, and Sage can’t even smell it with her mask on. Which is doubly good- because her breath would also ignite those gasses and probably cause an explosion if she got too close to the cans. “Well fuck me, the outsider came all this way just to see us.” Lauren glanced to Sage and then back to you before cocking her head back a bit. “So which one of us did you come to see?” Sage huffed. “You, obviously. You are the one with eight tits.” You chuckle nervously and explain you came to see them both, equally. You had a long list of test subjects you would have liked to see, but only so many you could actually find in a single day. The fact they are together made them a higher priority to find, because you could get two for one. You start by asking them what they are doing here specifically. Lauren pointed across the way to the top of the ramp leading down from the RHE main complex and explained that you can see the mural she is making from all the way over there- but because of how it is sunken into the surrounding cliffs, you cannot see it at an angle. She is one of the island’s artists, but she works with spray paint only, so Lauren requires a large canvas. Lauren and Sage are both graffiti artists, and on top of that Lauren is also a guitarist. In the outside world she belonged to a band called We Might Be Dragons, but on the island she is the leader of the band The Udder Ones. You ask how they came to be on the island originally and they have very different stories. Lauren came to the island to follow her friend Nancy ‘Libra’, TS02. Nancy’s job had fallen through and she could not find new work, and Lauren was still in the band at the time but constantly clashing with the band leader. The synchronicity of the band was gone and its popularity sinking because of it- she was just counting the days till they broke up at that point so she needed to look into a new career herself and just came to RHEI instead. Nancy and Lauren both had their transformations delayed by several days, so RHE had actually let them go thinking the test failed at first. They were some of the very first test subjects, so RHE was still figuring a lot of things out. Luckily TS00 tracked them down and brought them back to RHEI before things became too much of a problem on the outside. Sage was recruited to RHEI because it was either come here with RHE or go to prison for murder. She had been stuck with a very abusive boyfriend who refused to leave her alone even when she repeatedly tried to dump him. Eventually she snapped and bit off his genitals before opening his entire torso from the crotch up and dumping his entrails on the ground. The police found her wandering aimlessly from the house, caked in his dried blood, giggling to herself over nothing. You say you wish Lauren could have played you a sample of her music, but obviously did not have a guitar all the way up here- she couldn’t have climbed up here carrying it anyway without risking damage to it. “Oh, actually I ''do'' have some old stuff.” She snapped her fingers at Sage and motioned her finger to the uTune. “All stuff from before I came to RHEI, though. Other test subjects might have recordings of my new stuff, but I don’t.” Using two small projections the uTune can collide light particles to create a holographic projection- it is pretty cool to watch video with it, though because you can see ''through'' the projection; it is kind of shitty for still images. Lauren played some old videos for you of her time in We Might Be Dragons. If it was not for her many piercings and tattoos you likely would not be able to recognize her. It was wild to see the old perfectly human Lauren to compare side-by-side with the transformed Lauren. She is fully squat down with her arms on her knees to show you the videos. You think it must hurt like hell to hold that position for any length of time, but then you glance down and remember she has hooves not feet- she probably doesn’t feel any cramping at all. You also notice that when Lauren is idle, she taps the central toe that is between the two hoof segments. It taps in perfect time- a side effect of her musical prowess. You ask her what her house is like- since she is so extremely tall now, there is no way she can fit into a normal home. “It sorta looks like someone just stretched a fuckin’ house out, haha. My crib is a little bigger and a lot taller, but the layout and that is exactly the same as everyone else’s place. All the furniture n’ that is basically the same, just lots of headspace. That is also why my place was perfect for the start of the mural by the market- much bigger surface.” On that same note, you ask Sage what her home is like. Surely she can’t wear the mask all the time? That would be tremendously uncomfortable, but without the mask the house would suffer from smoke damage constantly. “My furniture needed to be made out of fire-retardant material; that was the first thing to change in my place right off the bat. I don’t snore when I sleep- I let out the occasional burst of (text-style:"shudder")[flames].” Lauren nodded. “There is a soft hum around her house all the time because of her wicked AC.” “Yea, my house has industrial strength air conditioning in the roof. They call it the ‘Air Puri-fire’. Not only does it vent and filter the smoke back outside, but it also needs to pull in oxygen quickly. My lungs convert excess oxygen into //pendrogen//- the flammable gas that burns on contact with nitrogen. Normally the human lungs are pretty inefficient- the air they breathe out still has a good bit of oxygen in it that is unused and can be re-breathed. I don’t. What my lungs don’t absorb immediately is turned into pendrogen, which means I use up oxygen at an equivalent of four people. If I didn’t have a heavy duty air system in my house I would suffocate from carbon monoxide poisoning.” You ask if Sage can demonstrate her dragon’s breath. She takes her mask off carefully, holding her breath while she does till she steps back. You can see the moment Sage takes a breath, because smoke starts streaming out of her nose when she exhales. An actual dragon would be able to hold in the smoke too, but Sage is only a dragon-half. She opens her mouth wide and lets out a huff of air- producing a perfect ring of smoke slowly drifting through the air. Sage then places a hand in front of her mouth to help funnel the fire and breathes out sharply a long breath, launching a three foot pillar of flames from the other side of her hand- straight through the middle of the smoke ring that was still hovering through the air! As you applaud her, she takes in a sharp breath, swallows and then releases a burp which creates a sideways mushroom cloud of flames- immediately making Lauren burst out laughing. You notice how late it is getting as the orange-yellow light of the sun vanishes behind the mountain peaks. You are due back at the main complex for dinner with Olivia, but since these two clearly have no dinner plans you invite them to join you. Lauren says she has a practice session with Lorelei and is sleeping over on the island of Little Light for the night, so she slips away to head to the west shore. Sage however reluctantly agrees to go with you to the main complex for dinner. [[Continue...->Brimstone End]]

(set: $Brimstone to true)The wind picked up as the sun started to fall, causing a loud whistling from the clearing as it passed over the opening. Sage mentioned you two should probably hustle; the entire island is surrounded by mountains so the sunlight will be gone before the sun actually sets- the mountain will block it completely once it gets low enough. She is a natural risk-taker, but even she would be leery of climbing down these sheer cliffs in the dark. Unfortunately you can only go so fast without risking rolling right off your feet on the loose gravel that makes up the path, so you are both not quite all the way down before the island goes dark. The sunlight is shaded entirely, making the island essentially in night time even though the sky is still the orange, pink and purples of dusk. Sage sighs and removes her mask. She cuts ahead of you a few feet and stops repressing her draconic ability, so with every breath she takes; wisps of orange and yellow flame billow from her mouth and nose, illuminating the path ahead! The trail back onto the soft grassy fields is lit in dragon’s fire. The wind carries the flames far from her before they vanish into the dark though- so as soon as you both have your feet in the grass she puts her mask back on. Using flames as a guide here could risk igniting the plant life. The huge grassy fields twinkle in the darkness- the pale green glow of millions of fireflies resting on the ends of the grass blades. Walking through the grass sends them into the air around you, illuminating you both with their bioluminescence. Sage turns to you while still walking toward the complex- backwards now. “Hey- race you.” You agree- it isn’t like she is hybridized for speed, you should be just as fast as her. Once you both get to a run however she unfurls her wings and slams them downward! The soft membrane billows out almost looking like a parachute for a moment, and then she tucks them in slightly to lift them again and slams them down a second time- you notice her feet aren’t touching the ground! Ack! She is cheating! Sage immediately veers off toward the main complex- she can fly so she does not need to walk up the long ramp to the parking lot, she can just fly straight to it! You imagine her getting to Olivia and them eating dinner without you. When you finally manage to get to the main complex, you walk up to Sage completely out of breath. She is waiting leaned up beside the front doors. She would feel awkward going in without you there, so she has been waiting outside the whole time. She also asks Olivia if it is even okay for her to be there, eating where the RHE staff does. Olivia just cocked her eyebrow at her. “Of course it is fine. All the food on the island comes from the same shipments; it doesn’t matter where you eat it. I mean, this restaurant is for the RHE stuff but there isn’t any actual rules saying who can and can’t eat here.” Sage ends up special requesting her meat be served raw, which has never happened before in the restaurant, but since the one preparing the meals is a golem- it is incapable of questioning her order. Sage obviously cannot eat with her mask on, so while you and Olivia sit together on one side of the table; Sage is on the other. She doesn’t want to taint the flavor of your food with the smell of her escaping smoke. Her breath is also why she only ever eats raw meat- her breath cooks it. If the meat was already cooked then it would burn while she is trying to eat it. If it is raw, it becomes cooked as she eats. If she attempted to eat a salad, it would become withered and gross from the heat of her breath as she attempted to eat. You can both see and hear the moisture in the meat hissing as it escapes to the surface with each bite she takes- drawn out by the heat. As you eat dinner, Sage continues to tell you about herself and her favorite pastime of ‘taking long walks off short cliffs’. She climbs the mountains only to leap off and see how close to the ground she can get before opening her wings and taking off again. She has come to the RHE main complex more often to treat severe friction burns and bloody scrapes from the times it did not go quite right. She also flips through images saved on her uTune and shows them to you- including a funny picture of TS50 Chastity sunbathing. The image was taken while she was asleep in the sun, so she had yet to wake up and realize what happened. There were veins of skin down her body that were still pale and unaffected by the sun. She had hit capacity and leaked some milk while tanning- the milk streams blocked the sun! It would be some time before she was able to correct those tan lines. (if:($Faith is true) and ($Aloe is true) and ($Hydra is true) and ($Maple is true))[ [[* You cannot sleep... *->Make A Monster]] ]After dinner you were so tired from climbing and running you barely even remember going to bed and were asleep the moment you touched down. It was emotionally painful to wake up the next day, and Olivia practically had to drag you out of bed. Unfortunately your time was up- the helicopter had a schedule to keep and you needed to be on it to go home. Your feelings must have been easily read because she gave you a sympathetic look as she slapped you on the shoulder at the base of the tower. “Hey- I got you onto the island once, didn’t I? I could probably pull it off again. Maybe. Anyway, buck up! Sage gave me this to give to you before you headed off.” She held up a metallic disk and it took you a moment to realize what it is. You take it and roll it over in your hand. It is quite stiff and slightly flexible, and the edge is a bit sharp. A shimmering metallic red, except for part of the edge which faded to peach tone where it grew from her body. It is the scale of a red dragon- a scale from the fire breathing Sage. (if:(history: where its name contains "Rosemary")'s length >= 1)[Olivia then reaches into a pocket of her lab coat and very carefully hands you another gift. The book is very well worn. You immediately know who this keepsake is from by the title of the book. It is a copy of Metamorphosis by Apuleius- also known as The Golden Ass. You notice there is a stem sticking out from one of the pages and open it to find one of the leaves from the red maple in Lake Sagara- the one that stands on the small island near Tria’s house. Judging by the condition of the book; Rosemary has already read it many times over. It is still a precious gift you will hold dear. ](t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

(set: $Lucky to true)Olivia was watching out the window for you to return once she seen it was raining, but did not see you arrive with Saanvi. She got up from her desk as soon as you walked into the office, and came over to meet you. (if:$Moth is < 5)[Olivia takes you and Saanvi as soon as you all meet up into the offices rather than the restaurant, poking her head around chaotically arranged cubicle walls to try and find another RHE staff with knowledge of a water spell. It did not take her too long, and the other RHE staff member was able to draw all the rain water out of your clothing and hair to collect it into a floating sphere before letting it back out a window. Being wet did not bother you that much, but it probably would have been gross sitting in a seat at the restaurant with soggy clothing on. Saanvi was especially grateful. "Thanks- without a blowdryer or literal magic it is impossible to dry all my hair. The rain was a surprise- usually you can smell coming rain on the wind but the smell of mint covered it up!" ](if:$Moth is > 4)[(set: $Moth to true)"Well it is no wonder I did not see you two coming- Moth teleported you straight here, hah. Well it is good you dodged the rain anyway. From the east forest to here- you'd have both been drenched by now. There is nothing to take shelter under up the long slope to the parking lot." Saanvi nodded. "And my hair takes forever to dry, as you can imagine..." ] Olivia looked at Saanvi. “Well? Did he behave himself?” Saanvi chuckled a softly. “Your friend is nice. Curious.” You three find a nice corner seat in the restaurant to talk and eat. Two of the four walls of the restaurant are entirely just windows, so you can see out over the valley from where you are eating. It is extremely dark though thanks to the rain clouds and the setting sun, so all you can see in the blackness are the lit windows and lanterns along the main pathways. You feel rather fortunate in your seating in the very corner; you have Olivia sitting to your right and Saanvi to the left- sandwiched between two beautiful women. You tell Olivia how your day went; finding the two XV subjects before you even left the building thanks to Zero pointing them out for you. Then meeting Opal, Rosemary, and Tria at Lake Sagara, and finally ending up in the east forest to find Saanvi picking fresh mint before the plants lose their luster. Before you started eating your breath still smelled of wild mint, and even now Saanvi still smells of mint- though she left her bag of mint leaves at the door to the restaurant or the smell would overpower the food. You ask Olivia if she worked on Saanvi’s tincture. Olivia shook her head, swallowing a mouthful of food before she could speak. “As a Bioarcanist I work more on the theoretical side and constructing the base and extraction methods for the tinctures, rather than actually building the tincture itself. I basically write the instruction manual for how to cook the tincture in the first place, and double-check the numbers and cross-reference previous test results, blah blah blah- in short my role is more foundation level. General Application employees are the ones who apply the tincture and become the ‘handler’ for specific test subjects. They are the ones doing the hands-on work.” Olivia offers Saanvi something off her plate to try, and when she reaches over you notice Saanvi has a tiny tattoo. There is a four leafed clover, but one of the leaves has been plucked off- there is a number 1 over the removed leaf and a 3 over the remaining leaves, making the number 13 as they are side-by-side. You mention it, commenting it is a rather contradictory image. 13 is considered a cursed number, but here it is displayed over a four leafed clover- a sign of good fortune. Saanvi smiled. “The number 13 never did my mother any harm. Since it is the number associated to both me and her, it has become my lucky number. To most it will represent misfortune, yes. To me, it represents self-made fortune. If life does not simply offer you good fortune- you make your own luck. That is lucky 13.” You all enjoy dinner quite a bit, and you are the only ones in the restaurant at the time so you end up sticking around for some time after. It is quite late by the time you all head out- and you have a flight early morning back home, unfortunately.(if:($Faith is true) and ($Aloe is true) and ($Hydra is true) and ($Maple is true))[ [[* You cannot sleep... *->Make A Monster]] ](else:)[ ]You are asleep the moment your head touches the pillow that night, leaving it up to your dreams to review the mountain of thoughts inspired by the previous day. You are difficult to wake up however, and Olivia needs to help you to the front doors as you look so groggy she is afraid if she let you go on your own, you would just roll down the stairs face-first. The fresh air and sunlight wake you up a bit as Olivia scoots you across the parking lot toward the tower to make sure you do not miss the flight. Before she leaves you though, she hands you a small pin. “And here, sleepyhead. Saanvi told me to give this to you before you left. A little something to remember your time here by.” It is a small lapel pin that smells faintly of mint- it is a four-leafed clover. Perhaps 13 is your lucky number now too. (if:(history: where its name contains "Rosemary")'s length >= 1)[Olivia then reaches into a pocket of her lab coat and very carefully hands you another gift. The book is very well worn. You immediately know who this keepsake is from by the title of the book. It is a copy of Metamorphosis by Apuleius- also known as The Golden Ass. You notice there is a stem sticking out from one of the pages and open it to find one of the leaves from the red maple in Lake Sagara- the one that stands on the small island near Tria’s house. Judging by the condition of the book; Rosemary has already read it many times over. It is still a precious gift you will hold dear. ](t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

(set: $Library to (either:false,true))You decide to head to the library, so you aren’t risking having to just stand outside of the bunker on the odd chance someone will let you in. The building is technically part of the southern part of the valley but it is closer to the middle. The structure looked old even though you knew it was not- the architecture antiquated and ornate. The windows are narrow but very, very tall and numerous. Long stem roses crawl up the walls between the windows on the ground floor, bordering the bottom of the building with their tangled thorns. There were a dozen statuettes around the building on each level of the building but rather than be grim gargoyles, they were simplistic statuettes of bovine women! Each one held a book in one hand and was motioning toward another with their other hand, so all of the statuettes appeared to be paired up. Each floor was unusually tall as well- the roof quite high so even the larger of the test subjects would have no trouble getting inside of the library- with the exception of Tria ‘the colossus’ herself. You enter and the librarian immediately looks over to you and gives a half-wave. She continues to make eye contact so you feel you should go up and tell her you are just looking for test subjects who may be here- not books. She has a very pretty and old fashioned dress on, and her hair straight and very dark red, in contrast to the black and deep blue dress. Her rectangular glasses were held on by a fine silver chain. It is because she is so well adorned that you do not notice anything amiss at first. “Oh, that is fine- I just ask you do not disturb them if they are fully immersed in reading.” When she spoke, you saw the seams running along her face from the corners of her mouth. She isn’t a living person- it’s a human sized doll! She let out a soft chuckle at your surprise. “My name is Angelique. I am a golem.” Unusually well-spoken for a golem. Most golem cannot speak at all, never mind hold a conversation. They don’t have brains after all, which makes language rather hard to grasp. “I am an imperfect copy of a woman named Angel- when she died they attempted to use Necromancy to steal her soul to place in another vessel- I am the stolen soul. I was never complete, so not quite the same person they attempted to save. Necromancy is forbidden in most of the world, so advancements in its occult arts progress at a snail’s pace.” You cannot help but ask about the statuettes outside as well. The way they are facing each other but all in different directions- it reminds you of a puzzle in a video game, like there is some sort of pattern you aren’t seeing. “Quite observant. When activated the statuettes channel mana- the way they link together forms a rune for a Mute spell- it creates a bubble of utter silence over the entire library. It is used when there is a party or event nearby, so that people can still read in silence in the library.” Angelique asks which test subjects you are looking for and you hand her the list to look over. She points to two of the test subjects on the list; one is on the ground floor and the other above- but you could still see the head of the one on the upper floor. The upper level of the library had large openings in the floor to look down on the ground level- or the other way around. Above that is a mostly glass roof, letting in natural sunlight into the library. Everything in the building seemed built on a giant scale. Even the tables to read at were absolutely huge- a single person would not be able to move a table of that size. The bookshelves were so massive there was a ladder affixed to the middle of each with wheeled bottoms to roll back and forth, otherwise no one would be able to reach the top half of the shelves. While the outside of the building is entirely huge stone blocks, the inside is made of a dark, polished wood that gives it a warm appearance. The floor though is black and white checkered tile, and footsteps on it echo- especially the click of hooved feet. The parts of the roof not made of glass or balcony have huge, ornate chandeliers hanging from it. You decide to head over to see TS68; Ariadne. She is bovine, but from the looks of it; more bull than cow. Her body is built stacked with muscle from head to toe. Her abs look so tight that if you tried to punch them you’d break your fingers before she even felt it. There is four pink nubs on her abs from where an udder was trying to form but never did- to make up for it there is four large breasts on her chest. Her top breasts are larger than the second set by roughly two cub sizes. She has long hair but it is a bit dry and frayed at the tips making it look like a bushy mane, and her crotch is crowned with a bushy triangle of black hair too. Her anus and vulva were bovine but the hips around them were still human so she had no trouble standing on two legs. Her legs are bovine, but transitions to human thighs at the top- so she is on cow hooves but her legs are much taller than an actual cow. You can tell by how her tail is twitching behind the chair that she is a bit antsy- she would rather not be idling in a library. Ariadne’s neck is both longer and thicker than humans, and the skin on the front hangs into a loose flap- a bovine dewlap. Her horns are bovine but very long, so clearly bull not cow. She has a normal human head shape though aside from her ears being leaf shaped cow ears, and the bridge of her nose being extra wide. The coloration of her lips is a soft grey and extends around her nostrils- the shape of the colored patch is perfectly square. She is wearing a simple loincloth in the front and back and she has a gigantic bracelet on her left arm that is made to look like a shackle and is etched with a maze pattern. Just itching for an excuse to abandon her studies, when Ariadne spots you approaching she stands up. Your head is only about as tall as the bottom of her rib cage. And given her tight, lean muscles- you guess she would have no problem crumpling your body up like an empty tin can if you pissed her off. (if:$Reflex is "N")[Ariadne furrowed her brows a bit. “Gotten into a fight on the island already?” You lower your eyebrows as she motions to your black eye, and explain that you got served in a match of tennis you weren’t even playing. ] You ask Ariadne about her unique form and how she came to be on the island- but the answers to both were the same. “My mother is an RHE researcher. I actually came to the island to follow my only friend at the time- TS69-XV; Lucria. My mother is Libera Crettia- iterative researcher and general applications.” Well that is a bit ironic- you came here because you could not get into the bunker, but Ariadne can get into the bunker. She has L4 clearance to be able to see her friend, and even besides that, her mother would have S4 clearance. Well, too late now. By the time you walked all the way north to get the bunker it would be too late to do anything now. Ariadne explains she was not a test on muscle or anything- she had not really been a test at all. Her mother was in charge of her changes, and specially designed a form that would be powerful and beautiful. She has since put her muscular body to use founding the valley’s first farm. The farmland surrounds her entire house in the central valley. There have since been other areas used to farm, but they are much wilder and largely left untended to grow on their own. In the eastern forest are many types of herbs and tea plants, right beside the south forest are flower meadows, and on the Great Plateau are many berry bushes. There is wild strawberries on New Eden island to the west too, but no one planted those- they just grew there by default. A bird probably carried the seeds to the island unintentionally. That is why Ariadne is in the library now- she was reading up on various cultivatable plants to see if she could raise them on the island. It did not matter how good of a farmer she is- if a plant is naturally grown in frigid temperatures, it will not survive an island in the sub-tropics. You hear the hooves of your other target above and get nervous she is going to leave the library while you are down here talking to Ariadne; so you tell her you better get going. Ariadne smiles and asks if you want an arm-wrestling match before you leave and you nervously decline. Even when holding back she might twist your arm out of its socket. (if:$Library is false)[Even if the library was crowded you would be able to see her easily the moment you arrived upstairs. TS84 is Rayzel ‘the mancer’. Her hands are an odd mix of human and hoof- she has two fingers and a thumb on each hand and they are capped with a wide triangular hoof segment rather than a nail. The front of her torso is a collection of small breasts- ten in all, and each connected to another in a crisscross fashion by a small chain and piercing. Though they all have bright pink nipples, none of her ten breasts have areola. Her ears are long and elven and her black hair braided to her shoulders and weighed in place tied around a large glass ring etched with magic runes. Her ears had a single piercing each that trails yet another fine chain to gem-adorned hoops around tusks that were unusually large for her face size- grown from what used to be her top canine teeth. Rayzel’s nose was a bit wide and upturned completely at the end into a small porcine snout. Her lower body was a much more familiar shape- a more standard mare from the hip down in a taur fashion; as in, the entire body of a horse. There is a stripe of black hair from Rayzel’s first lower back to the upper horseback that is its mane. The pelt on the horse half however was a base brown, not black. The udder between her rear legs however was modified for milk collection- many times larger than a horse udder could naturally get, though still smaller than a goat or cows. She has a cloth band wrapped around her head covering one eye like a patch. Unlike Ariadne, Rayzel very much looked at home in a library. She was given the nickname The Mancer because she is the most prolific spell slinger on the island- she was a legitimate mage before coming to RHEI. She also did not need to use the ladders to reach most books- she just put her front hooves on the middle bracket of the shelf and she could reach all but the topmost books. Unfortunately, none of the chairs are meant to seat a horse, so she has nothing to sit on. You were afraid she was leaving the library when you heard her hooves clop against the tile floor, but she was just shuffling them around because they were going to sleep from standing still for so long. You are as tall as her horse half- but that means you are only as tall as the crotch of her humanoid half. You notice she drives the edge of her hoof tipped digits between pages as soon as she turns the last to have it ready. The hoof segments are smooth and do not grip the pages at all, making them slightly difficult for her to turn. You end up needing to clear your throat to get her attention- she did not notice you approach at all. After she introduces herself, you ask her the usual questions- what brought her to the island and also how her transformation affected her lifestyle, since she is many times larger than a normal human now. “I came here for academic curiosity. Transformation magic has been well established for aeons- man has always wondered what it would feel like in the skin of another beast. What it would be like to breath underwater like a fish or fly like a bird. I knew RHE must be dabbling in something taboo then, in order to require human test subjects for it- and I wanted in. As for life style changes… well, actually it is mostly the same. I needed a heavily modified home obviously, but my actual day to day activities remain the same here on the island. None of RHE’s testing requires much if any mana at all, so all the ambient mana that builds up in the valley is mine to shape to test new spells whenever I wish. The side of my house actually looks almost exactly like a horse stable, haha. I cannot fit through most doorways after all. I can still get in the double doors of the library, and I can fit inside Io’s palace easily, and Tria’s house thanks to its enchantments, but nowhere else.” (if:$Reflex is "N")[Rayzel pointed to your black eye, asking what happened. You tell her about getting bopped in the face with a tennis ball- a story you are getting a little tired of recounting by now. Rayzel motions toward you though and a pale blue gemstone on one of her tusk bands starts to glow brightly for a moment! Suddenly the dull ache in your face goes away and you reach up and touch your eye to find the area is not puffy anymore! She cured your black eye! ]If Rayzel is a mage though… You ask if she knows any transformation spells. “Of course, I can even mix and match- here. Try this on for size.” It happens so fast it is hard for you to comprehend just what happened. You shrink In size so quickly it almost feels like you are falling through your own clothing! Your face and tail bone stretch out quickly in either direction; your face pulls so far out that your entire skull is yanked longer. As it stretches out new fangs bloom to fill in the gaps as your mouth is forced much, much larger. Your skin feels like it is bunching up and hardening into what appear to be scales. As you stop shrinking, you are then forced back up as your legs get longer and more narrow- the flesh becoming banded and your toes growing large and nails turning to talons! You almost feel as though you are going to fall over backwards and swing your arms to try and catch your balance but an already large tail catches you automatically. As soon as your arms swing the scales that have formed on them grow a dense spine down their middle and lift up off of you! The body of the scales split into thousands of hair-like fragments becoming the bristles of feathers! Your fingers fused together so quickly you only noticed when you attempted to look at your hands and could not even recognize right away where your hands even are- because it just looks like your arms come to a tapered point. It was buried under growing feathers a half second later and then you were looking at a pair of wings, not arms. The feathers were black and blue- feathers of a Bluejay. Your genitals are hidden away now inside of you behind a long slit that also encompasses your anus on the base of your tail- it felt like they got sucked in a ways while your pubic mound swelled out and clapped closed over them! You are surrounded by a wall of fabric from your clothing and can only see some of the library out of the collar of your shirt overhead- you have been reduced to the same size as a bluejay. Your tail is big and reptilian however- and has a flat top bordered by bone-hard scutes not scales… that is the tail of a crocodile. Though you can only partially see your extremely long face in your own vision, you can easily surmise that it is also the head of a croc. She turned you almost instantly into a tiny bluejay-crocodile hybrid. (text-colour:navy)[Bluedile]? (text-colour:#2f9e44)[Crocojay]? You see Rayzel’s face far above through the collar of your shirt. “Tahdah!” You guess she had the runic arrays for those animals on her, rather than in her head. The transformation took only about ten seconds from start to finish- there is no possible way it would have been that quick and easy if she were going off the top of her head. She is wearing a LOT of jewelry though, and all of it etched with runes. “Good catch. Yes, I have several animals I can polymorph people into- most of them small for the purpose of disabling or otherwise disposing of annoyances. Polymorph doesn’t truly turn you into a beast though- your mind will never be affected by a polymorph, making it different from a true transformation spell. The forms on this island are not spell based- just spell induced. So unlike a spell, the forms of the test subjects are permanent- their actual genome is changed. Because no two test subjects are alike, this also means we are all incapable of reproduction for that same reason. I am part human, pig, and horse- there is no equivalent sperm for the eggs. No existing sperm will be able to recognize my eggs. Like two mismatched pieces of a puzzle- they are both puzzle pieces meant for the same thing, but if they don’t fit together, nothing is going to happen.” She holds out her hand again but pauses and warns you; you probably want to grab your pants quickly. When she turns you back to normal size your clothes aren’t going to magically be where they are supposed to be, you will have to grab your pants as you grow back to cover yourself! She casts the reversal and then looks away while you scramble to fix your clothing. Because you shrank and your features stretched out at the same time, it almost felt like some of you was shrinking and some of it was staying the same size. Returning to human was the opposite- like your body was growing to match the extensions and just swallowing them up rather than them actually changing shape. Again; it happens so fast that it is hard for you to interoperate it all in detail. For as much transformation content you enjoy on the internet, you have never been able to find a good enough excuse to spend the amount of money needed to try it yourself, so this is also your first time transforming at all. Rayzel continues talking about spells with you for some time- only partially prompted by your actual questions. Most people cannot understand half of what she says so they tune her out almost immediately. Only a few test subjects are on her intellectual level, leaving her with few people to talk magic with. It seems she had gotten into trouble with the arcane academy she had been in before coming to RHEI. Rayzel is always looking to experiment further and test new ground, but that lead her to the often forbidden occult arts, and using magic in ways that most publically established foundations frown on. Small scale magical groups did not have the resources the larger foundations did to be able to reach their full potential, and larger foundations were tangled up in so many rules and such a strict order that there was no wiggle room to do anything original. Rayzel wasn’t interested in studying up to become a master of the magical arts that already exist, she wanted to break new ground and see something new- like the sorceress paragon Moth did before. And since Moth founded RHE, this was the best place in the world to try it. She even shows you a neat little trick she calls her demon eye. Her left eye is enchanted with a spell turning the sclera black and the iris golden yellow- that is why she wears a patch over that eye, not because it cannot see. Anyone caught in the vision from her enchanted eye has their own vision go black- Rayzel’s demon eye is the only thing that can be seen. You notice when glancing at a huge grandfather clock past Rayzel that you are running out of time though. It is getting later and you still have to walk all the way back to the RHE main complex to meet Olivia for dinner time. The library is in the central valley so you already got a decent walk just to get back to the building. As interesting as her magical prowess is, you have to say goodbye, and head back out to rejoin Olivia. You have a lot to think about on your way back. You just watch the shale stone path under your feet while thinking of all you have seen and experienced today as you walk back to the main complex. ](if:$Library is true)[You could tell the subject you were looking at was TS46; Marcy Whiteflag. All bodies on the island are unique, but hers seemed a bit… wrong. Most notable was the angle of her spine, which looked painful even though it was normal for her. She had the gentle forward curve of a normal human spine at the top but then toward the bottom it abruptly thickened and turned at an angle completely parallel with the floor! If you looked at just her spine- it is shaped like a stretched out number ‘2’! She also has one huge bovine horn on the right side of her head, but it is abnormally thick at the base, and there is absolutely nothing on the other side to balance it out! It isn’t that the other horn got broken off or something; there just wasn’t a horn at all on the left. Her breasts were quite pert and round, but otherwise just a standard human D cup, but her nipples evolved into teats- far bigger than human nipples could get. Her hips, legs and udder down below were fully bovine- thanks to the abnormal hip adjustment her udder could hang freely below her while standing like on an actual cow. Normally having bovine hips would prevent a person from standing upright, but since her spine suddenly just snaps outward like it does, she can stand perfectly fine. It took some work to get to this state though- the reason she is so unusual is because her test had gone horribly wrong originally. This was as human as RHE could restore her after her first test. Once you got close enough you noticed her fingernails are all solid black and unusually thick too- like the remnants of hooves. She is wearing a loose red long, thin long sleeve but nothing on her lower body- since nothing would fit over her udder anyway. It was not just any old cow udder; it looked like it belonged on a champion Holstein. Her lower bovine features were all sized up to an actual cow, so the proportions were MUCH larger than her human half. Even her spine alone gets much larger suddenly right before its sharp angle shift. Marcy’s eyes are a baby blue and her hair is sandy brown mostly, but there is a white streak above her left temple that also creates a white streak through the left eyebrow. The tassel on her tail idly swept the floor behind her as she sat in a chair to read. Because of her hip angle, sitting in a chair left her legs to sort of stick straight out in front of her- they could not be angled in a way to hang down like a normal humans would. She could not straighten the kink in her lower back, so at this angle her stomach pointed the most forward and her upper body was awkwardly tilted back. She cannot sit with her crotch flat on the chair because she would be sitting on top of her udder. As you approached her she noticed you and scrambled to get into an upright stand, almost tumbling out of the chair to get back onto her feet and her udder swinging back slid the chair a foot behind her so she could not sit back down. Marcy blushed a bit. “O-oh, Olivia’s friend, right? I don’t think you would have come all the way to our hidden island just to take out a book in the library, haha. But I don’t know what you would want with me, either.” You explain that you had limited information to go by beforehand, but even based on that she was a very interesting case. Her test did not land how it was supposed to, but it did not just go overboard like most XV subjects end up- hers went almost entirely wrong and made RHE scramble to create a reversal tincture. Her current form is as human as RHE can possibly make her with its current advancements- they attempted a hard reset on the entire test! You were really curious; if she looks like this now- what was her original form? What was TS46-XV? “Oh, well when you say it like that, I suppose it is curious. Actually, I could show you… well, maybe. Come here a sec’.” Marcy brought you back down a different flight of stairs closer to where Angelique’s desk is. “Hey, Angelique, can we access my old XV memory?” She turned to look at Marcy a second before actually responding. “Uh… yea? You don’t need authorization to view your ''own'' memory. You would be the person we would need to get the consent from. If the outsider wanted to see it without you here ''they'' would need to ask for consent, but not if you’re literally right beside them.” Marcy takes you to a rather secluded, smaller area of the library behind the reception desk but still part of the greater library- the room immediately behind the reception desk is for returned books that are yet to be re-sorted. There is a slight depression in the floor- a perfect square of shallow steps leading down to several beanbag chairs. Almost the entire wall of this smaller area is taken up by a giant red granite statue of a naked woman. The hands of the statue rest in one another and are offered forward as if to present something but are empty. Marcy explains that the statue is known as the Grand Archivist and is actually merely the face of a giant golem. Inside of the wall behind the statue is a massive and extremely complex network of golem ‘minds’ that store memories from test subjects. The memories are copied and sealed onto a physical series of crystals. Each moment of the memory required its own tiny portion of crystal to be strung together- like cells of an animation. Whether she wanted to or not, Marcy would have been asked by RHE to record a copy of her initial memories when she arrived for research purposes- so you can literally see what happened when she transformed. Marcy places her hand onto the statues and states her name- she only has one archived memory so she doesn’t need to specify what memory. Once she hears the machinery moving around behind the statue she removes her hand and tells you to place yours there instead, and to look at the statue’s eyes. As soon as you look up at the face of the statue the eyes open and your perception spins for a moment and you find yourself flung back to that moment in time. For a second time is frozen- the Archivist needs to confirm that your perception has adhered to the memory before playing it. (text-style:"bold","italic")[Marcy got to her new home a bit wobbly. Her body was already going through changes, which seemed to make her handler a bit unsettled- the changes generally take a lot longer to ramp up. Her ears were a bit more pointed, a tail was developing, and her feet were stretching all at the same time. She clicked the light on and wandered around the house slowly- a hand on the wall to balance herself. Her toes were scrunched together and nails already black blocks, shifting to hooves. She had to walk on the front of her feet only at this point because the soles were stretching into cannon bones and too long to walk like a normal human- her feet would not be able to clear the ground. Marcy tensed up returning from the hallway into the living room area. She braced herself as the tendons and tissue of her legs made a sound like stretching rubber, only down-pitched a bit. Then dull clicks from the bones in her feet as bones touched and then quickly yanked together. The joint count was shrinking fast and the digits becoming much more simple, and large. Her hand slid up the wall as her extending feet raised her higher. It felt like someone was pulling lightly on her ears too- they expanded quickly into bovine leaf-shaped ears, and developed the muscles in their base that would allow them to pivot around and follow sounds. Her tail grew out to the proper length, but her transformation seemed to stop there- her tail still did not have a tassel on the end. Marcy tapped a hoof on the floor to test it before taking a few steps. She was quite wobbly- having to somewhat learn to walk again. The surface area of the hoof was tiny compared to her feet which made her sort of feel like she was walking on stilts. Another oddity- her breasts are the same. The main focus was to give her big mams and increase milk production and yet her transformation stopped without having done either of those things. Although, the transformation also happened a lot faster and sooner than it was supposed to. Her handler told her it would probably take two days for all the changes to fully set in. It has only been an hour and a half since she had the tincture. Every so often for the rest of the day, Marcy would flick her tail around and notice the skin felt unusually tight. She kept looking back at it and seeing it was a little bit longer, but still without a tassel! It was looking strangely long at this point- longer than a proper cow. She also noticed she was starting to salivate an unusual amount; she had to keep swallowing her spit. By dinner time when she sat down to eat, her body felt heavier against the chair as she ate and then her hips were building up a gentle, internal pressure. Suddenly the bones of her hip let off a loud pop and expanded so quickly it almost felt like the chair under her got shoved up her butt! There was a huge gap between her thighs now! Now walking felt even weirder because her legs were spaced out further! She also noted the feeling of stretching in her ear again, but only on the left side! Her ears were both still bovine, but they looked like they belonged on two different breeds, one was about equal mass to her human ears, just leaf shaped. The other was so huge she had to deliberately lift it- its relaxed position is completely flopped over! As soon as the food settled into her gut, her breasts started to tighten. Her body was splitting the resources and finally producing milk, but as it built up it stretched her from the inside- finally triggering the growth she most expected to get right from the get-go. Her nipples and areola started to blush on their own, and her nipples stood stiff on their own. Her breasts were abnormally firm, and felt very hot. They are growing, but too slow to see with the naked eye- they are just slightly larger every time she glances down at them. They were C cups when she first arrived on RHEI. By the time Marcy was getting ready for bed, she gently massaged the skin of her neck in the bathroom mirror; noticing that it was unusually loose. The skin on her neck was growing but not the neck itself, causing the skin to start to collect forward into soft folds. Because it was just loose skin and nothing else it is very soft and sort of feels like squishing dough. Her breasts look to be about DD by now, and were still tight as a drum! The entire breasts were blushing pink now from internal pressure. She tried to express but nothing came out still. Her nipples almost felt itchy from the tightness, and she spent several minutes just flicking them back and forth- manipulating them like that canceled out the itch. Marcy went to sleep fast that night because she was just physically exhausted from the changes, and mentally tired from wrapping her head around the whole thing. RHE obviously doesn’t blab about what all it does to the outside world, so you only fully know what you have signed up for once you arrive on the island. To you, the world seems to distort to a tie-dye of colors and then glitch out to a black void. The memory recording was taken from her conscious mind, which was no longer active while she was sleeping- her dreams were not recorded. When everything fades back in, her perception takes a moment to catch up to full speed- so from your perspective everything is upside down and then twists and distorts its way back to right-side up. The eyes actually perceive the world upside down, and the brain turns the image right-side up again. Marcy winces at a sharp ache in her temple and tries to sit up but the pillow comes with her, stuck to her head! She goes to pull it off but notices something sticky on it! She screams when she looks at her fingers to see the dark red blood on them! Marcy staggers her way to the bathroom to see the pillow speared by a horn growing out of her. The blood is from the horn lancing the skin to grow out- it becomes sticky as it dries. The horn is already quite large and painted rust-red by blood smearing up its length as it grows. She yanks the pillow up off it but still grits her teeth from the ache- the horn is still growing! She quickly looks herself over for other changes and spots that her tail finally has a tassel on it- but the tail itself looks three times longer than a cows should be, only matching a cow tail in girth. As the horn slides out further it gets even thicker, stretching the skin further open at the base- its giving her a feeling not unlike a throbbing headache, making her whine from the pain. There is no horn at all on the other side! Only on the side she was sleeping on, and opposite the side of her one too-big ear. Marcy almost fell forward into the mirror, bracing on the edge of the sink as a surge of changes seemed to fire up through her entire body- making her body feel like it had rippled like liquid. Her hips started to vibrate and give sudden pulses of pressure. The bone started to change shape, making her hip bones more noticeable from the surface- more boxy. The division from where the hips ended and where the tail bone diverged created a rather deep pocket for her anus to sit in, and also caused her vagina to appear to be much further back even though in relation to her anus it was in exactly the same place. Her crotch now looked blank, because her pelvic floor had shifted, and that only served to emphasize how large the gap between legs is. Her hips were more bovine than human now, but she doesn’t have an udder to fill the space. It felt like something was forcing its way up her throat, but then tapered off when it got to her mouth. She salivated uncontrollably and her tongue felt swollen. What she was feeling in her throat was not an object moving up, it was a surge of growth in her tongue itself! It filled her mouth and then forced her to stick the end out, and then more and more swelled out of her mouth! She had to breathe through her nose only now- her entire mouth was blocked by her own tongue! Marcy has grown a fully bovine tongue, but her mouth is still perfectly human, making the tongue many times too big! Because she cannot close her mouth properly, it’s impossible for her to stop the bit of drool leaking around it and off the underside- luckily she is over the sink. This of course means it is impossible to talk, which means she cannot call RHE on her tablet to tell them something is wrong! They would probably notice something wrong when she doesn’t say any actual words, but she wasn’t thinking straight enough at the time to realize that. Her horn is STILL getting bigger- so thick around that it completely covers the temple on that side and is starting to push back around the side of her head at its ultra-thick base. The point of the horn is far over her head and starting to arch so far over that it was forming a halo. She made several muffled ‘no’ sounds and shook her head while looking down at her deforming body- her hips still shifting slowly and the surge tingling into her thighs, threatening to snap them into a quadruped structure and yank her to the floor. Marcy barely noticed her fingernails turning black and thick. Her finger joints getting stiff. Her breasts pulled uncomfortably tight and she could hear a muffled squelching of liquid within as they surged in size! More than her breasts though- her nipples had inflated huge while she had been sleeping. Each nipple wider than the base of her thumb and as long as her entire hand from wrist to fingertip! Marcy cried out from an explosion of sudden growth in her loins and her hip joints snapped into place- her forehead hit the mirror so hard she broke it! The mirror that is, not her forehead. Now even her reflection was distorted. Marcy balanced her gut on the edge of the sink because her feet no longer stood in a bipedal posture, so the only way to get fully onto her hooves against is if she slumped to the floor on all fours, but then she couldn’t see the mirror, and it would be like admitting the defeat of her humanity! Her changes had gone fully sideways at this point though, and became truly bizarre. New growth exploded upward from her hips, so while her top half remained exactly where it already was- her hips were shoved backwards sliding her legs further back till her rump was against the wall behind her! She started to get shoved toward the mirror- and since it is broken she cannot touch its surface or she would risk getting cut to ribbons. Marcy placed her stiff hands against the wall and had to inch her way up as her torso continued to get longer! More torso was growing out from her hips, but because it was growing from her hips instead of down TO her hips- it was growing at the same width as her hips, making her torso much larger at the bottom. Her spine made a hollow *clunk* sound as several vertebrae shifted form, and her torso had a new pivot point in the middle where it was able to bend much further backwards than you would think it should be able to. It looked like she was developing a new set of hips from this point, but in actuality It was a new collar bone. Little flesh tubes grew from the sides here, and then started to press further out. New muscle squirmed inside with greater control as bones formed in it to help hold its structure together. Two huge fingers tipped with hoof segments grew off the ends- she was growing malformed bovine legs! She is turning into a taur! The pivot point is between her existing human half and the new bovine half that grew up from her hips! But the front legs of the cow half are influenced by human traits, so they aren’t forming properly. And she has no udder, or fur. By the time the growth stopped, her body was curled into a giant U shape in order to fit in the bathroom. She had long since lost the mobility to actually leave the bathroom and would have a hell of a time trying to fit out of the door anyway. Her handler would check in around noon anyway, and come in to make sure she was alright when she does not answer the door. She can’t even scream for help because her tongue occupies the entirety of her mouth! The front limbs on the cow-like torso aren’t even long enough to properly stand on four legs. The digits on her hand were forced together because of the joints locking up, but did not start to actually fuse together. She could not move them individually, but they are still technically apart. Marcy could barely move in the overly cramped space, and had to wait for help to find her, so the only thing she could really do is play with her new gigantic teat-nipples. They felt very good to manipulate. Yanking on them felt good- but too hard also pulled on the breast tissue, so twisting them was best. Her boobs felt very full of milk, but all her nipple play still could not actually draw any of the milk out. Stress was likely tightening the muscles and preventing it from getting out- but it could also just be that her body is so deformed it can’t properly find the exit.] (text-colour:lime)+(bg:black)[(align:"=><=")[TS46_3_52//mem.arc replay terminated : end of archive]] To you, it felt like you had lived in the moment- so it felt like you were in her memories for an entire day worth of time, but much like a dream- the brain processes things quite quickly when it doesn’t have to calculate outside input. What seemed like a day in the memory was only four minutes in reality. Marcy spoke up once she seen you remove your hands from the statues’. “I had a case of Herald’s Mire when I was a kid. It is a magic based illness- the virus distorts the chakra gates in your body to feed off your life energy or whatever. I got over it easy enough, but the chakra gates in my body are forever slightly distorted because of having had it. So when I got my tincture from RHE- its effects became many times more powerful in certain parts of my body than it was supposed to. Not only did it cause the transformation to go overboard- it was also applied completely unevenly.” Sitting in the cozy little nook of the library on beanbag chairs, the two of you talk about random things for a while after. Marcy is a perfectly normal woman, aside from that one moment of utter chaos in her life. On the island, she mostly just relaxes, takes in the small things and likes to indulge in a little bit of everything island life has to offer. Before coming to RHEI, she was looking for something different, afraid her life had become stuck on repeat. Thanks to her body itself being changed, now even the things she was already going have become new- because she is experiencing it all with a new form! After quite some time you almost bolt up immediately from your seat as you realize the sun has vanished behind the mountain tops outside! You have to get back to the RHE main complex to have dinner with Olivia! You hate the idea of just up and running in the middle of a conversation, so you offer for Marcy to join you for dinner, but she politely declines. She lost track of time as well and should be returning home with the books she found.] [[Return to the main complex.->Studied End]]

In spite of their advising you tell Lorelei and Viola that you can get into the bunker just fine. It also makes the most sense for your final destination of the day- it is not that far from where you are now and it also connects to the main complex at two different points so it would be easy to get back to Olivia in time for dinner. Like the girls mentioned as well; you can guarantee to find everyone you are looking for essentially because most test subjects in the bunker never leave, and even the ones who do, do not leave for long. You hustle your way back north after saying goodbye to Viola and Lorelei and your rather pleasant musical encounter. You approach the gigantic slope leading from the valley back to the plateau the main complex is on, but then turn west and then north along the side of the slope rather than climb it. There are a few large boulders sunken into the grass on the slope and especially its sides- larger chunks of earth that resurfaced as the rest of it settled down. The entire slope was artificially created by Geomancers when the island was first founded. You approach a few taller stones and there is a runic array inscribed on one. Activating the runes reveals a digital input screen- this is where you enter the password and have your chakra scanned to see if you have enough clearance to allow you inside. You think on it a moment before typing in the password and get it right on your first try! The system still has to scan your chakra though- having the correct password only allows you access to get scanned. It beeped to confirm your status as Level ''S'' Security Clearance and the bunker door hissed as its pressure locks released. So, here is a funny fact; an amateur programming error is to set up conditional triggers for all your variables, but forget to set one for the situation in which there is no conditions given. You aren't even on the RHE roster, so you don't have a security level at all- if they do not set a condition for if you do not have one, they system doesn't know how to react and just plays whatever trigger it used last- which was proper clearance into the bunker. Everyone on the island has a security level of 0 to 4 and then S, but you're not from the island. The grassy side of the slope lifts up revealing a very thick vault door for you to pass through. You sigh in relief on the other side and the door closes behind you- the air conditioning is excellent down here. The air is also just as fresh down here as it is up there- because people live down here; RHE paid especially close attention to oxygen density and filtration. Your first stop is the closest to the bunker door because she is the earliest XV subject- Mel Tranquillen- TS07-XV. (link:"Mel")[You can see her long before she can see you. She is in a gigantic room to the left of the bunker doors that is so large it is like an aircraft hangar. Mel is surprisingly human- she is not hybridized with //any// animals at all! She has dark brown straight hair with a seafoam green streak dyed in it. In order to see most of her, you have to climb a long series of catwalks and stairs suspended around the outside of the room, spiraling up to where she is suspended near the roof. Below her hang breasts the size of a ''house''- each. Her nipples alone are bigger than you are! Large rounded metal pipes push into her breasts from below, housing her giga nipples inside of a rubber lining on the inside of the pipes- these milk her. Mel has a laptop set up and is playing online games as usual- very competitively. Her laptop was not set up onto a table- it's resting on her boobs. They are so unfathomably gargantuan compared to her that they basically make a floor of flesh. If she was not rigged up for milking her breasts would slosh around so loose in comparison to her relative scale that she could walk around on top of her own breasts without rolling their overall mass and risking being crushed under… herself.] You do not say anything at first at risk of interrupting her competitive match; when she finally glances past the screen at you, you give a shy wave and hello. "Tourist... that is new. I talk to lots of outsiders through the internet but they obviously don't know I have tits big enough to crush their house under." Her voice is dry sounding but soft and warm at the same time. So… how does she have breasts this big? Never mind her utter lack of //mobility//- her breasts are so ludicrously huge that their own weight should cause their structure to collapse in on itself! Not to mention her torso is normal sized. To properly circulate blood through breasts this big her heart would need to be the size of a ''car''! "Because there is more than one of me. A lot more." She momentarily closed her laptop to properly look at you. The part of the catwalk you stand on is quite close to her actual body- so you are overtop of her breasts. "My test was on vorpal amalgamation. Basically Moth helped them punch a hole through the dimensional barriers and fold dimensions in on themselves. There is an //infinite// number of Earths, in an infinite number of universes out there- but they aren't all as far away as one another. If two universes have something in common, it is because they overlap at that point- which means it would be relatively easy to break through into the other universe. They pulled the milk and mams from ''ME''- in another universe, and then another, //and then another//. There is an //infinite// number of universes… which means there is an //infinite// number of ''me''. I am being constantly fed from alternate versions of myself with bigger breasts or just more milk. The inside of my breasts are actually the gates between dimensions. So my body in ''this'' universe actually isn't making any milk at all, and isn't very busty at all. What you see and what I release is stolen from other Mels. If the gates were closed I would almost instantly return to normal size, because none of it is mine." It also means the Mark 2 Tincture would never be able to //'fix'// her XV status. It isn't all her own body- it isn't all from this universe. Changing her physical body in ''this'' universe will do nothing to her size because it is from somewhere else entirely. You ask her what it feels like to be so giant, her answer is that it doesn’t really feel like anything anymore. At first she was overcome with pleasure because her boobs were obscenely giant and constantly flowing an impossible amount of milk. But because it never ends, her mind eventually got used to it, and now she barely even notices it happening in the first place. Mel is obviously inconvenienced by the fact she can never move around normally but she is a gamer and doesn't like going outside in the first place. She is much more at home owning noobs in games and making shitposts in forums than walking around. You ask how on earth she goes to the bathroom. Their solution to that problem is the same as the test itself- vorpal magic. They essentially teleport the waste out of her into the void of space- so she //doesn't// go to the bathroom. As an XV subject the RHE crew are always tending to her needs otherwise- including bringing all her meals to her. None of the XV subjects are particularly functional- that is why they are //Extreme Variants// in the first place. As long as RHE is given a day or two notice- she can be released from the harness to roll around for a day or so. The other test subjects have used her in a special type of celebration they call the //'Tit Pit'//, essentially using Mel's giga breasts as a bouncy castle and fill her cleavage with some of the other better endowed subjects to form a ball pit, only with boobs and udders! You jokingly tell Mel you should get in touch with RHE on your next birthday party. "You can jump in right now if you want." Huh? You'd fall out the other side and break your neck. Or get stuck in between and suffocate! "Wuss. You can ride the cleavage back down to the floor. The drop from the bottom of my cleavage is only six feet- just tuck and roll." Big talk from someone who almost never even walks. Well, you haven't been one to back down from a good dare before. You nervously eye up her tit flesh below the catwalk you are on. From the walkway down to the surface of her breasts is only two or so feet. You carefully jump over the side of the railing but as soon as your feet hit her breasts they sink in, completely changing the direction of the surface! You immediately fall over, but because of how the surface of the breast sinks in you barely fall at all- the tit flesh is almost parallel to your back anyway for a moment before it springs back out with enough force to actually toss you a few inches into the air and plop back down! Your initial impact causes the entire boob to wobble violently, but your second impact only ripples the surface. You are paranoid of falling between her breasts- but they are not free hanging. They are being supported below by the pipes milking her, so her breasts are being held up slightly and pushed together enough that you could not get between them without deliberately squirming your way in. You slide down and her skin has enough grip that you do not fall too fast, but once you get far enough down the flesh is angled too much for you to stop even if you wanted to. As you slide down the curvature of the giga tits you can actually hear a muffled sound like gurgling liquid sloshing around inside- a flow of //literally infinite// milk. Appropriately Mel has the nickname //'Omega Breasts'//. As soon as your feet hit the ground you bend your legs, and roll forward, surviving the impact. You are in Mel's gigantic blind-spot until you get back onto the main path and wave to her to let her know you survived. Mel nods and returns to her game. The main path in the bunker is a suspended metal road in the middle of a perfectly circular tunnel lined with cables and pipes. Almost everything around you is made of metal. There is lights below and to the sides of the path pointed in and up at the path itself illuminating it from the bottom. The path branches many times leading to the habitats of many XV subjects, but you do not have the time to visit all of them so you have to pick and choose. Next up is TS09-XV; Tolli Burgenred. Some Extreme Variants require permission to enter their habitat, but Tolli is not one of them. Her mind is almost entirely feral so she no longer possesses the ability to consent. It took extensive testing to determine that she actually still has her human knowledge- the original Tolli is still there. With the mind of a feral cow however she is unable to express or properly use any of that information or memories. Tolli is understandably a subject high on the list of candidates for the Mark 2 Tincture RHE is currently working on- to try and restore some of her lost humanity. Technically this form was her own doing- her original test did not result in this. (link:"Tolli")[Tolli is a very, very large cow. She has quite large horns for a female and her udder has 6 segments rather than four! Her torso is actually slightly longer and her rib cage slightly shorter to give the udder enough room to sit in the equally large pocket of her lower body. She also has not two but four front legs clustered together at the front of her. She is unable to speak, and is stuck in an elaborate rig at all times. Most of her body is black but it transitions to white 'boots' on her legs and it dapples off to grey-peach spots and then true peach on her mega udder- and then solid black again on her teats. Out of curiosity you find the monitor for her rig and look up her genetic information to see what breed of cow she is, that resulted in her being so large. She is fully female and her chin is level with the top of your head in spite of being on all fours. That means a bull of this breed would be the size of a small bus. You are surprised by the information. She is a breed that doesn't even exist anymore- an ancient cow! Tolli is a female Aurochs! She was originally just a giant sized cowgirl, but loved how it felt being both huge and having a massive udder- so she asked to double down. Problem is that the doses were too spaced out, so rather than amplify the effects of the original transformation it just applied a whole new set, thus giving her udder too many segments and her having too many limbs. Had she not requested the second dose her test would have ended perfectly fine, it was her own greed for more that resulted in her devolving into a true cow.] You call up a screen and view what she is seeing through a VR helmet rigged to her face. She has the mind of a feral cow so she does not know what VR even is- she thinks it is real. Tolli thinks she is in an endless grassy plain with other cows all day; entirely oblivious to the fact she is in an underground bunker. You suppose that is the advantage of her current state- she is completely unaware of her current state. Due to how immense her udder is, her back legs actually need to be partially suspended so her udder can clear the floor by enough that vacuum cups can be attached to her six teats to milk her. There was originally another Aurochs on the island but it was truly 100% feral. RHE used a regular bull and transformed it using re-assembled Aurochs genes to revive the ancient species. Their original Aurochs bull- ''//Babe//''- died of old age some time ago, but thanks to its recreated genes; now RHE has the DNA on archive to create any number of new Aurochs. Babe was named after a mythological blue Ox, and served as a pet for Serene here on RHEI. Unfortunately you are unable to talk to Tolli about anything to ask her any questions so you move on rather quickly from her habitat- leaving her to her imaginary paradise. Next up you look for the habitat of Nancy Dewrain- TS17-XV. There is actually two women named Nancy on the RHE roster, but the other is not in the hidden bunker- so people rarely confuse the two. Nancy is in a very similar situation to Tolli. Nancy's habitat is surrounded with a holographic bubble of grassy plains, and even has a patch of natural grass growing there, but there is also a mini home that is a replica of one of the RHE staff apartments! Nancy is completely a feral goat, except her human mind is still intact- mostly. Again you do not bother disturbing the subject herself and go immediately to her environmental control panel to just look up her information. (link:"Nancy")[Nancy has a human mind but still has a goat mouth and vocal chords so she is entirely unable to speak. Unless you plan on getting her to scratch messages for you into the dirt with her hoof, she would have no way of communicating. Unlike Tolli she is not unusually sized nor is she mutated in any way, and that is because she also only had one dose. Her initial test screwed up. There was something wrong with her chakra circulation. Her chakra gates were unusually open for unknowable reasons before she even had the test and no one thought to check that at the time, because it would sort of be an odd thing to happen in the first place. Nancy might have been recovered, but her transformation affected her mind and caused her to become a nymphomaniac- and all her activity caused her transformation to speed along and complete before anyone could find a solution. She remains a nymphomaniac, and had to be provided a slew of… marital aids. Her udder is absolutely giant for a goat- touching the ground under her which also hinders her movement, but not to the point where she cannot get around at all.] Apparently when Nancy gets hormonally charged her mind gets overtaken with goat instinct which causes her to enter a trance-like state where she cannot stop fantasizing about mating with other goats. This basically traps her whenever she gets aroused- she can't fight it till she relieves herself. Nancy can leave the bunker but without hands and being quite small in overall size prevents her from using the console to get ''back'' inside of the bunker- and from being able to do things like prepare food for herself. So if she is allowed out, she must be monitored closely so an escort can return her to the habitat. You can hear bleating from inside her house so she is probably… //busy//. You glance at the time and see it is getting late. You should return to Olivia soon, but should have enough time to check in on at least one other Extreme Variant. You decide to visit Lucria, who is TS69. Nice. Her habitat is easy enough for you to find- it is actually the furthest down the line basically at the end of the primary path without taking any detours. It is identical to the homes in the valley except… its inside of the bunker. Her windows are replaced with monitors playing an infinitely looping video of a scene from down in the valley- to help her pretend. Lucria actually did live in the valley for a short period of time. Her front window however remains regular glass- allowing her to see you coming and you to see her before even knocking on her door. She is one of the test subjects who would need to let you in. Even with a security access of level 4 you would not be able to open the door to her house without her permission first. Security level S and Alua are still able to open the door no matter what- Alua will only open it if there is a medical emergency or Lucria is for whatever reason unable to open it herself. She opens the door for you, though it takes her a moment to shuffle her way over to it- she is not very mobile. "Hey! Wow, I did not expect to see the outside this far away from… //everything//." You like to stick your nose where it doesn't belong and see how long it takes for someone to tell you, you can't. She laughs and lets you inside- her home is not different from others structurally but all her furniture is rather heavily modified. Lucria's test went perfectly fine on its own, like Tolli- but her breast size was left in her own hands, and by her own hands she went //way overboard//. The point of her test was multiples and a framework that supported them without forsaking mobility. Except she grew her boobs so big that she lost her mobility anyway. Lucria has a reinforced skeletal structure with bovine traits- but while she can lift her mass around, there is so much flesh extending beyond the reach of her limbs that she cannot walk. She has to sort of shove herself forward in a lurching motion to move anywhere. Lucia's strongest outward features are those of a ferret. Her limbs, neck, tail, and face all look like those of a human sized ferret, and even her body length better resembles a white ferret. The powder-soft fur does not extend onto her long, flexible torso, but it covers her limbs, neck and head entirely. Where it ends at the top of her legs and arms it forms a sort of plume that projects off her a ways. Her tail is absolutely huge- though most of its mass due to how bushy and soft the fur over it is. Her feet are entirely converted to paws which are rather small compared to her overall size, and her hands are half paw half hand still- so she can still pick up and manipulate objects. Her very long torso is absolutely covered in six breasts roughly the size of a large beach ball- putting them well outside the range of any reasonable bra size. If that was not already enough, she has the udder of a cow that is roughly the size of a beanbag chair. Even with her very long torso, she is absolutely covered in mammaries. There is a test subject named Ruby who gives ermine milk already- so Lucria actually has hybrid bovine-ermine milk. Higher in lactic acids and a bit creamier in consistency- it really paints the inside of your mouth. Your first question is the most obvious… //why?// Her form was perfectly functional, and she immobilized //herself//. She blushed. "Well, it was only half an actual descision. It was hard getting the dosage right, and I didn't really have any measuring tools. Well I mean they told me to use spoons to measure but they also told me sexual stimulus would trigger the changes and I needed to actually ''see'' the changes, y'know? To properly measure. And then I was distracted by the pleasure and I mean who doesn't want to feel more pleasure so I took more but I wasn't really properly measuring it because who takes a spoon with them to bed and then it was sort of getting too big but it still felt good so I thought I could-" She took several deep breaths, having said all that quickly without stop. "So it was sort-of an accident." You chuckle and tell her it is fine, as long as she is happy with it- and she does not at all seem too bothered by it. No matter where you end up on the island, RHE will make sure you have what you need to survive. Even if you require someone to do all your cooking for you because you cannot approach a stove without accidentally putting part of yourself on top of it. When she stands upright, you can tell she is actually using her breasts as stability. By stacking them up on top of one another and then on top of her udder which is on the floor, she is able to use her own mams as a crutch to help her back. It's almost like she is lying down, while standing up. They are not particularly firm mammaries since their structure was not modified for their increased size- since RHE was not expecting her to go this big in the first place. She leans back to show you her torso behind all the mammaries. She only needs to arch her spine backward a bit and her breasts all naturally flop to either side, exposing her torso in between. Then when she straightens they all slap back together into a massive jiggling fit. She brings you to her bedroom to show you her milking machine- it was custom built for her, since she cannot leave to visit the lactation stations under her own power. There is several metal rings in her roof that allow flexible segmented pipes to be pulled down- and they trail into what looks like a huge sphere of rubber foam. She turns it to show you better that one side is a strip of indentations; six uniform pockets to press her breasts into and four clustered ones on the very bottom of the sphere for her udder. Each indentation has a smaller hole for the teat/nipple to fit inside of. Because her body is so long and flexible she curls herself around it, hugging the sphere to her body while all her mammaries fit into it and get milked into a unified stream that goes up into the roof through a pipe. The two smaller hoses accompanying the pipe are to control the air pressure- pulsing the vacuum rhythmically to work out her milk. "This baby is actually the prototype of the BH-LS model lactation station in the main complex! It did not exist before they had to make this for me. The BH-LS is a soft body, huggable milking machine too. The ones in the main complex only support 4 breasts and an udder though- so if you have 6 breasts you are out of luck. Obviously the BH-LS isn't a ball like mine, since only someone with a spine as long and bendy as mine could use it comfortably. And Ruby is the only other person I know with a torso like mine- she is part weasel." You ask her if it ever gets boring in the XV Bunker, since it is so isolated from everything else. "Naw. I have a good friend in Ariadne and she is //super strong// so she sometimes just picks me up and walks me out of here, haha. She visits often to hang out with me. There is also regular gatherings of the test subjects inside the bunker itself. Eve has a teleport array in her habitat she can use to //summon// people for regular game nights. Plus- it isn't like I can't ever go outside the bunker. It is just //inconvenient// and I need help to do it. We are in here for our own good- we are not prisoners." Your watch beeps and you remember the alarm you set for returning to Olivia. You tell Lucria that you would have liked to stay and chat more, but you only had the one day on the island and the day is up. You say goodbye to Lucria and head out. Rather than return the way you came- there is two other exists to the XV Bunker. One is an elevator that is meant for bringing supplies between the main complex and the bunker, so you aren't //supposed// to use that, but //technically// you can. There is also a maintenance passage that is rather small and hard to spot that connects the two facilities so the maintenance crew can get to and fix things quickly. Before you leave though, you have to backtrack a bit to the last major conjunction of pathways in order to get to the maintenance exit. This puts you squarely in front of TS37-XV. Unlike the others he possesses no habitat at all to live in. There is simply a half-sphere indentation in the wall almost entirely filled with pipes, wires, and cables running into a large chronostasis pod. 37-XV has been in suspension almost since his initial transformation, so almost no one has ever actually seen him. You glance at the panel on the door to his pod. Can you guess the password correctly for this? [[Continue...->PASSWORD]]

Once you get back to the RHE main complex you head to the offices to find Olivia, but she is already prepared and stands up as soon as she spots you in the doorway. The restaurant is on the same level of the building, just down a hall a ways. There is actually an overpass that connects the restaurant to the shipment tower, for ease of delivering food, and the helicopter pilot can pop in for a bite to eat straight from the landing pad. The restaurant feels pretty classy too, but it is a much more modern sort of fancy than the library is. There are chandeliers on the roof here too, but the lights in them are electronic, and the fixture less ornate. The floors are indigo carpet to muffle footsteps- but the staff’s footsteps still make a dull thud. The restaurant was staffed entirely by two golem- the food prepared magically. The food was prepped using conjuration spells on the base materials, so technically anything at all could be made, however since it was a golem ‘cooking’ it; it can only preform the spells it has been pre-assigned. They are not smart enough to change things up on the fly, so if you wanted a custom order you need to have the runic arrays to imprint on the golem- telling it verbally won’t help. Olivia asks how your trip was and you say it was quite nice.(if:$Reflex is "N")[ Aside from being clocked in the face with a tennis ball- which was just an accident of course, no one’s fault.(if:$Library is false)[ Olivia says she is surprised you did not get a black eye from it, but you explain that you actually did. Rayzel was kind enough to cure it for you when you met in the library.]] You got to hang out and see test subjects just having fun at the tennis court. You got to see how talented some of them are and hear Viola’s music and Lorelei’s divine singing. You are recounting your trip to the library as you spot a familiar face and wave over to Ariadne who walks over and rests down a large crate she was carrying. She looked like she was passing through the restaurant to get to the kitchen herself. “Oh, hey again outsider. Just bringing a shipment to the kitchen.” You ask her if she means from her farm. Was the kitchen stocked from her own farm? Olivia shook her head. “The kitchen is stocked from the tower and the food is brought in by helicopter. It is the same food that is sent to stock up all the test subjects’ houses. There are sensors in their refrigerators that tell us when they need a resupply, and the food is teleported from here to their home instantly.” Ariadne nodded. “But if I have extra I drop it off here. I see what I can trade off at the market. If no one takes the farm fresh produce in time, I bring it here. It doesn’t last forever, and I wouldn’t want anything to go to waste.” You ask how the market even works in the first place- no one on the island has a job so then how would anyone make any money to be able to buy anything from a market? “It works by trade, there is no currency exchanged. You are allowed to request one item from the outside world every month from RHE. If you want more than that you have to earn enough points for it through donating milk, or… whatever resource you are able to produce thanks to your test. Not everyone can produce a resource though, so perhaps they have a talent, a trade skill, or can just use favors to trade with someone who can produce milk to get what they want. That is how the market started. I can give my fresh food there, Rosemary occasionally sells hand knit clothing, and various test subjects trade milk or produce created from their milk for those of a different taste.” Olivia nodded. “The marketplace was entirely constructed and run by test subjects- RHE had nothing to do with it. It is the same thing for the valley labs, library, and art gallery. RHE supplied the structures but it was the test subjects who requested them and run them.” After dinner, you are so tired from wandering around all day and from eating so much at dinner that you fall asleep almost instantly.(if:($Faith is true) and ($Aloe is true) and ($Hydra is true) and ($Maple is true))[ [[* You cannot sleep... *->Make A Monster]] ](else:)[ ]The next day you wake up refreshed, but do not want to get out of bed, knowing you will only have to leave the island when you do. Olivia comes to get you when you do not emerge on your own though. The helicopter has a schedule to keep and you need to be on it when it leaves. Olivia tells you she can try to get you back on the island another time if she can, but can make no promises. You say your goodbyes to her and she returns to the main building after walking you to the base of the tower. On your way up, you see a familiar face though- Angelique stops you on the third floor, she was waiting where the overpass connects the two structures since she did not know which way you would come from. “Hey! Just thought I would give you this- a little something to remember your time on the island by. We never get visitors here, so the test subjects had fun hosting you as well. It was something a little different for everyone.” Angelique handed you a bookmark as a souvenir! The bookmark itself is shaped like and depicts a dairy cow, but the tail is a white string tied into a tassel on the end. You smile at the thoughtful gift and thank Angelique. You both pause a moment hearing the rotor of the helicopter turning on above and she tells you, you better get going. (set: $Bookmark to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You decide to head toward the Valley Labs. You can see the building in the distance from the doors of the gallery. It is the building that is the furthest south, and the power generation station for the south sector is right beside it. The sub-generators for each area of the valley run off the planet’s natural magnetic fields, turning a small perpetual motion device that generates electric charge. The only inefficient thing about them is the perpetual motion device won’t be able to start turning properly without a zero friction surface- only the generation point should be touching the turning parts, and in order to create that zero friction cell to contain it- you need electricity. So you need another power source in order to start it, but once it is running it perpetuates itself. From a distance you did not notice, but as you get closer to the labs you realize there is actually a rather steep divot in the ground just before the labs, and then the land turns back up sharply leading to the foot of the southern mountains. So the south forest is actually on a steep slant. The lab building completely ignores the slope of the ground and sticks forward perfectly level with most of the other structures, which means most of the building is actually underground- jammed into the side of the slope. There is a pool in the middle of the last group of homes just before the slope, but because of the incline in every direction around it; it is the most annoying pool to try and keep clean. The wind manages to carry every loose leaf to that exact point. There are two hybrids just past the pool talking with each other on one of the walkways- and both of them are male! Having already seen Bernard, now you are curious to compare the experiences with other male test subjects. You have unintentionally found several males against the odds; the male versus female population is quite lopsided. You decide to walk up and talk to them rather than continue to the labs. You cannot guarantee who is at the Valley Labs, if anyone, but you know where these test subjects are. TS66; ‘six ball’ Barrus, and TS102-XY; Duncan. (link:"Barrus")[This man has a deep bronze tan and looks like he could get a job as a demolition expert, taking down old buildings with his bare hands. Barrus indeed does have the strength to cave in a brick wall with his arms, but to say he could do it with his hands would imply he has any. Barrus is quite literally muscle on top of muscle- he has a second set of pectoral muscles right on top of the first. The upper third of his torso is just repeated again over it, which means he also has four arms to go with those four pecs, but none of those arms end in hands. All of his arms and legs end in the cloven hooves of a bull, so to hold anything he has to pinch the objects between two hooves- like Beryl had to do before her hands were fixed. Barrus never really needed to get his fix so he never bothered. All of the devices in the homes can be operated by voice command, including the PC, so there is no need for hands doing that. You may thing he would have trouble masturbating then… well, he is a breeder male. He never needs to masturbate in the first place. The indentation between his rock hard abs looks so deep that he probably has to floss his muscles with a cloth to bathe properly. The only clothing Barrus ever wore is a heavy leather loincloth- behind it is his thick hairless bovine sheath and three scrotums! Trying to outdo his collection of arms- he has three individual scrotums for a total of six testicles. Because they are individually paired, they collide with one another when he has sex turning his crotch into a lewd newton’s cradle. The testicles are sized as a bull’s, but the scrotum holds them tighter to his going like a human- otherwise they would be colliding together with far too much momentum. He has bovine ears and the bridge of his nose is flatter and wider than a human toward the end, giving it a slightly square end to it similar to a bovine face without having a muzzle- the coloration is also unaltered from his normal skin. The only other feature on his body that is not human is his huge bull horns, which grow out from his temples but curve forward almost immediately as if to point at whatever he looks at. His arms often hang forward a bit, because the lower shoulders stick out where his top arms would have rested. Not that he ever had a need to use it, and it is not outwardly visible- but Barrus’ skull is also abnormally dense. He could charge and ram into things like an actual bull without hurting his head or neck.] (link:"Duncan")[Duncan looks like a midget beside Barrus, at least till you get up beside them and realize it is only because he is average height and Barrus is a fricken behemoth. Duncan actually looks surprisingly normal- he is even fully dressed. Just some black sneakers, baggy black sweat pants and a dark cyan sweater of thin material. His hair, beard and mustache are all cut short and bristly and are dark brown. He has a wide triangular mat of hair on his chest and a rather dense mat on his forearms too- though his crotch is devoid of hair. A feature you can see only the bulge from is his modified genitals; it looks like he has a pair of watermelons stashed in those baggy pants. Each testicle the size of a medicine ball and the foreskin on his penis was so thick and large that it basically acted as a sheath, except it is not attached to his underside. He looks fit, but not especially muscular and he has what looks outwardly like a pot belly. The bulge in his gut isn’t fat at all- it is actually from a gigantic mutant prostate inside of him, so pressing on his lower gut is almost directly touching his prostate. Duncan was given a special tincture that allows him to call on genetic traits stored in his body to transform himself into various shapes- but unlike others who had the same tincture; Duncan can only transform his genitals. Because the parts he can change are so limited, they were able to give him a much wider array of animals to call traits from and there was nothing stopping him from mixing and matching all of the traits at once if he wanted- or keeping his phallus exactly the same and just pulling the size from those other beasts. Whenever he goes to sleep, his body resets back to its default, so there was not really any consequence for going nuts with it. Both he and Barrus are breeder males, but Duncan is also one of two members of the RHE XY Project, which harvests semen in titanic volume and isolates just the protein cells to repurpose for human consumption. So Duncan’s ability to ejaculate was absurdly powerful.] Barrus was the first to speak, in his very deep voice. “You just missed Rayzel. None of the other girls are hanging around here right now. Most are back at home preparing dinner.” Duncan looked you over. “Oh, you are Olivia’s friend, eh? A tourist in paradise, hah!” He nodded. “Barrus is right- most are home cooking dinner or eating an early one. Not many wandering around outside at this hour, so bad time to be wandering aimless.” Duncan looked past you up toward the main complex. “I am waiting for Roxi right now, so if you //don’t mind waiting//- she should be here soon. If she didn’t get distracted again, hah.” You explain that you wanted to get to know the whole island as best as you could in a single day- not just the female subjects. You ask them what their origin story is here on the island. Duncan shrugged. “Not much to tell; I was a bit aimless, my career wasn’t making money anymore and I found RHE’s ad looking for test subjects. Figured it was a job anyone could do. I used to be a brick layer, but not only are most structures concrete these days- the few who do still want the classic look of a versed stone mason go with golem. Getting stone to lay stone- Automancers basically killed my career.” Barrus huffed. “He also signed up after RHE took the ads down.” Duncan laughed. “Aye. So did Aloe; she came even after me. I had the ad information saved because I was thinking on it. I wasn’t even aware RHE had pulled the ads- they stopped looking for new subjects but let me sign up anyway. Their XY Project got it in one try technically, but they decided they should have a second opinion and used me as the test.” You and Duncan look to Barrus for his story, he doesn’t speak for a moment and then sighs. “I tried to sign up as a researcher. I was decent at magic and studied up on basic biology in preparation- figured I could fake it till I make it. Obviously the stuff they work on in RHE is far advanced and they called my bluff immediately. They couldn’t turn me over to the police because then their secret would get out. So I was forced to become a test subject. Ended up as a breeder though, so as you can imagine it doesn’t particularly feel like a punishment. Ended up getting the good life and skipping the whole ‘find a job part’.” With a bit of an embarrassed smile, you ask if they had any bizarre requests. They were both breeders, so they are meant to be on call to have sex with potentially any other test subject. Has another male test subject ever called on a breeder? Barrus crossed his upper arms and put his lower arms on his hips. “Depends what you consider male. There are a few females with male parts and males with female parts, and a few males who used to be female and females that used to be males. Around six or so test subjects who have had their gender get a bit shuffled in their transformation. Lilac is female except in her crotch- fully male genitals. I laid with her once.” Duncan nodded. “Me too- she went all-out. That is usually the most unusual request for me, and pretty frequent. Women will request a size or number of dicks from me that… they can’t use. Like, getting me to take the full size of a whale phallus so my dick fills half the room. It can’t fit inside of them even a little bit so it seems pointless, but they request it anyway. Some women are just //hypnotized// watching it grow. They use it like a giant body pillow and get off grinding their hot box on the curvature of the veins alone, hah. As long as everyone has fun, it doesn’t matter what they request. It is just sort of funny how many of them want something so impractical that it literally cannot be used how it is traditionally supposed to.” Wouldn’t his heart //implode// from an explosive lack of blood pressure if his dick could get ''that'' big? You ask him what his maximum size is. “I actually have never completely maxed out my size, so I don’t know- it is (text-style:"underline")[absurdly] large, I know that. I have the traits of a LOT of different cocks, including a whale dork, so whale is not the largest; because I can apply the size of a whale and then start stacking the size of all the other different cocks on top of that to make it even larger, hah. I have outgrown rooms before hitting my own limit. As for blood pressure- I have two hearts, my standard human heart and a dormant, expandable heart with larger arteries. The second heart doesn’t do anything normally; it only activates when my blood pressure lowers to a specific point and then wakes up. It multiplies blood cells rapidly the same way my tincture can multiply cells rapidly to transform to and from different shapes. It was a tincture created by Moth herself, so only the paragon fully understands how it works.” Barrus grumbled a bit. “A frequent request for me is they want to ride me like a bull. They want me on all six limbs, they climb on my back, grab my horns like handlebars and get me to run around or try to buck them off. A bit odd, but whatever.” He grinned a bit. “There are a couple of subjects who take me for my namesake ‘six ball’. They like to suck on them and play with the soft scrotums.” The three of you end up wandering over to the side of the nearby pool to sit down- there are two outdoor tables and some chairs around it you use to sit on and chat. Every so often Duncan glances toward the main complex, seeing if he can spot Roxi coming. (after:640s)[You all see a woman coming at you at an impressive speed! She is on all fours and her limbs thump against the ground as she charges forward. She lifts her front limbs off the ground as she gets closer, transitioning from four to two legs mid-run and then stops as she arrives with you all, panting heavily. She gave a joking salute. “Rrr-Roxy… Roseheart… ready to rock.” Barrus raised an eyebrow. “You don’t sound ready to rock- you sound like you’re hyperventilating.” Duncan laughed and shook his head. “Got distracted again didn’t you, Rox?” “No, no. I just had two people to deliver messages to already before you, and I do them in order, so. I can’t be distracted from your request- because your request //''is''// the distraction!” (link:"Roxi")[Roxi is wearing frayed jean short-shorts with leg warmers around her lower legs- above her paw but below her ankle. As a canine hybrid, her lower legs are structured like furless dog paws, which look rather small compared to her overall size. The claws on her hands and feet were encased in metallic red nail polish- but the tips were wearing off and exposing the black of the actual claw. There is a hole in the back of her shorts with a metal ring woven into the material to guide out her tail- which is about a foot long and as thick as a shot glass at the base. Her tail wags back and forth so rapidly it is almost just a blur, and she shifts her weight constantly from one paw to the other, tilting one way and then the other. Her top is small and strapless… honestly it was basically just a band of flexible white fabric. She is wearing a full sleeve black fishnet top on over that, but since you can see through fishnet, it doesn’t help actually cover any more than the initial top. Unlike the end of her legs, Roxi still had perfectly human hands, except the claws instead of nails, and the base and tip of every digit had a thick grey-pink pad of flesh on it. That is how she can run on all fours without hurting herself- the pads protect her against the odd pebble or twig hiding in the grass. Her specific breed is Beagle so her ears are large and fully flop over themselves on either side of her head. Her hair is a lighter brown and tied into a tight bun at the back so it doesn’t get all over the place when she is frantically running around. Roxi has several off-color patches of skin that resemble the hide of a Beagle, though she has no actual fur anywhere. There is a brown patch encompassing both ears and eyes- but do not touch in the middle. They are the same brown as her hair color. She has a huge black splotch covering most of her back. Her butt cheeks have a brown patch and black patch- if you squished her butt cheeks together the two patches join into a heart shape. Her two tops only cover a single set of areola and nipple- she has three more sets below that for a total of eight. Roxi’s lips are glossy black as well as the end of her nose- which is slightly more canine in shape; the bridge of her nose isn’t as sloped as a normal human and the end a bit further out. If she turns her head quickly enough, she slaps herself with her own floppy ears.] Now that she is here, you ask Roxi how she came to be on RHEI. She is the close friend of Morgan La Fey- one of the RHE staff- so like you; she was invited to the island by a friend. She jokes that maybe Olivia invited you to turn you into a test subject as well. RHE has not been looking for new test subjects for a while now though, so you know that isn’t the case. TS70; Okra was Roxi’s ‘day one’- the test subject that first met her and welcomed her in, though Roxi had already been introduced to the island rather well by Dr.LaFey. Back then she had eight C cup breasts and produced milk at an unfortunately disproportionate rate to her body’s ability to store it, so she needed to milk herself quite often or risk leaking everywhere. It was not until Roxi met TS61; Lace, that she realized how important her speed is. Lace is the only test subject on the island able to produce gossamer, so there is no specific collection method for the material- so Lace often gave it to Roxi to deliver for her, because Roxi likes to run around and play in the sun. As others also caught on and started to rely on Roxi, she stopped trying to instigate her lactation and slowly her breasts stopped expressing and shrank down to her current flat-chested state. There are a lot of test subjects on the island who can lactate, but not very many who can run from one end of the island to the other in one go without collapsing. Roxi also has a lopsided rivalry with TS95; Grace, who is also part dog, and designed to be a runner. Grace is actually faster than Roxi is, and Roxi is always trying to advertise herself as the better of the two and out speed Grace, even though Grace has won every race they have ever had. Grace does not really consider Roxi a rival though, and doesn’t care which of them the other test subjects want to rely on. Grace just likes to run- she doesn’t care why she is running, Roxi is the one being defensive about her ‘job’. ]After a while the sky starts to turn purple and the sun vanishes quickly- because the mountains block it before it actually dips behind the horizon. You tell them you have to get going, and start walking back to the RHE main complex; you have dinner plans with Olivia and you have a good walk ahead of you just to get back to the building. You did not have the time left to visit the valley labs, but you still feel you got a good distance covered considering how limited your time was. [[Back to Olivia...->Sketchy End]]

You do not notice till the ground starts to dip down and suddenly the Valley Labs are above you instead of straight across. There is actually a pretty big dent in the ground at the south end, but it was hard to tell at a distance because the labs ignore the angle of the ground entirely- which means most of the building is actually underground, jammed into the slope. Of the building exposed outside, almost all of the outer facing walls are glass. The walk there ends up being a lot longer than it first appeared, and to the actual front door it was quite a steep incline, so there is a very long set of stairs that start part way up to make it easier to climb. Once inside it was a bit difficult to find which way to go. There is color coded stripes along the wall, but as an outside you did not know what color indicated what part of the facility. You pass through what appears to be a meeting room with a four sided turning whiteboard in the middle with lots of random doodles and ideas written on it. Next you pass through what appears to be a break room- there is vending machines here and a few chairs and one table. Then you pass the bathroom- it has no gender indicator on the door so you mistaking look inside thinking it was just another room. There are several halls leading out from this point, fairly long and narrow and well-lit like most of the facility. The place is extremely modern. Walking down the one that curved here from the immediate right is a test subject though- finally someone you can ask. It is TSXY, technically TS102; Allan Richter. (link:"Allan")[Unlike most other male test subjects, Allan is not muscular… at least, not his top half. In fact he has a rather soft, feminine look to him- though he is still clearly male from his exposed package. Allan has long elven ears and his hair line extends as an equine mane to his shoulders though his neck is still entirely human- so the mane is not particularly long. His hair is black except for a patch of white that grows just over either temple. Because he lets his hair grow long to his shoulders, these white streaks frame his face completely. His eyebrows and facial hair also carry it however- the outer half of either eyebrow is white, and if he grows out a beard there will also be a white streak on either side of it as well. He only has the shadow of facial hair right now, he usually keeps it shaven. He has an equine tail behind him with long hair as well, and also has a single thin streak of white in it. Allan’s hips are gigantic for a male and so is hit butt- his legs are a hybrid human-horse, so his thighs are huge with muscle but his large hip’s joints still allow bipedal movement. He has cloven hooves like a bull and long trailing fetlocks like some breeds of horse, but no fur anywhere else. His anus trails grey-pink flesh up his taint to his balls and then to a plump looking sheath. His balls were actually not testicles but giant prostates- a feature first implemented in Bernard. And his arms ended in hybrid hoof-hands; a feature formed originally in Tiffany. Obviously his dick is not flopping around out of its home for no reason, but it is certainly impressive when it does come out to play. Being the primary test subject of the XY Project, Allan has an extreme capacity for ejaculation and abnormal control over his orgasms. Like two other test subjects, his balls have the expansion gene, so his nuts are always producing liquid slowly, and getting bigger as they store more over time- shrinking back to ‘normal’ when they are emptied. Normal for him though is the size of a watermelon each. Unlike those other test subjects however, his penis and his heart also have that expansion capacity- his dick doesn’t just fill out and stiffen when he gets a boner, it actually expands to a larger size! The sheath looks like it houses an impressive equine dong now- but when fully expanded it is as thick as a fire hydrant and a bit taller than he is. Because of how wide his hips are, he walks with a feminine swing to his hips, accented by the swishing of his long equine tail. His body almost reminded you of some classical paintings of Satyrs- some looks pretty feminine and have more beastly lower halves and elven ears, but still clearly male- and act very much male.] Allan paused when he noticed you standing there. “Oh. Uh, hi, heh. You are Olivia’s friend right? Welcome to the Valley Labs.” You explain you are a bit lost, and Allan nods. “Yea, without Olivia with you it is no wonder. This building is modular- built in sections so it is a bit maze-like. This is actually more modern than the primary RHE complex, because it was built much later. Dr.Hedgewall convinced RHE to give her more resources than she was expecting because they had been ramping down their research by then, so any resources they had left were up for grabs.” Allan motioned to follow him and slowly started to walk you through the building while continuing to talk to you. You ask how he ended up on RHEI, and why they used his current form if all he was supposed to do was cum insane amounts- they could have just made a hyper endowed human. “I had an insider, like you. Well, obviously not also Olivia. I was friends with the husband of Magistress Telah Reinhart; the leader of the XY Project. As for my current form… well, that is sort of on me. I had the Gummy Tincture, which allowed me to choose from various animal traits to transform myself at will- just had to think about a change enough. Then when I go to sleep, my form resets. The only criteria for my body was I needed to have Telah’s prostate-ball design and extreme orgasmic capacity, anything else was just there if I wanted to. SO, I designed my own body, experimented with a bunch of forms… settled on this. Once I knew what I wanted they used a spell to basically burn off the Gummy effects and cement in the form.” Allan talked about having Hazel as a neighbor, always climbing on the rooftops to hang out. Io was one of the first test subjects he met, which made her a good mentor because she has the Gummy tincture as well- though rather than a species, hers is programmed with the body of TS01. Io however is a bit flirtatious and a massive tease, which made things get a little out of hand at first and was a bit hard to deal with initially, till he got used to her personality. She is gorgeous so not responding to her flirtations is painful sometimes- but that is just her personality, she isn’t actually trying to come on to people. She is bisexual- Io plays with boys only sometimes, she proffers girls. Allan is not a breeder, so he does not have a waiting list of women waiting to ride his poll like some other male subjects, but he has an array of custom toys to facilitate ‘milking’ him. At the very least, he needs special equipment in his house to collect all his ejaculate for RHE to break down and harvest the protein cells from. Allan led you to a giant cylindrical room, motioning into it. “Anyway, this is where you want to be. I have to get going.” He turned and called over to a woman who was crouched down examining some plants. “Julie- you have a guest.” Allan left and Dr. Julie Hedgewall stood up to face you. Like Olivia always does- she is wearing a white lab coat but doesn’t have her arms in the sleeves; it is just draped over her shoulders. Julie has a mane of curly golden hair that cascades down from her head to her chest, but is so voluminous thanks to the curls that it is also as wide as her shoulders. Her glasses were large and round- they are also very thick as she is almost entirely blind without them. Julie is extremely near-sighted. While they no longer work very well, her eyes are pretty. Cyan in color except the very edges of the iris are green where the blue pigment doesn’t overlap. She is at least a few inches shorter than you, and looks entirely human right now- since her tincture is the Gummy type; she reverts whenever she sleeps and faces each day with the potential to transform again. Her breasts are cute lil B cups. While you can only see the tiniest part of it out of the collar of her shirt, Julie actually has a grievous scar on her right shoulder. Her voice is dry and soft because of damage to her voice box, and she cannot hold her right hand steady- it has both poor circulation in it and severe nerve damage. Though she looks petite and cute, she wears an aura of authority. The giant cylindrical room you are in is webbed by very narrow metal pathways and otherwise occupied almost entirely by plants. The room is built like a hollow tower, and thanks to the slant the lab is constructed on, the tower is just tall enough that the glass dome roof is level with the ground outside- allowing in lots of natural sunlight. The pathways are lined with small but powerful lights as well, so even at night this room would still be well lit. You feel like you are in a giant terrarium. Julie walked up, looking you over. “So, Olivia’s friend, eh? Welcome to the Valley Labs.” You ask what this room is and what it is for. It seems more like a greenhouse than a laboratory thing. “This is Biodome 1. As a way to do minor testing and to help the test subjects learn more about the process behind their own transformations, we preform transformations here. I help them create a simple plant-based homunculus, also known as an Alraune. Since they are generally not smart enough to properly consent, transforming them after they are born seems morally questionable, so we administer the tinctures while they are still in their seed state so they are unaware they were ever meant to be any different. I guess you could say I am doing the same thing as RHE, just on a smaller scale and with Alraune instead of humans.” You ask Julie how she ended up a test subject if she is a researcher. Her answer is quite simple- one final test. RHE was slowing down testing, not accepting new test subjects. Julie was getting bored but could not really see herself starting fresh at some new place and her talents did not extend beyond Bioarcanistry so she decided to retire early- and turn herself into her final test subject, using a tincture partially worked on by Moth herself. Now she lives in the paradise she helped create, and ended up continuing her research anyway, just in a different capacity. “Guess I am a one-trick pony. Can’t quit being a researcher even if I try, it’s all I know how to do.” You ask how her transformation works, and she laughs. “The long answer or the short answer?” (t8n-time:1s)+(link:"Long answer")[“Dimensional dilation; a cell that is extradimensional so that is able to call traits from yourself in another existence through paradoxal mediation. That is how it is able to expand or contract a potentially great mass in a small amount of time, without using mana or converting existing physical material. It has no detrimental effect on the ‘other you’ because time flow does not align between all extraverse, and the transformation is temporary. They lose mass for such a miniscule period of time they are incapable of realizing it even happened in the first place. As for the ability to transition from one form to the other, it is thanks to ‘control cells’. Cells that act as information hubs and then a reusable viral-like cell that acts as a mediator. Viral cell pulls information from the control cells and feeds it to the base cells of your body, changing their ‘job’. The universe will always balance itself out naturally through cause and reaction, so when you bring in new biomass with no imprint the universe naturally attempts to harmonize it to make sense of the paradox. If you were to travel to a dimension in which you already existed in, both of you would collapse into a single body and you would have the knowledge of both instances of your existence. It is the same concept only without a mind- the universal harmony recognizes that the paradoxal biomass belongs to you, but not THIS you. It is forced into your body and then immediately takes on whatever imprint your cells have to balance itself out- and thanks to the control cells the imprint isn’t the form you currently have, it is the transformed state you are requesting. So you don’t need to wait for your cells to reproduce and die for the changes to happen iteratively and take forever- happens right away.”] (t8n-time:1s)+(link:"Short, thanks")[“You think about a change long enough or hard enough and if your body is able to do it with the outside gene imprint you have stored in you- it will. Basically you can be imprinted with the genome of a different body, and with your thoughts control how much of that body and how much of your original body you want. And you can shuffle the traits around- like the size of a cow. I can reduce the size of the body and reallocate the size instead of the mammaries specifically. The problem with this tincture is that you can trigger transformations with any stray thought if you are not very careful. Luckily- it relies entirely on conscious thought, so while it has the same limit of ‘you can only transform forward’ that all other tinctures have- there is a reset button. You can’t really undo a change mentally, but if your conscious thoughts are interrupted the changes revert. So the moment you fall asleep all bets are off, everything gets reverted immediately.”] Julie shooed you back a bit and told you she would give a demonstration. She placed her hands on her chest to help focus her thoughts and simply imagined them bigger. Her hands start to curve more and then slowly move away from herself- you can see the shirt pulling along with them which means it is her breasts that are pushing them away. Julie casually explains as her breasts grow that normally they would give off a lot of heat from rapid cellular growth and the fact the fatty tissue of the breasts are an excellent insulator. The gummy tincture transformation however does not throw off any more heat than her normal body temperature. Where a more standard transformation would feel tension in specific parts as it shifts, the gummy tincture changes are more of a mild universal pressure- the sensation of an overall growth. She stuttered a bit as she spoke, and flinched slightly, commenting that the expansion still tugs on the nerves inside- and a woman’s nipples and areola have a very low pain receptor count; it’s mostly just pleasure nerves. The bottom of her shirt flutters further and further off from her body and pulls higher as her breasts fight for space, greedily demanding more cloth to cover themselves. Her nipples looked like they were trying to punch holes in the fabric but then became less visible as the shirt pulled so tight that it was shoving her nipples back, making her hum softly from the feeling. Soon you could see the bottoms of her breasts exposed under the shirt, and then the entire bottom halves. Julie grunted from the exertion. Her boobs were so giant and so compressed by her top that she had an inverted muffin top- the bottoms billowed out forward a full two inches further than the top. Her breasts were also being held unnaturally high up, blocking her field of vision entirely. The shoulder seams held the fabric tighter the further up it is, so as it ran out of room it lifted, which also pulled her boobs with it since they are effectively trapped. Julie pat her lab coat feeling for a pen she slipped out of its pocket, then rubbed across her tits with her other hand trying to pinpoint where her cleavage is deepest. With a swift motion Julie stabbed the pen through the middle of her shirt and it immediately exploded in half! The fabric tension was so high that even a tiny hole immediately tore through the entire shirt. Because of how tightly they were compressed, her boobs looked like they ''leaped'' off of her chest, then swung outward repelled off of one another, then swung down and back together before making a loud (text-style:"rumble")[//*plap*//] sound as they jiggled violently. Each boob almost matched the torso it attached to in size, so even if she turned around backwards you would be able to see a good third of her breast from around her sides. “And there you have it! Instant titties!” You are a bit hesitant, but ask if she could do a bovine lower body. You are curious to see the transition between human and bovine hips that make it so cows cannot walk on two legs- even though hybrids who have cow legs can still walk on two. “Oh, sure. In the spirit of curiosity, why not.” She slipped her skirt down a bit and motioned across her hips as the changes happened. There is a bit of tension at the front where the bone connects the loosest, but then a surge of material travels in from the base of the spine and causes a swelling growth in the bone from back to front which then causes it to widen as the material equalizes back to a proper density- this causes a very faint creaking sound as the bone bends around a steeper angle. The top of her hip bones then rise up and become much more angular, making the hip bones look sharp- and clearly visible on the surface. Julie paused a moment, looking to be in deep thought, then quickly pull the skirt the rest of the way off before stumbling completely forward and catching herself on her hands. There was a loud hollow pop from either side of her as she fell forward. “There goes the leg joi… nts… eh.” There was a sound almost like a pitched-down version of someone crushing a tin can. “Okay, that is done.” In a moment her vulva and anus were shifted far back and her hips changed shape. While a human pelvis is shaped like a ring, a bovine pelvis is a V shape, with the spine sitting in the gap at the top. The sharp angular protrusions you see are the two tops of the V. Changing shape like this however means the muscles of her pelvic floor are almost facing UP. The anus sits in a rather steep depression and the tail rises out over it- that is the pelvic floor. The point where the tail divides from the cow’s rump on the surface is actually several inches after it branches off from the hip. That means the crotch where the udder hangs from is actually braced from the top of the pelvis. In order to bend her spine upright and still have her feet on the ground with this bone structure, she would need to dislocate both of her femurs… which would be painful and rob her legs almost entirely of their mobility- defeating the purpose. This also caused her butt to restructure though too- the meat that was formerly her butt cheeks was instead added onto her upper thighs and pulled to the sides instead of directly behind her. A cow’s haunches are like giant triangles. There is a dull creaking sound again and Julie tells you it is her bone bulking up- you can see the girth of her legs subtly expanding. Then she lifts herself a bit, rolling her weight onto the front of her feet which is a bit painful at first but quickly becomes more natural as her soles stretch into canon bones. Online, you have seen transformation videos of the process of this, so you are more familiar with this change. The two outermost toes pull back and devolve, turning into dew claws as the rest advance forward. The middle toe shrinks into nothing as the other two expand with its stolen mass and then get overtaken by the hoof segments- formerly the nails. This also causes Julie to tip further and further forward, as her legs are expanding to those of a full sized cow- which means they are much longer than her arms, so her ass is ''MUCH'' higher in the air than her head, causing her face to turn red because of the lopsided blood pressure. Her forward posture also caused her huge bare boobs to rest fully on the metal path and squish out sideways from their softness. Her form looks quite strange like this- you had never seen a cow devoid of its fur and coloration, and on top of that she already used its mammary traits to expand her human breasts so while everything else from the hip down turned cow; she has no udder. There is just a very large, blank gap between her legs. Julie ended up transforming her arms partially just so she could walk properly in this form till she could take a nap later and reset. She is eager to ramble on about various test subjects she worked on over the years before she became one herself. When she joined everyone in the valley she tried to nickname herself //‘Cent’// since she is TS100, but the name never stuck. Ultimately she was nicknamed //‘The Flux’// because of her constant potential to change shape. The fact she only has cow traits to pull from helps her control the transformation greatly. She says that if she had multiple animals, more configurations would be possible and cause almost any random thought to change her body unintentionally. That is why Moth never used the Gummy tincture originally- the control mechanism isn’t reliable enough. She also told you a bit about the culture of the island, and how it was interesting to see how the community shaped itself. RHE does not influence anything directly beyond the initial transformation- so what they do with themselves after that point is entirely up to them. This paradise is what formed of it. Originally all of the males were only told the test number of females, and likewise all females only knew the males by test number. It was to prevent breeders from picking favorites, or, hinder the process anyway. But then there were males who are not really breeders- male subjects who came paired with a wife or lover already. The rule should not really apply to them. Eventually, a slip of the tongue or just overhearing a conversation by accident always leads to people learning the names anyway. By now all the breeders know everyone’s names, and everyone knows their names. It never took very long for the rule to fall apart- not even deliberately, it just happens on its own. Julie hears a faint beep from another room and looks through the doorway before telling you it is getting late. You lost track of time completely because you have been indoors and could not see the sun setting! Julie tells you to just wait- she can contact the main offices and order a shuttle to drive you back. If you attempted to walk back from here, Olivia will have starved to death by the time you return to have dinner. Julie heads into a small office for a bit while you wait, looking for a sleep spell. You wait outside the automated glass doors of the Valley Labs for the shuttle to come. Since there are no roads and they do not want to rip the grass up- all the shuttles are classified as hovercrafts; they do not actually touch the ground. You can usually hear them coming because they make a rather loud, low humming sound. The garage with the shuttles is the part of the main complex building that is closest to the tower, on ground level. You wish you had their job. They sit around talking and playing cards all day till someone calls them up to drive them somewhere- and then you get to meet every test subject at some point and talk to them about their day as you drive them around. Just as the shuttle is arriving to the bottom of the stairs you hear a second set of footsteps on the stairs leading down and see Julie, restored to human form. She says she will join you and Olivia for dinner. [[Continue->Experimental End]]

You get to the slope up to the main facility in good time, but your feet are getting sore from walking such long distances. On the way down you barely noticed the angle of the slope at all, but you definitely notice on the way up. The slope is mostly grass, but gets choppier than in the valley- there are large stone faces jutting out here and there and a few patches of bare dirt. This slope was not here naturally, it was placed here to connect the plateau the main complex is on and the valley below using Geomancy. For your tired feet, going uphill is brutal and your pace immediately slows to a crawl. By the time you are approaching the top the sun is already behind the border mountains and Olivia is smiling at the top with her hands on her hips, shaking her head at how tired you look struggling your way up. The cushions on the seats of the restaurant are bliss after spending all day on your feet. Olivia recommends you various foods and you happily go with all of them- you were so determined to get the most out of your day on the island you never scheduled in a break to eat lunch so you are kind of starving. You tell Olivia how your day went- how you almost made it to the Valley Labs but ended up stopping along the way. She nodded with a smile. “That is how it goes around here for most people. So much going on all the time, so many interesting people to hang out with that you can easily get side tracked. Roxi especially; girl knows how to run like the wind, but no one trained her how to sit. She blindly accepts all requests not realizing she is only one person. So sometimes she will take much longer to finish delivering something just because she had a queue of other deliveries to deal with already.” She took a bite of her food before motioning out the windows to the lights of the valley far below with her fork. “Honestly the early mornings are the only quiet times. That and just before dinner things generally get quiet just because everyone is eating. There are subjects awake at almost all hours of the day- but the ones who were up all night go to sleep in the morning, and the ones who are up all day haven’t woken up yet. So super early morning is the only downtime.” The tennis court was a nice start to the day, (if:$Reflex is "Y")[dodging the tennis ball certainly woke you up quick enough, and you think you unintentionally impressed them with your reflexes.](if:$Reflex is "N")[getting a face full of tennis ball certainly woke you up, if nothing else. And unintentionally gave you a conversation piece. Olivia points at you with her fork with a nod, saying Beryl did a really good job covering it up with makeup. You can still tell you have a black eye, but it looks almost healed rather than something that was inflicted earlier today. She also told you to start thinking of excuses for the people you know outside of the island as to how you got a black eye suddenly. Telling them you got clocked by a praying mantis cow, goat woman probably wasn’t going to work.] (if:($Faith is true) and ($Aloe is true) and ($Hydra is true) and ($Maple is true))[ [[* You cannot sleep... *->Make A Monster]] ]You sleep soundly that night, but still groan as you wake up the next day- knowing the moment you get out of bed it will be to leave this paradise behind. Olivia walks you across the parking lot to the base of the tower, but turns around to head back to the main building there- she still has work to do after all. Olivia holds out a plain, pale brown filing envelope for you to take. “Beryl dropped this off early this morning before you woke up, told me to give it to you before you left. A little something to remember yesterday by.” There is a single sheet of paper inside, and on it a drawing of Tiffany! Rendered in pastel colors, it was a dream-like view of Tiffany resting in the shade, drinking her tea as seen through the front windows of the Art Gallery! Beryl must have drawn this yesterday before you even arrived, because Tiffany was gone by the time you left. The lines are a bit loose and sketchy, but you think that just further lends itself to the dream-like appearance. You will have to frame this when you get home- it is a very thoughtful gift that perfectly captures the moment. (set: $Sketch to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

On the way back, Julie pointed out many different sights for you and talked a bit more about test subjects- including Maple Augustine, who is an RHE researcher turned test subject as well. Maple became a test subject long before Julie, and did it just because she had come to admire their forms so- and turned herself into an ‘ideal’ cowgirl type. She also mentioned a special type of party they sometimes hold in the valley, usually for birthdays known as the //''‘Tit Pit’''//. The biggest and bustiest gather together till their mams fill an //entire// room, then the birthday boy gets tossed into the middle to swim in a room literally filled to the brim with boob. When you arrive at the main complex Julie helps you find your way back to the offices and pick up Olivia to go over to the restaurant. It is on the same level the offices are, just down a hall a ways. Two of the three walls are entirely window here and look out over the valley. Of course by now all that could be seen without the sunlight are the distant lights of the homes on the north end of the valley. There was a good view of the night sky though too. Even from inside a well-lit room, you could see millions of stars in the sky. RHEI is a very long way away from any pollution that would block such a view. Julie and Olivia end up getting into a discussion on research, snowballing ideas between their two heads. You only manage to understand bits here and there, you mostly just keep enjoying your food while their Bioarcanist talk goes well over your head. What eventually catches your interest is mention of a //‘Mark 2 Tincture’//. Olivia nodded, blushing a bit. “Yea that is what we have been talking about this… whole time… sorry, you probably don’t understand most of what we have been saying.” Julie chewed on one of the ice cubes from her soda as she leaned back. “Basically, when a tincture got out of control or did something we needed reversed, we would attempt to back track on what we did- trying to create an inverse tincture. Problem is; the body can’t really do it. You can pull back the reins on some changes but others will not take- it isn’t like casting a reverse spell; the body thinks that is how it is supposed to be, it doesn’t remember what it ''used'' to be to be able to back-peddle.” Olivia nodded, resting her chin in her palm. “But then there is TS89; Snow. One of the few male test subjects, Snow is only about a foot and a half tall- he used to be a white rat.” “RHE used a rat as a test subject, with a human hybrid tincture. And it worked, he is ''//mostly//'' human. Sooo, I have been pestering the higher ups in RHE to do testing in a ''MK2'' version of one of the tinctures of an XV test subject- to make them no longer XV.” You say that is great, but ask why she would need to pester RHE over it. If they have a working human tincture, why would they not just immediately go back and use it to correct the extreme variants? Olivia spoke up again. “Because it isn’t the //same// human. If they made a human tincture using my genes and then gave it to you- you would look like a male version of me, not you. We don’t have intact gene samples from the test subjects of before their transformations, so we cannot revert them to themselves; we have to revert them using a donor.” You say there is probably a joke to be made about not minding being //‘in her genes’// and she snorts a laugh. “That is so fuckin’ stupid and I love it.” Julie spoke up again, holding a fork balanced on the end of her index finger. “It is also taking more weight away from their original self. We cannot go back properly on what we do, so we are not really restoring humanity to them, we are piling still more changes onto their body- it is just that the new changes are the same species they started as. It is still //more// changes. Most of the XV subjects got that way because of an accident… with a few exceptions. This means if you stack more changes onto them, you risk dragging out more of what went wrong the first time and exasperating the problem. Faith for example. Her genes are an absolute catastrophe- she isn’t an XV subject because she can exist outside of the bunker on her own, but just using her as an example. If we gave her ''ANYTHING'' else to induce more changes of (text-style:"underline")[ANY] nature, she would just fall apart. There is so little holding her together already as it is, that it is a miracle she is even alive. Like Mel? Hers is a state perpetuated by a dimensional rift, if we turned her back to normal she would either turn right back into her giga-sized state, or she would //implode// into a miniature black hole and destroy everything around her. Eve? Could make her human, but that would not fix the problem which is her nervous system, and if anything she would get even //more// sensitive.” Olivia nodded. “Which means it will definitely not work for //all// of them, but there are test subjects who it ''could'' work on too.” After a filling meal, all three of you ended up heading to sleep at the same time. Olivia just followed you, since you both have your rooms next to one another. Julie used to have a room there too- but she returned to her home in the valley.(if:($Faith is true) and ($Aloe is true) and ($Hydra is true) and ($Maple is true))[ [[* You cannot sleep... *->Make A Monster]] ](else:)[ ]You almost end up sleeping in the next day! Olivia rushes you out toward the tower to get on the helicopter before you make them late for their deliveries. When you get to the top of the tower though, you see Julie leaned against the helicopter. Dr.Hedgewall smiles as you climb up onto the roof. “Hey. Thought I would give you a little bit of RHEI to take home with you. It was a bit large to hand off to you so I brought it here myself.” She turned and grabbed a huge cylinder out of the helicopter and held it out for you to see a moment before putting it back. It had a metal base and lid with a large handle across the top- the body of it is glass and is a mini terrarium! Julie is giving you an Alraune to keep as a pet! The homunculus was grown inside the Valley Labs as one of the test subjects of the test subjects- it is fully grown now so there was no testing left to be done on it anymore, it is just an odd critter now. Surprised and not sure quite what to say; you thank her and as she ushers you into the helicopter you hastily ask her what to feed it. It is just like a normal plant- water and sunlight is fine. Churn the soil a bit with new fertilizer occasionally if you want and it should be perfectly fine. When you get home you depressurize the lid and let it fly out into your room. It is a hell of a lot smarter than any normal plant, and knows to return to its cylinder to rest and recharge. It has a relatively small body that trails seamlessly into its massive tail. The end of its tail actually has many points- when on alert or irritated the tips spread out as if to sense vibrations in the air. The multiple tips are actually its roots; it digs the end of its tail into the soil when it’s at rest, or wishes to ‘taste’ new soil in areas it travels to. It has six long but very thin legs and huge wings that greatly resemble a butterfly- though the wings are more like stiff flower petals since it is a plant. It has no mouth on its head, since it absorbs nutrients from the soil and doesn’t actually eat anything. It uses its wings to fly, but they are also the most sensitive part of its body to sunlight, so it opens its wings to the sun to absorb its energy as well. At the base of its tail are long almost tendril-like leaves that drift randomly around in the direction of its tail when opened. When it feels threatened or when it goes to sleep, these fold the other way and close around the entire rest of its body and wings, forming a pod while its tail acts as the stem. Because of their shape, thickness, and the way they pull back these leaves greatly resemble the peel of a banana- although they are a deep green in color. The name they gave it is simply the French word for butterfly- (text-colour:#da77f2)[Papillion]. Your new pet! (set: $Homunculus to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

“Alright, Yuko it is. First thing in the morning, I know exactly where to find her. Yuko has a pretty strict routine, so it is easy to find her.” You and Olivia get into a shuttle to transport you to the edge of the eastern forest where it comes the closest to the houses of the valley. There is a fairly obvious trail packed down by the hooves and feet of test subjects that cuts through the forest that you and Olivia take once you are on foot again. Olivia explains that because of the rocky ground, the trees of this forest are not as close together as others, and it is a good place to grow various herbs and less domesticated crops because the trees shelter them from the blunt force of the weather but do not steal all the sunlight. You shadow her footsteps almost exactly because the ground is very uneven and you can easily be tripped. Divots between mostly buried boulders, moist clumps of moss, and tree roots that are not entirely buried because there wasn’t enough loose soil to dig into. Olivia takes a deep breath of the fresh air and smiles at you over her shoulder as she continued to walk. “The early mornings are the most calm on RHEI. The people who were up all night are finally going to sleep, and the people who are up all day are still waking up. The only schedules people keep here are the ones they want to make for themselves- so people are up at pretty much all hours. But the mornings are still tranquil.” She pointed to some small plants. “That is catnip. Mosquitos naturally stay away from it, so the subjects planted some as a sort of barrier between the woods and the houses so the pests couldn’t get to them. Some of the pockets between stones around here are quite deep, so rainwater collects and stagnates in them. Perfect breeding ground for mosquito and dragonfly alike. Some cattails and lilies will take root in them too though. You will hear the odd frog croak around here.” You eventually come to a crack in the gigantic cliff face and a mechanical door wedged in the stone inside. Olivia knows the password off the top of her head and the door opens for the both of you. After a long narrow tunnel of solid stone framed with metal beams you enter a gigantic opening. The mountain range here is hollow- it is actually the shoot of an extinct volcano. The huge ship The Ark is moored in an inlet here- linked to the open ocean by a massive stone archway. The inner-facing fourth of this massive clearing is hot springs, colored in a rainbow of natural minerals brought up with the water. The hot springs are all natural, so there is no steps or pathways around them and they are not all on the same level- some springs are stacked on top of others and overflow into each other. Yuko is not visible at all till Olivia calls out her name and she stands up. Yuko was sitting almost completely submerged in one of the springs- the hottest one she could find. Enduring the high temperatures is all a part of her training, so she is here first thing in the morning, every morning. She hooks her toes through a braided red chord on the scabbard of a sheathed katana and kicks it up into the air to grab with her hand as she walks down toward you two. Obviously she is completely naked since she essentially just got out of a bath. True to Olivia’s brief description before- Yuko looks entirely human. The only thing unusual about her is that she has not two but four breasts. They look to be about a D cup and quite pert- partially aided by just getting out of the scalding hot water into the morning air; it caused her skin to tighten. Yuko has a bright pink strip of unusually smooth skin from her right hip up across to the left bottom of her chest- a massive sword wound. Her right arm and her right leg are both completely artificial from the hip and shoulder- the entire original limbs cut off. That means her sword arm is mechanical. Yuko gave a shallow bow to you and Olivia in greeting, causing her four breasts to flop around. “So this is your friend you were talking about. It is good that you were able to successfully arrange for his trip.” Olivia motioned to Yuko’s arm. “Yuko here could not walk or wield her sword anymore because of having her limbs entirely removed by an attacker. RHE was able to use Automancy to give her new limbs. She also has doubled the milk capacity- and she has the expansion gene allowing her breasts to expand and contract according to how much they are currently holding.” Yuko flexed, causing both her top breasts to hop on their own and then collide with the bottom breasts on the way down. “Right now they are mostly empty. I often deliberately let them fill to their absolute max so I can train with the added weight.” Yuko is not muscular but she is certainly athletic. Her raven hair hangs straight to her butt in the back with long bangs just short enough that her thin eyebrows are exposed. Her almond shaped eyes are baby blue and her skin is pale olive. The wooden scabbard of her katana has ‘Tanzō no miruku’ carved into it which means ‘Milk of the forge’. You ask what RHE had to do with the prosthetics. The four breasts were obviously RHE’s doing, but there are Automancers all over the world- it is a very profitable business. Couldn’t she have gotten the prosthetics from anywhere? Olivia shook her head. “There was too little left of the original limbs and it had taken too long to stabilize her condition to even attempt to attach new limbs. She did have golem limbs, but her control over them was very limited and jittery because the nerves were not properly aligned.” Yuko nodded, flicking her thumb up against the guard on the katana to expose a sliver of the shimmering blade. “I was formerly a member of the Yakuza- I had been disarmed by a rival clan. I had nearly bled to death completely by the time they brought me to a hospital and it was over a week before I returned from my coma. I could swear I had seen the Sanzu River before me, before they pulled me back. I continued to train myself and my sword even with the faulty limbs, but for all my training I was not seeing any improvement. I had almost given up on being able to wield a blade ever again.” “She was a perfect candidate for a test subject. RHE was able to use a mild transformation to induce enough nerve growth to re-connect artificial limbs fully. Even RHE cannot yet fully regrow a limb that is completely missing, but we did enough to give her a suitable substitute. Actually, I am currently working on tests for a limb regrowth program, heh. Still in the theory stage and progress is a bit slow, since RHE ramped down overall operations so I don’t have as many resources as I would like.” The artificial limbs looked a lot like the real thing- golem limbs are often crafted by master dollmakers, before an Automancer assembles the parts and animates them. When she walks on hard surfaces you can hear the difference however- one foot is much more solid than the other. When you look at them up close you can see the seams at the joints- they flex like a ball joint doll. Yuko gets Olivia to help remove a panel from the inner forearm to show you the inside of the limb. It is mostly hollow with some walls inside just to strengthen the overall structure. Faintly glowing pathways form a maze along the inside; they are charged by her chakra- the limb powered by her body’s own bioelectrical energy. She says she was able to feel the plate up till it was completely removed- she could still feel it as it was being pulled off. The limbs are a bit odd to get used to, because the artificial parts have feeling in them but can feel neither pain nor pleasure. If you were to stab her with a knife, she would be able to feel it happening but it wouldn’t actually hurt. The limbs themselves are made of thermoplastic polymer- they have a very slight give to them but are extremely hard. A bullet is more likely to deflect off its rounded surface than to actually go through it. Yuko gives you a bit of a demonstration of her skill, swinging the sword around herself and performing various strikes at the air in front of her- telling you which sort of attack would be the most effective depending on the opponent. As she was finishing, she swiped the tip of the katana through the surface of the spring water, flicking water droplets into the air. She then concentrated on one alone as it wobbled through the air and swung her sword up perfectly splitting the water drop in half, then quickly swiped one way and then back the other- cutting the two halves in half. She quartered an airborne water drop! Olivia yawned and then waved her hand dismissively. “Sorry! That was real impressive; this is just earlier than I am used to being up and about. That is part of the reason I thought I should take him to see you first, Yuko. I knew of all the other test subjects on the island- you would be awake before anyone else.” She tossed the scabbard into the air and thrust the katana up as it fell back down and sheathed it in one smooth motion. “I would think my form a bit bland. Certainly I am talented with a sword, but I do not think that sufficient reason to visit RHEI.” “You are an example of RHE helping directly! Most of the test subjects, it just looks like we hybridized them for the sake of seeing if something worked- it is harder to discern the reasoning behind the test and how it could help people in the future. With you it is blatantly obvious.” You tell Yuko you are glad you met her even if her form is mostly human. You do not tell her you think she is gorgeous, so the fact she is ‘plain human’ doesn’t seem like such a bad thing. Once the air has dried her body enough she plods over to a neatly folded simple hemp kimono she left by the tunnel out of The Grotto. On the back of the kimono is the image of a constellation- the Chinese zodiac sign of The Ox. Yuko takes a deep breath of the air. The air here is very humid and warm even at night, but you can also smell some of the salty air off the ocean water just a few paces away. It actually smells quite a bit like a sauna. “So, who do you plan to take your friend to see next?” Olivia looks at you and then shrugs at Yuko. “Dunno.” She looks at you again. “Do you find the more human subjects to be interesting? TS71-XV and TS72-XV in the hidden bunker are almost entirely human except for some… very noticeable enhancements. Honestly it is getting to be the time where everyone is out and about so it might be hard tracking people down. Might have to just see who we run into first." Yuko looked at you. “I know my friend Ceba is home- she has a very unique yard, and rarely wanders far except at night. Ceba is TS08. I could show you there- I was planning to visit anyway.” [[TS08; Ceba->Ceba's Home]] [[TS71-XV & TS72-XV; Dannis & Lucia->Hidden Bunker 2]]

Olivia nodded as you tell her you would like to see this almost feral test subject. They clearly had a more intense transformation than most, which caught your interest. Olivia led the way out of the building, patting and rummaging through the many small pockets on her jacket- clearly she has not worn it in a while. Before you leave the office level of the building she pauses at the door to the restaurant and tells the golem attendant she wants an apple. The golem is quick to get it to her and she continues to lead you out, tossing the apple to you to catch. “Danalah likes those super sour green apples. Helps keep her teeth nice n’ shiny too; the acidity polishes the tooth enamel.” Olivia tells you there is a chance she is south of the forest running in the plains, but you two will be circling around on the south edge of the forest anyway, so you will be able to spot her easily if she was in the open like that. The forest is sort of wedged into a corner. The main RHE complex is on a plateau, and then connected with the rest of the island by a long shallow slope. The densest forests on the island are on the west and east sides of the plateau, but end roughly as far out from the mountain wall as the ramp down does. There is a huge strip of grassy plains between the Great Plateau and the forest that connects all the way to the west side of the island and the only beach RHEI has. With only a few half-sunken boulders and a couple of shrubs here and there; there is nothing to obscure your view in the plains so you can tell at a glance that Danalah is not there. It does not take you two long to spot her though- she is between the forest and plains, not IN either. Danalah is laying on her side when Olivia spots her and leads you to the equine. She is far enough in that the trees are fully shading her from the sun, but she has an unobscured view of the grassy plains- the blades of grass rippling in the wind like waves on the ocean. She has flopped over in a rather large patch of teeny-tiny blue flowers; forget-me-nots. (link:"Danalah")[Danalah is indeed like Olivia briefly described; almost entirely feral. If you had seen her in motion or spotted her from further away you could easily have mistaken her for a regular horse. Her lower half is completely unaltered horse except for one difficult to notice difference- she has no teats between her legs. Her rib cage is a bit shorter than a normal horse, causing her midriff to be a bit more concave than normal as well. Because she is laying on her side, you can see she has a hint of human abdominal muscle structure on her midriff- tight abs. On her chest she has human breasts- but they remained the same size in respects to the rest of her body, so large human breasts sized up to the body of a horse- each one was about the size of a small-ish beach ball partially sunken into her chest. Because of how equine pectoral muscles sit, her breasts are further up than you would think they should be. In her current position, one tit rests slightly askew on top of the other one. Danalah’s breasts do not have fur on them, but it is hard to tell where she does and does not have fur because it’s the same color as most of her skin. Her hair is the color of dark chocolate- looking black in the shade. Her skin and pelt is the color of milk chocolate with the exception of her limbs from the ankle and wrist down- giving her dark chocolate colored ‘booties’. A strip of bare skin runs along her underside connecting her crotch to her chest which is bare, and the fur also fades away onto her upper face, and her arms are devoid of fur except for her shoulders. Like most equine the fur is so short and dense already that it hides absolutely nothing- you can see every muscular curve of her entire body whether it has fur on it or not. Danalah has a long haired mane and tail, and while her neck is fully equine her face is unusually short. It is structured like a horses but the muzzle is only about half the length of a regular horse, more akin to how an anthropomorphic horse may be depicted. Only when you are virtually right next to her do you notice, on her front legs her ‘boots’ are black, not the very dark brown of her true horse legs- and they are segmented… they are artificial limbs. From the forearm down is prosthetic.] Olivia flopped down by her head and you crouched in front of her- your back still in sunlight. Danalah was too comfortable to sit up and just looked up at Olivia with her head still rested on flowers. Olivia smiled, motioning toward you. “Here they are! The person everyone was told to vote on! They are my childhood friend, so I figured I would give them the tour myself to hang out while I show them the sights. And I figured you would be a good starting point, because your form is a good example of limitations, and compromise.” Danalah made a soft whickering sound in reply, then twisted herself a bit to get her arms onto the ground and lift her head and neck up, while the rest of her remained laying down. This also caused her boobs to rest in the flowers and squish together, bulging rounder from the slight compression. Olivia explained for Danalah that she is unable to speak human languages in this form. TS87 was supposed to be a were-horse experiment. Her horse form was to be triggered by lunar radiation, within a very specific threshold- a full moon. That alone was hard to adjust for because moonlight and sunlight is the same thing, it is just one is refracted before reaching Earth- so the trigger amount of outside light radiation had to be extremely specific. This would be the final test RHE ever tried to make modifiable; because Danalah proved it just does not work. The transformation process- if done on a gene level like RHE does- only works one-way. You can tack on more changes but you can’t back pedal changes you already made. Danalah remained unchanged till the first full moon like planned, and then turned into a feral horse- mind and body. The next day she reverted to this slightly human horse form, and then stuck there. It doesn’t matter what part of the lunar cycle it is, her form is just this permanently. Luckily in this form her mind is still entirely human. Danalah has trouble keeping her concentration up, but is otherwise unaffected mentally. She has one other important human feature. Danalah held up her left hoof for you to take. Unsure what she wants you gently hold the prosthetic hoof and it makes a sharp sound like a gasp as it depressurizes to release her limb from inside the false one. What emerges is a perfectly intact human hand! Olivia nodded. “I am heading a limb restoration research project right now for RHE, so I have made myself somewhat of an expert on limbs. Danalah turned too equine to be able to walk upright- she can stand but is far too unstable to walk like that. She also could not walk on all fours because her arms merely sized up to match the horse body- they did not actually change shape at all. Human hands are not built to walk on- her wrist would start hurting almost immediately and she would hurt her hand the moment she stepped on something remotely solid. So we had an Automancer make a very special custom order- prosthetic equine hooves, to fit over still perfectly functional human hands. We wanted her to be able to run at full speed as a horse without worrying about taxing the golem parts, and party as a way of saying sorry for goofing up her body- we went all out on the prosthetics. They are made of solid carbon fiber- they are lighter and harder than steel or titanium. We also picked up from observing her that she liked to watch the moon. Danalah likes the night. So the hooves specifically are made of a very special material. They are polished basalt from Oceanus Procellarum- ‘ocean of storms’. Put simply- it is volcanic rock taken from the surface of the moon.” Every time Danalah puts her hooves down, she is technically walking on the moon. She uses her free hand to slide off the other and Olivia hands her a pen and a small pad of stick-it notes she had in the pockets of her jacket. She cannot speak, but since she has a human brain and human hands- she can still write just fine. In order to fit it on little notes, she writes with compressed sentences that required a little interpretation. Danalah told you she originally came to RHEI because she was rather obsessed with horses. She had many dreams of horses and one particular one of running with them in a wet, grassy field at night with the moonlight shimmering off the water and grass blades. She always got along with animals, but never had too many human friends. Danalah felt sort of like she had been born into the wrong body- that she was meant to be a horse. When she heard of RHE doing human testing she immediately signed up and demanded an equine form- and so the test of the were-horse began. They could have made her a home, but she did not really want one. Danalah lives in the forest. She does have a home in the north-east forest, but it was made entirely of plant roots and trunks, thanks to Ambrosia and her ability to shape plant life however she wishes. Danalah pretends that she was reincarnated as a horse- like this is an entirely new life completely separate from her old one. She also told Olivia to show you some photos of her from her tablet. Danalah cannot really take selfies, but others have taken pictures of her over the years and then shared them over the island’s public network. While she does not have a normal house; Danalah does have a full wardrobe! Olivia showed you images that looked like fashion magazine photos, except the model in this case is a horse! There are even several images of her in lingerie! You never thought you would see a feral horse in lace leggings. Most test subjects don’t even bother wearing clothing, because it would require so many wild modifications to fit comfortably, and the island is always warm, and half the other people are naked all the time anyway so no one cares. Danalah likes to dress up though- and RHE will make custom clothing for anyone who requests it, so she is one of the very few who took them up on the offer. From hoodies with extremely long narrow hoods to go the entire length of her horse neck to her head, to gigantic panties capable of wrapping comfortably around her titanic horse rump- she has casual wear and fancier stuff like dresses even for showing up at parties! Today she is just relaxing and running around in the fields as a horse- had she known you would come looking for her specifically Danalah definitely would have dressed up. After showing off her equine fashion sense, the three of you just relax in the shade together. You offer her the apple and she gladly takes it, savouring the crackle of the first bite. Olivia smiles. “It is a bit of a handicap- Danalah likes the sour green ones best, but she can’t actually tell the difference herself. Horses cannot see red. If you held up a red and a green apple, the only difference she would see is one is darker than the other one.” On the topic of food though, you ask what horse milk tastes like. Danalah is almost entirely feral horse, so surely her milk can't be entirely human? Although, her mammaries' shape and position are human. Olivia nodded. "No, it definitely is horse milk. RHE prioritizes unique milk types and obviously everyone started as a human, so human milk was already covered from the start, so she wouldn't have human milk. RHE can isolate milk production associating to which genes, and like you said- she is mostly horse so it would have leaned that way without any tampering regardless. Horse milk is actually extremely similar to human in composition, and is also slightly sweet. It has more of a... earthy aftertaste to it. A lot of Danalah's milk is used to make Kumis, which is a traditional Mongolian alcohol- made from mare's milk." Olivia starts to braid the long dark hair of her mane and instructs you to sit on the opposite end, and tells you how to braid the tail to match! It is quite a bit of hair to work with- not only is it long compared to her- she is the size of a large work horse, so you are pretty damn small compared to Danalah. While you are sitting down, her ass is almost as wide as you are tall! About halfway in, Olivia tells you to try and hurry- she just noticed what time it is. The morning sun was now high above- it is almost noon already and you’ve only visited one test subject! While you two finished braiding Danalah’s hair for her, Olivia goes over the options. “Okay, so next I think we could go one of two ways- either TS96 and TS97, because they are quite feral as well so it sort of keeps a theme going. Or we could go the complete opposite direction and go see TS89, who was formerly very feral and made human. Your call- but let’s decide quickly; you want to see as many subjects as possible, don’t you?” [[TS96 & TS97; Fate & Basil->Central Valley]] [[TS89; Snow->Jinx's House]]

Ceba’s house is at the edge of the middle and lower areas of the valley town, at the west facing side of the Great Plateau. The landmark was formerly a tall mountain, but partially collapsed eons ago forming many platforms around its slopes, making it extremely easy to climb up without the use of any sort of climbing equipment. You can see the entire valley easily from its top. You walk beside Olivia while Yuko walks in front of you two at a slow but steady pace. Yuko casually waves without saying anything to other test subjects you all pass along the way. In spite of what Olivia said, you encounter a lot of test subjects in this area- it is just that none of them are staying still. Everyone appears to be off to somewhere else. No one in the valley has a job really, but everyone is able to keep busy regardless. Even when people are not given roles- they find and fill roles on their own. When you approach Ceba’s house you notice the home is partially embedded into the rock face at the base of the Great Plateau. Her home and the neighbors’ are connected by a stone block wall, sealing an opening in the rock. When Yuko said she has a unique yard, she must have meant the back yard- because everything looked normal in the front. Instead of going to the front of the house, Yuko lead you both between the two partially embedded homes- there is an ornate iron gate doorway in the stone wall and a very cold breeze pouring out from it. Yuko rubbed her palm on her kimono to double-check if there was any moisture on it. If it was still damp, it would freeze to the gate as soon as she grabbed it. Yuko opened it and the hinges made a crunching sound as a thin layer of frost over them broke up to allow it to open. RHEI is located in the sub-tropics, so when you heard the crunch of fresh snow, it is very unexpected! There is a large cave behind the two homes, sharing a backyard that is forever in snow! Ceba cannot stand the warmth of most of the island, which is why she only ever wanders at night when it is the coolest. To help her still get outside, RHE erected a cryosphere behind her house! An ornate silver filament stand holds a large crystal sphere in the middle of the cave that throws off enough blue-white light to make the entire area glow. Created using Hydromancy and Aeromancy together, the crystal is what radiated the frigid aura that maintains the cryosphere, regardless of outside weather. When there is fog or mist outside, it snows in the cave. When it rains outside, Ceba has to bring out a pick to chip ice off the gate to make sure it can still open. You do not know how Yuko can stand being here- she wears nothing on her feet so her bare feet are in the snow. She calls out to Ceba and you see her face briefly in the window of the back door before it starts to open. The doorway is larger than on a normal house- she must be a big girl. The other homes don’t even have a back door, but hers does for obvious reasons. The back door connects to the hallway beside the walk-in closet, so most of her house was the same as the others. (link:"Ceba")[Ceba walks out entirely in the nude- almost entirely immune to the cold. She has long black fur where hair would normally be on her head and the hairline in the back continues down her entire neck and all the way around it. The fur is very bushy and forms a massive mane around her head. The very front of her neck is a base brown, as well as her eyebrows to stand out against the black of the rest of it. Her ears are large and folded over themselves entirely, but since the backs are covered in the same fur surrounding them, you actually could not really see them at all- they blended in perfectly. Ceba’s eyes are a shade of brown that almost looks red in most lighting. On her back the fur sort of formed an inverted diamond- a downward stripe on her upper back and an upward one on her lower back. Her chest is adorned with two D cup breasts, and then two C cup breasts below that. Then just below her chest and the second set of boobs is a pair of B cup breasts, and then a set of A cups below that! The areola changed size on each set as well, on the top they have a soft dappled edge to them and are fairly wide, then average below that, then rather small below that, and on the lowest pair it doesn’t look like she has areola at all- just nipples. The bushy mane of fur around her neck is long enough in the front that it completely fills the cleavage of her upper pair of breasts, further insulating her chest. Her outer labia, all of her nipples, and her lips are all jet black against her otherwise rosen skin. Ceba grows the same bushy long fur on her head on the backs of her hands and all the way around her forearms, almost looking like she is wearing a pair of fur gauntlets. The fur here is base brown but fades to black near the elbow where it ends. Though the fur does not extend onto her fingers or palms- other traits do. Her nails are thick, black, and a bit long but no more sharp than a human’s. The very tips and base of all her digits also have a bubble of red-black thick skin, forming paw pads on her otherwise human hands. At her hip, her human torso transitions quickly into the full body of a Tibetan Mastiff! She is a dog-taur! That is why Ceba requires cold climates- her fur is extremely warm, she is mixed with a breed of dogs raised in the mountains around Tibetan monks. This means she has another set of eight nipples on her canine torso too- though no breasts behind these so they hide among the fur. The dog torso has brown fur on the chest that tapers off toward its belly. All four paws are brown but the entire rest of it is black. Its tail curls up and to the side slightly but the fur on both the tail and body are so poofy that much like its ears- it is hard to see that it even has a tail at all. It just looks like a hill of fluff on its rump. Ceba’s hip bones replace the canine collar bone- what appear to be the muscles of her pubic mound instead expand greatly into the canine pectoral muscles- she only has one vulva and it is fully canine in the far back. Tibetan Mastiff are so large that neither her human nor dog portion needed to have their size altered to match, and the paws are so big that the tracks she leaves in the snow could be mistaken for bear paws. Between the two halves, the fur dips in the front quite low but still rides up and over her hips on the sides and trails up her back to just barely touch the fur from her upper back in the middle. The muscles that would be the glutes on a human instead extended into the traps of the canine’s upper back. Even her eyebrows are bushy- making her expression sometimes appear more serious than it actually is.] She let out a deep chuckle. “It is not often I have so many guests in my yard this time of year. Few enjoy the cold as I do.” You ask when she does receive a lot of guests. “Christmas. RHEI is in the sub-tropics, so there is no winter here. It will get chilly but you will certainly never see any snow- so people play in my back yard to get the authentic wintery Christmas feel, making snowmen and such.” You properly introduce yourself to her, and she to you- though she already knows who you are. All the test subjects would have been told ahead of time and voted on whether or not you could come to their paradise at all, but it is still polite to introduce yourself. Yuko again uses this location as a training ground of sorts- the sting of the snow on her bare feet is exactly what she comes here for. After enduring the heat of the hot springs, she comes to the cryosphere to embrace the cold. The house that shares this backyard is that of TS98 and TS97; Fate and Basil. They are not home right now; Fate is off making a deposit in the RHE main complex. You ask Ceba how her transformation went when she first arrived on the island, since she grew an entire additional torso and set of limbs. She tells you it was very annoying at first and disabled her ability to move around for some time. The transformation started with her legs changing shape and splitting as they started to develop fur. They changed and split as the front and back legs of a dog though- so for a day and a half her legs just did not work at all. Because half of them wanted to move forward and the other half backwards, because they had the muscle sets of two different types of limb! Even when they split- they split upward, so it took another half day for her hips and their upper joints to divide enough that the two sets of legs could move independently without interrupting each other. After that it became awkward for a whole new reason- her privates. Her anus and vulva are still at the very back, so by moving her rump further and further back because of new growth, that stretched them out longer and longer on the inside. Her pussy was radiating pleasure for seemingly no reason as it was moved along with the growing second torso. It happened in random fits, so she could still not really go anywhere at risk of crumpling over into a moaning mess in the middle of the street. When the fur was growing in she was quick to demand the cryosphere be built; but they needed to hollow out a cave, modify her house, and conjure the crystal that powers it- all of which takes time. While that was happening, all Ceba was doing was lying on her kitchen floor panting heavily, because the tile floor was the coolest place she could find. Because she is part dog; only parts of her body are able to sweat, causing heat to build up even worse. You say that you have not even seen the breed of dog she is mixed with in real life before. Ceba just nods. “I am not surprised. It is a rare breed.” She motioned along her flank. “As you can see, not too many homes would be able to house a dog of this size, either. The size of my lower body was not altered- the actual dog is this big.” You laugh, saying that it is big enough to ride- it is as big as a small horse! Ceba grins and motions to her backside. “Why don’t you try?” Ceba bowed her legs a moment for you to hop on her back and then stood up straight again. She plodded around the outskirts of the large cave with you on her back. Olivia was making a tiny snow man, but her hands kept getting too cold, causing her to stop and rub them on her jacket to warm them back up and resume. You comment on the veins of ice along the outside of the cave. Ceba hums. “I have to go around with a shovel and smack the icicles off when they start to get too big, or they become dangerous. If one of them decides to come loose and hits someone on the head it can //impale// or at least seriously wound them. Granted; because the winter pearl keeps the area at the same temperature, the icicles should not normally be able to come loose, unless we have an earthquake.” Yuko looks over at you two riding circles around the snow. “Ceba is also a Lapidary. She makes use of the ice grown back here.” Ceba nodded, letting you slide back off onto your feet. “Because RHEI used to be a caldera, a lot of mineral veins form here, from material burped up by the earth. There are no mines but a good number of test subjects will still end up finding a nice sized chunk of crystal and bring it to me. Obviously no one has or makes any money in the valley, so I have no reason to open up a shop. I just do it now as a hobby.” You ask what she does with the ice though. You can see some crossover- ice is a crystal too after all, except that it melts at room temperature, so you don’t know how jewelry could be made out of that. “I sculpt it, with the warmth from my bare hands. It melts if it ever leaves the cave- which is why you will never see those works anywhere but here for a brief time.” Yuko speaks up again. “She does it to meditate. They melt away and are thus worthless to give as trinkets because they can never be removed. But the process of shaping them helps her think of new ideas, and relax. It is Ceba’s meditation.” Ceba nodded. “Yea. I did something similar with Jet. Jet was… well, still is- my favorite gemstone to work with, because it is so soft. It is actually made out of compressed, ancient trees. It is so soft that most lapidarists have a hell of a time making anything detailed or small without accidentally breaking off part of it. I like to work with a large chunk of it and rub it with my hands. My claws are solid enough that they slowly grind away the Jet- allowing me to very slowly shape it with my bare hands. That is what gave me the idea to work the ice in the same way. I have an abundance of it- might as well do something with it.” Ceba told you to hold on and went inside for a few minutes, returning with an example of her work. It was a large, beautiful medallion. The outside is framed in golden filament shaped like vines, holding together a wide heart made of two chunks of polished Jet. The two halves of the heart were bonded in the middle by a long, narrow oval of amber. The yellow/orange of the amber and gold against the black of the jet made an excellent contrast. Both jet and amber is made from plants, thus why the gold frame is also shaped like vines. You helped Olivia finish her snow ‘man’, adding a fourth snowball against the base as a snow-udder. You looked over to see Ceba rolled over onto both of her backs while Yuko gave her belly rubs! You and Olivia both chuckled at the sight, but Olivia looked surprised a moment after. “Oh, shoot, we better get going! It is late afternoon already and we have only been to two locations!” Ceba looked at her, pulling her legs in to roll back onto them. “Where are you taking him next?” Olivia looked toward you, but was staring into space with increasingly narrow eyes, trying to quickly think. “Jun and Kalie maybe? Just because they are across the way- least amount of travel time.” Yuko stood up again, dusting the snow off the bottom of her kimono. “I am supposed to meet Xiangxin about now. If you want, I could take you there as well.” Ceba looked surprised now, standing fully up straight. “Oh! I just remembered I was supposed to talk to her about some cut crystal for some of her work. If you are going to see Xiangxin, I need to come too.” [[TS23; Jun->Central Streets]] [[TS45; Xiangxin->Behind Xiangxin's House]]

If the two of them are going to see Xiangxin already anyway, it seems the obvious choice. Olivia doesn’t sound super confident she can even find the subjects she wants to show you anyway. It is a big island so anyone could potentially be anywhere at any given time, and you only have a single day to be here, so running around to track a single person down isn’t the smartest plan. Xiangxin’s house was not too far away, though it is across the way so you all pass across the pathways and grass that makes up the central ‘street’. Yuko walks with a repressed confidence- you can tell from her high posture and pace that she is very comfortable with where she is, but lacks the personality to want to flaunt it. Ceba walks slowly- afraid she will build up too much heat if she exerts herself any, so even though she has a wide stride thanks to having four legs; she is behind everyone else. Olivia looks as much a tourist as you are. But her energy and enthusiasm stems from showing you sights rather than seeing them herself. You comment that it seems quiet out now; there are barely any other test subjects around. Olivia nodded. “Most people are back at home preparing dinner most likely.” Yuko looked back at you over her shoulder from the lead of your group. “Xiangxin is expecting me, so we have no need to worry about disturbing her.” When you all arrived at her home Yuko knocked on the door, but no one answered. You look to a stone statue sitting in the front, marking the branch on the shale stone pathway that leads to her front door. It is a statue of a cow with massive horns, holding a stone sphere between the horns. The stone sphere has a ring with a dot carved into it, symbolizing a breast. The splotches on its back are outlined and are shaped like the continents of the world map. The tassel on the tail of the cow is giant and billowing, almost looking like a stone cloud trailing behind the beast. Xiangxin is a sculptor, she made the statue herself. Ceba noticed you looking at it. “She works very slowly, so she only has two finished statues on the island. This one, and then one that is in the gallery.” Yuko motioned for everyone to follow and she went around the side of the house. The home is angled a bit differently than most of the homes in the valley, so the back of it actually faces north east instead of just east. From the back of the house you can both see the east forest outside of The Grotto as well as Lake Sagara in the distance. On the right side of the back yard is the power generation station for the middle sector of the valley. The sub-generator ensures that even if one or all other parts of the island go dark, this one will not. Each level of the valley has its own sub-generator, as well as a massive one inside of the main complex to protect the cold storage items. The generators themselves function by harvesting the planet’s natural magnetic poles and wirelessly transmit the power between themselves and their nodes. The nodes still transmit electricity via wires within the homes. That is why there are no powerlines in the valley, even though all the homes are powered. The yard is riddled with various massive rocks, some have rough shapes etched into them and some do not. You see Yuko swaying from side to side as she walks to dodge the hundreds of rock chips in the grass, since she is not wearing anything on her feet she could cut herself on them. Ceba is bare foot too, but her paw pads keep her safe from all but the sharpest. The sound of soft clinks leads Yuko to behind one of the largest of boulders to where Xiangxin is chiseling away. Yuko quickly tells her of her guests and she pops out from behind the stone. When she walks out she is on all fours, but stands up onto two so she can bow properly. (link:"Xiangxin")[Xiangxin as you may tell from her name; is Chinese. Her body is hybridized in a way that reminds you somewhat of the Sphinx from Egyptian mythology. Her arms and legs are covered in a very fine fur like a lion’s pelt, but it stops at her shoulders on her upper body, and just below her ribs on her lower body. Her hips are mostly bestial, though modified enough that she can stand and walk on two legs- though it is more convenient and faster to travel on all fours. Her hands are slightly longer than a normal human and all of her digits are quite wide, making them lean more toward paws than most. The claws on the ends of them are very sharp, hooked, and while they are not long they are tall- making them sturdy as well and almost talon-like. Her legs end in complete paws- very broad, large paws- also tipped with deadly claws. She has a tail but the fine fur transitions quickly to billowing bright red hair! The part covered in hair is much longer than the portion in fur, and because it is so long it extends even further after the body of the tail ends. Like the cow statue in the front- the curls of the tail hair are so massive and long it looks like a billowing red cloud on the end of her tail. This bright red hair also grows from her ankles, her wrists, elbows, all the way around her neck and on her head, following the hairline of normal human hair. Her eyebrows are the black hair she was born with, but fade to red and grow longer toward the edges. Her skin color is olive, and to contrast her vibrant red hair, her fur color is a simple stone-grey. Xiangxin’s bottom half is more beast while her chest and head are mostly human, this means her privates however are bestial. It also created a divide with her mammaries- she has two C cup breasts on her chest but because of the hard divide; she also has six breastless nipples along her midriff. Both human and beast nipples are a dark grey in color, and so are her labia and her lips. Because the leonine fur does nothing to hide her curves, you can still plainly see her rock solid abs and the soft slope of the tight, lean muscles in her arms and legs. Her muscles are not very bulky, but you can tell she is extremely strong. Xiangxin is a hybrid Shishi; the Chinese guardian lion-dogs.] Yuko speaks with a slower deliberateness to it, but Xiangxin has a fairly strong accent still that tells you English is not her first language. She brings you around her yard in a circle, showing you the various works she has on the go. Each project is associated to a mood, so she only works on the project that matches her current mood- part of the reason she progresses them all so slowly; she has eight different projects on the go at the same time. Ceba talked to Xiangxin about gemstones briefly- Xiangxin had been wondering about using gems in highlights on her statues. After, Ceba flopped over in the grass and Olivia sat down beside her, leaning back to use her fluffy dog torso like a couch. You sit on a flat-topped stone and the three of you watch as Xiangxin and Yuko begin their sparring. As with most things Yuko does- she came here to train. Obviously Yuko did not use her sword at all, and Xiangxin did not use her claws; but both still spar surprisingly hard, there were times you were worried one had actually seriously hurt the other. According to them; to go easy on your opponent- even in training- both insults your own training, and your opponent. So they go all out every single time, in respect of one another. They both fought quite differently from one another. Yuko’s movements were fluent and swift- every little move a calculated one, like an elegant dancer. Wasted movement is energy and time lost, and considered sloppy- every movement you make must have a purpose. She does not pause after a strike, or shift movements between- one flows into the other. Xiangxin however had no need to dodge or weave around Yuko’s attacks- she just tanked them all. It was like punching a brick wall- Xiangxin just braces the impact and keeps going like nothing happened. When Xiangxin hits, she does not strike with a fist, nor with her fingers extended. Her fingers are folded, so her claw points do not reach out, and it extends the surface area of her palm. Xiangxan strikes using her palms- with such a wide surface area for impact, a hit from her can easily smash all the air out of someone’s lungs; winding and disabling the opponent. She is too strong to block, and her blows are all dangerous, so you have no choice but to dodge. It either doesn’t hit you in the first place- or you lose. When Xiangxin did land a hit, Yuko always used her artificial arm to take the hit. Xiangxin may be strong enough to shatter stones, but she still isn’t strong enough to shatter the polymer golem arm. When Olivia piped up, mentioning it was getting late and that you and she should be going; Xiangxin insisted you stay for dinner. The sun was already nothing but a golden glow along the mountaintops- the darkness of night settles over the valley before the sun has completely set because the mountains block it. [[Continue...->Bushido End]]

It sounds like the others have business with Xiangxin, so you don’t want to be a distraction. The advantage of going with Kalie and Jun is that they are a married couple- you will get to meet two in one trip. You say your goodbyes with Ceba and Yuko as they venture off further north than you to see Xiangxin, while Olivia leads you straight across the way toward Jun’s house. Before you get there though, you both pause as Jun leaves the house. Olivia cocks an eyebrow. “Hey, Jun! Were you heading out?” “Huh? Oh, yea. Why, did you need me for something? I am not really going anywhere, was just going to stretch my legs.” (link:"Jun")[Jun is hybridized with a cat, but specifically the Sphynx breed of cat- so he has absolutely no fur. His eyes are golden, with narrow slit pupils- in the shade or dark his eyes appear to glow because they refract what little available light there is to allow him to see when others cannot. It is late afternoon, approaching proper evening so the light is still bright enough that his pupils are narrow. His skin is a bit wrinkly because of the breed of cat- causing soft bunches of skin to collect at joints. He has pads on his hands and feet, but they are the same pink that his skin is so it is hard to notice they are there. His actual hands and feet are structured perfectly human, except all his digits are a bit shorter than normal, because the last segment of bone is almost turned backwards. Like a feline, the final segment of Jun’s digits rests against the second last, linked by an extending tendon- making the talon like claws on his hands and feet retractable. Most of his skin is pink, except for a pale grey-pink splotch that covers his upper back, the back of his neck, and the top of his head wrapping around to cover his eyes and upper cheeks- but not his nose. He has a few long whiskers just over his lips, and inside of his mouth all of his teeth are sharper and narrower than a normal human. He has small eyelashes, but no eyebrows and not a hair anywhere to be found on his head, just more loose skin. For the size of his head, his ears are very large triangles. Even Jun’s tail is naked, about a foot and a half long and quite thin. Unlike most test subjects, Jun often wears clothing- both because his body is humanoid enough to allow it, and because his skin is squishy and tender with no fur to protect it against the sun. Right now he is wearing a grey hoodie- forcing his ears to be bent forward out the front of it, but protecting his naked scalp. He has black jeans on under it and then sandals- because closed-tip shoes wouldn’t fit his claws. You cannot see because of his pants, but his phallus is tucked away in a plump sheath of squishy skin. The form of it was altered to be a mix of two animals; but neither is human. He has a subdued canine knot at the base and small flesh barbs covering the tip- his dick is both canine and feline. Textured for pleasure.] Unfortunately it seems you will //not// be meeting Kalie today; his wife is off with her friend Laurane having fun on the west beach and they will be staying there to cook marshmallows and hotdogs on the beach instead of having a proper dinner. Since he was already stepping out, Jun decides to give you a bit of a walking tour. As you are walking with him, you ask how he and his wife ended up on RHEI in the first place. “Eh, bills caught up to us. We were always a bit behind because my work with landscaping is seasonal- hard to shape the land when it is frozen in the winter, eh? So there were always a couple of months every year where I had no income and we had to survive off credit… and then the interest on that credit generates its own bills to pay. Aaand then the foundation of our house rotted out, and we couldn’t afford to fix it. So, we signed up for human testing with RHE.” You ask if he did landscaping the traditional way, or the modern. “Modern. Yes, that means I am a Geomancer. I haven’t really used it in ages now though, so, who knows how good I am anymore.” Jun pointed out another couple of test subjects who were tossing a ball back and forth in front of their house. It is Rachel and Nail- both had porcine traits and Rachel occasionally got a serum from RHE that causes her body weight to radically alter. True to the common depiction of a pig- she gets extremely ravenous easy causing her body weight to increase. Once she takes the serum her body breaks down all her fat very quickly and she becomes thin- but produces a ton of milk as a result, made from all the nutrients her body burned off. “There are a few subjects who were couples coming to the island and transformed together. In my case, my wife chose what animal to hybridize me from, from a selection of traits RHE had available. She was the primary test. Probably the same for Nail over there. Rachel was the main test, and he was just made to suit her.” You ask if he has ever tasted his wife’s milk, since she was made able to lactate whenever. “Of course, hah. It isn’t human- she produces pangolin milk… which is… weird. Not great, bit gamy really. Makes great cheese though, really rich flavored cheese.” Jun points out some other interesting test subjects in the distance as the three of you walk. Each time he points, you become more curious about his claws. You ask if their sharpness ever becomes a problem. “Mine? No. Retractable- keeps them sharp and off of objects I don’t want to touch them to. You do not clip cat claws like human nails.” Olivia nodded. “Feline claws grow out of the bone itself- becoming more keratin and less bone the further up it goes. Because it grows out like that, when new claw material grows out it forces the old off as a cast-off, shedding the dulled outer layer for a new sharper tip. If you tried to clip a cat’s claws, you would seriously hurt it.” Jun spoke up again. “My wife’s nails are a problem, though. They also cannot be cut. Being a hybrid pangolin; her claws are absolutely gigantic, which means there are some things she just cannot do with her hands anymore and relies on me. They are as wide as her fingers themselves so, nothing is able to clip them back.” Jun took you two to a BBQ being held behind one of the homes, and talked to Barrus the huge bull-man who was manning the grill to you and Olivia a bit to eat as you three were passing through. Though you did not stick around- you did see several test subjects there before leaving again. Amber rolled around on her own gigantic cow udder like a mobile bed, while the tiny sheep woman Nancy tugged on her tail hairs trying to get her to stop dozing off. A beautiful multi-hybrid woman named Kalaha sat off to herself, taking small bites from her food and just watching other people’s conversations as a form of entertainment. You could not even quite put your finger on what she is hybridized with because it is blended so equally that there is no single trait that is definitively from one animal. There is even a half-kangaroo woman named Gina who bounces from one large foot to the other in anticipation of her kabob being ready. It looks like her pouch has a large water balloon in it, but it is actually her breasts sloshing around in there- her chest is bare. You and Olivia were given kabobs of your own to take with you- mostly island grown food at that. The cubes of beef were obviously imported- there is no ranch on the island; but the peppers, onions, and mushrooms were grown here. There is a fish-steak on the grill too, but that is for Amber. Subjects catch fish off the colossal ship The Ark, moored in The Grotto. Since there is no human traffic anywhere near RHEI, there is no competition for fishing, and it is surprisingly easy to catch a good variety. As the sun started to hide behind the mountains and the sky darkened, Olivia told Jun we needed to be getting back to the main complex. He walked you north, past the market, telling you about how it works. It was created by test subjects, not RHE. Subjects are allowed one item per month from RHE to bring in from the outside, but subjects who lactate can gain credits with RHE according to how much milk they produce, then use the credits to get more items per month. Those who cannot lactate trade favors or other talents with those who can lactate but do not need their credits. The buildings and even the stones of the paths here are spray-painted by some of the earliest subjects, creating a collection of murals. The area itself is framed by homes in a half-circle, webbed with a canopy of different colored cloth streamers. As you pass, all the scattered lamps in the valley came alive and helped light it in the dying sunlight. The lamp posts were a bit too scattered around to fully illuminate much- they were used more as guides than anything. You can hear talking and laughing occasionally in several directions. Even though it is getting late, a lot of people are still active and having fun. Some people are only just getting started. There is something happening at almost all hours of the day. By the time Jun arrives at the bottom of the slope back to the main complex he stops. “Well, this is where I break off. I came this far- will probably head to the beach and check on Kalie.” He shrugged. “Sorry it was only me you found. I am not too exciting on my own, haha.” You tell him it was still fun, and you got to see many other subjects even if you were unable to stay and chat with them. You are glad you were able to see Jun anyway, just for the balance of having also met one of the male test subjects who are fairly rare. Once Jun leaves toward the plains on the west, Olivia once again takes the lead to bring you back to the main complex. As delicious as the kabob was- it only helped remind your body how hungry you are for a full meal still. You and Olivia were so busy trying to get the most out of your one day here that neither of you thought to fit in a lunch break- so you are both sort of starving. [[Continue...->Naked Cat End]]

Xiangxin went inside to prepare something quickly- she already had the materials set aside to make a meal- Yuko was already going to eat here, so she only needed to make the portions bigger. While she is inside cooking, Yuko continues to train on her own, taking her sword out. The concentrated golden-orange light of the fading sun flashed across her sword blade as she thrust and swiped through the air at invisible foes. You ask Yuko why she still trains so seriously on RHEI. Surely there is nothing to defend herself against using a sword. “Where I am from, swordsmanship is an art form. It is also exercise for your body, reflexes, and mind; and taking care of yourself is important no matter where you are, no? In the old ways, a warrior’s sword is considered an extension of themselves; as much a part of you as your own arm. It is in the preservation of the old ways that clans like the Yakuza form. The military reverence, and the hard division of classes was abolished… but in doing so, clans were stripped of their power, lords lost their titles, and warriors lost their status. The Yakuza sort of preserves the old ways- against the Emperor’s will.” She smiled, letting out a huff. “I will not defend them, and say we are the better way, of course. It is not my place. It is just… a way. Good or bad, it is just another way of living, and it is where I found myself tangled. My bushido and blade are all I took with me to RHEI.” The crickets started to chirp as the sky bruised to dark purple and the stars started to shine in the hundreds already. There is a radiant, crescent moon starting to peek over the mountains. You say that Xiangxin must use sculpting as a form of mediation as well, like Ceba. Ceba shakes her head. “No, I think Xiangxin just uses it as a creative outlet. My primary crafts are just to apply my talent. I know how to and others do not- I might as well use what I have, right? But sculpting ice or carving jet with my hands is just for myself. I can sort of just do it mindlessly, because the progress is so slow and calming.” You say that meditation also seems like something at first that someone on a paradise island would not need. You ask what sort of things happen around here that would cause stress. “At first, it was actually the opposite. It was too easy to relax. It is hard to motivate yourself to get up and go when you seemingly have all the time in the world. No one has official jobs they are obligated to do, no appointments to make… you could just sleep all day and no one can tell you not to.” Olivia smiled. “But this paradise is chaos most of the time.” Yuko nodded, sheathing her sword to finally rest. “There are a lot of subjects here and all with different bodies- experiencing life all over again from a new point of view, with a new body to feel everything in. There are always parties, always people trying to push their bodies to see what they can and can’t do.” She blushed. “Always someone curious about exploring someone else’s body.” Ceba laughed. “RHEI is always busy. When you do not force tasks on people, they will fill in the roles of their own will. With so many people to talk to and do things with, life can get hectic sometimes and you can forget your own goals by trying to help others fulfill theirs. That is why meditation to re-center yourself is still important. Some people do not need it, some do. Everyone finds their own balance.” Xiangxin returned with the plates- though had to make several trips since she is serving dinner for five. She moved a huge stone slab to the middle of the yard to use as a table, and you all just ate outside since the weather was calm. Your dinner was illuminated in pale blue-white light from the crescent moon as it rose higher in the sky. There was so many stars in the sky of so many different twinkling colors that it looked like someone had painted the sky. Olivia looked to Xiangxin as everyone ate. “We were wondering what your drive is when making all these sculptures Xiangxin.” “Mm. It is just the only use I can find for the ideas in my head. I think of these forms and images normally whether I want to or not. I can’t draw, so I carve. The ideas are of no use in my head, so I put them in stone to get rid of them, haha. It is like getting a song stuck in your head. Once the idea is unstuck, I just stop chiseling it into the stone- whether it is done or not.” Yuko motioned around them with her chopsticks. “Which is why she has too few finished projects. I still want that Buddha statue from you.” Xiangxin laughed. “And I am still working on it. (text-style:"subscript")[Slowly].” After dinner, everyone is drowsy. Everyone says their goodbyes and thanks Xiangxin for dinner. After Yuko and Ceba leave though, Xiangxin tells you to hold on. She returns again from inside her house and hands you a stone sword. “It is a bit simple- I was never fully satisfied with this one, but you can have it to remember your time here on RHEI. You are the only guest this place has ever had really, and some people were as excited about you coming here and you were to be here I think, heh.” The sword is a wakizashi- a side-arm to a katana. The entire sword itself was hewn from a single stone, but the handle is wrapped in red cloth and tied in a lucky knot off the pommel. You thank her for such a great gift, and she makes sure to warn you- the edge actually is decently sharp; so don’t poke anyone with it jokingly because you’ll actually hurt them. (if:($Io is true) and ($Canon is true) and ($Ranos is true) and ($Ass is true) and ($Moth is true))[ [[* You have one last place to be... *->The King]] ]That night you return to the main complex with Olivia to sleep. The next morning before you are even fully awake, she helps get you up and to the tower and you once again step into the helicopter to leave the beautiful island behind. You will always remember your time with the three test subjects you met that day though. (set: $Bushido to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You and Olivia return to the main complex, on the same floor as the offices but down a hall toward the east side of the main building. The restaurant there is nice, and quiet since most other people have finished eating their dinners by the time you arrive. Two of the four walls are almost entirely made of windows, so you can see the lights of the homes and lamp posts down in the valley from here- though only the north end. You can even see the millions of stars above even though you are looking out on the night from a lit room. There is no pollution around RHEI to block the view of the cosmos here. Olivia talks to you about all that happened today, and asks if you are satisfied. You admit there is still so much you wish you could have done- but considering you only had one day to do it all- you got a good bit in. You both start talking about the good old days, from long before she was a RHE researcher in secret. You miss hanging out with her. Not even doing anything; just being together doing what you would have already done separately anyway. “Yea… me too. I didn’t really know I missed it, y’know? I keep busy here on RHEI, and it is always fun and active here so I never really thought about it before. But then once you were here, it hit me, how much I missed you and me spending time together. Well you know my secret now, so we can meet up every now and then, right?” She played with her food a bit on the plate with her fork. “I might be able to get you back onto RHEI as well, one day. Maybe. I mean; I got you onto the island once and it was fine, why not again? Obviously not right away, and it definitely will never be a regular thing.” You ask if the curse mark they will brand your tongue with hurts when they put it on. Olivia laughs. “It isn’t a tattoo- you won’t feel anything, you big baby. But you won’t be able to speak about RHE directly, or type, or write it. When you try to articulate your thoughts on it, you won’t be able to. So you can’t spill the beans even on accident- you’ll be physically incapable of telling anyone. You can just say //‘R-place’// or something when talking to me, since I will know what you mean.” (if:($Io is true) and ($Canon is true) and ($Ranos is true) and ($Ass is true) and ($Moth is true))[[[* You have one last place to be... *->The King]] ]After dinner, you and Olivia both head to sleep at the same time, since your rooms are right beside one another. You sleep very deeply, so you are slow to wake up the next morning. The weight of knowing you have to leave RHEI also holds you down as Olivia basically drags you out of bed. The helicopter has a schedule to keep, but it has to wait for you first so there is no time to be depressed that you have to leave. Olivia practically shoves you forward across the parking lot to the base of the tower to see you off. She hands you a large plate she had tucked beside a clipboard in her other hand before she splits off from you at the tower. “Here, this arrived for you this morning before you woke up. When Jun told Kalie that she missed your visit, she was so upset that she dropped this off to give to you as a souvenir- and to make up for having missed you.” The plate is slightly curved and shaped like a wide diamond, with the bottom point being the longest. It is a golden pangolin scale- from Kalie’s own back! It is so large you could almost use it like a small shield! You pause a moment in thought, asking Olivia if it hurt to remove. “Oh yea, it would have- they aren’t supposed to come off. They shed scales rarely- more when they are initially growing, but because she turned when already an adult she isn’t supposed to lose them. But y’know; //accidents happen//. She falls and one gets yanked off or some just get worn down and scratched up so the old one falls away and is replaced. That one is in perfect condition so it must have been yanked off suddenly in an accident.” She laughs at the concerned look on your face. “She didn’t rip it out to give it to you- she must have had it already stored. Pangolin scales are considered precious so when she does lose one it isn’t tossed away.” Olivia then shoos you away again, because the helicopter is still waiting. They already started up the rotor waiting. You hope Olivia can get you back on the island again some day, but you will always remember the day you did get here in paradise. You also wonder just what Kalie’s hybrid form looks like, staring at the scale you were gifted. (set: $Skalie to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

Olivia nodded when you told her you wanted to see TS71-XV & TS72-XV. “They are easy to find- they are in the Hidden Bunker. They can leave if they want, but any test subject leaving the bunker triggers a ping back at the main complex, so we will know if they are home or not. Just in case one wanders off and gets into trouble- it won’t be long before we track them down and bring them back. People in the hidden bunker for various reasons cannot entirely get by on their own. These two are more stable than others.” Olivia went to leave but paused. “And uh… brace yourself a bit; their forms are a bit… (text-style:"shudder")[//lewd//].” Yuko bid you farewell and split off to see her friend now that her morning training is done. You follow Olivia up north again as if to return to the main complex, but then walk further west, to the side of the slope leading up to the main complex. There is a regular boulder sticking out of the grass on the slope, but then right against it is an oddly cylindrical one. There are many runes etched into it in a very complicated array. This is actually a runic control panel- this is the opening of the hidden bunker. Olivia explains the hidden bunker is well hidden, but not as a secret. Almost everyone on the island at this point knows roughly where it is and that it exists, it is just that it isn’t plainly visible and no one can get in or out without proper access. You ask if you should look away or something when she approaches the panel but Olivia tells you it would not matter- the array reads her chakra signature to confirm who she is. Even if you knew the simple method of activating the panel- your signature isn’t on record so you would have a security access authorization of zero. Olivia furrowed her brows a moment and told you to touch the panel just to test something. The blue illuminated runes she activated turned red a moment before the glow vanished entirely. Olivia nodded. “Just checking. There was a security issue before on the tincture storage unit, where they forgot to script a scenario where someone doesn’t have a security rank at all. They properly scripted the reactions to each rank, but since they never entered a scenario for someone who was never assigned a rank in the first place- it acted the same as someone with a maximum rank of level 4 authorizations.” You thought you were the only one who has ever visited the island? Who completely lacked a rank in order for them to figure that out? “New test subjects- as in, subjects who just arrived and hadn’t been entered into the system yet. The offices are the first place they will be brought to meet their future handler, and that is also where the storage unit is.” When she re-did the input and used her own touch, the cylinder announced her full name and authorization level of 2. That seems low, since she just said the maximum was 4. If you can get into the bunker with only an authorization level of 2, what do the other 2 ranks do? “Oh no, you need authorization level of 4 (text-style:"underline")[normally]. If you have a close friend or ''family'' inside of the bunker, you are given exception. It is part of the Heart Clause.” Heart Clause? “It is a little loop-hole in security. It also states that you can request a single day per year to visit close family on the outside. RHE needs to arrange a special escort for you to maintain secrecy and make sure no one but that loved one can see you. Also if an immediate family member becomes critically ill, you can also request access to them, even if you already used up your one day a year for that year.” Four huge hydraulic pistons lift the entire area of ground beyond the stone panel by several feet, revealing a giant bunker door. It hisses as a pressure lock releases and four giant mechanical clamps release it, and the two sides of the thick armored door open to let you in. She explains the pressure seal is to help keep the inside temperatures and atmosphere in an optimal state. Because people are meant to //live// in here- there is a very high oxygen percentage in the air here, carefully regulated. It would not do at all if the air became stuffy because no one was able to open a window. She leads you into gigantic pathways made of polished metal, lined almost entirely by wires and pipes of massive size. The tunnels are perfectly round, so the path to walk on is an elevated catwalk through the middle, and every two feet is another small rectangular light beside the walkway angled up to illuminate everything. In addition to containment of the extreme variant test subjects, this is also where the drinking water for the island is processed and waste water purified using hydromancy and geomancy together. Salt is removed from ocean water to make it drinkable, but then the giant salt crystals can also be used to absorb and detain other contaminants; as salt is a very thirsty crystal. You can tell by how long Olivia pauses at each intersection that she does not come here often. In order to have access to this area she must have someone dear to her that she knows, but she isn’t taking you to see them, so the area she is currently finding isn’t one she has access to. You arrive at an area that looks almost exactly like one of the island homes, except inside of a huge chamber in the bunker. Because the entire home is indoors- the windows of the building face out on holographic projections against the outside walls of the chamber. The beams of light from the projection refract off the metal walls and where the light’s path intersects with itself; the three dimensional image is created. So if you were looking out of the windows of the home it would look like it is out on the island- you can’t tell the entire thing is indoors. The husband and wife duo greet you at the door, both wear a shirt but no bottoms because pants would never fit. TS71-XV and TS72-XV are not just ''mostly'' human- they are //''entirely''// human! The only thing off about them is their genitals which are… in a league of their own. A fantasy league. Their genitals are real life hyper-sized. TS72 is Lucia, with large breasts and butt, and an impossibly huge vulva. TS71 is Dannis, with either testicle the size of a large beach ball, touching the floor even when he is fully standing, and a penis that rests lazily in the cleft between, just barely clearing the floor- at least when it is fully flaccid. They invite you in and Lucia waddles her way to the kitchen to get some water to give you to drink while Dannis leads you to the living room to have a seat- the cushions of the couch are twice as wide as normal; so when they sit on it, it supports their butt as well as the underside of their gigantic endowments. You try to think of how to word your initial questions in a way that did not offend them. Like; why is it such a departure from everything else everywhere on the island? They don’t look like they were hybridized with ''any'' animal traits at all, which already makes them outliers, but also they are XV subjects which means something went overboard. So if this is the //overboard//, what were they supposed to be originally, perfectly normal humans?! Olivia was expecting lots of questions, so she answers before Dannis can. “This wasn’t an accident, they requested this. The test wasn’t on hybridization; this test was on enhancement of existing systems in the human body. Particularly the strength of the heart and circulation, but also general life support. Their body mass is almost double what it should be- which means they need a higher calorie intake to support it, and also a heart large enough to pump the vastly enlarged blood supply.” Lucia spoke up from the kitchen as she was returning with two glasses of water. “Me and Dannis signed up because we thought it would be a wild experience to sign up for human testing as a couple, and we requested these forms. RHE was reluctant at first but we managed to convince them. They could still collect data on transformations they needed for future tests, so that is the only part they should be concerned with.” Olivia sighed, thanking her for the water. “I think it was more of an issue of someone //intentionally// requesting a form that would result in an extreme variant test subject. These forms are so off-balance that you cannot move around freely, and if you were to try to leave your house your… bits, would rub against the ground rather unpleasantly. It seemed from an outside perspective that you were making the choice without properly thinking through the consequences. A lot of people are still puzzled as to why you would want this, but as long as you two are happy- that is what actually matters.” Dannis chuckled, leaning against the wall beside the couch you and Olivia shared. “Call us perverts or whatever- we are just pleasure addicts. We were both sort of obsessed with physical pleasure and had a lot of kinks- so naturally we made a good couple when we found each other. When faced with a choice of modifying our bodies permanently- why not go with a shape that gave us the most pleasure?” Lucia nodded, sitting on her knees next to the living room table- but needing to sit her giant distended vulva down first, then herself behind it. “We thought about animal traits too, especially possible animal genitalia… there was a few we thought would be great, but decided to stick with human. It is ''permanent'', so we did not want to go with something for the kink and experience and then get tired of it somewhere down the line- because then we would be stuck with it regardless.” Dannis narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment. “Doesn’t RHE keep a crystalized memory copy of our initial transformation? You could let your friend look at ours, and see how it all happened first hand!” Olivia nodded slowly, not quite sure. “Well yes, there is a copy on record, if you two consent to his seeing it, I can call it up.” Olivia looked to you. “It will take a bit to get the memory down from our complex AI, Alua. I did not think to call her ahead of time, sooo we probably only have time to get one. Either Dannis or Lucia- but not both.” |HyperChoice>[(link:"N-no, it is okay, thanks.")[(replace: ?HyperChoice)[You politely decline- it would feel a bit odd viewing someone else’s memory, especially one that intimate. Dannis nodded. “Yea, that is fine- no need if it makes you feel awkward. I know our forms might make a lot of people a bit uncomfortable.” He laughed. “Our bodies are unquestionably sexual, but not everyone is as raring to go whenever.” Lucia nodded. “Some people are shy about their sexuality, and that is fine too.” After staying with the happy couple in their bunker home, talking about island lifestyles, Olivia checked the time and told them it was time you go. You only have one day to be on the island, so you cannot be staying in any one place for too long at risk of missing everything else. "Let’s visit another XV subject. That way we do not have to travel far. Hmm, how about TS43-XV? She was an accidental XV, because she is partially marsupial, which screwed up mammary arrangement and in trying to compensate, her form mutated well beyond where it was supposed to. Or we could go with someone who is a unique case for a completely different reason- TS55-XV. The only extreme variant test subject who does not live in the bunker- she is not too far from it either, though. She is back toward the main complex so we would have to go that way eventually regardless. If we go for Ambrosia we return to the complex the way we came- if we go to see Mercy we can return to the main complex from the service entrance directly.” [[TS43-XV; Mercy->Hidden Bunker 3]] [[TS55-XV; Ambrosia->North Forest]]]] (link:"Dannis")[(replace: ?HyperChoice)[Olivia leaves for a moment a short while later and returns with an odd crystal. As soon as you touch it, she charges it with a tiny bit of mana and the world goes dark for you. Suddenly you completely lose your sense of self and instead find your perception in Dannis. It is as if you are Dannis, but more like a dream in that you have absolutely no influence over what he does- you are merely a passenger. This is not something that is happening now- you are living a memory, this has already happened. Dannis is an average man for the most part. Not fat but also not fit. His skin is a golden tan color by default, and he has harrier forearms and shins but much body hair elsewhere. Dannis is a bit obsessed with sexuality and fetishes- not just as something to get off to, but out of curiosity and almost… reverence. Naughty PC backgrounds, posters, scrolls, figures, you name it. The human form is a word of beauty. The same way people may look at the Mona Lisa and wonder what emotions lay behind that expression- Dannis looks at a woman’s face at the time of orgasm and wonders the very same thing. Most women react to finding this out by immediately regarding him as a creep or pervert and do not bother to actually understand. So when he met Lucia and realized she is the same- they immediately knew they were meant for each other. When he first arrived on the island, RHE knew they were going to be extreme variants from the start, so they were assigned a space within the hidden bunker- though it was mere tents at first like they were camping out. RHE needed time to create their custom enclosure, so for two days they were in tents, inside of the bunker just in front of where their home was being built. Since his transformation was entirely just his genitals, the first thing he noticed is his penis became erect for seemingly no reason. Lucia gladly helped him out with a blowjob, but when she finished and he blew- he was still hard. It did not even try to go soft. They had sex and when he came again, there was just as much cum as the first time, and finally his dick went soft. Later that same day he got another erection and had to work it off on two more occasions. Every time it went soft, it did not regress completely; so every time it returned to fully erect, it was a bit bigger than the last time. He woke up with a boner the next day and Lucia immediately got him off- her own endowments now a lot larger as well which helped them both get off faster, but he did not go soft. He could feel the weight in his prostate, feel it pulsing in him bigger as well. His balls felt so full- having an orgasm only took the edge off, he still had too much in him. So she got him off again, and again he was still hard. He did not feel pent up now but it still wasn’t enough to actually remove the erection. The head of his penis felt unusually tight, then the entire shaft. In a surge it actually stretched longer at a speed great enough that they could visibly see it growing! She immediately slapped her tits into his lap and got him off a third time- finally the beast between his legs went to sleep again. Only an hour later he was once again hard and unbelievably felt pent up again already! He did not want to seem like a needy pest, so he tried to ignore it for as long as he could to spare Lucia having to rescue him again- not aware that she was actually tending to her own growing assets just a short distance away. After only another half hour his dick was wobbling with his heart beat and drooling a steady stream of pre down the shaft, pooling on his scrotum and then running down the cleft between balls! His prostate was so swollen it felt like someone stuffed something in his butt, and his taint was so swollen and stiff it felt like he was sitting on a pool noodle! His dick was not growing longer- at least not at a visible pace, but his lack of tending to its needs caused it to become fatter from the withheld load! It was as wide as a beer can now! He had no choice but to tend to himself and it only took a few moments to skyrocket himself to an almost instant orgasm! The widening of the shaft also caused his urethra to become abnormally wide, which caused each jet of cum to be absolutely massive! The wads of white goo hit the floor so heavily it made a loud wet, slapping sound with each one! Every time his balls clenched in this orgasm, they grew a little. He did not notice till he tried to stand, and felt their new weight yanking on his scrotum. He also did not go fully flaccid, and while he did not feel pent up- he also did not feel emptied out either. His body’s production rate was not increasing at a level perfectly even with his equipment- which was causing him to need release at a faster and faster rate! When he seen his wife finally an hour later, she was much bigger than before in several places, which immediately incited another round of sex! Even though the whole reason she was missing for that time is because she was also off masturbating. The plush, ultra-soft and rubbery vulva of his wife’s growing bits brought him to orgasm easily and as he came, she could feel it growing inside of her! His balls visibly pulsed larger and larger as he came. He could feel his prostate growing even larger, pushing on its surroundings to fight for more space! His heart beat got louder, harder, stronger! His circulatory system was now growing to match his finished size- which caused his pulse to be very pronounced in the rigidity of the veins on his shaft. The veins on his cock were now almost as fat as his cock itself was when they started! It did not take long for him to start to get needy again. His cock would twitch and burp up a bubble of pre every few minutes with increasing frequency. His testicles felt tight, full. A subtle internal itch that told him they needed release. An ocean of cum inside; the waves slamming against the opening, trying to get out. A billion, billion sperm slammed up against each other fighting for room, fighting to swim free! Lucia looked over at him as he softly grunt, and his shaft started to do little hops as it quickly went from ultra-thick chub to full erect. The glans of his dick alone were large enough to fill her entire hand- she could barely reach far enough around the head to get her fingertips onto the corona! He was trying not to think about it, as to not lure her into still more sex so soon- even though she clearly had no objections. She started to whisper in his ear, teasing him, softly tracing the veins on his shaft. Seeing how far she could nudge the veins under the skin before they popped back into place. She spiraled her index around the head of his cock, painting it with his pre before dunking it down! His urethra was so wide now with his expanded dick that she could easily put her finger inside with almost no resistance at all. She also had more control of her fingers than her pussy. She worked him up, then dug her nails in lightly and did not move, cooling him off… then worked him up again. She kissed and sucked on the head- only able to get her mouth halfway down the giant cockhead. The shaft started to vibrate- too hard to buck with the pulses. The head was red to start, but soon the entire shaft started to turn red with internal pressure. She had to subtly shift positions every now and then from it slowly growing larger. His balls felt rock hard and pulled with more and more weight on his scrotum. From the size of an ostrich egg each, to a cantaloupe, to a watermelon, to a basketball and still they grew! His scrotum was stretched to match their increasing size, which gave them enough space to do full jumps inside- leaping up as a jet of precum fired off and then heavily slam back down because they are far too heavy for his muscles to hold for any length of time. Then she switched from sucking to lightly biting, and raking her teeth across the glans, before stopping to watch the beat of his heart in the giant throbbing veins as he slowly cooled down- so she could work him up again. He had to nudge himself forward eventually because his taint was so massively swollen he could not sit fully on both ass cheeks at the same time because his weight kept teetering from one side to the other, with his taint holding him up! His cock grew bigger and bigger, passing his chest, then his head and still larger! It was as thick as a fire hydrant! His urethra was so huge she was sliding three fingers in and out at a time! When his cock tightened and pulsed, his entire groin bucked. He felt cramped inside for a moment as his prostate grew too large for the space it had, and then a loud gurgling sound as it popped its way past other organs and found more room- almost making him cum that time but Lucia brought him back down- twacking the massive shaft back and forth a few times. His heart was hammering and each beat brought another gob of pre to the tip, splattering all over. His balls were so massive now that Lucia gently sat on them! The balls tried to draw in to cum; she hooked her legs around the back of them, pushed forward on his shaft which shoved her back a bit, physically holding his balls back! His glans turned purple, then dark bruise purple! His entire shaft and glans were shiny smooth- all the pours yanked completely flat by internal pressure! She started to compliment his size, telling him how big he is, how freakish it is, how HOT it is. His dick grew a final inch or two in a sudden burst and he absolutely exploded in orgasm! The stream of cum hit the roof over them with enough force to splash sideways all over the room! In a moment you were back in their house, touching the crystal in Olivia’s hand. It took several seconds for your vision to re-adjust and your head was spinning. Dannis blushed a bit. “Oh, should have warned you- I think that one ended a bit abruptly because I whited out, and they did not record any memories past that because the changes were done.” After staying with the happy couple in their bunker home, talking about island lifestyles, Olivia checked the time and told them it was time you go. You only have one day to be on the island, so you cannot be staying in any one place for too long at risk of missing everything else. “It took a while for Alua to get the crystal to us- it is a good thing the actual experience only takes a few minutes, since the human brain actually processes things fairly quick. We don’t have a lot of time unless we eat dinner quite late, sooo, let’s visit another XV subject. That way we do not have to travel far. Hmm, how about TS43-XV? She was an accidental XV, because she is partially marsupial, which screwed up mammary arrangement and in trying to compensate, her form mutated well beyond where it was supposed to. Or we could go with someone who is a unique case for a completely different reason- TS55-XV. The only extreme variant test subject who does not live in the bunker- she is not too far from it either, though. She is back toward the main complex so we would have to go that way eventually regardless. If we go for Ambrosia we return to the complex the way we came- if we go to see Mercy we can return to the main complex from the service entrance directly.” [[TS43-XV; Mercy->Hidden Bunker 3]] [[TS55-XV; Ambrosia->North Forest]]]] (link:"Lucia")[(replace: ?HyperChoice)[Olivia leaves for a moment a short while later and returns with an odd crystal. As soon as you touch it, she charges it with a tiny bit of mana and the world goes dark for you. Suddenly you completely lose your sense of self and instead find your perception in Lucia. It is as if you are Lucia, but more like a dream in that you have absolutely no influence over what she does- you are merely a passenger. This is not something that is happening now- you are living a memory; this has already happened. Most other women did not have a porn collection like Lucia. She is a bit obsessed with fetishes- discovering new ones and exploring ones she is already familiar with. The want, the pleasure, and the completely logicless attraction to fetishes. Fetishes are desires outside of the normal after all; desires that shouldn’t make sense. But love doesn’t need a reason- it doesn’t answer to anyone but itself. Finding a boyfriend proved hard, because a few were turned off by how raring to go she always is and her obsession with all things sexual. Those that weren’t often treated her like a toy- a sex slave. If they were role playing- she would be down for sure, but seriously thinking she is just a lust-mad toy? No. When she found Dannis with similar interests, they knew they were fated to be together. He wasn’t just playing along for the sex, he also looked at sexuality differently than others, like an art form. Lucia is an average woman physically; not fit but also not fat. Her skin has a pink hue and her nipples a soft red. Her breasts are a good sized D cups and her labia a bit on the plump side- but that was to be expected given how often she has used a pump on it. When she arrived in their home on the island, her pussy was already a bit tender, like she had been working it up. Dannis got an insistent boner so she helped work him off… //several// times before he was able to go soft. She also rode his pole though, getting herself off which unintentionally seemed to rub his nonstop boner onto her! Now her clit was stiff like a little pebble in her soft folds. Because of the nature of her transformation; RHE provided her by default several sizes of dildo to juice herself on. So while Dannis enjoyed being soft again, Lucia sat on the most normal sized dildo of the collection. As she bounced on the staff though, her hands were free to grab at her breasts to touch her nipples, which were also erect for seemingly no reason. Her breasts became very firm as she masturbated, and felt quite tight. After she came to a trembling orgasm she was going to get off the dildo but decided to remain on it for a few more moments, enjoying the full feeling. Lucia decided to get off a second time in a row- it would tire her out completely so she could be sure she will be fine for some time after. Women lack a refractory period- which sometimes makes it hard to know when to ''stop'', because you can technically just keep going //forever//- or more accurately till you dehydrate yourself or pass out from exertion. As she worked herself back up, the climb was slower this time because she was less needy to start- but she was still definitely enjoying the ride. Lucia noted that her clit looked larger, and stuck out from its hoodie clearly. She did not have to bend her torso at all to see the front of her clit past her pubic mound! Her breasts also started to slowly grow! Because they are D cups, they are meant to be fairly soft- they can’t naturally have enough muscle tissue to hold globes that large together solidly- but hers now were taught like a filled balloon! This caused them to lift up and have a sort of ‘//torpedo tits//’ look to them- slightly longer than they are wide, but still standing up from the chest. Her areola also pulled oddly smooth from pressure and started to stand out on their own curvature separate from the breast itself. Her nipples even grew in size, going from stiff eraser nubs to like half a door-stopper. The heat built up in her breasts because they are well insulated, and the new mass was rapidly grown. Coupled with the heat from exertion of working herself over and arousal caused her to be quite sweaty. Her taught tits made wet slapping sounds when they collide because of the beads of sweat across their surface. Once again she climaxed and was going to stop, but felt like her pussy was larger- her clit at least definitely was. So she glanced at the middle dildo out of //curiosity//. It looked too large to fit into her normally, but would it fit now? So she slid it into herself out of curiosity- she had to go slow and the muscle rings of her vagina almost ached as it pushed past each going deeper in, but it fit. Felt so great being filled so much! She placed a palm flat on the bottom and rolled it around in her, humming in pleasure. Before she knew it she was bouncing it in and out between her and the bed and her hands were busy kneading her boobs again- a ''third'' masturbation session in a row! Her breasts were slowly getting larger again- this time fattening out sideways a bit more, becoming rounder. Their weight started to pull them downward again into a more natural shape. The edge of her areola started to become more faded than solid because of being stretched out. Now she could plainly see her labia growing in size- the outer more than the inner, causing the entire pubic mound to push further out from her, giving the illusion of also becoming softer and more rubbery. Now her hip motion was more of a rocking back and forth; because more than being penetrated, she wanted to rub those fat pussy lips on the bed! Feel the impossibly soft skin catch and stretch! By the time she orgasmed again, her clit was shaped like a lima bean but the size of a ping-pong ball. The medium dildo barely fit enough to do anything- but that fact alone helped arouse her more and speed her into the third orgasm in a row. Lucia woke up a bit later, only then realizing she had passed out in the first place. Her inner thighs were a bit sticky from dried juices. Her clit was pulsing again though- it wanted MORE. With every throb of her clit, her vaginal passage clenched involuntarily for a second. She decided to check on Dannis and almost immediately threw herself on him when she seen his needy behemoth of a member drooling like the beast it is. It was almost as large as the largest dildo RHE provided her! When she sat on him, it felt like her entire lower body was nothing but his cock! Her organs were indeed compressing upward- to make space. They both got off almost immediately from their enhanced pleasure zones. She noticed not too long after though, Dannis was growing again. This time she decided to enjoy his new size up close and personal and sucked on the head, gently teasing the shaft. She edged him back and forth, creating a ridiculous amount of precum splattering all over as his shaft grew and grew- as if her teasing egged it on. It became larger than her largest dildo, then taller than his whole body, and then still larger! She could not sit on it at this point even if she tried- it was as thick as a fire hydrant! She whispered encouragement to him when she seen his monolithic meat pillar had finally slowed its expansion. She sat on his balls and gently brushed her fingertips up and down the shaft while whispering to him till he finally exploded. The pillar of cum slammed into the roof hard enough to make an audible thud before spraying out in every direction, absolutely painting the room in his thick white love! Lucia was very turned on- he had cum on her before but never enough to //completely paint her entire body//! She had to brush her face off several times with her hands just to clear her breathing passages till she could scoot herself into the shower. The weight of the thick cum on her and especially in her hair made her body feel like it weighed an extra twenty pounds. When she was cleaning off though, she could not help but touch her swollen bits… which only turned her on more. In the warm beams of water hitting her plush pussy, it grew slowly larger. The new muscle rings in the extended portion of her vagina were extremely large compared to those actually inside of her pelvis- this is to give it some sort of structural integrity. Without enhanced muscle structure, the flesh would be so soft and loose that would no longer have any real shape. She felt a pressure in her hips, and then her legs started to tingle- the blood flow getting cut off internally. She was forced down onto her knees because her legs became far too wobbly to hold her up, and because her pussy was now so large, the back pressed on her inner thighs and the bulk of the front rest on the front of her legs! Lucia’s clitoris was now as big as a softball! She climaxed and had to close her eyes because the force of the liquid blasting out of her sprayed back ''up'' and over her! Lucia rolled forward and her giant fat outer labia caught her! She was balancing a third of her weight on her pussy alone! Her butt tightened and started to expand before her hips gave off a loud pop and expanded so suddenly that her entire body shook! Her lower midriff immediately became cone shape for a moment as her clit pulsed hard, yanking her torso straight on its own! She cried out in pain at a mild cramp and grabbed her sides- feeling two spheres below the flesh. Those were her ovaries! The cone shape of her lower body is to accommodate her vaginal passage, now once again large enough to take Dannis- and him alone. Her pussy has become so gigantic that her //urethra// is large enough to fit Dannis’ former penis size! Because of how it distended from her body, it actually resembled a round clam now. Her clit finished growing at the size and shape of a football, but regresses to a softball size when relaxed. At least the exposed part of her clit. The clitoris travels along the vaginal passage internally some distance- that part is also larger on Lucia. Lucia loves her new equipment, and often finds herself playing with it idly- not even for sexual reasons. It is just really soft and pliable and ''fun'' to manipulate. When you blink next you find yourself back in the house in present day, still touching the crystal in Olivia’s hand. It takes your brain a few moments to stop spinning and fully comprehend where and ''//when//'' you are. Lucia smiled timidly. “The ovaries expanding was a bit of a goof, but it doesn’t really hurt anything because I couldn’t reproduce with my modified genetics anyway. My womb actually regressed- it is tiny. The ovaries should have too, but they grew because of a slight miscalculation.” To show you, she holds her vulva in place with one hand and leans back- you can see the two spheres under her skin when she bends back. Her ovaries are the size of softballs! Her other organs are compressed unusually high, in order to basically hollow the entire lower third of her torso into vagina. After staying with the happy couple in their bunker home, talking about island lifestyles, Olivia checked the time and told them it was time you go. You only have one day to be on the island, so you cannot be staying in any one place for too long at risk of missing everything else. “It took a while for Alua to get the crystal to us- it is a good thing the actual experience only takes a few minutes, since the human brain actually processes things fairly quick. We don’t have a lot of time unless we eat dinner quite late, sooo, let’s visit another XV subject. That way we do not have to travel far. Hmm, how about TS43-XV? She was an accidental XV, because she is partially marsupial, which screwed up mammary arrangement and in trying to compensate, her form mutated well beyond where it was supposed to. Or we could go with someone who is a unique case for a completely different reason- TS55-XV. The only extreme variant test subject who does not live in the bunker- she is not too far from it either, though. She is back toward the main complex so we would have to go that way eventually regardless. If we go for Ambrosia we return to the complex the way we came- if we go to see Mercy we can return to the main complex from the service entrance directly.” [[TS43-XV; Mercy->Hidden Bunker 3]] [[TS55-XV; Ambrosia->North Forest]]]]]

You and Olivia leave Lucia and Dannis’s place and she makes sure the door seals behind her before moving forward. As you follow her you hear her mutter ‘Kaila’ under her breath as she walks past another branch off the main path you pass by. She is looking toward the next path up, but then realizes it is too large for another enclosure- the next branch on the right is to the water treatment facility. She quickly looked left and points at another smaller branch and nods to herself. She places her hand against the pad outside, sending a ping to the inhabitant to let her in. If she actually had authorization, Olivia would be able to open the door without asking, but she doesn’t have the clearance. She turned to you and leaned on the doorframe while you both waited. “She is home, she just cannot move around quickly. Mercy is barely mobile.” The door slid open but there was no one on the other side- Mercy opened it remotely using her onyx slate. You both walk into the strip of floor that is the foyer, between kitchen and living room. The house doesn’t appear to be customized at all, it is perfectly normal aside from the fact its inside of an even larger structure. It occurs to you that you did not see the holographic projections outside of her house either- when you turn to look at the front windows; they are not windows at all. Though shaped and placed in exactly the same way a window would be, there is a screen projecting an hour-long loop of a window pane on a rainy day, overlooking rolling green hills like in the valley- except minus the other buildings or paths. It lacked the audio of the pitter-patter of raindrops, but it is still quite calm to look at and paints the room in a blue-grey light from it, because the actual room lights are turned off. Mercy is already on her way when you two close the door behind you- she is in the hall just ahead of you, leaned against the wall and slowly dragging herself forward. “S-sorry I am so slow. I was doing my exercises just a bit ago so I don’t have the strength in me to haul myself around.” (link:"Mercy")[Mercy’s body is a mix of human, kangaroo, and cow. Her upper body is almost entirely human, except for her ears which are very long and leaf shaped- each one looked about a full foot long, but only a third or fourth as wide. You have to look at her closely to notice, but her nostrils are shaped like apostrophes, and the bottom of her nose is shallow and wide- taking some subtle bovine traits. Her nose is fairly small to begin with though, so you wouldn’t be able to notice that at any sort of distance. Her hair is short and bobbed, only as long as her jawline, and it looks dyed because it has two different colors, and they are lopsided. Most of her hair is black, but a third of it on the right side is stark white- it is bovine traits that gave her that, not dye. Her eyebrows match this perfectly- the left is black, and most of the right is black except for a white dot on the end of the right brow. Both of her iris are a pinkish-red; the color of morganite. Every time she takes a step, her breasts bob and gently collide- her chest has four of them, but they are so large that they eclipse most of her midriff too. Each one is about the size of a mid-sized beach ball, if you made it oblong. Her skin color is a pale sandy brown, so her nipples and areola are dark brown, and they are quite small- especially compared to the breasts that carry them. Mercy’s lower half starts to immediately take more animal traits as her hips are wide and a bit sharp looking in the back, and her thighs are absolutely massive. The thighs were huge his muscle, not fat- it was clear just from looking at them that they are solid. Her feet are absolutely gigantic and extremely long- so long that when she steps forward she first rolls onto the ends of her feet which raises her body up a good additional foot before actually stepping forward. These are kangaroo legs- she would be able to move so much easier if she hopped rather than walked, but her boobs are so gigantic that if she actually tried to jump her own tits would give her a black eye when they start flying all over the place. Each foot ended in three toes- each tipped with a large claw. Where a pouch would normally be is instead the fat milk veins trailing into a huge dairy cow udder… but this is also where her mutation begins. Her tail is shaped like a kangaroo, if the kangaroo was about three times bigger than her. The absolutely massive tail slowly rocks back and forth behind her, because it carries a lot of weight. You cannot see till she is closer and with a blush, turns her body slightly to show you, knowing you would be curious. Her cow udder doesn’t have four segments like a normal cow- it has ten. The udder is only two wide, but five long, trailing onto her tail! As if to imitate her breasts, the teats on her ultra-long udder are dark brown, but the udder itself is pink. She cannot hold her tail too high up for more than a couple of seconds because of all the weight on the base of it. That is why Mercy moves so slowly- she has a tremendous amount of weight swinging under her, her mammaries went way overboard during her transformation! If she becomes completely filled with milk before trying to empty out, she becomes entirely immobilized.] Seeing Mercy is a bit embarrassed, Olivia explained her form to you. “Marsupial mammaries are in their pouch, but RHE wanted to bypass that for ease of milking, so she could host a proper udder. Kangaroo was necessary as part of her transformation, so RHE had to work around it.” Mercy nodded. “I had a fatal illness that was causing my marrow to decay, so my body couldn’t produce any more blood cells. I was surviving off transfusions alone. Kangaroo however are immune to the illness, so RHE took me in as a test subject to see if I could be cured by hybridizing me with a kangaroo. The marsupial DNA made me retroactively immune to it, and I was able to recover. If it wasn’t for RHE I would still be on a thin lifeline, or outright dead.” “Unfortunately, in trying to override the pouch traits and mammary configuration of the marsupial genes, the bovine genes sort of went berserk. She didn’t get a pouch; so that part worked.” Your face turns red for a moment and you lean toward Olivia, saying you aren’t sure if your question is too personal but… if her udder starts on her crotch and trails all the way down her tail… how does she go to the bathroom? The udder covers where her genitals should be. Olivia blushed a bit too. “Oh, its, uh, down a lot further. Her… holes are halfway down the tail, not on her torso at all.” Mercy apologized for being too weak to stay up at the moment, and needed to flop over onto her couch to rest her feet. Olivia offered to massage her feet for her. Olivia mostly just liked touching the uniquely shaped foot. You looked around the front of the house from the living room and could see a lot of unique decorations all over. Most eye-catching being a collection of bottles here and there emitting a dull glow. Each one contained a tiny scene, and at first you thought it was a bottle model, but when you look closer you realized the scenes are moving! Clouds rolling in the sky between the fluttering leaves of a tree… a scene from the perspective of someone resting their head on the base of a tree, looking up. Another looking at an ice cream cone surrounded by several kids on a very bright sunny day- though the facial features of the other people were blurry and a bit shadowed. Mercy smiled and pointed to the first one you looked at with the tree. “That one is my favorite.” What are these…? Olivia cocked an eyebrow. “Never seen one before? I guess to the general public the procedure would be pretty damn expensive. Mercy had several of her memories copied. RHE usually copies the memory of each test subject’s initial transformation for research purposes. The memory is copied to a crystal and archived in maximum security- the only one allowed to handle them is Alua and her nodes.” Alua? She mentioned her before too- resident AI? “ALUA: Artificial Lifeform User Assistant. She is an ultra-complex golem mind capable of learning and simulating emotion. She runs most of the important operations in the main complex. Anyway- those bottles are copied memories too, but Mercy had those copied on request; she produces a ton of milk so RHE has no problem fulfilling requests for her, even if they are pricey. Even if she forgets the original memory- she will still have those copies to look at. Each bottle contains a moment in time, trapped on loop forever. Can’t open the bottle or it will dissipate- it isn’t sealed into a solid mass, so if the glass is opened or breaks the memory is gone. Sealing the memory into solid mass preserves it better and you can copy long stretches of time- but accessing the memory again using that medium requires a spell and mana to power it.” What is the tree memory then? Why is it the favorite? You put your face up close to it and watch the leaves fluttering in the wind. It looks very relaxing. Unlike something like a looped animation, there is no point where you can tell that it loops. Just like the original memory, it shifts a bit each time it is recalled. So the leaves do not shuffle in a set pattern nor are the shapes of the clouds in the sky pre-determined. You nudge the bottle slightly, and then set it back how it was to see- it doesn’t matter how you turn the bottle the image inside remains the same, because that was her perspective in the memory. Mercy giggled softly. “Nothing was happening then- as you might have guessed from how calm that memory is. I remember that being a moment of clarity. I was in my late teens and I was so //calm// in that moment. I don’t even know why, I just felt then that… everything was going to be okay. Even when bad things inevitably happen, I would figure it out. I was alive, I was healthy, and the world was turning. Everything was how it should be. I felt so happy for really no reason at all, haha.” Olivia joined you in examining all the memories and nick-knacks her house was absolutely cluttered with. All the memories gave off their own subtle light as well as her underwater window simulator, so she never bothered to turn the actual lights on- the softer light was more relaxing. You even find one rather disturbing memory that seems quite off from the others. She looks like she is covered in blood, looking at her own bloody fist as feathers softly rain down around her. She explains that it is the end of a nightmare she had- so the memory isn’t from reality; it never happened in real life, but it is still a real memory. After a while you notice her glancing at you with a blushing face again. She made grabby hands toward you. “C’mere, outsider.” As you approach she smiles. “I hear you are a big fan of demihuman forms, especially (text-style:"sway")[mammals].” Oh Gods, what has Olivia been telling everyone about you?! “I bet you know what it is like to grab a pair of boobies, but do you know what it is like to have a pair ''//grab you//''? Give me a hug!” She heft herself upright a bit more on the far arm of the couch using her elbows- all her mammaries were turned upward on display, her tail doesn’t fit on the couch at all and is draped off the opposite end. You want to, but then there is the fact she is topless, and her breasts how do you even hug someone like that? Her boobs project so far out, you don’t know if you can even reach around them in the first place. She reaches toward you. “It s’ok, I am embarrassed too. Sometimes ya just gotta (text-style:"shudder")[dive in]!” Before you can react she grabs you and pulls you over- you fall forward and have no choice but to embrace her! You collide with all four of her huge breasts but then slip further forward and pop out the other side! The base of her breasts are not as wide as their mid-point, so there is more space against her torso than you would have thought. Your arms go through the cleavage between breast sets, your head in the upper cleavage, and your torso sits in the lower cleavage! You are being hugged by her tits! You’re completely swallowed in cleavage! You look up at her grinning, blushing face. Her lips are so close you can feel the heat off them. “We aren’t done //yet//.” Mercy hooked her left knee on your right and pulled your leg up and over, so you were fully on top of her! Out of embarrassment you reflexively went to get up or stabilize yourself better and your own blush deepened when you realized the soft, rubbery mass pressed against the crotch of your pants… is her udder. Or the start of her udder anyway. You feel it squeeze your crotch and realize she must be lifting her tail! Her udder is so long that she is wrapping it around your entire groin, your butt and pressing the end of it into your lower back! You feel the udderless length of tail beyond that rest gently on your back. You are cocooned in tits! She embraced you tightly, whispering. “//Remember this moment//. You are the only outsider to wander in here- I enjoy figuring ''you'' out too.” After a few moments she huffed from the buildup of body heat between you two and let you go. Olivia blushed a bit herself from across the room. “Jeeze, even I am a bit jealous.” Mercy offered her hands toward Olivia. “Aww, I can titty-hug you too!” “N-no, no. It isn’t the same if I asked for it. Besides, I have plenty of time for that- this guy only has one day.” Just then the clock in the corner beeped and Olivia looked at it right away. “And speaking of which- he just ran out of time.” It is dinner time- Mercy needed to feed herself, and you and Olivia needed to go back to the main complex for your own dinner. You were out of time to explore the island, but certainly cannot complain about your experience. [[Continue...->Memento End]]

Olivia nods and you both say your goodbyes to the odd hyper couple, thanking them for their time. Ambrosia is not in the bunker itself, so you leave out the front and Olivia closes the huge grass covered panel back into place, making the door completely hidden once again. Even knowing where it is, you cannot see it- only the panel to open it etched into stone. Olivia explains that Ambrosia can be found in any of the forest on the island, but is in the north-east woods today, so you start walking around the ramp up to the main complex to get to the other side. The palace that is Io’s house is on the southern edge of the north-east forest, so you pass between its hedge maze and the slope to get into the forest. Ambrosia does not have a house- her home is just the forests. Olivia explains while she leads you deeper into the woods. “Ambrosia was a test on plant genes being mixed with human, which is obviously a stunt on its own, because plants are very different from animals. Problem is, to try and split the difference we used a very adaptive plant- an Alraune… a plant homunculus. She became an XV subject because the plant traits went out of control and dominated her human traits. Ambrosia is more plant than she is human. That is why she cannot have a house, nor stay in the hidden bunker- she requires direct sunlight to survive. She also requires human contact to stay in motion.” Olivia points out some strangely formed roots and says they belong to Ambrosia. As you continue into the woods you start to see what look like tree trunks wrapped around other trees or growing sideways and other such oddities- all part of Ambrosia apparently. Eventually you encounter what looks like a huge flower and Olivia stops beside it. You can tell from several feet away that there is a woman inside of it- the flower is closed but you can see the light through its petals, and the shadow of a woman’s silhouette. The petals are magenta, and the flower is so heavy that it faces downward. Olivia called to her, grabbing the stem and shaking the flower bulb up and down. Where the flower’s genitals would normally be, instead an umbilical cord-like stem connects to the belly of the naked woman within. Olivia accidentally shakes it a little too hard and the cord snaps, causing the woman to tumble out of the flower and slam into the ground back-first! “(text-style:"rumble")[Aaaoooww]… what the… heck?” “(text-style:"rumble")[Ack]! Sorry, I didn’t mean to drop you. My friend is here and we thought we would pay you a visit, Ambrosia.” “(text-style:"buoy")[Mmmm…]” The woman got up, rubbing her eyes and looking extremely tired. She looked like a little kid- her figure lacked any curves and she is quite small. Olivia handed her the still almost full bottle of water she got from Dannis and Lucia’s house. Ambrosia chugged the entire rest of the bottle in one breath, then shook her head. Ambrosia looked like a normal person, except you did notice some rather large looking veins on her arms and legs- but they were not blue shaded, they were just regular skin tone. Ambrosia quickly jogged on the spot and growled in frustration at her own lethargy. Olivia smiled at you. “Ambrosia falls into a hibernating state where she is mostly just plant if she is left alone too long. It takes a bit to wake her up, but she is fine once she gets up. Water and sunlight helps her wake up faster.” Ambrosia paused a moment and hunched over. You could hear a subtle sound almost like straining fabric and her entire body started to get bigger! She had the figure of a child when she bloomed, but she was very quickly getting a woman’s figure. You also notice her fingernails are sharp and green, and as she grows what you thought were veins appear to be squirming around under her skin on their own. Her long deep brown hair grows from shoulder length to her mid back, even though her body’s height was also growing. Her iris are yellow-orange; the color of amber. She grinned at you a moment before a huge root tore out of the ground suddenly and cupped you between the legs, lifting you into the air! “Now that I am awake… let’s have some (text-style:"buoy")[fun].” Olivia laughed. “Don’t do anything lewd with him! He is my childhood friend Ambrosia. We came to see you, because you were fairly close, and you are super unique. You are the only test subject that is part plant.” From your new elevated root-bench you ask her what it felt like, and how she can control the roots- she doesn’t appear to be connected to it. “Most Alraune act as sort of plant-mimics. They copy traits of other plants or lifeforms, which is why a lot of them start off really humanoid looking- they are created by humans so that is the first shape they imitate. That means I can connect to and copy other plants. By making contact with them, I can extend my body’s perception into them and control them as if they were part of me- because plants do not have complicated or strong will; they’re easily overridden.” She pat the ground with one bare foot. “I can only feel part of the root- even the part you are sitting on I only have some remote feeling in. I can integrate myself further to extend the reach though. As for what it felt like to transform… well, that is a whole story on its own.” Apparently Ambrosia spent some time in a coma-like state, trapped in a dream world. Because she was comatose for so long she started to think her dream was reality, which made it still harder to wake up. RHE was still trying to figure her out, so they did not know that dousing her in water and slapping her awake would fix it. There was also the fear she would no longer be herself. The plant genes were threatening to simply erase her entirely to create a new being that was not the original plant nor the human. When she originally transformed she turned into a tree with a woman’s torso in the trunk, and slowly the flesh turned to wood and was consumed further into the tree. Her hibernation state is why she is still an XV even though Ambrosia is stable now- she needs someone to snap her awake when her mind starts to turn off. If left alone, she would go to sleep and never wake. Ambrosia asks you to pick something you wanted to see her transform into. While you are thinking about it, she tells you to make it as weird as you want. With a smile, you tell her you want giraffe legs, a hyper snake tail, horse head, bird wings, and large human breasts. A real chimera of features. Olivia huffed. “Oh jeeze, should have known you would go crazy with that.” Ambrosia just grinned. “I like it.” She spread her legs a bit, not at all afraid to expose her tight little pussy. Ambrosia’s form is fluent now- plants can grow to shape themselves according to their needs, and since she is mostly plant, she can turn into just about anything. Her default form is her own former human shape, but even that is a mask at this point because only a bit of her former DNA remains. Her thighs immediately bulged with muscle and her soles started to stretch. One thing you noticed right away when she started changing is that the further she gets from her original form, the more plant-like she looks. As her legs grew longer and larger, her skin started to turn more of a brown hue and the surface looking more course like bark. Her outer toes pulled back to devolve into dew claws and the rest merged into two large primary hoof segments, but by that point both the skin above the hoof and the hoof itself were both made of the same bark material. Rather than turn into a giraffe’s foot, it was a plant shaped like a giraffe’s foot. Her knees started to turn inward so her hooves could slide further apart as her height started to absolutely tower over you and Olivia. A strip of skin up her back turned to the bark like substance and several root-like vines grew out of her but then quickly coiled and fused together into a single body- her growing tail. The texture of the bark changed to resemble snake scales, and the brown turned vine-green to better imitate a serpent. Her arms started to get long and narrow and the fingers on her hands fused together even as little buds appeared down the length of her arm and what used to be her hand. Long narrow leaves- greatly resembling feathers- started to unfurl from the buds, layering over themselves and becoming bushier and bushier, filling in the full form of large wings. Her skull started to expand- the expanding bone already sounding more like the creaking bark of a tree bending in the wind. Her face started to press out, then her nostrils flared. Ambrosia’s neck got longer and thin twigs appeared from under her hair and growing down the length of her neck with small green bulbs on the ends. She hummed in pleasure and arched her lengthening neck back, then made a loud moan almost like she was having an orgasm as all the bulbs swelled and burst open into round pastel pink flowers! The mane of her horse neck is made entirely of flowers! The serpent tail lashing around behind her continued to swell larger- the size billowed out from her hip even because her torso isn’t as thick as this tail is toward the base. You did say //''hyper''// tail. At least it has no problem reaching the ground to help her balance- with legs this long, if she falls over she has a looong way down. Her tail and fully equine shaped head and neck finished transforming at the same time, so there was only one thing she is missing. She arcs her torso back and thrusts out her chest as her C cup breasts start to quickly swell! You can hear a muffled squelching sound as the soft tissue quickly expands. The bigger they get however, the more orange they become. Unlike the rest of her, the flesh did not become bark or vine-like, it gained a brighter hue of orange. They looked shiny, and the coloration almost looked crystalline- and you notice her skin is semi-translucent! It looks crystal-like, because the surface is translucent orange, before fading to a solid orange within. Her nipples turned from pink to magenta, but were unaffected by the color shift of the rest of her breast. When they stopped they looked to be just outside the range of any reasonable bra size and sort of looked like some giant, exotic, ripe fruit. Ambrosia needed a moment to catch her breath, but recovered quickly considering all that just happened. “(text-style:"sway")[Tadah]! I can turn into anything!” Olivia crossed her arms. “Sort of. Fate can perfectly imitate anyone or thing. Ambrosia can mold herself to any (text-style:"underline")[shape], but cannot steal its appearance. One thing Ambrosia does have over Fate though is that she can change her size freely- she can grow to massive sizes.” “Y-yea. It gets hard to stay awake when I get really huge though, I need a lot more water to stay awake. Not that it would ever happen around here; but I can also have an arm or leg cut completely off and I will just grow a new one almost immediately.” She knelt down, letting her huge pendulous breasts swing around your head and offered a drink. You blushed and glanced at Olivia, but she just motioned for you to go ahead too. Her nipple and areola were oddly smooth, and a bit tricky to latch onto with your lips. When you drank it was not milk at all, it was almost like warm sugar water. There is a flavor aside from the sweetness but it is very subtle- then it occurs to you- you are drinking flower nectar! She is a plant, she doesn’t make milk, she makes nectar. After her transformation antics are done, she simply sits with you and Olivia and you all enjoy the forest scenery. Ambrosia uses her influence to cause all the surrounding trees to lean away from them, exposing her to direct sunlight. Apparently her current form can even bloat up and appear to gain weight if she lays in direct sunlight the entire day, because she overloads on chlorophyll. When she drinks straight from the ocean water, she can create crystal flower blossoms with the unused salt she ingests. She also does not breathe like a normal human. Well, she ''does'' but it is instinctual- she doesn’t actually need to do it. She once lay at the bottom of one of the pools in town for the entire day, extending a thin tail tipped with a lily pad- the pad absorbed sunlight and air while the rest of her was submerged and taking in water. When Olivia mentioned you and her better get going- the sun was getting low- Ambrosia told you to hold on a moment. She concentrated and blushed a bit as her giant tail arched in the air, and several bulbs grew along the underside. The bulbs started to swell as she started to pant, then moan as their coloration started to turn orange. The bulbs fattened and started to swing around from their growing weight and the subtle squirming Ambrosia was doing. It is apparently //addictingly pleasurable// for her to grow, which is why she is so eager to transform into whatever- it means more growth. The bulbs started to resemble her breasts greatly, including getting softer and bouncing around as they moved. She flicked her tail suddenly so quickly that four of them snapped off! She caught one and had to bend down to pick up another, handing you two of the fruit she grew off her own body, telling you and Olivia to eat them as dessert after dinner. Her fruit is apparently quite sweet. The sun is already gone from the sky- it is not quite night yet, but the sun is hidden by the mountains around RHEI before it fully sets, casting the island itself into the darkness of night in advance. Ambrosia will have a harder time staying awake without solar energy to feed her, so she will likely be hibernating again soon anyway, till the next person finds and wakes her. You and Olivia head back toward the main complex- the two fruit you hold do still feel oddly like breasts, and are tear-shaped, like her breasts were, and they are even warm from her body heat! [[Continue...->Yggdrasil End]]

Olivia is quick to become nostalgic at dinner, bringing up random moments from your shared past. She also reminds you not to fill up on dinner, because you both still have the fruit from Ambrosia. You ask if Olivia has ever eaten it before. “No, but I drank juice made from her fruit. It is good; a lot like honey in flavor but much lighter and more refreshing. It also doesn’t have a pit or any seeds or anything, since she cannot reproduce. Like all the animal hybrids- her pollen is incompatible with all other plants. Oh- careful when you first bite into it though; it is really juicy.” You and Olivia finish up dinner and eat the Ambrosia fruit, then just relax and talk about the day’s events. No one else is in the restaurant right now and the waiter is a golem, so it certainly doesn’t care of you loiter. You met four test subjects and visited several locations on the island, but it is still a drop in the barrel compared to all there is to be seen here on RHEI. For only having a single day on the island you feel you covered a good bit of ground. The test subjects you encountered were certainly quite different from each other. Yuko is almost all human and was given a new chance to live how she wanted thanks to prosthetics that would not have functioned to her standards, had RHE not taken her in. Lucia and Dannis were almost perfectly human as well, but wildly different in that they strolled on in seeking more pleasure in their lives and to bring a part of their many fetishes into reality. Then Ambrosia who almost lost all of her humanity to a test gone wrong, but the fruit of their labor blossomed as a versatile plant body. Even in the small sample of test subjects you managed to meet in your short time here; you can see quite a variety. Everyone on RHEI is like that- every single one different. Each one has their own story to tell.(if:($Io is true) and ($Canon is true) and ($Ranos is true) and ($Ass is true) and ($Moth is true))[ [[* You have one last place to be... *->The King]] ](else:)[ ]With the taste of Ambrosia’s fruit still faintly in your mouth as you go to bed that night, you fall asleep thinking of all the wild forms that must exist on the island. In the morning, your feet feel like led. You are woken up fairly early after a very deep sleep, and the fact that you have to leave the island made you no more eager to wake up fully. The helicopter has a schedule to keep though- and it cannot leave without you on it. You wonder where Olivia is, but can’t stick around too long to look for her, the helicopter is waiting. You travel across the parking lot- already warm from the morning sun. Then to contrast the warmth you step into the tower and the chill aura from the cold storage tanks makes you shiver and pick up your pace. You hear Olivia from behind you on the second floor and turn to see her running up from the overpass that connects the tower to the rest of the main complex. You could have used the overpass to get here without going outside as well, but you were never shown where the other end of it is inside of the main building. Olivia hands you a glass cube, still catching her breath. Inside the glass case is what looks like a large partially opened lotus blossom. The petals are a pastel pink, but they have an oddly glassy look to them and pale white veins concentrating toward their base. “I had to run around and find something to put the flower in to protect it, so you weren’t just carrying it around in your hand. Ambrosia said to give this to you to remember your time on the island by- it is one of her crystal blossoms. It has an extremely high concentration of sea salt in it, so the flower can’t fully bloom- it is basically petrified.” Olivia hugs you quickly before practically shoving you forward to shoo you off to the helicopter, promising to contact you again soon. You have plenty of time on the flight back to examine the crystalized flower and think of where you want to place it back in your room. Looking at it will always remind you of your time in the forest with RHEI’s sole plant hybrid. (set: $Blossom to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

Because the hidden bunker is below the main complex, you and Olivia do not go back outside the way you came. After you say goodbye to Mercy in her house of trophied memories, Olivia leads you halfway back toward the door but then turns right. The hallway becomes very narrow and not nearly as well-lit as the others. Olivia explains that this is a maintenance hall, not meant for regular travel- but it connects directly to the main complex so it is the fastest way back. There is another way into the hidden bunker below the tower as well- to get milk shipped out easily without having to go all the way around. The narrow branching hall leads you to a ladder that you two climb and come out in what looks like a fire exit stairwell. She tells you that you are currently on the very back of the building, facing the cliffs looming over the building. That is why there are no windows on this side of the building- they would be looking out at nothing but solid rock. Olivia brings you up the stairs to the second floor that the offices are on, but turns left instead of right when she approaches the front. This is where the restaurant is! Two entire walls of the restaurant are window so you get a great view over the valley- though it is now so dark all that you can see are the lights illuminating the dark. The night sky is better lit than the valley- there are so many millions of stars visible that you cannot find a single area of blank, black sky. RHEI is so far removed from any other trace of human civilization that there is no pollution at all to block the view of the night sky, so you can star-watch even from inside of a lit room! You and Olivia talk about old times- from long before she left to work for RHE in secret. You both order a ton of food, since you were trying to get so much out of your one day here- neither of you planned a break for lunch, so you are kind of starving. Your encounter with Yuko was a great, calm start to the day. Lucia and Dannis were an odd pair, and an interesting look at a different direction RHE’s research could go. The encounter with Mercy though- that was really special. You love her nostalgic personality, and looking into those tiny windows of her life before RHEI. Everyone who knew her in the outside world thinks she is dead- assuming she died of her terminal illness. You do still have some questions though. Once you both finish eating, you ask Olivia about Alua again. Golem are powered on will- they don’t even have brains in the first place, but she described Alua as being a golem brain? “Here, let’s ask her in person.” Olivia gets up and leads you through the halls again, this time going up to the third floor. You have no idea what is on this level. She enters a huge room, and there is a gigantic runic array etched in massive stone disks in the roof and floor in the middle of the room. Between the two arrays are millions of small dodecahedrons! As soon as Olivia approached, all of the stone dodecahedrons collapsed in toward each other and formed the figure of a large woman! Because each individual piece is small enough, her body is able to bend and flex as if made of soft tissue, even though it is composed entirely of rune-etched stone. Alua’s body has enough detail that she has a thin sheet of them draping from her head to simulate hair, but not enough detail that her face has any real identifying features or wrinkles or anything. She has glowing cyan iris projected on her eyes which are the only two proper spheres in the mix. “Hello master, hello Olivia. How can I assist you?” “My ''friend'' from the //outside// here was wondering how it is that you have a brain.” “Oop. Oh, uhm, well, my mind was reverse engineered from the golem construct designated ‘Supercolossus’. Thanks to research done by TS51 ‘Nemia’ and TS52 ‘Moby’, RHE was able to properly identify the golem’s original name as T’ormik. T’ormik was powered by the people that lived within it, but because its will was shared with so many thousands of people; its will was different from any one of them. In combining them, they created a separate will that belonged only to the golem. They invented the arcane art of copying a living person’s memory, and in using these they were able to deliberately create artificial minds- the Gods of old were forged by the very people who worshipped them. This is all predating the arrival of the Lost Founders, of course.” You furrow your brow, asking how all of that was only discovered recently. How would history that important be forgotten in the first place? “Thanks entirely to the research of Nemia and her husband- it was determined that the deep sea chasm T’ormik rests in was created by a meteor. From severe damage to the colossus, we concluded that the ancient people attempted to stop a meteorite strike against the planet, by catching it in T’ormik’s hand. The resulting devastation from the impact cast the entire planet into ‘the one hundred year night’, causing the population of all planetary lifeforms to recede. Almost all of the population of people living inside and on T’ormik’s body perished in the initial impact. Using rudimentary magic, some of the population survived inside of its body, staving off the ocean water for some time after, but once they depleted the local mana their spells failed and the water claimed them as well because the giant was no longer in any condition to move. However, it is still unknown as to where the technology to create the golem came from initially. T’ormik is the eldest automancer marvel that has been found; but it is still not the first. Origin still unknown.” You ask if Alua is just like a human then. Aside from her artificial body, it sounds like she has the mental abilities of a normal human, which puts her so far above any normal golem that you feel there should be a new classification for it. “I do not feel emotion. My response to pain, insult, good fortune and other such things are for display purposes and entirely simulated- I do not actually feel such things.” Olivia nodded, crossing her arms. “But she can learn on her own. Which means, she can ''learn'' to feel. She doesn’t have that capacity now, but given enough time we believe she will develop them on her own. Or at least simulate it to the extent that no one can tell the difference. (text-style:"rumble")[Anyway]- now for the real reason I brought you here. Alua, we need you to make a copy of one of his memories.” What?! “Remember what Mercy said to you when she rolled you in boob?” To remember the mome- oh. “Yea. She was setting up a souvenir for you. Alua, store the memory in a glass bottle.” Electric-blue runes sparked to life on the inside of Alua’s right hand as she reached toward you, motioning you to come forward with the other. A bit nervous you do as instructed and she places her hand over the top of your head and forehead. You are a bit flustered from the suddenness, but the memory of that moment is still searing hot in your head, so you are able to recall it perfectly. The vividness of your recollection tells Alua which memory you want copied without having to ask. “The bottle is in storage, shelf 21 row G.” She does not have a bottle handy, but because Alua is integrated into the entire primary complex, she technically ''IS'' the complex, which means she can take something from the third floor and transfer it to an item all the way over in storage in the blink of an eye, because she is in both locations at the same time.(if:($Io is true) and ($Canon is true) and ($Ranos is true) and ($Ass is true) and ($Moth is true))[ [[* You have one last place to be... *->The King]]] That night you have a LOT to think about, but are so exhausted from wandering around all day that you pass out quickly. The next morning, Olivia sees you off to the helicopter back home, handing you the bottled memory she had collected from storage overnight. The moment Mercy pulled you into her warm embrace and hugged you with more tit flesh than you could have imagined being in one place at one time- a copy is now in a bottle in your hands to keep forever. A little memento to put on your own shelf like she has on hers. (set: $Memory to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You tell Olivia you want to see 96&97. Even without knowing much else, it seems the more productive choice since you would be meeting two test subjects at the same time. Two is better than one, right? You two say goodbye to Danalah and head further south, into the actual valley town. Rather than take the pathways, Olivia takes the most direct route, which takes you behind the buildings on the west side of the town through what is essentially their back yards. Only when you got close to the home did you cut between buildings to the fronts where all the shale stone paths are sunken into the grass. You see many test subjects all over, all looking rather busy- everyone going somewhere. Udders and breasts in every configuration you could think of. Pink, heavy, round bits swinging and bouncing every which way. Plenty of variation in body types too though, some have hoofs, some paws. Some walk upright, some on all fours, some are taurs. Olivia leads you very far south, so you pass so many test subjects along the way, but do not have much time to see any of them for more than a few seconds. The home Olivia takes you to is in the south sector against the base of the Great Plateau. The home is actually half-wedged inside the rock face. There is a large stone wall connecting it to the house next door with metal grate door set in it. There is an unusual and consistent cold breeze billowing out from the other side. A man opens the door, smiles, and motions for you two to come inside. All the test subjects held a vote to see if you would even be allowed on the island in the first place so everyone knows who you are already, so they know why you are here. (link:"Basil")[The man who answered the door is TS97; Basil. When he grins it is a bit unnerving, because he has the face of a full feral animal- so his grin reveals a long mouth full of narrow, sharp fangs. Basil is most easily described as having the form of a werewolf. His overall body shape and upright posture is that of a human, but his other features are heavily influenced by a black fur wolf. His hands are tipped with long claws more akin to a werewolf than an actual wolf- this is because it hybridized the blunt but long claws of a wolf with the narrow, sharper nails of a human. His palms are bare, but his skin made pitch black to match the fur anyway. His fur was a bit shaggy- fair length of a canine. His feet were almost perfectly reduced to paws, but much larger than a wolf’s paws should be, and the digits a bit longer as well as the claws being sharp and long like on his hands. His chest was buried in fur like most of his body, but his abs however are bare and taught with muscle. It has always been a rather heated debate as to whether werewolves have tails- but being a hybrid of an actual wolf, Basil at least definitely has one and it is quite large and bushy. His entire head is that of a black wolf but the fur on top of his head grows much longer than the rest- emulating human hair. Since he is covered in fur there is no reason for him to ever wear clothing- though he wears a pair of small round glasses on his muzzle. You can see the package between his legs is also fully wolf. What you cannot see is he has a slight modification on request of his wife- the knot at its base is abnormally large.] Basil offers you and Olivia a seat on the couch in the living room and puts a bookmark in a book he had just been reading- his thumb keeping the page for him till he put the bookmark in. Since it is almost noon, he already had water on the boil for tea, so he prepared two more cups for you and Olivia while he was at it, and got some crackers to snack on with it. It was a good thing Basil is so thoughtful- neither you nor Olivia bothered to plan a lunch for yourselves, so had he not offered anything you would be going without food or water till dinner time. He appears to be quite a large person, but he is actually the same size as you- having paws elevates his legs which causes him to be taller than you without actually being any larger. Basil plops into an easy chair to the side of the living room table to talk with you and Olivia. “So, what do you think of RHEI so far?” He flicks his tail out over one of the arms of the chair. You tell him you are having a blast so far. You were not sure what to think before you came here, but the more you see; the more you want to see. Basil chuckled. “Good. When I thought of an outsider here on the island I was worried which of the subjects you would encounter first. Some of us can be pretty… chaotic. It is exhausting keeping up with the energy of some of the people on this island. When the idea was first proposed to let you on, I thought we must all seem like animals in a zoo to an outsider. All these exotic forms on display. But there are a lot of test subjects eager to see the only outsider to ever grace the island, so I wonder… if this is a zoo, which of us is really the one on display?” You notice a tall complicated looking device behind him and ask about it. It connects the floor and roof like a pillar, but looks mechanical and has several oversized bolt-looking protrusions from around its cylindrical form. There are two lights below each protrusion- one red and one green. On most the green light was lit, but three of the red ones were activated. Basil put his tea cup down to look back at it. “Oh, //that//. That is a mana filter; it draws in local mana to charge mana cells loaded into it. They are typically used to harvest ambient power in active areas- the mana cells are used to power large machines or generators. The reason this one is in our house though is because my wife’s transformation is triggered by exposure to mana. So for her to live normally this machine kills the mana levels around the house, so her changes don’t trigger.” You can hear the pads of paws softly plodding forward up the hallway as he is speaking and then his wife shows herself. She had been taking a short nap in the bedroom, but woke up when she heard guests. (link:"Fate")[TS96; Fate is mostly feral, like Olivia mentioned before coming here. Unlike Danalah’s case however, Fate’s form was not created by accident- it was always supposed to be like this. It is difficult to put your finger on exactly what she is at first though her overall form is canine like her husband’s features. Her torso is a bit longer, mostly in the midriff than a wolf, and her tail looks gigantically longer than a normal wolf- but it is actually just the fur on it. The flesh and blood portion of the tail is actually normal sized. Fate’s front limbs look like paws at first, but when she lifts them off the floor you can see the digits are a bit longer and the dewclaw is much too low- it still functions as a thumb! She can grasp and manipulate things with them, making them paw-hand hybrids, but their appearance leans more paw-like. Her rear limbs however took a completely different turn. Fate’s legs end in cloven hooves, but the segments are all rather pointed, and the dew claws are long enough that the very tip of them touches the ground, almost making them the high-heel version of a hoof. Between her legs is also a rather mixed feature- a solid black udder that has only a single muscle rib through the middle to divide two segments, but each segment possessed three teats each! The two segment udder came from sheep traits, but the teat count came from wolf traits! Instead of each teat being the valve for its own glands, three each shared the same source. Fate’s head blended together sheep and wolf rather well too. Her ears were leaf shaped like a sheep but came to very pointed ends like a wolf. Her face was that of a full wolf mostly, but her upper lip cleft in the front up to her nose like a sheep. She had both flat teeth and sharp fangs, so her balancing act of species managed to retain her omnivorous diet. She has horns that are heavily ribbed like a ram, but seem to hybridize two different horn shapes. They grow into an almost full loop but then the latter half points straight forward a distance. If she bows her head she can use them to ram- if she keeps her head straighter she can use them to pierce. Her skin is all black- for however little is actually exposed. Her labia is black and fades to neon pink inner walls on the inside- it is entirely canine in shape. Her udder, vulva, anus, and the very base of the underside of her tail are all connected by a naked strip of matte black flesh. Fate’s fur is what she is best known for however, and the reason for the mana filter. On her face and lower limbs her fur is very short and dense, and black to match her skin. It starts to get longer and fades to grey onto the very top of her limbs and on the top of her head where human hair would have been. On her neck, body, and tail the fur immediately becomes a more pale grey toward the tips and is very long and bushy- and very soft. If you drag your feet across a carpet to generate a static charge, you can actually make all her fur jump by touching her because it is so fluffy. This is her repressed state however- the default. If you expose her to mana her fur goes from lush to extreme VERY fast. Its growth and makeup is a hybrid of wolf fur and sheep wool. Fate was never designed to lactate- she instead produces ‘wolf wool’ to make fabrics out of!] Just like her husband; Fate is able to speak human languages just fine in spite of the fully animal head. Her voice is low and a bit grumbly, but still feminine and easily understood. You ask why she turned out so feral in form if there was no mistakes in the process. “There needed to be a large canvas to grow my fur on and humans generally don’t have any fur, so they had to lean away from human. I can still use my paws as hands and I can stand up still… I just can’t walk upright. No big loss. The real problem is my limited freedom. If I go wandering around outside for too long my fur starts growing, and it doesn’t have a limit- it will keep growing as long as there is mana.” You ask why RHE did not just create a mobile version of the mana filter for her to wear. It doesn’t need to remove all mana around her, just mana that is close enough to make contact with her. Olivia shook her head. “Mana is just a density of energy- the bioelectrical signals your body is run on are also energy. If you put on something like that it runs the risk of interrupting the flow of chakra in your body, creating health issues. It was the same problem with primitive versions of spell wards- they originally negated all energy around them, which caused small creatures like plants and bugs to die almost instantly on coming close enough to it, and holding it for any length of time caused your hand to go numb and cold because it killed all the life energy in it.” Basil nodded. “Fate can go outside- it isn’t like growing fur will hurt her in any way. She is just limited to how far she can go and for how long she can be there before her fur immobilizes her. The filter keeps our house free of ambient mana and there is a crystal in the back yard that prevents mana from accumulating there.” Fate’s ears perked up. “Oh yea! Have you seen our back yard?!” You shake your head and she leads the way to the back of the house. Normally there is only one door into the homes, but since their house and the neighbor’s is wedged into the side of a mountain; they have a second door. Their back yard is actually a large cave! The frigid breeze you felt billowing from between the two homes on your way here, comes from the cave. In the middle is a crystal sphere sitting on an elegant filigree stand. It generates a cryosphere! The cave is filled with snow! Because of her fur, even when it is not long Fate is quite warm- but RHEI is in the sub-tropics, it’s always warm out. Both Fate and her neighbor Ceba are adverse to heat, so their back yard is like a snow globe- perpetual winter. It is also mana-free, because the crystal that generates the cryosphere uses mana to perpetuate the effect. Fate chuckled at how chilled you and Olivia looked and brought you back inside. To be fair; you are much more tolerant to the cold than that, but you went from a hot island to a freezing cave so your body had no time to adjust. She offers you to pet her fur and you run your fingers gingerly through the fur on her upper back. You can feel the transition from wolf- the very base of each hair is black and coarser. Then as the hair fades to lighter grey at the tip it becomes softer and lighter. Fate told Basil that she could make another shipment to RHE and to open one of the mana cells to show you just how wild her fur can get. Basil turned the mana filter off and turned one of the bolt-like protrusions, causing it to hiss as it decompressed. It slid out as a cylinder- it had a strip on the side that changed colors sort of like a mood-ring; it indicated how full the cell is, and this one was completely full. He held it up high before twisting it at the mid-point and it hissed again- this time spraying out a glowing blue mist that quickly dissipated into the air! Almost immediately, Fate’s fur started to grow longer, and became increasingly more pale the longer it grew, turning white at the ends. It went from nice and bushy to almost comically bushy very fast. She had to back up so her hairs would not tickle your nose, but her hair was getting so long that it was touching everything even remotely near her. Fate’s form started to become obscured under it all, making her look like a giant oval of fluff. When she moved the fur moved a half second later; its length caused more drag, so it trailed behind. There was so much of it however that when it pulled in one direction it actually put her body itself off-balance and threatened to pull her over! The fur on her legs did not grow at all, but the fur on her sides and underbelly still grew so long that it basically buried her limbs anyway. She is panting by the time it stops- considerably over insulated now. You reach out and touch it and it feels powder soft. So far out from her body the fur isn’t braced against anything other than more fur so it felt extremely soft and light. “Haah~ I better… get to RHE and get this sheared off… before I spontaneously combust.” You ask why RHE did not install the shearing machine in her house. Fate is the only test subject that produces any sort of wool, so why would they put the machine anywhere other than her house? She shrugged- which you could only see by how the fur shuffled in the motion. “Yea, I sort of wondered too. Maybe they originally planned to have more than one?” Even Olivia cocked an eyebrow. “Did you actually talk to anyone in the main complex about it?” “No… I did not want to sound lazy or picky.” Olivia huffed dismissively. “Tell them to move it- there is no reason for them not to. If someone actually tries to protest it I will slap them myself.” Olivia then looks at you. “We should get going too if we want to catch anyone else before dinner time. The number of people walking around is going to be shrinking fast- most people will be going home to prepare food. We can walk with Fate part of the way. Hmm… who is on the way back toward the complex…” After a moment to think, and a few suggestions of possible subjects from Basil; Olivia presents you again with two options. Following the theme of transformed couples, there is TS91 and TS92; Yu and Gina, who are different hybrid species, but both share in common the custom expansion gene RHE created. Following the theme of extreme hairdos like Fate, she can also take you to see Taylor- TS34. As Fate shuffles her way toward the door she mentions that Gina is a fun, bubbly person to be around. Taylor is a good woman and offers a good service to others, but can be rather dire. [[TS34; Taylor->Taylor's House]] [[TS91 & TS92; Gina & Yu->Yu&Gina's House]]

You tell Olivia you would like to see Taylor. Having seen Fate now, you are curious of anyone able to be placed in the same league as her for extreme hair. Only Fate provides her fur for fabric, which means Taylor’s must be for a different reason entirely, and you are eager to learn what. Basil says goodbye to you two and sees his wife off with you. Fate cannot move quickly so you and Olivia have to walk a bit slower so she can keep pace. Fate has to shuffle along- if she lifts her feet up too high off the ground she risks stepping on her own long fur and tripping herself. She tells you it is a bit like trying to walk underwater- the fur creates a sort of drag across her entire body that slows her movement. You also notice she is careful where she steps- she is staying inside the shadows you and Olivia cast as to avoid contact with sunlight. Olivia looked sympathetically at Fate panting as she tried to keep pace. “At least your fur grows paler the longer it gets, which is probably just sheep traits becoming more dominant- but it is also a clever heat diffusion trick.” Fate nodded. You ask what she means. Fate spoke up. “White doesn’t hold heat. The reason something looks white to us is because it refracts the most light- so many different wavelengths that it is all colors together, resulting in white. Black doesn’t refract much at all, which means it is absorbing the light. Black takes longer to heat up because the temperature is being diffused through all of it, but when it gets hot it will remain hot for a long time. White seems to heat up quickly because most of the energy is being bounced off just the surface, causing the heat to build up there to an extreme level but not penetrate into the rest of the material. So white also cools off quickly.” Olivia nodded. “Fate’s fur is both black and white, but it is white further out. That means the fur that heats up the fastest is the furthest from her body, and refracts the light before it can penetrate the black portion, which would have retained it longer. Basically having an aura of white fur around her acts as a solar shield.” Fate walks with you through half of the mid-section of town before you reach Taylor’s house and Fate splits off to go to the RHE main complex. It is harder to tell now that she is already so large, but you are pretty sure you can notice her fur even fluffier since she left her house already. Since she is moving around constantly out here; the absorption rate should be slow at least. Olivia knocked on the door and Taylor answered, but it was hard to get a good look at her- she is wearing a huge, tattered cloak over herself. It looks like she has a huge hunched back and she has buck teeth- enough so that even when her mouth is closed the (text-style:"sway")[veeeerry] tips of her front teeth are still visible. Taylor is about to ask what Olivia came for, but then looks past to you and nods in understanding before waving you both inside, and wandering in herself. As soon as you step in the doorway you smell an odd but pleasant scent. She has a type of incense burning nearby. At the side of her living room is a low table with a hole in it. It takes you a moment to realize it’s a massage table! Taylor motioned for you two to take a seat on the couch. “Rosemary is actually supposed to be meeting me in a bit. If you stick around long enough you can meet her, if you want.” Olivia smiled. “We came to see you because his last visit was to Fate. I thought… who else has crazy hair.” (link:"Taylor")[Taylor sighed, tossing her tattered cloak back so that it was draping off her, bunched up at her elbows only. Her lower body was mostly human- except the nails on her feet are tiny translucent claws. Her hands also have the tiny claws. She has two D cup breasts on her chest with soft red nipples, but she also has a cluster of four nipples on her lower gut with no breasts behind them at all. Taylor’s test was not on lactation, nor is she paired with a lover, so her mammaries are empty. Since her lower body is almost perfectly human, she is able to wear pants and shoes- right now she is wearing black yoga pants and black socks. What makes her stand out is not her bodily features- which are very human- but rather, her hair. What looked like a huge hunched back with her cloak on is actually just hair- her back is perfectly straight. Each hair is very long and striped; alternating from black and white. Each hair a naturally evolved warning that it is not a creature you ever want to touch. Taylor grows the hairs from her head, but also the entire back of her neck, her entire upper back and the outside of her forearms. The hairs taper off in her mid-back. The hairs themselves are not too unique, but they are rather rigid for fur. Mixed among them to blend in however are razor sharp quills. Taylor is half porcupine! The quills grow in wildly different sizes depending on how close to the edge or center they are, of the patch they grow from. Along her hair line for example; the quills are very small but also very numerous, almost looking like very bristly hair. On her upper back the quills are so large and long they are almost like javelins! On a normal porcupine the end of the quills are actually brutally serrated, so when they enter a victim they cannot be removed without tearing the entire section of skin off. On Taylor however, all of the quills are perfectly smooth- though, still very sharp. They naturally lean back with her hair/fur, but she can tense up and cause it all to stand almost straight out off of her. She cannot wear normal clothing because the quills would catch on it and tear it to bits. Even the cloak she uses is tattered from tiny punctures here and there, and it merely rests over her when she wears it fully. Taylor always has a rather unamused look on her face- half because she has a very stern personality and half because porcupine are generally pretty chill, slow animals. You don’t need to worry about much when predators can’t even touch you without impaling themselves.] Olivia smiles and holds up a blank stick-it note from her pocket for Taylor who just nods. Taylor brushes gently along the quills on her left arm, feeling for the loosest one and plucking it. Olivia flicks the paper into the air and before you know what is happening the paper vanishes! You look behind you to see it pinned to the wall by Taylor’s quill! Taylor flicked it through the air like a dart and hit the page almost square in the middle with only a fraction of a second to aim! Taylor huffed with a subdued smile. “If we are done the parlor tricks; Will your friend be having my full service?” “Might as well, right?” Wait, what? Before you can ask, you are instructed to take your shirt off and Taylor motioned for you to switch seats and sit on the edge of the massage table. You have never had a massage of any type before. Taylor was a masseuse before coming to RHEI and that did not change when she arrived. There are massage clinics in the main RHE complex, but some proffer Taylor’s approach. She walked around behind you and you glance over your shoulder to see her plucking more quills! She sighs and nudges your head to look forward. “Acupuncture. My aim never misses. If I wanted to, I could incapacitate your legs from across the room by lancing the nerves controlling them with my quills. My quills are not barbed like a normal porcupine, so they slide in and out effortlessly. There, did you feel that?” You glance over your shoulder again and see a quill half-embedded into your skin! It felt like she just poked you with her finger and held it there for two seconds. You cannot feel the quill itself entering you, the only thing you feel is the skin around it being slightly depressed as it slides in. The quill targets your nerves- if the quill interrupts the nerve signal you feel through; you are incapable of feeling it. She gives you an example of trying to pick someone up who is still awake, versus someone who is unconscious. The one who is awake will seem lighter because even when they are not trying to hold themselves up, parts of their body still are. Try as you may, you are incapable of relaxing your muscles absolutely, which causes tension to build up in places. Using her quills as acupuncture needles; Taylor can cut the flow of chakra to a body part, causing it to fall as if it were dead- completely relaxed. Old quills are replaced fairly quickly on Taylor, so she cannot pluck herself bald. She always pulls the oldest quills first, because they would have fallen out on their own anyway. By the time she is done, your upper back is starting to look like maybe you are part porcupine too! She instructs Olivia to get a cloth damp with cold water and uses it to wipe away the dots of red that fill the holes the quills were in. Surprisingly, most of the quills do not draw any blood at all! As an expert on massage and acupuncture; Taylor knows where your veins are and deliberately avoids them- if no vein is pierced, no blood is drawn. They are not super solid however, so veins can shift around and sometimes she needs to nick one to get to a specific nerve. So she usually doesn’t draw blood, but sometimes Taylor has to, to do the job properly. You feel a bit numb and tingly after but it doesn’t last too long. You feel oddly refreshed and limber thanks to her treatment! |Go>[After a bit, Olivia glances at the clock and tells you that unfortunately you are out of time. It is dinner time, and you two should really leave Taylor to have her meal. The sun has already dipped behind the mountain range, putting the island into the dark of night before the sky itself. You only had a small snack thanks to Basil, so you are both quite hungry. You are only hesitant because you know once you head back up to the RHE main complex, you will not be returning to the valley. [[Continue without waiting for Rosemary...->Fated End]]](after:680s)[(replace: ?Go)[After the acupuncture you and Olivia stick around and chat with Taylor. You do not talk about anything particular, just random everything. The way she talks about the other subjects and their lives makes island life really sound great here. Not too long after, Rosemary arrives at the door and Taylor lets her in, introducing her to you. Rosemary is a donkey hybrid and surprisingly beautiful. Her mane is made of beautifully done human hair, and you can only tell her upper front teeth are larger than normal when she talks- unlike Taylor, her larger teeth are still small enough to fit entirely in her mouth when it is closed. She wears a knit green shawl as her only clothing, because she has a large equine udder in her crotch and hooves instead of feet- so no point in wearing anything below. Rosemary seems very shy at first, but you quickly find out that she is only skittish about using her voice. Being part donkey had the adverse effect on her voice of making her bray occasionally without meaning to- and a donkey braying can be pretty shrill and grating at times. The softer she talks the less likely she is to bray, so she speaks as quiet as she can while allowing everyone to still hear her. It is a bit hard for her to judge sometimes, because her own ears stand a full foot tall as proper donkey ears- allowing her better hearing than you. “This shawl is actually hand-made by myself. To keep it as close to the island as possible, I don’t even use normal knitting needles.” Taylor smiled. “She uses my medium sized quills, and just clips off the very tip so it isn’t needlessly sharp.” “And you were just with the person I got the material from! ThiEe-h-haww! Sorry! This shawl is made of wolf wool; Fate’s fur.” Taylor and Rosemary start reminiscing on random events on the island, telling you of funny and interesting things that have happened over the years. You find yourself looking up to Rosemary’s ears frequently- they are very expressive, and since they are so long you can easily see any movements they make. Every time she brays by accident, her ears quickly rotate backwards, not wanting to hear herself. You can tell they are both more… refined women. Tempered energy, carefully chosen words, and an air of elegance around them. Taylor was a bit sterner though, with a very serious personality, while Rosemary had an almost motherly warmth to her. After a while Rosemary glanced at the clock, then to you and Olviia. “Oh, are you two sta-ayYE-ing for dinner as well?” Olivia looked at the clock in surprise. “Oh shoot, no. We better get back to the main complex. I am kind of starved…” Outside the sun is already gone. Because the island is surrounded by mountains, the sun vanishes from view before the sky actually turns dark- making night on the island a little bit longer than normal. You apologize to Taylor, saying you did not mean to delay their dinner with your visit. She just waved a hand dismissively. “Oh no, you didn’t hold us up. I have had soup on in the kitchen the whole time, slow cooking all day. Our dinner is already ready to eat.” As much as you wish you could stay and keep talking, it would seem rude to stay any longer. Like Olivia, you only had a small snack at Basil’s place, so you are pretty damn hungry. [[Continue...->Fated End Alt]]]]

Olivia leads you back to the RHE main complex, though your pace is even slower than when you were walking with Fate. You are both hungry and tired from walking around all day, and worst of all- to get back to the complex you have to scale the slope. When you walked down the slope you barely noticed the angle. Walking up the slope now at the end of the day, it felt like climbing a mountain. Olivia grumbled about leaving her slate back in the offices. If she had her onyx slate with her, she would have been able to call a shuttle to pick them up. By the halfway point you are both groaning and stomping your feet down heavily with each step, having to force yourselves forward. Olivia laughed weakly. “The fact you aren’t going back must make this extra painful.” You half-nod. “Remember when we used to walk to random places? No reason, no direction, we would just walk and mutter about random garbage that only made sense half the time at best.” And you wouldn’t notice the time till your feet started to hurt. She laughed again. “Yea! So then the entire return trip would always be agony. Makes the legwork around the office seem like nothing now in comparison. My feet have seen the titans of blisters and survived.” You got in trouble sometimes too with where you two ended up walking. “Yea. Well, they never caught us wandering into the construction site or onto the grain elevators by the port. The port needs better signage. I mean, yea I know we were trespassing, but I legitimately did not actually see a single ‘no trespassing’ sign. The construction site we just blindly walked into without knowing what we were doing and just stuck around, haha.” You mention the time you two snuck into an abandoned school slated to be demolished the very next day. “Yea, we got caught that time. My parents were so pissed. Well, more pissed at having to pay the fine on the ticket than the fact I actually did it. That was before we were 18- they would have gone harder on us if we were not so ‘young and naive’.” When you two finally arrive and flop into the seats at the restaurant in the main complex, you both order a small feast. Olivia recommends several foods to you. The waiter and chef are both golem- so they use conjuring spells to make the food from raw organic materials. That means they can synthesize any red meat out of any red meat provided to them. If there was beef in the kitchen for example- using the conjuring spell it can be easily turned into mutton, or venison. This means they can make a wide variety of dishes from a relatively limited list of materials. Since the chef is not an organic creature; it can be programmed with any number of recipes without worrying about it forgetting any, so RHE workers and test subjects have been adding to the menu for years.(if:($Io is true) and ($Canon is true) and ($Ranos is true) and ($Ass is true) and ($Moth is true))[ [[* You have one last place to be... *->The King]]] A full belly only seems to add to how tired you two feel and you both hobble your way to bed, since her room is right by your temporary room at the side of the offices. You fall asleep quickly, but wake slowly. As much as you do not want to have to leave- it is time. The helicopter has a schedule to keep and it cannot leave without you on it, so Olivia has to make sure you are awake and hustle you out. She walks you across the parking lot to the tower and halfway up. There is an overpass connecting the tower to right beside the restaurant, so she splits off with you there. Before she leaves she quickly tosses you a small object from her pocket. “Fate left this for you before we got back to the complex. A souvenir.” It takes you a moment to realize what it is. It is a small spool of thread! A spool of wolf wool! Fate came here to be sheered and then reserved a small spool to give to you while you and Olivia were at Taylor’s house last night. You aren’t sure if you will ever take up sewing, but it is a thoughtful gift and you will definitely cherish it. (set: $Wolfwool to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

As you two walk back toward the main complex your pace slowed nearly to a crawl. On the way down you barely noticed the decline on the great slope connecting the main complex with the valley, but after a long day of walking around and being quite hungry, suddenly it felt like you were dragging your ass up a mountain. Olivia chuckled at your situation, recalling several other times just like it. When you two were much longer, long before she worked for RHE or had even gone to university. You two used to do a lot of pointless wandering, and almost always came home with sore feet. Olivia groans about having left her slate back at the complex. If she had her onyx slate with her, she would be able to just call a shuttle from the complex to pick them up. (text-style:"shudder")[“Heeey~ !”] You both look up and see Fate charging back down toward you two! Her fur is now the same length as on her limbs, having finished getting sheered. Because you did not wait around for Rosemary at Taylor’s place, you were able to catch up to Fate on her way back. Olivia flopped over just as Fate arrived and rolled onto her back. “(text-style:"buoy")[I’m done forrrr!] Too much walking. I don’t know how handlers go back and forth //every day//.” “Aww, come on Olive, ''pep up''! Think of the nice ''dinner'' waiting for you at the top!” “Too tired to chew…” You are surprised someone else got away with calling her Olive- she used to hate when people called her that. She is probably just too tired to argue it. Fate nipped the back of her jacket collar and started to drag Olivia up the slope rather quickly. “W-woah, you can drag me pretty quick.” Fate lowered one ear and kept the other up. “Well… yea. I am on four legs- you are on two. I have literally double the driving force in my gait than you.” Both you and Olivia look at one another and a moment later you are both racing up the incline on your backs! Fate has the material of your shirts in her fangs and is dashing up the slope as quick as she can with one of you on either side of her body! Olivia can’t stop laughing at the absurdity of being literally dragged almost the entire way up the slope. You can worry about grass stains tomorrow. The stars start to come out as the sun begins to set behind the actual horizon, beyond the mountains. Fate lets you both go when she gets to the top- dragging you toward the actual building would require sliding you across pavement on your backside and probably shred your clothes. Both Olivia and Fate needed to catch their breath- but Fate needed to catch her breath from dragging your lazy asses up here- Olivia needed to catch her breath because she was laughing the entire time. “Oh gosh… Fate, you have to have dinner with us now.” “But what about Basil?” “Invite him, you can use my tablet back in the office to call a shuttle for him. Offices are on the same floor as the restaurant anyway.” You and Olivia take your seat in the restaurant before, and Fate comes plodding up a few minutes later. “Eh, just order. Basil said he isn’t coming.” “Aww, why?” “He already had plans to eat a cheese and mushroom omelet for dinner to use up the last of the chives and mushrooms in the fridge before they go bad. Once he sets his mind on something, he can be quite the fuddy-duddy.” Fate apologized for having to put her arm on the table, but Olivia just put her own elbow up on the table and smiled, showing her we didn’t care about manners. Because her torso is longer than a normal humans by a bit, she has a hard time balancing upright, and has to hold herself up with one paw-hand on the edge of the table, while using the other to eat with. It was quite a sight to behold; something so closely resembling a feral animal, sitting at a table using a fork, eating like a perfectly normal human. Eating dinner with you after so long makes Olivia nostalgic, and she starts telling Fate old stories of you and her. You two were inseparable when you were younger. You and Olivia did not start to divide till she went to university. Who knew she was studying to become a researcher on a paradise island filled with hybrid animals and big wobbling tits. After dinner, Fate took you down to the first floor area with the milking machines and showed you the machine that sheers her. It actually does it in a couple of sweeps only- it maps the contours of her body with a laser first to judge how much fur should be left alone and then reaps the rest. She also presented you with a little spool. “Here, you can have this one! It is a small spool of wolf wool string! You can keep a little piece of me as a souvenir of your adventures on RHEI, hehe. Sort of like keeping a lock of hair only… a little weirder.” You thank her for the thoughtful gift, and she leaves shortly after. Her husband Basil is still at home alone waiting for her.(if:($Io is true) and ($Canon is true) and ($Ranos is true) and ($Ass is true) and ($Moth is true))[ [[* You have one last place to be... *->The King]] ](else:)[ ]You head to sleep right after along with Olivia- you are both completely tuckered out, and your rooms are right next to one another anyway. You sleep deeply, but waking up is difficult, knowing you have to leave. The helicopter is waiting though. For only having a single day to do everything you wanted, you feel you got a good bit done. You had a great time, met some cool people, and even have a little gift to take home with you! (set: $Wolfwool to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You want to see as many people as possible while you are here, so it makes sense to pick Yu and Gina. Fate waits at the door for you and Olivia to step out first so she can walk in your shadows to avoid direct sunlight. Even then Fate is almost standing outside of your shadows because of how far she needs to be without constantly tickling you with the tips of her hairs. She has to be careful not to lift her feet too far off the ground at risk of tripping herself over her own bushy fur, but she is also holding back on her speed. As a quadruped; Fate can easily move a lot faster than you can, so moving at your normal pace is awkwardly slow for her. She kept sniffing the air and pointing out pretty flowers in hanging pots, along pathways, or growing from bushes. She comments on how nice they smell, but neither you nor Olivia can actually smell them. Being half canine- Fate’s sense of smell is also a lot stronger than yours. The walk to Yu and Gina’s house is not long- they are across the main paths and slightly north. Fate says her goodbyes there, and splits off to go to the RHE main complex and get rid of her excess fur. It is hard to tell since she is already so poofy- but you can see she is larger still since leaving the house. At least moving about outdoors the absorption rate of mana should be relatively slow. She can just take a shuttle back home to avoid further exposure. Once she divides from you and Olivia, she dashes between the shadows of the homes to remain in shade as much as possible. The late day sun does feel especially warm, and the shale stones of the pathways absorb the sunlight to become quite hot sometimes too- and unlike you, Fate is barefoot. When Olivia knocks on the door you can hear Gina call out (text-style:"shudder")[‘I will get it’] before hearing several thumps, each getting several feet closer to the door as she cleared the distance from bedroom to front door in only four hops! She answered the door and grinned even wider when she seen who it is! She quickly took your hands and told you that you have arrived just in time and //immediately// pressed your hands into the top of her udder before you could so much as get a word out! (link:"Gina")[Gina is a very energetic person. She has leaf shaped ears able to pivot to follow sounds and her jaws are slightly longer, pushing her face out just slightly- it would be hard to tell from her face alone what she was hybridized with. Her nose is more subdued against the rest of her face as a result. Gina is wearing a dark blue mesh top, so you can see her chest through it, but she only has two nipples- no breasts and no areola. Her upper body seems otherwise entirely human except for a collection of sandy brown splotches on her back that sort of look like a collection of islands on a map. She has a cow’s udder on her crotch but she also has the pouch of a kangaroo wrapped over it! You can only see the top of the pink udder exposed; the rest is inside of the pouch! Her hips are large to help brace the udder, but her thighs are still larger than that. Her thighs are absolutely gigantic, and taught. Because her thighs are so large in comparison to everything else, it also makes her butt look huge on her. Her feet are extremely long and tipped with what at first looks like three large toes with massive claws on the ends. She actually has four toes, but two are half the size of the toe opposite of them, and pressed to closely together that they cannot move individually, so they might as well just be one toe. She has the characteristic large, long kangaroo tail, but hers has a thin stripe of hair from the top down about a fourth of its length- this is the remnant trace of a cow’s tassel. She has fur on her legs, pouch, and tail, but it is the ultra-short fur of a kangaroo, so much like her top- it hides nothing. Gina wears no clothes on her lower body because of all the animal features- but she does have several hair scrunchies on her tail where she keeps spares. Her hair is the same sandy brown as her fur and the splotches on her back, and looks to be about long enough to tickle her mid-back, but she has it up in a ponytail at the moment. Her eyes are heterochromatic- she has one blue iris and one brown.] Even stuffed in her pouch you can tell her udder is very big- even in the compression of the pouch it was about the size of a medium-sized beach ball! The skin is very smooth and soft, but the udder does not have much give to it. It is taught and springy- pulled tight around the load of milk. Yu wandered around the counter in the kitchen to see who was at the door and shook his head at his wife. “Gina, at least get inside before you mess with guests.” “I’m not messing with him!” (link:"Yu")[Yu at first looked like a canine hybrid, but the raccoon stripes gave him away as a tanuki hybrid; the raccoon-dogs of Japan. Instead of pants he wore what was basically just a cloth sling, and even then it was not loose enough to encompass its contents; merely hold them steady. Though his penis was no larger than an average human man, his testicles were currently each a size equal to Gina’s cow udder! He could not make any abrupt movements because the weight of his balls when they swing is almost enough to yank him over! He has a mid-length tail that is covered with extremely dense and super bushy fur, making what is an average sized tail seem like a giant club. His legs ended in full paws, giving him a bit of height from the elongated soles. His hands were demi-paws; small claws instead of nails and every digit has a subdued pink pad on the very base and very tip. Yu only has fur on his tail and in his groin where pubic hair would normally be, but even on his bare skin he still wore the striped portion of a tanuki’s hide. From halfway down his forearm and shin his limbs are pitch black, and his tail is adorned with several rings and a black tip. His side burns grow in long and bushy on the sides of his face- the fur also grows large here on a tanuki, so on Yu the facial hair there grows twice as fast as the rest, making it impossible to get rid of for any length of time. His hair and the fur where there is no stripe is brown- but the brown stops at his skin where the stripes just continue. His eyes are both covered in black which then trails down either side of his face from the outer facing sides of his eyes, looking similar to a masquerade mask.] Yu welcomed you into the house and motioned for you and Olivia to sit on the couch. Gina hops over to the easy chair at the end of the living room table pointing toward the kitchen, but then sits down very carefully. She explains that her udder is getting quite full. Both Gina and Yu were given the expansion gene RHE designed; their bodies are able to stretch and contract quickly without getting bent out of shape. So Gina’s udder and Yu’s balls actually get even bigger- and when emptied they are much smaller. Most of a cum load is made on the spot- which is why blue balls is just a myth- only a small amount is made outside of having sex so it doesn’t really build up in the first place. That would defeat the purpose of testing the expansion gene in Yu however, so his were modified in a way that makes them produce preemptively at a slow rate, all the time. Yu admits he has never actually hit his limit- his balls become so big that he is essentially anchored to the ground by their weight before they hit their maximum size, so he has to empty them out. Gina nods. “I am ''so'' glad they gave us the hydromancy staff. We have a special staff with a pre-installed spell inscribed in it that draws all loose moisture in an area to the staff. There is a drain in the corner of the bedroom- he just stands over that and activates the staff to draw the leftover mess into the drain. He can cum enough to fill //an entire bathtub//!” Yu just sighed, being more skittish about discussing the messier side of their traits. Gina gets a bit dreamy-eyed as she starts talking about how soft his scrotum is, and fun to play with or rest her face on and Yu cuts her off by mentioning her udder and she quickly turns the conversation around. “Oh yea! I can feel the top teats started to slide up. See, when my udder gets big enough it pops out entirely on its own! My tits are actually an odd three way split of genes. They used a teeny tiny bit of cow in me so the udder would have a solid structure divided from my torso. A kangaroo already has four teats, but their mammaries do not project outward at all. But since it was such a small dose of bovine, my udder ended up coming out in pairs- instead of one udder with four glands it is two udders with two glands each. So it still looks a lot like a cow udder, but the horizontal muscle rib through the middle is actually cleavage between the sets and goes all the way down.” Olivia blushed a bit and leaned close to you to whisper in your ear. “Gina’s pouch is sort of like a //pussy//… so having things inside of it feels ''good''. She deliberately waits for her udder to expand so that it overflows the pouch, because it feels good to //stretch it//.” You admit to not knowing much about marsupial anatomy. That part Gina overheard. “Yea, kangaroo are built a bit strange. They have (text-style:"underline")[three vaginas].” Wait, //three//? Even if the pouch counted, which you don’t think it does, that would still be one more than it seems like they would ever need. Without a chair to sit in, Yu just rest his arms and head on the back of the easy chair Gina is in. “One toward both ovary and one up the middle- a three-pronged pathway. Two take in sperm, but the middle vaginal passage is out-only; that is where the joey is birthed from. It is born before it is actually able to exist in the outside world- it is only about the size of a jelly bean. So it lives in the pouch till it develops enough to face the world.” Olivia nodded. “By giving birth and shifting the offspring up to the pouch; that frees up her genitals again to produce more young, before the first one is even fully developed. It basically enables them to overlap the gestation period. More //efficient// birthing, heh. I imagine it is also a lot easier to give birth to something the size of a jelly bean, rather than something the size of a small watermelon.” Yu shrugged. “She can’t have kids anyway- none of the test subjects can. In order to have a compatible mate, someone else would need to have the exact same tincture, and RHE has only ever used the same tincture more than once a handful of times- and never on opposite genders.” Gina called out as a plump teat flicked its way out over the top of her pouch! Everyone looked at it as the flesh started to billow out around it. The teats catch on the inside of the pouch the most, so once the teat is out the rest flows out around it easily. Once an entire segment of the udder was out, the other had more pressure pulling it upward and the other teat was not far behind. Once it fully popped out, the lip of the pouch collapsed into the cleavage between her udder sets and made both jiggle violently. Gina told you that because the second udder is so much deeper in, it would take many hours before it is able to burst out as well, so she just pulled her pouch open and reached in with her other hand and pulled it free on her own to show you. You are able to see the inside of the pouch briefly as well- it is magenta on the inside and some hair-thin blue veins across it. Thanks to the expansion gene, her pouch itself can be pulled massively from her body, but when emptied the compartment is actually really small. Gina also mentions that if they are very gentle when getting in- an adult human can sit inside of her pouch, as long as her udder is empty to make room. Her udder grows from behind the pouch, so in order to be outside of the pouch her udder is being angled upward, resting on the lip of the pouch. In spite of its weight, the udder sticks straight out from her held up by the tension of the pouch- almost acting like a bra would for breasts. She is still only about half of her true milk capacity however- when it’s completely full even the pouch cannot hold it up. Unlike the other married couples on the island, Gina and Yu actually never knew each other on the outside. Yu came to RHE out of curiosity after finding their ad hidden on the web. Once he found out he would need to be given a curse brand after meeting with an RHE agent, he convinced himself to just sign up for the testing after all. Gina was lazy and thought the testing would be easier money than busting her rump trying to work an actual job. Once she found out RHE flipped the bill on all food and shelter costs for the rest of her life, she already signed her name to the contract before they even finished telling her what the test //involved//. Gina was still transforming when Yu showed up. Yu had a bit of trouble trying to control himself, because his libido was a bit confused. His body’s ability to make cum was skyrocketing, making him feel pent up and needy, but his capacity to store it was also going up. So he never knew when he was at his limit. His body did not know how much was too much, because the limitations was slowly going up. So he ended up masturbating more than he would care to admit, and worrying himself that would be degraded into a sperm-machine. Gina did not see the huge volumes of cum he was putting out yet, but she did see he was fretting over his changes and tried her best to cheer him up. Meanwhile Yu was a bit worried about her as well, because she was still adjusting to her changing feet. She cannot walk on two legs. Gina can walk on all fours, or she can ''HOP'' on two legs- she can’t ''WALK'' on two. Her feet are far, far too long. When she was still changing though, that meant she unintentionally fired herself face-first into the ground many times. Crashing into objects by jumping too far, belly flopping onto the pathway because she angled herself too far forward. Yu kept telling her to go slower and take it easier before she gave herself a concussion. Since they were test subjects side-by-side while transforming the two of them stuck together and helped each other adjust to their new bodies. Yu and Gina quickly fell in love, and then RHE had them married right here on RHEI. RHE did not have a priest handy on the island- but a captain is also able to officially wed couples, and RHE did have a ship captain handy. Gina and Yu were wed by the former captain of //The Ark//! The ship that brought all of the construction material to settle RHEI in the first place. [[Continue...->Land Down Udder End]]

Everyone paused at the sound of a timer beeping in the kitchen, and Yu spoke up. “Oh, dinner is ready. You two staying for a bite?” Olivia shook her head. “Oh, no, we don’t want to intrude.” Gina quickly hopped back up to her feet, causing her udder to jiggle around violently. “(text-style:"sway")[Nuuu], (text-style:"rumble")[staaay]! There is plenty of food to go around- we made vegetarian lasagna, so there is actually like three meals worth in the tray.” You wonder where everyone will sit, since the living room table is the only one you see and it doesn’t look quite big enough to sit four dinner plates along without everyone being crammed together. Yu grabs something under the lip of the island counter in the kitchen though and pulls a table top out from inside of it! The counter expands into a table! Gina hopped down the hall and gathered several small folding chairs from the walk-in closet at the end for everyone to sit on. Yu opened the kitchen window over the skin after cutting out the block of lasagna onto everyone’s plates and let them sit for a half minute so no one scalds their tongue. It just finished cooking so it is extremely hot, right out of the oven. The cottage cheese and spinach layer is the best part. The cottage cheese provides a fun texture to play with in your mouth and the two flavors play well with one another. Yu mentions the cottage cheese is actually made of milk from TS31; Beau. Every test subject has a slightly different form, so all the subjects able to lactate also have different kinds of milk. Gina for example isn’t influenced by cow or human traits in her milk- it is purely kangaroo milk. There is only one other test subject with kangaroo traits and she gives hybrid bovine-kangaroo milk. You ask what kangaroo milk tastes like. Gina doesn’t say anything and stares at Yu, waiting for the answer herself, while Yu hummed in thought over how to put it nicely. “On its own… //musky//. It has a very pungent taste until you treat it. It has a fairly high protein content which is probably the cause of that. The fat content depends on what udder you take from.” Wait, her two sets of udders produce two different types of milk? Now Gina spoke up. “No, same type of milk just different fat concentrations. That isn’t because of my split mammaries; that is also true for actual ‘roos. The young switch which teats they feed from as they get older- the two concentrations are meant for different aged joeys. The bottom is the fattier milk- for the tiniest young to grow big enough to reach the higher ones.” As everyone is finishing the meal you work up the courage to ask if Gina is from Australia. It seems cliché given that she is hybridized with a marsupial, but also she does have an accent that sounds Australian. She actually is not an Aussie- but not that far off, either. Gina is formerly from //New Zealand//. Yu is Japanese, and actually had a hard time speaking English when he first came to RHEI, which is surprising, because he doesn’t even have an accent anymore. You all gather into the living room again and talk about random things. Yu talks about other test subjects he has spent time with, and Gina interjects several times with a lewd fact about them, flustering Yu. Hanging out with you makes Olivia nostalgic and she starts reminiscing on old times with you- from before you two were divided by her going to university. Yu and Gina seem to enjoy her silly stories about you two- it isn’t often random stories from the outside world make their way onto RHEI. They have internet access and television, so they can still look up any information on the outside world, but having someone actually on the island talking about it had a completely different feel. You are the only guest RHEI has ever had, after all. By the time Olivia decides to head out, it is already pitch black outside. As Yu says goodbye to you two, Gina dashes into her bedroom and returns a moment later, presenting you with a small object. At first it looks like a large arrowhead with serrated edges, but then as you turn it in your hand and feel it you realize it is the tooth of a ''shark''! “I used to find them occasionally when beach combing in New Zealand. You can have that one- to remember your trip by! It isn’t every day you visit a hidden paradise island, right? You should have some sort of memento to remember it by.” You thank her very much for the gift, and you almost unintentionally incite Gina into another story about beach combing but Olivia cuts it short. It is getting quite late and you need to be awake early the next day to catch your ride home. You say your goodbyes and follow Olivia off into the night. The lanterns are not nearly bright enough or numerous enough to actually illuminate the way, but act as guides through the town at night. The slope back to the plateau the main complex is on is entirely dark, but there is also nothing there for you to get lost in. You and Olivia take turns glancing up at the sky as you walk, trying to spot constellations. So far away from the rest of the world, there is no pollution to block the view, so the night sky is filled with a million, million stars.(if:($Io is true) and ($Canon is true) and ($Ranos is true) and ($Ass is true) and ($Moth is true))[ [[* You have one last place to be... *->The King]] ](else:)[ ]You fall asleep quickly when you get back. You are very tired, your feet are quite sore from all the walking- but your belly and your heart are full. It was a wonderful day you shall remember always! (set: $Shark to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

A reversal of feral traits? That sounds like something you want to see. You tell Olivia you want to see TS89. With a nod she starts to lead you from the edge of the forest, through the grassy plains and to the main ‘road’. There is no true road down in the valley- the shuttles are a type of hovercraft so they do not touch the ground while in motion, so the grass remains unblemished by tires. Each home has a path made of shale stones laid flat in the grass, and they travel out a ways before meandering in toward each other. Where the most paths interject is essentially the main ‘road’ of the valley. There are several pools around the valley sat in these areas, and the pool is lined with smooth-cut stone blocks, and at the edge of those the shale stones are tightly collected creating a rather large platform of stone to walk along. You are surprised when Olivia cuts from the west buildings toward the east as soon as you get into the main valley town. You are going to see TS89, so you assumed they would be in the south section of the town, given their high test number. The town was built from the bottom of the slope to the main complex and expanded south- so the lower test subject numbers live closest to the main complex. She brings you to a home that looks to have a unique extension on the side. It has small windows on the side flat against the ground- so whatever the extension is, is more below ground than above. Olivia knocks on the door gingerly and waits. You can both hear someone playing the piano. Olivia tells you she hopes she does not disturb their playing. There are two test subjects who live here- though they are not a couple. Olivia is about to try to knock again louder when the door clicks open. She sighed in relief. The pianist is still playing in the bedroom- so you two got in without disturbing her. As you two walk inside, Olivia tells you the one playing a perfect rendition of Beethoven’s Für Elise is TS83. Unfortunately the only way to visit TS89 is to first go to TS83’s house. You do not even see who answered the door at first, but then notice what looks like tiny scaffolding beside the door, and at the top a tiny man! “Hey, Jinx is playing in the bedroom like usual.” Olivia smiled. “We are here to see you, Snow.” “Oh. Well then- you found me!” (link:"Snow")[Snow is a man, but he only stands a bit over a single foot tall, so he is small enough for someone to pick up in one hand. He is barefoot, so you can see the bottoms of his feet and the inside of his hands are unusually pink, and his digits all tipped in tiny translucent claws. His teeth are bucked and there is a very long but relatively thin, nude tail lashing around behind him. It is the tail of a rat- but unlike a rat the skin on it is smooth from being blended with human. Snow is quite literally a lab rat. Instead of turning a human more animal- RHE’s test in this instance was to turn an animal into a human. As a rat, Snow was albino, so as a human his skin is still fairly pale, his hair is short bristly white and forward swept, and his eyes are bright red- making his pupils hard to see. He is wearing blue jeans with faded knees- they are custom-made so the hem makes a full loop in the back to allow his tail out. On his upper body he is wearing a navy long sleeve that says ‘cheese connoisseur’ in white text on the back. He is too big for standard doll clothing, and too small for a child’s clothes. Too differently proportioned for toddler clothing. All of Snow’s clothes are custom tailored to him alone, and so is his house. He is not wearing socks or shoes but that is because he is just around the house- he has shoes for when he goes out. There is a bit of a pouch on the front of his pants as well, because thanks to rodent traits his testicles are quite large on him.] Snow climbs down from his platforms to be able to reach the doorknob and leads you two across the living room. On the far side of the living room is where the house extension you seen from the outside is. There is a small door and a window in the wall facing into the living room! The extension on the house is Snow’s house! It is mostly sunken into the ground, with enough above ground still for high-set windows to look out on things. Obviously there is no way you are getting yourself through a door that is less than two feet tall. Snow opens the front door to let you peek inside as that is the best he can do for a tour. His house has the same layout as all the other unmodified homes, just…. Tiny. The windows are all high up since it is underground, and his front door leads out into a larger house. His home and all the appliances and such in it are just the full sized versions, shrunken down by magic. Most shrinking and enlarging magics you will find on the open market are a type of illusory magic, and a sustained effect- so if it is warded or you run out of mana to sustain it; it returns to its true size. The magic RHE used on Snow’s things is actual spatial condensation magic, so its actual size is changed permanently. The same could not so easily be applied to Snow himself. Casting a spell like that on an inanimate object is a hell of a lot easier than a living being- there were too many risks of it going wrong to use on him. Moth or the God Diovllun could do it easily, but not RHE or mere mortals. Snow explains why their home is where it is. This home originally belonged to TS06 which is why it is so close to the RHE main complex. TS06’s test was mostly a flop though, leaving her still too human to warrant keeping her on the island and she was released back into the outside world- leaving her home vacant. The test subjects had created a beautiful system all on their own, where previous subjects help the new and RHE did not want to break that system by shuffling the placement of new subjects to fill the vacant house- so it was not till TS83 that they finally placed Jinx here. When Snow’s experiment finished his home was placed down in the third tier of the island first. Due to his tiny size, he had trouble getting around or getting people’s attention from any distance- his voice is equally small so it does not carry far. Jinx is a very calm and observant woman though, and she was often found helping Snow and took a liking to him. So to act as a teacher and aide to Snow, Jinx basically adopted him. Since his house is so small, it was not really a problem to just pick it up and move it- and then they merged the two buildings together. You and Olivia sit on Jinx’s couch while Snow sits on the edge of the living room table, facing you two to talk. He speaks well enough normally, but once you get into full conversations you notice he is unfamiliar with many concepts or things, especially from the outside world. His memories before transformation are vague, because before that he had the intellect of a rat. Rats do not, and do not need to look at details humans do, and even besides that he had only seen mostly the inside of a cage. When he transformed into a human, he was essentially starting with the intellect of a small kid, even though he was full grown. You and Olivia end up unintentionally confusing him quite a bit when she mentions using a subway as transit to the university she went to. Snow thought a ‘subway’ was a sandwich- having confused information from someone else talking about the sandwich shop- Subway. You clarify for him that Subway is the name of a shop, the name of the sandwich type is sub… which he then gets confused about because he thought a sub was a type of vehicle. And, technically it is. Sub is short for submarine, which is what the sandwich is named after. So subway is a sandwich shop named after a type of train, that serves a type of sandwich named after an entirely different vehicle. You never thought of it being confusing before, but having Snow puzzle over it- you can sort of see how it would be confusing. Snow was far too young to have any memories of the outside world at all- RHEI is all he has ever known, so his only experience with the outside world is through the internet and television. “When were you planning on telling me I had guests, Snow?” Only now do you realize the piano stopped playing! You all quickly look over to see Jinx leaning against the corner leading into the hall. (link:"Jinx")[Who better to have caught the rat, than a cat. Jinx is hybridized with a black cat! She has a copper skin tone but powder-soft black fur takes over at her knees and elbows, making it look like she is wearing stockings and gloves. Her hands are perfectly human in shape but she has matte black pads of skin at the tip and base of every digit, and the bottom of her palm- the fur otherwise wraps all the way around. Her fingers look shorter than normal- and you had to wait till she approached before you were able to look closely enough to see why. The last segment of bone in her fingers was angled backwards, leaning back on the second last segment! When she tenses, the segment gets pulled forward- extending the reach of the talon-like claws on all her digits. Jinx has retractable claws! Her feet are a bit more animalistic than her hands- the soles have extended some distance, like a pawed quadruped. For a paw though, her feet are a bit wider than normal, and her big toe did not regress into a dew claw. She has a long tail behind her covered in fine fur that gets a bit bushier on the bottom towards its end. The fur from the base of her tail trails up the small of her back as a very thin stripe. Jinx has two C cup breasts with powder-pink nipples and areola, but then two rows of pink dots below them spread down her torso! The pink dots are supposed to be feline teats but they do not project from her body at all. If you manipulate them, the flesh of the dots will stiffen and cause them to turn into small bumps, but that is as big as they can get. Her ears are triangles and point straight up- they are higher on her head than human ears by a little bit. Jinx has no whiskers on her lower face, but she does have two feeler hairs in each eyebrow. Her teeth are narrow and sharp, and her eyes are quite striking, being fully feline. Her iris are golden and her pupils slits- wide slits right now since she is indoors; they narrow quite a bit in sunlight. Her iris are reflective, so she still has a bit of vision even when it seems like absolute pitch black. Jinx has a large hoop earring in either ear, a wide golden bangle around the base of her tail, and three thin hoop bracelets around her right wrist- one of silver, one of gold, and one made of blue amethyst. Her talons are all painted royal purple, and there is a streak of royal purple dyed into her hair as well, which is otherwise a raven black, falling straight to her shoulders with high bangs. Because of her claws, she cannot properly wear anything on her feet. Jinx’s body is wrapped in a very thin one-piece black dress, with the slit of the skirt going very high up her thigh. There is a teardrop shaped hole in the back that her tail hangs out of.] Snow explains the situation to Jinx and she casually nods, saying that she figured as much already. Her expression looks curious though it is hard to read. She is not the type of person to reveal her true intentions without a fight. Jinx mentions the time. Olivia perks up. “Oh, yea we better get going! He only has a single day to visit as many places and people as possible. Hmm…” She paused in deep thought for a moment. “We could go see TS88 and keep the feral theme going. Who else…” Jinx shrugged. “You never ate lunch, right? He could take me out to an early dinner.” Olivia hesitated at that- that meant that her dinner with you was off. Before she could say anything though, Snow spoke up. “That’s right- you know where Jinx is. Most test subjects are probably heading inside to start preparing dinner about now, so it might be difficult finding someone else without disturbing them.” [[Date Jinx->Stray]] [[TS88; Nada->Lactation Station]]

(set: $Ranos to (random:1,3))You aren’t sure you like the implications of her wording of ‘taking her out’ for dinner, but it also seems really rude to turn her down to her face. Jinx is right in front of you, if you decide to go somewhere else it would almost be like telling her she isn’t interesting enough for you, right to her face. You agree and get up to walk over to her, and Olivia gets up and heads straight to the door. “Okay, since you two will be having dinner together I will just leave you in Jinx’s hands. I will head back to the offices and see if I can’t get any research done today before I throw in the towel and have dinner, haha. I will see you later.” Jinx eyed you up for a moment in silence as Olivia left and then spoke up. “So? Where are you going to take me on our date?” Ack, how did this turn into a date? You tell her you don’t know where to take her; you are a tourist on the island and do not know where anything is! “Mmm, should have thought of that before you asked me out on a date, don’t you think?” She glanced off into the distance in thought for a moment. “There is a coffee and tea stand outside of the gallery; that is not too far from here.” You say that will be a nice place to hang out. “''My''- so eager to choose the very first thing I suggest, hmm? Not willing to put much thought into it. Well, I suppose we are limited by time so this will have to do.” She walks slightly behind you as you leave, insisting on you being in the lead. She gives you simple directions and after only a bit of walking you are able to spot the location on your own. It is a patio area along the front of the gallery buildings at the south edge of the middle section of the valley town. There is a canvas canopy over the patio to shade it from the sun, but the sun is in the west end of the sky by now so the shadow of the building covers the area anyway. Jinx tells you what tea she wants and leaves the rest to you. There is no human manning the vendor- it is a machine with conjuration spells and a stock of raw organic materials fed into it so instantly create either coffee or tea. You have not seen such an expensive, modern one before but you have been around similar machines enough to know how to operate it and get her drink for her, grabbing a coffee for yourself. After a long day you can use the energy boost. She thanks you for the tea but then glares are you a bit as you take a seat across from her before speaking up again. “Not much of a sense of loyalty, hmm?” (link-reveal:"You ask what she means.")[ “Well, Olivia has been guiding you on a tour all day and you ditch her the first chance you get.” |Trivial>[(link:"You point out that it was Jinx’s decision to lure you off!")[(replace: ?Trivial)[You point out that it was Jinx's descision to lure you off. “Mmm, and you don’t like to take responsibility for your actions, either.” You lower your brows, realizing it doesn’t matter what you say, she will find the fault in it and turn it against you. Jinx dawns a small smile from watching you squirm. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be mean; you just make it so easy.” |RealChoice>[(link:"You ask her about her talent in music. It seems she enjoys the classics.")[(replace: ?RealChoice)[(set: $A1 to true)You ask her about her talent in music. It seems she enjoys the classics. ”I have always enjoyed making… tweaks to the music of others. I have never composed anything original, but I also do not play the ‘classics’ note-for-note.” She tells you about her finding her grandmother’s grand piano and impressing her by playing some tunes on it with absolutely no training at all. When she passed away, the piano was left to Jinx. All of the music she plays are variations- remixes on existing arrangements. When Jinx first got to the island the first item she ordered from RHE was a piano. The one she was provided was no normal piano though- RHE is not cheap. The keys are made of dragon teeth, and the body of the piano is made from an elder Ocean Elm tree from the coasts of Old Zealand. For her next requested item a month later, she had it modified. There are four amps now hooked up to the body of the piano- two that enhance the higher notes and two for the lower- allowing her to boost the bass or treble, or both. [[Enjoy your coffee.->Stray 2]]]] (link:"You ask her about how she ended up on RHEI in the first place.")[(replace: ?RealChoice)[(set: $B2 to true)”Music isn’t an easy career to break into, and the demand for a classic instrument like a piano isn’t very high. When was the last time you heard a piano on the radio? Well, that is my talent, and it doesn’t make any money. On the outside you do not hear about the paradise island part. And no one signs up for a human test experiment without being in a difficult situation to begin with.” Like many other test subjects, Jinx came to RHE as a last resort because she could not find her feet in the outside world. [[Enjoy your coffee.->Stray 2]]]] (link:"You ask her how her transformation went, and if her new form caused any unforeseen problems.")[(replace: ?RealChoice)[(set: $C3 to true)”After the fact? No. I can do all the same things now as I could as a regular human. Don’t even have to clip my nails anymore- they are self-maintaining and retractable so their length is never an issue. During my transformation it was a little complicated…” She tells you that her nails evolved into claws before her fingers changed to allow them to retract; so she had to be very careful how she touched things as to not cut them on accident or catch her claws on fabrics. Her feet turning mostly to paws also disabled her ability to walk- though only for a bit over an hour till the transition completed. For the most part her transformation is a convenience. She can easily open letters or packages using her claws. Her tail acts as a weaker fifth limb, allowing her to hang things off it or even coil it around a doorknob to open a door when her hands are busy carrying something. Her house lights are usually set to low or off as well, because her eyes do not take any time to adjust to the dark. A normal person walks into a dark area and takes a few minutes to adjust to be able to see anything at all- Jinx walks into a dark area and in roughly two or three seconds can see again just as well as she could in the light- so there is no reason to turn the actual lights on. [[Enjoy your coffee.->Stray 2]]]]]]] (link:"You point out that it was Olivia’s choice to leave, you would have had no objections to her coming along.")[(replace: ?Trivial)[You point out that it was Olivia's choice to leave, you would have had no objections to her coming along. “Mmm, and you don’t like to take responsibility for your actions, either.” You lower your brows, realizing it doesn’t matter what you say, she will find the fault in it and turn it against you. Jinx dawns a small smile from watching you squirm. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be mean; you just make it so easy.” |RealChoice>[(link:"You ask her about her talent in music. It seems she enjoys the classics.")[(replace: ?RealChoice)[(set: $A1 to true)You ask her about her talent in music. It seems she enjoys the classics. ”I have always enjoyed making… tweaks to the music of others. I have never composed anything original, but I also do not play the ‘classics’ note-for-note.” She tells you about her finding her grandmother’s grand piano and impressing her by playing some tunes on it with absolutely no training at all. When she passed away, the piano was left to Jinx. All of the music she plays are variations- remixes on existing arrangements. When Jinx first got to the island the first item she ordered from RHE was a piano. The one she was provided was no normal piano though- RHE is not cheap. The keys are made of dragon teeth, and the body of the piano is made from an elder Ocean Elm tree from the coasts of Old Zealand. For her next requested item a month later, she had it modified. There are four amps now hooked up to the body of the piano- two that enhance the higher notes and two for the lower- allowing her to boost the bass or treble, or both. [[Enjoy your coffee.->Stray 2]]]] (link:"You ask her about how she ended up on RHEI in the first place.")[(replace: ?RealChoice)[(set: $B2 to true)”Music isn’t an easy career to break into, and the demand for a classic instrument like a piano isn’t very high. When was the last time you heard a piano on the radio? Well, that is my talent, and it doesn’t make any money. On the outside you do not hear about the paradise island part. And no one signs up for a human test experiment without being in a difficult situation to begin with.” Like many other test subjects, Jinx came to RHE as a last resort because she could not find her feet in the outside world. [[Enjoy your coffee.->Stray 2]]]] (link:"You ask her how her transformation went, and if her new form caused any unforeseen problems.")[(replace: ?RealChoice)[(set: $C3 to true)”After the fact? No. I can do all the same things now as I could as a regular human. Don’t even have to clip my nails anymore- they are self-maintaining and retractable so their length is never an issue. During my transformation it was a little complicated…” She tells you that her nails evolved into claws before her fingers changed to allow them to retract; so she had to be very careful how she touched things as to not cut them on accident or catch her claws on fabrics. Her feet turning mostly to paws also disabled her ability to walk- though only for a bit over an hour till the transition completed. For the most part her transformation is a convenience. She can easily open letters or packages using her claws. Her tail acts as a weaker fifth limb, allowing her to hang things off it or even coil it around a doorknob to open a door when her hands are busy carrying something. Her house lights are usually set to low or off as well, because her eyes do not take any time to adjust to the dark. A normal person walks into a dark area and takes a few minutes to adjust to be able to see anything at all- Jinx walks into a dark area and in roughly two or three seconds can see again just as well as she could in the light- so there is no reason to turn the actual lights on. [[Enjoy your coffee.->Stray 2]]]]]]] (link:"You point out that Olivia’s work was being interrupted already by having to give you a tour, and you can just talk to her again after- you have to return to her at the end of the day regardless.")[(replace: ?Trivial)[You point out that Olivia's work was being interrupted already by having to give you a tour, and you can just talk to her again after; you have to return to her at the end of the day regardless. “Mmm, and you don’t like to take responsibility for your actions, either.” You lower your brows, realizing it doesn’t matter what you say, she will find the fault in it and turn it against you. Jinx dawns a small smile from watching you squirm. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be mean; you just make it so easy.” |RealChoice>[(link:"You ask her about her talent in music. It seems she enjoys the classics.")[(replace: ?RealChoice)[(set: $A1 to true)You ask her about her talent in music. It seems she enjoys the classics. ”I have always enjoyed making… tweaks to the music of others. I have never composed anything original, but I also do not play the ‘classics’ note-for-note.” She tells you about her finding her grandmother’s grand piano and impressing her by playing some tunes on it with absolutely no training at all. When she passed away, the piano was left to Jinx. All of the music she plays are variations- remixes on existing arrangements. When Jinx first got to the island the first item she ordered from RHE was a piano. The one she was provided was no normal piano though- RHE is not cheap. The keys are made of dragon teeth, and the body of the piano is made from an elder Ocean Elm tree from the coasts of Old Zealand. For her next requested item a month later, she had it modified. There are four amps now hooked up to the body of the piano- two that enhance the higher notes and two for the lower- allowing her to boost the bass or treble, or both. [[Enjoy your coffee.->Stray 2]]]] (link:"You ask her about how she ended up on RHEI in the first place.")[(replace: ?RealChoice)[(set: $B2 to true)”Music isn’t an easy career to break into, and the demand for a classic instrument like a piano isn’t very high. When was the last time you heard a piano on the radio? Well, that is my talent, and it doesn’t make any money. On the outside you do not hear about the paradise island part. And no one signs up for a human test experiment without being in a difficult situation to begin with.” Like many other test subjects, Jinx came to RHE as a last resort because she could not find her feet in the outside world. [[Enjoy your coffee.->Stray 2]]]] (link:"You ask her how her transformation went, and if her new form caused any unforeseen problems.")[(replace: ?RealChoice)[(set: $C3 to true)”After the fact? No. I can do all the same things now as I could as a regular human. Don’t even have to clip my nails anymore- they are self-maintaining and retractable so their length is never an issue. During my transformation it was a little complicated…” She tells you that her nails evolved into claws before her fingers changed to allow them to retract; so she had to be very careful how she touched things as to not cut them on accident or catch her claws on fabrics. Her feet turning mostly to paws also disabled her ability to walk- though only for a bit over an hour till the transition completed. For the most part her transformation is a convenience. She can easily open letters or packages using her claws. Her tail acts as a weaker fifth limb, allowing her to hang things off it or even coil it around a doorknob to open a door when her hands are busy carrying something. Her house lights are usually set to low or off as well, because her eyes do not take any time to adjust to the dark. A normal person walks into a dark area and takes a few minutes to adjust to be able to see anything at all- Jinx walks into a dark area and in roughly two or three seconds can see again just as well as she could in the light- so there is no reason to turn the actual lights on. [[Enjoy your coffee.->Stray 2]]]]]]]]]

You do not see Olivia in the office at all, but you do see her coat on the hook. She must have already gone to sleep! Well… that makes you feel bad. You switched your dinner plans last minute and completely missed her. You suppose she spent the whole day up to that point with you, which she was not expecting to do. As tired as you are physically, mentally your brain refuses to wind down, knowing that when you wake up again you will have to leave the island. You want to see more but no one is around anymore. There are surely more test subjects running around at any hour- but it is dark now and as an outsider you would most assuredly get lost. You wander around the offices, puzzling over some of the writings on the dry erase boards. There are a few large cork boards too that are absolutely buried in years of papers, papers pinned over other papers. You wander up to a third floor but most of this floor is split between large equipment storage and maintenance, and a huge central room marked ‘ALUA Prime Core’, but the two doors leading into it lack any means to open them. There is no doorknob, or key pad- nothing. You can tell it is a door but there is no discernable way to operate it. (text-style:"upside-down","rumble")[''ACCESS DENIED''] You notice another set of stairs going up at the very end of the hall on this floor, which makes you try to recall the appearance of the building from the outside. Was there four floors? You only recall three. When you head up and open the door at the top of the stairs you realize it isn’t a fourth floor- it is the roof. The roof itself is pitch black, but most of the lights in the building remain on at all hours so the buildings and area around it are still bathed in light from all the windows. The tower the helicopter lands on is still two floors taller than the rest of the complex and the roof of it is covered in inward turned floodlights so the helicopter can potentially land at any time of day. You hear a sudden loud flapping sound and then a thud behind you. You turn to look but do not see anything there. You were just looking at the lights on the tower however- your eyes need to re-adjust to the darkness; you cannot see anything on the roof at all. You are startled at the sound of a woman’s voice, trying- and failing- to sound intimidating. “''Halt'', criminal scum! You are trespassing!” You quickly say you did not even know the stairs went onto the roof in the first place- never mind that it was off-limits! She giggles. “''Oh'' I am just (text-style:"shudder")[kidding]! I don’t have the authority to call you out on it even if you weren’t supposed to be here.” She came closer but is swathed in a huge worn out cloak and your eyes are still struggling to see in the dark. “You are Olivia’s friend, right? The outsider?? Didn’t expect you to still be awake, never mind on the roof. Nice to meet you! I am TS18! Ranos!” …sonar spelled backwards. “Hehe… yea. I hated the name my parents gave me, so I dumped it when I came to RHEI. New body, new name- new start.” Fair enough. Ranos tosses her cloak back to reveal her form for you as your pupils expand to see better in the dark. (link:"Ranos")[Ranos is not wearing any clothing, because normal clothing will not fit her without hindering her natural abilities. She wears the cloak to keep warm instead- since the wind in the night sky can get nippy at the altitudes she travels at. Her soles are extended like a digitigrade creature, but her toes are longer and somewhat finger-like, and tipped with tiny claws, allowing her to grip onto objects or surfaces with her feet. She has a tail but it is not very longer- barely over a foot and rather thin- she is currently using it to keep the cloak rolled up behind her. Her voice has a slight Spanish accent. Ranos’ arms are the first thing people generally notice. Her thumbs are perfectly normal, though the nail is a pale translucent grey. On her index the nail is a bit more narrow and a solid base grey. On her ring finger she has a dark charcoal grey claw instead of a nail. Her ring finger is extremely long and partially connects to both adjacent digits by a thin membrane of skin. Her pinky finger is gigantic and completely unrecognizable as a finger- instead forming the outer frame of a wing! The dense membrane trailing off from her pinky finger connects down the entire length of her arm, her torso, and tapers off on her upper thighs! At roughly the halfway point, a muscle rib runs through her wing looking like a seam in the skin on the surface- this is where the wing flares the furthest out from her body before leaning back into it. Ranos is part bat! When she flies, she needs to hold her cloak behind her with her tail to prevent it from interrupting the flapping of her wings, but she still needs to have it to warm back up from flying high in the night sky. Her gripping feet allow her to cling to the edge of rooftops to loom over the valley like a gargoyle. Ranos’ hair is straight and dark brown to her breast- but it is quite messy from whipping around in the wind while she is in flight. Ranos’s nose is rather large and the bottom faces flat forward like a pig snout with a slight upward point at the tip. Her teeth are human except for her canine teeth having grown into the four long, narrow fangs. Her ears are… absolutely titanic. Each one is large enough to fit two of her own head inside. The cartilage frame on the upper ear trails so far forward that it looks connected to, or part of her eyebrow. She can angle her ears forward or back, but that is the full extent of their movement, she cannot raise or lower them at all. Ranos’ flesh is two-tone; on her back it is dark grey and becomes blotchy at the edge as it transitions to human peach toned on the front. The grey also extends down her forehead, eyelids, and onto the bridge of her nose, but not the front of it or anywhere else on her face. The membrane of her wings is also grey only on the back and then dappled at the edges, transitioning to peach in the middle and toward her torso. Her pubic hair is replaced with dense but short grey fur, but that is actually the only fur anywhere on her body. Her hips and butt are rather small for a woman, but her thighs are still pretty meaty and her chest carries taught DD cup breasts with dark grey, bumpy areola. Knowing you are looking her over, she grins with her dangerous looking fangs and grabs her left tit with her right hand and pulls it toward the right a bit and turns to call your attention to something else. There is another nipple and areola! She has a full nipple and human areola just below her armpit! There are no breasts under her arms, because that would make flying next to impossible. A bat’s teats are under its wings- but rather than relocate her mammaries she simply got a second pair. The tissue under the arms on even a human is still technically breast flesh. She might not have any visible boobs under there, but they do still fully function- she can lactate from all four nipples.] She reached toward a bit and made grabby hands toward you. “Can I?” W-what? Can she ''what''? “//Touch//!” She gently takes your head, standing close enough that her erect nipples graze the front of your shirt. She gently feels your face with her hands, careful of the tips of her claws. You realize now that her eyes are not focused on anything! Her iris are unusually also grey in color, and her pupils are always fairly small- they never dilate. ''She is blind''! She detects your surprised reaction and smiles. That is why RHE chose her for the test of hybridizing someone with a bat. Ranos was born blind- her eyes could not be repaired because they never properly developed the ability to see in the first place. Even spells that are meant to project vision or expand on it have no effect on her, because her brain doesn’t know what to do with the information, it has never seen anything before. As part bat however, her massive ears are so keen the ‘//resolution//’ on her hearing allows her to identify even miniscule differences. Identifying tiny differences in the angle sound refracts at, she can literally map out the surface of an object in her head. To say she can visualize everything with sound is not quite accurate, because she never seen anything in the first place to be able to visualize anything even mentally- but the amount of information she can learn from listening is nearly indistinguishable from sight. To identify the finer details of a person’s face though- she still likes to feel their face when she first meets them. You end up flinching slightly and she giggles- Ranos found a mosquito bite you got on the side of your face that you were unaware of till now. When you are done introductions she hunches over onto all fours and wraps the cloak back around herself to trap in her warmth. She loves being out, and the night time is so calm for her- but she proffers to hunch over onto all fours when perched on rooftops. She feels too open if she just stands upright and it makes her uncomfortable. You tell her you found your way up here on accident, but the view sure is amazing so you are glad you did anyway. “Mmm, describe it for me?” You almost smack your forehead. Of course she doesn’t know what the view is like, //she can’t see anything//! You do your best to describe everything. From the second floor restaurant and offices of the main complex you can see the north end of the valley buildings at night, but from here on the roof you can see over all of it. You can even see the distant lights of the valley labs on the south end. Of course in the night, the lights in the windows is the only thing that can be seen in the darkness. Occasionally you see a tiny speck of blue-white light from someone taking out a phone or using their RHE assigned onyx tablet- indicating there are still plenty of people out and about even in the dead of night. Ranos is far from alone on her adventures in the dark. It is a unique feeling- for you at least- to be so high up and looking down over everything. The lights below and darkness above and around you make it sort of feel like a scene in a movie, and looking down over everything makes you feel bigger. Ranos is unable to understand the feeling of looking down on everything, but she understands the feeling of the scene. She obviously doesn’t watch many movies- but she reads plenty of books, and books set scenes like that just like movies. You are about to ask how she reads books and cut yourself off halfway through your question as you realize the answer yourself. Ranos giggles again. “Braille.” She skitters over to you and takes your hand and places your index onto her wrist. There are bumps on her skin. “I have a braille tattoo scarred into my wrist.” It is not dyed with ink- it is a tattoo that cannot be seen, only felt. You ask what it says. “It says ‘//I see what I am required to//’. Too many people say they need to do this, or they are being forced to do that. The truth is; you need to do nothing, and no one can force you to do anything. You do it to avoid the consequences, but that is still a choice you make yourself. Life itself has no rules.” Ranos keeps laughing at you and teasing you to go closer and closer to the edge of the roof. Being so high up makes you nervous- but Ranos has never seen the height so she is unaware of this fear. In a lesser sense, it is the fear she has always felt moving about in a visual world without sight and became numb to it since she was a mere child. Humans do not have a sense of space- if you cannot feel or see movement you have no way of knowing you are moving. If you cannot see how high up you are you can only guess based on past information. When your eyes are closed, the next step you take could be an inch or a mile- you have no way of knowing. Ranos fearlessly grips the edge of the roof and flops completely over the front off of it, so her hands are on the side of the building and her entire body is technically already over the edge. You stand as close as you can without getting up onto the edge, and she can still sense your tension and advises you to crouch. Getting lower to the ground spreads out your weight and makes you much harder to knock over. You hate to make the obvious connection, but her perched off the roof like that with her cloak billowing in the wind really does make her look like //batman//. A concept she tells you that she has always had trouble with is the stars. Balls of churning fire- essentially an explosion that never ends. They sound violent and chaotic when you think of them like that, but then people describe them as being tiny pretty lights in the sky, and so very peaceful. How does something that violently powerful come off as peaceful? You tell her that details like what it is made of are lost due to how obscenely far away even the closest star is, but she has a hard time grasping that as well. Color was another thing she had a very hard time figuring out. Because color is entirely visual- she cannot interact with color in any capacity, it doesn’t exist to her. She understands color now though. Ranos still cannot imagine what colors are, but she has heard enough about them to know what colors are associated to which objects or moods- she knows what color various things are by default. The wind is quite cool up this high, since the main complex itself is already on elevated ground. It is refreshing though. Your skin tightens and gets goosebumps, but you enjoy it. After a long day in the tropical sun, your body could use the cool-off. The air on RHEI is very clean- many hundreds of miles away from any sources of pollution. Ranos eventually offers to fly you around a bit, and laughs at how quickly you decline. “You are a real delicate one, hmmm, outsider?” You say that if it were day time and you were starting from the ground you would absolutely take her up on her offer. But taking off from a rooftop in the dead of night would be absolutely terrifying- especially if you were only being held up by her grabbing your shoulders with her modified feet. “Well, I better get going. The night does not last forever and I have lots to do still. You need to go to sleep. The helicopter has a schedule to keep, and it cannot leave tomorrow without you on it. It was nice meeting you, outsider. I am glad you lost your way up here, //hehe//~.” She turned toward the valley, took a deep breath and looked like she screamed- but all you could hear is what sounded like a distant ringing. A second later her ears turned forward suddenly, and she kicked herself off the front wall, launching herself as far from the building as possible. She opened her wings and with a single flap put herself so far from the building that she completely vanished into the darkness from you. Already too far in a single flap for the lights of the building to illuminate. Once again alone, you decide to take her advice and go to bed now. It is likely ''very'' late now.(if:($Io is true) and ($Canon is true) and ($Ranos is true) and ($Ass is true) and ($Moth is true))[ [[* You nudge Olivia awake... *->The King]]] You sleep almost instantly when you hit the bed. Olivia wakes up much easier than you the following day, knowing you would have to leave RHEI when you get up made it a hundred times harder to do so. Olivia practically pulled you out of bed herself and shoved you across the parking lot. She tells you she is sorry for going to sleep so early the night before. She meant to wait for you, but passed out on her desk and one of her fellow RHE researchers dragged her to her bed. The early morning sun caught on all the windows of the complex and made it almost blindingly bright to be outside right now. Olivia stopped by the base of the tower- you could both hear the rotor on the helicopter starting up in anticipation. Olivia holds up a small box for you to take. “Jinx and Snow dropped this off first thing this morning, before you woke up. It is a small gift to remember your time on the island.” She giggled, which made you suspicious of what was actually in the box. You take it and open it to peek inside and immediately see why she giggled- it was a pun; the gift is literally small. Inside the box is a tiny grand piano! Just out of curiosity you poke the keys and are startled when they actually make a sound- though a bad sound since your finger is so large in comparison that you hit four keys at the same time. “It is an actual piano, not a toy, so be careful with it. Jinx originally got it for Snow but he never got into making music himself, so they decided to give it to you rather than let it collect dust. Your hands are far too big to play it on their own- but if you use like a pin or a thumbtack in either hand, the point would be plenty small enough to press the keys properly.” You smile and close the box up again to keep it safe. It is a great gift, and it will help you remember your day on RHEI always. It was also something to do on the long flight back home. Using the very tip of your fingernails you manage to plunk the Super Mario Brothers’ theme on it. (set: $Ranos to true)(set: $Piano to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

Jinx hummed in thought a moment, resting her chin on the palm of her free hand while keeping the other on her tea. “Interesting you took the conversation there first. (if:$A1 is true)[You started with my musical interest because you heard me playing earlier. A sensible choice of conversation pieces… but, awfully ‘safe’ choice too, don’t you think? Not very adventurous, are you?](if:$B2 is true)[Surely you must have known I wouldn’t have signed up for human testing to be someone’s guinea pig if I were in a good position in my life. Rather insensitive to poke at a wound, don’t you think?](if:$C3 is true)[Asking about a woman’s body, and only on the first date. You’ve no shame at all, do you?] Jinx paused a moment before letting out a deep, almost musical chuckle. “I tease, of course. Don’t you know? Cats like to toy with their prey.” She straightens herself at the feeling of a refreshing breeze rolling by- fluttering the canvas over the patio area. The wind has been slowly picking up, helping cool the area off to prepare for night. After a long silence, Jinx sighs and speaks up again, lowering her ears a bit. She says that she has never been great at making friends. She is contemplative and analytical, which causes her to come off as cold or even mean-spirited. It took Jinx quite some time to make any connections on RHEI- Snow was the first real friend she had. Kalaha eventually acted as a sort of mediator and helped make connections for her. Kalaha is likely the best-known subject on the entire island, for going out of her way to make everyone her friend. There is a band on the island called The Udder Ones, and Jinx has joined them as a sort of honorary member. She has rarely practiced with them, and will only play with them on special occasions. There is only two songs of theirs that involve Jinx and her piano. It isn’t for lack of inclusion- Jinx just feels nervous and awkward being a part of them. It feels great preforming in the moment, but she needs a long cooldown period after. Jinx is elegant and composed, much like the older symphonic music she remixes. She feels like she is a classic personality within a modern world, and she doesn’t quite fit the aesthetics. The weather feels very nice out. The sunlit areas are still quite warm, but the shade grows by the moment and the wind is gentle but steady. Outside wind and storms get sheltered from RHEI for the most part, so there is no risk of tidal waves of tsunami hitting the island. The mountain range would act as a shield and deflect it. RHEI however is plenty large enough to generate its own weather- the contrast between the frigid peaks and the hot tropical valley will stir up storms of its own. The cool winds you feel now are rolling down from the mountains- so what direction the wind is coming from depends on where you stand on the island- they are all coming from the outer edge and crashing together at the middle. The clouds in the early evening sky are scattered and move very quickly in the steady wind. By the time you are both finishing your drinks it almost looks like it is night already. The sun has not set yet- but is already entirely blocked by the mountain range, so the island is cast into night before the sky has gone dark. There is just one colossal strip of glowing sunlight across the middle of the island leading from the west beach- where you can look out to open water. The east side of the clouds overhead turn dark grey, while the west-facing sides of the clouds are painted hues of orange and pink by the dusk light. Once her tea is almost done she mentions you two should get back to her house. Snow has likely finished a dinner for you all by now- much like the dispenser at this café, her kitchen is equipped with conjuration tech so that either of them are able to operate it in spite of their size differences. As you two start to walk back, the lights of the homes and eventually the lanterns outside to mark the path start to blink on. Moths wake up and gather to the new sources of light and you can hear frogs and crickets chirping two different harmonies in the surrounding area. This time, Jinx leads the way. You cannot help but be a bit hypnotized by the sway of her hips and tail in that narrow dress of hers. It doesn’t feel like bad luck to have crossed paths with this black cat. You have a wonderful meal of noodles with alfredo sauce and shrimp, sprinkled with parmesan and green onions. Though they are both able to digest human foods like anyone else, their animal traits did influence their preference a bit. Snow grew up with a love of dairy- and especially cheese, so he loved to adorn all his food in various cheeses- of which the island has a high variety of. While she enjoyed the whole dish, Jinx’s favorite part is the shrimp; shellfish. She has a taste for seafoods. The table you eat at is set well and even has several lit candles in the center; very classy. You notice Jinx space out while eating, and her idle hand is tapping on the table as if it were a piano- she was listening to music in her head that only she could hear. It is a bit funny seeing Snow eating with you two, since his plate is only a fourth of the size as is the silverware he is using. In order to just be high enough to eat at the table- there is another climbable structure leading to his chair, similar to the scaffolding by the door that allows him to answer it himself. After dinner, you thank them for the food and go to head out back to the RHE main complex. Jinx sees you to the door, leaning on the frame as you step into the night. Now the sky is dark and filled with millions of starts. There is still scattered clouds drifting overhead, but are so dark in the night they just look like black splotches on the canvas of stars. The lanterns are not numerous enough not bright enough to really illuminate the area- they only serve as a guide to where the paths are in the dark. “You sure you can find your way back in the dark?” You motion your hand toward the complex. It is on a giant plateau, elevated above everything else and has a fully lit up tower. You can see it in the night from the opposite end of the island! “Mm, fine. Our date was a bit bland, can’t say I would continue this relationship- I think it is best we remain friends.” Before you are able to assemble an answer in your confusion she speaks up again with a smile and pats you on the head. “I had fun with our little game of cat and mouse.” (if:$Ranos is 2)[[[Continue...->Micro Concerto End]]](else:)[[[Continue...->Main Complex Roof]]]

You try to return to the main complex as quickly as possible, but it not as easy as it looked. You do not get lost, but the slope up to the facility is a lot harder on your legs climbing up than it was going down at the start of the day. It feels a bit weird wandering around the complex by yourself, especially at night, but of course the doors are not locked. The building seems deathly quiet now and you do not see anyone around. Unfortunately when you arrive at the offices, you do not see Olivia either- at least till you arrive at her desk. She has her arms crossed over her keyboard and she has fallen asleep on them. You almost feel bad about disturbing her, but on the other hand she will probably hurt her back sleeping like that. You gently nudge her awake and once her eyes are open she sits up so quickly she almost falls out of her chair. “Ack! I must have fallen asleep! Food makes me sleepy and I ate a lot…” You apologize for not having dinner with her. “Oh no, it is fine. You know me- we can have dinner whenever. Er, well, not ''whenever'' but you know what I mean. I can leave the island and come to you on occasion, and we can talk with each other any time online. How was your dinner with Jinx? She can be a handful sometimes.” You tell her you can definitely see how she can be a handful. Her personality is hard to read, and she seems to naturally put up defenses that would normally keep people away. But she is just misunderstood, she doesn’t mean anything by it. The dinner was delicious, but you were thinking of Olivia the whole time and how she was not there for it. “Aww, well that is sweet, but I am fine on my own.”(if:($Io is true) and ($Canon is true) and ($Ranos is true) and ($Ass is true) and ($Moth is true))[ [[* You have one last place to be... *->The King]]] She got up to guide you to your bedroom, but her legs had partially fallen asleep from being leaned forward in the chair for so long, so you end up having to help her balance and guiding her to her bed instead. You both sleep well that night, but she is able to wake up a lot easier than you. Knowing you would have to leave RHEI when you get up made it a hundred times harder to do so. Olivia practically pulled you out of bed herself and shoved you across the parking lot. The early morning sun caught on all the windows of the complex and made it almost blindingly bright to be outside right now. Olivia stopped by the base of the tower- you could both hear the rotor on the helicopter starting up in anticipation. Olivia holds up a small box for you to take. “Jinx and Snow dropped this off first thing this morning, before you woke up. It is a small gift to remember your time on the island.” She giggled, which made you suspicious of what was actually in the box. You take it and open it to peek inside and immediately see why she giggled- it was a pun; the gift is literally small. Inside the box is a tiny grand piano! Just out of curiosity you poke the keys and are startled when they actually make a sound- though a bad sound since your finger is so large in comparison that you hit four keys at the same time. “It is an actual piano, not a toy, so be careful with it. Jinx originally got it for Snow but he never got into making music himself, so they decided to give it to you rather than let it collect dust. Your hands are far too big to play it on their own- but if you use like a pin or a thumbtack in either hand, the point would be plenty small enough to press the keys properly.” You smile and close the box up again to keep it safe. It is a great gift, and it will help you remember your day on RHEI always. It was also something to do on the long flight back home. Using the very tip of your fingernails you manage to plunk the Super Mario Brothers’ theme on it. (set: $Piano to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

Well you might as well keep the theme going, and tell Olivia you’d like to see TS88. You tell Jinx that you appreciate the offer, but already made plans with Olivia to have dinner later. You both say goodbye to Jinx and Snow and head out back into the sunlight. The sun is already over in the west end of the sky and starting to dip, as the shadows grow longer. You are hit with the smell of barbeque meats and can hear people having fun nearby. Many test subjects were gathered to a poolside for a BBQ dinner. More than the unique shapes of their bodies, it is wild to see how open and comfortable everyone is with their bodies. A good sized group of test subjects, but barely any clothes at all between them. One woman with a gigantic udder and a much smaller woman just flopped over the top of it like it was a beanbag chair! Another woman applying suntan lotion to a male test subject who somehow does not have an erection and they’re both just doing it like it were nothing- while naked, in front of everyone, and no one minds. The man cooking the meat at least is wearing an apron- as comfortable as he is with his nudity, he would rather not have the BBQ potentially spit hot grease on his junk. You can actually hear Olivia’s stomach grumble from the smell of their delicious dinner cooking, but she is determined to take you to meet at least one last test subject. Even if she were not touring you, it isn’t like she would crash their BBQ party uninvited. The house she takes you to is straight across from the pool- further back than the other homes around it toward the tree line at the base of the mountains. Olivia hums in thought when she notices the lights at not on in the home. She knocks anyway but there is no answer. Olivia looks at you. “Shoot. And I stupidly left my onyx slate back at the main complex. If I had it I could try to check Nada’s location.” RHE installs trackers in the test subjects?! “N-no. I couldn’t pinpoint her exactly. You see there are health monitors installed in the rooves of the buildings which can tell us how many test subjects are currently inside of a single building. So no one wanders off and gets lost or hurt out in the wilds, we can also see if a test subject is not present in their house- so if they are gone for too long we know to look for them. Also if someone is at the main facility using any of the equipment there, we will know. If she is not in her home, and there is only one other house with two people in it- I can assume that is where she is. If there are no homes with multiple people in them, then I know to look for her outside.” Olivia took a deep breath and looked around the area trying to think of a plan B quickly, but then spotted Nada in the distance! Olivia grabbed your hand and quickly ran back northward to catch the hybrid. Luckily Nada was not moving very fast- she was most likely full on milk and heading to the main complex to use the lactation stations. If nothing else, she can be easily spotted by her monstrously huge tail lashing around behind her. She still had a big head start on you two and you were both out of breath by the time you caught up. The funny part is you came from where she is heading, so you would have both had to have passed her to get to her house and neither of you spotted her on the way south- because your empty stomachs caused you both to be looking at the BBQ party. (link:"Nada")[Nada is a homunculus- so even before she was a test subject she was never human. Nada was born from Null, who in turn is born from TS00; Zero. Their type of humanoid homunculus was designed by the sorceress paragon Moth, and while they do not have a sex- they can reproduce asexually. In becoming an official test subject however- Nada gained the female gender, because she was hybridized with a cow. She had no default gender to compete or cancel it out, so she gained the gender of the animal. Nada walks on all fours but her overall form is still fairly human and when you two approach she stands up onto two legs- she is able to walk upright, it is just easier to walk on four. Her hips are huge and have the sharp protrusions at the top that a cow would- so her pelvis is V shaped like a bovine, but her leg joints act like a humans, allowing her to walk on two legs still. Her legs are… bizarre, which makes sense because they were strange even before she was a hybrid- again, she was never human in the first place. Instead of bovine hooves, her legs end in giant spikes! Her leg is somewhat shaped like a bovine, but the thighs are round and plump like a human, and the leg just tapers off to a semi-dulled spike that is dark grey in color, like a hoof. When she stands up, a smaller spike splits off from it and acts almost like a kick-stand for a bike, jamming into the ground at an angle off from her leg to help balance her. The secondary kick-stand spike is what should have been dew claws. Nada has a cow udder that is absolutely massive, and given how taught the fat milk veins on the surface look- it is VERY full of milk right now. Without the larger V shaped pelvis, she would not be able to walk properly because the udder would press into the insides of both her legs. Her torso gets significantly smaller as it goes up, transitioning to a very human looking upper body- though her chest is a complete blank, no breasts or even nipples. Her arms look human but the bones are larger than in a human. Her hands only have three fingers and a thumb each, and are quite wide looking, and end in a flat-tipped cylinder shaped claw. Because her front limbs do not end in proper hooves, the bones of her fingers need to be extremely sturdy and thick- when she puts her weight into them the joints lock together to brace her weight. Also because she still has the structure of a hand instead of a canon bone- her arms are a lot shorter than her legs. When on all fours, her butt is significantly higher up than her head. Nada’s head is fully bovine, though considerably smaller overall to still fit properly with her human neck and upper body. Seeing you examining her, she shows off her tongue. It starts sliding out of her mouth and does not stop for several seconds- surpassing the length of her muzzle and throat combined! Like her tail on the other end, her tongue is absolutely massive. Her ears are also abnormally large for most cows- and cows that do have ears as big as her cannot hold them up for more than a few seconds at a time. Olivia explains that it was a trait of the homunculus and asks Nada to demonstrate. She flips her ears forward and cups the entire length of her bovine face, encapsulating her head with her ears like a closed flower bud. A shimmer of metallic colors passes over her entire body and it looks like she just fades away into thin air! She is completely invisible! When she moves you can see the ground and background through her smear slightly for a moment while her camouflage catches up. The other homunculus of her type move more on their tails than anything else, slithering like a snake while all four of their limbs are off the ground, but in becoming part cow; Nada is too heavy to rely on her tail for locomotion. It is still absolutely giant though. Her tail is at least twice the length of her entire body and the same width as the hips it grows from. It lashes around randomly behind her, and when she is idle it will naturally start to weave itself around furniture and its surroundings and coil itself up as tightly as possible- tangling her up with her surroundings. She has no fur or hair anywhere on her body- not over her privates, not even on her fully bovine head. She does have some splotches on her skin like a cow, but her actual skin color is albino-white, so rather than be black to contrast, the splotches are peach toned, like human skin. She became visible again in another shimmer of colors.] Nada told you two that she needed to be milked, so she offered to follow her to the main complex, because if she idled much longer her teats were going to start leaking. You two started to walk with her, having no reason not to- you had to return to the main complex anyway to have dinner in a while. Unlike a cow, when Nada walks her hips rock back and forth, causing her udder to slosh one way and then the other. Because her udder is at maximum capacity it does not jiggle around, only heavily flop because its turgidity and weight prevent it from being easily moved. You look at her tail every time it brushes against you on accident, a bit paranoid of it. It is so huge and long that she could easily coil you up in it and pick you up off the ground. Heck, she can probably pick up both you and Olivia with her tail at the same time. It is so big that the bulge of muscles trailing into it can actually be seen up half of her entire backside, creating a soft ridge. Asking her your usual question of how she ended up on the island would not work with Nada. She was born on the island- Nada has never left RHEI. You ask her instead what made her sign up to be a test subject. She already lived on the paradise island, so what does she gain from a deal with RHE? Nada’s voice is quite deep because of bovine traits, but still feminine sounding. “A new body. I signed up out of curiosity. The offer was extended to my entire family except for the original- Zero. We are all already similar enough to one another that people cannot tell us apart. But now everyone knows which one I am. And I get to experience //milking//!” Olivia looked at you as you all continued to walk. “Because they reproduce asexually, there is no secondary input to hybridize genes between… so there is virtually no variation; the child is almost an exact clone of the original. Physically, anyway. That makes evolutionary advancements for their species very difficult. They are still a leap ahead of any other homunculus. Moth is the only person to have ever created a homunculus that could reproduce at all.” Once you all get to the main complex, Nada heads to the door between the garage shudder door and the door you formerly took to go up to the offices. The door you used leads into an arcade on the ground level. The one Nada takes you into leads to the lactation stations. There are milking machines of all different sorts; some mounted to the floor and some from the roof. Each one was isolated in a large cylinder of glass- when the station is occupied the glass turns solid white so the person inside has their privacy- then returns clear when they leave. If Nada was not completely full she could squeeze her udder into a regular chair model one, but she is currently too big- and her udder too stiff to squish through the opening. One of several alternatives is what almost looked like a drinking fountain at a distance. It rises out of the floor and has a forward cupped top on it. On the inside of the cupped top are four openings lined with soft rubber that compress onto the base of the teats- the udder rests on the cupped top. This station requires you to stand for the duration, but is the easiest for bipedals with udders to use because you do not need to fit the udder itself inside of anything, just the teats- the udder just rests on it, so it can accommodate a wider array of sizes. While you are looking at the machine though; Nada is looking at you and wraps her tail around behind you, surprisingly you as she suddenly pulls you close. “But since you are here, why don’t you try your hand at milking instead?” Olivia smiles and taps a trigger at the base of the machine with her foot, causing a panel to open revealing a store of empty stainless steel milk vessels. Nada keeps your back cradled with her tail so you cannot shy away. Olivia sets an empty vessel down and Nada walks over it, turning her side to you so you have easy access to her massive endowment. The teats are starting to bloat up a bit at their ends almost making them vaguely tear-drop shaped from the milk building up in them. Unlike a human breast; a cow udder has actual space dedicated to storage, the inside of the teat is one of those places. You grab the extremely soft skin of the teat and give it a tug using only two fingers and a thumb and the milk comes out easily because of how full it was. You have seen enough milking videos from fetish sites to know how to properly milk, so you only do it like this to ease some of the buildup first. You sit up a bit further into a half crouch to approach the teats from above rather than below. You run your hand on the silky smooth surface of the udder down toward the teat. Massaging the udder helps both the udder and the cow herself relax, which allows the milk to flow more freely. You then gently run your hand to the teat, closing your fingers softly around it and then tugging forward, being careful not to squeeze in on the teat, since that would cut the flow. You start from the base and tug the teat down to release the load- a common mistake is to just squeeze the teat or the udder itself. You’ll definitely get some milk out doing that, but not much. You find it easier approaching the udder from slightly above, and slightly behind, because the container you are milking her into is not particularly wide so you need to also direct the teats so the stream actually hits the target. As you milk the massive udder the taught, fat veins start to soften and vanish into the surface- remaining visible still only toward where the udder connects to the torso; where the flesh sinks inward a bit. The udder shrinks very slightly and becomes more jiggly and soft because it is no longer pulled so tight around the milk inside. Olivia and Nada end up talking about random things the whole time, but you are barely paying attention since you are concentrating on doing a good job. You end up filling nine of the vessels before she is finally mostly empty. Nada tells you that you do not need to empty every single drop, and that you did a good job. She shook her hips a bit to feel her udder slap her inner thighs, wobbling around energetically- confirming it is mostly empty. Olivia looks up at a clock on the wall and says that you and she need to get going. You are both starving by now, and it is dinner time. Nada nods, saying it was time for her to get back as well. She still needs to finish cooking her own dinner now that her udder didn’t feel like a boulder between her legs. She was able to walk at a proper speed again, and exited the building with you and Olivia, but then headed down toward the valley. You and Olivia just did a U turn and went into the other door only a few feet away to head up to the second floor offices- the restaurant you are eating at is across from them on the same floor. [[Continue...->Inhuman End]]

The restaurant has a great view of the valley through two of the four walls which are almost entirely window. The attendant in it is a golem, so you can take your time ordering without worrying about annoying them. Olivia recommends several dishes. Since the chef is also a golem using conjuration magic- it can be programmed with any number of recipes without worrying about it ever forgetting any, so test subjects and RHE staff alike have been putting home recipes and cultural dishes onto the menu over the years. “So, quite the day you had. I mean… there is a ton of things you still haven’t seen and a ton of people you never met, but considering you only had a single day to go around and meet people, I think we did pretty good. You can’t properly meet over a hundred people in a single day, so meeting everyone was impossible from the start.” You nod. You kept the theme of feral-like forms all day too. A woman almost turned feral hybrid, a feral rat turned human, and then a homunculus hybridized with a cow! Even sticking with a feral theme you feel you have seen quite a variety. You comment jokingly that since Nada can turn almost completely invisible; she could have followed them to the restaurant and be here right now and neither would notice. Olivia chuckled. “Oh yea- Zero does it all the time around the main complex. They basically default to cloaked out of habit so you never know if they are in the room or not. Nada has a harder time properly hiding, but not Zero, Void, and Null. They can climb the walls and roof while cloaked.” You glance around a bit paranoid now. Olivia laughs. “Don’t worry, Zero is almost always in the offices on standby in case anyone needs him, so he is across the way from us. Zero is used as a hunter- he tracks test subjects outside of the island to make sure they are alright. Because some test subjects had too mild of a transformation and were released, since there was no real point in detaining them to the island. They have a curse brand on their tongue like you will get when you leave, so they cannot tell anyone about RHE on the outside. Zero will check up on them every so often.” Olivia tells you in more detail of her university years and early time at RHE as a researcher. You have been in contact with her the entire time, but you only occasionally catch up and she was entirely unable to tell you about RHE since you are from the outside. Since you are on the island and going to get a curse seal anyway, there is no reason not to fill you in on everything now. Once you finish your dinners you both remain at the table, and Olivia starts getting nostalgic, bringing up the old adventures you two used to have before she went off to university. She sighs, resting her chin in her palms as she puts her elbows up on the table. “I wish we had more time here on the island. There are test subjects who can fly- they could have picked you up for an aerial tour! And several test subjects who can breathe underwater… did you know there are two lesser islands just off the coast of RHEI? New Eden to the west and Little Light to the north- although you need to go around the outside of the mountain range to get to Little Light. Test subjects who go cliff diving, mountain climbing, there are a few magic users who practice their arts… the valley has its own lab that sort of doubles as a test museum! Hmmm. Only so much you can do in one day, though.”(if:($Io is true) and ($Canon is true) and ($Ranos is true) and ($Ass is true) and ($Moth is true))[ [[* You have one last place to be... *->The King]]] When she takes you back to your room, Olivia comes inside as well and sits on your bed showing you other photos she has of test subjects. You both talk till you are exhausted and Olivia ends up unintentionally falling asleep on your bed. Rather than move her, you just fall asleep beside her- both fully dressed and on top of the blankets but comfortable in the presence of the other. When the alarm goes off Olivia sits up so quickly she loses her balance and falls backwards off the side of the bed and clunks her head against the wall! You remain near-comatose, still tired but also weighed down by the fact that once you get up; you have to leave the island. Olivia practically drags you out of bed and shoves you out the front door of the building, then tells you to go ahead and dashes back inside to get something. The early morning sun is already starting to make the parking lot heat up, and its reflecting off all the windows on the outside of the building is making it almost impossible to see where you are going. Your eyes are squinting so hard it looks like you are sleep-walking. The soft hum of the cold storage vats in the tower surrounds you as you go from the blindingly bright parking lot into the tower up toward the helicopter on the roof that will take you home. The labels on the vats are in a short-hand code you cannot decipher but you do recognize enough of it to see that each is for a different test subject- they do not mix milks. That makes sense; they are all different hybrids after all. They give milk from different creatures, and even people mixed with the same species give either a pure sample from the animal or a hybrid variant of the beast and human. No two are the same. Some of the milk in here is almost ludicrously valuable. That is where RHE gets the funds to perpetuate itself- the tower might as well be filled with liquid gold. When you pass the second floor, you hear Olivia call to you to slow down. The second floor has an overpass that connects the tower directly to the second floor of the main building- a hall behind the restaurant. Olivia runs to you from the overpass, holding out a bottle for you to take, but is out of breath so she takes a half minute to catch her breath enough to actually tell you what it is. It is a long-necked glass bottle, but the label has been torn off. “Thuh… this… sorry, ran all…. the way here. This is a bottle of Kumis- the mare’s milk alcohol I mentioned earlier yesterday. It was made from Danalah’s milk. Figured it would make a good souvenir to remember the island by. I had to rip the label off; keep RHE a secret and all that.” You thank her for the gift, but Olivia is quick to hurry you off again. The helicopter has a schedule to keep, and it cannot leave without you on it. (set: $Kumis to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You decide to take (if:$Item is "Jacket")[Olivia's jacket](if:$Item is "Memory")[the golden slate](if:$Item is "Lunch")[a lunch] and head on out. You cut across the large parking lot of the top of the plateau the main complex is on and head down a very long, gradual slope that was man-made to connect the plateau to the valley. The slope is mostly grass, but there are some larger rocks poking out here and there. The shuttle vehicles are actually a type of hovercraft, so there is no need of actual roads. Using Geomancy the grass is maintained every so often to make sure the grass isn’t killed by foot traffic. The actual valley and all the homes within are webbed together with shale stone pathways. The only proper stonemasonry in the valley is in the several community pools. It is the pools your plan rotates around. You could see from the main complex that the pathways connect the homes and also the pools- so if you look at the paths like the threads of interconnected webs; the pools are the center of the web. The first pool is by the market and you could tell even at a long distance that the area is very busy. You can see your share of boobs and udders long before you reach the edge of town yourself. But because there is so many people there- there is a higher chance they are hanging out with each other and you would be a third wheel. So your objective is actually the second pool. Still a gathering spot, but likely not nearly as populated as the first. If you pick someone out of a crowd, everyone ''else'' is going to wonder why you did not talk to ''them'' first. If there is only one person there in the first place; that problem doesn’t exist. To your surprise- that is exactly the case. You expected the second pool to be quieter, but not quite THIS quiet. There is literally only one woman here. This pool is on the west side of the upper town, and rather enclosed. There is a slight gap between the buildings of the upper and middle town, and the gap runs along the top of the pool- it acts as the lane most people take when heading to the grassy plains or even further out to the only beach on RHEI’s west shore. The west side of the pool faces out to the plains- the east and south sides of the pool are bordered by relatively close-together buildings, all facing away from the pool. The pool is basically their shared backyard. As you approach the pool the first thing you see is just two ears sticking up, because most of her is in the water as you approach. Because of how large her ears are, she never fully submerges herself because then she would risk needing to whip her head around for an hour afterwards to dislodge trapped water. When she spots you she quickly scoots to the side of the pool, pressing herself against the side to use the edge to hide herself behind. “Oh, ah… h-hi! You’re Olivia’s friend, right? The outsider? Er of course you are, ahaha, who else would be wandering around on RHEI? I’m ah… I am… naked. Is that okay? A lot of test subjects on the island don’t wear clothes because their body is to… different.” You chuckle and shrug, telling her you are fine with it. You are obviously not used to being around people walking around nude, but it doesn’t bother you. She is blushing quite a bit but heaves herself out of the pool and plops down on the smooth stone block platform it sits in. She plops down on her butt, but places her hands on the ground between her legs to obstruct your view of her crotch at least. The woman introduces herself as TS98; Nebela! (link:"Nebela")[Nebela’s ears stand tall enough that you saw them before the rest of her. The back of her ears is covered in a powder-soft white fur, and the front-facing insides are pastel pink skin. Her hair is extremely wavy right now only because it is wet- when it dries it springs up into large ringlets, and her hair and eyebrows are snow white to match the fur on her ears. When left alone her hair is only shoulder length, but if you were to pull it completely straight it could reach her mid-back. Nebela’s eyelashes are quite long naturally, and she has a rather small, cute face- her teeth are bucked so even when her mouth is closed you can see just the veeeerry tips of her two front teeth still sticking out. Her iris are an extremely pale blue and could be mistaken for silver depending on the lighting. The most noticeable feature on her though after her ears is also a bit of a screw up by RHE. Nebela is from a rare lineage- she has an unusual blood type and it caused her the modified parts of her tincture to react strangely- but the mutation did not actually hurt her in any way so RHE never fixed it. She only has one breast. It is a very, very large breast- but there is only one. There is one human breast in the center of her chest, but is so large that it essentially covers her entire chest, and also half her midriff- or her entire midriff right now since she is sitting down. This makes using milking machines awkward, because she can technically use any of them, but she would have to wear them lop-sided. Nebela is the only one in RHEI who can produce rabbit milk however, so her milk is still quite valuable. Nebela’s round butt is crowned with a perfectly round pom-pom tail of white fur, and she has a plume of white fur above her vulva where pubic hair used to be. It almost looks like she is wearing the gloves and boots of a fur-suit at a distance. From her elbows down her arms are covered in the extremely soft white fur, but also her forearm gets gradually larger the further out it goes, so her hands are abnormally large. Her digits are also unusually thick and tipped with neon pink pads on the end and base of every digit, as well as a pad across her wrist- but otherwise the fur wraps all the way around her hand. Her nails were replaced by tiny translucent claws- small enough that they are hard to notice in the fur. Because her lower arms and hands are so much bigger, it almost looks like the proportions of a cartoon anthro. These traits were actually due to a slight mutation as well. Her legs needed to be modified outside of the species hybridization, but mucking with their structure also caused her hands to enlarge. Again; the mutation did not hurt anything, so rather than risk creating more errors in trying to fix this one- RHE just let it be. Nebela’s legs are structured like a digitigrade animal- even though a rabbit is plantigrade like a human already is. This is because her breast would hurt tremendously when she moved if she had gotten proper rabbit legs. Their feet are far, far too long to walk- rabbits hop. But hopping with a 20 pound boob on your chest isn’t recommended. But like her arms, her legs start to get larger at her ankle, so the bottom of her cannon bone is almost twice as large as the top of the same bone. Her feet are completely transformed into paws, but the paws are massive.] She does not make direct eye contact with you and the rosen hue does not leave her cheeks. She knows her mono-boob is bizarre and is terribly embarrassed. You sit down cross-legged in front of her and start the conversation yourself to try and distract from her embarrassment. You ask what brought her to the island in the first place, why did she sign up to RHE? “Curiosity, really. I am a researcher myself but I was a mage, and I worked mostly with stellar magic. When I found mention of human testing though from RHE’s ads I had to find out what it was about. Once I knew, they would have had to put a curse seal on me regardless of whether I signed up or not, and I was still curious so I figured, eh, what the heck.” You never heard of stellar magic before, and ask her what that is about. “Mmm, it isn’t looked on too kindly by most. The gravitational forces of stellar bodies like stars and planets influence a greater, though more spread out flow of mana throughout the universe. Stellar magic researches these trends and tries to predict things based on its influences, as well as looking into ways to tap into it as a power source. The streams are called galactic leylines. There… isn’t a lot of concrete results from stellar magic, so it is largely disregarded by the greater archaic community.” (if:$Item is "Jacket")[Nebela motions to the jacket you are wearing. “I am guessing that is Olivia’s? It looks good on you, hehe.” You ask if she is just teasing. "No, no! Royal purple and black- it looks good. It is the more modern RHE staff gear- they used to only wear neutral colors so everyone would know who the scientists are. Now the staff are like, //extended family//. They wear more comfortable- casual stuff."](if:$Item is "Memory")[You motion to the memory slate in your pocket and ask if she would be willing to share her crystalized memory. Nebela’s ears flick back. “(text-style:"shudder")[N-no]! I mean, I don’t want to… seem mean, but that is too personal! I couldn’t even re-watch those memories myself and they are my own!” You chuckle and tell her it is fine.] You ask if she has ever tasted her own milk, and if so; what does rabbit milk taste like? Normally rabbits are far too small to milk. That means animal shelters and breeders will pay top dollar if someone is actually able to provide real rabbit milk. “Mmm, well, it is really high in fat- like, more fat content than a cow’s milk even. So you shouldn’t drink much without filtering it first. I only ever really drink the foremilk.” //Foremilk//? “When you first start expressing milk- it is the foremilk. It is more watery than the rest of it, and builds up toward the front so it is the first to come out. As the breast- or udder- empties out you get to the hindmilk, which is much more dense and concentrated. Anyway… rabbit milk also has high lactic acids, so if you are lactose intolerant, rabbit milk will really kick the crap out of your insides. Flavor wise it doesn’t seem that far off cow. It is suuuper creamy though, like really //smooth//. It coats your mouth.” She took a deep breath, glancing up at the sky. In the early day the sun is in the east, so the shadows of the nearby buildings covered the pool area entirely, so you did not notice when the sky became darker. Dark storm clouds rolled across the ocean, but the gravity of the mountains around RHEI was causing them to draw in and concentrate. The sun was only glimmering in through cracks now between dark, large clouds. Nebela noticed before you by the smell in the air. “Smell that? Rain. It is going to start raining real soon, so I better get back inside. What about you? Still going to tour in the rain?” You are only here for a single day- it could start raining fire and you would still try to tour. Though, you better get finding your next target, if Nebela is heading home. She is the only one at this pool, and odds are no one else is going to come to swim when it is about to rain- you’ll get wet whether you’re at a pool or not. If you are not quick, the other test subjects are going to be dashing indoors because of the weather, which will make it considerably harder to meet people. “Well… you might be surprised how many people remain out in the rain.” Even though most test subjects are perpetually nude? “Yup. Anyway, I am going to git back home. Good luck meeting people on your tour though! Hope you have fun on RHEI!” Nebela only needed to dash around the outside of her house to the front which faced the other way- her home is the second to last in the southern facing homes right next to this pool. You on the other hand still need to figure out where to go. There are four pools total- you suppose you could continue down south toward the third pool. The weather will be causing people to leave, but if you hurry you will catch them before they return home. You could also try to do the same right here though- you could remain relatively close and catch people leaving the first pool potentially. [[Wander around here.->Amour's House]] [[Go toward the third pool->Third Pool]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)The early morning sun casts long shadows, though the parking lot area when you step outside is almost blindingly bright. The morning sunlight catches on the many windows of the main complex, reflecting off the many surfaces so you have to squint to see anything. You see some very large and dark clouds coming rather quickly in the sky, but there is still sizable gaps in them as well. The clouds are also travelling quite fast, so there is a chance even if it does rain; it may only last a few minutes as the clouds roll over.(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ It is quite windy though, so you are glad you decided on taking her jacket. Whether it rains or not you will still be relatively okay- the jacket just ensures you have one less thing to worry about so you can focus on your experience on RHEI.] As you approach the valley you see more and more people scurrying about as more test subjects wake up. So many people all mostly naked- it is impossible to look anywhere without at least glancing at someone’s body. Huge bouncing boobs and heavy swinging udders- and even multiple boobs on a single body colliding with each other like a lewd Newton’s Cradle. The thing is; unlike the outside world, no one minds that sort of thing. They know their soft bouncy endowments command attention, and they don’t care if someone is looking- because they will also be looking at others. You pass by many, many test subjects but you are hesitant to speak with just anyone. A lot of people are dashing from one location to the other to get something done, so speaking with them will be interrupting something or making someone late. People in the stands of the market to your left will be trading things, and a lot of the test subjects are paired up, hanging out with each other and you don’t want to make yourself a third wheel. You scan the crowds for a test subject on their own. This is a high activity area though. Many test subjects notice you (if:$Item is "Jacket")[but only a few pause and wave at you or say hello. You realize it is probably because you are wearing an RHE jacket! At first glance, a fully human person wearing an RHE jacket looks like just another RHE staff member, not a tourist. Most test subjects only ever really speak with their handler in RHE so there are tons of RHE staff they have never seen- you could be one of them for all they know.](else:)[and wave or say hello.] Even when trying not to disrupt the busier ones; the area is so bustling that you end up accidentally brushing up against some of the larger mammaries and getting the attention of the test subject just trying to get past them. Most just ask you a few quick questions about the outside world or what you think of the island so far before letting you pass. You head south knowing the crowds will thin the further down you travel, so it will be easier to pick out stragglers. You enjoy the sights and sounds along the way plenty though as well. Most of the homes look identical in terms of construction, but you can still tell them all apart. Whether the shale stone walkway forms a landing in their yard, or there are trees or bushes in the yard. There are buildings painted with murals in the north end, and since there is no streets to dictate where the buildings should go; a lot of the homes are on odd angles from one another. The town is arranged into two strips of homes for the most part running from north to south, but the two columns are definitely not straight or symmetrical. RHEI would be a cool place to explore even without anyone else on it! You assume the library and gallery would be the high-traffic equivalent on the south end, and go toward that. They make easy landmarks anyway; they are both three floors tall, which makes them three times as tall as all of the homes around them. A small woman adorned with 6 bare breasts looks at you rather excitedly and walks over. Her torso is unusually long so she walks with a cane even though her legs are fine- her back gets sore if she remains free-standing for too long. She has a long tail behind her, so between the tail and her longer torso you deduce that Ruby is half-weasel. Ruby says that she just finished talking to an ornery friend of hers and was wondering if you would be willing to walk with her in the south forest. Her friend Gabby asked ''her'', but Ruby already had errands to run and had to decline, so Gabby is a bit sour having to walk by herself. As the outsider, you want to explore the island already so you would be perfect company! You agree and ask where to find Gabby. Ruby directs you between the library and gallery. There is a single house dead-center between the two buildings, up against the base of the Great Plateau- that is Gabby’s house. If she left by herself she will cut into a small trail beside her home that travels through the brush along the base of the plateau till it thickens into the south forest. With a nod you hustle forward at a jog to try and catch Gabby. The area is quite enclosed thanks to the two much taller buildings on either side- but they are angled with the sun so in the early day it is still well lit here. After noon, the plateau blocks the sun and casts the area into shade for the remainder of the day. You can tell Gabby is not home at a glance- none of the lights are on and the large living room area has a window that runs along that entire half of the house, so you can see inside basically the entire front half of her home unless the curtains are drawn. The path she took to leave is easily noticed- it is a narrow but cleanly cut path in brush that would otherwise be too dense to traverse. It is also directly beside her house- between the side of Gabby’s house and the Gallery. As soon as you approach the plant growth you are hit with the heavy smell of an assortment of flowers- especially potent is the smell of wisteria trees. The branches of the surrounding trees and bushes lean in over the trail to try to grab as much sunlight as possible, so the branches form an archway canopy. You do not have to walk far before you spot Gabby, and softly call out to her as you approach. The tiny woman turns around at first with a sour expression but then it shifts to mild surprise when she sees you are the outsider. (link:"Gabby")[Gabby is TS41, and is quite unique in her build and size. She has a taur form body type- so she has two torsos. From the hip down she has the full body of a feral goat. Normally taurs are huge, since they have two bodies- but Gabby is actually really small. Goats are not particularly large animals, so rather than size the goat body up to match her human torso… her human torso was shrunk to match the goat body. Her goat half is only as tall as your thighs- Gabby overall is only as tall as your collar bone. Her skin is dark brown, but her fur and hair is a grey so pale that it looks white. Her dark brown udder is quite large and tipped with huge cone-shaped teats. When she gets more excited while speaking, her little triangular tail will start to flick. Her hair hangs to her shoulders but sticks quite some ways off the sides of her head in very tight curls- if you pulled it straight it would probably reach past her hips! Gabby’s hair is parted off her face by two good sized horns- arching forward and then back and their surface heavily textured. Her ears are the leaf-shaped ears of a goat but the skin on the inside is dark red rather than pink, to better match her dark human skin. Her lips as well are large and deep red. The end of her nose does not project far from her face and is a bit broader than normal- giving it a sort of flat, triangular shape to it similar to the end of a goat muzzle. Her eyes are deep ocean blue, and her pupils are horizontal rectangles. Gabby’s breasts are only a D cup, but considering the size of her body, that is actually pretty big and her nipples are a bit odd. Her areola are so dark they look true black, and you cannot really tell where the nipple ends and the areola begin. They are really wide, shallow cones!] You tell Gabby that Ruby felt bad about leaving her alone on her walk and directed you to meet her. “Hrm.” She turned her nose up and turned around to resume walking at a slow pace. “You aren’t her messenger boy, don’t feel obligated to do what she asks. I may be small but I can walk just fine.” You explain that wasn’t the only reason you came. You are a tourist on the island after all- you want to meet people and see the sights. “Mmm… well… this is a nice place for sightseeing.” The shrubs and smaller trees started to transition to larger trees as you two follow the path into the actual forest. Through the very small gaps between all the branches you glimpse a rainbow of colors- a huge meadow of flowers cradled in the middle of the southern forest! You ask Gabby if she is okay- she seemed a bit more upset than someone simply not having company her on a walk. “Oh… no, don’t worry about me! It isn’t anything. //It shouldn’t be anything//…” But it is something. “I will get over it. No one did anything //wrong//. I just have the brain of a spoiled brat.” After a few moments of silence she groaned. “I just had really bad timing lately and keep asking people to do things when they are already doing something else. I get really //toxic// when I get upset. And sometimes I get in my own head about things. When I first arrived on the island I thought everyone looked down on me because I was small. A woman named Kalha had a long talk with me and sorted it all out, but for the longest time I thought I was the butt of everyone’s jokes.” Why would she think they were making fun of her for that? RHEI doesn’t seem like the sort of place to have bullies in the first place. Not to mention there are test subjects even smaller than Gabby is. “I know, I mean I was wrong, so they definitely were not bullying me. I just got in my own head about it. I thought they were teasing whenever they said I was ‘so cute’ or a ‘tiny little thing’. There was no hidden meaning, they meant what they said- they just thought I was cute.” You evade suddenly as a large bee almost flies into your face. Gabby laughs at your sudden movement. “Afraid of a little bee?” No more afraid than the average person. “There are several hives around the forest here because of the huge flower meadow. They are just cute and fuzzy lil things- they aren’t looking for trouble.” Gabby’s mood slowly lightens as she wanders the forest path. There is some partially buried wood planks here and there- people lay them over steep divots between tree roots over the path to try and even the ground out. She paused and pointed out a spider web with a smile. It was higher than both of you- but easily spotted. The medium sized spider sat in the middle of a perfectly formed web, but the web had a wreath of flower petals that had blown onto it and stuck to the webbing at the edges. A bit of an inconvenience to the spider, but it certainly looked pretty. Once her mood had lightened you ask Gabby how it felt to get a totally new pair of limbs. She has two full torsos now. She blushed and froze up for a moment before answering. “It, uh… was a very awkward and unique transformation. I had less trouble adapting than most taur do since… I am so small. My overall mass isn’t that much bigger than I already was. Oh, and I don’t like sleeping on my back anymore.” Why? Spine can’t bend straight enough between torso? She bowed her human half- showing that it can go parallel to the goat spine. “No, I can bend like that easily enough. It is just that on my back my goat limbs cannot rest at my sides- they stick straight up when I am on my back. That means if I am in that position for too long, all the blood drains out of them. When I wake up it takes a bit for my goat limbs to wake back up and then they are all pins and needles- so I just avoid sleeping in that position altogether. Because I have to reach past two bodies- it is almost impossible for me to milk myself too, which I was not a fan of. The lactation stations in the RHE main complex are really nice though- I don’t have to rely on anyone else if I don’t want to, I can just use an automated milker.“ There is an area where the forest ends for several meters, exposing the flower meadow and base of the Great Plateau directly to one another. There is a packed-down path of gravel-like loose stones and dirt that slowly spirals up the plateau from here- one of two paths leading to the top. Gabby heads further south though, into the flowers. She travels only a short distance before folding her goat legs below herself and plopping down onto the soft bed of flowers. There are flowers of all sorts of shapes and colors, making the meadow a jumbled rainbow. It is quite large as well- you could run full-tilt for a minute before getting to the other side. You are glad you do not have any allergies- if you were allergic to pollen your head would probably explode the moment you stepped into the clearing. There is actually two other test subjects here- but they are on the far side from you two. They look identical to one another! Gabby tells you they are identical twins- Mint and Pepper. Half human, quarter cow, and quarter mouse. They are even shorter than Gabby, giving them the overall size of a child- even though their endowments would be big on a full-sized person. The two of them chase each other around the edge of the tree-line. They both have plucked flowers stuffed behind their large ears- they came to pick flowers but got distracted playing around. It is quite the sight to see them giggling and playing around at the edge of the woods, stark naked. Their large breasts bounce around on their chests. Their breasts should hang much lower from their weight- the fact they are not means the skin must be quite taught and elastic. It gives the illusion that their breasts are very light for their size- but both twins lactate, so they are definitely full weight. (if:$Item is "Memory")[You ask if Gabby would be willing to share her crystalized memory of when she initially transformed. You motion to the golden slate in your pocket. Her face immediately turns red. “Ah n-no, I would rather not. It was a bit intense and… intim-er, personal. See when I was first transforming my size was the first thing to go, but as I shrank my belly got bigger- my body was isolating the mass to re-purpose. It was basically like I was pregnant with… myself. It was sort of pleasurable, but also painful- I was basically giving birth to a full grown goat body, with an abnormally small human body. My old vagina was stretched out of existence and fused in with the top of the goat torso- which already had its own pussy.” Gabby turned her human half and traced a line just behind the goat shoulders. “That was the cut-off. So everything behind that came ''OUT'' of me. Everything in front of that //transformed// from my old body. So, the front goat legs used to be my human legs- the rear legs are the entirely new ones.” ]After relaxing with Gabby in the warm sun and casually talking for a while you are both startled by a boom of thunder. You hear the patter of rain drops but it is only one or two here and there. The gaps letting down sunlight start to narrow overhead. The twins yelped in surprise on the other side of the field at the thunder and scattered into the trees, out of view. Gabby stood up- hind legs first so her udder doesn’t drag on the ground as she lifts herself. “Oh boy, storm is coming. I don’t see any lightning though… I think that thunder came from some distance away. The mountains around RHEI act like a giant amphitheater; if the thunder was overhead it would be //extremely// loud. Like, rattle your windows loud. You should probably get going anyway, there is a lot of RHEI you haven’t seen yet!” You get up, dusting a few loose flower petals off your pants. You ask Gabby if she has any recommendations. “Hmm, well there is the Great Plateau right there. Great for sight-seeing, but I don’t know how good the odds are of you finding any test subjects who happen to be up there. The library and gallery are right by my house- can usually find someone around there. Honestly you might catch people heading up to the main complex looking to use the lactation stations as well. All the facilities on the ground floor and the east side of the main complex are for test subject use.” (if:$Item is "Memory")[[[Someone calls over from the ramp leading up the plateau!->Ramp&Plateau]] ][[Follow Gabby back to the Library and Gallery area->Outside Library]] [[Check around back at the main facility->Milk Machines]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)You walk outside and look up at the sky right off the bat. It is mostly blue sky- you can see dark grey clouds but they are barely visible over the mountains to the north-west and the wind is blowing south-west, so the storm they are carrying might miss RHEI entirely. The rest of the sky is filled with fluffy looking white or pale grey clouds that are travelling quickly. It is quite windy out so the clouds move fast and you can hear the rustling of the forest trees below you on either side. You take a deep breath of the refreshingly cool wind and start marching toward the valley! The sunlight is quite hot but the wind quite cool. The wind outside and inside of the island are two different things- the mountains block the outer wind. So the wind you are feeling now is the cold air from the frozen peaks rolling down into the valley- because cold air is heavier. That is why the island has its own separate weather system- moisture freezes and falls from the sky when it touches the mountains and then never actually touches the valley. When the cold air that falls from the mountains gets to the valley the scorching hot sun immediately warms it and cases it to rise up along with evaporated moisture, creating storms inside the island. When the wind is travelling fast both in and outside of the island there is a chance the storm manages to sweep past the mountains before the clouds cool too much. As you start down the slope to the valley though you realize in your eagerness you started a little too quickly! The slope is extremely long so it did not look steep enough, but once you get going you find yourself speeding up just so you can remain upright… which means you cannot slow down without falling over! There are some large rocks in the ground that stick out slightly on the surface- normally these are too scattered and obviously visible to ever be an issue but you currently cannot slow down to move around them, so the start of your day ends up being a high-speed obstacle course! There are a few you cannot turn in time to dodge and end up jumping over them! You run for almost 50 meters before the slope tapers off enough for you to slow down without face-planting. That is 164 feet, or half the height of a small mountain. Your lungs sting and you are sweaty and about to collapse by the time you stagger to a stop. The high-impact footfalls on the way down did a number on your knees too. You are so delirious at the bottom that you can’t even think of what direction to go in and just wander toward the western plains because the grass looks soft, and then you collapse onto it. You feel someone’s foot nudge you and groan. “You alive, outsider? Been here less than a day and already got yourself killed?” You look up to see her face over yours; up-side down. Looking a little further //‘up’// you get a rather nice view of her vulva from below and the underside of her boobs, because she is wearing no clothing. You heave yourself to your feet and she places a hand on your shoulder before you can turn around and nudges you further forward. “I was going //cloudgazing// anyway, why don’t you join me?” (link:"Okra")[TS70 is Okra- one of only two hybrids who produce not milk, but eggs! Her hair is to her shoulders and very slightly wavy- but its color is an unnatural hue of red. Normally you cannot have hair that brightly red without dying it- her hair matches the coloration of a rooster’s comb! On closer examination, her eyebrows are not even made of hair at all. They consist of tiny, very long, very narrow feathers, causing her eyebrows to actually project off her head on their ends! On her collar she has a large plume of brown-red feathers that sits rather neatly into the cleavage of her pert D cup breasts. Her areola are soft edged and a powder red in color- the lips on her face are a more vibrant hue of red similar to her hair. Okra’s nails are more narrow than a normal human, causing their tips to become pointed faster as they grow out, but otherwise are just normal nails. She has feathers on her arms but only starting halfway up her forearms, forming a narrow spike of brown-red feathers off her elbows and nowhere else. Her lower body is considerably less human. Starting in her mid-back is a stripe of brown-red feathers that quickly fades to black at her tail bone where it turns into a narrow but very, ''very'', extremely long tail. Her tail reaches the ground and then continues to drag on the ground for a distance of at least five additional feet behind her! Okra wasn’t hybridized with just any chicken. She is part //Onagadori//, also known as a ''Phoenix Fowl''- a rare, ornamental bird adored for its exquisite tail feathers, which trail for several feet even on the actual un-hybridized bird. The tail feathers are narrow, but the bristles are densely packed together, making each feather like a shimmering black ribbon. Above her pussy her pubes are also turned to black down feathers, making them extremely soft. Her thighs are large but human in shape, but then from the knee down her legs quickly turn to an avian shape. Her feet are those of a gigantic chicken- including the shallow banded scales of a chicken foot- though the coloration of the scales was still that of her regular human flesh. Even wearing them out walking around, her talons grow so quickly that they are almost always very sharp, so Okra must be careful where she steps if she is by a crowd- she could seriously hurt someone by accidentally catching her claws on them. Her thighs and knees are covered in a smooth layer of black feathers- projecting off her thighs and up her sides slightly, covering her butt cheeks from the sides but framing her butt if you look straight-on. Her actual ass is completely bare still. Thanks to the structure of her legs, she is about a foot taller than you even though she is no larger than you are. Her monthly human periods have been abolished and instead she lays a single egg every week. Okra isn’t the only hybrid with avian features, but she ''is'' the only hybrid who is //purely// bird.] There are a few shrubs scattered in the plains, though mostly toward the sides. She takes you beside a large rosebush and you both plop down there on your backs to look up at the sky. The bush beside you fills the air with the pleasant smell of roses. The sweat covering you from running quickly evaporates in the cool wind rolling over you two. The wind rustling the feathers on her collar causes Okra to giggle softly- it’s tickling her tits. “Better to do this in the morning because by noon the sun will just cook you.” She points at one cloud with a tall top but narrow sides. “That one looks like a soft-serve icecream!” You chuckle and say that soft-serve icecream is only semi-solid, so technically all of the clouds look like that. She puffed up her cheeks. “You know what I mean! So what brings you to RHEI anyways?” Olivia brought you. You have only known RHEI exists for an extremely brief time so you did not have particularly long to think on it. You are interested in transformation and as a straight male you… can appreciate fine mammaries. Aside from that though; the island is a paradise anyone would want to spend time on, and it is fascinating to see what sort of forms exist here, and also why they were created. “''Why'' they were created?” Yea; they are all test subjects. RHE did not make them part animal for shits and giggles- there was an experiment in mind, each subject progresses their understanding in some way they can then use to help people in the future. The subjects benefit by getting to live on paradise and having RHE look after them, but by being a part of it all, they are also helping innumerable people going forward. It is almost like seeing mankind’s next evolutionary step. There was a pause before she spoke up again. “Dang, man. That is deep. I mostly just signed up because I considered myself a fuckup.” Why? “My parents were not the greatest, but I never really seen it myself till after I had gotten out. On the outside, everything I was doing was because someone else asked me to, or it needed to get done. So… I sort of just felt like a tool. I wasn’t living my own life, I was just drifting from one activity to another to get something done for someone else, or simply so I could just keep existing. I had no time to make any dreams or aspirations. You ask me what I wanted a career in and I would just shrug. I don’t know- I never had the time to think about what I did or did not want! I was too busy dealing what ''needed'' to be done to wonder what I ''wanted'' to do.” Sometimes life plays you a shitty hand. It doesn’t sound like she did anything wrong at all- if anything it sounds like she is a very kind and dedicated person. She got dealt a bum-hand and remained in the game regardless. “Yea, I guess. But it was a shitty way to exist, and unsustainable. If all you ever do is work, you’ll just build yourself an early grave. Work, come home and sleep because you’re exhausted, wake up to work again- repeat. So if all you are doing is working to stay alive just so you can work again… what is the point? A mouse needs cheese before it will run the maze.” She tells you that a test subject who joined later on really helped her '//find herself//' on the island; doing random activities she never tried before. Okra was too busy in the outside world to really form her own interests but there is no reason she cannot do that on the island. The test subject named Kalha was there to help her do every random thing they thought of. But how did that lead her to RHE anyway? They don’t advertise the fact you stay on a paradise island. From the outside, it is just a shady ad for human testing. “Change of pace, little extra cash for minimal actual work. Once I looked into it and the agent went over it with me, I signed up immediately- because at that point I ''did'' know about the island.” She crossed her arms behind her head. “And no complaints once I got here. Only down side is my handwriting is terrible now.” What happened to her handwriting? Her hands are unaltered. “It’s //chicken-scratch//.” You lower your brows and she bursts out laughing. You ask her if laying eggs is harder than having to deal with human periods. She laughed again. “No. No cramps, no hormonal mood-swings, no pads! And it is over in a few minutes. Well, sort of. You see, my eggs aren’t all equal.” What? She lays multiple kinds of egg? “No, same //kind// of egg, but the //size// of the egg is completely random. A large chicken egg is the smallest, but I have laid an egg or two that was slightly larger than an ostrich egg! Even RHE doesn’t understand why it happens. Something to do with converting the human eggs to chicken once the ovaries spit out the next one. When it is a bigger one, you can see the bulge in my lower gut before it starts to push its way out. At least eggs are perfectly rounded- so even if the egg is the size of a human baby it is still going to come out a ''lot'' easier than one. Also my initial transformation was chaotic. The transformation process was really quick, buuut…” (if:$Item is "Memory")[You motion to the golden slate in your pocket, telling her you could just look at her transformation yourself, if she gives you consent to access it. “Oh, sure.” Okra tapped the slate surface as you hold it out and it reads her chakra signature. When you tap it, the memory activates right away and your perception spins a moment. You go from laying in a field of grass to standing in her house in the valley- in her body. Since the crystalized memory is recorded sensory input, you are unable to actually act. You can think individually of her, but you are looking out through her body, and its actions are already decided. You can look at things within her perception that she herself did not focus on- but because she did not focus on them they will appear blurry to you. Even if she looked directly at something; because this is a memory- if she does not actually recall it being there, it will not appear there for you. The memory starts immediately already with a wild array of sensations- you can feel everything she does, just slightly disconnected; not quite as vivid because it is a memory of a feeling rather than the feeling itself. She is bent over the counter holding herself up on her forearms, which have a prickly feeling in them as tiny quills start to emerge through the skin that will eventually blossom into the feather plumes on her elbows. Her feet are changing very quickly! Okra’s large and pinky toe are dividing from the rest- it looks painful seeing it contort so unnaturally, but of the many feelings she is experiencing, pain is not among them. Her nails are all growing large and arching up off her toes as they condense and grow longer at the same time to form into talons. Her sole stretches into a long tarsal bone. Because the surface area of her actual feet were now tiny in comparison to the growing digits on them, the big and little toes now did a full orbit around it and fused together in the Back! Three huge toes in the front- one toe in the back that was formerly two toes. Okra slid forward across the counter as her legs stretched longer thanks to the tarsal bone’s massive growth. Her calves started to compress and narrow and her thighs ballooned out as if stealing the discarded mass from her lower legs. As the muscles compacted the skin on the surface started to stiffen and form into shallow bubbles, as the surface flesh turned to banded bird scales. The quills on her arms burst open to let out the newborn bristles of feathers and those plumes finished coming in just as the ones on her upper legs started to form! It felt exactly like her legs were going to sleep; there was an intense prickling feeling she could not shake as the quills started to grow out from the skin that had not hardened to scale, but the feeling is so prevalent that it numbs all other sensations. When they pop open they form a dense mat of very tiny feathers. At the time she thought this was complete- but you already know that is not the end result. Okra stood there leaning on the counter for some time after the transformation paused, wondering if it was over yet. Rather than having the sole stretched into a cannon bone like a quadruped, it feels more like the middle of her foot was sucked out and up into the rest of her leg. Because of how her digits fully rest flat out like before- it felt like the front and back of her foot was still present against the ground, just a much, much smaller surface area. While it is extremely similar to a cannon bone- so it essentially is the equivalence of the sole of a human foot- technically speaking it is a completely new, third segment to the leg formed by fusing a bit of the true tarsus bones with the tibia. It took her some time trying to get used to walking on it. Okra just paced in circles for some time adjusting. At first she kept her upper legs folded, walking as if her former ankles were her new knees, but that isn’t how they are supposed to work. Using her full leg made her a little uneasy at first, because properly extending her legs then put her at least a full additional foot into the air. She was watching television later that day when her thighs started to feel odd. She brushed her hands up them- going the same direction as the feathers, and they tingled a moment and grew in size! She continued to pet her legs and with every movement the feathers got larger and larger, causing the furthest back to overlap the sides of her butt cheeks even though they don’t grow from there. Suddenly she heard a loud gurgle from her guts and a swelling feeling inside of her lower torso! Her pussy clenched involuntarily and moistened for seemingly no reason. A spark of pleasure fired down through her and she felt an object coming Out of her quickly! Because her pussy was clenching and unclenching entirely on its own she could not even attempt to hold whatever it was inside, and suddenly a chicken egg popped out of her, resting on the edge of the couch cushion! Okra sat up suddenly off the couch and bowed forward quite a bit, feeling sudden jerks of muscle in her lower back and once again the intense prickly feeling as her tail started to grow! First a little fleshy nub and then very looong quills. Her stomach gurgled again and her pussy grabbed at seemingly nothing and pressure once again swelled massively inside! With one hand on the living room table and one on her gut, she felt it start to bulge out from the size of the object in her! Her weight shifted mostly onto her arm as her knees got weak from the feeling! Her pussy opened up on its own from the size of the object pushing its way down, then it crested and stretched her even further open, crushing her clit. She let out a loud cry from the mix of feelings; both a strong ache from being stretched further than her body was willing to go, and from the pleasure of having the entire length of her clit squeezed by the large object sliding out. She popped a huge egg out the size of a small watermelon, and it landed beside the other on the couch behind her! Her stomach immediately gurgled again. Didn’t she say she lays an egg every week? But she laid two already in only a few minutes, and it seems like a third is already on the way. By now her tail was so long it was touching the floor, but was showing no signs of slowing down. The new vibrant red hair color started to bleed into the hairs from the roots out, rapidly converting her hair from the dark brown she was born with to the color you know her to have now. Okra scrunched up her face at the feeling of her eyebrows converting to tiny feathers. Another massive egg was on its way, she felt more bloated than ever before! Her belly let out gurgles every few seconds now as her guts were shifted around by rapid growth! Okra was panting and weak from the spikes of pleasure and rapid changes, she could no longer hold herself up and staggered onto the floor and then just rolled onto her back. Her next massive egg was the same size as the last- but this time as soon as it came out it was shadowed by three regular sized chicken eggs! Her eyes went wide as she could feel another already working out of her before her vagina was even able to close properly from the last one coming out! She watched in a panic as her stomach started to stretch out and look pregnant, except you could see slight individual bulges from multiple objects inside! Small regular chicken eggs, medium eggs, big ostrich eggs, and giant watermelon-sized mega eggs! One after another, some at the same time- none more than a few seconds away from the next! Her pussy started to go numb- all she could feel is the internal length of her clit getting aggressively pet by the huge objects forcing their way out, one after another! Her clit twitched erratically without stop. The eggs she birthed shoved the others away to make room as the pile on the floor grew. As they started to roll against the couch and wall between her legs, they started to stack up, forming a small mountain of eggs! Ten, twenty, forty minutes, an hour, two hours; she completely lost track of time, so exhausted from birthing eggs unceasingly that she wanted to just pass out, but the sensation of more eggs coming prevented her from passing out. Her vision pulsed clear only for a few moments as each egg crested, and then reverted to blurry and distorted when it popped out. She was barely conscious, so her perception wasn’t very alert to anything, causing the memory to fail here in most aspects other than her sense of touch, which was still very alert. Finally there was a long pause and she felt backed up. She was still huge and needed to birth another egg, but for some reason this one did not want to come. She grunt and pushed and her pussy opened wider and wider on its own, yet there was nothing visible yet. Finally the object started to shift and her eyes went wide as she felt it actually knock against the inside of her hips- on all sides! There was only one egg left but it was absolutely colossal! Now that it was moving, her guts were repulsing it on their own, preventing her from holding back to slow it down and give herself a break! She grabbed onto the floor under her with both arms and thrust her hips up, moaning and groaning loudly, shaking her head back and forth. She rolled her hips this way and that trying to find an angle that made this easier, but such a thing did not exist. It started to crest finally as it smashed its way further out, stretching her impossibly wide! Her entire pelvic floor was bending outward to try and let this thing pass! Once it hit the halfway mark, the pressure caused the rest to launch out of her so powerfully that it clacked against the wall three feet away, and came spinning back toward her across the floor- smearing her vaginal lube across the surface. She gave a breathless wheeze from the effort. Her torso went from being stretched to suddenly feeling utterly empty and hollowed out! She felt so light that she was practically weightless without it in her. When she did eventually stop laying eggs, she immediately passed out on the floor, utterly surrounded by eggs covering the entire floor of the living room and kitchen together. The colossus egg was so large you don’t even know what to compare it to. An oblong beachball? It is certainly larger than any other egg in existence unless you start counting dinosaur eggs. You return abruptly to the present. You were hoping to live out more of the memory to figure out what was going on- but RHE only records the transformation, so as soon as the bodily changes stop, so does the recording. You ask Okra what happened. Why did she give birth to such an obscene number of eggs all at once?! If she did That every week the island would be buried in eggs. “That is what I was saying before. My transformation was really quick and painless- only took a single afternoon… but then my egg production went berserk. What happened was my body was playing catchup. My human periods are once a month, but my egg laying cycle is once a week. So my body was creating at least two new eggs for every month I had lived… since I hit puberty. And the size, well, I already told you- even RHE doesn’t know why. My eggs are just random.”](else:)[Okra explains that when she initially transformed, her body attempted to play catchup. She gives birth to eggs at a rate three times faster than her former periods were. So that means she missed two or three eggs per month- her body suddenly created all of the eggs she had missed by being purely human before. Not only that, but the final egg of this absurdly huge batch was the biggest she had ever given birth to. The colossus egg was like an oblong beachball! It was so large that she felt it scraping her hip bones on the way out because it was almost too large to pass through! Her poor battered pussy was gaped for days, and almost entirely numb for at least one full day after. “As you can imagine I was pretty… concerned. RHE assured me that would not be how it regularly is- and luckily they were right. Just once a week now which is no problem at all- feels good if anything. Just that one time was… //''way'' too much//.”] You both notice the increasing heat- now the strong wind was almost necessary to keep you from overheating.(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ You have to pull off Olivia’s jacket and just tie it around your hip because you’d be cooking with it on.] Okra has to raise her hand up and peek at the clouds through her fingers to keep the sun out of her eyes. “Eh. Almost lunch- sun is high up now. I guess you better get going if you want to see as much of RHEI as possible.” She chuckled and playfully smacked your chest. “I hope you’ve gotten your breath back by now.” LUNCH (if:$Item is "Lunch")[You hold up the boxed lunch you have with you. It is time you find a place to eat. Preferably a place with shade.](else:)[You ask Okra if she has any recommendations. You did not want to disrupt Olivia’s work any further, so you are out and about on your own- but obviously have little idea of where to go, having never been here before.] Okra hummed in thought, sitting up. “Uh… jeeze. Lots of great places to visit and people to meet, but… we can’t have you running all over the island by foot or we will find you dead from heatstroke off in the mountains or something. Also, people are moving around all the time to enjoy the whole island to the fullest… so just knowing who you want to visit isn’t enough- you need to know how to find them too.” She tells you about the two pools in the north end but they seem like they would be too high traffic, and you do not want to disturb anyone’s plans with your touring. Lots of people will be there to meet up with others, play tennis or basketball, trade something in the market- what you need is a sort of medium traffic area. You want to find someone, but preferably catch them when they are alone and not in the middle of doing something else already. “Oh- how about the third pool then? It is central valley so more popular than the fourth pool but less than the first two which are relatively close together. It is also across from the gallery and library which have patio areas to sit at, if you wanted to sit down and break for lunch.” She motioned over to some darker grey clouds passing over- their bottom edge was smeared indicating it was raining under them. “The southern part of the island is getting rained on right now. Probably won’t last long, but you never know.” Okra suddenly looked surprised. “(text-style:"rumble")[Ah!] I just remembered I was supposed to make sure Lace was awake! She is supposed to meet up with Aleiha, but she always sleeps in really late because she is basically nocturnal. If you want- you can go in my place, because she will more than likely still be at home sleeping and need a wakeup call anyway.” [[Go to the third pool in spite of the rain.->Third Pool]] [[Wake Lace up!->Lace's House]]

You decide to loom around the area rather than wander too far. Once Nebela heads back to her place, you head straight west to slip between the homes back onto the main ‘road’ to see who you can spot. The first pool isn’t that far north from here as well as the market place, so this is the most commonly active part of the town to be in. You get hit with a rain drop here and there, but it is just an odd drop; it isn’t coming down consistently enough to really say that it is raining out yet.(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ The jacket keeps you warm even as the wind starts to pick up anyway. You also start to pat the pockets down to see what all is in them. Olivia uses the jacket a lot herself but never empties the pockets out , so there is a lot of small things rolling around. There is a pad of stick-it notes with the edges starting to curl from being in the pockets too long, and a pen in the breast pocket. Some paperclips, a coin from a country you are unfamiliar with, a key to one of the storage wings in the main complex, what looks like the balled-up wrapper from a stick of gum, and a solved mini-rubik’s cube.] You are startled when a window beside you as you are passing between the buildings suddenly opens and smoke comes billowing out! A man’s hand comes out waving back and forth as a fire alarm beeps from inside the house. You hear a woman’s voice but it is coming from too far into the house for you to make out what she is saying, then the man calls back. “It’s… fine. I can salvage some of it…” He looked at you through the window. “Oh, uh, hello. Just a bit of a cooking mishap, don’t worry; the house isn’t burning down.” (if:$Item is "Lunch")[You hold up your packed lunch and offer to donate it to him and his wife if they need. He shook his head. “I think we will manage. Oh… but it is grim outside. Do you want to come inside and eat that here with us? You are Olivia’s friend, yes?”](else-if:$Item is "Jacket")[You realize when he tells you not worry that he probably thinks you are RHE staff! Most test subjects only regularly see their handler from RHE, so they are unfamiliar with the rest of the staff, and you are currently wearing an RHE staff jacket thanks to Olivia. You explain that you are a tourist, not a staff member. “Oh, Olivia’s friend, right? The weather certainly chose a poor day to be dour. Why do you not come inside, take shelter for a little bit? I could make you a snack- I have to replace some of our own lunch now anyway, sigh.”](else-if:$Item is "Memory")[He glances up at the churning clouds in the sky. Both of you can hear the wind- in the narrow gap between buildings where you are standing; the wind condenses enough that it makes a whooshing sound. “Rather dour weather, hmm? Why don’t you come inside and take a rest. You are here on tour are you not, Olivia’s friend? The front door is unlocked, come on in. I have to replace some of our own lunch so I can make you a snack while I am at it.”] As you walk around to the front to get to the door you can hear him calling to his wife again to tell her they have a guest. She was already at the front door and about to open it at the same time you open it from the other side so you both startle each other slightly! “Regarde toi! Such a mignon outsider!” Both have a French accent, but the woman unintentionally switches from English to French at random, throwing you off. She takes you by the hand and quickly leads you to the couch to have a seat! (link:"Beau")[Beau is TS31, and even at a brief glance one can tell she is clearly a bovine mix- making it still easier; she is naked. Her body is mostly human shaped- her hips have a sharp angle to them and are quite wide so they are influenced by bovine, but they have to still be at least half human or she wouldn’t be able to stand upright. She has unusually dainty little hooves for a cow, because she had very small feet as a human. Her thighs are still human shaped and so they are round and meaty, but from her knees down her legs become mostly bovine. Beau has a tail whipping around behind her that is adorned with a tiny black and a white ribbon bow, and then a huge white bow after that. Making full use of the extra space between her legs thanks to her wide hips is a massive cow udder! The udder grows from her upper crotch and hangs down eclipsing her thighs if she puts her legs together. Unusually though; her teats are very large even for the size of the udder. Each teat is as thick as a drinking glass almost, and as long as your hand from wrist to fingertip! Because of how it flops down when she is upright, the bottom two teats face straight down at the floor, and the upper two point at the floor at an angle, in a lazy arc since they are too big to hold themselves upright. She has a ruby heart piercing filling in her belly button immediately above where the udder’s flesh tapers off. Her upper body has plenty of going on as well. Not to be outdone by her udder, her chest is buried in four DD cup breasts, but like her udder her nipples are bigger than they should be. She has full blown teats on her breasts- though they are sized like a cow’s teats would normally be rather than the ultra-huge ones on her udder. All eight of her teats flop around a LOT from the tiniest of motions she makes, since the flesh is a lot looser than the mammaries they crown. On Beau’s head she has small cow ears, and she has horns but they are so small and underdeveloped it just looks like two bubbles of bone on her forehead- they don’t really even have a tip. What really makes Beau stand out is her stark coloration- she has almost no normal human toned skin. Though she has no fur on her, her skin has the coloration of a cow, so it is both more black and more white than human skin can be. She is almost entirely black splotches- the white base just forms narrow lines around her body, looking like cracks in the otherwise black pallet. Her entire hands and her legs from the middle of her shins down is solid white, and she has a white stripe across her lower neck and one that almost connects all the way around her collar bone. Her neck then fades to human skin tone though, and retains this over her entire face. Her hair is straight and to her shoulders and is black, but her bangs are as low as her eyebrows and pure white. Her breasts are mostly black, but the thin white seams criss-cross over some, and the nipples and areola are powder pink to stand out even more. Her entire udder is powder pink, the soft color emphasizing how soft the udder itself is. You don’t say anything just in case it is considered culturally offensive but… you realize that because of where her coloration transitions the most… it almost looks like she is wearing a black and white French maid’s outfit! Even her white hands look like gloves, and her white bangs resemble the white pleated headband!] You look her over, but make sure your eyes do not linger anywhere too long. You don’t want to make her uncomfortable… though you also wonder if you even can. She is completely naked without a care- clearly she is already very comfortable with her body and probably doesn’t care if anyone is looking at it, but you imagine being outright stared at is still probably uncomfortable. Beau sees you looking and stands upright suddenly after guiding you to your seat- which causes all her teats to ‘plap’ against her boobs and udder. “Oh, pardon! Me et mon mari are in the buff! It is just the way of the island, vous comprenez? I hope you do not mind.” Amour glanced over from the kitchen where he is ‘//repairing//’ their lunch. “Oh… that is right. It has been so long, I forgot our nudity may be considered offensive to outsiders.” Now he blushed a bit. “Sorry, I am also naked but at least you have the counter blocking your view, haha.” You say that you are perfectly fine with it, Olivia already warned you of things like that before coming here, and you had already encountered Nebela before coming here. (link:"Amour")[Amour is a hybrid you cannot identify on your own- they tell you it is a centipede form. He has two sets of pectoral muscles to host two sets of arms, but then behind and between those is a third set of arms! His nails are solid black and actually made of chitin, so the plate that forms his nails also continues backwards fused to the rest of his skin, and tapers off onto his hand into increasingly smaller, more spread out plates. His hair is done in a French crop with a front curl, and he has a short beard- Amour’s hair is black. Amour’s bottom lip becomes stiff in the middle, and rises into a cleft point- the soft cleft travels all the way down his chin. This is where his face –almost- gained a set of insectoid mandibles. His skin is a pale rosen hue, so it contrasts the black chitin and hair. His multitude of limbs do not stop at his arms. On the sides of his midriff are two small limbs entirely encased in chitin that simply end in dull points. Below that is another pair identical to it, but nearly seven times the size- these typically rest on the front of the thighs of his primary legs. On his back; black chitin plates cover each segment of his spinal cord and then a disconnected, small, triangular plate flanks each of these segments in turn. His neck is almost twice as long as a normal humans and the triangular segments from his spine are longer on the sides of his neck, but you can only barely see this because he is wearing three different kerchiefs stacked on top of one another, covering most of his neck. The bottom kerchief has a bronze fleurs-de-lis pin in the front. Amour is very tall and narrow in frame, but you cannot tell if that was already true for his purely human self or if that was a result of his transformation. You can tell he gained at least a bit of height in the transformation because his legs were shapen like a digitigrade- his ankles raised high off the floor. Rather than a paw though; his lower legs are entirely encased in the black chitin and his feet are small and consist of only two clawed digits. The chitin covers the bottoms of his feet too, so his footsteps click on the tile floor in the kitchen. He has an odd tail that is very wide but not very thick, making it look almost flat if you view it straight-on. This also means it can move up and down much faster than it can left or right- its side-to-side motion is a bit limited. It is only two feet long total and totally covered in wide chitin plates on both sides. The plates from his tail connect to the ones over his spine, but also trail up and over his crotch which actually looks blank most of the time otherwise. His testicles are internal only, and both his penis and anus is hidden under and between chitin plates. His tail is almost entirely filled with the extra phallic length he is packing however- once it unfurls, it is quite long. Though not much thicker than an average shaft, the length of his penis once erect is tall enough that he could give himself a blowjob without having to bend over. His form came at the request of his wife, from a selection of possibilities RHE presented. She wanted him to have lots of extra hands to help milk her many mams- and he certainly cannot complain. It is a spectacle to watch him cook, putting to use all six of his arms at the same time, including using a wide pot lit in one hand to shield himself when facing the hot pan, so he does not get hot grease spit onto his bare chest. His spine is also very flexible- he can turn his upper body easily on a 90 degree angle to his lower body to allow him to reach something fully behind him without shifting the position of his feet. A normal person could technically also bend like that, but not easily- unless they are a contortionist.] Quite the couple- a centipede and a cow. Amour explains with a bit of an annoyed tone that the burning food was Beau’s fault. He warned her that he was cooking lunch, but she was distracting him in the bedroom picking out adornments to wear to a party. Beau fully ignores the comment and starts asking you about the outside world! They have television, radio, and the internet here on the island so it isn’t as though they are blind to the outside world- but getting the story straight from someone who is ''from'' there is different. You are the only ‘//outsider//’ that has ever been on RHEI, so you realize that you are as much a show to them as they are to you.(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ Beau eyes up your boxed lunch and leans close as she sits on the couch beside you. “Could I avoir une bouchée or two to hold me over? What did you pack?” Amour scowled at her from the kitchen. “Are you mooching food from a ''GUEST''?! After it was //your// fault your own food got burned!? Have you no shame at all?” She lowered her ears and was quiet in response, till he turned back around and just lowered her voice. “(text-style:"subscript")[So… watcha got]?” You chuckle and open the container, showing her what you had the golem give you to go. Beau mooches a few bites from you, but you do not mind.](if:$Item is "Jacket")[ Beau comments that you look good in the RHE jacket. Olivia’s jacket is mostly royal purple with black highlights, but the RHE logo is in gold. You thank her and comment that the pockets are full of a lot of junk. You partially pull out the stick-it pad to emphasize how cluttered it is and her ears perk up. “Oh! Do you want un correspondant?!” Huh? Amour chuckled. “She means to say penpal.” Isn’t that… impossible? You are getting a curse seal when you leave the island to keep its secrets; you’ll be physically unable to type, write, or talk anything about RHE directly. “But you already spoke to Olivia, naïf!” Amour paused his cooking and leaned onto the counter to face you. “You can talk to someone from the island, just not ''about'' the island //directly//. Just like you spoke to Olivia, who would have been here on the island when talking to you. There is a filter on RHEI that the ALUA system applies to prevent anyone from leaking information about RHE when we use the internet, but we can still use the internet fully otherwise, including talking to whoever we want.” You let Beau have the pad and pen for a moment, and she writes down her and Amour’s email addresses. You can now talk to them even after leaving the island!](if:$Item is "Memory")[ You mention you have a memory slate with you, and ask if it would be okay to look at the crystalized memory RHE has on archive of their initial transformations. Amour shrugs with his two upper arms. “That is Beau’s call. I don’t mind either way. We are married though, and came to the island together. If you view one transformation you are indirectly watching both.” You could tell by how Beau’s ears are tucked back that the answer was probably ‘//no//’. “Mmm, that is très personnel, non? How about I just tell you instead?”](else:)[ You ask how their transformations went when they first arrived. Beau has a lot of extra mams, and Amour has a lot of extra arms, it must have been pretty intense.] Beau laughed a bit nervously, blushing. “To call it intense is putting it lightly, mon ami. RHE was testing a special method of lactation in me, meant to be orgasmique!” Amour chuckled without turning away from the food. “Her endowments can orgasm.” Both her breasts and udder have high muscle complexity, and contract rhythmically to pleasure stimulus- allowing both udder and breasts to orgasm when their pleasure hits its threshold. She ejaculates milk! The test was originally done on TS19-XV but the sensitivity was cranked much too high, making her extremely sensitive to everything and overly emotional to boot- so she became an Extreme Variant subject. Beau was the second attempt at making the milking process as pleasurable as possible, and in her they succeeded. This caused a bit of a side effect of temporarily making her a nymphomaniac- and unable to make herself stop touching her bits.(if:$Item is "Memory")[ That is why her transformation is far too personal to let you see- unlike most, her lactation process is a bit sexual. She had been reduced to a quivering mass on the floor more than once by a tit-shaking orgasm.] The both of them had the usual woes of transforming that almost all subjects have- like their transforming feet causing them to be unable to walk while it happens. Neither of their transitions took too long, so they were both only out of commission for two days for the whole length of the transformation. The udder took a bit to get used to- it sloshes back and forth when she walks because her thighs push on it. Her hips brace the weight just fine, but it still weighs a ton- if she moves too quickly and then stops the udder will try to just keep going and yank her over! The four breasts were a simple adjustment, though it made most normal shirts basically useless. Beau’s body is built to carry the weight easily, and it does, but her body still feels much heavier and is harder to move about. Her body isn’t under any additional strain, but she burns through her energy faster than most when she is moving around, because any movements she makes takes a lot more strength than normal. Amour had a ton of muscle spasms all the time for those two days, which made doing anything a bit hard. The transition from one pair to three pairs of arms happened by branching his original arms, so his arms became absolutely massive and the muscle structure malformed before it started to branch, and then his original two split into the four new arms! The sort-of bug legs that hang on her lower body grew out individually though, so the muscles there were squirming and twitching wildly as they formed. At first they looked like little noodle-limbs, then baby arms before hardening and taking their proper shape as insectoid limbs. They are not particularly useful to have; they are technically legs so they have no fingers or anything to hold objects, and they are not nearly long enough to reach the ground to use to walk on, so they sort of just hang there. He can hold things with them by pinching the object between two of the limbs, but they are awkward. Once Amour replaced the charred food from their (if:$Item is "Lunch")[own ]lunch, all three of you gathered to eat. You thought you would be eating at the living room table because there was no visible table in the kitchen, but the top of the island counter telescopes out toward the living room into a table top! Amour motions to your meal. “The golem tech for the restaurant has been getting updated by RHE and test subjects for years. You can order almost anything from there at this point. Almost no test subjects ever eat in the main building though- feels awkward with RHE staff you don’t know. They bring a remote version down for special event hosting though, so that is how the golem end up learning new recipes. They get sent into the valley for an event, someone orders some cultural dish or family recipe the golem doesn’t know, and then they program it in.” You nod, saying Olivia explained a lot of it to you yesterday evening. Food conjuration would take an insane amount of mana to preform, but the golem use existing unprepared food as base material to reconfigure. Beau piped in. “Oui, but did you know a lot of the materials come from RHEI itself?” There is a test subject named Ariadne who started a farm on the island, producing several types of food and then trading the extra fresh ingredients at the market. If no one takes them fresh off the vine, they get sent to the RHE main complex to use in the primary food supply. Obviously since so many test subjects lactate, the island also produces its own milk, butter, cheese, oil, and even an alcoholic drink made from milk! There is also a lot of herbs growing in the western forest that have been left to grow half-wild, and many types of berries that grow around the island naturally. Rayzel has been gathering berries to actively cultivate up on the top of the Great Plateau- apparently the high elevation is favorable for growing them. Her berries are speed-grown using growth magic though, so if you have some sort of reaction to mana exposure- you can’t eat those. You ask about Beau’s milk- have either of them tasted it? Since she is hybridized with a bovine, does she produce cow milk, human milk, or hybrid? “Les deux en fait!” “She makes both. Her breasts produce human, her udder produces cow. Bovine is a pretty common gene for hybrids on the island, because it was originally used as a base for TS01- though you could barely tell by looking at her. RHE alternates to make sure there are lots of both- but in the outside world; human milk is a lot harder to get. Especially in large amounts. And human milk is obviously the most healthy to drink for a human, at least //straight//. So usually if they have to choose between one and the other, they will side with human.” “But I have the jiggly bits of both! It means I have to eat beaucoup though, because mon corps automatically takes a percentage of what I eat and turns it into le lait. So I end up eating, like…” She motions over her stacked plate. “//-three people’s// portions of food, just to fill myself up normally.” You completely lost track of time while eating- forgetting the time spent chatting while their lunch was still re-cooking. When you look at the clock again you sit up so suddenly you startle Beau. You tell them you need to get going! You only have the day to explore RHEI and it is already nearly the middle of the afternoon!(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ When you go to take the empty container your food was in, Beau stops you and tells you to just leave it. She has to go to the main complex daily to be milked anyway; she can just bring it back herself, so you don’t have to walk around the island with an empty container.] You ask if they have any recommendations on where to go. Given how time has been flying by today, you probably only have enough time to visit one last location before having to return to the main complex for dinner with Olivia. Amour hummed a moment in thought as he brought the empty dishes to the sink to wash later. “The problem with sightseeing is that the island is very large. It would take half the entire day just to walk from one side to the other, and this day is already two thirds over. You can’t really afford the time to be wandering too far, which eliminates a lot of locations just because of distance. Lake Sagara is to the north east of here, not too far. It is getting a bit late in the day for it, but people often go there to swim or just enjoy the sights and sounds, you might catch some people on their way back from it. It is a nice place to look around anyway.” Beau nodded. “Even closer is the market, you can see it from our front door as you leave. Not as nice as Sagara for view, but you are even more likely to find test subjects there.” [[Go to the Market->Marcus' House]] [[Head to Lake Sagara->South Sagara]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)(set: $Coin to (either:true,false))You hear the low rumble of distant thunder as you start walking south, slipping around the nearby buildings from the second pool to get back onto the main pathways. You only have one day to be on RHEI, and the weather decides that now is a good time to rain? (if:$Item is "Jacket")[At least Olivia’s jacket will keep you a bit warmer if you get caught in the rain. It is made of a dense material so it should take at least a minute for rainwater to soak completely through it to get to you. ]If you look up at the sky for long enough you can actually see the clouds twisting, spiraling inward. The storm system rolled into the island, but now the mountains are drawing it into and pooling it into the center. The clouds are quite puffy though dark- they have a lot of character. You might pause to look for shapes in them if you were not in a hurry. (if:$Item is "Lunch")[You wonder about your lunch too, but only the cloth you have around it to carry it by will get wet- the actual container it is in is waterproof.](if:$Item is "Memory")[This is the advantage of slates over actual technology as well. If the memory slate was an electronic device, you’d probably be worried it will break from being rained on. But it is literally a golden slate- it has no moving parts. Sure, you can’t take pictures or listen to music on it like a cell phone, but its damn near indestructible. The enchantment on it is a looking glass enchant, which links to an obelisk on the roof of the RHE main complex. The obelisk is what does all the processing of information and then projects it out to the slates. In order to interact with it, you use your finger like a touch-screen. Where your finger interrupts the projection; the obelisk can detect the gap and interpret the interaction. So unless you encounter something capable of destroying solid gold- there is no way you can possibly damage the memory slate.] By the time you get down to the pool there is only a single person there yet again- and from the looks of it; the only reason he is there still is because he fell asleep! The man is lying on a towel by the poolside, so he was likely sun tanning and then fell asleep, so he is completely unaware the sun is nowhere to be seen. You did not calculate the travel time into your plan of catching people leaving the pool- you could only just barely see it from the main complex so you had no idea how far away it really is. To be fair though- you did not know how busy the area was before the storm clouds rolled in either; there may not have been anyone here in the first place.(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ You are glad you brought the jacket, because the difference in temperature once the sun is gone is immediately noticeable.] The wind is starting to pick up by the time you get to the poolside and you nudge the giant of a man to wake him up. “MMm, wuh? Wuzall this… shade?” Because the sun was hidden his eyes were able to focus in on the sky and the swirling grey-black clouds. “Oh shit.” He sat up quickly, then glanced at you, taking another few seconds to register who you must be. “Oh, you’re… the researcher’s friend, right? Olive or whatever?” You laugh and tell him that is what you used to call her- Olivia hates being called Olive. (if:$Item is "Jacket")[He motioned to your jacket. “Wait, I thought you were here for a day tour or whatever… did RHE hire you on?” You explain you are just borrowing the jacket- it is not yours. “Oh. Yea, that makes more sense.” ](link:"Angus")[The absolute behemoth of a man introduced himself groggily as TS21; Angus ‘the bulldozer’. His muscles are so obscenely giant that he looks almost as wide as he is tall. Angus is a hybrid human-rhinoceros! His upper and lower jaw are pushed out ever so slightly to try and give his face some room- the entire bridge of his nose is instead replaced by a gigantic horn! He has a second horn between and just above his eyebrows, but it just looks like a diamond-shaped bone sticking out rather than a proper horn, and the curve of the first horn eclipses it from view unless you look at him from the side. Angus’ nostrils are pushed to the side of the horn’s base from lack of room. His eyebrows have no hair, and the hair on his head is short and bristly- powder brown in color. Apparently being mixed with a creature that basically has no fur at all prevents his hair from growing any longer than this- but luckily was unable to override it entirely. Angus’s ears are also leaf shaped, and able to pivot around freely. His neck is so muscular that it is wider than the head it is holding up! His biceps are so large that his arms are as big around as your entire torso. His flesh is two tones of grey; a pale pink-grey on his front and a darker base grey on the back. His skin is as much as two inches thick in some places, causing folds to form around his upper arms, thigh, and down his back- making the overlapping sheets of skin look like plate armor. His skin is slightly bumpy where it is the thickest. His body looks rather veiny- the blood vessels pinched rather tightly between muscle and skin. Angus’s hands are a bit devolved- his hands are large but the palm and muscle structure in the forearm has grown forward, partially swallowing the human structure of the hand itself. This has caused the ‘meat’ of his hand to advance up his fingers, completely hiding the first segment of his digits, and hindering their mobility. He can still grab things and use his hands like a normal human, but their movements are slow and clumsy. His legs devolved even further into proper rhino feet at the bottom, getting progressively more human the higher up the leg you to so that his hip joints remain human in shape; and Angus remains bipedal. While it looks like his feet are flat against the ground, their bone structure would reveal that he is actually standing on his tip-toes, and on the flat of his foot at the same time. The flesh and muscle of his soles expanded down, swallowing all but the very tip of his toes and toenails, giving his legs a pillar-like appearance. His lower body looks like a professional bodybuilder’s; his upper body is almost cartoonishly muscular. The crevice between his ab muscles is so deep you could hide coins in them. His pectoral muscles are so massive if you put them on a non-muscular person you could pass them off as F cup boobs. Angus has a tail but it is tiny compared to the rest of him, only a foot long and ending in a small tassel of hair identical to the hair on his head. He is wearing a loin cloth, and in a sitting position you can tell the cloth is just barely able to cover his dick. His phallus is disproportionately large compared to his testicles. His balls are pretty large for a human, but nothing too huge. His penis however- even when fully dormant- is long enough to lay over the curvature of his balls and still have enough length to rest flat on the ground beyond his balls. The silhouette of the sleeping shaft under his loincloth looks as thick as your wrist. You cannot see these details through the cloth- but his glans are a bit oddly shaped as well. His urethra projects a bit out from the head looking like a pipe, and the glans flares long and thin off the top, while his shaft itself is slightly wider horizontally than vertically. It is fully a half-and-half between human and rhinoceros dick.] “Ugh. Ate leftover spaghetti for breakfast… carbs knocked me out. Should have just stuck with the usual three eggs.” You mention you can make a mean omelet yourself. Angus chuckled in his thunderously deep, gravelly voice. “I don’t cook them. I just pop the raw eggs in my mouth and go straight into my morning workout.” He started to stand up now fully and you see he is only about a foot, maybe a foot and a half taller than you at most- but because of his muscle mass, he still makes you look microscopic in comparison. You can slightly feel his footsteps as vibrations in the ground- his body weight must also be massive. Muscle is heavier than fat. You say that he does not look like he would need to be working out at this point. You ask if his muscle mass came from his own training, or as a result of his transformation. “Both… sort of. I became this muscular when I transformed, but I am pretty sure if I just stopped- I would eventually start to slim down again. My body… my muscles feel antsy if I do not use them for too long. I told everyone that if anyone needs anything physical done- to call me first. Having lots of muscle is great- but it feels shitty when you can’t put them to use.” He grunt as he felt a drop of water splash off his horn. You both glance at the pool and see the water start to ripple- it’s the rain is starting up slowly. “C’mere. There is some trees we can stand under.” To the east side of the pool is a half-circle of homes, and leading straight through the middle of the half-circle is two rows of trees and a statue in the middle at the end. The trees were deliberately planted- their bases contained in squares of stone raised out of the rest of the ground slightly, so you can also sit on the edge as a seat. The trees are not especially large, but large enough to provide a bit of shelter from the rain. You can hear a rushing sound as the rain starts to come down much heavier, in a wave coming toward you two as you both sit on opposite sides of the same tree planter. The pattering sound of the raindrops all around is calming. You see lightning overhead, but it dances through the clouds- you have yet to see any connect to the ground. “Weather here is pretty chaotic. Usually it is nice because it keeps things interesting- but kinda shitty for you getting rained on your only day here.” You laugh and tell him you do not mind. (if:$Item is "Jacket")[Olivia’s jacket keeps you warm in the wind. ](if:$Item is "Lunch")[Since you are sitting anyway, you decide to open up your packed lunch. You offer Angus some but he declines- food is the reason he passed out by the pool. ]You look at the statue at the end- it is of a woman in an odd position. She is on all fours but her rear legs are bovine, putting her butt higher, and she appears to be looking back at her own cow udder. On the dark marble base of the statue is //‘Panta Rhei’// which means //‘Everything Flows’// in ancient Greek. Angus sees you looking at the statue. “It is the exact same statue in the parking lot of the main complex. Just a nameless cowgirl- wasn’t modeled after anyone specific.” He held out his hand to feel the rainwater run across it. “Panta rhei is especially true for RHEI. Everyone is different, everything is always changing, but it isn’t chaotic. There is a rhythm to it, a flow.” He turned to look at you over his shoulder. “You know I was originally signed up as a //‘breeder male’//. It was my job to have sex- share pleasure with anyone who needed it. I thought it was the life for me, man. I didn’t even know I was missing anything till I met Lilac.” Lilac? “TS30- a real beauty. She is funny, pretty…” He spaced out for a moment, completely forgetting what he was saying. “Oh. Anyway; when I met her, it was love at first sight. Couldn’t do my job properly and ended up quitting. Our relationship is a bit… complicated. It was actually thanks to another woman- TS81 that me and Lilac got together. I felt bad about dumping my job, but, she talked me into it. Said if it is what I want- that was all that mattered.” You say that you would really like to meet Lilac, if Angus speaks so highly of her. “Oh… I don’t know if I should. She is really shy, y’know?” You pull out a coin from your pocket and ask him if he wants to flip for it. Angus chuckles and then shrugs. “Why not. Heads, I will take you to see her.”(if:$Item is "Memory")[ And tails…” He motions to the memory slate sticking out of your pocket. “I will let you see what getting some real muscle is like.”] (if:$Coin is true)[It landed heads-up. “Welp. Fairs, fair. She is in the southern woods, so she should probably still be dry. I doubt she would have risked trying to run all the way home and getting caught out in the open when it started raining.” He waited till(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ you finished eating your packed lunch, and] the rain slowed to a drizzle. “So you sure you want to go see Lilac? It is even further south.”](if:$Coin is false)[The coin lands tails-up. Drat, foiled at your own game!(if:$Item is "Memory")[ You shrug and turn on the memory slate, holding it out a second for Angus to tap. Once he touches it, the ALUA system identifies him by his chakra signature and calls up a list of all crystalized memories- but the ‘list’ only has one entry. The only memory he has on record is the one RHE archives of the initial transformation, for research purposes. For a moment when you activate it, the world seems to smear around you like a painting someone dumped water on. When the colors of your previous environment wash away, it reveals a new one. You look out through the eyes of Angus himself- this is his memory, so you have no control over the body you look out from. This already happened, so you cannot influence the outcome in any way. You even feel everything he did, though the sensations are slightly removed. Angus was already quite fit; he did a lot of jogging and boxing, and watched his diet. He lived in the suburbs of a large city and had been shoved around and walked all over when he was a kid. He was determined to get stronger, and did. Suddenly no one wanted to fuck with him. It is because of that, that he signed up for RHE as well. If they were testing something on humans, it was for something that could benefit humans. If he could help someone else get stronger, and defend themselves like he had to- then you could count Angus in! When he moved in, his closet was a bit barren. There was several bland white shirts and each one was in a different size. Because he had not transformed yet, they did not know what his ‘end size’ was going to be, so until he was able to confirm what his finished size is, RHE would hold off on giving him a proper wardrobe. As his first day went on, his muscles felt a bit irritated, almost like they were going to start cramping from sitting too long- except he wasn’t sitting at all. Luckily; RHE provided him with some basic gym equipment, so he was able to use that. Between sit-ups and lifting weights he was able to appease his muscles. He noticed them getting bigger pretty quickly though. His shirt became tighter and his body felt oddly tight, almost swollen. Normally his muscles look real big after a workout and then settle back down after a while- they did not settle back down this time. By dinner time that day, his shirt was so tight it looked like someone painted it on him. He also had to adjust his seating when he sat down for dinner, now noticing he was growing a tail! At first it looked like a rat’s tail, because it was hairless, long, and narrow still. He was more tired than he felt, because his body was drained from the transforming and he ended up falling asleep with his clothes on- when he only meant to read on his bed to cap off the day. He woke up in the middle of the night, since he passed out earlier than he intended. At first he thought he had sleep paralysis- his body did not seem to respond. He groaned and managed to sit up though. His body still responded- but it was extremely stiff. His muscles felt bloated- he was getting some rhino influence on his muscle structure which meant his muscles and bones did not align perfectly at the moment. He felt his upper body muscles twitch, and groaning again he involuntarily flexed them and his shirt practically exploded off of him! Angus slipped out of bed and as soon as his feet touched the ground he felt a ripple through the muscles inside and his legs bulked up in a massive surge! The crotch of his pants dug painfully into his groin before he bent forward to shift the pressure and the back of the pants just exploded open! They tore so badly that rather than take them off, he just grabbed the front and tore it the rest of the way off. He looked at his now naked crotch to see his testicles were enlarged- they had been the size of chicken eggs, now they looked like oblong softballs. Between getting squeezed by his bursting pants and him hefting his balls to examine them, his cock was starting to stir. He grabbed it and started to work the shaft. As good as it felt, he noted it was slow to erect, but also when it should have been fully erect… it still felt a bit soft. And he could still feel the subtle shifting tightness of it continuing to erect. It was slow, but it wasn’t stopping! His dong was actually getting bigger! He shifted his hand on the meat pole several times trying to keep it centered to cover as much as it could, but there was now a good bit of length above and below his hand, and his erection just kept going! He started to feel suddenly a tired again, and his vision became a bit blurry as he realized his blood pressure was probably plummeting! Normally he had one hand on his nuts to roll them around and tug on the scrotal flesh, but his shaft was getting so long now that it was starting to wobble around when he pistoned it- one hand isn’t enough to stabilize that much shaft. Angus switched to using two hands. It still continued to erect itself larger and larger. His vision was so consistently blurry he was almost sure he was going to pass out from blood loss, but his pulse started to become more assertive- throbbing with more force to keep up. At least two veins near the surface were now so massive they matched his pinky finger in girth! His grip started to spread out- his dick getting so large that it was forcing his fingers apart. The glans turned deep purple from blood pressure and his urethra expanded- which was a strong feeling he could feel all the way back into his taint. The urethra started to stand up off the glans, becoming longer than the rest of his dick by a little bit, and the opening was wide enough that it he could probably drop a pencil into it. His glans started to stretch and deform a bit from pressure, the top ridge to the corona started to stretch out while the rest remained relatively the same, giving it a sort-of crest! There was several inches below one hand, several above the other, and one and a half between his two hands! The skin looked shiny from being pulled so smooth by the internal growth that you could no longer see the pours. He felt his orgasm coming and leaned back on the edge of the bed. His vision cleared just as his climax hit, and he felt his heart absolutely hammer in his chest! His heart enlarged to almost twice its former size, in several powerful surges! The veins in his crotch were pulled tight and fattened to be clearly visible on the surface as his groin muscles not only contracted, but expanded as a result of the contraction. His abs swelled and the crevice between deepened. He absolutely exploded cum across the gap between the side of his bed and the wall and painted a stripe down the wall! The jets of cum were so strong you could actually hear a wet slapping sound when they struck the wall! Rhinoceros have big dongs- and also for convenience they are able to bend them into a backward arch to pee behind themselves. So usually when someone spots a rhino dick on accident- it’s backwards. Angus shuffled around his house, his erection sleeping again but the entire rest of his body still stiff. It was hard to tell he has a foreskin now- his dick has sort of outgrown it, so it is no longer capable of containing his glans even when flaccid. And his shaft is so long the head of his penis dangles around his knees. He got dressed, since he was pretty sure he was going to be up for the rest of the day at this point- even though it is so early that it is still dark out. He normally would pop an egg or two into his mouth before going to work out but today he was really hungry and ended up eating a third… then a fourth, a fifth, and before he knew it, ate an entire carton of raw eggs and drank an entire carton of milk directly from the carton. Angus sat down on the bench and try a weight he never would have been able to lift before to see if he could now. As soon as he started to lift it, his skin pulled tight all over his body. His heart started to beat harder and he could feel his pulse firing down his veins from the force! He almost wanted to stop, not because he wasn’t pulling the weight off, but because it was causing his muscles to surge again. He fully lifted the weights as his sleeves started to rip! His growing pectoral muscles ripped the collar down. Angus growled and started to sit up with the weights still held over him and then started to do sit-ups, while holding a massive weight! His abs were so tight it felt like he was being turned to stone! His larger shirt exploded off of him as his upper back muscles swelled up. He let out a thunderously deep roar as his neck swelled massively with muscle- the veins throbbing so thick that his vision turned blue from blood pressure behind his eyes for a moment. Angus put the weight down easily- carrying it was now about as difficult as lifting a briefcase for a normal person. His tail was now fully grown and flicking around randomly behind him. His ears even felt tight and when he reached up to feel them, he felt the cartilage pop free from his skull! His ears pulled out and reshaped and new muscles squirmed to life at the base of them to allow them mobility they never had before. He was catching his breath still from the surge of growth in his neck when another wave of growth surged up through his neck and this time into his face! He groaned again and his voice distorted, becoming deep and grumbly. His entire skull grew a bit, forcing his face forward a bit and the cartilage in the bridge of his nose popped loudly and expanded to be at least twice the width! Angus slumped on the floor for several minutes, catching his breath and squirming around randomly trying to get used to his body. He was startled by a knock at the door! He scrambled to the walk-in closet at the end of the hall and tossed on the largest shirt they gave him initially. Even the largest was still a little snug, but he did not want to answer the door topless. His neighbor and the woman who was transformed just before him had come to see if he was alright. Ranos was nearby and her extremely keen ears picked up his rather distressed moan-roar. Clad in a beat-up looking cloak; Ranos is a hybrid bat, so her ears are absolutely massive, and her arms are wings! It also means she enjoys the night just as much as the day, so she had already been awake for hours and on the prowl even though everyone else is asleep. You are unable to get a particularly good look at her- some of her finer facial features for example look blurry. This is because Angus was embarrassed and flustered at the time, so his recollection was a bit hazy when it comes to Ranos’ appearance. Since this is a recording of his memory you are experiencing- what he does not remember, you cannot see. Angus tried to make up some random excuses but Ranos knows what she heard- her ears are far too sharp for that. He is a bit less nervous when he realizes that Ranos is entirely blind- she cannot see what he looks like at all. She comforts him, telling him a bit about how her transformation went and also some of the woes the other test subjects had to go through to get where they are now. There is over 20 test subjects at the time, so they were forming their own community at this point, and everyone had to go through their own transformation. Everyone understood each other’s problems and were always willing to help the newcomer. When a former test subject helps a new one they become known as that subject’s ‘''day one''’. In the middle of their conversation though, his body audibly starts to creak with impending growth! Seeing the weight lifting gear at the side of his living room, Ranos made the thematic choice to ‘spot him’. She deftly flipped up and grabbed onto the light fixture in the roof and hung upside down over him by her feet! She then reached down and grabbed his arms and pulled him up straight, even though his reflex was to hunch over. She pulled up and instructed him to pull down, flexing his muscles without having to move around. The way his shirt yet again tightened against him made him feel like he was being blown up like a balloon! Angus’ muscles bulged out of the material yet again, tearing through in several places till finally it exploded off. His pants started to do the same though, embarrassingly enough his pants also burst off! The feeling in his face was the most bizarre- it felt like the entire contents of his head were pressurizing and trying to erupt out of the middle of his face. It was not the contents of his head- but something definitely did erupt out of his face. It stung when the two horns broke the skin, but their growth stretched the torn skin so thin that it was unable to bleed- only a few drops escaped to trace lines down his face. The cartilage in the bridge of his nose hardened into true bone, and then hooked forward to grow out of the flesh as his horn. It grew so large it shoved his nostrils to the side and completely obscured the entire bridge of his nose from view. The horn is longer than it is wide, and arcs forward and then back. If you were to somehow straighten the horn it would be around a foot and a half long. When his legs started to change shape he almost unintentionally yanked Ranos off the roof! She was almost entirely holding him up as his legs bulked up tremendously, and the expanding flesh forced him to stand on his tip-toes as it swallowed the shape of his actual foot entirely. Both he and Ranos watched nervously as his grip in hers wavered and his arms started to change shape similarly. The flesh expanding up and out, swallowing his palm and the base of his fingers but stopping before they were completely consumed. Ranos and Angus looked at each other for a minute without saying anything, just blushing at one another, before Angus said he thinks the transformation is done. He certainly hoped it was- if he got any more rhino he will be on all fours! Each step he took boomed against the floor- he weighs more than an adult work horse! He could belly flop on someone’s truck and flatten it like it was an empty beer can! It was still hard to move- and it always would be. Angus is too bulky; he couldn’t move quickly to save his life, and his body is so inflexible that if he were to try and touch his toes, he wouldn’t get lower than his waist. But he is probably the strongest living creature on the planet. Ranos went to flip back over onto the floor but slipped, and because they were looking at each other; her face fell directly into his and they kissed by accident a split second before her body hit his and they both get knocked to the floor! You wake up from your daze suddenly and your brain takes a few seconds to realize you are back in the present, and your own body. You ask Angus what happened next, since the memory seemed to cut off rather abruptly. “W-well, RHE didn’t need to see what me and Ranos were doing.” No, you mean his transformation. His skin was still normal by the end of that memory recording. “Oh. That is because my skin changed really gradually. It was not a direct transformation, it just changed over time as my skin cells reproduced normally- the new cells were all rhino.” He smacked one of the skin plates on his shoulder. “Hard as armor.” You recall that he was trying to sun tan before he passed out, and ask him what a tan even looks like to him. His skin is pinkish grey, so how does he tan? “I turn //darker// grey. The thicker skin is immune to being sunburned too. Er… well, it can still technically be burned- I just won’t feel it; it doesn’t hurt because there isn’t many nerve endings there.”] You and Angus enjoy idle talking while you watch the rain slow to a drizzle. White dips in the clouds above threaten to reveal the clear sky again behind them. You finish your lunch quickly and thank Angus for his time. It is later in the day than it feels, and you want to meet more people if you can.] (if:$Coin is true)[[[Have Angus lead you to Lilac.->Field Of Flowers]]] [[Wander and see if anyone else is still outside nearby.->Kalie's Yard]] [[You hear a rather loud splash back at the pool behind you.->Third Pool 2]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)Angus motioned for you to follow and with a grunt he shoved himself back up onto his feet. The seating on the tree planter was so low he had trouble getting on and off it. It is still raining, but just lightly and Angus himself does not seem to mind. The wind has not died down at all however- so the raindrops that are falling; fall at an angle in the steady wind. You mention as you walk that you feel bad walking on the grass rather than the pathway, but the pathway is a bit winding sometimes, and it seems a lot faster to cut across in some places. Everything looks so pristine though, you’d hate to unintentionally ruin even a tiny part of it. He let out a chuckle that is so low pitch you could have mistaken it for another roll of thunder. “There are over a hundred test subjects- you think you are the only one cutting across? If the grass could be killed that easily, it would already be dead. It has some geo… Something. I don’t know the details, you’d honestly have better luck asking Lilac; she is a lot smarter than me.” He looks at your and points at his head. “Out of all the muscles in my body, my ''brain''… is one of them.” You chuckle and Angus smiles and you resume walking. He brings you across the main ‘road’ of the valley town, cutting south but more westward. The wind is so steady it feels almost like it is blow-drying you at the same speed you are being dampened by the rain. The clouds overhead have deep crevices that almost let in direct sunlight, so the speed they are churning in the sky is more obvious. You do not spend too long looking up at it though, because whenever you angle your head up you get hit in the eyes with raindrops. The air is extremely fresh and you take deep breaths as you walk to enjoy it. There is no pollution on RHEI so the air is normally very clean and softly scented with the salty ocean, the earthy forests, or the soft scent of flowers depending on what part of the island you are on, but the rain has removed all smells from it. The louder sound of raindrops pattering against tree leaves becomes louder again as Angus brings you to the south end. There is one home here on the west side only with an unusually large gap on either side of it where the forest has encroached on the town. There is a hoof-beaten path cutting into the woods on either side though and you can see just far enough into the woods to see that there is some homes beyond, hidden among the trees, against the foot of the Great Plateau. Angus explains that Lilac’s home is actually at the southern part of the northern valley- across the way from his own house- but this is her favorite place to hang out. It seems this forest is ‘hollow’. The dense line of trees does not go very far before giving way to a gigantic field of wild flowers! The forest forms a sort of circle around the area, while most of the area is occupied by the flowers. One of the two paths up the Great Plateau also starts here, where the flower field touches the base. There is no sign of anyone else being here though. The flowers flick back and forth from the falling raindrops. There are all sorts of flowers here and all of different colors, so looking over the field it resembles some patchwork quilt. Angus whistles twice, sounding almost like he is trying to imitate some sort of bird call- and then another high pitched whistle came from the edge of the woods on the other side of the flower clearing. Angus motioned down as the two of you cut across. “See, my feet versus these flowers is like a bull in a china shop. But tomorrow, these flowers will be standing up, good as new again.” Angus smiled and put his hands on his hips as he walked to the edge of the forest and looked up. She was hard to spot at first, because the trees here take all the sunlight for themselves- the forest floor is mostly just roots from the trees, a bit of moss and a good few mushrooms- there isn’t enough light for other plants. The trees here are not too big and have rather spindly trunks, but they also branch quite a bit and they are tightly packed together- you can easily tell where the traits in the forest are from them being the only gaps large enough to traverse. The contrast of light from the flower field and the forest is steep, so at any sort of distance the forest just looks black. Lilac is also not even on the ground. To avoid getting wet she skittered up one of the larger trees when it started to storm out. She is lying down on a large branch overhead! The tree is a Wisteria as well, so it’s absolutely covered in long hanging bunches of blue flowers, hiding her rather well. (link:"Lilac")[Lilac has very pale skin- the coloration was affected by her transformation, so trying to get a tan won’t work- and because she is so pale, she actually gets sunburns real easily. The first thing you- and most people- notice is her horn. It is made of a special type of ivory and tightly spiraled like the horn of a Narwhal. It looks at least two feet long and is quite narrow the entire length, and is slightly pearlescent. She has very long straight hair- it is long enough in the back that it covers her own butt, and her bangs are shaggy enough that they eclipse her eyebrows, but not her eyes. Her eyes are a soft baby blue, and her small mouth is framed with pouty pastel-pink lips. Her ears retained some of the human cartilaginous structure, so they are unable to pivot around- the base is fixed to her head. They are however quite long and pointed like a long-eared Elf. Lilac’s breasts are a pert C cup each- the perfect size to fill the average person’s hand without any extra. Like her lips, her nipples and areola are pastel pink, and her areola are rather small. Her arms and hands are entirely human in shape, but there is a several inch long tuft of hair that grows from her wrist- like the hair of an equine fetlock. Lilac’s legs are human up till her knee and then equine from there down- but not the legs of a horse. Lilac is hybridized with the mythical Unicorn; a species that evolved to exploit the existence of magic. A feral unicorn looks like someone mashed together a goat with a horse. Lilac’s legs are narrower than a horses, with bushy fetlocks to match her wrists, and then her hooves are cloven unlike those of a horse- which is an odd-toe ungulate. Unlike any other species, the hooves of a white unicorn are golden, and the hooves of a black unicorn are silver- so Lilac’s are gold. Obviously, they just look like they are made of gold; they are not literally gold or they would be extremely heavy. She has a tasseled tail whipping around over her- the tail looks to be about three feet long with another foot worth of hair in the tassel. Lilac is quite petite- she is shorter than you by a little bit even though her ankles would be raised off the ground like an ungulate. All of the hair on her body is snow white- and the backs of her ears and her pubes are snow white, powder-soft, short fur.] Some coloration appeared in her cheeks as she blushed brightly when she spotted you beside Angus. Her grip on the branch tightened. “Oh! Uh, h-h-hillo, I mean hello! I, uhm… I am Lilac- TS30. You are Olivia’s friend that everyone had to vote on a bit ago.(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ Her jacket looks good on you.” You ask how she knew it was Olivia’s jacket. “She is your friend, and you were not brought here as a RHE hire- so the jacket isn’t yours.”] She glanced around herself nervously then back to you. “Uhm, I am... not... I don’t have any clothes. It is normal on RHEI for test s- er, people to not wear clothes!” It looks like she is trying to look for a way down, but can’t with you here for some reason. You say you already knew. You don’t mind. “Okay. But... I... uh... okay.” She bit her lip nervously. “I am not... my body isn’t... quite //right//.” Everyone on the island is unique- you say you did not expect anyone to be //anything// beforehand. If everyone is different, then the concept of ‘//normal//’ doesn’t exist in the first place. She nods softly and starts to slide her legs off the side of the branch. Angus brings his arms up to grab her and help her down. He is so gigantic compared to her she looks like a large doll to him. Angus can easily lift her entire body up in a single hand. As soon as she is not lying face down on the branch you see what she was hiding against the wood; her genitals are entirely male! Unicorns have an unusual breeding method- all unicorns are born male. They use magic to cloak their appearance to all but virgin women, and they try to mate with the human. Once breeding has happened, the woman starts to turn into a female unicorn and eventually gives birth to another male. So all female unicorns were formerly human. RHE tried to challenge itself with creating a unicorn hybrid, and took the gene samples from a female unicorn… but Lilac still had her genitals fully converted to male. Everything else on her body is still quite feminine. Her anus is the puffy ring of an equine and neon pink to stand out against the rest of her, her taint and genitals are also neon pink; like an albino horse. Her balls are the size of a very large chicken egg each, so rather small for an equine, but her hairless sheath looks quite plump and soft. It also does not connect to her underside, so the sheath flops forward when she is upright. Her phallus is obviously hidden away within it right now; her nervousness making her temporarily immune to unwanted erections. When it comes out to play however- her dick is three feet long and the same girth as her arms. You do not ask about it, but you do notice something a bit off about their proportions. Angus fell in love with Lilac and stopped being a breeder to only give himself to her. You can tell at a glance… she isn’t big enough. There is no way his massive member can fit into her without hurting her. But… she has a penis too. You realize- //Angus is the bottom.// (if:$Item is "Memory")[Lilac glances briefly at the golden slate in your pocket but says nothing and you can tell from how she tenses that you should probably not even ask. There is no way she will let you look at her crystalized memory. She is blushing so hard already just being near you that you’re afraid she might have an aneurism. ]By now the rain has stopped- the dark clouds are now silver and broken up into tall groups between gaps of blue, sunny sky. Lilac says the tall groups of clouds look like floating ‘marshmallow castles’. Angus sits down in the flowers and Lilac sits in his lap. You sit across from them. Lilac tells you she was terribly embarrassed by her gender switch, and for quite some time locked herself away in her home, unable to face anyone else in her current state. It was TS81; Kalha that eventually got her to come out. Lilac was a rare sight on the island up till then- only seen briefly here and there dashing between locations so as few people as possible seen her. Kalha however did not leave her alone. When Lilac did not come outside, Kalha would sit on the other side of her door and talk to her through it. Whenever there was a party or event, she would always rush over and invite Lilac even knowing she would never agree to go. Kalha picked flowers from this hidden meadow and that finally got Lilac to wander. She wanted to see where the flowers came from. The meadow is a good distance from her house though- so over time others started to spot her on the trip over and talk to her. When Angus spotted her, he fell in love almost immediately. Angus was unable to do his job properly being a breeder if his heart only belonged to one, so he quit. Their relationship is a bit lop-sided though. Angus will only be with Lilac- but Lilac has still been with a few people, and Angus is fully aware of that and fine with it. It isn’t like she sleeps around a lot- she has a hard time just talking to people normally. Angus was playing with her hair the whole time you all were talking- she apparently likes having it pet. “Oh yea… what is that thing they do to the ground to make the flowers and grass alright again? I was talking to them about it earlier but I didn’t explain it well.” She tilted her head. “G-geomancy? Geomancers draw lifeforce to the surface to refresh any greenery that is disturbed by the high traffic of the valley. RHEI was a caldera aeons ago, so it is also connected directly to one of the world’s leylines. Lots of geothermal activity in The Grotto, but also lots of life energy in general to draw from.” Lilac pointed to the side of the woods to the east. “You can almost see Rayzel’s house from here at the foot of the Great Plateau. She is known as ‘//The Mancer//’ and maintains this meadow herself. The rest of the island is taken care of by RHE’s own Geomancers. I hear Jun is also a Geomancer but he hasn’t practiced it in ages.” The beams of sunlight streaming down between clouds painted the land between shadow and light like the splotches of a cow hide. The light started to turn a metallic orange and the pillars angled further and further east as the sun sank toward the west- it is getting late, you need to head back for dinner with Olivia still, and you are very far south right now. (if:$Item is "Jacket")[Angus asks if you wanted to keep in contact. It did not even occur to you till this moment- everyone on the island has internet access. ALUA filters any information directly related to RHE from being posted, but otherwise they have full access to the internet. When you get the curse seal on your tongue when you leave the island, you won’t be able to type anything directly relating to RHE. But those do not prevent you from contacting anyone from RHEI if you already know their contact information. You quickly pat down the many pockets of Olivia’s jacket and find a pen and a pad of stick-it notes that is curling at the edges from rolling around in her pockets for so long. Lilac and Angus give you their email addresses so you can remain in contact even after you return home. ][[Continue...->Meadow End]]

You decide to stick around the area and see if you can spot anyone else. Angus heads off to the south to see how Lilac is doing- she undoubtedly got caught in the rain as well. She was far south of where her home is, so she would not have attempted to run back, but luckily is in a wooded area so she had even more trees to hide under than you and Angus. You do see several people, but they are dashing between locations- not staying outside. You also only see them because the ground is just gentle slopes and mostly clear- so you can see people from a good distance away. Judging from how far they are, you think they are heading to the market place in the northern valley. It is almost all sheltered by streamers of cloth so you could hide under it in the rain and still be outside. You cannot see the market from where you currently are though- the homes on the east side of town are blocking your view. You are about to start heading up that way when you hear a woman call out and see a tiny white ball of fluff dash up to you. It is a white teacup Pomeranian dog- small enough that you could very easily pick it up in one hand. It dashed over to you almost immediately, but then looked around confused and slightly distressed. A woman dashes out of the nearby home to quickly scoop up the little thing, and you immediately notice the gigantic tail on the woman! It is easily larger than the entirety of her body! She also basically scoops the dog up rather than picking it up- because each of her fingers is tipped with a claw as thick as the finger itself and at least three inches long! She holds the dog to her chest and its tongue lulls out of its mouth as it looks at you with a vacant stare- immediately comfortable enough in its master’s arms that it is no longer thinking about anything. “Oh, sorry about that- someone closed the door on the mat so I opened the front door to straighten the mat, but then Cotton seen me opening the door and ran out thinking we were going for a walk. He didn’t realize it was raining out.” She paused for a moment, looking you over. (if:$Item is "Jacket")[You realize since you are wearing an RHE staff jacket, she probably thinks you work for RHE- she doesn’t realize you are a tourist. You explain that you are Olivia’s friend. “OH! You are the outsider!](else:)[You are… Olivia’s friend, right? The outsider?” You nod.] “Oh- and Cotton is this little guy!” She held him out for you to pet but then pulled him back before you could. “(text-style:"shudder")[Oh jeeze] and I am Kalie- sorry, this is such a bad introduction!” She glanced around and motioned back toward her open door. “Do you… want to come in? You are getting wet, and it’s windy as heck out here.” She turned the dog around to look it in the face. “My widdle cotton ball almost blew away, yes he did!” It gave a soft ‘//Beh!//’ in reply. You follow Kalie into the house; though follow several feet behind so she doesn’t accidentally swat you with her gargantuan tail. Once inside you smell food cooking and her husband casually waves to you from the kitchen where is he is getting an early start on dinner. (link:"Kalie")[Kalie is a scalie; but mammalian regardless. She is hybridized with the only mammal in existence with true scales- the Pangolin. Her claws do not really grow from her fingers, but are more like an extension of the finger itself- the base of each claw occupies the entire end of each digit, except her thumbs. On her thumbs she just has claw-like fingernails. On a pangolin the massive claws are used to burrow to find food- so they are hard enough to cut into the earth and hollow it out. When Kalie walks, she naturally holds her arms up loosely and drapes her claws down- so she does not accidentally swipe something with them while she is walking. Her feet are clawed as well, but they are not quite as big as on her hands. On her feet they are progressively longer toward the middle, so they give her feet a triangular point to them. Kalie has sand colored eyes and base brown hair- she has golden highlights in it at the moment, but those are dyed in. The edge of her face and the back of her neck is covered in tiny little golden scales, which start to get bigger on her upper back. By the time they reach her mid-back the scales are large, and by the time they reach the base of her tail; they are colossal. The scales on her tail are so large that if you pulled one off you could use it as a small shield. Even the scales on the small of her back could be pulled off and used as dinner plates! They are shaped like lop-sided diamonds and are quite sturdy. If you were to apply enough pressure, you could bend one but not very far, and it would require more strength than the average person possesses. They have a golden shine except some of the scales at the end of her tail, just because they have lots of tiny scratches on them from colliding with stuff. The tail itself is as wide as her torso at the base and gets narrower very slowly. It is twice the length of her body at the very least and since the scales are so massive it has a sort of fan-shape to it- it is a lot wider horizontally than it is vertically. The underside of the tail is covered with super tiny scales like around the edges of her face though- the giant plates are only on its outer-facing side. Her arms, legs, and entire torso aside from her back are still bare human skin. She only wears clothing occasionally, but now is one of those occasions since the weather is less optimal outside. She is wearing a black sports bra and black yoga pants with a pale grey stripe up either side. Kalie’s breasts look to be a D cup each- and though you cannot see through her top, her nipples and areola are a dark brown with a tapered edge.] (link:"Jun")[Jun is fully clothed, so you do not get a particularly good look at his overall body. He is wearing a hoodie, but the hood is down since he is in the kitchen cooking. Unlike almost every other test subject, Jun frequently wears clothing because it is very easy for him to catch a chill- he is hybridized with the sphinx breed of cat- a cat that has zero fur. As a result, his skin is pink and rather soft and wrinkly in places. Kalie jokes that he is so wrinkly now that when he gets older he will just look like a human raisin. His fingers look shorter than normal, but that is because the final segment of his fingers are angled backwards- he has the retractable claws of a cat. He is wearing pants so you cannot see- but Kalie whispers to you that it is actually a hybrid canine-feline member; by her request. He has a tail that sticks out of a small hole in the back of his pants just under the waist, but the tail is quite thin and not particularly long, either. His eyes are quite striking- bright yellow with narrow slit pupils. The iris are reflective like a true feline, so he can see in the dark. Even his head hasn’t a single hair on it, and when he raises his hairless eyebrows all the skin on his forehead and the top of his head crinkles up. His ears are very large triangles for the size of his head and flick around to listen whenever his wife lowers her voice- knowing she is probably saying something she shouldn’t be; but she was usually doing it on purpose knowing it would annoy him.] When Kalie sits she puts her feet up on the couch too, and her massive tail curls around the far side of the living room table. She places Cotton onto the table to show him off, and he looks at you eagerly to smell the stranger, but he takes only a single step before falling squarely onto his face. The surface of the table is made of glass- his paws have absolutely no traction on it. Kalie quickly picked him up and gently put him back onto all fours. “Aww, lil Cotton had an oopsie. Isn’t he (text-style:"sway")[cuuute] tho?” She used her thumb to boop his snoot and the light touch was enough to cause him to fall over again- this time on his side. Kalie just picked him up and put him on her belly so he wouldn’t keep flopping around like a stuffed animal. You ask her how she and Jun came to be on RHE originally, but she gets a bit quiet and ashamed looking, so Jun is the one who speaks up. On the outside before coming to RHEI, Jun was a landscaper- he was a Geomancer. The problem with that job however is that when the ground freezes in the winter, he might as well not have a job- no one is calling a landscaper in the middle of winter. So they survived off credit during the winter, but that means that over the years they built up more and more interest on increasingly large credit debts. That is why Kalie was hesitant to bring it up- she was unable to find her own job. Even when Jun struggles to keep them afloat, Kalie was unable to contribute anything. She honestly never thought too hard about it- they had been together since highschool and she always just assumed that one job would be enough between them, so she did not really develop any skills or talents that would get her hired anywhere. Here on RHEI though- there is no money, so money troubles don’t exist. Kalie has found a sort-of job here on the island now though. Since the island is actually an extinct caldera, there is a lot of mineral veins in the rocks, especially in the cliffs where the stone face is exposed. Kalie will hike and do some amateur mountain climbing in the cliffs, and if she spots some crystals she can use her massive claws to crack it out of the rock. (if:$Item is "Memory")[You motion to the memory slate in your pocket and ask if either of them would be willing to let you see how their transformations happened. Kalie nodded. “Oh, sure! The scales coming in was real weird.” Jun quickly shook his head. “Not me. I would rather RHE didn’t even have a copy, but… oh well.” Kalie hummed. “Oh, I guess you can’t look at mine then, either.” Both you and Jun asked ‘why’ at the same time. “Because we transformed together. If you watched my memory of it, you would also be watching his, just in third instead of first-person.” Jun nodded slowly. “Oh yea... that is true.”](Else:)[You ask what their initial transformations were like. Kalie especially must have been quite a shift, since her tail is so gigantic, and the scales.] Jun shrugged, leaning against the kitchen counter. “Mine wasn’t that much of a shift, but it was a lot of things here and there and the changes were stuttered, so I ended up stumbling or dropping things all the time for the first three or four days because I never knew when a change would hit. The most awkward was the… features my wife specifically requested.” “His penis.” Jun let out a long sigh, hoping not to have gone into that much detail. “… yes. My penis. Because my transformation is more subtle, the dosage was deliberately small, but that meant the transformation happened slowly. Every time my penis changed a little, it would force an unwanted erection.” Kalie thought about it for a moment, taking a deep breath in preparation. “Mine was crazy! RHE gives you these default, neutral clothes in various sizes to start out with till you fully transform and I broke almost every sized outfit! I would get dressed then my scales would grow longer and larger and rip through the clothing, then I change sizes, then they grow again. Oh! And our toilet is weird shaped- it’s really long because I have to sit on it backwards- because my tail is too big, if I tried to sit on a normal toilet my tail would be shoved up at a painful angle. Taurs have weird toilets in their houses too! I saw Gabby’s toilet and it is like long and narrow, but it also dips low in the middle- like, it is U shaped.” Jun cleared his throat to get her attention. “He didn’t ask about Gabby, dear…” Cotton gave an affirmative ‘//BARK//’. “O-oh right. Sorry, I get sidetracked easily. The scales form out of my skin, so my skin felt really tight and sort of itchy, but the scales are so solid that scratching them doesn’t really do anything. Like… imagine you have a subtle itch, but it’s below your fingernail somehow. You can scratch your fingernail, and still feel it- but it doesn’t really help because you aren’t directly touching the itch.” Jun piped in. “Even after the transformation she took months to figure out how to use her hands again. Her claws are gigantic but they cannot be cut- the best we can do is use a massive nail file to dull the tips. And even that takes forever because the claws are really hard.” “Yea, I would put holes in my clothing every time I went to get dressed, I lanced the bed a few times when getting up, stabbed Jun by accident a bunch… it was tricky learning how to work around them. Marcus is the island’s nail artist and he frickin’ loves working on my nails, because they are so big it is like a full canvas, haha.” Kalie put Cotton on her head so she could demonstrated for you how strong her tail is. Actual pangolin rely on their tail as a counter balance because they walk on two legs in spite of their torso seemingly being too long and their limbs too short for that to work- but it does thanks to the tail. Mother pangolin even carry their young on their tails like a mobile hammock. Kalie did not have a lot of free space to be whipping her tail around indoors, but she demonstrated its strength by curling it under herself and standing up on the tail, pushing her back against the roof. She also stuck her tongue out to show you its length. It is only about half as wide as a normal human tongue, but it is also three times as long! Her tongue is long enough to wrap fully around a drinking glass almost twice! Pangolin are a type of ant-eater, after all. You can only imagine how she puts that thing to use in the bedroom. Kalie tries to recommend other test subjects that you should visit while you are here, but you make note of the time. It is getting dark really fast outside because of the cloud cover- it is evening now; you don’t have any time left to find anyone else. In fact, you should probably get going right now. The lanterns outside are clicking on now to guide the way- but that is the extent of their ability. There is not enough lanterns and they are not bright enough on their own to illuminate much area at all; they are just a guide. Since you are not familiar with the island already, and the pathways are stones sunken into the grass, you might end up stumbling all the way back to the main complex- tripping over the edge of the stone path you cannot see in the dark. The wind is still howling out there too, which means the temperature will be dropping quickly- not that it ever gets very cool here. RHEI is in the sub-tropics; even its coldest day is still considered hot depending on where you originally lived. Jun is Japanese and Kalie was originally from Sweden so it is toasty warm to them. Neither have a hint of an accident so you would never have known just from talking with them. Jun’s large ears perk up at the sound of a timer going off. “Op! Dinner is ready.” You smile and say that it means it is your queue to leave. Jun shrugged. “I would have invited you to stay, but we didn’t know you were coming so there isn’t enough food.” Kalie nodded, crossing her arms. “Mmm, Jun is very meticulous when he cooks to measure everything out so there are never any leftovers.” She picked Cotton off her head and held him out to you. “Say goodbye to the cute outsider Cotton.” Did Kalie just call YOU cute? You reach out to finally pet the little doggo and he quickly bites your hand! “Cotton! No!” He isn’t biting hard, and his tiny little fluffy nub of a tail is wagging; he probably wants to play with you, not realizing your leaving. Kalie said she wished she could at least help walk you back to the main complex, but had to settle for calling you a shuttle. Leaving the couple to have their dinner, you wandered outside and to the nearest lantern. Even the crickets were hushed by the steady wind, so it was actually super quiet outside. You doubted in the modern world outside this island that an area could even exist as quiet as this. The air here cleaner than any you’ve breathed before, and likely will again. It is dark and windy, and all surfaces are still wet with rain but you feel quite comfortable, and lean against the lantern with a smile on your face. It has been a good day. [[Continue...->Cotton End]]

You and Angus look back toward the pool but all you see for a moment is the water rocking violently as if something huge had just fallen in. As soon as part of that ‘something huge’ resurfaced, Angus recognized her. “Mmm, that is TS10. Based on appearances; you might think she is an extreme variant or something but, nah. Audumbla’s body is a bit… feral looking. Good woman though, from the few times I have been around her myself.” Angus said he better get going, he wanted to check on Lilac since she definitely got caught in the rain too. Angus heads south and you walk back around the way you two came back to the pool to see this TS10. Because the wind is so strong, you can stay relatively dry just by walking near the building line- because the raindrops aren’t falling straight down. Because she is treading water all you see of Audumbla from a distance is her horns- so many horns you think there is more than one person in the pool, but no, it’s just her. The pool water must be cooler than usual because of the rain now in it- it is an odd time to choose to take a swim. When Audumbla spots you she pulls herself up onto the side of the pool, then places her second pair of front limbs onto the ground to pull herself into a ‘//mermaid pose//’ standing up out of the water, with her lower half still in the water. (link:"Audumbla")[Audumbla looks almost more cow than woman, but it also looks like there is literally more than one cow hybridized into her. Her overall body is absolutely gigantic- larger than a normal cow. Her head is entirely bovine, except it is devoid of fur and she still has human eyebrows and hair on her head. Her skin is peach toned with soft brown splotches, but the splotches on her are so massive that the peach toned skin only exists as brief ‘cracks’ between. The square shaped end of her bovine muzzle is entirely pink, and there is a large silver septum ring like you would find on a bull. Her neck is that of a huge bovine as well, including long, squishy soft dewlaps. Since the dewlaps are basically entirely loose skin and nothing else- she got three piercings in it. Silver like her septum piercing; she has a row of three large rings on her dewlaps to adorn her large neck, and each one is adorned with a diamond shaped, blue amethyst crystal. Though she is female, the horns on her head are massive; they curve out and up, then inward, and then slightly outward again at the tips. But in addition to that, she has another pair of horns the same size on her upper neck… and then another slightly smaller pair in the middle of her neck, and then a tiny spike-like pair of horns at the very base where her neck and back meet. She has four sets of horns! Her ears are large and leaf shaped, and both have a scaffold piercing. Her chest is large and lacks any human mammaries, but is not quite shaped like a cows- it is a halfway between human and bovine. Her shoulder blades stick out a bit, in the back and she has four of them! Audumbla has the arms of a massive human woman, but then immediately below them she also has the front legs of a cow! When she stands on two legs her cow arms just tuck themselves at her sides- when she is on all fours her human arms just gently grip her front cow legs. All of her fingers and thumbs have a silver ring on, and they are all etched with different Nordic runes. Because of the double sets of limbs and shoulder blades, her rib cage is longer than normal. Audumbla’s midriff is sunken in like a humans, and her hip bone is a hybrid of the two. She has two sharp protrusions from the sides of her hips like a cow but her legs still hinge like a humans, allowing her to walk on all fours or upright. Because her midriff is sunken in, the milk veins trailing from the base of her udder protrude quite a bit. In order to allow her legs to handle holding her colossal body up on only two limbs- her thighs are massive with human structured muscle, making them big and round rather than flat and somewhat triangular like a cow’s flanks. This also means her butt cheeks are big and round, like a human. Her lower legs are shaped like a cows, and end in cloven hooves- the bones in her legs are especially thick though in order to support all her weight, so even by cow standards they are pretty beefy. Audumbla has two cow tails that twine around one another, almost looking like one large tail when they hug tightly together. Between her legs is an absolutely massive cow udder. It is the size of a prize winning dairy cow in comparison to the rest of her, but she is bigger overall than normal cows. If you were to curl into a fetal position- her udder would be bigger than you are. It probably weighs enough to crack your ribs if she dropped it on you. In the pool water however- it bobs softly; it is buoyant. Bovine hooves are not the greatest at treading water, but when standing upright she is so large that she can keep her head out of the water while standing on the bottom of the pool, so Audumbla technically doesn’t even need to swim in the first place.] As you could have guessed from her appearance; in addition to her Scandinavian accent, Audumbla rolls her ‘M’ and ‘O’ sounds and her voice is very deep, though still smooth and womanly. “Well if it isn’t the oouutsider. How has RHEI been treating yo-Ouu?” You say you have been having a great tour so far, in spite of the weather. You ask what she is doing taking a swim when it’s still raining. “I like when the weather is cooler and the water is more refreshing. Reminds me of where I grew up.” You ask about her transformation. It seems a lot more feral than most- was it an accident or a design choice? Her home must be quite different from the others to fit her. “My bathroom is a bit odd looking, but not the house. The house is actually identical t-to-ooou the others, except that it is placed under a spacial distortion enchantment that makes it larger. I am an early test, so they had not invented a lot oouf the more intricate hybrid parts yet, like hoof-hands. That is why I have four front limbs- so I could walk on all fours to carry my weight easier but I did not lose my huuuman hands.” She held up a hand and turned it for you to see the runes in her many silver rings. “These rings are actually part of my power- they slowly distill mana I come into contact with.” Audumbla explained that her udder isn’t meant to make milk. It ''can'' make milk, but her body’s lactation triggers were not made any more sensitive like other test subjects had. Instead her rings draw in mana and converge it into fire and ice energy inside of her body. Her body then very slowly processes it through her udder and every month or so she might be able to milk a drop or two out of her udder, of Eitr. Eitr drops are made of perfectly balanced fire and ice energy together- an alchemical feat that is astronomically difficult to achieve normally because the two energies oppose one another, making them exceptionally unstable. Audumbla can mix them very, very slowly over time using her normal biological functions however, allowing her to stabilize it. Eitr can be used in alchemy essentially to super-charge any effects the substance already had; like causing a healing potion to become so powerful that you are able to re-attached severed limbs. If given to a person straight, it can charge a person’s biological functions which can help cure illnesses, by super-charging their immune system. (if:$Item is "Jacket")[She nods toward you. “Yooouu get hired on?” You smile and tell her you are just borrowing it. It is a nice jacket though. You can feel a lot of random small items in its many pockets too- Olivia probably doesn’t even know what all she left in it.](if:$Item is "Memory")[You motion to the golden slate in your pocket, asking if you could look at her recorded memories of her transformation. Audumbla laughed. “I am not sure it will tell yooouu much. The transformation was rather sudden, since I am so far from a normal human there was a lot of changes. I was super out of it during most of the changes, (text-style:"buoy")[aaand] since the crystalized memory is, well- a //memory//; if I don’t (text-style:"underline")[remember] what happened, there is nothing toOOu record. You can still try if you want.” You hold out the slate and she touches it with a human finger, then while you are working the slate she slips fully back into the pool and swims around just under the surface, so her horns are still sticking out above water. You are back at the offices the moment you activate the slate. You smile mentally as you realize the person talking to you- or Audumbla more accurately- is //Dr. Olivia Wingael// herself. Olivia is the researcher who created Audumbla’s tincture! But she is not her handler- Olivia is foundation level bioarchanist; she makes the tinctures, she doesn’t administer them. That means Aubumbla only ever spoke to Olivia a few times total over the years she has been here- so right now Olivia’s facial features are darkened and blurry. This is a recording of memory, and Audumbla has not seen Olivia enough to remember her well- but since Olivia is your best friend you do not need many hints to recognize her. You also notice something else immediately- TS10 //isn’t// called Audumbla; they call her ''//Astrid//''! As she is leaving the offices and going down to her house, her walking becomes a bit staggered. Her vision blurs with the beat of her heart a few times here and there. You start to see what she means about being out of it. Her concentration is already starting to fail, causing most of the world around her to look like a painting someone dropped in water. You can tell exactly what she is looking at and thinking about because that becomes the ''only'' visible thing that has any sort of clarity. She tours her house, but barely has any time after the tour before having to hustle to the bedroom and get off her feet- her legs feel weird. Even sitting on the end of the bed though, her thigh muscles were still unusually tight and flexing on their own! Her pants suddenly became extremely tight and before she could reach down to pull them off she felt a strange squirming feeling on her midriff! She pulled her shirt up from her leaned back position and seen large veins digging through her under the skin! Her upper crotch started to blush pink and look puffy where all the fat new veins converged- the start of her udder! Her vision goes extremely blurry and then she closes her eyes, causing the world as you see it to turn completely black. You can tell she is still awake though, because you still have the removed sensations of her body- she has to be conscious to have memories of the feeling. The growth and movement under the skin around her crotch caused the pleasure nerves around her vulva to trigger. She ran her hands around the growing curvature of the udder, finding the start of the teats and her fingers stopped there, rolling over and around the teats to promote their growth too. She dug her hand into the taut, rubbery mass and stretched the skin pulling it up, down, and side to side. It felt good to tug on. Because of how close the base of the udder is to her labia in the back, pulling it forward also gently tugs on her labia. She could tell from the feeling alone that her pants were already too tight to remove normally, but the pressure was spread out luckily so they were not cutting into her. Her thighs grew faster than her hips, so most of the pressure was spread across the upper pant legs, not the waist. The pants tore and she could feel her skin start to bubble out of the new openings, and then it tore more, and more of her spilled out. She moaned loudly as her feet started to compress- feeling like it should hurt, but didn’t. You could hear the sharp snaps of bone as her soles stretched out and the many bones of her human feet started to regress into the few large bones of a bovine hoof. Suddenly it is the next day and she is wobbling in front of the mirror, panting. The transition is jarringly quick. You are unsure if she actually passed out the day before or just couldn’t remember how it ended. Her vision pulses from almost clear to very blurry over and over and she groans as a pressure builds in her head. The pressure suddenly surges down her spine and almost feels like its trying to shove the rest of her spine away from her neck. Astrid’s neck starts to emanate loud, hollow pops as it grows longer and the veins tighten as it grows larger overall as well. As she moans in distress at this, the pressure surges forward into her face as well and her voice distorts, becoming deeper. Her nostrils flare larger and then the cartilage in her nose pops loudly and her nose becomes much wider but the bridge becomes shallower. Her face pushed further and further out, obscuring her vision forward- not that you can see much due to her distorted recollection. Her head and neck get so big she leans forward a bit, but the neck is so long already that leaning even a little bit forward pressed her forehead into the mirror. She is startled by the mirror suddenly breaking and pulls back to realize her first two horns were starting to bud- and the twin points jammed into the mirror. Her face started to grow so large and long that her eyes were being shoved to the sides of her head Bulges formed under the skin of her neck moving out to the sides from her vertebrae as her several other sets of horns started to bud as well. She held her neck a moment, gripping the unusually soft flesh and then tugging on it as if to help it stretch and feel less tight- but that caused the skin to stretch out forming the dewlaps! It felt like pulling on soft dough! Her memory started to distort worse, causing the colors of everything to blur together so badly it was like looking through a kaleidoscope. Her collar bone popped apart and started to expand massively to touch back together, and then her ribs started to creak as her body tried to keep up to be able to support her massive neck and head! There seems to be several periods of time just completely missing- like a watching a confusing film that overdid it on the smash-cuts. Her concentration sparks whenever she collides with something it seems, because a common jump is to her flopping against a wall or counter to try and hold herself up. Astrid bending over forward as her back muscles and shoulder blades grow, stretching her shirt and ripping it from the back of her huge neck down till it pops off entirely. Her front arms were particularly strange. Her biceps grew abnormally wide and then tensed on their own, slowly pulling her upper arms in half as the bone within split to start forming the bovine front legs behind her human arms. Once the upper arm was free, the bone started to form from the joint downward, which caused it to push against her human arm and further wedge them apart! Her lungs, heart, and entire chest expanding caused her torso to feel rather hollow while it was happening and she had little control over her breathing during that, so she was very still while that was happening. The stuttered growth of her lungs and the space around them in which they could be filled in kept changing, which caused her to breath in and out seemingly at random. While her second set of front limbs was still growing in, she did not have proper control of her original arms, because the two sets were too close together. The full formation of the second set of shoulder blades and the space between the two sets of limbs was the last change they went through- and only then was her full mobility restored. She was visited by an RHE staff to check on her- likely her handler but you never got a clear enough look at the face to recognize who it is. She tells Astrid a bunch of stuff but Astrid does not remember the conversations- just that the conversation //happened//. So you hear a human voice but they are just making random sounds, not actual words. Her perception slowly fades back in after what you gather to have been at least two days of transformation. Astrid is on the floor between kitchen and living room. She gets up slow and is a bit uneasy on her legs- not used to having four legs in addition to her two arms. She hears a knock at the door and turns toward it, then suddenly you are back in the present! Audumbla smiles with her candy pink bovine lips when she sees you have returned from the memory. “Told yoOuu it is a bit spotty.” She stifled a laugh. “Also, nice boxers.” You realize your pants are around your ankles and quickly yank them up! Good thing it stopped raining while you were in the memory. In the memory it felt like several days, but you have only been out of it in reality for two minutes. “Angus walked by on his way home- said he could not resist and pantsed you.” And you let him. “(text-style:"buoy")[Mmm], yea, I did.” Astrid? She bowed her head a moment at that name. “Mmm. Audumbla is the name of the primordial being and precursor to all of existence in Norse Mythology- the inspiration for my transformation. Astrid is my original name. You can call me that, if you proffer, I don’t really care which name people u-uuuoh-se.” ]You point to her many sets of horns and say that she probably doesn’t sleep on her back anymore after the transformation. “Hah, nope. They grow up mmmore than out, so as long as I sleep on my side or belly I won’t immmpale anything. I got a bunch of jewelry at home foour them too- mmmooore parts to doll up.” You ask how she would sleep on her stomach- would her udder not get in the way? “It is like a giant warmmm pillow between my legs- it is extra comfy if anything.” She pulled herself out of the pool and you realize just how much larger she is than you. Her hands look dainty and womanly still, but they are large enough to encompass your entire head with one hand. She shakes her head like a dog to knock water off and the rings in her neck piercings jingle together. It is getting harder to focus on anything though- the light is dying fast. While the rain stopped, it is still very cloudy and the sun is starting to dip down on top of that, causing the dark of the impending night to creep in very quickly. Audumbla hummed in thought, looking around as the lanterns started to blink on to mark the pathways. “Do you have a curfew?” Well, you need to leave tomorrow morning so you can’t go to sleep too late. You are also supposed to be back at the RHE main complex for dinner with Olivia. You supposed you better get going... “Well it is really dark, I can take you back to the main complex so you don’t stumble around in the night.” You are a bit confused when she motions to her back with her head. Wait- she wants you to ''RIDE'' her?! [[Continue!->Primordial End]]

You invite Angus and Lilac to return with you and join you and Olivia for dinner- since they clearly do not have dinner plans of their own if they are all the way out here this late in the day. At first Angus turns you down; unlike you, he does not have any insiders in RHE and hasn’t even spoken to his handler in over a year. Lilac then quickly turns you down, clamming up and simply shaking her head. “I-I-I never ate in th-the main complex before! Do they even let test subjects in? Isn’t that restaurant, y’know, for RHE staff only?” Angus lowered his eye brows, knowing the actual reason she shot you down so quickly is that he isn’t going. She is too shy to go by herself. She needs someone familiar there. Angus sighed. “Alright, I suppose I will come. Something new, right? And I don’t have to cook.” Lilac looked at him and then back at you. “O-oh, th-then… I guess (text-style:"subscript")[I could cm…].” Her voice shrank away till the end of her sentence was inaudible, but you’re pretty sure she said she is coming. She squeaks in surprise as Angus picks her up and plops her down on his shoulder to ride him. She quickly leans over and grabs his horn with one hand for stability- though that causes her breasts to rest on the top of his head. You were prepared to power-walk your way back up there to make sure you at least got back before it was completely pitch black out, but luckily Lilac revealed that you do not need to. From the base of the wisteria tree she picks up her onyx slate that she had with her and flicks the few rain droplets off of it to turn it on and call a shuttle for the three of you. The shuttle can’t enter the forest obviously, but it can carry you the rest of the way. The three of you wander the pathways back out of the forest to the house that sits on the border- by then the shuttle arrived to pick you up. Because there are no streets and thus no street signs; the shuttle uses a torch enchantment to create a bodiless light in front of the vehicle several feet to guide it. That way, test subjects will see the light before the vehicle and know not to walk out into its path. It isn’t as though the shuttles go super-fast in the first place- they have to be ready to stop for test subjects who are too large to even be able to move out of the way with any sort of haste. (if:$Item is "Memory")[Once back at the offices, you slip out the golden slate and place it back where you found it. It isn’t something Olivia herself needs very often so chances are she never knew it was missing in the first place.](if:$Item is "Jacket")[Once back at the offices you take Olivia’s jacket off and remove the top note on the pad to stuff into your pant pocket instead. In spite of being out in a rainstorm, the jacket feels perfectly dry again thanks to all the wind out there. ]Angus remains in the hallways between the offices and restaurant since they are on the same level. Lilac remains riding on his shoulder. You tell Olivia about the two tag-alongs and she saves the word she was going on her PC and hustles over. The four of you have a wonderful dinner- Olivia ended up choosing everyone’s meal for them in the end, because she knew the menu the best. Lilac had been nervous the restaurant is for RHE staff only- and technically it is, but Olivia assured her it was fine for anyone to eat there. The restaurant was made to serve RHE staff, but it gets the food from the exact same source as everyone else on the island, so it didn’t really matter where you ate it. There was never any rules against anyone eating here, so anyone at all could waltz in and order whatever they want; no one’s going to say anything. Lilac and Angus end up learning about ''you'' now, because Olivia starts to get nostalgic from eating with you in person. You two drifted apart when she went to university because she was busy all the time so you only ever spoke online. Then she got hired to RHE as a researcher and had to make up lame excuses as to where she was and why she was too busy to see anyone else, so no one would find out she was on a paradise island making hybrid people. She starts fondly recalling the adventures you two had before that divide, and Angus and Lilac seem quite entertained learning of them. Even once Lilac and Angus left to return home and it was completely black out, you and Olivia only shuffle over to the offices just to resume talking. Olivia plays a dangerous game, rolling a second office chair over and laying down between two of them. “Those two make a cute couple. Lilac is so adorable I could just… eat her up like desert!” She sighed, letting her arms flop to either side. “I need to… re-sort my life a bit.” You ask what she means. “I didn’t… realize how much I missed us hanging out together till you came here and we… hung out again. RHE has been ramping things down for a while now, so there is really no reason not to leave the island here and there to visit you, and my parents. Even before they started to slow down, there is a ‘//heart clause//’ in the contract of both staff and test subjects that allows for one day a year where they can leave the island to visit a loved one, and in the case of a medical emergency; potentially longer.” She was quiet for a moment before turning her head to look at you, though keeping it fully rested on the chair. “I could have visited you this entire time… at least one day every year, and I just didn’t. Does that make me a shitty si- er… friend?” You say you don’t think so, but ask why she never did. If she doesn’t want to hang out, that is fine, but she literally just said that she loves to hang out with me. So, then why stop when she did not have to? “I don’t even know. I guess… I get wound up in the present? When I am with you, I don’t want to do anything else. I just wish we could hang out forever, talk about nothing and be happy and relaxed forever. But when I get working, I keep lining up more projects or tasks for myself before I finish so that I //never// finish. And then all I do is work. I mean, I ''AM'' heading a new project trying to regenerate lost limbs. From what you seen today out there you probably think that should be easy for us, but, it isn’t. For partly the same reason reverting tincture effects is basically impossible. Someone else is looking into that, too.” Reverting tinctures? “Yea…” She (text-style:"buoy")[yawned]. “To try and fix XV subjects so they no longer need to be in the bunker. Adding more changes to try and fix things runs the risk of compounding the problem, but we can’t back pedal, either. There is a research team currently trying to develop a //''Mark 2''// tincture. I mean, both these projects are pretty important, but also RHE has been ramping production down and a lot of the teams have downsized, so it isn’t like I have the manpower to even be working consistently every day, there should still be time for things like visiting you. I will try to get you back on the island too. I know one day isn’t much to experience everything here. I got you here once, why not again? I can’t guarantee anything of course, and it probably won’t be for a while after, but… yea.” By the time you and Olivia actually went to bed you were both so tired that you barely remember the end of the night at all.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]] ](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]] ](else:)[ ]You sleep deeply, but are hard to wake the next day. Neither of you wanted you to leave just yet, but the helicopter has a schedule to keep and it cannot leave without you on it. It is even windier today than yesterday, but there are only a few clouds in the sky and they roll by quickly, creating spotty mobile shade. Olivia walks you to the base of the tower before heading back, but by the time you are heading up to the third floor of the tower she runs back up to you, completely out of breath! There is an overpass that links the second floor of the tower directly to the main building- she caught up using that. She had not noticed earlier but Lilac dropped something off for you on her desk, so Olivia had to run it to you after finding it. It is a large, thick sheet of laminate, trapping and preserving a bushel of wisteria flowers! Lilac thought she would give you some of the flowers from the meadow to remember your time on RHEI! (set: $Wisteria to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

Audumbla’s entire spine is partially bovine, so she has no trouble carrying a full grown person on her back. She bows a bit and you carefully swing your leg over her shoulders and she stands back up onto all fours with you on her. You then grab hold of her small, lowest horns like handlebars. The fading sunlight through the churning clouds almost makes the lighting look blue. You can still hear thunder but it is far away now- on the other side of the mountains that enclose the island. The wind is so strong it has already dried her hair before you even reach the north end of the valley, and it has become tangled around her upper two horns. From on her back you notice her hairline actually goes down lower in the back than it would on a human, but not nearly far enough to call it a mane- so hard to notice since everything else above her collar bone is fully bovine anyway. The back of her neck has faint horizontal lines in the skin where the folds of her dewlaps sink the deepest, depending on her position. Because her shoulder blades stick up a bit, it is almost hypnotizing to watch them sink in when they leave the ground, then stand up again as she places it against the ground all while rotating around and around under the flesh. As you two pass through the northern end of town, she speaks up to break the silence. “Youuu know I signed up to RHE originally because of an addiction touu transform-mmmation.” You remember seeing parts of a documentary on that at some point. Transformation magic sets are expensive so most people don’t have access to them, but if you have the money; anyone can get one. Once you have the tools to do it, you can continue to do it indefinitely since the only expendable resource it uses is mana. Some people use it for an advanced form of cosplay known as formplay, some people change themselves into hypersexualized forms or other fetish related bodies to make porn. Some people just feel like they were born in the wrong body, and just feel more alive in another shape. But some people just love the feeling of changing, growing, shrinking; turning into anything else. Transformation addicts will almost never stay in their ‘//correct//’ form- only turning back to normal once they have depleted all the mana around them, since the spell doesn’t work without mana. Using a spell to transform yourself puts the mana into your body though, so doing it repeatedly all the time runs the risk of giving yourself mana poisoning. Maintaining the form takes a hell of a lot less mana than switching forms, so if they are smart and live in a high population area, they can potentially keep it going for a long, long time without running out of power. Addicts will change shapes from the shapes they were already changed into, eventually forgetting what they are actually supposed to look like- they literally forget who they are. Some experiment with hybridizing forms for custom transformations, and even start to forget what the actual creatures are supposed to look like. They are exposed to their misshapen, custom configurations for so long that they think it’s normal and forget what ‘normal’ actually is. If Audumbla was an addict- the prospect of undergoing a transformation that could not be canceled out no matter what must have sounded like the jackpot. “Mmmhmm. It ultimately cured m-mmme though. Having RHE so focused on my body and its immmportance in their testing made me hesitate. Plus I did not have my transfo-oourmation kit here on the island mmmyself, and could not change while RHE was taking notes on my test, so there was a period of time I had noOuu access to transformmmation- a m-mooo-ment of clarity. Rayzel ‘the mancer’ has transformation magic, and several spells mem-mooorized so if I really wanted, I could still transform into whatever- it’s just that when the spell wears off; this is the form I default to now. But, nah. I am done with that. This is m-mmm-moo.” She cleared her throat. “Me.” Audumbla finally got to the main building of the RHE complex and you got off, thanking her for the ride. You offer to stay for dinner with you and Olivia, but she declines. She doubted the seats in the restaurant could handle her weight, and she had her own dinner already planned out for tonight, but she thanks you for the offer. In the offices again, Olivia is quick to spot you since she was done her work and just waiting at this point.(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ She asks if the jacket helped and you tell her it definitely did. You would have remained outside and trying to tour the island no matter what, but it is nice you didn’t have to catch a cold while doing it.](if:$Item is "Lunch")[ Olivia points to the empty container as you put it down. “Packed some food for on the go, huh? Good idea. Hope your lunch wasn’t too filling, because I got a ton of recommendations for dinner.” You chuckle and tell her not to worry- you are plenty hungry again.](if:$Item is "Memory")[When you enter the office you were sure to place the golden slate down where you found it, on the small shelf below the coat hooks. Olivia doesn’t need to use it with any sort of regularity so odds are she never knew it was missing in the first place. Besides, what would she do about it after the fact? Kick you off the island? You have to leave anyway!] She asks you about your self-guided tour as you two eat a huge dinner. You tell her of the miss-matched ensemble of people you stumbled into.(if:(history: where its name contains "Second Pool")'s length >= 1)[ Nebela was the first, and most of her features are what you were sort-of expecting of the island… except for the fact that her large breast was by itself.](if:(history: where its name contains "Western Plains")'s length >= 1)[Okra is quite unique even on an island populated entirely by unique forms. The only pure avian and one of only two who lay eggs. She also helped you have a calm start to your tour in spite of accidentally having a rather fast-paced walk.] Then you managed to find one of the relatively few males of the island- ‘the bulldozer’ Angus. Though giantly muscular and intimidating to look at, he seems like a rather soft personality. Then finally Astrid… or, Audumbla? You are still not sure what to call her- she herself has no preference. Olivia laughs. “Most other test subjects call her Audumbla from what I understand, but her handler calls her Astrid. So, it really doesn’t matter. You can call her either- people will know who you mean.” Olivia talks about Astrid’s form rather fondly. It lacks the more advanced hybrid parts that RHE would go on to create after her test. If they were presented with the same project architype now, the end result form would be quite different- much smaller and more humanoid. But Olivia says she has to respect that RHE was able to make her form completely functional with no real drawbacks without having developed any of those advanced methods yet.(if:$Item is "Memory")[ You lower your eyebrows and say that you know she is the one who developed the Audumbla tincture. Olivia blushes lightly. “''HAH''. Well, telling me that just outed yourself! You took the memory slate! Not that I did not already know- after seeing you eye it up, did you really think I wouldn’t check if it was gone?” You shrug. What is she going to do about it? “I dunno. Maybe I will put a virus on your computer, since I apparently still have full access to it.” Nuuu, she is the one who takes viruses ''OFF'' your computer, not put them ''on''!] After dinner you head to sleep and end up falling asleep really quickly, even though you did not feel that tired.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]] ](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]] ](else:)[ ]You are still slow to wake the next morning- the knowledge that you have to leave the island feels like a weight holding you down against the bed. Olivia ends up practically dragging you out of the building though- the helicopter has a schedule to keep, and you are holding it up. She escorts you across the parking lot to the base of the tower. When you look back at her, you notice the statue Angus mentioned the other day- you had missed it the first time you were here. It is to the east side of the main building- the identical statue that is in the lower, central valley. The one in the valley is a bit larger however- and this one is flanked by a line of triangular shrubs in planters along the edge of the building. Before she breaks off, Olivia hands you a small crystal vial. “Astrid dropped this off this morning before I had to drag you out of bed //like a two-year-old//. Careful, the vial is made of actual crystal.” The crystal vial looks like something obscenely expensive perfume would be in- but instead it radiates light! There is a single radiantly glowing drop of Eitr inside! The light it throws off is bright, but does not project far. Wow, that is quite the souvenir. Sure, she can make the stuff perpetually, but it is a slow process and it is something only she can reliably produce. Not to mention- even a single drop of Eitr is worth a (text-style:"rumble")[''LOT''] of money, and generally isn’t something you just hand off for free. You almost feel bad for taking it, but you do not have time to dwell on the thought- you have a ride to catch. You will definitely remember your time on RHEI, and Astrid especially now. (set: $Eitr to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You see the shuttle coming as soon as it leaves the parking lot of the main complex, and starts to head down the slope into the valley- the light at the front of the vehicle is easily spotted in the darkness. It is darker than night normally would be- because the thick clouds keep out even the star and moonlight. The rain itself is long since stopped- the thunder fading into nothing from a distant rumble. The light at the front of the shuttle actually isn’t attached to the vehicle itself- it is an illumination spell projected several feet in front of the vehicle- so that people will see it coming before it actually arrives. There are no traffic signs or roads on RHEI. The shuttle spots you under the lantern light and brings you quickly back to the main complex. (if:$Item is "Memory")[You place the golden slate down where you found it under the coat hooks, careful to set it down exactly how you found it. As soon as you turn to find Olivia, you see her standing right beside you with her hands on her hips- tapping her toe against the floor. “Well, well, well. I explicitly told you not to touch that, I recall.” Oh no, what is she going to do, keep you prisoner on the island as punishment? “Pff, you cocky little shit. C’mon, let’s get some dinner. I am starved.”](if:$Item is "Lunch")[Olivia spots you quickly and rushes over, already to go. You hold up the empty container that had your lunch in it. “Oh, you packed a lunch eh? You can just leave that on the table when we get dinner, golem will pick it up with the rest of the dishes.”](if:$Item is "Jacket")[You are hanging the jacket back on its hook at the door into the offices when Olivia walks up to you and almost startles you. “Looks dry, where you in someone’s house?” You tell her about being invited into Kalie and Jun’s house for a bit, and being bitten by her dog Cotton. Olivia asks you about Cotton as you two walk over to the restaurant- she knew Kalie had a dog, but has never seen it herself. Olivia works on RHEI but she never just wanders around the island aimlessly, so there are things and many people that Olivia herself has never encountered even though she is here every day.] You and Olivia head on over to the restaurant and she recommends lots of food for you to eat. You tell her about how the day went, from Nebela to Angus to Kalie and Jun. (if:(history: where its name contains "Second Pool")'s length >= 1)[Nebela is a bit timid but friendly and her mono-breast is certainly… //different//](if:(history: where its name contains "Western Plains")'s length >= 1)[Okra helped calm you down after an accidentally intense start to your tour. You two took advantage of the nice weather before the storm rolled in]. Angus is huge and intimidating in appearance but a big softie in personality. Jun is an average joe, just in the body of a naked cat, and Kalie is quite energetic and playful- and her dog is a cutie. You and Olivia talk about old times, before she went off to university and continue talking well after you run out of room for food. It is very late by the time you go to sleep. You surprise yourself with how quickly you fall asleep- all that wandering around during the day wore you out more than you thought.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]] ](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]] ](else:)[ ]The next morning it is as hard to wake up as you would have expected through. The weight of the fact that you have to leave the island when you get up made it that much harder. Olivia helps you get up and escorts you to the base of the tower where the helicopter is. “Well, this is goodbye for now. Now that you know what my job actually is I will try to stay in touch a lot better. Maybe I will visit you next time! I can also look into maybe getting your back here one day- //no promises though//.” You both look over to see someone charging toward you on all fours! You do not recognize the canine woman, but you do recognize Cotton riding on her back! Cotton has something large and round in front of him- he is sort-of holding it but its weight is greater than his actual body so it is mostly just resting on the woman’s back like he is. When the woman stopped, Cotton jumped off and started barking at you rapidly, leaving the woman to take the cargo down and offer it to you. “Roxi Roseheart reporting for duty!” Roxi is a hybrid with a beagle, and apparently works as a messenger for the entire island, running between locations on all fours. Both her hands and feet are padded so she can be on all fours without hurting herself. Kalie apparently sent her in an attempt to catch you before you leave to give you a souvenir to remember the island by. Roxi offers the sphere to you, and it wobbles from the movement. It is a peach-toned jiggly sphere, and someone drew a rabbit on it with a black marker. As you take it, you notice how soft and bouncy it is, and turn it to see a nipple on the other side. Yup, it’s a boob. It is a novelty stress-ball, made to look and feel like a G-cup breast. (if:(history: where its name contains "Second Pool")'s length >= 1)[You are not sure if Kalie knew you had seen Nebela earlier somehow, or if it was just a coincidence, but the rabbit drawn on the back of the single huge boob was clearly meant to resemble her. It could just be coincidence, since Nebela is the only test subject with a single boob. ](else:)[The orb is meant to look like another test subject named Nebela- because she is the only test subject who has a single breast! Now you kinda wish you found her too. ]Cotton was meant to deliver it, but the ball is too large and heavy for him to even lift, so he was mostly just along for the ride. Since Roxi is half canine herself; Cotton likes being around her and running with her. You thank Roxi for delivering it and to tell Kalie thanks for the gift. Roxi almost immediately tells Cotton to get back on dashes back toward Kalie’s house to deliver the message. You heft the orb in your hands, watching it wobble around. It is quite heavy. Quite an odd souvenir, but somehow appropriate. (set: $Oppai to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)When you go back outside you are surprised to see the weather had turned back. It is once again mostly sunny. There are many rather dark looking clouds, and the odd few drops of rain patter down occasionally but the clouds move away quickly- it is quite windy out, creating sun-showers! That means there is a very solid looking, massive rainbow streaking across the sky! The market is nearly as colorful as the rainbow if not as radiant. The market is at the east side of a pool, and cradled around its own east side is a half-circle of houses. Connecting the houses and covering the market is a canopy made of dozens of different colored banners of cloth crisscrossing. The stone of the pathways here and the sides of all the buildings are absolutely covered in spray-painted murals. There are many test subjects here, as it is an extremely lively area at all hours. You are hesitant to just walk up to any one of them though. The ones at the stands of the market are obviously there to trade goods, so you do not want to interrupt their business, and the ones talking with them are trying to trade for items so you don’t want to disrupt them, either. There are so many different body types here that you can see. Large breasts, multiple breasts, tiny tits, giant squishy udders, taught petite udders. People hybridized with bugs, slugs, cows, horse, dogs, giraffe, goats, and even birds! There are even some that are hybridized with so many different species or just blended so completely with their base human genes that you cannot tell just by looking at them what they were blended with! There is one test subject who spots you instead however! The woman waves you over. She is just casually leaned against the outside of her house between the huge front window and the front door. She came out to enjoy the weather- absolutely loving sun showers. The woman introduces herself as… //Marcus//? She recognized you as the outsider brought by Olivia. (link:"Marcus")[Marcus is indeed a man’s name, and she used to be male. As part of her test she had requested a full gender transition, but also kept her original name. Marcus is TS26. She is wearing well worn-in blue jeans, and a blue jean crop jacket that is left open because she could not possibly close it over her endowments. The only shirt that would fit her would be deliberately oversized night shorts or some sort of novelty giant shirt. Each breast is probably equal mass to her entire torso. Even with her torso fully straight, the bottom of her breasts touch her thighs if left to hang- completely eclipsing the entire torso. Right now they only half-cover her midriff because they are being held up and squished inward a bit- though her jacket does nothing to cover them, she has a large belt tied around them which is just wide enough to conceal her nipples and areola. The tit flesh billows out from around both the top and bottom of the belt, so there is no way it would slide around- it’s holding them pretty snug. On RHEI there is no need to cover yourself, so the belt isn’t there to conceal anything, it’s just to hold her girls steady so she can move around. Marcus’ legs extend further than the tattered bottom of her pant legs because from the knee down they are the leg structure of a bovine- ending in cloven hooves, but the hooves are currently painted bright pink and have a white floral pattern painted over that. A small hole lined with a golden ring lets out a bovine tail in the back, but the tail is freakishly large. With greater muscle control than a standard bovine, his tail may be thin but it is at least three or four feet long and tipped with a large, bushy tassel. The tassel is the only reason the five bracelets clacking together along the length of the tail do not just fall off- they are meant for a wrist and the tail is only a fourth of the width, so they fall up and down the tail as it moves around. Her hair is to her shoulders but made up of gigantic loose curls, so if you pulled it straight it would likely be as low as her belly. Most of it is black- the curls and color was carried over from when she was a male human, but there is a white stripe of hair in the very front now thanks to cow traits, which is flanked by a thin strips of pale grey to transition between the two colors. She does not have bangs, so the stripe is divided in half by hair clips to frame her face. The stark contrast of colors helps emphasize how wildly curvy the hair is. Her eyes are a striking lime green color. Marcus has the ears of a small bovine, each with a simple gold hoop earring. Her nose is a bit wide, and the bridge shallow. Her lips are glossy black and the coloration extends upward over her nostrils in a patch of textured, moistened skin that is almost perfectly square. It makes her face look quite bovine, without actually having any sort of muzzle. So, overall her body is quite human, a more classic cowgirl look.] Her voice was fully female as well, bubbly and quite feminine. “(text-style:"sway")[Heyy~]! You are Olivia’s friend, right?! How are you doing, you liking the island so far? It is a shame you only have one day to be here- there are a bunch of subjects that were sort of eager to meet you. You are the only outsider ever on RHEI, so, everyone wants to see the oddity, heh.” She //plapped// her hand against her left boob and caused them both to rock back and forth heavily- the belt prevented them from bouncing up and down as much. “Bet you have been seeing lots of ''this'' around the island. Hey, why don’t you come inside, I will introduce you to my wife.” You follow the buxom bovid into the house and you both spot her wife immediately, flopped over the couch in the living room. She is not asleep, but doesn’t have her eyes open either. The lights are not on, but there is enough sun coming through the curtains on the large window that the room is dimly illuminated still. “And this lazy creature is my wife, hah.” “Mmm. She is joking, of course. I spent all morning getting soaked doing errands.” She sat up and opened her bright yellow eyes. (link:"Marcene")[TS25 is Marcene. Marcus’ form is relatively simple because it was done on their own request- Marcene was the primary test. Her nails are translucent black and thicker than a normal human, but not differently shaped. She has a patch of sparse dark grey fur on the back of her forearms, but otherwise her arms are human. Her torso is relatively human but slightly longer than normal- the extra length from an extended rib cage. Her breasts look to be D cups and capped with large areola and average nipple of a shade of brown so dark that it looks black in most lighting. Above that is a steep transition to almost full wolf however! Her neck is longer than normal and buried in bushy fur! The fur stops at the base of her neck but because of its length, the bottom of on the front of her neck trails fur into her cleavage. Her entire head is that of a dark grey wolf, including a mouth full of fangs behind her glossy black lips. Her iris are an unusual bright lemon yellow. The fur trails further down in the back, extending over her entire upper back before tapering off, but only stops for a few inches before another narrow stripe starts up along her spine, trailing into the base of a bushy tail! Marcene’s feet are mostly human- her soles are only slightly longer than normal, and her nails are the same as on her hands. The bottom of her feet are raised up on full canine paw pads though- allowing her to walk around barefoot without worrying about getting hurt. She also still stands on the ends of her feet only- raising the ankle off the ground. Though her muscles are not bulky, you can clearly see that she is very strong. Her muscles are tight and well defined, especially so on her abs. Her abs are so solid that if you tried to punch them you’d hurt your hand before you hurt her. She has an additional 4 dark brown nipples on her midriff, but they do not have areola and you can tell they have mammaries behind them only because the gap between abdominal muscles is filled in, in the immediate area around them. Normally a canine would have six to eight teats, but her genes counted the human breasts up top as going toward the total, so there is only 4 on her lower body. Her pubes were replaced with grey fur and trail up toward her belly button, but there is also notably a ''very'' large sheath between her legs! Marcus is fully female, but Marcene started female and turned hermaphrodite! Wedged up against the underside of a pair of average sized balls is the pillowy black lips of a canine vulva- the inner curve of the plump labia showing just a hint of the pink insides. While her vulva and furry balls are average size; the sheath is not, and its contents most certainly are not. When fully engorged her knot is the size of a honeydew melon, and the shaft beyond the knot is tall enough to place the very tip between her own cleavage.] The odd pair sit you down on the couch and begin to explain their mixed gender. Marcus is not gay, but always liked some things that were considered more feminine, and later on in life found he also thought women’s clothing just looked and felt better than male clothing. His entire porn collection was all lesbian material, because while he was attracted to women; he also wished he was a woman. Marcene was the one who discovered the ad for RHE and looked into what it meant by human testing out of curiosity. Once they knew what RHE was about, Marcus considered it an opportunity. Marcene was the primary test, but they are lovers and come as a pair. Usually how RHE handles that, is the secondary subject gets more control over their form, so of course Marcus requested a full transition to turn completely female without corrupting his sexual preference. He wanted to feel female, and he wanted to still enjoy sex with his lover though, so Marcene was given hyper male equipment while otherwise preserving her existing gender. Marcus did not want to hide or try to distance herself from who she was and still is, so even though it doesn’t really match her body anymore- she still wears her original name. It also doesn’t help that her lover already has the female version of her own name. You were talking to Marcene when it happened so you did not see Marcus undo the latch on the belt, but you felt the couch lurch forward a bit and the loud plap of two colossal tits being unleashed. You quickly look over in time to see them still sloshing back and forth- the bottoms fully resting on her legs while the top half rolls forward till the elasticity of the skin yanks it back to her chest. Her areola are pretty wide and have a soft faded rim, and her nipples are not too long but pretty fat. The reason she can wear a belt like that around her tits so easily is that her areola swallow up her nipples normally- they are inverted. You can see them now because the movement caused them to start to erect, causing them to pop back out. In a sitting position, all of the weight of the breasts are in her lap and not on her chest at all. She just flexes her eyebrows at you looking surprised at the sight of the massive endowments. Marcene just laughed. “Glad she enjoys being the milk machine of the house- I couldn’t handle those things. They are fun to play with but holy hell are they //heavy//.” She motioned over to the island counter in the kitchen. “The counter folds out into a table for eating, and I sometimes use it to tease her. If I put something in the middle; she is incapable of reaching it, because her tits will squish into the table and hold her away from it, haha.” Marcus puffed up her cheeks in an exaggerated pout. Marcus tells you she is a bit of an artist as well, motioning to her hooves and then showing you all her fingernails panted a gradient from pink to peach like the sky at dawn. She is a nail artist, and absolutely loves to paint the nails and hooves of anyone on the island. Since there are so many different types of hybrids, she has had to learn how to paint some wildly different shaped nails, claws, hooves, and talons. She especially enjoys doing the claws of Kalie, because her claws are so large when held together that it is basically like painting on a full canvas! (if:$Item is "Jacket")[You ask Marcus how he knew you were the outsider. You are fully human, but you are also wearing an RHE jacket- you could have just been an RHE staff member she has never seen before. “An RHE member wouldn’t be wandering around like a tourist, haha. They also generally come down using a shuttle, they don’t move around on foot.” Marcene nodded. “And I don’t know if Dr. Wingael mentioned it to you, but every test subject on the island had to vote on whether to allow you onto the island or not. So everyone knew you were coming- it isn’t as though you are going to take anyone by surprise.”](if:$Item is "Memory")[You mention the memory slate you have with you, asking if they would be willing to let you see their archived memories of the transformation. Marcus cocked an eyebrow. “I’m surprised they let you have that, although… I guess it is useless unless you get the subject’s permission, so it wouldn’t really matter who has it. My transformation was uh… a bit awkward and… messy. I would rather not. My genitals transforming was triggering my pleasure nerves almost constantly for at least a day, so I was just a trembling mess.” Marcene nodded, crossing her arms. “I don’t care. Unfortunately; we transformed together, so if Marcus says no, you cannot see mine either. We transformed at the same time, and live in the same building- you would see what happened to her through my perspective.” ]You talk together for some time and they both tell you about other test subjects on the island that they know. Marcus takes out a cell phone and shows you several photos she has saved of past events. You see BBQs, what looks like a campout under the stars with at least a dozen people gathered around a camp fire in an open field, sun tanning people by the pools, even a concert! It is wild to see so many gathered in a single place, with such different bodies, and almost all nude to boot. Massive breasts, udders and everything in between pressed together or colliding. And that is just normal here on RHEI. You accidentally elbow someone’s boob when turning around in a small space in the outside world, everyone is terribly embarrassed. On RHEI, people fall asleep using someone else’s boobs as pillows and no one bats an eyelash. Marcene’s stomach growls so loud you thought it was her making the sound for a moment. She groans and looks over at the clock. “Ah, shit. I better get going on dinner. Marcus can’t cook- her boobs are //too huge//, they would brush the live element and she would end up cooking //herself//.” You stand up again and tell them you better get going too. The sun is starting to set in the west, which means RHEI is already in the dark- because the mountain range blocks the sun when it gets too low. You still have to meet up with Olivia at the main complex for dinner. Marcus looked out the window at the growing darkness. “Aww. One day is not enough to properly take in RHEI. You want me to call a shuttle for you? You can just ride back to the building.” You thank her for the offer but say you might as well walk. It is not quite dinner time yet, and you want to be out in the valley for as long as you can. [[Continue...->French Cheese End]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)You decide to head over to lake Kshira Sagara at the north-east side of the island. The lake is a good size, and true to what they told you- the area is very beautiful. The thin boundary of forest borders the eastern sides, leading into the base of the mountains overhead. Most of the surrounding on the north and west side of the lake is rolling grassy hills between the only building here and the rest of the homes. The home near the edge of the lake belongs to Tria ‘the colossus’ but the lights at not on- she does not appear to be home right now. And she is so massive that if she were outside anywhere near here; you’d be able to spot her immediately. Sagara has a beach technically but it is very thin. The bottom of the lake is soft and sandy mostly. The south west end you are approaching on is the shallows- the lake gets surprisingly deep in the middle and the north east end, where a small island houses a single red maple tree for shade. The base of the tree is considered the best place in all of RHEI to sit and read, so the seat is highly contested. There is a faint smell of flowers on the wind- there is some lilac bushes in the area and though they are quite far away from you; lilac flowers are //extremely fragrant//. The rain stopped while you were inside, and the wind went with it. Or at least the wind at ground level. The speed of which the remaining dark clouds travel through the sky tells you there is still a strong wind- just very far off the ground. There is almost no wind anymore on the ground, and that has caused the waning sunlight and all the moisture in the air to convert into fog. The fog is very thick, but it is also very heavy- it forms a dense mat that only rises as high as your knees at most. You enjoy watching it undulate from your movements in it; you leave a wake in the fog like a boat does in the waves. Normally the hills of the grassy plains are so shallow that you can’t even notice them- but the fog pools between them, allowing you to easily see the dips and rises in the ground by what is above or below the churning fog pools. The lake surface actually does not have that thick of a layer on it, because the air over the water surface is cooler, causing the fog to condense further and fall out of the air to join the water in the lake. So the fog over the lake itself is more of just a haze. There is a lot of dragonfly in the air over the water- there is most likely a lot of mosquito too, but they are all running scared since the dragonfly will rip them out of the air. You almost thought it was a rock at first, but as you approach you realize there is someone sitting on the shore nearest to you. They are wearing a huge hooded cloak so their form is obscured by the cloth. They hear you approach though, and as they stand up you realize they appear to have a massively hunched back. She smiles at you softly and motions for you to come closer. She introduces herself as Amunet; TS62. Her voice is soft, and her Egyptian accent is heavy; she still struggles with some English words so she speaks in short statements, and uses hand gestures often. She owns very little clothing, so the huge cloak is the only thing she has to protect herself from the rain when the weather gets wet and wild. It is not raining anymore, so she removes her hood and tosses the cloak back behind her arms so you can properly see her in her almost naked glory. (link:"Amunet")[The hunch was no illusion of the cloak- she has the worst case of hump back you have ever seen in reality or fiction. Her entire upper back is covered in a colossal bubble of skin! Her body leans forward heavily to be able to carry its weight. If she attempted to straighten her back, the hump would yank her backward to the ground! Her hands are a bit unusually shaped, but are mostly human. Her middle and ring finger are slightly thicker than the others, and tipped with sharp, thick claws rather than nails- but her other digits are normal human. On the inside of her digits, the very tip of each is occupied by a thick bubble of skin shaped like a long oval. Her feet are ungulate, but rather than a normal hoof they end in two huge toes slightly curved in toward each other. The bottoms of the toes are completely covered in thick fat-filled padding, and either digit has a large spike-like claw. It is these toes that give away her species as a camel! That is where the hump comes from! She has a tail but it is only a foot and a half long with a small tassel and has a tiny golden bangle on it just below the tassel. She has unusually pert DD cup breasts with dark brown nipples linked together by a tiny golden chain. She has a second set of big nipples on her crotch, but they are vestigial- they have no functioning mammary glands behind them. Normally a camel would have a four quartered udder of substantial size, but her genes leaned human. Her vulva is only slightly camelid in appearance, and fully hidden from you besides- by her only issue of actual clothing; a simple white loin cloth with golden embroidered hem. Her skin is a pale copper tone and her hair a brown that was only a shade darker than her skin. The hair on her head was actually long, bushy fur however, and extended onto her neck. Amunet’s neck is many times longer than a normal human- it’s even longer than a horse’s neck. Camel and Llama share ancestors- and if you go far enough back; Giraffe also split from that family tree. The fur is long and bushy enough that it could still pass as hair, and it sweeps forward at the top of her head enough that it looks like she has a pompadour! Normally she could comb it back to tame it a bit more, but she was not expecting to run into anyone so she sort of just rolled out of bed and went with it this morning. The bushy fur hangs in the front making her neck look thicker than it actually is, and also trails up her hump to its mid-point as a narrow stripe. She has no muzzle, but her nose is shallow and wide. Her nostrils dip down in the middle giving the end of her nose a slightly triangular shape which meets the deep cleft in her upper lip. She has the ears of a camel, and two piercings in each that trail a tiny golden chain from the top to the bottom of the ear- connecting the two piercings. Amunet has a tattoo of the Eye Of Horus over her left eye- representing the moon, and a warding against evil. There is a gold ring piercing in her lower lip that fits perfectly into the cleft of her top lip- and a ball-stud piercing on the end of her tongue. Her eyelashes are also quite long and bushy- which is a trait from camels as well. The long lashes help keep the blowing sand out of their eyes.] Amunet tells you that she is hybridized with a Mongolian camel, which is why her neck is covered in fur, but they are supposed to have two humps- she only has one hump like the dromedary camel; that is because she is still more human than camel. She explains that unlike the other test subjects that lactate; she never overflows. When her breasts approach their capacity to store milk, her body starts to convert it to fat, and the hump on her back grows still bigger. She has to be careful of this because her hump has no upper limit- it will continue to grow indefinitely but her back can only handle so much weight. She blushes and breaks eye contact for a moment. “This is… already dangerously close to my… hada… uhm…” She motioned with her hands like a filling glass. Limit? Capacity? She nodded quickly. “''Yes'', that is the word! Sorry, I did not know any English when I first came to RHEI. Everything I have learned has been from talking to others.” She plopped down on the soft moist grass and turned her huge back to you. “Do you want to feel it? The skin is very smooth on it because I was given special… aljinat…” Genes. “Yes! Special genes so that it can expand and contract more easily. More easier? More easy? Whatever, you know what I mean. It… kinda feels good when it stretches out, so I have come to enjoy the weight. That is why I let it get so big- it is not from neg… negle… ‘iimal. Lack of care.” You softly place your hand on the massive bubble, and to your surprise; the skin is not only silky smooth, it is also softer than you expected. It wobbles a bit from movement, like a giant breast- though it is still compressed fat, so it is always taught. If you push your hand against it, it indents the surface easily but your hand isn’t able to sink very deep before the elasticity of the skin pushes back. You are able to rock it forward a bit and as soon as you let it go it immediately slumps back into place. Amunet makes a soft humming that sounds like she enjoys having it manipulated. It functions just like a camel hump, so she can stop eating food entirely right now and she won’t starve. The hump will just start to shrink the longer she goes without food- or it supplements what she does eat if it isn’t enough. Fat’s fluid mass can be broken down into liquid as well- so the same is also true for hydration. She can sit out in the searing hot sun all day without drinking anything and still be fine. Camel can endure both the scorching heat and bitter cold without flinching. Their wide, large toes also spread their weight out more, so while other animals may sink into the soft sands- camels do not. (if:$Item is "Jacket")[Amunet says she thought you were an RHE staff at first, because of the jacket. It would be weird for an RHE member to be wandering around on foot all the way out here though, unless it was her own handler looking for her- but then Amunet would have recognized you. ]You complement her piercings; she has quite a few. “(text-style:"sway")[Aww], thanks. I have to constantly hold myself back from getting more. It is like working on a painting- you don’t want to make it too cluttered and busy, even if you think it would look cool. Oh! I didn’t tell you yet- I am a //body piercer//. I did all of my own piercings. I did a lot of piercings on test subjects here on RHEI.” You ask if there is a type of piercing she likes to do best. “Hmmm.” A smile crosses her face. “//Frenum piercing.//” The way she said it makes you afraid to ask, but you do anyway. “It pierces the skin that connects the glans to the foreskin of a penis. You have it even if you don’t have a foreskin anymore.” Ooof. She points at your expression. “See? That is why it is my favorite! The people who get it are always these big wasim- handsome guys. But they are so sheepish! Men are so protective of their al'aeda' altanasulia! They keep reminding me to be careful and I am like ’bro, I did my own VCH, you’ll be fine’.” VCH? “//Vertical clitoral hood// piercing. I pierced my own bits. It is a… ''fun'' piercing, I always recommend it. Well, to my female customers, obviously.” Do all piercings have their own name? “Of course.” You point to the ring in her lower lip and ask what that one is called. “Labret piercing- the ring is a seamless loop. Do you not have any piercings? I could put a hole in you, if you want- I have all the equipment back at my house.” You are quick to shake your head, explaining that your mind has an adverse reaction to needles- even watching someone //else// get a needle disturbs you. It has nothing to do with the feeling or the sight of blood- it’s the needle itself you can’t stand. You ask if they ever heal over, or if they are just permanent like tattoos. “Oh no, they are definitely not permanent. If you do not put anything in it, even a hole that has been there for years won’t stick around for long. If you need to go through metal detectors or to a job where a bunch of bling might not be appropriate- there are placeholder piercings you can use. They are usually made of clear or skin-toned plastic so they do not set off metal detectors and are effectively invisible.” Amunet also tells you of some of the very first test subjects who ended up getting in a bit of trouble because of their piercings. Subjects 02 and 04 were wearing ward crystal piercings, which prevented the tinctures from activating properly even though they were already absorbed into their systems. So the two of them were released back into the outside world, because RHE assumed something had gone wrong, but then days later when they change out their bling their tinctures activated and RHE had to scramble to gather them back onto the island. (if:$Item is "Memory")[You mention that you have the golden memory slate with you, asking Amunet if she would be willing to share her transformation. “Oh, sure. You need my muafaqa- uh… permission?” You show her the screen after activating it and she presses her finger against it, and it reads her chakra signature confirming her consent. When you activate it you are confused a moment, because you are looking at Amunet even though you’re supposed to be inside of her memory- but after a moment you realize she is looking into a mirror. She is already in her home on RHEI, examining herself in a mirror to see if any changes have happened yet. She is a bit anxious because she was told to remove all her piercings for this. Both because RHEI had problems with jewelry in the past interrupting effects, but also because if the area the piercing is in changes shape, she could end up hurting herself by having a solid object through it when it changes. She felt her breasts through a plain white top and noted they were firmer than usual, and her nipples are quick to stand up at the slightest stimulation. She felt a bit of squirming below her skin in the lower back and put a hand down her pants to feel her tail bone starting to extend- it was just a pointy little nub at the moment. Amunet came from Egypt, which has always been a rather grim third world country. During the age of the Lost Founders, Egypt and the surrounding area was a sight of a large anti-magic war between those who practice human magics and the more eccentric religious zealots who considered it heresy toward the Lost Founders. After the more recent War Of Technomagi that involved the entire world; Egypt has been gaining power- though it comes at the cost of being led by a tyrant. Akal Alshams rules over Egypt now- a tyrannical elder dragon of colossal size. Compared to her home back in Egypt, this small but modern home on RHEI is like a palace. She spent so long just rolling and wrapping herself in the cool bedsheets with the windows open. Smelling fresh air without worrying about inhaling a lung full of sand. Even the sub-tropical temperatures of RHEI felt cool and refreshing to her compared to the very dry and blisteringly hot Egyptian sun. Every so often she would glance down and see that her feet were slowly changing shape. It was happening gradually, so she could barely feel it. Her biggest and smallest toes on either side of her foot were growing and squishing the other toes together into them, swallowing the others. Her feet were already calloused pretty badly- scorched from running across searing hot sands. The thick skin turned dark and billowed up- a pad of fat forming inside as extra bounce as the entire bottom of the front of her feet turned to pads. Her soles stretched slowly as the bones within fused into one- this caused her to be afraid of putting weight on her feet till it finished, so she remained in bed even though she was not tired. She just watched the white puffy clouds pass overhead through the sky window in the bedroom. As interesting as it all is, this is about the point you realize you are sort of stuck in her memory- there is no fast-forward button. Even if nothing happens, you have to sit through it if you want to see the rest. By the time she woke up the next day, her feet were transformed. She only had two very large toes and they are both tipped with a large claw. It took several knocks on her door for her brain to wake up enough to realize someone was at the door and bolt up to answer it. It is her handler; a shy but very beautiful woman named Dr. Maple Augustine. Maple seemed more embarrassed to lift up Amunet’s shirt and poke around to examine her than Amunet herself was. At only a light prod, Amunet’s breasts expressed a few drops of milk. Her once powder brown nipples had darkened to very deep brown now. Maple told her not to milk herself though. As part of her experiment to make sure that the milk to fat storage of her hump works- she has no deliberately not milk herself. It was easier said than done. Laughing loudly or even sneezing and coughing caused her to leak a few drops here and there- any contraction in the chest area caused them to leak. There was a subtle, almost itching feeling just behind her nipples were the dams were ready to bust. Like a full bladder- her body did not naturally want to hold onto all that. Thanks to her unique test though, if her breasts were left entirely alone they never spill the load- the excess was converted. She could not really see her hump since it is on her back, but she could sort of feel it if she pressed her shoulder blades back and together- there was more and more padding back there. As the day went on her fingers changed to how you seen them currently, and Amunet ended up using her onyx slate to contact Maple to see if that was okay. She did not want to lose her hands to a second pair of camel toe. Maple said that it was not intended to happen0 but also it was diluted by human traits and stopped only part way to a camel toe. As long as it did not devolve enough to actually get in the way, they could just leave it alone. Adding more traits on top of a tincture always ran the risk of still more errors, so if RHE doesn’t have to muck around with something- it won’t. Her ears changed next, and transformed rather quickly. Amunet was quick to put her earrings back in when she was pleased to find the holes still intact on her new ear shape. She did not have a chain connecting them at the time- otherwise that would have needed to be extended since her ears are longer now. She found herself touching her face every so often to settle a muscle twitch- her expression kept changing from the feelings in her face as her nose and upper lips changed. She was startled when the bridge of her nose changed shape because the cartilage popped. The sound was not very loud at all, but because it was inside of her head it sounded incredibly loud to Amunet- and you by extension since you are viewing it in her perspective. Back then she did not have a lip piercing yet- her upper lip transforming likely inspired her to get that one. Her tail fully formed a short while later- or at least that is when she noticed that it was done. Unfortunately since you are living in her memory you have zero control of her body- so you cannot freely explore anything. If she did not check on its progression- neither do you. Amunet’s hump grew very slowly at first but picked up speed as time went on. Every time she got up or moved around she would note that it felt heavier and soon she started to bump it into things on accident. It was projecting off of her back by quite a bit. She did not realize it was because she was stuffing her face. RHE provides food and shelter to all test subjects- so whenever her fridge empties RHE would teleport in a new supply of raw materials. So she went from having to eat cheap junk on the outside because of costs, to having an infinite supply of healthy food in RHEI- she was taking full advantage. But her body naturally cuts what she eats in half to produce milk- and if she continues to eat when her body is already fully nourished; ALL of the excess goes to milk. Thanks to her camel traits, when she has more than enough milk, it goes to her hump. So when she continued to stuff her face it was essentially going straight to the hump! She especially loves cantaloupe apparently- fruit like that cannot grow in the desert so it was all imported back home, which means it was more expensive than a humble body piercer could afford. That is why she signed up to RHE originally- extra dosh. She was not bankrupt but was far from rolling in it. Her profession is body modification, so Amunet is clearly not afraid to muck around with her body already- she seen a human test position as easy money. When she found out she could live in paradise for free for the rest of her life- well, let’s just say it did not take much convincing for her to sign up. When Amunet returned to bed that night she immediately noticed the hump was so large that it propped her into a sitting position if she attempted to lay on her back! It props her up at a perfect angle to read in bed! As her hands explored down her nude body though, she found it a good angle for something else too. Her index and pinky pinched her outer labia while her middle and ring finger dipped inside- her clit pressed into her palm. Her other hand lightly manipulated her breasts, trying to be careful not to spill any of the milk inside. Her breasts were so taught around the load of liquid within that it did not take much to set off the pleasure nerves. She noticed the two nipples on her upper crotch at this time, and seemed to look forward to their growth- not knowing they would remain like that. After she is done masturbating the world seems to go dark- her eyes must be closed because if she fell asleep time would jump ahead for you, because only her conscious memory is recorded. You do not know how long she lay there awake with her eyes closed, but she did eventually fall asleep because when she opens her eyes again it is the following day and Maple is once again at the door. Amunet went to get up but couldn’t! Her hump was now so massive she did not have the strength to sit up! She also noted that her neck is both longer and more stiff! In a bit of a panic to try and answer the door, she just rolled herself off the side of the bed! After hitting the floor Amunet was able to shove herself onto her feet by standing first onto all fours and then pushing herself to her feet. She hunched forward quite a bit and had to place a hand on the wall to hold herself up as she scurried to answer the door. Her neck extended more as she moved, making a popping sound and sending a vibration through her with each new segment added. It was full sized by the time she opened the door. The memory blinked out before she arrived at the door, and you find yourself back in current time. She still did not have the fur on her neck when the memory ended; but since that was not a change to her actual body, RHE probably did not prioritize recording that part. Amunet blushes and tells you that her handler had to recommend her back exercises to do each day to make sure her spine can take the weight, but she also has to regulate how much she eats and milks herself to make sure the hump doesn’t get too big. Admittedly; it’s too big right now, but only just so. ]You ask her if her milk is human or part camel as well. “Oh, it is //full camel// actually. It tastes exactly the same as cow milk, just with a slight sweet aftertaste. Very creamy consistency. It is good for you!” You notice the glow of fireflies starting to appear in the dense, low fog as it started to clear up. The lowering temperatures is causing the moisture to fall out of the air. The island goes from light to dark almost instantly- the sun vanishes behind the mountaintops and casts RHEI into darkness before it actually sets over the horizon beyond. “Pretty, isn’t it? You should return to your friend though- if you wait till it is fully night you may get lost!” Unfortunately Amunet is right. You can see the main complex from almost anywhere on the island, but if it becomes totally dark out you won’t be able to see any large rocks or roots on the ground on your way there and end up tripping constantly over things you can’t see. Olivia will be waiting for you anyway- you are supposed to have dinner with her again. Amunet says she will remain by the lake a while longer- now that the fireflies are out she wants to watch them dance in the dark. Crickets and small frogs start to fill the late evening air with their singing and you say goodbye to Amunet. (if:$Item is "Jacket")[[[Continue..?->99 Subjects End]]] [[Continue...->Camel End]]

As you head out into the shadow of the day, the lanterns marking the pathways are mostly all on- the remaining ones click on soon after. Frogs and crickets start to fill the air with their songs and the fireflies begin their dance among the blades of grass mirroring the stars above as nodes of light in the darkness. The sky gets progressively darker as you slowly make your way back to the main complex and the sun sets behind the actual horizon.(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ When you get back to the offices you are feeling hungry again and ready for dinner. You wonder how badly starved you would have been had you not taken a lunch for the road.](if:$Item is "Memory")[ When you get back to the main building you are quiet as you approach the offices, then slip in and place the golden slate back where you originally found it- in the exact same way you found it. Olivia never has to know you took it on a bit of a walk.](if:$Item is "Jacket")[ When you get back to the offices you hang Olivia’s jacket back up, already completely dry again. You would have still toured even without a jacket- even if there was a tornado out there. But it was nice not having to worry about catching a cold as a result of it. Just a little extra insurance that your one-day tour went as well as it could have.] Olivia lost track of time and was surprised when you walk up to her. Since her work is still open, she motions to her screen and tells you a bit about what she is working on. Olivia is currently in charge of a //limb regrowth program//, but today she was trying to help another experiment RHE has on the go- the //Mark 2 Tinctures//. RHE cannot undo tincture results much at all, which is why some test subjects had very gradual transformations after several doses of tincture rather than all at once- it is easier to catch a problem before it happens than to try and fix it after the fact. That means the subjects in the hidden bunker- the extreme variants- have to remain so. There is an instance of RHE turning a feral animal to a mostly-human though. If they make a human transformation tincture, they can undo effects by overriding them with the original gene instructions. So, if they already made a human tincture, what are they trying to figure out now? It sounds like they are already done. “Because it cannot be the same human. We do not have the XV subjects’ original gene samples, and they are all transformed now, so their original genes are gone. If I took your genes for example as a donor- giving them the tincture will make them more human again, but they will also be more like YOU, not who they used to be. So while we could turn them completely human again- doing so would require making them a physical clone of someone else.” Why did they ask Olivia anyway? She is already working on a completely different project. You know she is a smart woman, but it sounds like her field of expertise is in limbs specifically which doesn’t sound like what the Mk2 Tincture needs. “It is because to restore a limb that is entirely gone- you have to rebuild something that is not there currently- like what the Mk2 Tincture would also require. Aside from cells modified to be pluripotent, or stem cells- cells are different depending on where you get them. Cells in the right arm are designed to regenerate the right arm. If you completely lost your right arm, there are no longer any right arm cells to use to regenerate- so it doesn’t matter what sort of healing or regeneration magic you use; there is nothing left to regen. That is the problem with the Mk2s- they are completely missing cell types. After hitting my head against their wall all day, I don’t think I can help them really. Their best bet from what I have seen is to make a reverse engineered hybrid blend- which is going to take a hell of a lot of work. The inert animal essences used to create the base of the tinctures are used because it is pre-loaded instructions. Technically you could just build your own tincture from //nothing// and make the body whatever you wanted… but you’d have to spent two or three entire //lifetimes// just to create one functioning tincture, because building DNA from scratch would be absurdly complicated. So we take existing traits and blend them together in specific ways to get the results we need from pre-made parts.” Olivia explains that to get the Mk2 Tinctures to work, they would need to extract and isolate the still-human portions of the subjects current DNA, then supplement that with a blended donor DNA. Like the ALUA system that runs the mechanical side of the RHE main complex- her base mind was originally assembled from the imprints of several different people. By blending them together, the new mind was unique enough from any of the donors that it is considered its own entity. It is similar to what happens naturally when two people get together- their DNA gets mashed together from the sperm and egg carrying gene packets, and a new entity is created from mashing the two together. They can avoid the subject turning into a clone of someone else by having several donors- thus the resulting DNA won’t resemble anyone. So they have a DNA from a person who doesn’t exist and whatever human they can extract from the existing test subject- since even XV subjects are at least somewhat human with exception of two. And even Nancy and Tolli still ''HAVE'' human genes- it is just that they are regressive now in the face of the invading animal genes. Olivia stares blankly at her monitor in thought before snapping out of it and turning to you quickly again. “(text-style:"rumble")[Oh] shoot, I am just babbling at you, meanwhile our stomachs are imploding on themselves. Let’s get some dinner!” It is a lovely dinner with Olivia again, and she starts getting nostalgic toward the end, reminiscing on old times spent together. Before she had to go off to university without you- you two were inseparable. You tell her about the adventures you had today, in spite of the shifty weather. Though her species is not all that surprising, Nebela made a good first example of what RHEI had in store. Bunny and human is not that uncommon of a mix, but her great mono-boob is very unique and unexpected. Even when RHE itself repeats the usage of animal traits, it does not blend them the same way twice. Every person on RHEI is unique, even in comparison to other subjects. You then found your way to two different couples- Beau and Amour and then Marcus and Marcene! Considering you only had a single day to look around, meeting five different subjects is probably as good as you could have ever gotten. Sure, you could have run into a crowd of subjects anywhere, but then you wouldn’t really be meeting them properly- you wouldn’t have a conversation with all of them and get to actually know them, you’d just briefly see them. That is why you did not go for the first pool in the north end. It would be quite populated, but if there are too many people there you wouldn’t be able to have a sit down conversation with any one of them without making the rest feel awkward or left out. Beau is a pretty standard cowgirl, though her coloration is striking and her taste in men had her husband given a very unique choice in hybrid subjects. Amour is very quick with handiwork since he has six arms. Marcus and Marcene were quite a shift as well- a woman with male bits and a full woman who used to be male. The ease of which RHE can just tack on a full gender conversion onto another test just goes to show how advanced RHE’s gene manipulation is. On the surface this may seem like some fetish island- populated by strange and beautiful bodies. The work RHE does here could be used to help or even outright save people all over the world. Each test subject contributes a bit more information, and proves another trait or feature can work. Replacing a lost sense by enhancing others- repairing or even re-growing limbs, growing additional limbs, gaining inhuman strength or durability- RHE stands for //Rebuilding Humanity Effort// and it stands up to its name. They work toward building a stronger human, a stronger body. When evolution itself has stagnated- RHE works toward pushing it forward themselves; and redefine what humans can be. You and Olivia head back to your bedrooms to sleep at the same time, since hers is right beside yours.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]] ](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]] ](else:)[ ]In the morning you begrudgingly drag yourself out of bed- sad that you have to go. Olivia is already up and working by the time you wake up, making you wonder just how early she normally wakes up- because it is still so early that the sky is still slightly pink from the light of dawn. Olivia quickly gets up from her work to escort you out, bringing you across the parking lot to the base of the tower at least. The sunlight reflecting off all the windows on the main complex is almost blinding- and you can already feel the warmth bouncing off the pavement of the parking lot. Before you head off, Olivia gives you a large round tin. “This is from Amour and Beau- a little souvenir of RHEI to take back with you. They apparently dropped it off last night while we were at the restaurant still.” You pop open the tin to peek inside and are immediately hit with a strong smell! Inside the tin is a huge wheel of cheese! The tin must weigh like 15 pounds at least! “It is made from Beau’s own milk. It is twice-aged, so the cheese is very dry, but also extremely potent in flavor… don’t use too much of it at once or it will overwhelm the flavor of anything else you eat it with. That wheel should last you a long time though; that is a ''lot'' of French cheese.” You smile and nod, telling Olivia to thank Beau and Amour for you as you head into the tower and up to the helicopter to bring you home. You are quite satisfied with how your one magical day on RHEI went. You met a lot of interesting people and even got some delicious food to take home!(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ You also still have their emails- so you can stay in contact with Olivia, Amour, and Beau here on the island even once you are back home. With three people on the inside, maybe you’ll have better luck convincing RHE to let you make a return visit.] (set: $Fromage to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

Though the fog is now just a heavy mist, you can still watch it swirling around your footsteps as you head back toward the main complex. There is an occasional light breeze that causes it to ripple as well as it slowly continues to clear in the cooling night air. Though the island is fully in night the sky is still a mix of purples and blues with a metallic orange glowing outline on the west mountains where the sun is just beyond, sinking below the actual horizon. Many stars are already fully visible in the sky though, around the few remaining clouds highlighted in orange dusk light. You start to head up the slope to the plateau the main complex is on- it is mostly grass but there are some good sized rocks here and there half-sticking out of the ground. It seemed a lot shallower when you were talking down at the start of the day. Your ankles and knees are certainly feeling it now that you have to climb up at the end of a long day of walking around. You hear someone call out behind you but it is fairly far away so you do not really hear them. It is not till she calls out a second time you realize they are likely calling to you, and turn around. She is as tall as you and she is further down the slope by some distance! By the time she is standing beside you, you have to crane your neck to look up at her face towering over you! Her voice is light and airy. “Sorry to bother you. A few of my friends seem to have forgotten when that outsider would be arriving, and now we are all second-guessing it. What day were they going to arrive?” Well, that is a funny coincidence. She thinks you are RHE staff because you are wearing Olivia’s jacket. A little sheepishly; you explain to her that you ARE the outsider, and just borrowing the jacket. Her cheeks turned pink. “(text-style:"shudder")[O-oh]! Well, uhm, welcome to RHEI! (text-style:"sway")[Oh…] I suppose it is too late in the day to be saying that now. Several test subjects were looking forward to meeting you, but since no one on the island has any real obligations a lot of test subjects do not bother keeping track of the days, so they forgot when you were actually going to be here.” She was going to offer her hand to shake but realized you would have to stand on your tip-toes to even reach her hand, and she crouched down for you. “I am Qo. TS99.” (link:"Qo")[Qo is a hybrid of hybrids. RHE had thought it already covered ‘//everything but the kitchen sink//’, up until they decided to make Qo a test subject, so internally she is known by RHE staff as ‘//the kitchen sink//’. She is hybridized with so many animals that it is virtually impossible to tell what she is fully. Qo has the dainty little cloven hooves of a deer, and because her upper legs are still human shaped but her soles still extend into canon bones; her legs are quite tall and narrow. She has a fox tail swishing behind her, but it is the same size in comparison to her overall body as it would be on a fox- so the tail is absolutely massive and very brushy. She has the projected triangular vulva of a canine between her legs but it is eclipsed in the front by a very petite bovine udder. The udder’s four sections barely project far enough out for it to just start to droop down a bit when she stands upright- so while it is a cow udder, it is definitely not a dairy cow. Qo’s torso is unusually long and the extra length is entirely in her midriff which means she is also very flexible- thanks to ermine traits. Her spine is reinforced in the back with traits taken from the neck of a giraffe, and in the front it is somewhat braced between all her mammaries! Above her compact udder is three sets of human breasts, all roughly E cup. If she bends straight forward all her boobs will press into each other and prevent her from bending completely over- she has to turn her torso slightly so the upper boobs fit in the cleavage of the lower ones. Her fingers look a bit stubby, but that is because she has the retractable talon-like claws of a feline. The inside of her hands is made entirely of plush pads- thick skin wrapped around a bubble of fat. Making her still taller; her neck appears to be that of a horse. Qo’s neck is a bit muscular looking, quite long, and her hairline extends from her head all the way down to between her shoulder blades in a narrow strip like a horse mane! Her hair is done in a series of spaced out braids, and the end of each braid is connected to the base of the braid after it- linking them all in a series of loops hanging off the left side of her large neck. Qo’s ears are very, very large and quite expressive- they flick every which way as her facial expression changes, so even looking at her from behind you would be able to tell her mood by her ears. Qo’s ears are those of a hare- very long, massive leaf shaped. Even though the back of her ears have fur on them, if you look up through them in the day time you can partially see the light through her inner ear because it’s such a thin, broad surface. Her face projects out into a pseudo-muzzle. Qo’s nose gets larger toward the bottom and her nostrils rather big, but her upper and lower jaw have also extended so that they are perfectly parallel to the end of her nose. So she technically has a muzzle, but it is not as large or as far distended as the animals she gets the trait from originally. Her lips are very plump and neon pink- the coloration from them extends up to cover her nostrils as well in a perfectly square patch of cool, moist, textured skin. Her face is actually hybrid of human-cow-reindeer, but because reindeer and cow have such similarly structured muzzles; you could mistake it for either one without knowing it is actually a mix of the two. She does not need to have bangs or hairclips to keep her long hair out of her face even when it is not braided- because two antlers part the hair for her. They grow from just in front of her temples but a short distance after growing out from her head they arc backward and then forward again in large crescent moon shapes. They only branch once at the middle of the arc, going forward. They are supposed to be reindeer antlers, but they are also blended with cow traits- so they are horns, not antlers. She never sheds them like a reindeer would, but they are still shaped roughly like antlers. Qo’s body has several different colors. On her arms and legs from the knee and elbow down she has a fine, dense, soft fox fur that is pitch black, making it looks like she is wearing gloves and leggings at all times. Her fox tail is base brown however to match her hair/mane, but still tipped with snow white on the end like a red fox. The backs of her ears are also covered in brown fur to match her hair perfectly, but she has no other fur on her body- so most of her is bald. Her actual skin is a pale golden hue except her areola, nipples, udder, nose and lips are all neon pink- her canine vulva is a bit darker tone, so magenta. Qo’s hooves are a normal charcoal grey but are currently encased in cyan nail polish. She has two sets of pale grey leg warmers- one set on her shins and the other on her metacarpal. She wore a very odd top- it is an overly large hooded sweater but it is also a crop-top. On a normal person it would seem counter-intuitive to have the warmth of a sweater on a top that doesn’t cover 95% of your torso in the first place, but it made sense for Qo. She rest the bottom of the sweater on her top breasts- so all of her boobs were out in the open but her arms are still covered. Obviously with the neck of a horse she cannot put the hood up- it would need to be seven times as long. The sleeves were long enough to cover her hands even though- allowing only her fingers to stick out. With ten different species mixed together, Qo is classified as a ‘Super-Chimera’.] Qo tells you that she was on her way to the main complex herself to use the milking machines when she encountered you and thought you were with RHE. Since you are both going to the same building, you walk together. You are walking at a steady pace but she is walking quite slow- her stride is much larger than yours so Qo can easily out pace you if she was not deliberately holding back. Once you get to the building she asks if you have ever seen an udder being milked before. You admit that you have- though never in person. Qo invites you in to watch if you want, so you follow her into the second door over from the one you had entered before. Inside is a large, very well lit, sterile looking room. There are milking machines filling the entire huge space, but they are not all the same. None of them look like any sort of milking machine you have ever seen. Qo motions to a poster on the wall that advertises each of the different machines. At the top of the poster are two cute chibi cowgirl mascots, one holding up a pair of huge breasts proudly and the other dragging a large udder on the ground. Across the middle of the poster is the slogan ‘//Don’t let your bounty become your burden; express yourself! RHE lactation stations//’. It seems there is one that is a standing model for udders only, then a massage table type one, then one that is a banana shaped bed device that hangs from the roof, and finally a model that is like a full body pillow! So you could watch, Qo takes one of the massage table type ones and motions for you to come closer. As soon as you are both in a glass cylinder descends from the roof to enclose the area. When she gets up on the table she selects how many breasts she has and if she has an udder or not so the machine knows how many suction cups to use. As soon as the machine is activated the glass cylinder around you two turns solid white so no one can see inside- that is why you had to be on the inside with her to be able to see anything. She relaxes on the table and her mammaries hang through gaps as suction cups are brought up to fit over her nipples and teats. The cups are clear so you can see the teats inside. The machine starts to hum softly and Qo coos at the feeling as her nipples and teats become erect from a suction. Then it pulled them even larger than they could normally go- it also pulled them deeper into the cup! The suction cups were actually pulling her areola partially into them as well and some of the skin at the base of the teats on her udder. The skin is very soft and the suction cup needs to make sure it forms a strong enough seal that liquid cannot escape. When the machine suckles onto her, it does not do every cup at the same time, each one is spaced out by a half second so by the time the fifth one activates the first one has stopped again. When the sixth stops it is time for the first to turn back on. While most of the stream of milk that expresses from her fires straight down, there are lesser streams trickling from every angle of exposed nipple and teat, splashing on the sides of the cup before collecting back into the tube at the bottom. You ask if it feels good, or if it gets painful after a while. You heard of nipples chaffing on breastfeeding mothers, so like all things; there must be a limit. Qo tells you it feels good, but it is a unique and subtle pleasure- not at all sharp like a sexual pleasure would be. On a base level it is relieving tension and getting rid of weight- it builds gradually enough that no one really notices the increase, but everyone notices when they get rid of it. The jet of liquid escaping through the spongy tissue of the nipple and teat rubs pleasure nerves, so that feels nice. Because they are built to have young sucking and sometimes nibbling at them- teats and nipples on females generally have a lot less pain receptors than the male (if the male of the species has nipples at all). At least among the test subjects Qo has spoken to- everyone who has teats says they enjoy having them heavily manipulated. Because they are so much bigger than nipples, you can tug, lightly bite, or twist the teats around quite a lot and it will feel good; even if it looks like it would hurt. Obviously you can still hurt them, but the bar is quite high- you would have to be deliberately trying to hurt them to do it. As for chaffing- it isn’t an issue. The suction is applied at an even level and at regular intervals, giving the teats a brief break between jets. If you have chaffing from using the lactation stations it would be because you are trying to milk yourself more often than needed- not because of the machine. RHE has its own line of udder treatment cream to use on breasts and udders alike. It has an Aloe Vera blend to help heal sore flesh, and the cream helps the skin stay supple and flexible. If your skin is dry or tense your capacity for milk goes down, because the surface of the mammary becomes inflexible. Funny enough- milk baths are also very good for the skin. “Honestly I like this model of milking machine the best, even though it is the least comfortable, haha. It is also the oldest model- based off a simple massage table.” If it is the least comfortable, why is it her favorite? “It is easy to relax when you get milked, and generally I do it when I first wake up or before I head to sleep. If I was too comfortable I would fall asleep before I get back to my own bed, or kill my energy level and make it harder to fully wake up in the morning.” There was a chime sound and a *pop* sound as the suction cups came loose. “Oop. There, done. My mams are not very big so it doesn’t take very long to milk me.” The glass cylinder turns clear again, but only partially lifts back into the roof. After being used the lactation station becomes unavailable till a member of the maintenance team arrives in the night shift to clean it thoroughly- then the cylinder fully pulls back into the roof to indicate it is active again. Qo decides to walk with you up to the offices before she leaves. When you are there you do not see Olivia though. You hang up her jacket back where you found it and head over to her desk only to find a note left by her stuck to the middle of the monitor: (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[(text-style:"bold","italic")[Sorry, had to slip out to one of the lower levels. Currently assisting Dr. Seraphica with her Mark 2 project so I can’t have dinner tonight. I will see you for breakfast though~]] Qo read the message over your shoulder with her hands on her hips. “Hmm. It looks like Olivia was unable to put a hold on her work. Well… you do know her outside of RHEI, so you can talk to her whenever you want.” True, but you also could have continued to wander around in the valley if you knew dinner was off. Your stomach is growling though… you skipped out on packing a lunch so you are kind of starving. But without Olivia it feels awkward ordering from the restaurant meant for RHE staff, when you are not staff. Qo kindly offered to get something to eat and you quickly agree. She tells you that when she first arrived on the island she would eat dinners here with her handler. You ask who her handler is. “Libera Crettia. A very stern woman, but kind. She is actually the mother of a test subject- Ariandne. I remember when I broke my tail the first thing she tells me is ‘//if you don’t use it- you lose it; so it is lucky you broke your tail and not your head//’.” Qo broke her tail? That sounds very painful. “Oh yea- I was in tears for a while. It hurt (text-style:"buoy")[sooo] bad. I was still pretty new to the island when that happened, and I broke it by sitting down too fast. You see, my legs are a lot longer than they used to be because my soles fused into cannon bones, extending the metacarpal. That means my legs are a lot longer than my arms are- so if I try to sit down like I used to my butt has a lot further to fall and I cannot catch myself with my arms because they aren’t long enough! So I fell back and pinched the base of my tail under my own butt and bent the vertebrae further than it supposed to be able to and broke my tail.” You never heard of anyone else breaking a bone by sitting down. Libera’s reaction of chastising a crying Qo rather than comforting her probably comes from frustration. As Qo’s handler, Libra is her caretaker and Qo is considered both a person in their care and a valuable creation of RHE’s testing. So Libera was probably just frustrated with how carelessly Qo had hurt herself- damaging herself and Libra’s hard work to make sure she is safe. Like a child though; as much as the parent tries to shelter them; they are their own person and if they want to run out and get hurt you can only do so much to prevent it. Qo orders a lot of exotic food, making you ask where she came from before coming to RHEI. Thanks to having been with Amunet before meeting Qo you recognize the faint Arabian accent. Qo tells you she is from Cnoc Ard ‘High Hill’- the country formed by Scotland and Ireland after they repelled the English during the War Of The Technomagi. Her parents are from Morocco though- which is where her accent is from. After dinner you two go downstairs to the arcade on the main floor just below the offices. She absolutely destroys you billiards but the score is much more even when you two play some air hockey- the sudden movements set her many boobs into motion which slows her reaction time down. Qo is so tall that she has to stand three feet back from the table and lean completely over to use it. You notice the decor in the arcade is quite retro- it is meant to bring back the vibes of the 70s and 80s when arcades were big everywhere. The lighting is dim, and the carpet is a soft purple with orange triangle pattern that kind of look like nachos. There is a golem operated bar in the arcade as well, but it only serves drinks- no food. You can get alcoholic drinks though… which are almost food, sort of. An oddity you notice in the arcade is that the game cabinets require coins, but the coins are freely available in a bowl at the side of the counter at the bar. So you need money, but they just give you the money for //free//. Qo explains that there is no physical currency on the island- the only currency exists as credits with RHE. People like putting coins into the arcade cabinets though for the //authentic feeling//, so you take a coin and put it into the machine to play it- but when the game ends the machine just spits the same coin back out to re-use. When you are done, you just put the coin back into the bowl with the others. Qo directs you to a specific cabinet, telling you that you should try to play this one if nothing else. This one was created by the woman known most by her nickname ‘//Mouse//’. She is the chief engineer in RHE and in charge of all electronic maintenance- both hardware and software sides. She made this game on the side for fun, then purchased spare parts from abandoned arcade machines and assembled her own cabinet for it- so this game is only available here; this is the only one in existence. It is called ''Ushi Bushi''- which Qo tells you translates to ‘//Cow Warrior//’. It is an action platformer and starts with a quick pixel art cut scene of a cat trying to steal milk from a barn full of cows, but one cow steps forward to oppose it. It switches to game play and the feral cow from the intro is now a chibi anthro cowgirl wearing what appears to be samurai armor- the pixel resolution is only about as good as a Super Nintendo so it isn’t exactly super-detailed. The gameplay is very simple, but the graphics are adorable and the movements fluid. Qo stands over your shoulders giving you tips as you play- it has been a long time since you had your hand on a joystick and the huge buttons of an arcade machine. You switch with her and then switch back for a second attempt; neither of you get to the end of the game, but you both had a lot of fun together. After your second attempt you tell Qo sadly that you should probably go to sleep. As much as you want to stay awake, you have to wake up //early// tomorrow to be on the helicopter home and Olivia said she wanted to have breakfast before she sends you off- which means she will be waking you up ''REALLY'' early. Qo nodded, only now looking to the clock on the wall over the doors to the bathrooms. “Oh, yea. I completely lost track of time. It is a shame you only have the one day to be on RHEI- I had a lot of fun.” Qo says her goodbyes and you head off to sleep. The lights in the office and restaurant are off as you pass them- but the lights in the hallways remain on at all hours. The office is a bit eerie to navigate with no one in it and the lights off- you can only see by the light that filters in through the open doorways on either side, and the light from outside the windows. The outside of the RHE main complex has a few floodlights set up to illuminate the parking lot as well as the tops of the structures for when the helicopter makes night runs.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]]](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]]] When you wake up the next day, Olivia has to almost drag you out of bed and to the restaurant. It is so early in the day the sun isn’t even visible. The sky immediately over the mountains is turning pink, indicating that dawn is on the way, but not actually here yet. The lights are on again in the office but no one other than you and Olivia are around. The coffee machine has been turned on though and is busy percolating. Over breakfast Olivia makes a bit of a reveal to you. “So, did you have fun with Qo last night?” You furrow your brow. Olivia was in the lower complex when that happened… how did she know you were with Qo in the first place? “Did you //really// think I would ditch you for dinner like that? I was watching for you to come back last night and seen you approaching with Qo, so I made up an excuse and dipped so you could spend more time with her. You can always talk to me because we are friends on the outside- but your time with Qo was quite limited.” Wait, so she was not with Dr. Seraphica? “No, I was with Daniella, I just… didn’t need to be. She didn’t //ask// for my help, I just gave it to her as an excuse to slip out of the office.” After breakfast Olivia took you behind the restaurant rather than to the stairs at the front of the building. There is an overpass that connects the second floor directly to the storage tower that you use to head off to your flight home. Before Olivia breaks off from you though, she hands you a coin. “Since you two had so much fun last night, why not keep one to remember the moment.” You did not notice last night because the arcade has such low lighting- the coins used in the arcade are not any standard currency, they are fake coins made to use in that arcade only! On one side is the face of the RHE founder- the sorceress paragon ''Dess Winehal''; better known as ‘//Moth//’. On the other side is a chibi cowgirl like the two mascot characters you seen on the poster in the lactation station area! You smile and thank Olivia for the little souvenir. You only had a day on RHEI, but the memories will last a lifetime. (set: $Coin to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You return to the main complex at about the same time the sun sets behind the actual horizon.(if:$Item is "Memory")[ You are careful to place the memory slate back into the exact same position you found it in, as soon as you get to the office so that Olivia will never know it went missing.](if:$Item is "Lunch")[ You are already hungry again by the time you return to the offices and are ready to eat dinner with Olivia. You wonder how hungry you would be had you not bothered to pack a lunch.] You look around but do not spot Olivia right away- she is not at her desk nor waiting around for you. She spots you before you are able to spot her- there are quite a few people in the office right now, all working away at something. She hustles her way over to you after putting a note down on someone else’s desk. “(text-style:"buoy")[Hey], sorry, I was just talking with a test subject- you just missed her.” About what? “It was Kalha- she came here on behalf of another test subject named Nail. He just got a kiln finally today for his house which means he is officially back in business as a glass blower- his profession on the outside. Kalha was asking if RHE could provide the materials for a gazebo structure- Nail plans to make some stained-glass murals to place in it as its ‘//walls//’.” Why didn’t Nail ask then? Why was Kalha the one who requested it, is she his wife? “Oh, no, Nail has a wife on the island but her name is Rachel. Kalha makes it her life’s mission to help everyone as much as she is able to- many test subjects have nicknamed her ‘//the angel//’ because she will always go out of her way to help. You see RHE has a credit system- you get credits each month you can use to request whatever you want from the outside world, and if you are one of the subjects who create a substance to sell- like milk- you can earn extra credit that way. A kiln is a rather big-ticket item so Nail needed several credits for that, and unfortunately the rule was made as a //per-household// thing… so he and his wife share the same pool of credits. He already spent his credits getting the kiln, so neither Nail nor Rachel could request materials for anything at the moment. Kalha has an obscene number of credits to her name however from always helping people- so she came to use her credits to fulfill his request.” You two headed over to the restaurant again and had a wonderful- and large- dinner. Olivia got nostalgic as you two were finishing eating and started to reminisce on old times. Before she had to go off to university without you, you two were always together. You tell her about your tour today, wandering around on foot. Even without a specific direction you did well enough finding and meeting subjects- though admittedly it would have been difficult to ''not'' run into at least a few. Nebela was a bit shy, but she seems really nice- and her odd mono-boob helped establish early on that RHEI is full of unexpected forms. Every test subject is unique, so even if you encountered two subjects who are both half cow- their traits will never be the same as one another. Aside from the twins- there is not a single repeat of forms anywhere on the island. Even TS101 is based on the form of TS01, but Io has the ability to revert fully human and transform or pause the transformation at any point along the way, where Serene’s form was permanent like most subjects. So even when the shape was copied- they still aren’t the same. Amour and Beau were a nice couple as well- and kind enough to invite you in for lunch. It was a bit difficult to keep up with Beau’s mixed English and French, but she had an energetic personality that helped you keep up your own energy level. Amunet is quite cool as well, and loves her profession. You don’t think you will ever get a piercing yourself, but if you ever did- you would want her to be the one to do it. Both Amunet and Beau spoke another language partially to supplement what they did not know in English. Other test subjects likely have picked up some French and Arabic words here and there as a result of them being here. The people of RHEI have come from all around the world to be here- the island itself is privately owned, so it is not a part of any country or empire- it is autonomous. Olivia nodded. “Actually speaking of Amunet- it was Kalha who tutored her originally. When she first came to RHEI; Amunet did not speak a single word of English, but there was no one else on the island who knew Arabic. Well… Qo does, but Amunet was here for a long time before Qo arrived. Kalha met up with Amunet regularly and did her best to tutor her in English- using books from the library.” After dinner, you and Olivia head to sleep together since your bedrooms are right beside one another.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]] ](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]] ](else:)[ ]In the morning she laughs at how tired you look. This is earlier than you are used to waking up- frankly you are surprised how awake she looks- it is so early the sky is still pinkish from the light of dawn. Olivia offers you some coffee, but you decline. It would probably just make you have to go to the bathroom while on the helicopter- and helicopters do not have bathrooms. Olivia handed you a slip of paper. “Amunet dropped this off just a couple of minutes ago.” You open the folded paper and a piercing falls out into your palm. The slip of paper just says ‘//If anyone ever puts a hole in you//’. The piercing is a barbell type, but the screw-off ball ends are instead shaped like the handle and very tip of a tiny sword! Once worn, it will look like you have a tiny silver sword through you. You chuckle and tell Olivia to say thanks to Amunet for you for the gift. It will make a nice souvenir for your trip to RHEI- even if you don’t have a hole to wear it in. Olivia walks you to the base of the tower- both of you have your heads down and are squinting the whole way. The morning sun catches off the many windows of the main complex and make the parking lot blindingly bright at this time of day. She says her goodbyes at the base of the tower and scurries back to the main doors to get back to work. You can contact Olivia at least from the outside still and use a code-word to talk about RHEI since neither of you can talk about it directly over the internet. She got you here once, who knows, she may be able to do it again. For now you are satisfied with how your trip went though. You had no idea what to expect when coming into this, but you had a blast and have plenty of things to think about now- and a nice little gift from Amunet. (set: $Sword to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)You both look over to see a beautiful woman with mocha toned skin approaching. She is quite tall and narrow of frame, and approaches from the bottom of the trail up the Great Plateau. “The outsider! If you are looking to climb the Great Plateau; I can take you straight to the top- no climbing needed!” Gabby motioned to the other woman. “This is TS60; Soma.” Soma flourished a wing and bowed in bemused greeting. (link:"Soma")[Soma is part cow, but the traits you will notice from virtually a mile away is her resplendent feathers, adorned in the colors of a metallic rainbow! Soma is both part cow and part peacock! Her skin is a light mocha-brown, and her forehead is adorned with a red bindi. The front of her hips are V shaped like a bovine, giving her sharp looking hip bones, and her legs end in cloven hooves. Her legs are unusually long even for having the soles extended into ungulate legs- this is because of bird traits mixing with the others. The skin on the bottom portion of her legs is stiff and lightly banded. Her breasts are a pert D cup with red-pink nipple and areola and her crotch is adorned with a cow udder- though a very small one. Each segment of the udder is about the size of half an ostrich egg. It is so small and taught that when she moves around, it does not jiggle at all, only the teats on the front of it flick around. Her hair shimmers and is deep brown at the base and almost looks black, but then fades to metallic at the very tip to a beautiful metallic blue- imitating the same coloration of her feathers blended with her original hair color. Even her eyes are a tone of deeper blue that is just slightly also green- not in equal enough amounts to be cyan and too dark to be aquamarine. From her elbows down she has gigantic bird wings. Peafowl are… well, //fowls//- which cannot really fly, but RHE really rolled up their sleeves on this project and did their own splicing- Soma absolutely can fly. She can fly so well that she can ferry other people through the air- although not very quickly. Her wing feathers are black and metallic green at the elbow but fade to solid orange-brown feathers at the ends. Instead of a cow’s tasseled tail, her tail bone blooms into a truly gigantic array of feathers, matching a peacock in its size related to the rest of her body- which means her tail makes up 60% of her entire body length. Her feathers are even more decorative than even a peacock- though all colors have a metallic sheen to them still; she has some pink and purples in addition to the blue, green, and red ‘eye’. Her head is crowned by two very long horns with a shallow wave to them. They for the most part grow out to the side at the very base and then directly up. They both have a platinum orb cap on them to prevent the tips from catching on or poking anything by accident. The surface of one orb is etched with randomly sized rings- representing the moon, the other is etched with a flame pattern- representing the sun. Soma’s form is based on the mythic Kamadhenu of Hindu lore- the ‘mother of all cows’, who was also part woman, part cow, part peacock.] There was another thunder boom which caused Gabby to look at you again. “I am going to head back to my place. At least under the trees I will still be safe if it starts poring.” Soma looked at you and slapped her legs with her wings. “C’mon, grab a shin and I will (text-style:"rumble")[take off]!” That… sounds //incredibly// dangerous. “Oh don’t be a baby! I have flown lots of people around the island! And only ''two'' people have ever slipped. Well, three…? No that one shouldn’t count. Very few people anyway.” And most test subjects are female, who would have less body weight on average, and also there is a thunderstorm overhead- you would be a median point for lightning strikes. “We- hmm… I suppose that is true. I will fly low.” You are starting to question your decision to take the memory slate when you left. A jacket would be nice now that you are going to be airborne in a storm, and your stomach is starting to complain now that it is roughly noon. When you approach Soma she starts flapping and quickly lifts off the ground, but keeps her legs dangling low enough that you can grab onto her slightly rough textured shin flesh. As soon as you have a grip, she takes off! Soma remains fairly low and close to the cliff so even if you do fall, it would only be a few feet at most. You do wonder how she can fly with this much weight though. Even birds have hollow bones in order to fly properly, but if Soma had hollow bones she would cave in on herself because of how tall she is. Every fifteen or so feet up you move further inward. The mount is called the Great Plateau because it plateaus often as it climbs higher. It used to be a tall mountain but it partially collapsed due to erosion, forming a series of increasingly high platforms all connected by a gradual slope. So while it would take quite some time to ascend on foot, you would not need any climbing equipment, or even strong legs- it is incredibly easy to just walk up. You hear another boom of thunder as you are being flown up, but it is further away. You think the storm may have missed the island entirely. You tell Soma your grip is slipping and she stops twice to give you a break before you actually get to the top. Hanging on by your arms only causes all the blood to drain out of them, and it strains your grip quite a bit too. Once on the top she lets you down and then leans back on a large tree in the middle and tells you to have a look around. The top of the Great Plateau is quite large and almost entirely flat. There is a lot of wild blueberry, raspberry, and two coffee plants. They apparently grow particularly well at high altitudes- but also enjoy the warmer weather. There is a huge tree in the middle of the Great Plateau where Soma is relaxing right now, you do not know the type of tree but its canopy is almost twice as wide as the tree is tall. There are some larger low branches that make the tree look nice for sitting in if you want to read a book in its shelter. There is a large ring of open grass, and then berry bushes, shrubs and smaller trees start to get quickly denser toward the edges. There are some taller but narrow and oddly shapen trees that have managed to cling to the side of the cliffs toward the top too- jutting from the side. If someone actually fell off the top they would probably land on a tree a few feet down rather than tumble to the ground far below. To the north side of the plateau you can see the RHE main complex, the two forests on either side, a huge palace, the plains and even the beach on the west side of RHEI. The main complex is above everything else on the island on a plateau of its own, but even it is far below you now. Whenever you think of tropics the first thing you picture is a palm tree, but RHEI is in the sub-tropics and from what you can see there are only a few coconut palms on the west beach, toward its edges. From this high up the flower meadow just looks like someone spilled a dozen different colors of paint on the ground- you cannot see the individual flowers, just the color patches they form. From the ground you did not notice; but there is actually a huge lookout balcony cut into the side of the Great Plateau much further down that connects to the west side of the roof of both the gallery and library- so the buildings are remotely connected to one another! You did not see a path leading there on your way up, so it must connect to the other way up. From so high up, the homes of the test subjects look even more similar than before since you cannot see their finer details from here. You also notice the roof of the buildings are all shaped a bit odd. The roof covering the living room and bathroom is steeply slanted and much higher up than the rest- this is because it contains electrical wiring and various enchantments to regulate mana flow and monitor health all inside of a hidden loft area. The other half of the roof is still slanted, just much less than the other half- and this half is covered in solar panels with the bedroom sky window in the middle of them. When you are done looking you wander back over to Soma who is doing stretches in the shade of the tree now. You ask her where the other way up the mountain is, and comment on how few palm trees there are in spite of the island being tropical. “Oh, if you like palms- the //Isle of Little Light// is covered in palms and ferns. That is where RHEI’s supply of pineapple and coconuts comes from. It is off the north side of RHEI though, so the only way to get to it is by boat, or if you are an inhumanly good swimmer. The path we loosely followed on the way up was naturally formed and packed down by feet. The second way up is artificial, and the start of it is where the plateau cliffs meet the great plains- the north side. There is a huge cave it cuts through, straight through the middle of the mountain. It has actual concrete steps and balconies, and railing. It is the safer way up, but not as great if you want a more natural, nature trail. The natural trail spirals up the entire thing- the artificial trail just zig-zags straight up.” She pointed with a wing-tip toward some hand railing you did not even see before, which is the end of the artificial trail. The end is on the south-west side though, because the trail cuts through the middle of the mountain. That is also how the two trails manage to not intersect- the point where they would have crossed, the artificial path cuts through to the other side. The balcony you seen over the gallery and the library is on the same level of the artificial trail that cuts through the mountain. As you watch Soma doing her stretches you ask how her transformation changed her life since coming to RHEI- particularly how she gets on while having zero digits. Soma has no hands or feet- she has wings and hooves instead, which means she has no means of holding anything, ever. She tapped the crook of either wing together. “I can pinch things between my wings to hold them. On the computer I use speech to text, and the lights and television and that in my home are voice-operated. All of the homes on RHEI accept voice commands, you just have to enable it. That is thanks to TS05 having her hands replaced by hooves as part of an accidental test.” Soma flourished her wings and lifted her tail feathers before twirling around, causing the many colors of her feathers to blur together in a spiral around her. “My hobby is //dance//- and I can do this just fine without hands or feet.” Where other dancers would twirl and throw fans- Soma has her wings. Where other dancers would wave around a long trailing skirt- Soma has her train of tail feathers. Thanks to her udder being small and taught and her breasts being reasonably sized- she is still aerodynamic and her endowments do not flop around violently with her movement. Soma tells you that while dance has always been her hobby- her job on the outside had been as a ''Vitalist''; or called by its unofficial title ‘//Biomancer//’. Vitalists use their own flow of bioelectrical energy to influence the flow in another body. Basically, your body creates a weak electrical energy that runs your nervous system- because of the density of this energy it is technically also classified as mana; you can technically complete a mana circuit and cast a spell using your own hand for instance, in place of a rune. //Bioelectric energy// is the scientific name for it, but it is more commonly known as the ''Chakra''. The chakra network in the body has seven points where it intersects known as chakra gates, which regulate the speed and volume of its flow. Naturally the body hinders the flow to prevent strain. By releasing the gates you can greatly improve the strength of your senses or physical body, but doing so can overload those parts of your body, causing them to wear out or break very quickly- doing permanent harm in the process. If something happens to a part of your body, a Vitalist can increase the flow of chakra to that part to restore lost function. You can also have the flow organically interrupted by illness or injury or misfired spells- Vitalists can restore the balance to where it should be. They inject their own chakra in a burst to alter the flow of yours. In ancient times it was actually first developed by monks as a means of self-defense. They would strike you with an open palm and appear to do no harm- but internally they would fire a burst of chakra into your body to cut off the flow to one of your limbs, causing them to become dead weight. If used maliciously- you can stop the flow to the heart and kill someone in under a minute with a single well-placed strike. (link-reveal:"You ask what the eight gates are, and what they do.")[ She laughs. “Interested in Vitalists?” She explains that the reason she can fly even while carrying you is because she has released her fourth chakra gate- the ''Anahata'' gate controlling the heart chakra. While the gate feeds the heart, the gate itself is actually in the thymus gland. With a mischievous smile she tells you that she can increase horniness and sexual stamina and vitality by releasing the ''Muladhara'' root chakra- the first gate- which is located in the gonads; ovaries in women and testicles in men. By unchaining the sacral chakra- the ''Swadhisthana'' gate can light a metaphorical fire in your belly. It is inside of the adrenal gland and controls creativity and inspiration! The ''Manipura'' or solar plexus chakra gate is associated to wisdom and is located in the pancreas- though the most common reason for its release is to strengthen the immune system. It greatly raises the body’s resilience against all poisons. The ''Vishuddha'' throat chakra is located in the thyroid gland and controls communication abilities, as one would expect. The ''Ajna'' chakra gate is dangerous to muck around with. Simply opening it completely from a closed state can overload a person’s nervous system and cause them to black out. It is located in the pituitary gland and controls awareness. Also known as //The Third Eye//. Opening the third eye successfully grants superhuman reaction speeds, to the point where it is essentially like seeing the immediate future- you will know to dodge something before it even happens in the first place. A congested or plugged Ajna on the other hand causes tunnel-vision, where a person's mind has trouble switching between tasks. ''Sahasrara'' is the crown chakra, in the pineal gland is linked to spirituality. Rather than have an immediate effect on a specific part of the body- releasing this will have an overall boost on the entire body. It can also carry the most severe side effects though, as it puts strain on your entire chakra network and your brain itself. Though little concrete evidence exists- it is linked with a shorter overall lifespan. No one but the most dedicated magi will even attempt to open this gate- it can greatly increase spiritual attunement to allow a person to actually ''see'' the flow of mana, and thus greatly increase magic proficiency. “If you were to open all seven gates at once, you would essentially be like a //Demi-God//- but your lifespan would also get shortened to maybe a couple of minutes before your entire nervous system basically (text-style:"shudder")[explodes].” You thought there was supposed to be //eight// chakra gates, she only listed //seven//. “That is a myth. Many believe in a //mythical eighth gate// that 'removes the boundary between Man and God'. In reality though, it just stems from a mistranslation. In some regions the fourth gate is known as the thymus gate, in the original teachings it is known as Anahata. Some places even interpret them as two different gates, the //heart// and the //ethereal heart//- which would bring the gate count up to eight. It is just a mistranslation though- they are the ''same'' gate, there is only seven.” ]You slip out and hold up the memory slate, asking if Soma would be willing to let you see how her initial transformation went. “Sure, why not.” She folded her right wing and tapped the crook of the wing to the slate, so it could read her chakra signature and confirm consent. You are startled as soon as you activate it because you feel like you are falling- which is something you do not want to feel when you are standing on a //mountain//. You realize it is because the recording started as she was flopping down into bed- which means you did not fall, she did. You feel everything she does in the memory, though slightly removed. It is sort of like watching a movie in first-person perspective; it is a memory so it already happened, so although you are currently aware of it happening you are unable to look around or move freely. Your eyes look where her eyes did. You can focus on something that was in her peripheral vision to pick up on things she did not- however if she has no recollection of something it does not exist within the memory. So in order for something to exist at all, she has to have been at the very least aware that it was present. Soma was a narrow woman to start with, though obviously not nearly as tall as she is now. This was already a few hours after she got her shot in RHE- the recording started now because the transformation started now. Soma is wearing jean shorts and a plain white T-shirt. She quickly flopped onto the bed to get off her feet because she felt a faint, dull ache in her shin bones. Soma sits up and lifts her legs a bit to rub her lower legs. As she does, she can feel the skin tightening. She digs her fingers into it trying to pull the skin back and forth to restore some flexibility to it, but realized it is not just pulling tight, it is hardening. The layers are bunching up and stiffening and her manipulations of it is causing shallow seams to become visible- the bands of the bird-flesh. They are technically scales, but not quite the true scales you would find on a fish or snake- more like a halfway point between skin and scale. The long band-like scales only cover the front part of the leg, breaking into smaller round scales in the back and even smaller and more numerous on the toes- but Soma only has the banded scales in the front wrapping to the sides- it is still normal flesh on the very back. Her nails became thicker which pushed on the skin on the top of her toes to make room- and the nails became pointed and darker as they thickened. Soma threw herself back onto her fluffy new pillows and stretched her body out, pulling her legs straight but curling her toes at the feelings. The room is cool but there is a hot spot on the bed created from a pillar of light streaming in through the sun window, making a square of bright light over her knees and the middle of the bed. She was slightly panicked at the odd sensation of her small and big toe on either side of her feet pulling away from the others! She could feel the bone joint inside the sole of her feet branch off and then as they pulled out to the side, the rest of the bones grew and the two leading into those toes shrank and compacted! Her soles grew long and the many bones inside started to fuse together, forming a cannon bone. This shoved her toes further and further down and robbing them of mobility as their form became more and more simple. The claws fused together and bulked up tremendously, overtaking the ends of the digits entirely and then started to grow larger than the actual digits they tip! The middle toe had its mass stolen entirely into the two flanking it, leaving her with two huge toes tipped with two sharp hoof segments. Her big and little were pulled to the side and back as they regressed, also being overtaken with little hoof segments- turning into dew claws. She now had scales on her lower legs like a bird, but the cloven hooves of a cow. To calm down after, Soma remained in bed, awake but with her eyes closed. You knew she was still awake in spite of the world going black from your point of view, because if she actually went to sleep time would appear to skip ahead- Alua only records the //conscious memory//. She could feel the sun creeping up her legs, over her crotch onto her right side as she lay on her left. Based on the path the sun is taking you know she doesn’t live in the central valley or the Great Plateau would block the sun in the afternoon. Being TS60; her home should be near the center though. Soma eventually got up to eat a very late lunch- the curtains were open in her house and the sunlight was pouring in still. That actually narrows her location down. The living room window is in the same place on every house- the only door out is at the front. If the sunlight was on the bottom of her bed in the morning but the top in the afternoon; that means her house is one of the few that face south, rather than east or west from either side of the main path. She had a very simple salad of mostly just lettuce and cucumber, with a few strawberries cut into it. Soma did not even put salad dressing on it, she just ate it like that! She was eating at the island counter in the kitchen just sitting on a stood, but her hips popped loudly and it jostled her enough that she had to grab onto the counter to keep herself from falling over! Soma rocked forward as her tail bone started to itch and stretch longer, and her hip bones made many muffled cracking and grinding sounds as it transformed its shape entirely. The sides of her hip bones pushed against the skin from the inside and stuck further and further out- Soma placed a hand on either protrusion in worry. It almost looked like her ass was growing handle bars! The hips of a bovine are shaped like a V- the protrusions are the tops of the V and the udder grows from the gap between; cradled and supported by the bone sides. She rocked her weight forward on her pelvis but kept scooting herself forward on the stood because the bone shifting was causing her to slide toward the back. She is forced to stand up though- putting most of her weight on the counter to hold herself up as she used her other hand to undo her shorts quickly and ditch them. Her hips no longer fit in them properly at all. The raised tips of the hip bone kept trying to hike the shorts up, but that was causing the crotch to crush her labia. Once the shorts were off the slight itch in her slightly distended tail bone suddenly turned to an intense prickling feeling and she cried out and looked back at it. There was a thick bush of quills growing out of her tail! They were getting longer and longer very quickly! In terms of size, the quills arranged themselves into layers of increasing size- the largest are the furthest down. After a few moments of nothing, Soma slowly took her hand off the counter to stand on her own hooves again. The changes seemed to stop- though she felt a slight pressure and looked back to see her tail quills are even longer every once and a while. Every twenty minutes or so, she would see a noticeable change in their length. This made sitting awkward. She could raise or lower the quills but not very well- the muscles were not fully formed in the base yet. If she tried to sit normally on the couch her tail would be jammed into the back of it. She also noticed a gentle but persistent pressure on her upper crotch after her hips stopped changing. Very slowly over the course of the day, it became a little bit rounder and blushed pinker- making it clear that the swelling hill is a proto-udder. Because she ate a late lunch, Soma did not eat a dinner. Once the sun was hidden behind the mountains and the valley was in shadow, there was a knock at her door. She briefly seen a woman try to peek in through the living room window but someone yanked her back over to the front door to stop her! Soma answered the door to see two test subjects who were both clearly part porcine! The woman is named //Rachel//, and has unusually pink skin with a pig snout replacing her nose. She seems rather lean for a pig though. Her feet are replaced by little trotters and her round butt crowned with a spring shaped tail. She is wearing a simple summer dress, but through the fabric Soma can see the bumps for a whopping ten teats down her torso! Her husband //Nail// is not a pig though- he is very clearly half wild boar. His hair is bushy and bristly and extends all the way back to his upper back! His tail is long and tasseled, but most noticeable of all is his altered face. Not just his nose being a snout- his entire face extends a bit and although it is hard to tell; his lips are abnormally wide just to make room. He has two tiny tusks growing from his upper jaw, just barely long enough to curl around his upper lip. The two tusks growing from his lower jaw however are monstrously huge, and look like they belong more on an elephant! He is wearing a simple shirt but no pants- his genitals are still covered though by what appears to be a blacksmith’s apron. Rachel and Nail were the test subjects just before Soma- so as neighbors they decided to come say hello and welcome her to the island. Rachel was asking where Soma was from and what she was going to turn into, who she met already, what her favorite color was… she asked so many things so quickly Soma doesn’t entirely remember it all- which means you do not hear it all, it just blurs together. Nail restrains his wife, simply stating that if Soma runs into any trouble or has questions and doesn’t want to have to call RHE down into the valley; he and his wife are always close by. She felt a slight pinching in her forehead as they talked but did not want to poke around herself while talking with others. After a short conversation the couple returned home and as Soma closed the door her heart jumped- only just then realizing she is naked still from the midriff down! She seen her shorts still on the kitchen floor. Since RHEI is in the sub-tropics it is quite warm, which makes it easier to forget when you are not wearing clothes. Soma brushed her hands over either arm because of a slight prickling feeling like they were partially asleep or something and noticed tiny quills starting to sprout out of her skin there as well! The feeling in her tail surged suddenly and caused her to lurch forward, stumbling into and grabbing the corner of the island counter to stop herself from falling completely over! The quills on her tail started to burst open and reveal the colorful bristles of feathers within! Her tail went from a bouquet of huge quills to a gigantic multi-layered fan of cool metallic colors! The center of the eye pattern on her feathers is a dark red though, making her feathers look a bit more intimidating. She unintentionally flexed her tail, causing the gigantic fan to open and knocked the paper towel roll off the counter and almost knocked the glass coffee pot to the floor, swatting it out of the machine! She closed the tail and pulled it up and surprised herself when she could feel the roof brush the tip! The roofs of the homes in the valley are quite high, so her tail had to be very long to pull that off. The homes may look fairly short from the outside, but the living room window also looks like it is against the ground. In actuality there is a three-step set of stairs at the front door because the home is partially sunken into the ground. The bottom of the window touches the ground on the outside, but it is still a foot off the floor on the inside. Soma’s grip started to slip on the counter. Her fingers compressing from the very base within her hand as the bones slowly started to fuse together! The pressure and pinching feeling on her forehead spiked for a moment and she gasped. She would have reached up to feel them if her hands were working properly. She felt warm trickling down either side of her face and quickly rushed to the bathroom to use the mirror. Two small horns had broken the skin and were sliding out of her head, larger and larger. There was a very faint tickling, almost pleasurable feeling in her skull where the bone rapidly expanded into the horns, but there was also a mildly painful pinching feeling as the skin at the base of the horns was stretched wider around it. She bled very little since the horn stretched the hole too tight to allow anything to escape- but her horns themselves were painted a rust-brown by the blood being smeared up their length. Soma was breathing heavily and moaning from the overload of feelings. She fell back against the towel rack behind her, watching the horns grow bigger in the mirror. Her arms were getting buried under all the forming feathers! Her forearms started to stretch longer but more narrow- and by now her fingers were all fused together! Her nails softened and fused back into the skin under them! Her finger joints were still present in the unified mono-digit, but she could feel them swelling together, locking up and devolving away. What used to be her hands and fingers stretched and fused further, till it formed another bone segment almost identical to her forearm- matching it in every proportion. What used to be her wrist was now the crook of a forming wing! The world became smeared like an oil painting someone dropped in water. Through Soma you can still feel the horns growing still larger, and more and more feathers growing along the arms, but her vision is extremely distorted. There are a few jumps in time- she goes from standing to sitting on the side of the bathtub, to standing leaned on the wall in the hall. When reality snaps back to normal she is leaned against the side of her bed, sitting on the floor! The sensation overload must have caused her to be unable to remember the event correctly. The room is pretty dark- she looks up at the sun window to see the sky is vibrant pink. It is the next day- she passed out. Soma went to stand up but stumbled back into a sit and looked at her arms frozen in confusion a moment. She did not have arms now- they fully transformed into wings now. Using her very long legs she kicked the bedroom door closed without moving from her spot on the floor so she could look at herself in the full body mirror on the back of the door. Her horns were massive now too! There was still a bit of dried blood on them, but most of it just flaked off when it dried. Her hair had turned colors now as well. Her udder had swollen out while she slept and was now a cluster of four small hills with a little bubble-like short but fat teat on each section. She turned her feathers to be along the floor and pushed herself up, shoving back against the bed to brace herself on with her legs so she could get up. Before she was fully up though her stomach have a loud gurgling and she felt an oddly pleasurable tingle fire through her groin! She froze in a squat against the side of the bed and spread her bent legs to look down at her udder! The teats tickled with pleasurable pressure and started to fatten up before her eyes, stretching longer without losing any girth! Thick tube-like milk veins bulged from the base of the udder, faintly visible on her torso leading onto the udder. Little beads of milk started to appear on the ends of her teats and she groaned loudly as it started to trickle onto the floor without her even touching it! Suddenly you are back in the sunlight! You almost thought she passed out and time skipped ahead again, but you realize you are back in your own body- the memory ended. That was the end of her transformation. Soma is twirling around dancing in the sun around you- though it feels like you had been under for two days you were actually only in the memory for a few minutes at most in the real world. Soma pauses and blushes when she notices you are done. “Wild, huh?” Wild. “Nail and Rachel are my day-ones. They are a very fun couple- and Nail especially is a hard worker. They always offered to help me. Well, and Kalha too- but you will find most people on the island have been helped by Kalha at some point, haha.” You take a deep breath of the fresh air so high above the rest of the island, though also note the position of the sun. The clouds overhead are white again rather than dark grey; the storm was swiftly taken away on the winds high up. Soma tells you that the top of the Great Plateau is actually above the clouds sometimes, but only when they are fairly low. The fact the clouds never came close to you means they were all quite high up, as well as the wind carrying them. The baby blue afternoon sky is turning a darker blue evening though. You had to get going or you would not catch anyone else. People will be returning home to start working on dinner by now, which means you will not find nearly as many out and about. You definitely did not want to interrupt anyone’s meal. Soma took off, flapping just a few feet off the ground so she could look out over the valley without having to walk to the edge of the top. “Hmm, you have to head back to the main complex later on, so you should not go any further south or it will take you too long to get back- you’ll waste your remaining time walking. I can fly you to the ground again.” You say she does not have to- you don’t want to trouble her any longer. “Oh don’t be silly! The trip down is always faster and easier than the climb up anyway- if you are worried about a rough flight again, (text-style:"buoy")[haha]. I don’t even have to flap to return to the ground, I can just //glide//. Oh! I know, just go see Nail and Rachel! Tell them I sent you. They are sure to be home about this time of day.” Soma ushered you to the edge and plopped down so she could point with her wing-tip to a home in the valley. “They live right beside me.” She moves her wing over a bit. “Nemia and Moby’s house is fairly close too and they are most likely home as well. They are a very fun couple. Very unique hybrids too- they are both //sea creatures//.” (set: $Soma to true) [[Have Soma drop you off at Moby & Nemia's house->Nemia's House]] [[Have Soma fly you to Nail & Rachel's house->Nail's Kiln]]

You decide to head back to Gabby’s house with her so you can look around the gallery and library area. You hear the singing of many small birds as they gather into the trees as well, closer to the trail to avoid the rain. The patter of rain drops on the leaves is all around you, but does not pick up pace from a drizzle- it is not coming down hard enough to really say that it is fully raining out.(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ Your jacket easily repels the few drops that actually make it to you- but the trees shelter almost all of it once you get back on the enclosed part of the trail.] Gabby is able to trot a lot easier along the trail than you- with four legs instead of two she has excellent balance and can’t get tripped up on roots or slip on spongy moss- if one leg slips the other three still catch her. “You would think all the traffic would kill some of the flowers in the meadow or cause the trail to widen, but the area is maintained by RHE’s Geomancers. It is the same reason the grass grows to the edge of the stone paths. Lots of people cut between the pathways since they are so winding, but normally that would kill the grass from all the foot traffic. Geomancers refresh the area causing the plants to grow back with more strength than normal.” Once you two eventually get back beside her house you prepare to split up. You notice a low cloud of what looks like mist billowing from between the next two houses beside hers, that also look like they are half-embedded into the cliff. You ask her about that before she heads inside. “Oh, you should probably ask them to go back there. Those two houses belong to Fate and Basil in the one beside mine, and then Ceba in the one beside that. Their back yard is a //cryosphere//- it is perpetually winter back there. I don’t… know if they are home though.” There was a distant boom of thunder. “Oh. I am going to get inside though- good luck on the rest of your tour! It was nice talking to you… thanks… for hanging out with me. I know I am not an easy person to be around sometimes.” Gabby dashed inside and looked up at the sky through her living room window before glancing at you and waving one last time before disappearing deeper into her house. You hear large footsteps coming toward you and turn around to be stunned silent by the sight of a huge man! Completely clad in ornate knight’s armor; a colossus of a man is walking toward the library but pauses when he spots you! “Ah! JACKET(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ Are you the outsider? I had almost passed you by thinking you were with RHE, but you are Olivia’s friend, correct?”](else:)[ You must be the outsider! It’s funny how you stand out so much by being ‘//normal//’.”] He walked up to you and crouched down so you did not have to crane your neck up to look at him. “Ah but where are my manners. I am TS52; Moby ‘//The Knight//’. Do you need help finding anything on the island? I am surprised Olivia left you to wander on your own.” You explain you decided to wander yourself, you did not want to bother her work after she already went out of her way to get you on the island in the first place. You say you would not mind finding shelter from the rain.(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ Or a place to eat; you have a lunch but nowhere to eat it at the moment.] “Ah well, there is a place (if:$Item is "Lunch")[for both](else:)[for that] right here.” He motioned to the gallery. The gallery’s front has a long patio that is covered by a cloth canopy to shelter it from the sun or rain.(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ There are many tables and chairs to sit at and eat. There is a machine here to dispense tea and coffee as well, making it an outdoor café.] Moby lead you over to the patio area and knelt down beside the chair on the opposite side as you, since his body and armor is likely too heavy- he would break the seat if he attempted to sit in it. To your surprise he takes the helmet off and reveals his head is very small compared to the rest of him. Then Moby climbs out of the armor entirely and sits in the chair! The suit of armor must be a golem- his actual body is only a fifth of its size, if that. Moby can only actually fit inside of the helmet and chest of the armor- the rest of it is moved with Automancy runes! (link:"Moby")[Using a suit or armor instead of a seashell- Moby is hybridized with a hermit crab! Though his head was human, his face did have some crustacean features; he had two very long feelers that grew above his upper lip like a mustache and his jaw is large and well defined with several small, dull chitin spikes. His right arm is at least three times as muscular and large as his left! His thumb has a huge pointed chitin plate on it. The chitin plates on his fingers are like tall, rectangular boxes that overlap each other quite a bit. They slide into one another and lock up when his fingers are fully open as a dense strip of armor, but when he closes his fingers on something they slide apart and form an arch. The plates need to be very narrow and tall so his fingers do not rub together, but if he holds them all together they look like the upper portion of a crab’s pincer- his thumb being the lower edge. His right arm is the crushing arm of the hermit crab; with an iron-hard grip and superhuman strength. Moby himself though is at least a full foot shorter than you are, so not particularly intimidating in spite of his strength. His left arm is clad in chitin as well on the outer facing side, but the claws over his human hand structure are very different from the right. Instead of a massive bulky pincer, his left digits all end in very long, very narrow claws that point straight out- if he unites them his hand forms a skewer. This is the piercing pincer of a hermit- made to impale the foes that it holds still with its other arm. His skin is peach toned but wherever chitin overtakes it; he is coral colored- a mix of pink and orange. It is a good thing the chairs here have open backs, and arms, because his tail is huge- as thick as his torso where it branches from and it easily doubles the length of the entire rest of his body! There is four limbs growing from the base of the tail, but they are really tiny- they are almost more like large fingers than separate limbs. The tail is covered in chitin, but it is bands rather than plates, so the tail still feels smooth. He has four legs total, so two hang off the front of the chair and two are off the front sides of the chair. They are very narrow and encased in chitin- if you put both sets together you would get a normal proportioned human leg. His legs have three segments, so the bottom segment is essentially a cannon bone, so he walks on his digits- of which he only has two per leg. Most of his torso except his upper back is normal human flesh, and the inner sides of his arms and underside of the first third of his tail is skin. He has short human hair, though because of his modified facial features; Moby cannot grow facial hair.] You ask what his test was on; since hermit crab seems like quite a leap from the species other test subjects were given. “Well, they had some sea creature genes in storage already for a possible compatibility test, to see if they could properly mix the two. You could end up with a form that breathes above water or below, but ideally you want one that can do both. My wife and I actually had some conditions to signing up for RHE though- and we specifically requested forms that could handle the depths of the ocean.” They both really like water? Or did they know already that RHE would take them to an island in the middle of the ocean? “We are originally from //Deepwater Rest//, a real small… declining city in south Laurentia.” Moby tells you about Deepwater Rest- a city getting by entirely from its fishing industry. It sits on the coast of a huge inlet known as //The Shallow Grave//, which is absolutely filled with shipwrecks both new and old. Coral feeds on the carcass of old wrecks while the abundance of fish feed off the corals or use it as homes. You are not supposed to be wandering around because it is dangerous, but no one is checking if you are civilian or a researcher or fisherman, so you can actually just wander around the wrecks without getting stopped by anyone. There was a huge overturned cargo ship he and his wife used to hang out in all the time- they climb into the hull from a massive hole in the side and just look out over the water- half of the ships massive bottom was jutting out //above// water. The area is a hotspot for researchers though, as the eldest known golem exists at the bottom of a great chasm that runs along the outer edge of the inlet. No one had been able to get close to it however as the supercolossus golem would attack any and all vessels that entered its immediate proximity; adding still more ruins to The Shallow Grave. Moby’s wife Nemia wanted them to get aquatic forms so they could approach the supercolossus without the use of a vehicle. It does not target any of the sea life around it, so she deduced that it only targets vehicles and synthetic lifeforms. It doesn’t consider organic lifeforms to be a threat, so it won’t attack. Both her parents were researchers and attempted to approach the golem from below the waves in a small submersible… they never returned. That is what leads Moby and Nemia to seek out RHE. Their joining as test subjects was conditional- unlike other test subjects; the two of them were escorted off of the island ''after'' being transformed. They explored the supercolossus and learned about its make and what happened to it that put it onto the sea floor. Nemia was able to find her parents… or what was left of them after the fish had been pecking at their bodies for weeks. They could not move the vehicle at risk of the golem once again targeting it, so unfortunately she had to leave their bodies where they already rest in the ruins of their vessel. She recovered some keepsakes and her mother’s research notes though. You are from Laurentia yourself, but you live far, far north of where Moby is from, so you had never heard of the place. You ask him if his new form helps or hinders him in his regular day to day life. Surely the hard but bendable chitin shell helps against the crushing depths of the ocean, but how does it fair above water? He tapped the tips of his very long left hand claws together. “Oh it has its perks. The long pointy claws are great for picking things up that have fallen into tight spaces. The right arm is great for heavy lifting. I can also carry quite a lot of weight in my tail- when I need to move the fridge to clean under and behind it I coil my tail around it and yank it out that way.” He blushed a bit. “And, uh, apparently hermit crabs are pretty well //(text-style:"sway")[endowed]//- so that was a bonus.” Since the only clothing Moby wore is the armor- you can tell without having looked directly at it that his genitals are not exposed at all. His balls are internal only, and his penis only emerges when needed from between chitin plates where his tail meets his body. You ask if Nemia built his armor, since it is made using Automancy and she was apparently born of two researchers. “She made it, yea. She was actually a bit of a yutz before. She was never smart enough to take after her parents to become a researcher but… her transformation sort of changed that. I mean… she ''still'' isn’t a researcher officially, but, she is a lot smarter now. Nemia herself did not really notice the difference but I sure did. Octopus are very smart, in addition to having a sort of proto-brain at the base of each of its eight arms. Her transformation increased her neuro-complexity and density of her grey-matter. Basically it greatly expanded her capacity to learn- if she actually applied herself she could learn new things inhumanly fast. Obviously she took interest in her mother’s notes and felt a sort of… //obligation// to complete her research on the supercolossus, so she unintentionally became an Automancer. Don’t call her that though- she doesn’t consider herself one, even though she is literally doing the work of one.” To say Nemia was dumb was never accurate at any point- she was always pretty clever, but she took no interest at all in books. She is aloof and likes to have fun, but is also someone you do not want to mess with because she will out-prank even the best of them. Now she unintentionally has the intellectual equivalence of the RHE researchers- every little fact that her ears pick up her brain ends up committing to memory. She absolutely hates being treated like the brains of the group though, so people try not to call attention to it. Though if someone has an Automancy problem in the valley, they are more likely to take it to Nemia than RHE. Keep it in the valley- home grown from start to finish. Moby himself was a simple dock worker before he came here. He would often see Nemia looking out over the waters longingly while her parents were off on the open sea doing research on submerged ruins and trying to get closer and closer to the supercolossus. They would hang out in the ship wrecks together and fell in love quickly. Moby tells you he used to be very tall- though obviously that changed when he transformed. Nemia is as tall as you are now- an inch or two taller before she transformed, and then Moby was about a full foot taller than she was. That is why she built his suit of armor so large- so he could feel like the big strong man again. A knight that stands guard over the kraken. (if:$Item is "Lunch")[As you talk, you eat your packed lunch. You offer Moby some if he wants since it feels a bit awkward eating in front of someone who has no food themselves, but he tells you he ate a late breakfast. He laughs and tells you their favorite dishes are all seafood- which now seems a bit ironic since they are half sea creature themselves. Both grew up on the southern coast of Laurentia though, so the cheapest and freshest food available to them would have been fish. If you grow up eating something, you will probably grow to enjoy it the most- or at least have fond memories tethered to it. You ask what his favorites dishes are- you could order them for yourself later at the restaurant in the RHE main complex when you have dinner with Olivia again. Moby hums in thought for a moment. “I used to work the docks so I like something I can carry around with me and nibble on here and there- so I think fish jerky.” You… didn’t even know fish jerky was a thing. “Oh yea, if you dehydrate the fish in a smoker- smoke makes it taste delicious and its dried so it keeps for a long time and you can just keep it in a pack in your pocket and walk around with it. Nemia loves any fish with flaky meat- loves how it just falls off the bone. She is the only person I know that actually eats fish skin and fins…” Aren’t fish fins supposed to be //inedible//? Is that healthy?! “If you fry it at a high enough temperature, the skin and fins become crispy and break apart in your mouth. They have to be borderline burnt though, so it is hard to cook them correctly, and you can’t cook the flesh of the fish at the same time because it would burn or become leathery and gross. It is basically the only way you can cook and eat an //Auricill//. You know those fish?” You shake your head. “Most people call them Coins, because they have round, flat bodies with a thin round blade-like fin around their back. They are smaller fish and travel in massive schools- since they have yellow scales from above the water it looks like hundreds of gold coins in the water. Because they are so thin though and their fin wraps around most of their body- the only way to eat them is basically fry it and eat it whole. If you go to a coastal town and order a ‘plate of coins’ you will get a plate of a dozen or so of the Auricill, deep fried. Only part of the fish that is removed when deep frying them is the head.” Once you finish lunch, Moby tells you to just put the container into the recycling bin near the drink dispenser. All food and drink containers are broken down and re-constituted rather than having to actually wash them and re-use them as-is. ]You notice the shadow of the buildings starting to lean to the east as the sun dips to the west. Both you and Moby look up at the sky and notice the gaps between clouds are getting bigger. The clouds still look large and dark, but they are scattering and you haven’t heard a raindrop pat against the cloth canopy over you in a bit now- it barely rained at all. The storm happened around the island rather than over it. The cracks between clouds let in sunlight to bounce off the little rain that did fall, making everything around you glitter in the late afternoon sun. The air smells even fresher after being rinsed out by the falling rain, so even the scent of flowers is absent at the moment. Moby stretched before skittering back up the arm of his armor and into the pocket in its chest to ride it again. “So, off to somewhere else on the island now? It is getting late. I could direct you, if you have a place in mind.” You ask if he has any recommendations. You think wandering around to meet people on accident is probably a lot less effective now- most people will be heading home to work on dinner right about now, so the number of people outside is probably going to be at its lowest. Not that there was ever any time on RHEI where things were (text-style:"underline")[completely] quiet. “Hmm, well I know Nail is home and probably his wife Rachel. He just got his kiln today so he would be setting that up and mucking around with it- probably enjoy someone to show his craft to now that he has it fully up and running on the island. Oh! I could take you to my place and introduce you to Nemia.” [[Return home with Moby to meet Nemia->Nemia's House]] [[Head to Nail's house->Nail's Kiln]]

You walk with Gabby to where the forest path opens up back into the valley and were about to head back north on her advice but she placed her hand on you to stop you. “Where are you going?” Back to the RHE main complex? She recommended you check around the lactation stations. “Just stay here out front- I will call a shuttle for you. You’d waste like an hour of travel time walking, you doof. Not to mention you’d get soaked.” You stand under the corner of a cloth canopy at the front of the gallery after Gabby goes back to her house just fifteen feet away from where you wait. The rain did not really come down any harder though. It is only about ten minutes before the shuttle arrived to give you a lift. The area is starting to get foggy because of all the moisture in the air. The wind on ground level has all but died off, but is still whipping wildly in the sky; you can tell by the speed the clouds roll past. In the fog it almost looked like the vehicle was chasing its own headlight- the light isn’t actually attached to the shuttle, it is projected two or so feet in front of it by a spell. That way people see the light before the vehicle gets there, giving them ample time to get out of the way. There are no roads or traffic signs on RHEI after all. That is why all the shuttles are a type of hovercraft- they do not disturb the ground they roll across, and steer just as good no matter what the terrain. They can technically drive over the lake too, or ocean if the waters are calm. The fog gets thicker quickly as you drive up toward the main complex, and the driver is forced to slow down quite a bit since he could only see a few feet ahead of the vehicle. He brought you almost exactly to where you originally left from. You ask him where the milking machines are in the facility. He pointed to the doors right beside where he stopped. “In there. The door on the left of the hedges is the main door into the arcade and then the offices above that. To the right of the hedges here is the door to the lactation stations, with the doctors’ offices above.” He pointed to a long shutter door just behind the vehicle on a part of the building that stuck out slightly more than the rest. “And that is the garage- so if you need another lift, just knock on that door.” The fog is making everything white outside, and as soon as you step inside it is almost blindingly white in here too! The milking facility is a very brightly lit, sterile environment. The lactation stations come in several different types, some hanging from the roof, some rising from the floor, and some just looked like a modified massage table. There is three machines with a glass cylinder half-down around them. These indicate machines that have already been used today- they become inactive after use and will not turn back on till someone from the maintenance team thoroughly cleans them off. There is one cylinder completely down and the glass has turned white so you cannot see through it- this is a machine being currently used. You see movement out of the left side of your vision though and see the glass lifting off another station- someone who //just// finished. She stood by one of the pillar-like milking machines and let out a sigh of relief. You wander toward her but the moment she spots you she looks panicked and crosses her arms across her chest and bows forward, pushing her udder up with her thighs trying to hide a neon pink spike over her udder. She isn’t a ''she'' at all- you’ve found TS78; Jack. (link:"Jack")[Jack was meant to be a buff, endowed horse to live out his dream of being a stud, and tending to his wife Jill. Jill was supposed to be half cow, with modified bovine hips and large udder. The problem? Their tinctures were ''switched'' on accident. //Jack fell down, and Jill came tumbling after//. Jack was turned into an cute, endowed cow instead of his wife, but because the tincture was meant for his wife there are no intentional gender alterations to it- so he is still very much male even if he does not look it at a glance. The reason he was so quick to try and cover himself is that the process of being milked is pleasurable in the first place- and even more so for him. He had a bit of an erection from just being milked, but is only wearing a shirt to cover himself. His genitals are still fully male but influenced by bovine traits like the rest of him. Because of how far up their torso a bull’s sheath travels; Jack’s sheath actually passes //between// his torso and udder, hidden from view entirely. The opening of the sheath is at the top of the udder against his body where his tapered penis is poking out- he is not very well endowed, so his penis is only able to stick four or five inches from the opening. His balls on the other hand became quite large, and ride in a rather low slung, loose scrotum like a bull- but it is on the opposite end of the udder. If he moves around too suddenly his balls will slap the underside of his udder! The udder itself is a full blown dairy cow udder- the size of four watermelons pressed together and stood on end. Jack’s hips are more bovine than others with a similar build- this was deliberate, as RHE was testing structural integrity of the bovine frame while also trying to not hinder any mobility a human would have had. There had been a stallion and cow duo before, but their heads became more animal than originally intended, their hands turned hooves, and their proportions a little ''too'' enhanced. Jack and Jill were meant to be a tamer, more //efficient// version. Jack’s hip bones looked sharp and jut out in the back- this is because of the characteristic V shaped bovine pelvis, cradling the udder’s base while allowing the softer tissue plenty of room to hang. This also meant his hips were extremely wide- rather than sit on his thighs and slow his walking like an udder of that size would normally do; he has a huge gap between his legs that the udder sloshes down between when fully standing, allowing it to swing between his legs comfortably. Because the udder wraps around the sheath on Jack though- when it moves it also moves his sheath around. So when you manipulate the udder while he has an erection- you would basically be making him titfuck himself from the inside. Like the mythical Satyr, Jack’s lower half is covered with the fine fur of a cow starting at his wide-load hips. He has a standard cow tail, and his legs are mostly bovine, but the shin and femur length scaled to a human so he can properly walk on two legs. This means his thighs are much narrower and round than a bovine- whose thighs would normally be triangular and rather thin width-wise. From the hip up he has no fur and returns to human proportions- including a regular flat man’s chest. Jack is wearing a very loose white t-shirt; it looks like a nightshirt because of how loose it is. His ears are only partially changed, making them elven looking, and he has relatively narrow, but fairly long horns. His horns grow from the front of his temples and are about a foot long, but they grow straight out sideways. Jill enjoys using them like handlebars. His hair is short and forward swept and has a few white spots in the otherwise caramel-colored hair. The white hairs are apparently not static- his hairs shift color as they grow out, so if he grew his hair long the white areas would form actual spots in his hair rather than streaks. Since he keeps his hair short, the white areas appear and disappear at random as he trims it. His skin is rather soft and smooth looking, so although he is male he would not have trouble impersonating a female if he actually wanted to. Though you can see his adam’s apple, and his jaw is a bit too pronounced- and his voice is very clearly male. The fur on his lower body is similar to his hair- pale orange-brown spots with white in between.] His embarrassment killed the erection quickly, and he was able to straighten again once the neon pink shaft vanished into his long, deep sheath. To help him get his mind off it, you ask how that lactation station works. There are many different machines in here but none of them are standard milk machines- since there are no regular cows on the island. Jack puts one hoof up on the base and gently pulls in on the skin at the top of his udder, causing the front to lift up and align better with the top of the pedestal to show you. The top is curved inward to cradle an udder and there is four openings for teats. The insides of the openings have a rubber lining that hugs the teats and then milks them. There are stainless steel vessels to store the milk inside of the base of the machine- so unlike the other units you can take the vessels from this machine if you wanted to keep the milk yourself. Because it is stored within the machine itself first though; there is a scale built into the base of the machine that will tell you both your current weight, and the weight offset by the extracted milk. Because it can only milk udders, and you must remain standing the whole time- this is considered one of the least comfortable machines, but is the only lactation station capable of helping someone with a centauroid body. It is fine for Jack, because he doesn’t have breasts, just an udder. You ask him how RHE managed to goof something as important as who got what tincture. Did they give him any compensation for having so clearly messed up? Jack shrugged. “They gave me and my wife a bunch of extra credits with them, so we could order several items from the outside world immediately as soon as we settled on the island. We were given our tinctures together, so both were being transported at the same time- our handler accidentally switched them in his hand before he gave them to us. He wasn’t fired, but from what he tells us; RHE definitely never let him forget his error. He has basically been demoted to //errand boy// within the complex- whenever anyone gets a job they don’t want to do it gets shoved into his lap. Our handler is Oswald Cliffield. Poor guy.” Jack tells you that he and Jill have gotten used to these bodies. The transformation did not rob him of his manhood, nor did it hinder his lifestyle, so at the end of the day it really is a non-problem. It certainly took a ''lot'' of getting used to, but they got there eventually. In the outside world, Jack might not have been able to live normally with this form. On RHEI though… societal norms don’t exist. There is no ‘//normal//’ body on anyone- therefor all bodies are normal. There is no shame here, only support. Oswald likes to quote a famous painter on their situation; ‘//it wasn’t a mistake, just a happy little accident//’. You ask Jack what sort of things he needed to adjust to because of his transformation. Just dealing with the mental knowledge of having such a female part on a male body? “No- walking mostly. As a regular man I would just shuffle along forward.” He did a few steps normally, causing him to teeter one way and then the other. “The distance between either of my legs makes that extremely awkward.” He made another step, crossing his left leg toward the right and then his right leg to the left- so both his hooves stepped down in a straight line from one another. This caused his hips to swing one way and then the other, and his tail swung with it, but lagging behind its pace. His udder sloshed one way and the other as well but is generally too heavy to move easily, so it was more just rolling back and forth slightly. “Some woman walk that that normally, but for a man it was something I had to learn from scratch. Which sort of makes me feel better about having giant hips, butt, and udder. If I had a regular man body I would feel like an ass for trying to walk like that. With these curves? Makes a lot more sense. If you got it- //shake it//.” He glanced at the clock over the doors back out. “Ah, sorry- it is lunch time so as much as I would like to stay and chat, I really should be going.” (if:$Item is "Lunch")[You hold up the container your own lunch is in. ]You should get eating yourself, so it is fine.(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ You packed the lunch so you could eat on the go, but in a bit of a twist you’ve ended up back at the building during lunch anyway, so you might as well just eat it in the restaurant. Hearing that though; Jack decides to join you. It would save him the walk home right now to prepare something for himself. He had forgotten about the restaurant in the main complex entirely- test subjects generally do not eat there, even though there is nothing actually stopping them.](else:)[ Jack tells you that you are free to visit him after lunch- he will be home for the rest of the day today. He tells you where to find his home- but if you go you will need to take a shuttle; Jack lives in the south end of the valley.] (if:$Item is "Lunch")[[[Continue...->Restaurant]]] (else:)[[[After a quick lunch, head to Jack's house->Jack's House]] As you are about to leave you notice someone heading upstairs. Didn't the shuttle driver say the hospital was up there? She might need help! [[Offer help.->Massage Clinic]]]

(if:(history: where its name contains "Outside Library")'s length >= 1)[You figured that after hearing Moby talk about her already, you should meet Nemia yourself. With a nod, Moby dawns his helmet again and leads the way. The fields of grass shimmer with sunlight reflecting in the beads of water formed by the rain on their surface as they gently sway in the wind, like waves on a green sea. There are floating chunks of a rainbow in the sky over the valley- broken up because there is still some dark clouds rolling past. Nemia and Moby are TS51 and 52, so naturally their homes were placed in the central valley- the gallery and library are at the southern edge of the middle, so their home is not that far of a walk from where you already were. You can generally guess where a test subject’s house is based on their test number- though since some subjects failed or were otherwise released from the island life; some higher number subjects ended up filling in the unused home, and are thus in an area you would not expect them to be.](else-if:(history: where its name contains "Western Plains")'s length >= 1)[On Lace's suggestion you decide to visit Nemia. You at least know where Nemia is, and Aleiha and Lace are busy getting pictures taken for Beryl, so you'd rather not distract them. You walk with the sleepy spider, spotting the unusual form of Aleiha up ahead just before Lace points out Nemia's home for you. Aleiha appears to be a naga-like form, but also with bird features? On seeing her, you have many questions and wish you were going to see her, but stick by your descision anyway. Nemia is likely just as bizarre and interesting.](else:)[You decide to see if Nemia is home. Being one of only a few test subjects based on sea creatures, her transformation should be quite unique- the ocean has some wild critters in it. There is a line of homes in the column of houses on the west side of the valley that lead up to the backside of the library- Nemia’s home is the last home before the library, closest to the center of the valley. It makes sense- she is TS51, almost dead-center of the test subject roster. Soma glided to the ground with you clutching her legs tightly and she dropped you off almost right beside Nemia’s house. Soma’s home is just across the way. By now there is a glowing rainbow in the sky- the dark clouds are still overhead but you can see a break to the west that the sun is peaking through, casting the rainbow. You can still hear thunder if you listen carefully; but it is very, very far away. Soma pats you on the head with a wing. “There, told you I would get you back safe and sound. Anyway, I better get going- tell Nemia I said hi!” With a few test flaps Soma took back to the sky.] You knock on the door without thinking to look in through the huge living room window, but when you knock you glance over and see Nemia flop over suddenly! She had been asleep on the couch with an open book resting on her chest- you woke her up by knocking and she rolled off onto the floor! Nemia quickly dashed to the door to answer it, though now you were blushing knowing that you unintentionally woke her. “Ye-? Oh! You are the outsider!(if:(history: where its name contains "Outside Library")'s length >= 1)[" Moby nodded, nudging you through the doorway and ducking to climb through after you. “I thought I would introduce him. I have been talking to him for a bit already.” Moby sat against the wall and climbed out of his armor again. “Okay, I will let you two talk- I better get dinner started.”](else:)[ Come on in! All the test subjects have been talking about you lately. Olivia needed to ask everyone for permission to be able to let you onto the island- so everyone knows you were coming.” Nemia motioned to the kitchen. “Oh, and that is my husband Moby.” She motioned to a giant suit of armor resting on the floor against a wall by the door. “And that is what he rides in when he goes out. I custom built that myself, cool huh?!” The suit of armor looks like a knight’s armor- except built for a giant… which her husband definitely is not. Nemia is exactly as tall as you are, and Moby is a foot shorter. With one muscular and large arm, one very narrow and pointy arm and four narrow legs- Moby is apparently part hermit crab. He has a giant tail behind him curled into a tight spiral with four lil baby limbs at its base. Half of his body is covered in coral colored chitin, and his face trails two very long feelers from just over his mouth. He just turns and waves at you as he appears to be busy making dinner at the moment- it is that time of day after all. Thankfully that means you are not delaying their meal any by being here.] (link:"Nemia")[Nemia’s hair is the most confusing part of her anatomy, because it looks at a glance to be regular black hair that is just really wet… except after a few moments of looking you realize it isn’t wet at all. Nemia has hairs on her head, but not many and they are trapped inside of a very smooth, flexible membrane of flesh! If you were to pull it up and stretch it till it becomes translucent, you would see the human hairs trapped inside basically helping to make a framework for the loose fin. While it lays on her head in the exact shape her human hair would have, it does not actually cover a lot of her head. If you were to pick it up and hold it straight off of her head, the fin roughly grows off her head in a hollow diamond shape- her scalp in the middle is completely bald; it is just that the fin folds over that area so you would never normally see her bare head without deliberately moving it out of the way. Unfortunately that means she can never style her hair- because it isn’t real hair. Nemia’s fingers and toes are webbed but you have to look at them very closely to even notice- the membrane is completely translucent. She has what appears to be a giant tail behind her with smooth pourless skin- but Nemia splits it in half to show you that it is actually two tentacles; to avoid getting dirt on the suction cups she faces them in to each other and holds them together like a tail when she isn’t using them for anything. She is hybridized with an octopus, so she has eight limbs, but her transformation included her original human arms and legs as part of the total eight. Her other two tentacles grow from her back, just below and slightly behind her human arms. When idle, she coils the tentacles up under her arms and over her shoulders. When completely relaxed the tentacles are extremely plump and soft, and only half the length of her arms- but when fully extended they become narrow and much more solid, and nearly triple the length of her arms. Unlike her human limbs, the tentacles have zero bones in them; so their form is somewhat amorphous. Her skin is pale peach toned, but her human skin fades into very smooth octopus flesh a third of the way down her tentacles, but also exist as hundreds of spots on her shins, forearms, and upper back- as well as much smaller, freckle-like dots on her upper chest and the bridge of her nose. The skin there is so smooth that it almost feels wet even when it isn’t. It also does not have a static color. The octopus flesh defaults to black, but when you first see her it seems to be fading between black and dark grey several times back and forth. Like a mood ring- her octo-flesh automatically changes color according to how she feels without her even noticing it herself. Blue is shy or sad, red is surprised or stressed, pink is lusty, yellow is anger, black is neutral, grey is apparently tired or ill. She was fading to grey when you first seen her because she had just woken up. She is completely nude and basically always will be, she only has a few simple adornments to wear to parties and such; otherwise she never wears clothing. Because of that; you can tell her body is completely devoid of all hair other than her eyebrows. Even the fine peach-fuzz hair that is normally all over the human body does not exist on her. Octopus certainly do not lactate- so her bust is just little B cup bumps crowned with alert eraser-nub nipples. She does not really have any curves on her body at all, but she is as tall as you are- and was actually a few inches taller before the transformation.] While Moby cooked their dinner, Nemia lead you down the hall past the bathroom and bedroom to the walk-in closet at the end. Unlike other homes however, theirs was modified quite a bit- there is an entire additional level to the building. The stairs are right beside the closet and take you down into a basement level. Aside from a narrow hall, most of the bedroom level was just the back quarter of the house that would be under the bedroom, closet, and the space between. It is dominated by a huge fish tank- the top of the tank forms a rectangular pool taking up half their bedroom floor! So while the entire tank is in the basement you cannot enter it from the basement; you enter via the bedroom. Their computer is set up here, facing the side of the tank so she can use the computer while underwater- using voice commands to operate it. The basement walls are painted to look like an underwater mural- Nemia tells you that two test subjects spray painted it all for her. TS02 Nancy, and TS04 Lauren are the artists who painted Nemia’s basement. Aside from a layer of stones on the bottom that came with the tank- the bottom of it is kind of a mess. There is a ship anchor, at least three swords, a pile of old coins and jewels, what looks like a wooden throne half-consumed by coral, and numerous bones from sea creatures. Nemia apparently found all of these random objects on the sea floor around RHEI itself and brought them home with her. The basement has rather spotty lighting- the only actual lights down in it is a single bulb hanging over the stairwell coming down and thin but bright lights that line the bottom of the tank. The light reflects off the bottom of the water’s surface and casts undulating wave patterns onto the walls. Nemia put her hands on her hips. “I dunno if you heard about the explorers who finally discovered the secrets of the supercolossus, but uh, that was ''us''.” You ask her about what you first thought was a large tree stump that had become driftwood. On looking at it longer you notice the shape is too familiar. It is a tooth. A tooth that is almost twice as tall as you are. Nemia grinned. “I actually didn’t find that one- Moth let me have it from her own collection for all the information we helped get on the supercolossus. That is one of the teeth from a //Noloth Ghoul//. Do you know about them?” You shake your head. You have heard the name before and know it is some sort of deep-sea nightmare but have never seen it. Nemia tells you the Ghoul is named after the city of Noloth on the central Zealandia coast, where the first one was originally found. There is only two Noloth Ghoul’s in the entire world, and the skeletons of three others have been found. They are an ancient species of megafauna and their overall body shape is that of an eel. Their tail forks into three tips though and the eel-like fin only exists on the two outer tails, which clap together over the middle one to launch itself forward. The Ghoul is large enough to swallow entire ships whole but thankfully due to its size it only lurks in the deeper ocean normally- and apparently has poor senses, making it easy to sneak around. It is so huge and so powerful it did not need to evolve better predatory senses, because it immediately kills anything its colossal mouth closes on. The only recorded attacks against vessels on the surface have been in times of war- ship battles created enough sound to attract it. The mouth of a Noloth Ghoul is by far the more terrifying part of the beast, and also rather unique. The bottom jaw predictably has two primary rows of teeth, with an inner row of baby teeth- like a shark it is constantly swapping rows of teeth as more grow in. The top jaw however is shaped like a wedge and only has a single row of teeth along the narrow, downward edge. The teeth of the top jaw fit perfectly between the two bottom rows. The teeth are giant, and hook shaped- the bottoms lean outward away from its face while the tips arch back toward its head- this extends the reach of its maw because its teeth project out from its face toward the end. Compared to the size of its head; its eyes are like pin-pricks, almost unnoticeably tiny. Almost its entire head is ''just'' mouth. Because there is only two Ghouls in the entire world, they have no need to communicate and will make no sound except for immediately before they strike a larger target. They release a sonic burst, loud enough to physically stun their prey before swallowing them whole. “The two Ghouls have never met each other; they live on opposite sides of the planet. One of the skeletons researchers found has the bite marks of another Ghoul- so it seems they do not play well together. And no one knows how they breed- the two alive now have been alive for many hundreds of thousands of years, so as long as humans have existed, a new Ghoul has never been born.” (if:(history: where its name contains "Outside Library")'s length >= 1)[(link-reveal:"You ask if she could tell you about the Supercolossus.")[ You had been talking with Moby earlier and he had mentioned it quite a lot. It is the oldest golem in the world, and also by far the largest- essentially being a walking kingdom. “Oooh sure, here have a seat.” Nemia leaned against the side of the tank and you sat on a couch behind the turned-away computer desk. She tells you the real name of the supercolossus is //T’ormik//, and it was constructed by an ancient kingdom of people known as //Humnic-rho//. T’ormik was destroyed attempting to catch a meteor out of the sky to stop it. He slowed it down and greatly lessoned the disaster from its impact, but obviously could not stop it. It tore one of his arms almost entirely away, severely damaged both legs and caused a giant chasm to open up which swallowed T’ormik into the ocean. The golem was no longer mobile, which means the people who were not killed in the impact; drown instead. The meteoric fragments had been found already long before- in an almost perfectly circular radius around T’ormik; so colliding with his hand shattered it before it struck the earth. Had it hit the ground whole, it may have been powerful enough to wipe out the human race. Even in its shattered state it started what was known as the ‘//One Hundred Year Night//’. T’ormik’s arms are basically a collection of giant towers, he has a city built out of his back and another inside of his torso, with a giant palace as his head. From what Nemia and Moby discovered in the ruins inside T’ormik’s chest, it looks like the surviving Humnicean people gathered there and used rudimentary magic to seal the water out and survived there for some time after. There are signs of in-fighting as well. They theorize that as the mana in the area was depleted to hold the water at bay, the area they could protect gradually got smaller and smaller- forcing them to sacrifice people to the waters outside from lack of room in their protection spell. Eventually they depleted all of the mana and the waves came crashing in. T’ormik is far too deep in the ocean for any normal person to swim to the surface- they would run out of breath before the sunlight even became visible through the waves, and thanks to the damage from the meteor T’ormik itself cannot move; it is condemned to the ocean floor for all eternity. Like most golem, T’ormik cannot think on its own, so it is still acting on its final orders- protect the Humnicean people of its homeland of Humnic-rho. That is why it attacks any unknown vessels approaching it, and unintentionally prevented anyone from learning about what had happened to its people. The entire kingdom of Humnic-rho basically sacrificed itself to save the rest of the world. “It was so wild being inside of T’ormik. There is colossal //building-sized// cogs and gears inside of him, chains where each link is the size of a person. We theorize that it was likely a series of golem making other golem. The parts and pieces of T’ormik seem too unreasonably huge for ancient humans to have constructed on their own. They likely made golem who were used to build larger golem, who were then used to help build T’ormik. Figuring out what he ran on helped make some big leaps in Automancy though- because T’ormik was not run by the will of a single person; no one’s will is strong enough to move something ''that'' big. The entire kingdom contributed a copy of their will to the collective will that formed T’ormik.” Nemia tells you of ALUA- the artificial intelligence that runs the electronic side of the RHE main complex. Thanks to Moby and Nemia finding out what made T’ormik tick, RHE were able to reverse engineer the methods of taking a combined will. Alua’s mind is composed of fragments of numerous people’s ego, rudimentary memory, and willpower. Because her single mind is made up from fragments of many minds; Alua is not simply a copy of anyone, but rather a new mind that is hers alone. You ask why the Humniceans made their kingdom mobile in the first place- you don’t imagine slapping working legs onto a house to be easy, but what purpose would it serve? Why would they need their kingdom to walk in the first place? Surely it could not have been in preparation of the meteor, because there is no way they built T’ormik between when it became visible and when it hit. “They were looking for something. The world was not connected back then like it is today- different kingdoms had long tracks of land in between them and no established roads to travel. The people of Humnic-rho were looking for something they called the ‘//cosmic seed//’. Once planted, it would ‘//help the world blossom among the stars//’. Most historians took this to mean the ancient people regarded stars as planets that have ‘//blossomed//’, and that the Earth needed a seed to become a star. Moth however theorized that it was more literal- the ‘//seed//’ may refer to a vehicle that arrived on this world from another. Because T’ormik is the oldest recovered golem… but it isn’t the first. We still don’t know where people figured out how to make golem in the first place. Moth theorizes that humans from another reality- similar to herself- came here eons ago and gave the technology to us. If they arrived in a technologically advanced craft, the ancient humans may have regarded it as a ‘//seed from the stars//’. So the Humnicean people may have been trying to recover part of their history- like we are doing with them now.” It may sound like an insane theory if it were not for the //War Of The Technomagi// having happened not even 200 years ago. The war was started by literally that scenario- people from the same planet but another version of it. Or more accurately //another time//, in that particular instance. The Technomagi were from Grand Earth’s future- a future that no longer exists. Their future was devoid of resources and the humans in that time period looked strange and malformed from overuse of magic. They had come to the past to pillage it of resources, and thus the war began between Grand Earth’s present, and one of its possible futures. You ask Nemia why Moth was theorizing anything on the topic though- she has a book that tells her any information she needs to know on anything she points at. She could have pointed it at T’ormik and immediately known everything. “Moth doesn’t like to ‘cheat’ information. She only uses the book on things that are either irrelevantly trivial, or things that absolutely must be known immediately. It was a similar stance RHE’s first Overseer used. Tessa Bucset was the original Overseer- she started the hybrid tests on RHEI once Moth announced her own research was done- which would have meant RHE disbanding otherwise. Moth ''is'' the RHE founder; they could have just asked to look in her book and known the result of every test immediately. They wouldn’t learn anything then, though. They would not learn the information, they would just simply be being told it. If the world is to gain the strength to stand on its own, it needs to learn its own lessons and figure out for itself how to survive. It’s like… being told the answer on a math test. You know the answer, but you do not know how that answer was made. So when you need to apply that information to a different question- you need to be told the answer again, you can’t figure it out on your own.”] ] Nemia tells you to hold on a second and dashes back upstairs- you can hear her footsteps above as she enters the bedroom and then plunks down again. She is once again only two feet away from you, but now she is on the other side of the glass, swimming in the tank! Her tentacles become unwrapped from herself and squirm randomly around her body. The hair-fin swishes around her head as if it were weightless in the water, just like normal hair would- except it never fans out far from her head. “I may never have gotten into the whole Brainiac scene with research like my parents, but I did always love the water. Or looking at it at least, haha. I was not a good swimmer till I was a hybrid.” The glass is not especially thick so you can still hear her fine through the tank. Water actually carries sound quite well. Octopus still breath air, they just need to filter it out of the water first, which means the tank needs air in it. Like a fish tank, her giant aquarium has numerous air jets letting out streams of bubbles- colliding with the leaves of the kelp growing in the rock bottom and scattering into the water for her to inhale. She tells you the tank has way more air jets than it needs- she wanted more because she likes the feeling of the bubbles against her body. The tank is also superb for the days when RHEI gets super-hot, because the water is always cool. You ask her what it is like in the ocean. You have gone into the ocean water yourself but generally only deep enough to maybe submerge your head a few inches below the surface- nowhere remotely as deep as Nemia and Moby have gone. “Oooh, it is hard to put into words… really breathtaking. I mean, it is also terrifying but it is so beautiful that you still… want to go… y’know? Like, it is //constantly// scary but it is part of the experience- like a roller coaster. A super-fast, super crazy roller coaster will probably scare the piss out of you, but it is still //fun//, right? You kind of ''want'' it to scare you.” Nemia explains that the most dread-inducing part of the ocean is simply its size. You are a flake of dust in comparison to its abyssal depths. When you go deep enough to where the sun can never shine, it is very easy to simply forget where you are- which way is up and which is down. Compared to waves that can be as tall as buildings, or creatures large enough to swallow buildings- you never feel quite as helpless and vulnerable as you do floating in the middle of the ocean. When swimming around and especially into the supercolossus; the feeling of disorientation became a hundred times worse. Now she could not tell where she was in respects to the surrounding world, but her perception was constantly being thrown off by the human structures that make up the giant golem- because they are not magically level with the actual ground, everything is slanted. So you end up swimming ''up'' through windows or doorways and ''down'' through other windows and doors. The walls are like the floors and the floor and roof like the walls, in addition to the fact that the individual structures are housed in greater enclosed areas, gigantic clockwork mechanisms, and then that is enclosed in the outer shell of the golem itself. If she could not breathe water she would have been dead- easily. Even if the supercolossus was only a couple of feet below the surface she still would have died. Nemia would have gone into the first home, become extremely disoriented trying to leave, start to panic and waste extra oxygen, and drown before she found her way out. It is also very different depending on where you go- //The Shallow Grave// near where Nemia formerly lived and the waters around RHEI are extremely different. The water by her old home is murky with all the activity and clogged with the dense coral and plant life- like gigantic kelp forests. Down by the supercolossus itself the water became abyssal- no light ever touched it. That means the algae concentration and plant density fell off ''real'' fast. They could only see as far as their high powered flashlight could touch, because that was the only light available- the sun of the surface was not so much as a twinkle in the distance. It made any encounter with a sea creature make their hearts jump, because you never see them coming; they just appear in the path of your light suddenly. She encountered a shark down there even, but it left them alone. Giant squid are known to eat sharks, so it was probably afraid of Nemia eating it. Fish peck at the flesh and muscle of dead humans, and the calcium in your bones actually dissolves in sea water- so aside from scraps of clothing there was no bodies to be encountered even among the wrecks or the insides of the colossus. The wood of wrecks is actually preserved from rot thanks to the salt in the water- rot dies on contact with salt. Wooden ships in warmer waters are consumed almost immediately by shipworms- but that does not apply to cooler waters, so if a ship sinks in a deep enough area it will remain untouched. Unlike trash humans leave behind above water- wrecks are actually awesome for marine life. Coral fricken loves to nom on the metal hull of modern ships. The waters around RHEI are very clear- whale pods patrol the waters frequently and suck up all the plankton that grows in the abundance of sunlight. Because RHEI itself used to be a caldera there is a large concentration of minerals in the area, and you can tell where veins of iron run through the sea floor here because coral reefs follow it exactly. The water gets pretty deep, fairly quickly, but not so deep that the sun cannot bathe the bottom. The abyssal depths do not start till quite some distance away from the island. Most of the marine life flocks to the stripes of coral veining out from the island, so the areas between are pretty bland, sandy flats. Nemia pointed to the coral-encrusted throne in the tank and told you that was from a nearby shipwreck. Shipworms eat wrecks around here, but the wreck she recovered the throne from was buried in the sand on the bottom and thus protected, in spite of its advanced age. Shipworms do not burrow into the ground far- in spite of their name, they are not actually worms at all, they are a type of clam. You ask her how she found it then, if it was buried in sand. “Oh there was junk above the sand- things the shipworms don’t eat, which is… basically anything that is not wood. Bolts and iron strips, the rings that used to frame cargo barrels, cannons, stuff like that all piled up in one area- I knew there would probably be more under the sand; that is where I dug up the throne.” Moby called out that dinner was ready and you could see him standing on the edge of the pool, through the surface of the water leading into the bedroom. Nemia pouted. “Aww, I like telling my old stories- everyone on the island already heard them. I //am// hungry though…” You chuckle and say it is fine- you are getting hungry as well, and are due back at the RHE main complex for dinner with Olivia. You had no idea it was so late in the day already- although the fact you have been hanging out on the basement level of the building certainly did not help your perception of time. Because she has no hair and her skin is so smooth; as soon as Nemia gets out of the water most of it falls off of her immediately- a quick pat with a towel and she is perfectly dry again. You have a bit of trouble getting up off the basement couch, it is quite soft and looks older than the one upstairs- the springs in it are probably wearing out. You are sure to turn the light out behind you as you get back upstairs and close the door to the basement. Both Nemia and Moby are waiting in the foyer area between kitchen and living room. Moby tells you he called a shuttle so you would not have to walk all the way back to the main complex- they will just drive you there. Nemia gives you a quick hug with two arms and two tentacles. “(text-style:"sway")[Oh], I hope you had a good time on the island! You are the only outsider RHEI has had, //ever//!” Moby nodded, crossing his arms. “I don’t know how good we are as representatives but I like to think we have integrated into RHEI quite well.” Nemia hummed a moment in thought. “But- RHEI itself isn’t a single entity. It is so unique because it is made up of so many vastly different individuals; rather than make ourselves more like what RHEI was, we helped make RHEI what it currently is.” “Y-yea, but I mean, some test subjects are a lot less social than others, so their lifestyles are more their own thing.” “Oh well, we are safe on that front- I am always hanging with mah gurls! You are the one who is a hermit.” “What? I g- oh. My god.” He looks to you again. “I don’t know how you managed to talk to her this long without being hit by a barrage of terrible puns- consider that a mere sample of her evil.” One of her tentacles slithered up his back and wrapped around his mouth to silence him. “Shhhh, my puns are great.” [[Continue...->Call Of The Abyss End]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)You decide to see Nail and Rachel- their house is almost directly across from where you are and it makes sense to visit locations closest to you so you waste as little time travelling as possible. The island is real beautiful and you would love to just casually wander around to see it all, but you can technically see half the island from the RHE main complex without actually travelling anywhere. You only have a single day to be here, so you want to visit and get to know as many of the test subjects as possible. (if:(history: where its name contains "Outside Library")'s length >= 1)[Moby walks you most of the way there, pointing to some of the other test subjects out and about and briefly telling you about them as you two walked. You see one who is using a dolly lift to carry around her own monumentally giant cow udder; she is named Amber. The most bizarre subject you can see from here is actually helping someone get a Frisbee down from where it got caught at the top of a tall shrub. Her entire lower half is snake! She also had the head of a snake and arms that looked like they belonged on a bird! She could reach the Frisbee because she can stand on her very long tail. Moby tells you her name is Aleiha, and her form is based on an ancient Aztec God. One of only two test subjects who can produce eggs, rather than milk. Moby turns toward his own home when you two approach the home of Nail. “Head around back first- that is where he has set up his new kiln so that is most likely where Nail is. Rachel is probably starting to cook dinner at this time of day, so you might want to avoid interrupting her. Anyway- nice speaking with you! Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay on RHEI.” You nod and thank Moby for guiding you here.](else:)[Though the rain had all but given up, the wind was still plenty strong so Soma was able to glide anywhere she wanted on the island from the top of the Great Plateau- aside from the border mountains which are taller than it is. All she had to do was angle her feathers to cup the wind to raise herself back into the air, or angle them to cut the wind to drop- travelling from the top back to the valley without needing to flap even once. You are considerably more nervous on this trip though because if you fell from this height you would have zero survival chance- and your survival rested entirely on your ability to hold your own weight up. At least the bulge at the base of her digits where their first joints rested and her textured skin gave you something to easily grip onto. When she plops you down you let out a sigh of relief, looking at your red palms from having been holding yourself up for such a distance. “You didn’t have to hold on that tight…” You didn’t want the wind to blow you to your death if it decided to gust hard enough. “Oooh, you big baby, you’re fine.” She motioned to the building. “Well, this is their house anyway. Oh… actually I think Nail got his kiln just today. Maybe take a look around back first? If he isn’t there, just knock. I know they are home either way. I better get going- but you have fun with the rest of your day on RHEI alright?” You thank Soma for the flight- however terrifying it may have been. You will never forget the view from the top of the Great Plateau. “(text-style:"sway")[Hehe~] no problem. See you!” With a few flaps she was gone again.] You wander around the back of the building, not really sure how far you should be looking. There are no streets or fences set up between buildings really so there is no way to tell where anyone’s yard ends. You see a small brick house behind the main building though with a chimney belching a thick pillar of smoke. There look to be various tools you do not entirely recognize, but they look like they belong to a smithy. There is a huge dark metal framework sitting in the grass between the smaller building and the house. It looks like it is for a gargantuan window- larger than any structure on the island has, including the palace. The inside of the frame is broken up into hundreds of smaller ones though, and all of the sections are randomly sized geometric shapes. Nail comes out of the forge building, wiping the sweat from his brow and sighing as the cool wind sweeps over him. He pauses slightly as he glances at you and then a small smile creeps across his face. “(text-style:"rumble")[Ah]. The outsider, are ya?” (link:"Nail")[Nail is a porcine hybrid, but he is no simple pig. His nose has an upturned point to it, making it like a mini snout. Though it is hard to tell, his mouth is actually unusually wide just to fit around his tusks and still have enough lips left over to articulate human speech and eat properly. His upper jaw has two mini tusks barely long enough to curl around his upper lips and expose themselves. His lower jaw has tusks that look more like they belong on an elephant- they form giant arcs off his face and are twice as long as the head they grow from! One of them has a sharp metal cap bolted to it, because the actual tip broke off. His face projects out slightly also to make room for the tusks, and his ears are pointed but otherwise his skull is human shaped. His hair is massively bushy and very bristly to the touch- it also continues to grow down his neck and onto his upper back! He grows the same sort of bristly hair on his jaw as well- but he shaves it off, because lots of hair around a forge is generally a bad idea. His fingernails are thicker than normal and dark grey in color as if wanting to transition to hooves, but they never did. He has bristly hair on his forearm as well, but not nearly as dense as on his head. He has a bit of a pot belly though not too big- and you can tell from the muscle definition of his arms and chest that he is plenty fit. He sometimes wears shirts, but never pants- though his genitals are covered by what appears to be a smith’s apron. The reason he doesn’t wear pants is each of his balls is the size of an ostrich egg- or a rounder football. He has a porcine sheath, but his actual phallus is unchanged human still. The reason he isn’t wearing a shirt right now is because he was in the forge- which is extremely hot by nature. His legs have a layer of short but thick boar fur and end in cloven hooves. His legs seem like they might be a bit too much boar- because they seem a bit short compared to the rest of him. Usually your legs are longer than your arms, but his arms seem slightly longer than his legs. He has a boar’s tail as well- only about a foot long and ending in a tassel of the softest hair anywhere on his body. Both the hair on his head and back as well as the fur elsewhere is all a deep brown. His skin is usually just rosen hue, but is currently tanned a golden tone. He speaks with a slight German accent.] You nod. (if:(history: where its name contains "Ramp&Plateau")'s length >= 1)[You tell him that Soma said to say hello. She flew you almost directly here from the Great Plateau, but could not stick around.] (if:(history: where its name contains "Outside Library")'s length >= 1)[You tell him that Moby helped you find your way here, knowing Nail would most likely be home because he just got his kiln set up.] “Heh, well they were right- here I am. I have had my other equipment set up for some time so I could technically work, just… not on anything particularly intricate or important- because I would need the kiln for that.” Nail motioned to the forge behind him. “Just got my kiln set up today. Most of the items in my forge are pretty expensive so it took some time to get enough credits with RHE to request it all. The credits are earned per-household, so me an' the wife share the same credits.” You ask how the credit system works. Nail tells you test subjects can order one item from the outside world- which is equivalent of a single credit. If you produce something that RHE can sell to the outside world, going over a specific amount will give you bonus credits. Nail obviously cannot produce milk, so he can only stockpile one credit per month- luckily his wife does lactate, and her pig’s milk is the main source of credits. Normally people pay very little attention to the credit system, and most have built up an excess of credits they don’t actually need- but Nail wanted a working glass forge, which meant an entire additional building full of expensive tools and equipment. “Actually Kalha gifted me credits, so I ended up not spendin’ the ones I was saving up. Instead of just giving me the credits I needed to buy it still- she went over my head and straight to RHE and ordered it entirely on her own credit. She insists I don’t pay her back- but I will find some way to pay her back whether she likes it or not!” You point to the huge metal frame asking what it is going to be. “Ah- my first mural!” He picked up a stack of finished plates of colored glass and rest them down over several of the geometric frames within the greater frame. He then turned his head sideways while looking at it. “Kinda hard to see 'the hell it is s’posed to be right now. It will be a stained-glass mural of a white bull on its back legs, thrustin’ a golden orb into the air between its horns.” You ask what makes the glass colored. What exactly is the glass made out of? “Crystal silica… basically just melted sand. You just add metal dust to it while you melt it down to color it- just like a pyrotechnic adds various metal filings to make their explosions different colors. I would use //gold chloride// for reds, an- (text-style:"rumble")[oh], actually here is a rare one…” Nail dashed into the forge again and came back a few moments later holding a bottle containing a rust-red powder. “This one makes the glass glow-in-the-dark. //Uranium oxide//.” Uuuh, isn’t uranium… //very poisonous//? “I mean yea- if you huffed dust from out of his bottle you’d probably have brain cancer before the day was out. Once it is trapped inside glass it is perfectly harmless. Uranium itself actually isn’t that bad- at least in terms of radiation. What makes this dust so hazardous is the fact it is a very heavy element, sooo; if it gets inside your body it makes things stop working. It only gives off trace amounts of alpha radiation; which shouldn’t do anything to you. Heck even granite countertops give off trace amounts of radiation and you don’t hear anyone shitting themselves over that.” Nail explains that the huge frame you see on his lawn right now is only one of five- though the others have not been forged yet. He is the only glass smith so there is; no point in making the next frame till he is finished with the first. You ask if he forged the frame too, but no. Nail only works with glass- the metal frame unfortunately was created by Alua in the main complex- using the same printers all the facilities heavy equipment and pipes are created with. There is a two-floor building sort of off by itself toward the edge of the plateau the main complex is on- that building is mostly a printing facility for replacement parts and tools. There is also a dollmaker working there as well. RHE sells the dolls he crafts- but he is also the master craftsman who does the non-magical side of crafting golem limbs for prosthetics.(if:(history: where its name contains "Outside Library")'s length >= 1)[ So that is whose business Nemia has been unintentionally stealing from.] Nail tells you the five stained-glass murals will be put up in a large stone gazebo that will be put up between the nearby pool and the gallery and library- basically dead-center of the pathways there. Working on the stonework for the gazebo itself is TS45; Xiangxin. Nail and his wife have been on the island for many years now, but only just today did he get the forge fully operational- so he has had a lot of time to think about projects he wished he could do. He was a glass smith in the outside world as well, as you could have guessed. You ask what happened to his capped tusk- you don’t imagine they are easy to break.(if:(history: where its name contains "Ramp&Plateau")'s length >= 1)[ You also know that the wound must be more recent- in Soma’s memory Nail did not have a capped tusk yet.] “Better my tooth than m’head. I broke it falling off a ''cliff''! Well… a really //steep hill//. The forest on the north-west side of the island beside the plateau the main complex is on; the forest tapers off up a slope that runs between mountains into a valley. It is shallow enough that ya can just walk up, but it is steep enough tha’ is not an easy climb and ya end up leaning on trees for balance in some parts. My wife Rachel ended up slippin’- this was only a half year after we first settled on the island so we were still adjustin’ to our bodies. Both of our hooves are rather narrow and small- just like a porcine- bu’ that means they don’t have much in terms of grip. I stopped her from tumbling far, but sent myself rolling down the slope instead.” He rubbed the repaired tusk. “Tusk //bled// a good bit too- boy did that hurt. It needs the cap on the end to prevent it from splinterin’.” Nail then lead you inside to introduce you to his wife Rachel.(if:(history: where its name contains "Ramp&Plateau")'s length >= 1)[ She is heavier now than in Soma’s memory. She seems incredibly lean for someone mixed with a pig- though you would not say she is especially fat right now either; she is certainly soft around the edges.] (link:"Rachel")[Rachel paused her cooking to dash around the counter and introduce herself to you. She is wearing a loose simple summer dress- or it is supposed to be loose. She is a bit on the plump side so it actually hugs her snuggly. Rachel’s skin is unusually pink making her at first almost look a bit sunburnt- but that is just its normal tone. Her nose is replaced by a pig snout but her head structure isn’t changed at all, so the snout still follows the same path and general proportion a human nose would have- though a wider bridge and a flared end that is completely vertically flat. She also has very plush, plump ruby red lips- but that was a natural trait of hers, not from being hybrid. Her ears are large and triangular, flopping over slightly at the very tips but standing mostly erect. Since her skull is perfectly human shaped still, she retains her wavy bronze hair- dyed with blond highlights it hangs to her shoulders. Rachel’s breasts look to be a C cup each which isn’t that big by RHEI’s standards… but she has ''ten'' of them. The entire front of her torso is //boob-to-boob//. Her areola and nipples are pink just like the rest of her- but still stand out because they are a much darker tone of pink; a magenta rather than candy pink. The breasts on her lower body are also slightly pushed to the side because she has a squishy-soft belly, with a deep fold through where her belly button is hidden. Her hands are perfectly human, and her upper legs are human unlike Nail- but her lower legs are still porcine and end in lil cloven trotters. Instead of a tasseled tail of a boar, her jiggly round butt is crowned with a thick corkscrew tail of a domestic pig.] “(text-style:"buoy")[Heeey]! Everyone has been talking about you!(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ I almost thought you were an RHE agent when Nail walked in with you, haha. Olivia must have leant you her jacket, right? Looks good on you, (text-style:"buoy")[hehe~].]” Rachel explains that her transformation required a bit of extra maintenance. Her original test was on //enhanced fat expansion//. Normally humans actually end up flushing a lot of nutrients down the toilet because their body’s digestive tract is only so efficient. Her digestive tract can break down almost 100% of what she consumes and stores the extra quickly and efficiently as fat- but her brain never got the memo. Rachel still feels hungry if she does not eat as much as she used to, or more- her brain thinks she needs it, even though her body no longer does… which causes her to gain weight at an alarming rate. Rather than fight through it with therapy and a mountain of willpower- RHE invented an alternative. Rachel takes a special potion RHE makes just for her that causes her body to rapidly metabolize its fat stores for use as milk. The potion causes her to lose weight impossibly fast while also causing her breasts to swell large and express pig milk in massive amounts. The result is Rachel’s figure is constantly in flux- she can go from thin to obese in three or four days, then return to thin in a single additional day to repeat the cycle. You ask what pig milk even tastes like- you have never heard of anyone milking a pig… which seems odd, since it is such a common farm animal. “More watery than cows but also a bit higher fat content. It is rich in nutrients so it is real good for you. The problem with milking an actual pig is; pigs don’t like you touching them there. And pigs are omnivores so if you piss them off, they won’t hesitate to bite a chunk off you. Not a problem with me! That is why my milk is apparently worth quite a bit for RHE to sell- pig milk is normally very hard to obtain.” The most common use for pig milk is apparently cheese. It has a grainy texture to it in the form of cheese and a very powerful, gamy flavor to it. Chefs regard it as a rare delicacy but it is a decisive flavor- some people love it, others refuse to touch it. (if:$Item is "Memory")[You mention you have a memory slate with you, wondering if they would let you look at their original transformations. Rachel blushed and shook her head. “(text-style:"shudder")[Nuuu]… that is too embarrassing!” You look at Nail who looked confused for a moment. “What? You want to see mine? Sure, if you want- knock yourself out.” But won’t looking at Nail’s memory also effectively be looking at Rachel’s? They live together, were they not together when they transformed? Rachel still looked sheepish but shrugged. “It’s fine. The transformations happened really fast with us, and he wasn’t right beside me the whole time, so it is less direct at least.” You hold out the slate and Nail taps it so it can read his chakra signature as consent to access the memory. You activate the slate a moment later and your head feels like it is spinning a moment later as your perception is completely changed. The memory starts with his first changes- at that time he was already done marveling at the new island home and wandering around a bit with his wife. Rachel tossed him an apple as she started to prepare her own lunch. When Nail bit into the apple his teeth felt a bit weird and mildly tingly- sort of like they do when he has something caught between them, putting pressure on them from between. He picked at them with his fingernail but could not find any apple skin caught there so he had no idea why they felt irritated like that. He also glanced over at Rachel who was still standing in front of the open fridge. She put a few things on the counter but kept popping items in her mouth while standing there. She ate enough to be a standard lunch before she even got the material to the counter to actually work on lunch. Her test was on digestion efficiency though, so they were expecting a spike in appetite. Nail’s test was just on trait variation between two different porcine; to see how different a boar transformation would turn out compared to pig in the exact same configuration. When people sign up to RHE’s test as a couple, one is given a primary test and the other becomes secondary and often left open to fill the taste of their needs as partners- Nail is the secondary in this pair. All of his teeth started to feel a bit off and as he felt around with his tongue now he noticed four teeth in his mouth were now much bigger than they should be! All his canine teeth were enlarged, which forced all his other teeth to press uncomfortably close together. He also noticed his fingernails becoming thicker and darker from lifting his hand up to feel around his deforming teeth. By the time he looked over at Rachel again she had somehow eaten an entire head of lettuce, a brick of grated marbled cheese, an entire pack of cold-cut meat, and half a loaf of bread making sandwiches while also eating the materials she was using to make them from. She ended up having to press the button inside the fridge after to make sure they had everything for a dinner that night. There is a button that alerts RHE that the food stock is low in a fridge so they can teleport materials to it from the main complex. Everyone on the island technically eats from the same store of food. Nail’s changes seemed to idle there for some time, and he watched television. His leg muscles started to feel cramped after a while though so he got up to stretch them and as soon as he did he toppled over and had to catch himself with his hands on the kitchen counter! They were shifting so fast you could actually hear the muffled clicks and snaps as his feet stretched and compressed! His soles were fusing into a cannon bone as his toes were regressing into the two primary segments and two dew claws of a cloven hoof. The cloven hooves of a porcine are fairly compact- so the dew claws are actually low enough to touch the ground, making them more useful than others. It almost looked like rabbit feet when the transformation was just starting, till his ankles no longer felt right resting on the floor and he had to stand further up on his feet, which then instigated the devolution of his toes. He was afraid his hands were next since his nails already started to transition earlier, but then they didn’t progress at all. Once his legs finished he decided to go out and try to get used to them. He stuck close to the building at first, keeping one hand on the wall for balance till he learned how to balance on his own little hooves. “(text-style:"sway")[Heyyy~] havin’ a bit of trouble?” He looked up surprised to see his neighbor leaned against the front wall of her house beside the door- only a few feet ahead, watching him awkwardly stomp on his new hooves. “Uh, er… well, no I just haven’t- well these are-“ “New? So are you. Welcome to the neighborhood. I am TS56; Paula.” She held out her hand to be shaken, and Nail seen her fingers had a thick webbing between them. Her feet did not even have individual toes- the bones of the toes are still there, but the skin is shared across them all making her feet more like flippers. Paula has two long fins that start in her crotch and follow the edge of where her thigh meets her hips, but do not project far off of her; these are pelvic fins- on the actual animal these would be used to grip onto a mate. Paula has a giant dorsal fin on her upper back and most noticeable of all is a colossal tail swinging around behind her. The tail is so thick at the base that it occupies the area her anus would normally be- her butt cheeks are squished and half-absorbed into its base. Which means her actual anus is where it would be on the actual animal- way back toward the end of the tail, flanked by a small anal fin. The tail ends in a large crescent-shaped caudal fin. Her skin is an odd blue-grey color except on her front which is snow white. She is clothed in a black string bikini and her hair looks like something from a comic book. She has a greaser-style pompadour, but the front projects almost //comically// far from her head in a huge spiral. Nail shook her hand, smiling and motioning to her hair. “That must take quite a bit of styling to maintain- //impressive//.” “Aw, thanks but it’s actually naturally- no maintenance required.” She turned and head-butt the wall so hard it actually cracked the surface! She smiled with a mouth full of sharp, triangular teeth. Paula isn’t just part shark- she is hybridized with a //Hammerhead Shark//! What looks like a pompadour is actually almost entirely solid bone; she can deliver ''fatal'' head-butts! Paula lived next door and is only one test number off from Rachel. The test subject in-between is Hazel, but she actually lives in a different area because she claimed a house that was originally for a test subject who was released back into the outside world- which is why Paula is his neighbor instead. Paula walked with Nail to show him the surroundings- especially a forest trail in the eastern forest. In current time the forest is filled with berries and herbs brought to the area by test subjects and left to grow semi-wild, but back in this memory almost none of it had been planted yet. The forest actually looks a bit empty in this time period- mostly just trees with very little smaller plants below, so you can see for a good distance around yourself even when you are fully inside the forest. Still lots of rocks and moss- tons of mushrooms depending on what season it is. Paula looks faint and almost falls over at one point, leaning on a tree for a moment. Nail asks if she is okay in worry but she passes it off, and tells him it is fine- just something that happens to her //normally//. On their way back Nail’s hips pop and he ends up hugging a tree to stay up as well! The joint where his femur sockets into the hip shifted to be higher up to the sides; this created more space between his legs but also made him slightly shorter. Then his thighs started to swell rounder but get a bit shorter, reducing his height slightly again. Then his shin bones shrank significantly, stopping when they were only half as long as they had been! His legs had become fully boar- which meant they were a good bit shorter than a humans’. His pant legs were now too long, making walking back awkward because he had to basically hold them up or he would step on his own pant legs and trip himself. This also meant his gait was smaller- he needed to walk faster to match his former pacing. When he got back to his house they both paused and blushed at the sound of Rachel moaning loudly inside and then the sound of a loud burp. Nail glanced at Paula. “Uh… I… better check on the wife.” “Aha, yea. Well if either of you need help, I am right next door. Everyone in the valley went through this //weirdness// before, so, no need to be shy. We all had problems adapting to the new body.” She lifted her tail and motioned to it. “Mine was figuring out how I was supposed to use the toilet with a tail as big as the rest of me.” When Nail found Rachel she was quite different! She sat on the side of their bed, but the mattress sunk down around her from her increased weight! Her entire body was fatter- even her fingers were like plump little sausages! Her gut was a huge round ball, folded in on itself in the middle where her belly button used to be visible. She also had two pairs of breasts now, with a third smaller pair below that, and then two sets of nipples below that, that had yet to grow breasts behind them. Because of how large her belly is; her lower mammaries were pointed almost completely sideways, shoved out of the way by her gut. Her shirt was ludicrously small on her now, shoved up into her arm pits. The arms now only covered her shoulders and were so tight around her pudgy arms that the shirt prevented her from putting her arms completely down. The body of the shirt only covered her top breasts- and only managed to hold on there because the bottom was caught on the lower curvature of her boobs. Her pants hugged her legs so tightly that she had to waddle to bed- unable to bend her legs. The fly was completely undone to give her belly more space. Her ears were elven looking, and like Nail her feet devolved into cloven hooves- but unlike Nail her leg structure remained human from the shin up. Nail told her they needed to get her out of those clothes fast- before she needed to be cut out of them. They may already be too tight to actually get off- her plush skin is billowing out of it. When he went to try to help she told him to wait and get her something to eat because she was extremely hungry. He wanted to argue she needed to ditch the clothing first, but she sounded desperate- and her test is on digestion so they might actually muck up her transformation by not feeding her properly. Nail got her some random food items but she told him to get still more, quickly shoveling what he already gave her into her mouth. Nail hustled back to the kitchen but paused at the door of the fridge a moment because of an odd tightness. It almost felt like someone squeezing his nuts, except completely devoid of the pain that would normally cause. It felt like each nut was trying to sink down either of his pant legs and then the crotch of the pants started to wedge uncomfortably on the scrotum between. Nail decided to ditch his pants entirely- they no longer fit properly anyway. He looked down to see his pubes were different; the hairs no longer curled and grew in much more dense- the hairs replaced by bristly fur. The pelt of fur was starting to creep its way onto his scrotum as well, but only advanced around the cleft between balls in a thin stripe rather than cover it entirely. His scrotum also felt very thick, and was getting longer! His nuts were to his knees and swollen to the size of a baseball each. Nail grunted from the feeling and could swear he even heard a muffled gurgle from inside his nuts as they started to expand faster! First one and then the other quickly caught up; they became the size of softballs, then then to ostrich egg sized! They crept back up his thighs toward his crotch- the expansion of the balls pulled outward on the long scrotum, taking up the empty space, causing it to round out and pull back toward his crotch snuggly. Holding them up slightly to get a better look at them, they almost looked like a pair of huge boobs hanging from his groin. His poor penis was rather dwarfed by them. He hustled with the food to the bedroom when he heard Rachel groaning loudly again- snapping out of his self-examination. By the time he got back to the bedroom her thighs had completely bust out of her jeans and her ass cheeks were so huge that the amount of flesh billowing out over the top was shoving her pants down and off on its own! Her shirt was now so tight that the sleeves were forcing her to T-pose! Her ears were enlarging, becoming more triangular and a plump corkscrew tail now crowned her growing butt. She leaned forward as far as she could with her gut sitting in her lap, then turned sideways trying to reach forward as far as she could toward the food the stunned Nail was holding. Her movement caused the shoulder seam of her shirt to rip on both sides, and she gasped in surprise- her sudden inhalation caused her chest to expand enough to burst the rest of the shirt, causing it to pop like a balloon! Rachel rolled back flat on the bed and the movement caused the rips in her upper pant legs to go through the waist and snap the entire top off. Nail just sighed- grabbing the remnants and yanking them off her less inflated lower legs. He piled the food beside her, in range of her fat-inflated arms and slipped out, leaving her to it. He heard her moaning a bit later through the wall that divides the bedroom and living room. He thought she was just enjoying the food a lot, but he could hear the bed springs wheezing in pain as she rocked back and forth- that was not just food she was enjoying. The arousal caused an odd feeling in his crotch and started his own changes rolling forward as well. He would have loved to empty these new mega-sized nuts into her, but he was worried their changes were not far enough yet. They had no protection here, so if they had sex while still genetically compatible she would end up pregnant. In actuality that never would have happened- their transformation would progress too far for anything to come of it, but he did not know that at the time. What he felt was the same sensation as an erection, but it continued after he was already fully erect- and rather than his dick only the outer skin bulked up! His foreskin was growing, causing it to re-swallow his penis even though he had a full erection! The fur on his crotch also started to grow up onto it. It became a thick, plush skin tunnel and then in a sudden rush it stopped bulking up and the pressure erupted up his shaft! His penis became considerably longer, but only the shaft above the foreskin grew. What used to be a foreskin was now a sheath- though it did not connect to his underside up its length. His penis became exactly as long as it had been before, but outside of the sheath- which means its //total length// is exactly ''twice'' its former size. The glans remained human shaped, but swelled larger than before, just before the shaft itself swelled thicker. Once the transformation stopped it started to flop forward, no longer being forced erect. It remained fully out and flopping forward though- his wife’s moans in the other room preventing it from going completely to sleep. His teeth started to ache again as he listened to his wife in the other room. His ears became pointier and his teeth grew larger- dipping forward at first to slide between his lips and curl over the edge. He moaned loudly himself, opening and closing his mouth over and over trying to find a position that relieved the pressure but it did not exist. His own belly gurgled and started to push out. He unintentionally started to snort between groans and the end of his nose started to turn upward like a pig snout- though the bridge of his nose did not alter, so his snout would always be small. As his teeth started to turn to tusks they got so big that he could ''hear'' them growing! It almost sounded like two panes of glass being ground together! As he opened and closed his mouth his jaws started to crack and pop, and his face got pushed out finally relieving the pressure in the rest of his teeth and his nose stretched a little bit longer to keep the distance between the snout and mouth the same. His tusks grew so huge they cut his vision in half! There was now a blind spot on both sides where his tusks obscured his vision. His gut grew into a large pot belly, but unlike Rachel’s belly; Nail’s was not soft, it is tight, solid meat. He started to grunt and snort as his tusks still continued to grow larger, being so large that the weight was noticeably making it harder to hold his head up! His hair became bushier as the hairs became more solid and bristly- the hairline advancing down the back and then expanding out to form a bushy mat on his upper back! As confused and curious of his own changes as he was, Nail went back to the bedroom when he heard a rather alarmingly loud boom. By the time he got there, the bed was //destroyed//- all four legs bent outward so far from her weight that they tore off of the bed entirely. Rachel managed to sit upright and in spite of that her belly was still fully resting on the bed and around her upper legs! Her torso was like a mountain of flesh rolls. She now had all ten breasts in rows that start on her front and then move around to the side as her belly holds all the lower ones out. Her nose considerably larger and turned into a pig snout- and her skin now permanently blushed pink. Because her torso is so fat and fully resting on the bed ''AROUND'' her legs, she is entirely incapable of pushing herself up ''with'' her legs- she is effectively immobile. She can squirm around and bend slightly but that is her entire range of motion. Her rapid, excited and confused breathing causes her to softly snort with every inhale. The memory abruptly ends there and you are once again confused as your perception shifts quickly back to reality. Rachel blushes as she notices you are back to the present. “That isn’t even my //biggest//- I got a little bit fatter than even that before they made my first potion.” You glance out the side of the front window to the corner of the neighbor’s house a moment, furrowing your brow. You imagine the layout of the area you seen before coming here. Isn’t their neighbor TS60; Soma? But in the memory it was Paula, TS56. Did they swap houses for some reason? Rachel’s ears tucked back a bit and she looked rather sad. “Paula… isn’t among the living anymore.” Nail spoke up since it was his memory and he knew exactly how much you’ve seen. “Soma is a higher number test subject, which means her house should be south of ours, not north. Some test subjects shuffle around to fill in unused homes after their occupants either get released or… //pass on//. Soma is living in the house that used to belong to Paula.” “Paula was hybridized with a hammerhead shark, because she had a rare blood illness that is incurable… but sharks are immune to it.” Paula was already near-death when RHE took her in. She was already condemned to hospital beds before coming here, and then they hybridized her with a shark to try and cure her terminal condition. RHE was never able to //cure// her. When Nail seen her stumble in the woods in that memory; she was not faint from the heat, it was her blood condition robbing her strength. RHE greatly extended the length of her life but they could not completely save her, she eventually died years later- which were all years she would not have had if it wasn’t for RHE. The only way to purge the illness entirely would be to turn her into a feral shark- but sharks don’t live as long as humans so doing so would have shortened her life to exactly as long as she would have had anyway. So her half shark-half human form was the longest life she was capable of living. ]After a while of talking with Nail and Rachel, she is surprised by the sound of a hissing element on the stove and spins around. She pulls the lid off the pot, fanning the frothing contents with the lid while turning the element off. “Oh uh… dinner is ready.” You quickly look to the clock and realize how late it is! It was midafternoon when you arrived to see Nail and now it was into the evening already! You look outside more closely and see how dark it is. You had been glancing out through the corner of your eye and it looked sunny enough- but that is because their front window faces the west where the sun is setting; so the sunlight was aimed directly into the window. Now it was a metallic orange glow tracing the tops of the mountains. There is only a few large but scattered clouds in the sky that were painted orange in dusk light as well. You are due back at the main complex to have dinner with Olivia- she is probably already waiting for you, and you are still in the middle of the valley! Nail chuckles and picks up a slate off the living room table telling you to just wait outside their house- he is calling a shuttle to take you back. It should only take a few minutes to arrive and then you can ride back in comfort. [[Continue...->Glass House End]]

You leave Nemia and Moby to return to the main complex. It is very hard to see in twilight, but once the orange glow of the dusk sun vanishes behind the true horizon; the grey-blue glow of a nearly full moon washes over the land in its place. Moths collect around the lamp posts as they click on in the shadow of the evening and you can still hear plenty of activity around you; though most of it indoors now. Crickets sing a song and are echoed by frogs much further in the distance. You watch the shimmer of moonlight dance across the blades of grass swaying in the wind. There are only a few clouds left overhead but you cannot really see them in the dark- they simply look like an absence of stars in the otherwise full night sky. You try to hustle as much as you can- if it is this dark already Olivia has to already be waiting and quite hungry for dinner.(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ Even you are starting to get hungry and you packed a lunch.](else:)[ You are damn near starving yourself- smelling Nemia and Moby’s cooked meal as you were leaving really made your stomach growl.] Your pace slows considerably when you get to the slope leading back to the main complex and you end up having to rest on a few of the larger rocks sticking out. The slope was artificially made by Geomancers, so as the ground settles some of the larger chunks have exposed themselves, but are scattered enough that they don’t cause any problems. You notice a light coming from behind you and slow down to move aside. A shuttle drives up behind you and slows to a stop. Olivia is in the back seat! Olivia leans out the window. “Hey, you want a ride?” (if:$Faith is true)[You chuckle and get into the seat beside her. Did the real Olivia send her a second time? Faith’s form shifted back to her true self. “(text-style:"buoy")[Nah], no one sent me this time. I was just on my way back to the main complex and seen you walking all on your lonesome.”](else:)[In the time it takes for you to get into the seat beside her and shut the door; you look over and Olivia has been replaced by another woman entirely! She smiles and introduces herself as TS42; Faith. RHE refers to her as ‘//The Omnipotent//’ but most other test subjects call her ‘//The Imposter//’. Her test had been on rapid evolution but went //catastrophically// wrong. Her genes are so unstable that her body is amorphous and barely holding itself together. As a result though- she is able to temporarily copy the genome of anyone she makes physical contact with. Her body forgets the genetic information after a while though, so her transformation is temporary.] As you share a ride with her up toward the complex you ask Faith why she is going there. Faith doesn’t lactate, so she isn’t going to the lactation stations. She has already been on the island for many years so you doubt she would be going for a checkup with her handler. “I ''CAN'' lactate, //actually//. Just… (text-style:"subscript")[not efficiently]. I would need to steal the genes of someone who can make milk, then eat a bunch of food right away to try and make the milk before my body forgets and starts to turn back to normal. ''Plus'' there is tons of things for test subjects to do in the main complex other than get milked! There is the arcade- that is a //big// one. There is also the doctors’ offices and massage clinic...” Right, but why is ''SHE'' going //specifically//? Faith can’t be hurt normally because her body is basically made of goo- objects will just slide through her without doing any harm, so she would never need a doctor. Even illness can’t take root in her because she can change her genes with the snap of a finger, making bacteria and virus cells unable to adapt to her immune system. So that leaves the arcade? “Actually I got called up to the main complex because Dr. Daniella Seraphica called me up to use my powers.” Why does she need to copy someone? “Not someone- //just genes//. I can copy custom genes that have not been implanted in anyone yet. Basically the researchers can use me to emulate test results before trying it in someone. Of course, different people have slightly different biology so my simulation doesn’t account for a lot of things- but it is a lot better than going in blind.” You thought RHE stopped doing testing. Olivia talked about them greatly downsizing their teams. “Yea- there is no new test subjects. But they are still doing tests. Dr. Seraphica is in charge of an Mk2 tincture they are trying to develop to re-transform some of the XV subjects to enable them to stand on their own- and thus no longer qualify as //Extreme Variants//. Also your Olivia Wingael is the head of a limb regeneration research project. Progress is a bit slow because the research teams don’t exactly have an army backing them, but they are still plucking away.” The shuttle driver stops between the main doors and the hanger where the vehicles are parked to let you both off. Faith follows you upstairs but breaks off once you get to the offices to try and find Daniella.(if:$Item is "Memory")[ You quickly place the golden memory slate back where you found it, in the exact position you found it in hopes Olivia will never know it was gone.](if:$Item is "Jacket")[ You hang her jacket up as soon as you get back into the office.] You only walk a few steps into the office before Olivia hustles over to you. It is just as you thought- she stopped working a while ago to wait for you to show up, and then you show up quite late. Olivia isn’t too sour over it and cheers back up quickly once she gets food in her. You tell her about your day, (if:(history: where its name contains "Western Plains")'s length >= 1)[Starting with Okra](if:(history: where its name contains "Between Library&Gallery")'s length >= 1)[starting with Gabby] and ending with Nemia and Moby. Olivia tells you that Nemia helped greatly with the world’s understanding of its past and the advancement of Automancy. RHE was able to put it to use with the creation of Alua- though that particular invention remains hidden from the outside world like the test subjects. Hearing about Faith picking you up on the way up, Olivia also tells you an interesting fact about her; Faith is the only test subject to have //escaped// the island. She stole the form of one of the helicopter pilots and just casually flew off the island. Even Zero could not track her because she can look like anyone. She walked among normal people on the outside without anyone knowing a genetic abomination was among them. Obviously she returned to the island a short while later- she just wanted to see if she could do it. Since then Faith has been regarded as a bit of a //menace// and the RHE staff remain on alert of a possible imposter in their ranks, because you never know when Faith is around and just hidden to mess with people and go where she shouldn’t. You ask Olivia about any other research projects going on, since you heard about the Mk2 tincture and limb replacement project from Faith on the ride back. Those are the only projects on the go though, aside from random tests being run by Julie Hedgewall down in the valley labs. She is running tests on homunculi with other test subjects but it is for the sake of interest and helping test subjects understand the sort of work that went into their own tests. Julie basically owns the valley labs- RHE doesn’t monitor or regulate anything that happens there. After a filling dinner you return to your room with Olivia since hers is right beside yours.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]] ](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]] ](else:)[ ]When you wake up it is incredibly early and Olivia has to prod you to get out of bed and on your feet to march you over to the tower. The helicopter has a schedule to keep and the flight to the mainland from RHEI is a very long one as you have already seen. Before she shoves you into the tower though, Olivia holds up a large crystal for you to take. Before you can touch it she pulls it back and holds up her other index finger as if to chastise you. “Do ''(text-style:"rumble")[not]'' eat this! Understand? It is made of solid salt, but it is rare and valuable. Nemia had Moby drop it off last night to give you as a sort of souvenir- I found it on my desk this morning.” The crystal is made of pure salt but has a sort of pinkish hue to it. Olivia tells you that you can put the crystal near any books you have and it will ward off moisture to protect them- libraries often ensconce huge crystals of rock salt to protect the books. This particular crystal is very special though- it is salt from the bottom of the sea. Under the Black Sea is an underwater river- rivers of water that have such a high concentration of salt that it divides from the surrounding sea water and sinks to the bottom because it is much heavier- forming rivers at the bottom of the ocean. This salt crystal is from the river below the Black Sea. Part of Nemia’s large collection of aquatic relics. You tell Olivia to thank Nemia for the thoughtful gift- you’ll be sure not to eat it. (set: $Salt to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

Nail sees you to the door and waits outside for a moment; till a light is visible in the distance coming over the edge of the plateau the main complex is on- the shuttle on its way. Nail nodded. “Alright, here it comes. Oh and when you order dinner- ask for the //BBQ boar balls//.” You just raise an eyebrow. He chuckled. “Trust me, they’re good. Always cook some up whenever there is a BBQ down here in the valley- I put the recipe into the archive so the golems in the main complex restaurant know how to make them.” Nail heads back inside to eat dinner and you wait by the door for the shuttle to arrive. The shuttles are not exactly quiet, but they do not disturb the grass at all and do not require roads because they are a type of //hovercraft//- they float two inches off the ground. The rainclouds are all long gone by now. There are a few big dark clouds but they are near-invisible against the night sky, and are very spread out. The lanterns are on around the valley but do not throw off enough light and are not frequent enough to light the way to any one location- rather, they act as guides. Normally moths would flock to them and crickets would be singing but the wind is still quite strong, so the number of bugs out and about is pretty low- you can still hear crickets but not as many as there would be if the wind calmed. You can hear frogs singing in the distance- they are unaffected by the wind. The closest frogs to where you are is in the east forest- because the ground is so rocky, pools of stagnant water form between stones in some areas of the forest and tadpoles thrive in still waters. Even in the calm of night you can hear plenty going on- it is just that most of the bustle is coming from indoors now. You see a cat wandering one of the pathways- following the stone path exactly. You wonder who that belongs to. Isn’t there a cat hybrid on the island? You wonder how an actual cat would regard a half-cat human. Just before the shuttle arrives you see something large swing through the night sky and against the stars in the sky you are able to make out the silhouette of a half-bat woman! Damn… there is so many cool things on this island. One day really does not seem to be nearly enough to see it in. You spent the whole day wandering and talking to people and you’ve probably only actually seen 10% of RHEI, at absolute most. The shuttle stopped for you to get in, and as soon as you were in the driver turns to look at you. “(text-style:"buoy")[Ayeeee~] where to bub? Hah, I am just joshin’ you. I will get you back to Olivia in a few minutes tops.” He shakes your hand. “The name is Miles Hardwealth.” He started driving back toward the main complex. “Heh, sort of ironic. Can’t spell my last name without ‘//wealth//’ yet I work one of the lowest paying jobs on the island, haha.” Shuttle driver doesn’t pay well? “Nah, ten dollars an hour- the minimum wage. I am the //lead// shuttle driver actually, so I am the one who keeps all the other drivers in check and make sure all the shuttles are in working order. I make the same as the other drivers though. I mean; I get to tour paradise every day as part of my job, and talk to all these beautiful women while helping them out. Can’t say I have many complaints.” At the very top of the slope is a circle of bushy grass around a very large, single tree that marks the transition between the slope and plateau- Miles drives to the right of it- you can technically go left but getting the shuttle between the tree and the building would be a tight squeeze. The first building to the left of the tree is the one Nail told you about- where parts are printed, and the doll maker works in a small shop on the first floor. After turning right, the hanger door to the garage is straight ahead where the shuttles park, but he turns a bit to left to put you closer to the front doors before letting you out.(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ When you get back up to the offices you hang up Olivia’s jacket on the hooks which are between the two doors out into the hall.](if:$Item is "Memory")[ As soon as you get to the offices you try not to call attention to yourself and slip the golden memory slate back where you found it, in the exact placement you found it. It is not like Olivia uses it often- she may never know it was ever missing in the first place.](if:$Item is "Lunch")[By the time you get to the offices again your stomach is feeling pretty empty. You are definitely glad you brought a lunch- you can’t imagine how hungry you would be by now without it.] Olivia had continued to work while glancing up out the window for you since you are a bit on the late side for dinner already. As soon as she spots you she saves her work and bolts up ready to go so you don’t even walk half way to her before she dashes over to you instead. You order the ‘//BBQ Boar Balls//’ as Nail recommended- apparently his own recipe he programmed into the golem. Olivia explains that the golem servers are brought down into the valley to host special events and the test subjects can program them with any number of recipes- so every time someone orders a home recipe or cultural dish that is unknown; the golem ends up learning something new. So you can order a massive array of dishes at this point from around the world. Nail’s dish is chunks of beef wrapped in bacon to form a ball that is held together with a toothpick and then cooked over a grill. They are served just as is- or with a green olive placed in the very middle of the ball. Green olives have a //very// powerful flavor that seeps into the meat, which is great if you enjoy the flavor but some people just don’t like olives- so you can eat them without as well. When a normal person cooks them, the tricky part is not charring the toothpick holding it together- because that is also generally how you pick it up. When getting a golem to prepare the dish, that is never an issue- it turns out perfectly; exactly how you programmed it to do, every time. They also take a bit to cook- if you try to cook them quickly on high heat you will end up cooking the bacon but leaving the beef inside raw. You told Olivia how your tour went. Starting the day with Gabby was quite nice and very relaxing- the meadows are very beautiful. Because of the forest around them, you cannot see them at all from anywhere else except the top of the Great Plateau. You can see maybe a good half of the island from the windows here in the restaurant, but the Great Plateau actually obscures the entire forest from view, never mind the meadow within it. At this distance; even if you could see it, it would probably just look like a blob of color. Meeting Nail at the end of the day was neat because you feel like you learned a bit about glass smithing in addition to meeting two test subjects in one location. You ask Olivia if she could take a picture of the gazebo when it is done. “Mm, oh sure. There wouldn’t be anything in the photo to give away where it was taken. As long as I don’t get any test subjects in the picture there wouldn’t be a problem sending you photos to the outside.” After dinner you both head to bed together since your bedrooms are side-by-side. You fell asleep so fast you don’t even remember hitting the bed.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]] ](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]] ](else:)[ ]Olivia has to wake you up- the alarm is going off but you were so deep in sleep that it didn’t disturb you in the slightest. The helicopter has a schedule to keep though and it cannot leave without you on it. The morning sun catches in the windows around the lot and causes both you and Olivia to squint and look down to be able to see anything. Before breaking off from you at the base of the tower, Olivia holds out a ring for you to take. “Nail dropped this off for you to have as a souvenir of your trip. Dunno if it will actually fit you though, haha; maybe as a thumb ring?” You take it and hold it up to the light. The ring is made of solid glass and quite large. The glass is a slightly yellowish brown- the color of a boar’s pelt, from titanium dust being used in its forging. The front of the ring has two arched spikes on it that resemble boar tusks. There is no way he forged this overnight- this ring must have been something he already had from before. Small items like this could be forged without needing a kiln. The glass boar-ring will make an //excellent// reminder of your trip here. You tell Olivia to say thanks to Nail for you. She returns to her work for now, and you climb the tower to leave. (set: $Ring to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)You lead the way up to the restaurant and Jack follows behind. “You know I have eaten here before, but only once. Me and Jill were having a meeting with Oswald so he could apologize for his mix up over dinner.” When you both get into the restaurant you see a few RHE staff here and there eating on their break, but there is also another test subject. As soon as she spots you, two ''giant'' ears perk up and she waves you both over to come sit with her! “Oh thank the (text-style:"shudder")[Gods]. It was starting to feel awkward eating here by myself…” The woman is only about four feet tall! She is only wearing a black t-shirt but it is so huge on her that the bottom covers her ankles! You two have found TS50; Chastity! (link:"Chastity")[Chastity’s most noticeable features are the fact she is so tiny, and her ears are so big. Her ears are triangles but are so large that they start on the top of her head and don’t end till almost the hinge of her jaw! Her hair is platinum blond and the ears are covered in fur of the same color on the back- but the inside of the ear on the front is also filled with bushy tufts of fur that are snow white in color. Her lips are glossy black and she has two whiskers above her upper lip on both sides, and two long feeler hairs from the start of either eyebrow! Chastity’s digits on her hands are a bit stumpy looking, and tipped with tiny little translucent claws instead of nails. Her palm just above her wrist has a thick pad of black skin, and then each digit has a round pad at the base and tip of each except her thumb; which only has a pad at the tip. Chastity’s feet are sort of a mix of human foot and paw. Her soles are extended into cannon bones so she only stands on the padded front of her feet, but that front is still shaped like a clawed human foot, just a bit on the narrow side. She has a very bushy, medium length tail. It is just shy of three feet long and because of how bushy the fur on it is; if she held it out straight it would be shaped like a football. The collar of her shirt is far too big to fit properly, so it hangs off her shoulder and catches on her left elbow- if she bows even slightly forward you can see her left breast. Chastity has two B cup breasts on her chest capped with small, hard-edged areola and eraser nub nipples, but much further down she has four more stiff brown nipples on their own without breasts or areola on her midriff. She has the genes that allow her to trick her body to lactate easily, but her capacity to store milk is so tiny that it causes her problems. When lactating she has to milk herself quite frequently or she will start to leak because her breasts can’t hold it. Since it was a pain in the butt, she stopped inducing lactation a while ago. It wouldn’t be hard to start it again, but she would rather not. Chastity is half fennec fox!] After Jack orders his food he looks over to Chastity. “So what are you doing here by yourself in the first place?” “My handler Hermela Tristmagistus was talking about a Mark 2 tincture under testing.” “Isn’t that still pretty early in the testing phases? I thought it was still a long ways off.” Chastity hummed a moment. “No, it isn’t //that// far off- but it also is definitely not ready for its trial run yet, either. She was just asking me if I was interested in it for when it is ready. She knows I was pretty miffed about my size when I first transformed but… I am perfectly fine with it by now. I mean… I like that the option is going to be there, that maybe I //could// return to a more normal size but… I don’t actually want to take the option, y’know?” Jack nodded, then turned to you a moment later. “Her handler is a bit //eccentric//. Hermela has three prosthetic hands- but only two arms.” Chastity laughed and explained that Hermela suffered from a deadly alchemical mishap that caused her right hand and forearm to petrify due to extreme, concentrated mana poisoning. Rather than do the normal thing of getting a doll maker to craft a replacement that could be animated by an Automancer- she had three. There is a cap on the end of her arm just below her right elbow, with three hands, and three forearms hovering over it. People joke that if it were possible to have more- she would have even more hands, but three right hands is the maximum her cognitive abilities could handle. She can stick more prosthetic arms on there and link them, but her brain would be mentally incapable of operating more than three at once, so any more would be a waste. The other researchers warned her that even three right hands is a bit much- it probably isn’t healthy to stress her brain that much on a regular basis. So Chastity wasn’t always this small? Chastity lowered her eyebrows. “Of course not! It was a pain in the ass when I first transformed because I couldn’t reach my countertops properly, or the sink to do dishes. And I have to practically jog to keep up with the walk of some people, because my legs are too small. But everyone thinks I am cute, and I can fit in places others can’t. If I want to move real fast, I have padded feet and hands so I can run on all fours without hurting myself. And women who have (text-style:"sway")[reaaally] big boobies are even ''bigger'' to me! I can just wrap my arms and legs around a giant boob and full-body hug it!” Jack shook his head as his food arrived. “Careful, you’re drooling.” Chastity pout at him, then looked to you. “(text-style:"rumble")[So!] How has your RHEI experience been going?! You are the only outsider ever to come here!” She hooked an index finger on her collar and leaned forward to show you her petite breasts. “I haven’t really got anything.” She plopped back down. “But there are plenty of boobs and udders on the island.” She pointed at Jack with her fork. “Heck, he has a huge udder and he isn’t even female.” She tilted her head. “What are you doing here anyway, Jack?” He just pointed at you till he swallowed his current mouthful to actually answer that he just followed you up since he was going to eat lunch anyway and so were you. Chastity pointed to your lunch- the only one that was in a container rather than a plate. “Why did you pack a lunch, and then come to the restaurant anyway?” You told her that it was obviously not how you planned it originally. The lunch was packed as insurance, assuming you would not be able to find food while wandering around on the island. But Gabby recommended you loom around the main complex, because test subjects come here regularly to use the facilities. Everything on the ground floor of the main building is for test subjects only- the arcade on one side and the lactation stations on the other. You were back here again at lunch so it made more sense to just come back up to the restaurant than to just eat your lunch outside in the lot. Especially since the sun off the pavement and windows probably would have cooked you alive if you were out there for too long. Jack has to tell Chastity to cut it out when she was apparently poking at his udder under the table with her feet. She just blushed and looked back out the window quietly. Jack explained that it is common knowledge by now that Chastity has a //Breast Expansion// fetish- which has caused her to have a love of all mammaries big and small. From her own little hills to the absolute behemoths like TS33’s car-sized //mega udder//. For her birthday, the other test subjects have a special sort of party for her known as the ''Tit-Pit''. They will gather the largest mammaries into a relatively small room and all face inward, essentially filling the entire room with boob for the lucky girl to dive in and swim through the breast flesh. She never uses the breeder boys, because her favorite sexual act is //teat-insertion//. Chastity gets fucked riding a giant boob or udder- and in situations like that; her diminished size is what makes it possible in the first place. You are all sitting at the corner table, and two of the four walls of the restaurant are window, so your table has a great view of the island… or, what can be seen through the fog. The sky above is showing cracks in the clouds- what could have been a storm ended up sweeping past before it became much more than a light shower, but now the first few feet of air on ground level is absolutely whited out. The fog only rises up about five or six feet, so large trees and all the hills and mountains are above the fog, but you can only faintly see rooftops through it, and all test subjects are hidden. Chastity sighs and pats her belly as she finishes her lunch and then notices you looking out on the valley. “Oh… yea, it is going to be hard to find anything right now in the fog. What are you going to do?” Jack nodded. “I seen Ruby going up to the second floor when we were stepping out of the milking area- she was probably going for a massage. If you wait around up there you could meet her. You sort of have limited options at this point. It is so foggy down there that even ''I'' might not be able to find anything and I ''live'' here!” Chastity nodded. “And in a while people are going to be heading home to work on dinner so the island will be quieting down for a bit- which also doesn’t help your odds of finding anyone. It would not be a good idea to wander around out there right now… but you only have one day to be here. (text-style:"rumble")[Oh]- why don’t you take him to your house Jack?” He laughed. “Because he already met me and my house isn’t anything special to look at. Most homes in the valley are identical structurally. ''Oh''… though I suppose I could introduce you to my wife Jill. She is surely home- I can’t imagine she would be wandering around in the fog, either.” [[Find Ruby->Massage Clinic]] [[Return home with Jack->Jack's House]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)You decide to visit Jack’s house, interested in what his wife Jill looks like. If their tinctures were switched, that means she also got was what originally meant for him. You will have to take a shuttle again- Jack’s house is definitely not close. Travel times for both foot and shuttle are going to already be a lot longer thanks to the fog settled in over RHEI. On other islands the fog would spill off the edges onto the ocean and then condense and fall, but RHEI is enclosed by mountains that just hold the fog in like a giant bowl.(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ Jack leads you down and gets a shuttle ready. Since the garage is right there at the front of the building there is no waiting time at all, a shuttle slides forward the moment he asks.](else:)[ You remember the shuttle driver telling you where the garage was, so you head down to the ground level and into the side door on the garage. As soon as you ask for a shuttle one slides forward, the driver already in the vehicle ready to go.] Most of the other drivers in the garage are gathered at a large bar-like counter toward the back playing cards on it, and one is under a propped up shuttle working on its underside while a second driver helps hand him tools. There are eight shuttle drivers total, including their leader Miles Hardwealth. RHE has only five pilots for the helicopter, but that makes sense since there is only one helicopter anyway. There is only a single ship captain; //Abraham Gaorath//, the former captain of //The Ark//. Since The Ark doesn’t go anywhere other than pull out occasionally to fish off of, now he is half-retired. Abe just captains the small ship on the west shore to take people to the other two smaller islands; New Eden and Little Light. He has also used his authority as a captain to wed two test subjects on the island- the only married couple to find each other post-transformation. The ride down into the valley was quite a mesmerizing sight. The vehicle created a good sized wake in the fog which collided with the fog around it to make it dance and swirl around. The driver had to go quite slow, because you could not see more than two feet in front of the vehicle. It is a good thing the light on the shuttles projects out off the front of it, so even if the driver can’t see pedestrians- the pedestrians can see it. Anything exposed to the fog for more than a few seconds is painted in a constellation of shimmering dew drops. You might as well enjoy the sight of the odd weather- the fog most likely will not last long; once the sun starts to go down the temperatures will shift and the fog will cool and settle. You see a gigantic leg pass a good ways in front of the vehicle and then a massive wave of fog rushes past, following a colossal body moving in it. You ask the driver what on earth that was. “Oh, that was //Tria Amalie//. Part blue whale and part elephant… she is extremely big. You should have seen when she originally transformed. They did not know for certain she would grow huge or how huge she would get, so they initially gave her a regular house- she completely //annihilated// it in the first night. Completely outgrew ''everything''. Everyone in the area gets woken up looking at something like one of those old kaiju movies where the monster stomps through buildings, haha.” You finally arrive at Jack’s house in the south and get out.(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ Jack opens the door, then knocks on the already opened door to alert Jill. “Honey- I am hooome.”](else:)[You knock and Jack answered the door quickly. “''Oh''! So you decided to follow me after all, haha. Well, come on in before you get all soggy from the fog.”] Jack motioned around himself as you close the door behind you. “Rather //bland//. We do not have any big collections or professions like some test subjects, and basically all subjects have the same standard issue homes.” You two look over as Jill enters the room from the hall leading to the bedroom- you could hear her hooves against the floor even though the hall is carpeted. (link:"Jill")[TS79; Jill ended up with the endowed stallion tincture that was originally meant for Jack. While neither tincture had any modifications for gender; unlike the cow tincture, the stallion did had modifiers to its endowment size- which mean Jill’s gender is altered. She still has a fully developed and functioning vulva, but also a full set of male horse genitalia- which means she has two urethra and two sets of gonads. As you can imagine that makes going to the toilet challenging, and she definitely still needs to sit to pee. Jill is a fully functional hermaphrodite, though still goes by the standard ‘she/her’. Jack was meant to be an overly endowed stud, but because it was applied to a female body, Jill is actually just normal sized… well, normal for a horse. Her endowment is currently hidden away in a plump, extremely soft looking sheath of ebon skin- unlike a horse her sheath is not fused to her underside, so it sits comfortably in a hammock of scrotum between her softball sized nuts. Her vulva is so close to her male genitals that the front of her thick equine labia trail into the scrotum itself. She also has the ping-pong ball sized clit of a horse and the plush ring of an equine anus. Jill has a horse tail but it never grows very long- she keeps the bottom trimmed so it has a squared end. The tail itself is only about six inches long- with the hair on it; it is almost two feet. Like her husband she has fur on her lower body, but even less than he does. Her fine horse fur only covers her legs and fades off at the very top of her thighs- so the sides of her hip have very light fur but her giant, muscular equine butt cheeks are naked. She stands on horse hooves, and because of her soles being canon bones- this makes her exceptionally tall for a woman. Jill is at least a full foot and a half taller than you. Her torso is a bit more barrel shaped than a normal human- even though she is pretty lean, her midriff does not sink in at all from the chest. Unlike a horse however, her stone-hard abdominal muscles are extremely visible. The dark skin of her genitals trails up unusually far- touching the underside of her belly button. This is because a mare would have her teats down here, but Jill is still part human so they are up top- the skin of her groin still follows the original blueprints. Her breasts look to be DD cup, but their base is stretched a bit wider than normal across her also large pectoral muscles. Her torso is rather veiny- the blood vessels pinched between surface skin and the taught muscle behind it. Her arms are lean muscle but otherwise normal human shaped. Jill’s neck is very long and extremely thick for a human, but still not quite the size of a proper horse, either. The veins trailing into the base of her neck are as thick as a pencil! Her hairline trails down the back stopping at the very base of the neck in the back, giving her a mane of human hair. Her hair matches her tail; white but with a single wide streak of brown-orange. It is loosely curly and hangs to her breast- her tail does not reflect the curls because it is cut too short. Like her husband her ears are only partially influenced, giving them elven points on otherwise human ears. Her lips are quite large and soft- and quite dexterous, like a horse, and her nose is a bit wide on the bottom with larger nostrils. Her fur is white with orange-brown spots; the inverted version of Jack. Jill’s skin is a pale golden color, but her lips are dark grey and her nipples, genitals and entire groin, and the hairless underside of her tail is near-black charcoal grey. She can wear some larger articles of clothing, but isn’t wearing a single thing right now since she is just sitting around her house.] Jack motioned to her with a slight blush. “And this colossus is my wife.” Though still feminine, Jill’s voice is very deep. “Wearing the transformation meant for him. So you are the //outsider//? Having fun on RHEI? The weather certainly chose a hell of a day to be complete //chaos//.” You chuckle and tell her you don’t mind the weather at all. You have been having a good time on the island. Even if you have not met many test subjects you have still seen plenty travelling between locations. You are the only outsider the island has ever had, so you feel fortunate for being able to see any of it at all. Normally RHEI is entirely hidden from anyone on the outside. You and Jack sit on the couch and Jill pulls up an easy chair beside it and you all start playing card games while talking about random things. Jack and Jill take turns telling you of random things that have happened over the years; normal for RHEI, but not for an outsider. Jack starts by telling you about Chastity- before she stopped lactating because of the inconvenience. She was sun tanning once and fell asleep basking in the sun, but her breasts hit capacity and started to leak milk. When she woke up her tan had several veining lines cut through it because the milk streams blocked the sun! There was a time when a carnival-like event was held at the north end, and one of the RHE staff made the mistake of scoffing at TS33; Amber. She wanted to try the strength meter game and he laughed because she cannot even move around without a dolly lift to help move her car-sized mega udder. Well, she has extremely dense bones and the near super strength of a horse and human’s lower body strength combined. Amber did not even use the hammer, she basically did a cartwheel- swinging her //several hundred pound udder// into the air and the indicator on the meter hit the bell at the top so hard it threw off sparks. When she slid her udder back there was an impact crater in the ground under the meter! Oh, the look on his face when she asked for her prize. That reminded Jill of something and she looked around quickly for her cell phone, finding it on the small side table beside the couch. She turned it to show you several photos of test subjects at a pool- many gathered around the edges and two in the middle standing on floating pool toys. “When it gets really hot out, the valley gathers around to hold summer games, and this is the favorite. Two women stand on pool toys floating on the water, which is already tricky to do while keeping your balance and basically standing on water. There is a version of this game where both women stand on the same pool toy and try to bounce one another off with their butts while standing back-to-back. But RHEI’s version has them on their own toys and trying to knock each other off using their //breasts//- or //udders// to slam the other into the water. Last woman standing wins and goes up against the next opponent. Person who dunked the most in the end wins the tournament. Although the women who lose and get dunked finally get to cool off in the pool water- so really, //everyone// wins.” Jack nodded. “As you can imagine- Amber became like a //raid boss// in those games as soon as she stepped in. Her udder floats in water as long as it isn’t full on milk- but it is so colossal that no one would stand a chance against her normally. So either several women are allowed to take her on at the same time, or she is pit against one of the taurs- since subjects with taur forms have to stand on multiple pool toys in order to stay afloat; which also makes them harder to topple.” On the complete other end of the spectrum, Jill then shows you a picture of a very cold looking TS88; Nada, holding a bead of milk between her index and thumb- frozen solid. The image is taken quite close to focus on the frozen milk so you cannot fully see Nada’s form, but she looks quite… //unique//. Jill laughed. “Nada was a homunculus, not a human- and then got hybridized with a cow, so she is actually 0% human. TS92; Yuko is a real disciplined woman- a Japanese woman who is former Yakuza. Anyway, Nada playfully challenged part of Yuko’s regular training- which is standing in the ''cryosphere'' while almost or completely naked. Bracing the cold while trying to meditate. Nada never went into the cryosphere before and thought it sounded easy, and did not understand how it was training. So, the two of them both stood together that day to see who could last the longest. This was just before Nada left the area in defeat- a drop of milk leaked out because she had reached capacity, but because it is so cold and the two of them were standing still, the drop of milk turned into //white ice//!” //Cryosphere//?! There is a ''cold'' area in RHEI? Jack nodded. “The cryosphere was created in a large artificial cave that is basically the shared backyard of TS08, 96, and 97. Well… the peaks of the mountains are all cold enough to perpetually have snow on them as well- but obviously no one goes up there normally. Whenever someone misses traditional Christmases or colder climates, they visit the cryosphere. Actually- it is just north of Gabby’s house, so you were almost right beside the cryosphere this morning. To keep the cold enclosed though, it is inside of the cave in the base of the Great Plateau so you can’t really see any of it from the outside.” Jill held up another picture. “Oh, this is a cute one.” The picture was a fox hybrid woman, hanging upside down out of a gigantic snail shell stuck in a tree, giving the peace sign with her fingers! The fox is Vicky; TS54, but the shell belongs to TS77; Laurane. Vicky was talking about having a tree fort or secret hideout in the woods, and this is what the two of them came up with. Laurane lodged her shell in tree branches and retracted into it fully. It is so giant that a second person can fit inside of her shell as long as she is fully retracted, so Vicky was hanging out with her, inside of her shell, in a tree. You cannot see Laurane at all in the photo other than her shell, so it //looks// like it belongs to Vicky. “Hah, wouldn’t that be a weird hybrid; a fox-snail!” She flicked past a few more photos. “Oh. Well, this one is ''old''.” Jill shows you a photo of her and Jack standing in front of this very building- but they are both entirely ''//human//''! This photo was taken when they first arrived on the island, before any of their changes started to take place. No one knew the tinctures were switched until the two of them started to transform into the wrong forms. Jill then looks at the photo again herself and sighs. You ask if she misses her own old form, and what made the two of them sign up for RHE in the first place. Jack spoke up first. “We signed up to get away from her psychotic ex. She had an abusive boyfriend in highschool, ditched him but… then years later she tried to apply for a job and it turned out he also worked there. He made inappropriate passes at her even though she was married to me at that time already, and when she told HR, he went absolutely //berserk//.” “Yea, he trashed the office, hit several people and kept shouting //‘she is mine, I can do what I want with her’//. He uh, went to jail. But years later when he was released… I got an email from him saying he would //‘like to visit me’//. We called the cops of course, but they were unable to find him again. Figured we would sign up for this and come to RHEI- he can’t get us here.” He nodded. “In RHEI; everyone is absolutely safe from anything. The entire rest of the world could blow up and RHEI would still be safe. It falls under the protection of Moth, who in turn has the backing of the seven Gods of the Lost Founders- she is untouchable. There is no force in the universe capable of stopping her.” Jill turned her phone off. “I don’t really miss my old ''body''- but I do miss being //wholly female//. The other test subjects know to treat me like one of the girls but… I got this extra //meat// between my legs still. Sort of feels like I am a guy pretending to be a woman.” She somewhat snapped out of her trance of thought. “There is nothing actually wrong with my body, so I can’t complain. 90% of the time I don’t notice the difference- it is just that nagging 10% of the time when the more masculine… //urges//… influence me. Eh. Life would be ''boring'' if it was perfect ''all'' the time. I was a bit broken up about it at first, but when Kalha arrived on the island she helped me get over it. I don't know if it was actually her talks or the sheer ammount of //effort// she put into trying to help me that actually made me forget about it, (text-style:"buoy")[haha].” She puffed up her chest. “Plus, I can do //this//!” She flexed her pectoral muscles, causing her breasts to bounce up and down entirely on their own! All three of you looked at the TV tuner sitting in the TV stand as it made a beeping sound suddenly. It had been told to record a show when it came on- and it just started. That caused you all to look at the clock on the TV tuner as well, and see it was already 5:30pm. You are due back at the RHE main complex to have dinner with Olivia, and its dinner time ''NOW''. Jill and Jack also groaned at each other realizing it was dinner time and neither of them had actually cooked anything. Jill goes to get her onyx slate to call a shuttle down for you, so it isn’t night time when you get back to Olivia. Jack went to the kitchen and glanced over food, trying to calculate what would be the most filling meal he could make that also took next to no time to prepare. [[Continue...->Pail Of Water End]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)You decide to head up to the medical area of the second floor. It shares the same floor as the offices and restaurant, but those are in the east and west front corners while the medical area is divided into a T shaped section taking the majority of the floor. On the west end of the T is tincture mixing facilities and such- so that area was dedicated to administering the transformative agents into subjects not treating conditions. The lower end of the T toward the front of the building is massage clinics so the walls and roof had many hanging plants to keep the air fresh and the environment pretty and relaxing. The furthest side where the overpass connects between it and the restaurant is where the actual medical doctors are- where wounds and illness are treated. You think you seen Ruby come up here but are not entirely sure, nor were you completely sure where she was going. No one is being transformed these days so obviously not the west wing. You stand at the apex of the three wings and look down the halls and sure enough see two people at the end of the massage clinic wing! One wearing a white lab coat over her shoulders casually as she leans against the wall, and the other a test subject sitting on a chair across from her. As you approach the tall woman in the lab coat speaks up, glancing at you past her glasses. “''Well''- if it isn’t Olivia’s friend. What brings you here of all places?” You explain that you saw the test subject coming up here and wondered if she needed help. At the very least, she is a subject you actually know the location of- it is a complete whiteout of fog outside right now so finding anyone at all is very difficult.(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ Jack was pretty sure it was Ruby coming up here, so this was his recommendation for a next stop.] Ruby blushed. “W-well, here I am. I didn’t need help, though thanks for the concern. ” She held up the tall cane in her hand. “I am not actually hurt- my spine is just a little… //inefficient//, so I get a massage every once and a while to keep the muscles loose. Thanks for being with Gabby this morning too. She seemed to be in one of her moods- she can have a hard time staying positive sometimes. I am sure the meadows made a pretty sight first thing in the morning at least.” The woman looked at Ruby. “You already met him?” “No, well… //sort of//? We ran into each other this morning but only briefly. I was in a hurry and Gabby was sour that I could not spend time with her on a walk, so I sent the outsider to Gabby. We did not really have time to talk properly.” (link:"Ruby")[Ruby is both extremely tall, and also small; which seems at first to be contradictory. Overall her proportions are small(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ like Chastity is], but her height is the same as you because her torso is abnormally long! If she were to put her hand inside of yours it would be a like a child’s hand in comparison. Her chest is slightly longer than normal, but mostly her midriff is extremely long compared to the rest of her, which is why she needs a cane to walk. There is nothing wrong with her limbs, her torso is just so long that her spine cannot hold her upright for any length of time without its own weight causing the vertebrae to grind together. Walking with a forward lean can strain her back with poor posture and puts her weight so far forward that she would flop over if not for the cane. Ruby’s upper torso was adorned with six D cup breasts- which look even bigger than they are because of how small the rest of her proportions are. Two sets of breasts were covering her ribs, the third set was just below. Her fingers and toes all had tiny narrow claws instead of nails but were otherwise structurally normal for a regular human. Her pubes were actually a small mat of powder-soft white fur- the only other fur on her body is her gigantic tail. Almost as long as her torso and covered in extremely soft fur. The fur was not bushy though- it is dense, and sleek. Inside her mouth her teeth are all sharper than normal and her hair is a base brown and straight to her shoulders. Ruby’s skin is two-toned but transitions so gradually it can easily be mistaken for an unusual tan. Most of her is a golden hue, while the skin on her hands and feet, and the very front of her body- including her breasts- and her face//(except her forehead)// is very pale; almost white. This roughly follows the coloration of a weasel’s fur; brown on top and white below, except she has no fur so her skin just loosely follows the coloration. Overall, her animal traits are rather subdued. Ruby is currently wearing shorts and a very long white top most likely meant to be a night-shirt- but because of her long torso it fits her like a normal shirt. She often just goes nude like a lot of test subjects, but she will still dress for parties and such- and since she was visiting the main complex today she decided to get dressed to fit in better with the ‘//normal//’ humans.] The doctor chuckled. “I suppose I should introduce myself too, though I am sure you did not come to see me.” She held out her hand to shake yours. “I am Dr. Gloria Victoria. Rolls off the tongue, eh?” “Gloria is the //head// of RHE’s medical division! All the other medical team members answer to her!” “Mmm. Test subjects don’t tend to get hurt very frequently and there are very few illness that even ''exist'' in the world in the first place that can infect them- since the germ cells would need to be both compatible with humans ''and'' the animal they were hybridized with. I know the human anatomy well, so when there isn’t anything that requires my attention as a standard doctor, I work in the massage clinic.” She motioned to the closed door beside her. “My office is being cleaned at the moment though.” Apparently she had been massaging TS31; Beau earlier. Her mammaries are capable of //orgasm// though- causing them to express milk rapidly on their own when the pleasurable tension gets high enough. Beau should have stopped at the lactation stations before coming to get a massage- she ended up creaming the office on accident. Now both doctor and patient are waiting outside while someone from the maintenance crew fixes the office. You ask why RHE did not give Ruby hybrid hand-paws so she could walk on all fours. That was usually their solution to spinal correctness. Ruby shrugged. “With a cane I seemed to do fine, and RHE generally only likes to muck around with test results if it is absolutely necessary. The doll maker is actually working on a solution right now- he already took my measurements.” Ruby explained that the doll maker is also the craftsman behind the physical portion of all prosthetic limbs used on the island which are given life through Automancy once he assembles them. Rather than change Ruby’s actual extremities, they are building prosthetic extensions to her existing ones, so she can walk on artificial paws and then simply take them off when she doesn’t need to move about. They would allow for her to move around on all fours- where the length of her back is no longer an issue. (if:$Item is "Lunch")[You ask her if she has any trouble with her milk capacity. She has the same reduced body size as Chastity who stopped lactating because of issues. Although Ruby’s endowments seem considerably bigger. “No, they fixed that issue by the time my test came around- Chastity is a much earlier test than me. My boobs are larger so they can store more in the first place, and I also produce milk slower than she did. Not that anyone minds waiting- weasel milk is apparently very valuable.” ]After a few more moments of talking, another test subject appears at the end of the hall. At first it looks like she is cradling a bunched up cloak but you quickly realize she is a bat hybrid and what she is holding is the membrane of one of her wings! Gloria stands up off the wall asking what happened and the bat Ranos holds up a section of the skin, showing the doctor there is a rip in the membrane- she landed too quickly into a tree and a branch lanced her wing membrane. There is a powerful though dull ache from the hole but because the tissue is so thin it does not bleed much at all. The puncture is close to the edge of her wing so it isn’t serious, and it should heal easily enough on its own- the loose skin however is hard to hold still, and moving it around will repeatedly re-open the wound. Gloria left you and Ruby to take Ranos into her regular office to seal the hole closed so it can heal properly. Ranos waved timidly at you as Gloria dragged her off. “(text-style:"buoy")[Hey~] hope you have fun on RHEI!” Her ears were huge, and her face had a cute snout that almost resembled that of a pig. You’d like to meet Ranos properly, but she is clearly busy being treated. Ruby sighed, glancing toward the window at the end of the hall that looks out the front of the building. There are so many hanging plants in the hall that the light from the window gets tinted green as it progresses down the hall. She pointed to the window suddenly. "''Hah''! I knew it. See that hybrid down there in the lot? That is //Kalha//. She makes it her life-long mission to help everyone all the time. Guess who just escorted Ranos here?" After another half minute she sighed again. “Well. Rather //boring// here, huh? C’mon. Don’t waste your only day on RHEI standing around a hallway. I will show you something cool.” You let Ruby lead the way and she walked quite quickly for someone with a cane. She took you down to the stairs at the back of the building that went up all three floors- but apparently also went down a floor lower than any other stairs. Ruby took you down into a basement level and suddenly the standard drywall transitioned to metal walls. You could hear a hum that increased many times over the moment she opened a door to let you in. A massive maze of pipes was suspended through a gigantic room leading to and from giant cylinders. Through viewing windows around the mid-point on each cylinder you could see they contain water at various levels of purity. Ruby has taken you to the //RHEI water treatment facility//. The facility draws water in from the ocean, filters it out, purifies the salt and water individually and then pumps the clean water to all the homes and labs. The waste water is then brought in and filtered through a separate set of containment tanks before re-introducing the salt originally taken from it, and dumping it back out into the ocean at a different location. Ruby speaks up so you can hear her over the hum of the machines. “I actually don’t even know if I am ''allowed'' in here- I never bothered to ask. I am not the only test subject who slips through here though, and no one has ever stopped us.” She leads you past several maintenance workers monitoring the place and down to the ground level of the giant room- which is two flights of medium stairs. So the main complex only has one basement level, but it is two floors deep. There is actually another two or three floors worth of structure even below this- but below here is the //XV Bunker//; so technically a separate facility. Ruby takes you around the cylinders to the largest of the pipes in the back and actually walks back out of the facility- into a long man-made cave the pipes go through! Every few feet she clicks through some photos on her cell phone and shows them to you over her shoulder as you two walk. Of particular interest she had pairs of pictures taken of the same test subjects at different sizes. Rachel the pig hybrid as both a normal lean figure, and so morbidly obese her body fills the entire room she is in! Opal as a subdued horse hybrid, normally with breasts on her chest and crotch, and then in another picture with a round belly that looks full term with quadruplets! Okra who is apparently a hybrid with a particular breed of chicken, holding an egg in both hands but one is the size of a regular chicken egg, the other looks like it came from an ostrich! “Some test subjects have elasticity genes that allow their tissue to stretch and contract without getting worn out and wrinkly. Some can gain and burn fat at inhuman speeds, some… //lay eggs//. Actually RHE doesn’t know why Okra’s eggs are like that, either. Every time she lays an egg the size is completely random. ''BOTH'' eggs in that picture are hers. Test subjects 100, 101, and 102-XY all have a special tincture as well that lets them transform whenever and however much they want- just from a limited pool of traits. So even after all the initial transformations are done, some subjects are constantly in flux. It is RHE’s motto; ‘//Panta Rhei//’. It means ‘//everything flows//’ in ancient Greek.” Thick spongy moss and tiny forests of mushrooms started to sprout out of the cave as you and Ruby progressed further out, toward a distant light. When you finally emerged again you could hear crashing waves and seagulls! The pipes abruptly turned to go under the waves. The mouth of the cave was covered in vines and shrubs- you might not even be able to see the opening at all from the water. There is no fog here obviously- it cannot form over the open ocean nor can it billow out onto the ocean over the mountains. The cave you just travelled through cuts through the roots of the mountain directly behind the main complex. It is about the same length of walk as from the plateau the main complex is on all the way into the valley town, minus the view. Ruby sat on one of the lower pipes and motioned out over the ocean. “This is a nice place to come if you want to be alone with your thoughts. The walk here isn’t great and takes a while though. This is one of the most remote nooks on the island. Not much to see, but better than standing around in a hallway, haha.” Ruby is a fun person to have around. She has a very mellow personality, and is relatively low energy, but not so low that she seems tired. Ruby will never be the one to make plans or hold any sort of events, but she will always tag along the moment anyone else suggests something. Some people consider themselves the main character of their own story- Ruby always regards herself as ‘//Player 2//’; she doesn’t want the focus on her, she is just here to have fun supporting others. After a while the metallic orange light of a dusk sun starts to catch on the west facing waves, causing the water to glimmer particularly bright. The sky starts to darken toward purple and suddenly the time the walk here took starts to sink in. Ruby grumbled. “I guess we better get you back, huh? Olivia is going to start wondering if you got lost somewhere, haha. I guess technically we are //still// in the main complex, sort of.” On the walk back you ask Ruby what her test was on specifically. Why did RHE choose weasel? “Just hybridizing ermine. There is at least one other test subject that uses ermine genes- but she is only part mink. I am the only pure ermine.” You ask why she signed up for RHE in the first place. The only thing the outside world can ever know about RHE are the sketchy ads it leaves around the internet- so people don’t know about the paradise island till they already signed themselves over. “Oh… no reason, actually. It just sounded like some easy extra scratch. Once I found out about the all-expenses paid part, well… why wouldn’t I sign up? I was never particularly close with my family, didn’t really have anything going on in the outside world to give up in the first place.” You made your way back down the very long cave to the main complex. In the cave it was impossible to tell what time of day it is outside because in the middle you cannot see either end of it anyway. There are small but bright rectangular lights attached to braces that hold the pipes steady so that maintenance workers can see what they are doing in the cave- but they work just as well for unexpected tourists. When you pass through the treatment facility again the workers are gone, leaving the machines unmanned for a time- they are most likely having dinner. Alua can regulate the machines from the electronic side of things anyway, so the odds of something going wrong are extremely low. The only thing that could happen is a part wears out and physically breaks- since Alua cannot manipulate things physically she would be unable to fix that herself. She can manufacture a new part, but it would be up to humans to actually swap it out with the old one. As Ruby takes you back up to the second floor she slows down to break off from you. “So… bit of a lackluster end to your tour, but I guess the fog did not leave you many options.” You chuckle and tell her it was fine; you //enjoyed// her company and appreciated the look at such a well-hidden little nook on the island. It isn’t a conventional place to be and there are probably a lot of test subjects who don’t even know about it. “Well I am glad I could help you have a fun stay. Gloria was busy and her massage parlor was still dripping cream so it wasn’t like I was doing anything, haha. Guess I will head home and start on a dinner for myself. You have a good night, outsider.” [[Continue...->Coincidental Ending]]

Ruby left you already on the second floor of the main complex so you were a few feet away from the offices.(if:$Item is "Memory")[ You are careful to not call attention to yourself when you enter. You scan the office and spot Olivia peering out the window at the front, away from her desk. She is looking for you returning up the slope from your tour, not realizing you’ve been inside the complex. Without calling attention to her; you carefully place the golden memory slate back where you got it.](if:$Item is "Jacket")[ You hang Olivia’s jacket back onto the hook where you got it as soon as you enter the office. Your heart jumped looking at scuffs on the sleeve thinking you somehow ripped it, but you were able to brush it off. You must have gotten dust on the sleeve in the cave- placing a hand on the pipes as you made your way through the dark.] You walk up to Olivia at the front window and startle her by placing your hand on her shoulder. “(text-style:"rumble")[Wha-]? How did you get back without me seeing you coming?! I have been watching the slope for you…” You laugh and tell her you have been here since before lunch. Gabby recommended looking for subjects coming to use the facility- and once the fog set it your other options were closed off by it, so you just remained in the complex the whole time. You and Olivia head over to the restaurant and you tell her about your day. Being with Gabby first thing was unique, and you feel you were able to help her cheer up. The weather turned chaotic but it never rained very hard, and just sort of made things more interesting if anything. The meadow is beautiful and will remain a strong memory for you- both smells and sights. Olivia chuckled. “Well scent is the sense most closely tied to memory- and the flowers give off a very pleasant smell. The meadow formed naturally without human intervention but did not happen until after the island was settled. Our structures created a settling point for tree seeds which caused the forest to slowly advance around the edges, which created an enclosed clearing in the middle. The decay from fallen leaves off the trees and mushrooms at the entropic part of their own cycle left a lot of nutrients in the soil, but because the trees did not advance in on it yet there was also a lot of sunlight. Once the local bees found the flower patch it really expanded in density. There are at least three beehives around the meadow- the bees are friendly though. Unlike wasps or hornets- a bee won’t bother you unless it thinks it has to. There are a lot of hummingbirds too who flock there for the nectar too.” You recall seeing a few bees passing by here and there but no hummingbirds. “Both were likely few in number because of the weather- they did not want to get caught in the rain either.” You met TS78 around noon, his form was certainly unexpected. There are not many males on the island in the first place, and you did not expect one to have an udder! He seemed like a nice person though, and you enjoyed your time getting to know them a bit. “Mmm, yea. Oswald really goofed that up, big time. Especially a test subject as late as 78- you would think RHE was done with any sort of major errors. We had our method down packed by then, and then //that// happened. There was no gender modification to the actual tincture, so technically we could have given that to him separately and turned him into a cowgirl but he did not want to be a woman and lose… his //bits//. We could have also theoretically used a male gender converter to try and negate the female cow half but that would be ''WAY'' too risky. First of all- cows and bulls have a good bit of sexual dimorphism so that could cause his body to change shape in other, unexpected ways. The other issue is while that would negate the female cow half… it would also super-enhance his still male human half. This might give him hyper proportions and put him into the XV category. So, we had to just leave it alone. Was too risky to try and fix it when the error did not actually cause any harm.” You then tell Olivia about your time with Ruby and being shown the ocean from the far side of the island. You also noticed another island to the west a bit and ask her what that was. “Oh, that was Little Light. That island has two test subjects living on it- both aquatic forms so they can get to and from the main island entirely on their own. There is a lighthouse on Little Light; which is where it got its name, but the lighthouse hasn’t been used in ages and I think most of the lower part is overgrown now from lack of maintenance. The island is really pretty, and you can go there via boat on the west beach if you want, but it is quite a ways north so people rarely make the trip.” It was also a funny coincidence that you both started your day briefly encountering Ruby, and then ended your day finding her again by chance and actually properly getting introduced. With over a hundred test subjects and such a large island- the odds of you running into the same person twice on accident seem pretty low. Olivia nodded. “Yea, even living here myself; it is hard to take in the full scope of how big RHEI actually is. The forests, the plains, the valley and town. It already seems pretty damn big to begin with. But even that is only taking in part of it. There are two sister islands just off shore slightly, there are pathways to small valleys in the mountains and caves in the cliff sides, and the snowy peaks of the outer mountains. Those outer regions are rarely visited even by the test subjects but they are still there to explore for the ones who do want to see it. RHEI is pretty huge, actually. Even if you did nothing but walk all day… in a single day you would not be able to see any more than a third of the island //at best//.” After dinner you went to sleep with Olivia- since your rooms are side by side.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]] ](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]] ](else:)[ ]In the morning Olivia helped you wake up, practically pouring the coffee down your throat for you. It was so disgustingly early in the morning the sun hadn’t even fully risen high enough to make it past the outer mountains. Unfortunately the helicopter has a schedule to keep and it cannot leave without you on it. At least that means you will be home when it is still mid or late afternoon; so you can cook yourself a dinner on time. Before Olivia splits off from you at the base of the tower though, she stops and hands you a small trinket. “Ruby left this for you. Not sure when- I just found it on my desk this morning with a note.” It is a cellphone charm on a short chain, a small plastic figure of a chibi cowgirl with her limbs stretched out and a large udder basically the same size as her body hanging off! You noticed a character similar to this on several posters and notices around the main complex- they are used as a sort of mascot. Since there is nothing on the figure that directly ties it to RHE, it is perfectly fine to take it off the island. A cute little charm, and a great souvenir. You tell Olivia to thank Ruby for you, and she returns to her work in the offices- telling you she will be in touch more through the internet. (set: $Charm to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

When the shuttle came to pick you up, the fog was already clearing again. The sun was a glow beyond the mountains but the moon was already up in its place, causing the millions of water droplets covering everything to shimmer in blue-white light. The lanterns started to click on in the valley to light the paths, but there was still a considerable amount of activity in the valley. Some people ate dinner early and were raring to go again- and having been cooped up to avoid the moist weather; now was their chance to get outside. You ended up doing a Lot of back and forth today, but you suppose that was to be expected- you were wandering around on an unfamiliar island on your own. It was a fun day, and even if you did not meet that many test subjects you still seen plenty- especially thanks to Jill’s photo collection on her phone. Hearing the old stories of the island was awesome. When you arrive at the main complex you see Olivia waiting for you out front, leaned against the wall beside the hedge that divides the two front doors. Her face is illuminated by her cell phone- the outside lights in the lot have yet to turn on because there is still hints of sunlight in the sky. You get out and walk up to her as the shuttle returns to the garage. Olivia smiles without making eye contact a moment, before turning her phone off and actually looking at you. (if:$Item is "Memory")[“So… have fun with the stolen goods?” She nods toward the golden slate in your pocket. Stolen would imply you did not bring it back. It isn’t as though she was using it, and the test subjects need to give permission for you to use it anyway. Olivia sighs and slips it out of your pocket. “Whatever. Let’s just get dinner- I am starving.”](if:$Item is "Jacket")[You hand her jacket back so she can put it on instead. “Oh, not even moist. Did you not need it after all?” It was handy- you were not inside all day. You did a lot of back and forth.](if:$Item is "Lunch")[You say you are pretty hungry. You had packed a lunch in the morning so you can only imagine how starving you would be by now if you had left without it. “Yea, it was a good call. You were out and about all day; if you let yourself go hungry trying to do too much, you would run out of steam and not be able to enjoy your time as much.”] On your way to the restaurant Olivia hands you a small phone charm. It is a small white bull sort of curled into a fetal position to look like it is actually hanging from your phone by the loop on its back. The bull has cartoonish proportions with a massively muscular upper back and huge arching horns. “Ruby left this for you earlier as a souvenir of your trip to RHEI. She said you helped her cheer up Gabby earlier, so she wanted to thank you- but you were out and about all day so she had no way of tracking you down.” Ruby unintentionally gave you a charm that somewhat represents your stay here on the island! Not only are many of the test subjects bovine- but this charm is particularly good at representing Jack specifically. Jack is a man but with cow traits- an odd and unique mix. White cows and black bulls are common- but black cows and //white bulls// are very rare; this charm is a white bull. A rarity among the bovine. You tell Olivia to thank Ruby for you- since you most likely will not be seeing her again before you leave tomorrow morning. You enjoy a filling dinner with Olivia- who picks out most of what you are eating since she has so many recommendations. You tell her how your day went- starting with Gabby. Or, technically starting with Ruby who sent you to Gabby. The time in the meadow was great and really pretty. It was a very relaxing way to start the day off, plus you technically seen TS44 and TS44-2 as well, though did not actually meet them. At lunch you found Jack who is really unique even on an island of unique people, and eventually met Jill as well. Thanks to your stay at their place you also got to see a lot of cool photos and hear stories of past events.(if:$Item is "Lunch")[ And thanks to you having lunch here in the building you were able to meet Chastity who is really cute.] “Well, glad you had fun. I was working all day as usual, but just knowing you were here on the island somewhere with me kind of made the day go by faster. Man… we need to hang out more again.” You point out she is the one who dropped out of contact. “I know! My brain doesn’t like switching modes. I get into work and then even when I have time off I unconsciously look for excuses to continue working anyway.” She chuckled. “Then when I do take time off, I look for every possible way to avoid coming back to work. If I don’t email or message you or anything for a while, just send me something. Badger me- ''spam'' my inbox or something. I miss the old days of us just wandering around for no reason and seeing random junk. Everything I do now serves some purpose or has some goal in mind, which is good I guess. But I miss the random bullshit.” After dinner you and Olivia talk for a while, remaining in the otherwise empty restaurant. Even from a lit room; you can still see thousands of stars in the sky outside. The clouds of earlier in the day are long gone now and RHEI is hundreds of miles away from most light pollution. If you were actually outside in the dark, the night sky would seem to full of stars that there would be no truly dark place in the entire sky. Everything in the valley is outlined in pale moonlight. It is far too dark on ground level to see anyone, but you occasionally see the flash of a cellphone screen or an onyx slate in the dark marking someone’s location. You ask how the slates on the island work. There are the standard onyx ones but also the golden memory slates, plus PCs in every house, and there is still cellphone reception here. Olivia hums in thought a moment. “All onyx slates link to an obelisk on the roof of the main complex here. The slates are, well, ''slates''. They do not contain processors to do anything- all the processing is in the obelisk, the slate is just a simple looking-glass spell on a sheet of rock that transmits mana well. The PCs have their own obelisks. Oh, unless you mean the internet connection? It is transmitted wirelessly using //magnetic induction//- same method the generators on the island transmit electricity wirelessly. Well- ''okay''. The island as a //whole// gets the internet and phone service via a satellite that follows the island orbiting the earth at the same speed the earth itself is turning. Then it goes to the obelisk- then the obelisk processes it and transmits the signal wirelessly to the homes. Once ''IN'' the homes there are receivers for wireless electricity, phone service, and internet connections that link to physical wiring in the loft- which then leads into the home below from wires, or wirelessly- however they want it.” But what about the golden slates? You cannot access functions of a regular slate on it, and you cannot access memories using a regular slate. “There is no processing done in that case for them to need an obelisk at all- which is why the golden slate can’t do what the regular ones can either; it doesn’t connect to the obelisk. It is almost like a direct connection to the crystalized memories in storage. Since their function is to transmit recorded sensory input- the golden slate is essentially letting you remotely use an item. Alua safeguards the memories though- and that is where its security comes from. If you do not show her consent from the test subject, Alua will cut off your access to the respective memory, whether you are RHE staff or not. Even someone with level 4 security clearance cannot access them without direct permission.” Once you both start yawning as much as you are talking, you turn in. Your rooms are right next to one another so you both go to bed at the same time.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]] ](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]] ](else:)[ ]When Olivia helps you wake up in the morning it is so early the sun isn’t even high enough to make it past the mountain tops. You wake up with the alarm but your body is so tired from it being so early and doing so much the day before. When Olivia comes to try and wake you, you can’t even muster the strength to tell her //‘five more minutes’// and instead just (text-style:"sway")[moan] at her. To get you out of bed, she finally just grabs the edges of the mattress and picks it up so you roll off the other side onto the floor! By the time you were fully up and being shoved out the door, the sun finally peaked over the mountains, and then reflected off all the windows on the main complex and made the lot blindingly bright. You groaned again as Olivia shoved you forward. “You can sleep in the helicopter. It will help make the trip pass by faster. Oh and here.” She handed you a small note. “Jill and Jack contacted RHE sometime last night- probably while we were having dinner. They said they wished they could send you copies of the photos they’ve got from around RHEI but they can’t leave the island. So, they had me give you their emails. There is no rules against talking to outsiders, so you can talk to them through email whenever you want. You will just have to… be ''creative'' when talking about RHE specific things.” With a nod you pocket the note with their emails on it and say goodbye to Olivia for now. You get one last view of the entire island as the helicopter takes off. (set: $Bull to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You decide to go see Lace, since you can be assured she is where you think she is, and she won’t already be doing anything else. Okra walked with you toward the valley town from the plains. The northern part of town was extremely busy. You could not see, but could hear a tennis ball being aggressively smacked back and forth on the court on the eastern side of the buildings. The buildings on the east row formed a half-circle around the market which in turn flanked the first pool. Okra guided you past several other test subjects who all paused to say hello as you passed. The amount of breasts and udders you see in a mere few minutes is probably more than you would see in a year normally. And the sizes… oh boy. If they were not part animal they likely would not be able to carry themselves around like they are. The bone structures to match their hybrid animals allows them to move about still while throwing about tits that would otherwise snap them in half. You ask Okra about a gigantic lily pad in the deep end of the pool. At first you assumed it was some sort of pool toy that other subjects were standing on, but on closer examination it looks like it is actually a lily pad- only colossal. “Oh that is actually Ambrosia. TS55-XV, she is the only extreme variant who doesn’t stay in the bunker with the others, because she would permanently hibernate without sunlight. Ambrosia was hybridized with an alraune, so she is mostly plant. When she hangs out in the pool she grows that huge lily pad tail so her body can chill out at the very bottom of the pool. She doesn’t drown because the surface of the lily pad is taking in sunlight and air for her. Since she is a super-fast growing plant, she can sort of just re-shape her body at will. She never looks completely the same twice.” Okra stopped once you both cleared the crowds around the north end. She pointed to a home surrounded by farmland and told you that belongs to Ariadne. Apparently Lace’s house is behind hers, and beside the farm plot that extends in the back. The reason Okra needed to point you directly at it is because Lace’s house isn’t visible at all on the surface. Okra splits off from you once you know where you are going and you make your own way around the homes, going between Ariadne and Okra’s own house. Ariadne is TS68 and Okra TS70, but TS69 is Lucria- an extreme variant, and so she was moved to the bunker, leaving the house for Okra to have when she arrived. Behind Okra’s house and beside Ariadne’s farm you see what looks like a shed and knock on the door. Okra told you to knock hard and repeatedly- Lace is most likely asleep. After the third set of knocks you hear a half-moan half-call from inside as Lace lazily makes her way up to answer the door. She was rubbing her eyes when she answered the door and then froze up when she seen you there, blinking several times with all five of her eyes. Her voice is deep, womanly, and quite groggy. “(text-style:"sway")[Youu’reee…] uh…” The outsider. “(text-style:"buoy")[Oooh] right. Olivia’s friend. Sorry, I just woke up, wasn’t-“ She yawned. “Wasn’t expecting anyone.” You explain that Okra sent you to wake her up to make sure she visited Aleiha later. “Oh right. Well… come on in. Have a seat.” (link:"Lace")[Lace is a very unique hybrid, because she is one of the few who was hybridized with a bug, but not an insect- an //arachnid//. Her body and limbs alike are slender and long, though not outside of human proportions. What is outside of human normality is the fact she has six arms and each of her hands has only two fingers and a thumb. Her legs are human shaped down to her foot- which has only two large toes, and the nails on them have fused with the flesh on the ends of the digits to create a stiff, curved, cone-like end on them. Her spider aspects were not strong enough to turn her flesh to chitin. Her forehead is slightly on the large size, but it is completely occupied as well. She has no hair on her eyebrows and instead has a second set of eyes above them that slant inward steeply. Then a single eye above and between those that is completely vertical! So her five eyes formed a sort of arch over her upper face. Lace rarely every opens all five eyes at the same time, and does not keep them open for long. Each set views the world a bit differently. She usually keeps the middle pair closed so that when she enters a darker place she can close her main pair and open the middle ones to instantly see in the dark. Rather than wait for them to adjust she just switches to a set that was already pre-adjusted. The top eye unlike the other four is solid black- it does not have sclera. If you look at the way the light shines on the top eye very close up you would see the surface is actually made up of millions of tiny hexagons- it is a compound eye. When open, her fifth eye can see in ALL directions at the same time. If she were trying to scan the area to search for something- this is the eye she will use. Being part spider, she is nocturnal, and at night she has no reason to keep a dark adjusted pair- so at night she will use her standard four eyes at the same time. She still only takes out the fifth eye occasionally- and will close the others when she uses it. Using all five at the same time disorients her, because the fifth views everything in a completely different way, and her brain cannot process both methods at the same time- causing sensory overload. Her pubes are naturally very short, but also rather dense, almost looking like a pelt of bristly fur over her crotch. Her anus is entirely relocated though. Her taught bubble butt cheeks cradle the flexible base of a large lemon-shaped bulb that juts out from behind her- an insect abdomen. The skin is half-turned to chitin over the abdomen so it is firm and bouncy, but is only half chitin so you can still squish it inward. Her anus is at the very end of abdomen. The abdomen is about the size of a medicine ball, or small beach ball- stretched outward a bit. Not exactly tiny, but compared to her overall body size; it is actually pretty small. Her breasts are perfectly tear-shaped C cups, but unusually her areola and lips are a base grey coloration, while the rest of her skin is a normal rosen hue. Lace’s glossy raven hair hangs to her lower back- the first few inches is straight and then it gets wavy in the middle, and curly toward the very ends.] You can’t help but stare as she walks around, getting first something for you to drink, and then turning the lights on, and then finding what part of the floor she discarded what article of clothing the night before. Her house is very unique itself, but before you can call your attention to it, you watch her carefully. Her tall statuesque legs step perfectly in line with one another, causing her hips to shake back and forth with each step which causes her bug butt to jiggle from one side to the other as she walks. Her back is well defined, and the Venus dimples of her lower back are clearly visible. You also try to watch her upper back as she reaches for things- trying to figure out how her arms work. She has six arms but her torso is only slightly longer than normal, and her rib cage is actually perfectly normal sized, except for a single additional rib which would normally be a characteristic of a male. She has six shoulder blades, and from what you can see through the skin on her back- the second set is angled slightly down, and the bottom set is angled steeply downward- this allows the point where they link to the spine to be relatively close together, without overlapping the plates. The shoulder blades of the lower set are actually only half-supported by the back of her rib-cage; they hang lower than her ribs. She picked up a shirt off the kitchen floor, smiling. “I guess you don’t care whether I get dressed or not. Hmm. I am only going to see Aleiha and then probably go back to bed… (text-style:"shudder")[nah]. I ain’t dressing up for that.” You say you are surprised she has shirts that have six sleeves. “RHE will custom-make any clothing if requested. But most of the time the clothing would need to be so heavily modified, and cover so little in the first place that most test subjects never bother. With so many people already naked, and the fact that the weather is always warm it’s like… //why bother?//” She tossed the shirt down the hallway- putting it on the floor again, but closer to the actual closet. “I like getting dressed up myself, so I keep a full wardrobe, but even I need some sort of //occasion// to dress up for. If I am just meeting someone or running errands- //eh//.” You still follow her with your eyes as she dashes back and forth while you sit on the couch. Between the steep curve between her abdomen and human butt cheeks, then the forward dip of the small of her back to the bouncing curls that form a curtain over her upper back. Generally your eyes are drawn to what hangs on the front of test subjects, but with Lace- her backside is a work of art. She does a brief twirl in the kitchen to motion around her at her unique home. “Welcome to my parlor!” She chuckled. “//Said the spider to the fly.//” Her house is wildly different than any other as well. Technically if you were to look at its layout- the central area actually is the same, but the regular walling is replaced by wood- which mildly fills the air of her home with a wooden musk, like a log cabin. Her island counter in the kitchen is instead the long curved counter of a bar, accompanied by a huge wine rack. The shed-like structure you seen at the top is just the start of a short square tower that leads underground into her actual home, connecting to where the front door would normally be in an above ground version. Obviously her living room lacks the huge window because it would only be looking out over dirt- the house is at least ten feet underground. There is also an additional door beside the walk-in closet at the end of the hall that leads to a basement level. The basement is one gigantic room equal to the entire ground floor, and then has several additional rooms branching from that! The central basement is storage- the side room are distilleries. Lace is the source of all island-brewed alcohol! She is both a brewer and a mixologist! Mead from the many beehives around the island, kumis made from horse milk, or more common vodka made from wheat grown right next door at Ariadne’s farm. Using time magic to hasten the aging process, she distills the brew in the branching rooms and brings it back into the main basement to put into huge casks. Normally something as difficult to control as time magic is very expensive, but thanks to Moth visiting RHEI semi-frequently, she can just slap the enchantments together for free. It is nothing to her- she can do it with her eyes closed. Ironically, Lace herself does not drink much alcohol at all- it is a poor merchant that buys their own goods. Finally she is more awake and ready to just sit with you, cradling a huge mug of black coffee trying to resuscitate her brain cells. You ask her if it is confusing having so many arms. “No, not really. I mean- it was, but not for very long. I got used to it pretty quickly. The most confusing part was trying to figure out how to use a keyboard again. Because my hand only has two fingers, so I can’t reach all the keys I normally would, unless I use more than one set of arms at the same time- but then I have to move them in a way where they aren’t going to interrupt one another.” You say you are assuming that she does not lactate like other test subjects. You couldn’t imagine how spider milk would taste like, and aren’t sure you would want to. She let out a deep, musical laugh. “No, not milk or eggs or anything like that. I provide booze, and gossamer.” Gossamer? You have heard of that before but do not recall what it actually is. “Fabric, made of spider silk. It is twice as durable as Kevlar- the stuff they make bulletproof vests out of. Smooth, but very, ''very'' strong.” You glance at the bug butt a moment and she shakes her head. “No, no. I uh… don’t have spinnerets where… they would normally go.” She blushes a bit as neither of you say anything and she can see by how you’re looking at her that you want to know. “I-its gross. You don’t want to see it.” You most likely already seen far worse things in your biology classes back in school. Is she going to lactate silk? Because they already did that once in the outside world. They put bug genes in a goat so its milk contained silk that could then be filtered out and processed. It is your own curiosity- even if it does gross you out somehow, it’s your own fault for asking, not hers. Lace grumbled and then opened her mouth- and then her cheeks. Lace actually doesn’t have cheeks at all, what appear to be normal human cheeks are in fact the outer facing sides of two large mandibles that unfold from inside of her mouth. Rather than be tipped with long fangs, the ends have pads on the ends. She holds one out with her fingers so you can take a closer look. There are hundreds of teeny tiny barbs on its surface. Spinnerets! Each one of those barbs is an extremely tiny hose that releases liquefied silk strands. By controlling how many of them release, she can control whether it is sticky or not, and how thick or thin each strand is- because each strand is actually woven of several dozens of tiny threads. Rather than pull the strands from her rump- Lace spits her silk from her mouth! When she closes her mouth, the soft tissue of her pseudo-cheeks hides the seam of the mandibles, making her lower face once again look perfectly human. (if:$Item is "Lunch")[Lace motions to your packed lunch. “It is already past noon, you gunna eat that?” She doesn’t mind? “Of course not. You don’t have your own house on the island so where else are you going to eat. Go right ahead. I could add a drink to that lunch if you want.” She grins. She already got you a water. She lowered her brows. “I mean alcoholic, dummy.” Probably be hard to continue touring the island if you’re stumbling over your own feet the rest of the day. You ask her if she wants any of your packed lunch but she just shakes her head. “Need as much room in my guts as possible for more coffee. I am entirely powered by caffeine only right now. Most spiders are nocturnal.” Why did Aleiha want to meet her in the day, knowing Lace isn’t supposed to be awake? “Well… I am still //half human//. I could switch my sleep around to be awake during the day, I just don’t. And actually it is Beryl that needs me. We have pretty wild hybrid forms, so Beryl wanted a photo of us together she could use as reference to draw us. Oh- you probably don’t even know who she is. Beryl is the island’s best artist, and the founder of the valley gallery. In order to take a proper picture, it should be done during the day- because sunlight is always better than artificial light. But that means I have to be awake during the day, ugh.” She yawned again. “My lungs feel heavy. On the up-side, I got to see you while you were still here. Plus, I can just go back to sleep as soon as the photo is taken.”](else:)[“I am So going back to sleep the moment I am done with the photo…” Photo? “Oh, right you don’t know. I am meeting up with Aleiha because Beryl wants us to take a picture together so she can then try to draw us. Outdoor lighting is best, and obviously that only applies to day time (text-style:"sway")[sooo], that is why she summoned me at a time of day they knew I wouldn’t be up for normally. They aren’t just doing it to mess with me, haha.” She chugged several more mouthfuls of coffee. “I wouldn’t have caught you before you left if I wasn’t up either, so there is that.”] (if:$Item is "Memory")[You mention you have a golden slate you can view transformations through, and ask if she was willing to let you see hers. Lace paused in deep thought for a moment, trying to recall the time herself. “Hmm, I guess… yea, sure.” When you activate the memory slate you find yourself in Lace’s body looking out. The recording only starts when the transformation does, so she is already in her home- but you notice light behind her from a window. Her house was not originally underground! She is leaning against the counter with her arms straight and her back arched from the strange sensations. Her upper arms were bulking up, but the muscle structure was strange and oddly wide vertically while being normal width horizontally. The growth both expands further at the top, and also advances further down her arms. By the time it reaches her elbows the changes pause and there is a deep divot in the flesh of her upper arms. She still does not know what is happening to them, but you realize it must be a split. Rather than grow an entirely new pair of arms, the second set is breaking off from the original! Lace dashes into the living room to sit on the couch and get her wedged-heel sneakers off because she felt something happening to her feet too, but could not see what through her footgear. It took her a moment of wiggling her bare toes to see the difference. The divot against her toenails was unnaturally shallow! Her nails were fused to the skin around them! Lace kept her shoes and socks off for now and went to the computer. She started to type emails to various people giving them a rather convoluted fake story about her getting a job at a company with a strict NDA. Well, it is sort-of true. She is making sure her relatives don’t try to find her, because she no longer exists to the outside world, but she cannot tell them about RHE. You also watch as she opens some older emails to look at the attached pictures. It is her at a bar, having fun with a lot of different people, serving drinks, and posing with other workers there. She was a mixologist on the outside too, and apparently a very popular one. You also note that she was wearing oval glasses in all the older pictures. She is not currently wearing them in this memory so she must have contacts in- and transforming to be part spider likely fixed her eyesight to not need them at all in current times. Literally as you are pondering her eyes, everything becomes blurry! She holds her head as she starts to get a headache from her blurring, double-vision. She feels her toes changing again and went to look at them but had to close her eyes because of her messed up vision. There was several loud, hollow crunching sounds that you realize must have come from inside of her own head! Lace’s forehead expanded a bit, but more than that- divots popped into the surface to form new eye sockets. She felt a disgusting slithering inside of them as the mostly liquid material for new eyeballs swelled to fill the new divots, causing the skin on the surface to bulge back out. Lace shivered from the unsettling sensations. Her toes were clenching from their own feelings but you cannot see what is actually happening directly because her eyes are still closed. The skin on the surface of the bulges thinned and became itchy a moment. She opened her eyes and scrunched up her brow trying to flex the tissue to help it, but inadvertently caused it to split open! The surface tissue split to become the new eyelids as her second set of eyes opened for the first time. Poor Lace’s headache doubled in strength as her brain suddenly started to get twice as much input as it is accustomed. The new eyes had never been adjusted to anything, so when they first opened everything was a blinding bright mass of colors. Her feet felt like they were splitting in the middle but being compressed at the ends. What was happening is the bone structure inside of her feet is simplifying as the toes bunch up and fused together. Feet and hands contain a lot of bones that connect to each digit, but she only has two on her feet now so that means she has a Lot less bones. She groaned and lifted her arms out in front of herself loosely, because the joint was seizing up. The split was deepening, causing the expanding lower side to push against her body and force her arms higher up. The growth passed her elbow and onto her forearm, but then with a loud pop- bent at the same point as her elbow! She now had two elbows, but the lower arms were still one and the same- only the top was fully divided. Lace kept blinking her eyes, opening and closing them all individually to try and figure out what was wrong since her arms were temporarily incapacitated as her changes stalled. Everything looked far too bright to her top eyes, but was very gradually fading to normal. So she could look through her upper eyes just fine, but had to squint till they properly adjusted. The lower eyes were blurry as fuck, and the realized it was because of her contact lenses! Her eyes had mended themselves fully, restoring her vision- which means her contacts are a handicap, not a help. She struggled to bend her arms in a way that she could reach her face to remove the contacts but doing so seemed to have woken her changes back up! She cried out in surprise as the feeling of growth surged down them again and the growth advanced down as the divide shadowed it. She felt an itchy pressure in her hand and a strange squirming just before the divide hit her wrist and suddenly her entire hand started to pull in half; as-is! As the skin started to rip painlessly, she noticed the source of the squirming- a second thumb had developed inside of the palm of her hand. So what used to be the pinky and ring finger of her original hand became the two digits of the new hand! Lace sat there breathing heavily, waiting for her heart to settle back down before examining herself. Her arms were awkward as heck- she could move them apart or together, back and forth, but trying to move them up or down together did not seem to work. The shoulders did not socket properly, and the top joints of the two arms ground together! She removed her contacts though, and that restored her vision. With the blur from her old eyes gone and the blinding light in her top eyes fading- her headache left her. She then looked down at her feet to see what you have seen in current times- the nails fully fused into the skin to create stiff, broad, claw-like caps on two toes. This made her feet rather narrow, but exactly as long as they had always been, and still relatively human shaped overall. Lace’s transformation annoyingly paused there again for some time. Every so often the muscles in her new arm would tense up and swell a little bit, but not outwardly noticeable. She had to make a rather lackluster dinner for herself because her arm movements were restricted and she did not want to chop a newly grown finger off, or spill hot grease on herself. After dinner a woman named Soma visited. She had not even realized someone new had already moved in- but once the sun started to go down she immediately noticed Lace’s lights were on and came to see her. Soma is TS60, so the subject immediately before Lace. She appeared to be an odd mix of a peacock and a cow- having an udder and bovine legs but huge resplendent tail feathers and what caught her eyes the most- no arms. Making Lace feel better about her own clumsy arm situation at the moment was realizing that Soma only has human arms down to her elbows- from then on she had massive wings. This granted her the rare and precious ability of flight… but it meant she could not properly hold or manipulate anything because she has no hands! Soma poked around Lace’s shoulder with the crook of her wing. “Hmm. I am tempted to use my skills as a Vitalist to help, but it would seriously screw up your tincture. Changing your chakra flow would alter the distribution of the tincture which could cut off or super-enhance certain aspects, so I can’t touch you till the transformation is finished already. If you are still feeling stiff or anything afterwards you can come to me, and I will fix you up.” “Can you see my chakra? Is there anything wrong with it now, or is it just a clunky transformation. It has been like this for a few hours so I am starting to get concerned that it stopped and I should contact RHE…” Soma held Lace with her wings and then lowered herself down to touch foreheads and concentrate. She cannot ''see'' someone’s chakra, but she can detect its flow using her own. It is made up of the bioelectrical signals the brain uses to make the body move, so naturally if it gets messed up- so does everything else. Soma suddenly leaned back surprised. “Oh, incoming!” “Huh? -hAA!” There was suddenly a pressure behind her top eyes and with a loud, hollow pop another socket opened up below the surface. The skin sunk into the new opening before she once again froze up and shivered at the feeling of an eyeball forming. Her vertical central eye split open but she cried in sudden pain and closed all her eyes, holding her head. “It… hurts. Opening it gives me a splitting headache!” Soma looked concerned and covered her lower four eyes with her wing then told her to open just the new one, slowly. The middle eye was bizarre because it is a compound eye- it looks everywhere all at once. It doesn’t need to ever turn to look at something because the entire eyeball is made of nothing but lenses. Those lenses all have a much lower resolution than her normal eyes however. The world they see is always rather abstract. It is hard to see things like edges and seams, so if you were to sit a glass down on a table she will know it is a glass based on experience and other input- but visually it will look like part of the table to her. It also took some time for her brain to adjust to understanding what it was seeing at all. Normally it puts two different images together and interoperates the distance between the two as the distance/depth of the object. From Lace’s fifth eye she could see both left and right at the same time as part of a single curved image. Her arrangement of eyes is how actual spiders use theirs. Each of their four sets of eyes see things differently- only by interpreting all eight together do they fully see everything. Also because spiders cannot turn their heads- they need to be able to see behind themselves by default. Thanks to testing things with Soma; Lace determined that she could not use all of her eyes all at once without overloading her brain. She can use all four of the regular eyes together if she wanted, but the fifth one is either closed, or its open and the others are closed. She thanked Soma for helping her out and Soma reminded her to call her once the transformation is done. On the outside she was a Vitalist- sometimes known by commoners as a ‘//Biomancer//’, someone who specializes in the manipulation of the chakra to heal or enhance a bodies performance. A short while after Soma left, Lace’s face went flush because her butt felt a little strange. There was occasional muscle twitches around her tail bone, and the ones that occurred on the internal facing side caused her anus to twitch along with it, pulling it open a bit on the inside. Making it feel… sort of emptier than normal. She kept putting her hand down her skirt and rubbing it through the fabric of her panties, pressing on the opening. She sort of wanted… to put something in it. Of course, she just moved into this place so go figure- she did not have a dildo with her. Because she had her arm twisted around to touch herself she ''really'' noticed when her shoulder popped loudly! First the one she was using and then the other a second later- her shoulder blades finally branched like her arms had and yanked them away from one another, finally enabling her to move them separately without interrupting each other! Lace hustled to the bedroom to figure herself out- because now her anus felt larger than it should be! It inflated to a plush ring, like a horse’s butt. By the time she slipped her skirt and panties down on her bed, and closed the door so she could look at the full body mirror on its back from the foot of her bed; her anus was projecting even further out from her! It almost looked like she had a case of anal prolapse, but it wasn’t the inside turning inside out- it was just the outside expanding further out. Material bled out from her tail bone to mix with the surface tissue, causing it to pull unnaturally smooth and become stiffer. Lace could not help but touch it, grab it, and press just the tips of her fingers into the opening as it grew larger and larger. Once it stuck several inches off her, it started to expand outward faster, creating a layer of soft tissue between the actual anus and the outer shell which was felt like hard rubber rather than actual chitin. She was breathing heavily and laying on her stomach with one lower hand on the side of the growth and another on its end, gently fingering the opening. Because of how solid the outer layer is, when it grew it made a sound almost like fingers running across the surface of a fully inflated balloon. You can ''hear'' the growth. The muscles at her tailbone extended into its base, so she could deliberately move the growth up or down like a tail- though not really side to side. It looks more level on top; below there is a bit of a divot where the bug butt connects to the rest of her. The pivot point is her tailbone, but it is also a continuation of her anus. Even after the changes completed, she cupped the base of the bulb and massaged it with her eyes closed, resting. Every month RHE gave everyone a single credit they could redeem for any outside item to bring to their home- Lace was definitely investing in the biggest anal plug on the market for her first item. You can tell she fell asleep because the time seemed to jump ahead suddenly- the crystalized memory does not record unconscious memories, so dreams are not included. It ''can'' record dreams; you would just need to specifically target them. Since these are recorded for research purposes and none of the transformations are meant to alter a person’s mental state- RHE has will not save that part. When she wakes up, it is suddenly and unwanted. Her lower arms feel bloated and stiff. Her vision is a blur and her perception pulses; her mind having a hard time catching from being woken so suddenly by her changes resuming in her sleep. She had to use her top arms to flip herself over. Lace could barely lift her upper arms. The muscle structure in them made no sense, and it caused the joints to lock up because it did not align. When she tried to move them, she could feel the individual sets of muscle squirm against each other. Looking at her hands; Lace seen she had grown two more fingers on that hand! She knew then that it must be another set- they are going to split again. Six arms and two legs puts her at eight limbs total- like a spider. Lace really started to moan when she felt like her jaw bone was branching! A swelling entered her cheeks and the skin started to stiffen and thicken rapidly. A separate set of muscles twitched, pulling her swollen cheeks away from her. Eventually her lips started to split at the sides as the seams appeared for her forming mandibles. Unlike her first two arms, the second two grew almost entirely before splitting and split the entire length at the same time instead of progressively down the limb as it formed. Her back squirmed and her shoulder blades made several muffled crunching sounds as the bone rapidly swelled, split, and then slid apart as a third set of shoulder blades slid down into place, dragging the new arms away from the old. Lace held her throat, feeling twitching even there as the tracts to carry the liquid silk formed. Her mouth was watering as a side effect of all the involuntary oral muscle contractions. The skin tore at the corners of her mouth and straight across her face as the new mandibles stretched fully out, before she gained control and fully pulled them back in, in surprise. She had no idea what just happened, it felt like her face tore in half painlessly somehow. She looked at herself in the mirror, tracing the mandibles with her finger on the outside. They are invisible when pulled back in. She sneezed a moment because the rooms light reflecting in the mirror tickled her nose, but as she pulled her head back she yanked the mirror off the door and it broke against the floor! When she sneezed she unintentionally connected herself to the mirror by several nearly invisible strands of silk, and yanked it off the door when she moved her head! The memory abruptly ends there and you look over at Lace just as her face turns red and she looks at you surprised. “''Oh crap''! I forgot about the //butt stuff//!” Now you both blush a bit, and there is an awkward silence for several moments. ]After chatting about random things and Lace downing an entire pot of coffee like it was water, she finally gets up and stretches all eight of her limbs. Her lower arms locked fingers behind her back and she arched her torso back to stretch them, while her middle and top arms crossed- so top right to bottom left, bottom right to top left and then pulled on each other to stretch those limbs as well. She jogged on the spot for a few seconds and she looked at you. “Okay! Time to go find Aleiha! She should be just south of the north pool. In front of Ariadne’s house, roughly.” You ask why that spot was chosen if it’s just a picture for reference to make another picture. “Simple background without having to go very far from my house- so I can return and sleep. If you stand just north of Ariadne’s place and turn west- you’ll be looking down the Great Plains that lead to the west beach. So if Beryl takes the picture facing that way, the only thing behind us will be grass. Simple background makes for a better reference image. Well… unless you are drawing landscape.” You nod and get up yourself. You are not sure where to go next and ask if Lace has any recommendations. “Oh, you aren’t coming with me?” Isn’t she… busy? “Well, I am going to sleep after the picture no matter what. Beryl is probably going to dash home to get to work on her drawing, (text-style:"sway")[buuut] I don’t know what Aleiha is doing- you could hang with her. Hmmm… Nemia was diving yesterday so she is probably just relaxing today, so she is most likely home- and maybe her husband Moby too. Their house isn’t that far from the meeting place, you can follow me most of the way there and I can just point their place out for you.” [[Meet Aleiha!->Second Poolv2]] [[Go to Nemia's house->Nemia's House]]

(set: $Kalha to it + 1)You decide it only makes sense that you continue with Lace to meet Aleiha. Not only is it a guaranteed chance to meet another test subject that you can confirm the location of- you have already started this chain of events, you might as well finish it. You follow Lace back out and into the light. Lace squints with just her two lower eyes, keeping all the others closed because she was not accustomed to daylight. On that note though; you ask her why her home is underground in the first place. It was above ground when she first came to RHEI, why is it ten feet under now? “Because it is best for the brewery. The cool underground helps the alcohol- RHEI is too warm everywhere on the surface so the only naturally cool places you can go is either underground or onto a mountain peak, which would be too cold. And remote.” RHE allows outside items and such to be purchased with credits which are given per month… how long it did take her to save up to buy an entire brewery? Lace laughed. “If it were me alone? I would probably still be saving. Having my entire house modified heavily and placed underground already took a good number of credits, but the brewery equipment? Ooof. It wasn’t me though- it was at least twenty other test subjects too. I am not a drunkard myself, just an ace bartender- the booze is for everyone, not me. So everyone chipped in.” You notice when she walks with idle hands, each pair of arms holds the ones below, so her upper arms loosely hold her middle arms which hold her lower arms. So her lower arms are the only ones gently swinging back and forth as she walks. It is late afternoon by now, so the sun is starting to fall to the west, stretching the shadows on everything out toward the east. You remember Lace saying Aleiha had a very unique form, and based on that alone you are almost positive you see her when you are both still a good distance away. (link:"Aleiha")[Aleiha’s body was loosely based on an Aztec God- //Quetzalcoatl//. She stands extremely tall- but not on legs. Aleiha grew a gargantuan snake tail that became so enormously huge that it absorbed her legs into it, making her serpent from the hip down. The only portion the tail did not consume is her crotch. You can still see the curvature of her inner thighs and her still human labia on her crotch in the front base of the tail- creating a deep Y shaped crevice. Her anus was pushed forward and relocated into the lowest part of her pussy, which makes it a sort-of cloaca, though still shaped like a normal human vulva. There is a triangular stripe of human flesh that flows off her torso onto the snake tail in the front, but tapers off only a sixth of the way down the tail. She has no human butt since the tail tapers off onto her lower back, and her anus was moved forward. The snake tail is covered in pentagon-shaped scales that are a desaturated red in color. The tail is easily seven times as long as her actual torso- so she can lift herself very high into the air on it if she wanted. Or coil herself around another person several times over. Aleiha’s torso is that of a normal, lean woman. Her breasts are D cups with soft-edged red-brown areola, her nipples wide stumps. Though structured like human arms still, her arms are still heavily modified. From her elbow to shoulder her arm is covered in large feathers that form slender plumes off her shoulders. From below the elbow to her fingertips, her flesh is stiff and forms banded bird-scales on the outer facing side only, though maintains her golden tanned flesh tone. Her fingers and thumbs are tipped with huge arching black talons, forcing her to be very careful when picking anything up that she does not tear it to shreds by accident. The talons arch up and out from her digits, so her entire digits are still usable right to their ends without worrying about stabbing something. In spite of looking very much like the legs of a bird- her hands are still perfectly human shaped with four fingers and a thumb. Aleiha’s neck- like her tail- is absolutely gigantic. It is so thick in fact that its curvature actually starts to emerge from her body on her upper back! Her neck is around three feet long just on its own and covered in the same scales as her tail. Also like her tail, her human flesh trails onto it slightly on the forward facing side. Aleiha’s head is fully shaped like that of a snake- a bit like a boxy triangle with rounded corners. She still has human hair forming eyebrows, and where her human hairline would normally be on her head is where more feathers grow now. A huge plume of feathers grow from her head, long enough that the feathers bend over in an arch and bounce around with every little movement her head makes. The feathers are mostly white with a powder blue chevron bordering a diamond shaped pink tip- but because of how the feathers overlap each other you mostly just see the blue and pink, even though there is more white than anything else. The feathers on her arms are identical in pattern, except the powder blue is green instead, and the pink diamond is yellow. Aleiha’s tongue is still more human than serpent, and so is her teeth, so the inside of her mouth actually makes her seem like more of a dragon than a snake. She can also divide the lower mandibles of her jaw- so she can stretch her mouth extremely wide if she wanted to. Like Okra; Aleiha is the only other test subject on the island that produces eggs instead of milk. She lays on a weekly basis, and Aleiha’s eggs are the same mass as an ostrich egg, but more oblong than round, because they are serpent eggs, not avian.] Beryl quickly trots over on all fours as you and Lace approach Aleiha. Beryl appears to be a cow hybrid, with hoof-hands and an unusually long tasseled tail. Her udder is massive which is unquestionably why she walks on all fours- because as soon as the two other subjects are ready she stands easily on her legs only to pull up a cell phone to take a picture of them. Because she has a colored splotch on her skin over one eye it takes you a moment to also notice her eye colors don’t match- she has heterochromia. One eye is the color of aquamarine, the other is the color of morganite. Beryl has Lace create some silk strands- large enough that the camera resolution can pick them up. She then attaches one to each of her own six hands and three to either of Aleiha’s hands, and gets them both to lift their arms slightly. Aleiha then coils her tail several times around Lace’s lower legs and the ground around them. The idea is that this pose makes it look like Lace is being puppeteered by Aleiha- the strands of silk like the strings of a marionette. Beryl quickly took the photo and Lace breathed a sigh of relief, gathering the unneeded silk and rolling it into a ball to toss to the side- it's biodegradable. Beryl pat her on the shoulder and thanked her while also apologizing for dragging her out of bed so early. Waking her up at this point is like waking a normal person up just past midnight- they’ve already been asleep for a while but not nearly long enough. Lace said goodbye to you and Beryl gave a quick wave as she also returned to being on all fours and trot off. Trotting at a decent speed also caused her huge udder to sway rather energetically back and forth as she went- quite a sight. You look at Aleiha and she lowers herself down to be more your height. “''So''… what are you up to, outsider?” You both look away before you are able to answer, hearing Okra call over! With her long bird legs she clears the distance quite quickly- her extremely long tail slithering through the grass behind her like a serpent itself. “Oh good. So Lace made it then? You already took the picture?” You’ve collected both feathered women at the same time! Okra returned to make sure you managed to get Lace out of her underground home. Okra then leads you and Aleiha over west toward the plains again, but then turns south just as you pass one of the homes; this is the location of the second pool. It is not that far from the first pool, but it is much more enclosed, with homes closely bordering it on two sides. There is a cherry tree immediately west of the pool too- but it is still covered in un-opened buds. It will not bloom for another week or so. Okra tells you that when it does blossom, all the pastel-pink petals rain down on the surface of the pool and make it extra pretty. Okra sits on the edge of the pool with you while Aleiha dives straight in. She enjoys the feeling of the water flowing around her feathers, and her serpent tail is surprisingly good at swimming. It is so long that Aleiha can touch both ends of the long pool at the same time! You say you are surprised Aleiha can still speak when her entire head is serpent. She bobs on the surface of the water a moment, looking at you while just floating. “My voisse box is still entirely human. I have a sslight lisp, but it’ss because of my larger mouth, not my voice box. Took… a ''lot'' of practice to talk normally again.” You ask why RHE went with snake and bird together for her test. Sure it matches the Aztec god, but of RHE’s objectives; aesthetics is a distant third after functionality and experimentation. Okra spoke up. “Egg laying, actually. I was a sort of //second// iteration of her test- Aleiha is TS39, she has been on the island a ''lot'' longer than I have.” “Mine are sserpent eggs though, while hers are avian. A little less obvious though- I was also a test on heat… er…. thermic… thermal regulation! That iss what they called it.” Ah, that makes sense. Humans are //endothermic// relying on food combustion to build up heat, as a result we need to eat a lot more than a serpent does, but we can also survive when the environment is cold, because we have our own heat. Serpents are //exothermic//, they can survive off a little food for a good amount of time, as long as it is hot and sunny out- because they rely on outside temperatures to keep their own body regulated. Birds are endothermic but have considerably different temperature regulators than humans. They cannot sweat, they pant like dogs when they overheat. They are also able to cut circulation to limbs when they get tired so they can alternate what leg they stand on- also helping regulate their temperatures. And in general, birds also run a lot hotter than we do. Their bodily functions have adapted to deal with more heat than we can before their goose is cooked. Throw three wildly different temperature regulators into one body and it’s anyone’s guess what happens. Aleiha explains that RHE managed to create a hybrid of it in her, and it worked almost perfectly. Her body’s metabolism speeds up or slows down according to how warm the environment around her is- so if it is hot like being outside in the afternoon basically anywhere on RHEI; her blood runs cold and she gets hungry very slowly, but if she is cold, her body turns on its own furnace and returns to an endothermal system. “I can also shed my sskin, which is handy to get rid of nicks and scrapess quicker. I just ditch the layer of skin they were on.” Can? So it is a conscious thing? “Yea, my skin cells-ss come loose like a human normally but I can also force the two outermost layers of sskin off if I want as long as they are not too fresh already. There iss this blue-ish fluid my body producesss that I can release that floods between the inner and outer layers of skin, basically disssolving the link between them.” She held up her hand with crooked fingers. “Then I just use my talons to slice it off, creating a casst-off.” She chuckled. “I scared the living shit out of Nel using my cast-off on Halloween once. He ended up scaring ''me'' because I thought he was going to have a heart attack.” Okra looked a bit sad. “I missed Len and Nel myself…” You ask who they are, or… //were//. They were already gone by the time Okra came to the island, so Aleiha tells you. Nel is TS27 and Len is TS27-2, which means they were both given the same tincture iteration. Their transformations were to a different species, but with the exact identical distribution. They shared a body, you see. Born conjoined twins- Len and Nel were too entwined together for any conventional doctor to separate. If you cut them in half- neither body would have enough parts left to survive on its own. What RHE attempted was to give them both a different hybrid species- choosing a dog and a cat. The idea is that if Nel turned into a cat and Len turned into a dog, their bodies may find the other too different, finally recognizing that it is supposed to be another person- and then regenerate what their own body lacked to continue to function thanks to the tincture’s aid. Well, sadly it did //not// work. Len turned dog and Nel turned cat, but only their heads and arms; everywhere else the two species mixed together, creating a blend of both- a //‘fenine’//. Not wanting to leave it at that, RHE double checked with the conjoined twins just how badly they wanted to be free of one another. Having failed with their standard methods, RHE pulled out a purely magical means. Using necromantic magic that is most certainly forbidden to the general public in the outside world- they cut off both their heads! A stone disc was used to cap their severed necks and then RHE used a modifier tincture to fuse the two stumps into one on the main body, and then placed a cap on it as well. The twins became like Dullahan from Gaelic lore- with their heads severed they can switch who is currently in control of the body, while the unused head remains at home in front of the television or computer. So they still shared a single body, but now only one was in charge of the body at any one time. Len and Nel were already fairly old when they signed up, so by the time Okra came around the two had passed of old age. They shared a single heart, so when one died; the other died- together even in death. You ask Aleiha if her tail is harder to get around on than her legs were. She slithered through the water and pulled herself up to prop her elbows on the edge of the pool while still facing you. “No, about the same. It took a lot of getting used to, learning to slither rather than step.” She tensed her muscles and the Y shaped gap stretched wider and then relaxed again. “I still have //some// remnant muscle structure from my legs- they aren’t 100% gone. The most wild part of having a tail this big is just… being //everywhere// all at once. Like, I can completely fill a smaller room with just my own body. I can be on one side of a room and touch something on the opposite side without moving my torso.” Okra piped up. “Remember when Kalha was trying to help you with your disassociation too.” “Oh yea, but that wasn’t an actual problem…” The two of them explain that Kalha is well known for trying to help everyone with their problems, all the time. She heard that Aleiha had trouble regarding herself as human and became concerned, trying to talk her though it- but ultimately it was decided that it wasn’t a problem that needed fixing in the first place. Aleiha’s head turned into that of a serpent, so she has a hard time thinking of herself as human at all- she looks more beast than woman. She noticed it had an effect on how she behaved sometimes. It definitely bothered her when she originally transformed but, she has long ago gotten used to it. Even if she is not human at all, she is still Aleiha. Titles like ‘//human//’ or ‘//normal//’ don’t mean anything on RHEI. Aleiha and Okra both liked the feeling of the strong wind ruffling their feathers, facing into it whenever it gusts. It is strong enough to send ripples across the pool as mini waves. The undulating water’s surface reflects the brilliant blue of the sky between lingering clouds. As you hang out with the two avian hybrids the edges of the clouds passing over you start to glow brighter orange like metal being heated. The sun was starting to dip behind the mountains to the west, which will cast the island in the shadow of the day before true night arrives. A lane of concentrated dusk light remains along the north edge of the pool- the gap in the mountains that is the west beach allows the sun to draw a glowing stripe across the island. Aleiha was just floating at this point, nudging herself back and forth across the surface with her tail against the edge of the pool. “Another advantage of my modified skin- I don’t prune. I could just sleep here the night… so relaxing…” Okra glanced at the setting sun. “Yea, it is getting late. I better head home to start dinner.” She turned to you. “And you are unfortunately out of time too, huh? You only get one day on the island, and the day is over. You want me to call you a shuttle to drive back to the main complex? You are having dinner with Olivia, right?” Yea, but you think you would rather walk. Enjoy the fresh air and sights of the island as long as possible. “Heh, yea, good call. A shame you couldn’t stay longer.” [[Continue...->Spider Eggs End]]

You take your time returning to the main complex. You started from the second pool which is not particularly far from the base of the slope up, so it is not as though you were especially far away in the first place. Aleiha was dozing off while floating in the pool and insisted she wanted to stay- so she is most likely taking a nap now.(if:$Item is "Jacket")[ With the blazing sun fading away, the wind is getting a bit cool so you fully put on and zip up Olivia’s jacket.](if:$Item is "Lunch")[ You are glad you ate lunch, because you are starting to get hungry again from being out and about all day. Had you not packed a lunch you would probably be starving right now. Thanks to Lace’s hostess hospitality you are also hydrated.] Okra said goodbye to you both and dashed toward her home- right in front of Lace’s underground house. It seems sort of funny that a chicken hybrid ended up being right beside the farmland- but that was entirely accidental; RHE had nothing to do with the farm being planted, that was all test subject done and it’s because of Lucria being moved to the XV bunker that Okra lives where she does. The strong wind rustles the leaves of the trees on either side of you going back up the slope. At the top of the slope is a gigantic oak tree that was planted to commemorate the island being properly founded. Most of the plateau that the main complex is on is either paved or mostly dirt and a few tougher brush plants and flowers- except for immediately around the oak tree. You will often see two RHE staff standing on either side of the oak’s trunk, talking back and forth on their break in its shade. By the time you get that far, everything is dark. The glow from inside the many windows spills out across the lot, and pillars of light stand on top of the tower- illuminating the helipad at all hours. There is a single light aimed up at the cow-woman statue flanked by short, well-trimmed hedges. On the plaque at the base is RHE’s motto //‘panta rhei’//. You glance up at the office windows and see the dark silhouette of Olivia standing by the window watching you approach- she walks away from the window once you approach the front door. (if:$Item is "Jacket")[As soon as you walk into the second floor you unzip her jacket and place it back on the hook where you found it as you step into the offices. Olivia is already there waiting to go get some dinner. “It help out? I guess the storm blew past- only wet the south end of the island.” It was still pretty windy. Even if you never actually used it- having it was still peace of mind. ](if:$Item is "Memory")[As soon as you get into the office you glance around cautiously. You spot Olivia leaning over her chair rather than sitting in it- likely saving her work to shut down the computer for the day. You take the chance while her back is turned to slip the golden slate out of your pocket and put it back exactly how you found it. With any luck she will never know it was ever missing. ] Olivia dashes over to you and leads you quickly to the restaurant- she is starving. She ends up ordering half your food for you on recommendations. She also eats at least a quarter of it for you, because she ordered more food for you than you could eat on purpose so she could mooch. You both also eat very slowly because you talk to her about your time on the island, and she gets nostalgic being with you about your history together- before she worked for RHE. You tell her how your day went- turning into a sort of a side-quest. You found Okra by chance, or… more accurately she found you. You were a gasping mess when she ran into you, thanks to your unintentional morning run. But you either ran the length of the slope or you fell down the length of the slope, so you chose run. Laying in the field with her looking up at the sky watching as the clouds went by made for a very relaxing start to your tour though. Then it was Okra who sent you to Lace, to see her unique underground home and brewery. Lace herself is also quite unique and very beautiful. Then after talking with her to help her stay awake long enough to get up and out the door- you continued with her to see Aleiha and ultimately Okra caught back up to you as Lace returned home. Overall you managed to have a very unusual experience. On an island mostly populated by women with giant udders and lactating tits… you managed to find three test subjects in a row who neither have larger mammaries nor lactate. Two who produce eggs and one who makes silk. Okra and Aleiha are the only subjects on the island that lay eggs and you managed to find them both. You ask Olivia if there are any other test subjects that produce a type of silk other than Lace and her gossamer. “Mmm, not silk, no. Wool, yes.” Oh? “TS24 Suzy’s hair was turned into sheep wool, and grows at a rapid rate. She ends up trimming it every week or two but she doesn’t produce that much. The rate of growth slows as it gets longer, so it grows back to the length she wants it at quickly, but slows down when exceeding that. She also only grows it on her head like a human does hair, rather than her entire body like a sheep. Then there is TS96 Fate, who is covered in a unique fur that is a hybrid of wolf fur and sheep wool- we call it wolf-wool. She both grows it all over her body and at a //ludicrously// fast rate- her body absorbs all ambient mana to rapidly grow her fur, and she cannot turn it off. Her home has a mana regulator in it to prevent her from growing when in her own home, but she has to be careful going out. Her fur can quickly become so long that it hinders her movement.” Olivia glanced past you then motioned past you with a nod. You turn and see Lace standing there, looking rather timid. Unlike earlier, she is now wearing a black long sleeve on her six arms and a simple dark blue skirt with a button up gap in the back to allow her bug butt through. “(text-style:"sway")[Heyyy], hope I am not interrupting anything.” You say you were not expecting to see her again. “Well, it’s night time now, so this is when I would normally wake up. I am a bit tired still from being up earlier but, eeh. Starting to wonder if I should have opened a coffee house instead of a bar, haha.” Olivia pointed at her with her fork. “That has actually been an idea being half-jokingly pitched around RHE for years now. Everyone has said at some point they wish there was a coffee house on the island with a mellow mom-and-pop atmosphere, but no one has actually //submitted// a request at any point.” Lace put up two of her hands defensively. “There is no way I could run a coffee shop ''and'' a bar at the same time, and too many people are in love with my poison.” “No, but if anyone made a formal request for one on the island; I don’t think it would take much to get the ball rolling. RHE could just hire someone to man it if a test subject isn’t found.” There is a café outside the library and gallery right across from one another already that serves both coffee and tea, why would they need //another// separate place for it? Olivia shook her head, sitting further back into her seat. “Atmosphere, and especially the smells of an authentic coffee shop. Slow brewed instead of algorithmically processed. The café down in the valley is just a automancy processed system, like the food here in the restaurant. Made almost instantly from raw materials, so there is no cook time, no mess, no hands-on work. The golem method is more //efficient//, but sometimes you aren’t looking for efficiency.” Lace nodded. “That is why I had my kitchen area converted to a bar, and did all-wood interior on my place. Atmosphere. No windows so the lighting in my place is real soft and warm. A lot of test subjects like to slowly nurse a drink at the bar counter in my place rather than take a bottle elsewhere. I like talking with them, hearing their stories. I was a popular mixologist in my day- on the outside world. Guess it is just a role I was //destined// for.” That makes you wonder. Why did she sign up for RHE in the first place if she already had a job she was good at on the outside? Most of the time the reason is some sort of financial trouble, so they sign up for human testing for some desperate cash. Olivia gave you a sour look. “It is rude to ask a person about their financials you know?” Lace chuckled, leaning over the back of the seat beside you, still standing. “It is fine- he is here in the first place to fill his curiosity, no? It was a popular bar, and I was a popular bartender. Place made good money- should have done alright for itself. The owner was a real //piece of work// though and had ties with some crime gangs too. He did not re-invest as much money as he should have in the place and when his shady paperwork got questioned by the police, he up and vanished- which caused the whole place to tank naturally. Unfortunately I bought into the place myself- ''I'' owned a good sized share… so when the bar went under, I went with it.” She laughed. “I wasn’t too far into the hole- after thinking it over years later; I think I may have actually been able to save the place and take over as the new owner but it would have been a hell of a struggle for many years. Wasn’t worth it- I dipped and came to RHEI.” Lace pulled up a bottle and sat it on the chair next to you, explaining she actually tracked you down because she thought you could use a souvenir of your trip here to RHEI. The bottle contains one of her original brews- ''olive brandy''. She tells you it is a rather briny tasting alcohol- and also very alcoholic so don’t try to drink it like regular beer or you will murder your liver. She says it goes well with meat dishes, but especially seafood. Some cocktail shrimp would go perfectly with it. It is a meal-chaser; don’t drink it on an empty stomach. You thank Lace a lot for the gift! Olivia let out a small nose-laugh. “You better be thankful, you know how much a bottle of that goes for on the outside?” Lace clicked her tongue. “Didn’t you say it’s rude to talk about financials?” She chuckled as Olivia rolled her eyes. Lace left you two to the rest of your dinner, and thanking you for helping her wake up earlier. She wasn’t sure she would have been able to stay up if someone wasn’t with her. She probably would have just gone right back to sleep as soon as her alarm was turned off. You and Olivia end up staying in the restaurant long after you are done eating and the dishes have been taken away by the golem server. You can see the flash from onyx slates and cellphone screens in the valley as people move about in the dark- silhouetted against the glowing windows of the homes. Even late into the night, the valley remains active enough that you can see it all the way from the main complex windows. Lace is not the only test subject who lives the night life. Some people like Io are complete wild-cards. Sometimes she is awake during the day, sometimes at night- sometimes both. Io specifically is //narcoleptic// so she cannot control when she goes to sleep- thus she also cannot predict when she will be awake. There is something for everyone to do all the time on the island- a role for everyone to fill, but nothing that anyone ''needs'' to do. So there are no obligations, no schedules to be kept other than what you make for yourself. When you are both yawning more than you are talking, you finally head to sleep.(if:$Kalha > 3)[ [[...continue?->With All Your Heart End]] ](else-if: ($Coin is true) and ($Angel is true) and ($Soma is true) and ($Wisteria is true))[ [[* You hear a knock on the door *->Incomprehensible Beauty]] ](else:)[ ]After a good night’s sleep Olivia helps you wake up extremely early in the morning. You need to leave on the helicopter so unfortunately that means you need to be awake and on it when it leaves- which is so early the sun isn’t even high enough to peek over the mountains yet, till you are crossing the lot to the tower. Olivia promises to keep in touch better over the internet and splits off from you at the base of the tower. As you rise into the sky in the helicopter you get one last look at all of RHEI from the air, and burn the sight into your memory. (set: $Brandy to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You wake up in the night, and are a bit confused for a moment as your brain slowly powers up. Your alarm did not go off, and a quick glance out the window tells you it is still night, but then why did you wake up? You sit up and furrow your brow as you hear a bunch of movement from the offices. The apartments are in their own building, but there is no door on ground level- the only way to get inside is through a short overpass leading from the offices. The apartment you are using as well as Olivia’s are on the second floor, so close to the overpass. With a yawn you head out and to the offices to see what all the clatter is. You see someone tripping over some of the chairs in the office by Olivia’s desk but it is not Olivia. The office is now dark, so it is difficult to see, but the lights in the joining hallway are always on, so there is still a little light spilling in from two doorways. You call out, asking if the person is okay and she quickly stands up straight. “Ju- //er//, outsider!” It isn’t RHE staff but a test subject sneaking around- which helps explain why she is stumbling over everything. She also most likely entered from the lit hallway so her eyes aren’t as well adjusted to the dark as yours currently are- you can see her a lot better than she can see you. You’ve managed to catch the fabled TS81 you have heard so much about from so many other test subjects. Kalha //‘the angel’//. (link:"Kalha")[When properly standing upright Kalha is at the very least a foot taller than you, and most of her is just legs. Kalha is both part Jenny and part Doe... doekey? Donkeer? Her legs are human to the knee then switch to cervine. The cervine portion of her leg seems to have adopted the length of human leg structures which makes the cannon and especially tibia bones much longer than they should be. True to a deer; her cloven hooves are rather dainty. While her lower legs are narrow her thighs balloon out quite large and round thanks to asinine genes, which attach to good sized human hips- though are still disproportionately large in comparison, which means she also has huge butt cheeks. Her large butt is capped with a donkey tail, but it is of unusual length. The tassel on her tail is normal sized but the body of the tail is at least three feet long and unconsciously wraps around nearby objects to hold onto for stability. Her hands and body are perfectly human- a lean but not scrawny figure. Her chest is utterly hidden behind four H cup melons. Kalha’s breasts do not have a lot of space in between them; vertically or horizontally, so all four are pressed into one another. In spite of their softness, the only way to get them to divide at all is to either wedge her hand in between them and deliberately divide them, or lay completely flat onto her back to make them droop away from one another. You are surprised she can stand so straight so easily with such large breasts up top only- her spine must be modified in density as well to be able to carry so much lop-sided weight. Her areolas are hard-edged and jet black, tipped with rather long and thick nipples that are almost big enough to categorize as teats. Her quad breasts are actually a total blend of all her genetics- she already had large breasts as a normal human, then you add on donkey traits which also has mammaries, and then you add deer traits which has a four-pack udder. Kalha’s hair is extremely long- hanging flat off her head; her hair is long enough to reach her knees in spite of her impressive height. The front grows in pale grey and then turns soft brown a third of the way back. She currently has the front tied into two braids that are in turn looped around her head and tied together in the back. It almost looks like she is wearing a wreath or something, since the braid is a different color than the rest of her hair. Her eyebrows are darker grey and rather thin. Kalha’s nose has a squared end to it and is a textured black glossy skin which continues onto her lips- creating a square of moist skin. It makes her look like she has the face of a deer, even though her face does not project forward at all- she has no actual muzzle. Her ears look like those of a Brahman breed of cow- leaf shaped and absolutely massive. They are actually a mix of both donkey and deer- the leaf shape is from cervine genes while the size and especially length comes from her asinine traits. Unlike a brahman’s huge ears- however similar they may look- Kalha’s ears are able to stand and remain erect. Kalha’s tail is pale grey fur as well as her ears- with near-black charcoal grey tips. Her actual skin is golden hue making is better resemble a deer but she has an almost-black grey marking on her upper back that loosely resembles an upside-down cross. One stripe travels from the top of the back of her neck down to between her shoulders. The other crosses it from the top-back of one shoulder to the other. This marking resembles the donkey’s stripe but the vertical one follows the path of a donkey’s mane- since Kalha does not have a mane herself. Her eyes are deep pools of shimmering emerald green.] Kalha is wearing a loose white shirt, a long black pleated skirt and several different colored hair scrunchies around her left wrist. Her right lower leg has a golden chain wrapped around it several times and held in place with a simple small padlock. It looks like she might have a pendant or something on that is under her shirt, but you cannot quite see through the fabric. Kalha also has a glossy silver-black hematite ring around all four of her large nipples. Wearing a ring here would prevent her from leaking after her breasts reach their milk capacity- it however also lowers her capacity slightly, because the milk cannot build up in the base of her nipples like it does on an udder’s teat. Because her nipples are so large the semi-supported by the rings; they always jut into the fabric of her shirt, and the movement of the fabric makes them at least partially erect almost all the time- so there are lines in the fabric criss-crossing between where they tent the front out off her boobs. “H-hey, sorry did I wake you up? (text-style:"buoy")[Oooh], rats. I was trying to look for you today- I knew you would be on the island, but RHEI is a big island to find one person. I came to drop off a souvenir for you for your visit so Olivia could give it to you before you left. But uh… it was too dark here already and I ended up tripping over literally everything I could have tripped on…” You thank her for the thought, but tell her she did not need to. Now that she found you though- why don’t you hang out a bit? “Aren’t you sleepy?” You woke up quite thoroughly- and besides, even if you were… you only have one day on the island. You can be the deadest of dead-tired tomorrow, and it will only help the long helicopter ride home go faster. You have all the time in the world to sleep- you only have tonight to be on RHEI, and see Kalha. She smiled and went to walk over to you but then hesitated and told you, you should probably make your way to her instead. You can see where you are going better than she can. Kalha asks where you want to go, but you shrug and tell her she better pick a location- you barely know the island after all. She says it is probably not a great idea to wander too far, so she brings you to the stairs in the back of the building that connect all the floors and takes you up past the third floor- onto the roof of the main complex. The crisp night air fills your lungs and refreshes you. The sky is so clear and the stars so bright that you can actually see the curvature of the Milky Way galaxy Sol’s system resides inside of. The corner of the building blocks the light from the paved lot below so the roof is totally dark. She walks around a few air vents and crouches onto her knees, leaning her upper body on the elevated edge of the roof to look out over the valley and you join her. You ask if her height is ever a problem- you are average height for a man and she is a good bit taller than you. “Oh, no, not at all. RHE will custom make clothing to anyone’s body type, so no worries about shopping outside of normal woman sizes. And I am not so tall that my house needed to be modified at all. If you notice; from the outside the front windows on the living room of the homes look like they are level with the ground, but are actually a foot off the floor on the inside. And each home has two steps at the front door to the inner floor- all the homes are sunken into the ground slightly; their roofs are actually pretty high by default. Being too tall was the first thing RHE ever considered ahead of time, because the very first test subject was (text-style:"buoy")[suuuuper] tall.” With a bit of a blush you point toward her chest, asking if her breasts ever get in the way. They are quite large but not well spread out. “Well, the island is quite warm all year ‘round, so they get overly hot easily but RHE quickly solved that issue. For the first little while the skin would get irritated if I did not frequently dip into the pool or go home to have a shower, because sweat built up between them almost instantly.” She grabbed the bottom of her shirt and rolled it up to sit on top of her upper breasts so you could see, then turned to you and thrust her chest forward. Your face turns red thinking at first she wanted you to feel her boobs- but then you realize there is an object in between them. You gently grab it and slide the object out; it is cold to the touch, but it is also larger than it first appeared to be. You see the RHE branding as well as a series of numbers and letters below the logo that is the part-printing code for Alua, if she ever needed to print another of these units. The device is a cylinder with four panels branching from it in a cross formation that look almost like insect wings, but made of a rigid material that looks blurry at the edges. Once the device is removed from her quad-tit cleavage several lights turn off on it. There is a row of ten small cyan lights on the side, and once removed five of the lights turned off- two were already off before you pulled it out. “Mouse engineered it for me- she calls it the //‘Cryo-Cleaver’//!” The core unit is a relatively small nitrogen cell encased in some very tiny and intricate machine parts that perpetuate a Cryomancer rune. Basically, the unit is powered off thermal energy- it converts heat from the area around it and powers the Cryomancy rune to super-cool the liquid nitrogen. The lights on the side indicate how much power it is getting- that is why it powered down when you removed it. It is currently converting heat from the air, but in her cleavage it’s taking in her body heat. The hotter its surroundings are, the more cold it produces- which means you never need to adjust its temperature. Because when she cools down- it produces less cold naturally. The wings that wedge into her cleavage prevent as much skin-to-skin contact and are made of the virtually weightless material; //Aerogel//. It is made of a silica sponge and is the most powerful insulator known to man. It prevents heat buildup and transfer between breasts. When you are done looking it over she gently rests her arm across her top breasts and pulls back on the skin a bit to lift them- letting you slide the device back into place between the four large tits. Her long cow tail wraps loosely around your left wrist as you sit back. “So, have you spoke with Olivia much?” Hmm? “You two drifted apart when she went to university, right? She fell out of regular contact entirely when she started to work at RHE because she was busy keeping it secret. It makes you wonder if she really just brought you here for your own curiosity and not secretly… because she misses you.” You smile and sigh, telling Kalha that she is underestimating your bond with Olivia. All the space in the world cannot keep you two apart. She misses how things used to be- there is no question about that. You did get to speak with her and spend time together at dinner two nights in a row, which was nice. She also admitted to being at fault for not contacting you so much in the first place. There is no reason you cannot talk over the internet on a regular basis- and she is allowed vacation days and time off she could use to go visit you, even if you could not visit her. The trip was also somewhat of a //humble-brag//. Olivia is a RHE researcher- she wanted you to see her handiwork. Normally the only people she can brag to and discuss her research with are other researchers- who clearly are not going to be especially impressed because they do the same thing. You ask Kalha if she left anyone behind when she came to RHEI. There is the //‘heart clause’// in the contract that all test subjects sign in order to come here in the first place. It states that every subject gets at least one day a year they can visit someone on the outside. RHE uses its resources to keep you hidden on the outside long enough to visit someone and return. The same clause also states that if someone is critically wounded or ill, this time can be extended so the subject can be with them in their final hour. So test subjects are not 100% cut off from the outside. “Mmm, yea, I am ''totally'' cut off thought. The clause only applies to very close friends or family and… I don’t have anyone on the outside.” Kalha tells you that she is an orphan. She had a family but her father was terribly abusive and always stealing money to buy more booze with- causing them to struggle financially as well. Her mother worked hard all the time to try and keep them afloat, but that meant Kalha was alone with her abusive, drunken father while her mother was working. Her father is //ex-military//, so his training made him a very good soldier… but to do so, he forgot how to properly interact with society. So after his service ended, he could not find a job. Kalha was only 13 when she ran away from home, afraid of her father, and finally running out of patience that her mother would finally stand against him. He never physically hurt Kalha, but… there is more than one way to hurt someone and emotions often scar easier than flesh. After spending some time on the streets, evading the police trying to find her; she tried to return home several times- seeing that living off the street was too harsh for her. Every time she tried to go back- she could hear her father shouting at her mother through the walls of their trailer, or breaking furniture. Having Kalha run away made her mother terribly worried, but made her father still angrier. She could not go home- she was afraid her father would just grab her up and strangle her to death in rage. Kalha hitch-hiked to nearby towns and eventually found some jobs to work that gave her enough money to live off vending machines outside hotel rooms. She worked her way up to better paying jobs and started saving some money up. She purchased a shitty old car to putter around in and slept in the back so she would not have to pay for hotel rooms. Living out of a vehicle for two years she saved up a good bit of money. She had a plan, to use the money to help her mother. Send it to her so her father would not know to steal it for more booze. Kalha was planning to return home finally. Now 17 years old, she was older and braver. But her letters to her mother were returned to sender. She no longer lived at that address. Kalha had to return to her home town in person, and looked around desperately trying to figure out where her parents moved to. It had been four years so they may have given up on her- or assumed she was dead since even the police failed to track her. She had the body of a girl when she left, and the body of a young woman when she returned- so even if the police were still looking for her, she might be too different in appearance for them to realize who it is. Kalha looked at you across her right shoulder with a sigh. “Promise not to feel bad for me if I tell you the next part?” You nod slowly- unsure. It took her almost a full year to even track her parents down finally. Using a public computer at the library she found her mother’s obituary. Her father insisted on driving in spite of being drunk as always, and was far too angry and violent to argue against. He crashed their car- Kalha’s mother died in the crash. Her father spent some time in the hospital before he spent more time in prison- charged with the death of his wife. Reckless endangerment, speeding, driving while impaired, and third degree murder. Police even used Kalha in the court case against him- since it was pretty clear to //everyone// at that point that he had caused her to run away. If she had turned up dead- he would have been charged for that too. He became sickly in prison, and ended up dying of illness a month before Kalha found out- three months after she had arrived back in town looking for them. Kalha did not have a home to return to. She blamed herself for her parents’ deaths. It was because of her running away that her father became so much worse. It is because of that, that he killed her mother, and because of her death that ultimately killed him. At this point Kalha is in tears, though smiles at you timidly. You feel her tail grip your wrist a little bit tighter. “It is okay now. I just… it’s //good// to cry about this, every now and then, y’know? Unless I am depressing you..?” You tell her not to be concerned in the slightest with how ''you'' feel. You place a hand gently on her shoulder and she nods and continues her story. She continued to live out of the rusted, barely running car, making enough off low end jobs to feed herself at least and little more. She did not have the drive to struggle anymore- to try to scrape together savings like she had been doing. Whether she made enough to get by like a normal person, or just barely scrape by; it did not seem to matter- she was alone either way. Her mother had been such a beacon of light, always telling her that it did not matter how bad things were in the present- eventually it would go away. Eventually, all things pass. You just have to keep pressing on to see where tomorrow brings you. It did not matter how much her father shouts- eventually he will go to sleep. It did not matter how angry he made himself, eventually he would pass on, and rest in peace regardless of how harsh his life had been, and then you would miss the sound of his voice. Don’t take his anger to heart- it was never directed at either of them, and just let him wear himself out, and be there for him when he calms. Her mother could stand in the middle of a storm and still be utterly calm, simply waiting for it to end on its own. But Kalha had not been so strong. And because of that weakness- that lack of faith in her mother’s words… now her family is dead. And she was not even there to say goodbye. They both died without ever knowing where their daughter went. RHE’s homunculus; Zero found her, broken and alone. Zero scooped Kalha up and signed her up to get her off the streets. That is why Kalha’s body is relatively simple, with no true experimentation outside of simply observing how the genes of donkey and deer mingle. “So when I came to RHEI I made it my life’s mission to help as many people as much as I could. It’s because my life was so bad on the outside that I have so much sympathy for others when they are down. I don’t want anyone to be sad like I was. I want to show them the strength my mother had shown me when she was still alive.” So that is why almost every test subject on the island knows Kalha. It is a very large island, so no one test subject is familiar with all the others- heck, there are test subjects who have never directly met each other before. But everyone knows Kalha. That is why she carries the nickname //‘The Angel’//; she is always there to save the day. Kalha will drag herself through broken glass to help a complete stranger if she needs to. Kalha looks worriedly at the east- seeing the black sky turning dark blue and the stars starting to fade. “(text-style:"shudder")[Oh no!] It is ''so'' late right now! //Oh gosh//, I am so sorry I kept you up! (text-style:"rumble")[Aaaaah], come on you need to get to sleep!” You just chuckle and shake your head. You need to be up early to catch that flight off the island… there is no point going to sleep. You will only get an hour or so of sleep in before you are forced awake up again- at that point, trying to sleep will do more harm than just staying up the entire night. You can, and will want to sleep on the flight back anyway because as you’ve already experienced; it’s a long ass flight. “Sorry we couldn’t go somewhere more interesting either. If Olivia ever asks around for another chance for you to come to RHEI; you definitely have my vote. ''Plus!'' You were here this time and nothing bad happened, so if they let anyone onto the island again, you will be the most likely.” You two watch as the sky on the east lightens and starts to turn pink- highlighting the edges of the two or three clouds still drifting in the sky. You two are silent for some time just watching the sky and enjoying the crisp night air before the sun heats up the island again. She turns to you with a smile and flicks her lower right nipple. “//Thirsty?// I am almost full up.” Your face turns red and you shake your head- far too embarrassed to latch on to one of her boobs. Not to mention you are both outside on the roof, someone could potentially see you sucking on her over the edge of the roof. Plus after hearing her backstory just a while ago, it would feel weird. You tell her you are glad she found her happy ending though. However dysfunctional her parents were, it sounds like they were trying to make things work out for her, so they are most likely proud that their daughter survived it all, and found her way to a paradise of her own. “//Aww//, shucks. It doesn’t take much to please me, this island is more than I ever deserved. But I am glad I am here because I can help make it that much better for everyone, y’know? This place is so close to perfect that it would be extra salty if something screwed it all up. So I make that extra effort to keep everything running smooth, so that at least in this one place on Earth; we have true perfection.” After a long pause, you ask her what her best advise usually is for someone when they are down. If she could tell you //one thing// to remember once you leave RHEI, what would it be? “Hmm. Well, probably the favorite thing my mother always used to tell me. Even when I was really little. I use it all the time myself. I would get depressed whenever it rained, because I would have to stay inside and then I would be exposed to my fathers… ''behavior'', and start to think it was my fault. All the colors of the world look desaturated when its rainy, the sky is dark and everything is wet. My mom would look outside with me and then ask me; //‘Kalha, what color is the sky’//? I would say, grey, or black if it is raining out. She tells me //‘no, silly! That is not the sky- those are the clouds. The ''sky'', Kalha…’//” Kalha stood up straight, looking down at you. “''//-is always blue.//''” Beyond the clouds, the sky will always be blue. However dark it is over you- someone will be standing in sunlight elsewhere. The clouds will always part, and the sky will always cloud over again, but the world is no less or more colorful for it. Even if you cannot see the beauty from where you are standing, know that it is still there to be found. And perhaps if you cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel- maybe it’s because ''you'' are the light. You are not sure what to say, and not sure why Kalha stood up, but after a moment she smiles and motions to the side with her head. You look over and blush as you realize Olivia has been standing there for some time! She did not want to interrupt you two, so she has been standing at a distance in silence. The helicopter is leaving in an hour and a half already- ungodly early. Olivia went to wake you up so she could make sure you are fully awake and don’t stumble half-asleep into the rotor blades or something, but then realized you were not even in your temporary apartment and wandered around looking for you. You got up and started to walk toward Olivia to get some coffee and breakfast in you, and make sure to go to the bathroom before you get on the helicopter. Kalha spoke up as you walked away though. “Forgetting your souvenir?” You hear Olivia gasp and cover her mouth as you turn to look. As soon as you see the tiny item in Kalha’s hand your heart trembles. (text-style:"rumble")[No way]. ''No way'' you can accept that. “Oh, come on, don’t be like that.” Kalha held her hand higher, toward you trying to get you to take it. In her palm is a small, broken piece of plastic. Anywhere else and people would have tossed it in the trash thinking it was nothing. It is the broken clasp of a bra… the bra of TS01; ''Serene'', the //RHE Genesis Project//. The item is worth absolutely no money, but its sentimental value is //incomprehensible//. It is easily the greatest treasure in all of RHEI. You slowly reach for it, now your vision blurs with moisture. “This was always meant for you- I was just holding onto it till you arrived.” As soon as you take the clasp, you hug her tightly before she can pull her arm back. She hugs you back, leaning forward a bit since she is taller than you. “This is what she wanted to see the most. Time like this. No divisions, no secrets. //Not parents to children, but family to family.//” (set: $Angels to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You sit with Olivia at the restaurant getting relaxed again and tell her you want to compile a list of test subjects to find, using the registry on her computer as a guide. You can sort of map a trail to follow to cut down on time wasted travelling around. It is a little less //organic// of a trip, but it should be the most efficient way to approach it. Olivia nods. “Yea. You have already been here once so you should have at least a rough idea of the layout. I can just scribble some shorthand directions for you on the list before you head out tomorrow morning.” She chuckled. “You might be the only person in the world who can actually //read// my shorthand.” Another voice comes from just behind you, as you notice the sound of small hooves clicking against the floor. “Oh? Is that the outsider? Back for //round 2//, huh?” You cannot turn enough in your seat to see her till she approaches more and stands to the side of the table between you and Olivia. A test subject who was absent from the valley on your first visit; because she has been here in the main complex during the day. You’ve been spotted by Dr. Maple Augustine- who is both TS82 and one of the RHE researchers! (link:"Maple")[Maple has black hair but a permanent white streak through it. Because of how the hair spirals out from the back of the scalp, the streak is on a slight angle; so it ends up further toward the right in the back, and further left in the front. Her eyebrow also matches its final placement- because her left brow as a thin white patch in the middle of it too. Because of how massive her breasts are, she is not wearing a shirt but rather a dark brown cloth ribbon tied at the side. You can tell she is a rather timid person and self-conscious of her exposed bust, because she has her hands pressed into the pockets of a white lab coat she is wearing over herself- trying to press the sides of it as closed in the front as she can to cover herself without making it obvious. Maple is a short woman which only helps exaggerate the size of her breasts- large enough that in spite of their taught teardrop shape; still hang low enough that her belly button is hidden in their shadow. Even through the cloth binding them, you can see the bumps where her nipples are which means they must also be a good size, and probably closer to teats. Maple has horns on her head, but they are very short and the tips are fairly rounded so she would not be able to actually hurt anyone with them, accidentally or otherwise. They do conveniently help part her hair though. The bridge of her nose is a bit wider than normal and flatter to her face- this is because she has a square of candy pink flesh that encompasses her nostrils and lips, giving her a cow’s face without having a muzzle. Her eyes are very striking- a rare blend of colors known as Autumn Gold. Maple’s ears appear to be from a long eared species of cow- similar to a Brahman but a bit more narrow and low hanging; the ears of a Gyr cow. Maple has cow hooves, and like most her legs are only pure cow on the cannon bone, then are cow/human mix on the shins, and then purely human from the thigh up. She has a tasseled tail behind her and quite wide hips- though still human in structure. She has a cow udder, but it is tiny compared to how huge her breasts are. The udder is capped with four thumb-sized teats, but the four segments of the udder itself are only about the size of a C cup breast each. Because it is so petite the udder does not really hang off of her at all, it just jiggles around when she moves like a four-pack of boobs. The udder takes up the space in her crotch and lower stomach, so there is only a thin strip of flesh between udder and breast that is actually visible. She is wearing a shin-length maroon colored skirt, but even if she were wearing nothing the bottom curvature of her udder would hide her vulva from view normally. The skirt is slightly modified- the waist band branches in the front so part goes below and part goes over the udder. Similarly, there is a small hole in the back that allows her tail out. Her lab coat looks a bit too large for her- Maple’s hands are partially covered by the sleeves. It likely is not her own, just borrowed.] Oliva pat the seat next to hers. “Come on, have a seat.” “O-oh, no. I don’t want to //intrude//. I was just curious to see the outsider all the fuss was about and say hello.” “Ooh, come on Maple! Don’t tell me Daniella has you working this late?” “N-no, she isn’t- I was… okay.” Maple timidly sat in the chair. She glances around a lot- afraid to make eye contact, which is a real shame given how gorgeous her golden eyes are. There is an awkward silence before Olivia speaks up for Maple. “Dr. Augustine here doesn’t even work in the main complex anymore and still outranks me. I am an iterative researcher so I work on foundation level, building the tinctures. Maple however is both iterative researcher and general applications- she helps make the tinctures and administers them into the subjects themselves.” That means she is the handler for some other subjects. “Yup.” You look at Maple. How does that work when she is a test subject herself? And if she is the one giving others their tinctures… who gave her,// hers//? Maple shook her head, smiling timidly. “I administered my own. I am my own test subject. I kept my security clearance after transforming, but I only hold those titles by name. I do not actually work in RHE anymore. Well… sort of, but not really.” You nodded toward Olivia. She just said Maple was working for someone named Daniella. “She is the head of a research project and wanted my input. My test wasn’t on anything physical.” She held her arms out to emphasize her body. “I am just a standard cow-girl form, nothing fancy.” Olivia blushed with a smile and hooked her index on the ribbon binding Maple’s boobs and heft them up and down by it. “Still quite a //sight// though.” Maple blushed brightly and slapped her hand away. “Stop that! My test followed the ethos of the RHE Ov- ''er''… the //former// RHE Overseer; Julius. He, uh…” You tell Maple she needn’t go into details about TS37. She blushed again. “R-right. Anyway, I bridge the gap between test subject and tester. We can take data from the subjects and observe all we want but up until a point we had no one who actually experienced it themselves. All the people doing the transforming had never experienced the transformations themselves and all the subjects knew nothing detailed of the processes that made them. So I wrote a very lengthy and detailed report and act as a common reference point when considering the feeling of a transformation and immediate impact on a person’s psyche and lifestyle. My test… was basically on //emotion//.” Maple’s transformation had been very slow. She transformed herself in steps- administering only one or two changes at a time so she could properly think about what she wanted and did not want. Her test required her to transform, but what she turned into did not matter, so she could have turned herself into anything she wanted. Maple did not want to go with too exotic of a form though, because she did not want to risk anything going wrong, plus she is really shy. Maple would have proffered using the //Gummy Tincture// that TS100 had so she could revert her transformation when she sleeps, but that tincture had not been discovered yet. It was created by Moth herself, but never had any trials done on its effects so it was in cold storage for ages before anyone took the risk of trying it out. Ironically, TS100 is also a former researcher like Maple. //Unlike// Maple, Julie did it to herself as a form of retirement; RHE was downsizing and she was getting bored of lack of experimentation so she turned herself into a test. She intended to retire to the valley and just live calmly as a fellow subject, but ended up not being unable to shake her past passion of experimentation- she had the valley lab constructed and now does her //own// tests, separate from RHE. You glance down suddenly as you feel something brush your leg. There is a white cat with brown splotches rubbing up against you, wandering around the restaurant looking for handouts. The servers are golem so they never respond to its advances. You ask Olivia about the existence of pets in the island. It makes sense with test subjects in the valley, but RHE staff live in relatively small apartments close together, which is in turn close to the offices where they work. What happens if someone has allergies? They would have nowhere to go that was safe. Olivia finished crunching on an ice cube from her drink before answering. “We completely alter the genetic code of people, //repeatedly//. You think we can’t easily just tweak someone’s overactive immune system?” To be fair; RHE uses genetic traits from //pre-existing// creatures to modify people. It does not build custom genes from the ground up. They probably ''could'' do that- but it would take an obscenely long time and work. That is why all the test subjects are hybrids, and not just mutated humans. “Well… yea. But we can isolate immune system data like genetic data and just transfer the instructions from one person to another the same way. The immune system can only handle so much information anyway, so it isn’t like you can just keep feeding it more anti-germ tactics till it is immune to everything. That would be //impossible//.” So at some point in order to give it information on how to deal with one illness, you will force it to forget how to deal with something else. Olivia nodded, stirring the remaining ice cubes in her glass idly with her straw. “Which is why allergies are a bigger problem than you would think- they are the immune system focusing on something that isn’t even supposed to be a threat in the first place. It diminishes its ability to deal with ''actual'' dangers. It would have taken forever to find ourselves; but thankfully finding a perfect immune system was something Moth helped us with back when she was still an active part of RHE. It isn’t immune to everything- heck it isn’t even immune to ''most'' things. It is just very good at handling the most serious threats- and utterly lacks faults like allergic reactions to non-threats.” Maple chimed in. “That is actually one of the default components in tinctures- it overrides the existing immune system memory with the //‘perfect’// version RHE staff use on themselves.” Why would that be part of the test subjects? They are hybridized with animals- in order for a virus or germ cell to be able to attack them; it would need to be both compatible with humans as well as all of the animals they are hybrids with. 90% of all illnesses have zero effect on test subjects because they aren’t genetically compatible. The germ lands in them and can’t figure out what it is even looking at. “But the immune system will most likely regard the transformed cells as invasive. Just like trying to find a compatible organ donor- the body doesn’t normally accept parts that are not its own. When the transformative effects homogenize it is a non-issue but when the transformation first takes root, the immune system will go ''//ballistic//''. If the body’s //standard// functions aren’t working normally when the transformation settles in; I am sure you can imagine the //effects// will not work as intended, either.” If everyone has the same immune system information, then RHE can predict how it reacts to which changes perfectly every time. After talking with Maple and Olivia for some time; Maple heads back to her home in the southern valley and you and Olivia head to bed together- since your apartments are right across from each other. Tomorrow is the start of your big day. Or, your //latest day// touring the island. You have a list of locations and subjects, so you have an organized plan of approach. (set: $Maple to true) [[TS00, TS19, TS20 / Zero, Eve, Vivienne->Main Complex]] [[TS05, TS28, TS57 / Lulu, Julia, Hazel->Tennis Court]]

Olivia is a bit surprised, but you insist that is what you want. She looks around a bit, trying to think of where to start. She expected you to want to ogle the bouncing tits of the valley, not ask for a guided tour of the main complex itself. She leads you over to the far side of the offices and motions up to four paintings on the wall. (set: $Staffer to true)(set: $Staff2 to true) “These are the RHE leaders. The first is the sorceress paragon ''Dess Winehal''- or better known as ''//Moth//''. Then the first Overseer ''Tessa Bucset''.” The then pointed to the third frame that was oddly empty. There was a name and date plaque at the bottom of the frame still, but no picture. “The second Overseer… //uh//, had to go away. He insisted on his picture not being taken till his return.” Then she pointed to the last picture. “And in the meantime- the third Overseer ''Mahogany Primrose''.” Moth has a head of bright orange hair which matches her iris, which are bizarrely also orange. She is a legendary hero on the Earth of two different dimensions- she is from the version of Earth known as //‘Wick’//, so she is not native to your world. She has been around for hundreds of years yet looks very young still. Apparently time flows differently between the two dimensions, which causes her to age at a snail’s pace in your world. On top of that- she does have magic able to manipulate the flow of time. So if she is not needed for anything in the immediate future; Dess can place herself in chronostasis. Tessa has mid length dirty blond hair and wide rectangular glasses- and a rather stern look on her face. Mahogany is a dark skinned woman with an impressive mane of near-black, large, loose brown curly hair. “Tessa was not impressed with Mahogany stepping up as acting Overseer, but she had already passed the mantle to Julius so it was his call. Mahogany is fine as Overseer- Tessa had been the one to train her, so she was still holding onto all the little errors Mahogany made in the past while being trained. Not a fair assessment- it ignores all her improvements. Tessa always was a strict one. Complete contrast from Moth herself who is incredibly care-free.” Another woman walked behind you two and spoke up between sips from the coffee she is cradling. “I know how Mahogany feels. I think a lot of the researchers still don’t accept me.” Olivia turned in surprise and then motioned to the woman. “O-oh, this is Magistress Telah Reinhart. She is the head of the XY Project.” Telah is unique in that her title is not professor nor doctor- she is a Magistress; a spell caster. A Magister is essentially a Mage who is more academically inclined than practical. Telah had gotten into trouble trying to imitate what RHE does on her own in the outside world. She eventually found her own way out of the trouble she caused herself, but that made her a subject of interest for RHE who then scooped her up. Telah’s XY project basically supercharges male’s sexual fluid production through a mix of RHE’s standard tincture transformations in addition to a self-perpetuating spell that follows a unique design Moth invented. The idea is that semen has many nutrients in it like protein that could then be isolated away from the rest of it and used as a building block for food. Telah leaned against the wall. “Now, the average load actually doesn’t contain much of anything to be noteworthy, but also the average load is around a tablespoon. Now amplify that to an actual huge amount of fluid- man has fun making it, you end up with a lot of complex molecules.” Olivia nodded. “Both milk and semen actually contain protein and calcium- but milk contains much more calcium and semen a lot more protein.” “And protein is a complex molecule while calcium is an element of its own- an alkaline-earth metal. If you were to try to build a calcium-rich drink from scratch using conjuration magic, it would be ten times easier than attempting to make a protein-rich drink. A single protein molecule is 4 hydrogen, 1 nitrogen, 2 carbon, and 2 oxygen bound together, and that is the simplest model- they can be more complex. And just think… your body runs of bioelectrical energy to signal your nervous system instructions from your brain. The key term there is //‘electrical’//. Though generated through biological means, it is still power that could be translated to devices for technological use, or artifacts for magical use. Energy is energy after all. The puny ''25 Kilocalories'' the average male ejaculates? ''104,600 Joules'' of power. At a sustained rate, that is ''104 kilowatts'' of juice. You could blow a lightbulb with your penis.” Telah took another sip from her coffee before chuckling. “I actually disrupted the number scheme of the RHE roster with my project. My first subject is Allen Richter who came after TS101, so you would think he is TS102, but because it was a new type of test and involved so much magical elements in its founding- he ended up being called TSXY after the project name. But then the subject after him- Duncan is TS102-XY. So they flip-flopped on the numbering system and rather than go back and correct what they already did, they just rolled with it. So, really; Duncan should be TS103 and Aloe after him should be 104.” Olivia shrugged. “The numbering system wasn’t exactly perfect before, either. The twins are 27 and 27-2, and 44 and 44-2 because they have the same tincture. After Saanvi’s mother passed and she joined in her place, she also got the same tincture, so we have 13-2 even though there is no 13-1 alive anymore. Zero is included in the roster even though his designation is TS00, which means the roster starts counting ''before 1''. Released subjects and dead subjects are still included on the roster- //except// for Saanvi’s mother because she took her place… but I mean, the original TS13 should still be listed. It’s really inconsistent if you think about it, but at this point it would be even ''more'' confusing trying to retroactively change things.” You ask Olivia if she has ever been in charge of a dedicated project like Telah, and she tells you she is heading one right now. Olivia is in charge of a limb regeneration project simply called the Regenesis Project. Unfortunately it is nowhere near actual mockup testing phase. That seems odd to you. There are test subjects with multiple limbs- which means RHE already knows how to make limbs. “//Animal limbs//, sure- and additional limbs grow in other places. If you lost an arm and then used a multi-limb tincture, you would end up with one human arm, two animal arms, and one stump. That is ''far'' from the desired results.” So you would need a tincture that just rapidly regenerates? “Nope. Because if they lost the entire limb there is nothing to regenerate. That is why my project is called ''//Regenesis//'' instead of ''Regenerate''. If the limb is 100% gone, there are no cells left for that body part to reproduce from. You would need to rebuild them from scratch. But then, what instructions do you follow to rebuild them? Chances are they lost their limb on accident, not on purpose- so they did not have the foresight and resources to have their limb’s cellular makeup recorded to use as a blueprint. //Trust me//- it is a lot harder than it seems.” You ask if there are any other projects currently going on in RHE. “Yea- another big one. The //Mark 2 Tincture// project is being headed by Dr. Daniella Seraphica. Come on, I might be able to find her.” You follow Olivia as she leaves through the door of the offices back into the central hall and then into a door on the opposite side. The second level of the building is divided into a T and U shaped half- the offices and restaurant are part of the U shaped portion at the front of the building. The T shaped half is the medical wing. You two walk up from the front area which are massage clinics and enter the crossing which trails into the east wing which is all doctor offices. Olivia motions down to the very end of the hall at two women. The very tall woman standing in the doorway is Dr. Gloria Victoria- the head of the medical division. The woman she is stacking papers and folders into the arms of is Dr. Morgan LaFey. Both are doctors in a more traditional sense than the rest of RHE- they are not researchers, they are medical professionals. Morgan LaFey however does double-time. While she is a medical doctor, she is also a General Applications personnel- earning her the unique title of //Subject Assessment Specialist//. She is the handler for many subjects, and generally hangs around in the valley and the valley labs to be closer to the subjects. For the longest time her title did nothing to reflect the immense amount of additional work Morgan does in comparison to others; till she was given her unique title of SAS. Most people cannot even fathom how she handles all the footwork of running between the main complex and the valley every single day. Olivia looked down the west wing and shook her head. That wing is tincture research and the rooms where the tinctures are first injected into the subjects. She tells you that she cannot take you to meet Daniella in person. The lights are not on and the doors are all still locked in the west wing which means Daniella is most likely in the XV Bunker. Olivia would rather not disturb the XV subjects wandering around trying to find her all afternoon just so you can say hi. Before leaving the medical wing Olivia also pops in on another person with the SAS title- Benson Burnell. Relatively new to the RHE team, he is somewhat Morgan’s underling. He is the handler for only two test subjects, since he was a late recruit. Olivia leads you to the stairs in the back of the building since they connect to all floors and were closer to the ones you originally used at the front. “There is also Maple Augustine and Julie Hedgewall who are both test subjects and RHE researchers. Julie signed herself up- she was basically //bored// without any new test subjects so she turned herself into her own test. Maple was signed on for an important research task though- to act as a sort of bridge between subject and tester. Her notes on her physical and emotional feelings during transformation are a common point of reference for a lot of other researchers. She lives in the valley with the other test subjects now, but she is still frequently called in for her input.” That makes you wonder if there are any other subjects with ties to people in RHE. Like siblings who are researchers? Aside from… //the obvious one//. She huffed. “Right. There is one- well… there had been two. Libera Crettia is the mother of Ariadne; TS68. He was never officially in RHE but Dr. Alabaster Stonewall was a part of the original experimentation with Moth, and his daughter was a test subject.” Serene… Olivia paused a moment on that fragile subject. “Yes, TS01; Serene Stonewall was his daughter.” As you two step down into the arcade on the ground floor Olivia calls over, pointing at someone’s butt sticking out from the bottom of an arcade cabinet. “(text-style:"rumble")[Aha!]” The woman in the cabinet was startled and banged her head trying to stand up out of it too suddenly. “(text-style:"shudder")[Ow!]” “S-sorry.” She motions to the woman to direct your eyes. “This is RHE’s head engineer and programmer; Endraja(text-style:"superscript")[//(pronounced identically to Andrea)//] Kieloque!” Endraja sighed. “Just call me Mouse.” She pulled her telescopic goggles off her glasses onto her forehead. She certainly looked the part of tech-wizard. Almost //comically// so. In addition to her thick round glasses she has two different pairs of goggles on! She has two different sets of earbuds half-on that lead to two different devices- one a cellphone playing music so loud you can hear it without putting the earbuds on, and the other leading to a tablet. She has several tools on a huge belt around her waist used for testing amperage and soldering wires. Mouse is wearing cargo pants that are far too large for her- and the bottoms of the legs are shredded off from years of stomping on them. She is wearing a black long sleeve that seems too warm to wear in a place like RHEI. What you did not take into account on that assessment is that she never goes outside. Her office is often referred to as the //‘rat’s nest’// and is hidden in the main complex underground- filled with several liquid nitrogen cooling units to keep the servers running smooth. “Mouse is the one who put together the resident AI; Alua.” “//Artificial Lifeform User Assistant//. Alua is capable of learning on her own, making her own choices- completely unlike other golem. It is thanks to some generous research done by TS51 that allowed me to make her.” You and Olivia continue on, letting Mouse get back to working on the arcade cabinet. Olivia tells you about another unique golem on the island- Angelique. She was originally a human named Angel Vistart who was a friend of one of the RHE staff. Her body was killed and in an attempt to save her, using Necromancy they transferred her will to a doll body. As you can imagine the window of time in which something like that could be done is extremely narrow- the transfer was not complete, which is why she goes by a different name now. She is no longer the same person, but more like a close copy of the original. Angelique is the librarian of the valley library now. A job that is quite easy for her, because she is no longer physically capable of growing tired or hungry, so she is able to man the desk at all hours without break. Olivia lead you around the front, out the doors and a few feet over past a second door. “In that door is the //lactation stations//. Some women with extreme or very unique proportions have milking machines custom made for them in their own homes- everyone else comes here. You could use a regular, portable milk machine of course but the stations here are much better, much more comfortable, and just better all-around. There are several different unit types that all have their up and down sides- different body types just work better in specific ones.” She continued to walk to the shutter door at the east end of the building- which projected further forward than the rest of the building slightly. “And this is the garage!” This is where the shuttle service deploys from, and the shutter door is open just a bit at the bottom to let some fresh air in, so you and Olivia peek under it. She points out a man by a long counter playing cards with the other drivers. That is Miles Hardwealth, the head shuttle driver. He is in charge of organizing the rest of them and making sure all of the shuttles are in working order. There are no roads or street signs on the island, so they can’t be racing around wherever they want or someone would get hurt. The shuttles are actually a form of hovercraft, so they float over the ground- the reason there are never tire tracks through the grasslands. As Olivia takes you across the lot toward the separate building in the south part of the plateau the complex sits on, she tells you that there used to be lots of sailors too originally. The only transportation on and off the island for the longest time has been the helicopter. Never mind how long the trip takes- it costs $2,400 to keep that thing in the sky for a full round-trip! But that was not the means of founding the island originally- it would have taken a hundred years of back and forth for that thing to transport the amount of material they would need to build all the homes and structures. All the building material was loaded onto a gigantic ship called ''The Ark'' that is currently hidden away in a secret inlet on the east side of the island. To the north off the coast a bit is a smaller island called Little Light that houses the abandoned lighthouse that formerly guided The Ark here. Even now there is parts for additional homes still on The Ark- they never used it all up. The homes were actually pre-printed in sections, so they are really easy to construct. Of the original sailors who guided it to the island there is only one left still employed by RHE- the captain. Captain Abraham Gaorath. You will find him relaxing and fishing or reading a book on the beach on the west side of RHEI- there is a small dock and boat there to take test subjects to either Little Light or New Eden off the coast. He also occasionally gets called back to the helm of The Ark when subjects request a fishing trip. The Ark won’t go far from the island, just a ways out to sea so the test subjects can fish off it. The ship is so gargantuan that they can just load up food and drinks onto it and live off the ship for a few days fishing before returning to land. Abe is quite old now, but still captains a ship as good as ever. He was actually asked to marry two test subjects once as well- since both ship captains and priests have that power, and there is no priest on the island. Olivia opens the door for you to peek into the separate building in the lot and you see what looks like a small factory- except it is all one giant room. The entire top floor of the building and half of the lower level is just one continuous room filled with massive machines. “And this is Alua’s printer. Whenever you need an item custom made, or part of the heavy machines in the complex wear out, or something from the water treatment facility breaks that isn’t just a regular pipe- you get Alua to 3D print a replacement here. All currently printed parts have a printing code on them- so when they need to be replaced you just input the code here and it will print you off another instantly. When you need something custom made for the first time, you need to see Alua herself to discuss it, so she knows the exact material composition and proportions down to //nanometers//.” You laugh, asking how tiny a nanometer actually is. “Well, let’s put it this way- the average human hair is 60,000nm. It is typically used to measure the space between atoms. Measuring actual items with it would normally be ridiculous but Alua is a synthetic lifeform- her mind can process information a lot more efficiently than any living human. And she likes to be exact.” That is why this facility is so oddly shaped. There are no paths to walk or any means of getting to the top level at all. There is no way for humans to easily get around because it isn’t run by humans in the first place- the entire facility is controlled by Alua. Olivia took you out again and around to the front of the building that faces the valley. The half of the ground level that is not part of Alua’s printer. There are windows on the front and short, trimmed hedges between the building and path. In the windows you see what look at first like manikins but on closer inspection you realize what you are looking at is life-sized ball-joint dolls! They aren’t there to model the clothing they are wearing. As soon as you step inside after Olivia you shiver- the shop’s AC is always on rather strong. There is rows of standing dolls posed in various ways, all clothed in rather ornate looking outfits- most of which look to be Victorian era. Some of the life sized dolls hold regular sized dolls in their arms or sat on their shoulders. There is a long counter in the middle-back of the room designed to look like a stage, with a pleated red velvet curtain hanging above it rolled up. There is a soft music playing in the background- a music box melody. There does not appear to be anyone here, but Olivia taps a bell on the counter a few times to get their attention. A very large woman comes from the back, holding a rather large doll in her arms- or so you would think. It doesn’t take you long to realize it is backwards. There are strings attached from the woman’s hands to the man- but the woman is the doll, the //man// is real! The woman is wearing an ornate dress that probably costs more than the house you live in. The man is wearing a simple, sharp looking black tuxedo with top hat. The doll’s features are extremely detailed- if you were not standing less than two feet away it would be impossible to tell it was a doll and not a living person. Olivia leans toward you and tells you that the shop keeper is a doll maker and absolute master of his art. He does however also have a mild case of //Dissociative Identity Disorder//. He is aware the doll is not real, but feels very uncomfortable outside of the fantasy that the doll made to look like she is puppeteering him is actually doing so. He is skilled at throwing his voice without moving his lips- so he gives the doll a voice of its own. The doll is being controlled by a possession enchantment- which normally robs the user of the ability to control their own body, since your brain cannot control two nervous systems at the same time. Since the doll can control his actual body via the strings however- he remains in control of both bodies at the same time. He is puppeteering his own body, using an actual puppet. The doll bowed. “Hello, welcome to //No Strings Attached//.” The man spoke in her arms. “Come to order something? Or just showing your friend the area?” Olivia nodded. “Just showing him around. Couldn’t give a tour of the main complex and not introduce him to Sarasarah.” Who? The doll timidly wiggled her fingers to get your attention. “Me. I am //Sarasarah//.” She placed the man down and then gently rest her hands on either of his shoulders. He is quite short for a man, but Emilie is also pretty huge for a human… er, //human-imitation//. The actual man took a short bow, removing his top hat a moment. “The name is Ron John Johanisson, or as my friends call me //‘Jon John Johnny’//.” John Jon and Sarah Sara… cute. He chuckled. “I have always loved dolls, being surrounded by them. Always a picture of perfection. Like a painter crafts people in an image- I create people in 3D, that can be freely posed and dressed into scenes. I //uh//… also sort of wanted a big sister.” He motioned to Sarasarah. “So I made one of those too.” He walked around the side of the counter and slipped his right foot out of his shoe, holding his leg up so you could better see. From just below the knee, his leg is artificial. He wiggled his toes individually to show the ball joints work just as well as the original did. Even the toenails are well detailed and made of a separate translucent plate. The nails even had cuticles, though they were just a sculpted part of the toe itself the nails slotted in under. Ron makes all the prosthetic limbs for people who need them on the island, and crafts the full dolls in his spare time to sell to the outside world. Sarasarah looks at Olivia. “Where do you plan to take your friend next? It is already late in the day to be wandering far…” Ron nodded. “If you wait till later; you can take him onto the roof to stargaze.” Olivia glanced at her wristwatch. “Hrm, yea. Time blows past when you don’t want it to, huh?” You and Olivia say goodbye to Ron and Sarasarah and head back out to the main building. When you get outside she spots a man on his break, leaned against the huge oak tree at the top of the slope down into the valley. She tells you that it is Iggy Highroad- the head Groundskeeper, and master Geomancer. He uses Geomancy to maintain all the grass and plants in their perfect state in spite of all the feet, paws, and hooves walking on it. He is rather well dressed for a groundskeeper, though you suppose since he uses magic he doesn’t have to worry about physically getting dirty. He is wearing tiny armless glasses balanced on the end of his nose to read a small softcover novel in the shade of the tree. You and Olivia continue into the main building and decide to get some early dinner. It is too late in the day to go into the valley at this point. [[Continue...->Dud End]]

(input-box:2bind $PASSWORD,"=XX=",1,"Please enter release code.") (t8n:"flicker")+(t8n-time:0.7s)+(link-rerun:"ENTER")[ (if:$PASSWORD is "The King")[(set: $Ranos to true)(set: $Moth to true)(set: $Ass to true)(set: $Io to true)(set: $Canon to true)(text-style:"outline")[The King Grand Ending] unlocked.](if:$PASSWORD is "Incomprehensible Beauty")[(set: $Coin to true)(set: $Wisteria to true)(set: $Soma to true)(set: $Angel to true)(text-style:"outline")[Incomprehensible Beauty Grand Ending] unlocked.](if:$PASSWORD is "Make A Monster")[(set: $Maple to true)(set: $Faith to true)(set: $Aloe to true)(set: $Hydra to true)(text-style:"outline")[Make A Monster Grand Ending] unlocked.](if:$PASSWORD is "Overlord")[(set: $Canon to true)(set: $Coin to true)(set: $Staffer to true)(text-style:"outline")[Overlord Grand Ending] unlocked.](if:$PASSWORD is "JU71U5_37")[[[Password accepted.->Canon]]](if:$PASSWORD is "Serene#1")[(set: $Io to true)(set: $Olivia to true)(set: $Hydra to true)(set: $Aloe to true)(set: $Esther to true)(set: $Faith to true)(set: $Brimstone to true)(set: $Lucky to true)(set: $Bookmark to true)(set: $Sketch to true)(set: $Homunculus to true)(set: $Bushido to true)(set: $Blossom to true)(set: $Memory to true)(set: $Skalie to true)(set: $Wolfwool to true)(set: $Shark to true)(set: $Piano to true)(set: $Kumis to true)(set: $Wisteria to true)(set: $Eitr to true)(set: $Oppai to true)(set: $Fromage to true)(set: $Sword to true)(set: $Coin to true)(set: $Ring to true)(set: $Salt to true)(set: $Charm to true)(set: $Bull to true)(set: $Angel to true)(set: $Brandy to true)(set: $Moth to true)(set: $Canon to true)(text-style:"bold","outline","expand","fade-in-out")[(text-colour:#ffd43b)[Ω]]]] [[Give up.->Fake End]]

You glance at your watch again and realize you don't really have the time to be messing with 37's stasis pod and leave. You have a wonderful dinner with Olivia and the two of you return to her room for several hours after to play games on her Playbox 5X well into the night while reminiscing on old times.(if:($Faith is true) and ($Aloe is true) and ($Hydra is true) and ($Maple is true))[ [[* You cannot sleep... *->Make A Monster]] ](else:)[ ]You wake very early in the morning the next day to catch your flight back home. It is a shame you could not wake 37-XV but otherwise you were still able to see many test subjects in your time on RHEI and had a lot of fun. (text-rotate-z:346)[(align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[(text-style:"expand","upside-down")[''Better luck next time.'']]] (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

(text-style:"bold","expand","upside-down")[SIMULATION TERMINATED] You are terribly disoriented for a moment as your perception suddenly shifts to your actual body. The chronostasis pod hisses as it becomes depressurized and opens. Your long, hooked talons click on the sides of the doors as you lift yourself out of it. The pod is not perfectly upright- the top is leaned back a bit so you need to sort of hoist yourself out. Olivia is just outside, standing roughly where you had been inside of the simulation and catches the drone as it shuts off so it doesn't bust itself open on the metal floor. "Well? Simulation work as you intended?" (text-colour:blue)["As //Mouse// intended, you mean? Don't credit me for her work, heh."] Olivia shrugged and stepped back to give you room to step out. "It was on your orders she created it, Overseer." You have been inside of the simulation so long it takes your mind more than a few moments to remember itself. You are Test Subject 37-XV, impersonating a tourist, well... //sort of//. You have been in chronostasis for so long you might as well be an //actual tourist//. Your tours of the island have been from the drone's perspective- so what you seen is an emulation generated by ALUA but built on live data from the drone's visual and audio feeds. So the test subjects knew you were there, and humored your project, pretending you were an outsider. Things like physical contact or your manipulation of objects on the island were fully emulated however- since your physical body never left the pod. The last time anyone had the chance to actually see you in person was at Serene's funeral, and you were only out for as long as you needed to be to attend- you'd have sooner died than miss her funeral and if you had died, you would have still clawed your way out of Hell to attend it regardless. You were given the title of Overseer of RHE after Tessa stepped down. You wanted to bridge the gap between test subject and RHE staff, so you took the bold stance of wanting to turn yourself into a test subject, while also retaining your title of Overseer. You are TS37-XV so you did this long before Maple and Julie ever did- TS82 and TS100. It was also relatively early in the overall testing arch of RHE so mistakes were more likely. You had chosen a rather unique creature. Hippogriffs are half-horse half-bird, or so they appear. In truth they are not directly related to either species but rather a divergent evolution that landed in a hybrid of the two types of animal, making it visually very similar. Your arms are normal till the end of your forearms where the flesh becomes thicker and harder- slightly banded and then fully banded bird scales on your fingers which end in long hooked talons. The size of your claws made holding pens and manipulating papers difficult, but that was only the //start// of your problems. Your legs are fully those of an equine- including a pelt of fine dark brown fur with black spots transitioning to solid black just over your hooves. Your tail bone is capped with a large plume of black feathers with metallic green markings at the ends, and then turns to a normal black horse tail after that. Your ears are leaf shaped and can pivot around like a horse's ears and luckily your face is unaltered- human languages would be almost impossible to speak had you gotten a beak and lacked lips. Hippogriff do not have manes, but do have the long, large necks of horses coated in feathers. Your neck is normal human sized and you have a mane like a horse- but rather than hair your head and mane is made entirely of feathers! You have proto wings on your upper back but they are too small and underdeveloped to actually function at all. They are basically just large fans of feathers you can spread or tuck in. This form was mostly what you wanted, but when it came to genitals you did not think anything of going full horse. The problem is that it did not just give you the full shape of a horse's penis and balls- it also gave you the full size. Your heart is not big enough to handle a full sized horse cock- you had to be put on life support. RHE managed to enhance your heart hybridizing the power and size of both a horse and human heart- but the added horse genes seemed to also contribute a bit to your already existing features. Your hips became larger and your genitals grew to the size of a ''very'' impressive stallion. You could be taken off life support and move about again freely- except now your genitals were a bit on the obscene size. In hindsight you definitely should have left it alone at this point- you were in no danger and lots of test subjects on the island have crazy proportions and get along just fine. You told them to use a dosage of female genetics, specifically genital centric so it did not affect the rest of you. Female genitals are generally the inverted version of male genitals- so you assumed becoming more female would shrink the male aspect. RHE had not tested such a thing before so they had no grounds on which to argue, so they did as they were told by their Overseer. Your transformation went in a completely different direction than //anyone's// theories projected. Your male genitalia did not shrink in the slightest- it got even bigger! ''A LOT BIGGER''. Your shaft is currently as thick as a fire hydrant and as long as your entire torso and head together and it is 100% flaccid at the moment. If it actually became erect you could use it as a telephone poll. Your balls grew too, but not quite to the extent as the shaft. Each ball is about the size of a medium beach ball, which… still makes each testicle around //12 pounds//- so they aren't small by any stretch of the imagination. Your testicles contain a sphere that houses several organs inside, each. Each one contains enlarged horse testicles, two ovaries, and a womb, all encapsulated in a taught sphere of muscle to protect them- which outwardly looks like a normal giant-sized nut. At the end of your equine phallus is a full equine vulva! Instead of just a urethral opening your shaft contains a vagina! Your penis even has a ping-pong ball sized clit sticking out of the female opening on its end! Rather than one cancel out the other- they merged into one set of mutant double-genitalia! In your attempt to become more //'normal'// sized, you made yourself so large that now you can't walk properly. You can still walk, just very awkwardly, and not at all fast. In shame, you put yourself in stasis and named Mahogany Primrose the acting Overseer in your stead. You have remained behind the curtains, controlling things remotely when needed. Obviously it was your idea to start the Mark 2 Tincture project in an effort to turn back, and also help the other XV subjects. It was mostly for yourself if you are being honest. There are some XV subjects who cannot be reverted no matter what like Mel and still more who don't want to be reverted even if you could, like Dannis and Lucia. All of the XV subjects are basically fine with their forms except for you, Tolli, and Nancy- and even Nancy has plenty of fun in her current form so it isn't like she is chomping at the bit waiting for the new tincture. If it is created and works as intended you are sure more would be willing to take it- but again; they aren't exactly demanding it be made. Olivia hands you a blanket to swathe yourself in to hide your… //bits//, and rolls up a wheelchair so you can get around without the awkwardness of your genitals flopping around with every step. (text-colour:blue)["Thank you, little sister."] You and Olivia were always as close as can be- since you are siblings. Your father is the late Professor Gratory Wingael- and you? Your true name is ''//Julius Wingael//''; Olivia's elder brother. She took an interest from the research perspective at a young age and surpassed your intellect by a substantial amount. She visited the island much less frequently till she graduated university- then she lived on the island permanently as a researcher. You are far from dumb; you discuss and suggest research approaches with the others but you were never officially a researcher- just couldn't quite cut it. You visited the island quite frequently since you were a child though and became close with Serene at the dawn of RHE. Your charisma made up for any gaps in your academics and made you a prime candidate to lead the team, rather than be a member of it. You owe Serene herself a promise- to help unite the RHE staff and the test subjects, and that is where the emulated island tour comes in. You cannot repair your mutated body yet, but thanks to the drone and ALUA being able to create a simulated reality based on real, live input grants you the ability to explore and get to know the test subjects… ''all'' of the test subjects. Each subject knows at least one RHE staff member- their handler. And most RHE staff know at least one test subject- from having to help them in some way, having a hand in creating their tincture, or administering the test. But no one staff member knows ''all'' of the test subjects, and no test subject knows even a //quarter// of the RHE staff. //But you will//. You are a test subject and the leader of RHE- and under the premise of an outsider touring the island; you will get to know all test subjects. Olivia pat you on the shoulder and started to walk back toward the supply elevator, since your wheelchair cannot ascend the maintenance exit. "C'mon, let's go have dinner in the restaurant. The ''real'' one this time. Not with your silly drone." She paused when you did not immediately follow. You are nervous about showing up anywhere with this body, but you suppose your obscenity is covered by the blanket at least. (text-colour:blue)["Very well, this //one// time."] "How many tours have you simulated already? I would have figured your ''first'' lesson would be on that body of yours not mattering." You huff. (text-colour:blue)["I know what you mean, certainly. It is not quite just the appearance of it all though. Even with my enhanced heart this is a bit too much- if I were to become unexpectedly…"] "Excited." (text-colour:blue)["Yes. If //that// were to happen I would become anemic. Add on the fact that my mobility is greatly hindered."] She leaned on the wall of the elevator as it started to go up. "Aaaand…?" You sigh. (text-colour:blue)["And it was my own stupidity that granted me this form. Had I just accepted my initial changes after my blood pressure stabilization things would be fine."] "So what you are really ashamed of and hiding is ironically your shame itself. Which… really seems //ass backwards// don't you think? Your solution to the problem is literally the problem itself." You just grumble. You know she is right, but that doesn't make things any easier. You have eaten dinner with Olivia on every one of your //'tours'//, but you were only present in spirit. Where you sit was only a drone floating there- the food you eat is part of the simulation and not actually there at all- while Olivia and what she is eating actually is real. The conversations you have together are real, but… it isn't the same as actually being present for your little sister. As you two eat a rather large dinner very slowly over conversation; several other RHE staff pause and come over once they notice the Overseer is actually out of his pod. It is a bit embarrassing, but you also feel sorry for abandoning your duties directly. You are working on the Mk2 Tincture, and your simulation project- so you assure everyone that in spite of the time you have been away; things will be better, //soon//. It has taken too long, but you will accomplish your goals. You even see Hermela who stops to say hello. Hermela is technically the researcher who gave you your tincture- though she can hardly be held accountable for what happened to you, since she was being directly instructed by your specifications. Hermela Tristmagistus is a bit of an eccentric, but an interesting person to speak with. She is an //iterative researcher// as well as a //general applications personnel// – she both creates tinctures and administers them. She lost her right arm below the elbow to an unfortunate alchemical reaction many years ago and when she had it replaced with a prosthetic she went a little all-out. Her right arm branches into three forearms and three hands- so if you count her flesh and blood left hand- she has four hands total. Four hands but only two arms. Other researchers have warned her that it could cause some needless strain on her mental health since the human brain wasn't meant to control three right hands at the same time- but she passed it off. After dinner Olivia brings you up to the roof and the two of you look out over the island and talk for a good lone while. You stay up quite late- since your time limit only exists artificially in the simulation. There have been a few minor hiccups in the simulation- a test subject accidentally almost saying your true identity rather than the proposed one, or ALUA trying to contact you directly in upside-down text. The text is actually right-side-up, but it's a direct feed to your mind. Your eyes actually take in information upside-down and your brain flips it. If you were to bypass that and feed information directly into the brain, the brain would still flip it not knowing that it was already correct- causing it to be upside-down. Mouse is the head engineer and the 'mother' of ALUA, so she has been a tremendous help designing the drone that replaces your physical presence and guiding ALUA in her reconstruction of the island in digital form. This also helps and is an extension from the emulation that Tolli lives within. A false reality built from live feeds from the real world. Once the sky starts to lighten from an impending dawn, you can see Olivia is barely awake. She says nothing of it because she wants to be with you as long as possible, but you wouldn't be a very good brother if you let her get sick staying outside for too long on too little sleep. You escort her to bed and then wheel yourself back down into the XV Bunker. You stand up from the chair and lay back into your pod again, instructing ALUA to re-launch the drone and place your body back into stasis. You have work to do. More tours to be experienced. //A future to build//. (set: $Canon to true)(t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You are thinking of how your day went while lying in bed when there is a knock on the door. You sit up on the edge of the bed, but wait till the second knock before you actually make a move to answer it- thinking it may have been someone else's door. You answer the door and are surprised to see Soma standing there, glancing around rather nervously! "Ooh, I hope I don't wake up any of the staff. Hey outsider! Since you keep coming back to the island for more- we figured you wouldn't mind staying up a bit later." We? "Yah! A bunch of the girls are having a //marshmallow roast// out in the fields since the weather is real calm tonight. If you want, we can just leave Olivia a note to go get you in the morning and you can sleep out with us!" Well it sounds nice, and you wouldn't turn down more time to spend among the test subjects. You follow Soma out of the building- she has a bit of trouble getting through the office without making a bunch of noise. The lights in the offices are off so the only light is from the hallways which always have the lights on regardless of what time it is. It is not till you get outside and see Soma's radiant feathers rustling in the wind that you realize the reason they sent Soma to fetch you is because she can fly you there the fastest. You are still not big on the idea of flying. At least, not while holding yourself up by your grip on her legs. She can be as confident as she wants about her ability to fly, but if you accidentally let go of her legs- you're going to fall regardless. Soma again assures you, you will be fine. You really hang on for dear life when she dives straight off the edge of the plateau beside the slope! She only fully extends her wings and evens her flight path out just in time that your feet don't start colliding with tree branches, as you skirt across the top of the north-west forest! Soma speaks up as you both glide on the cool night air over the valley homes. "So, how many times have you managed to get //'just one day'// on RHEI now?" You laugh and tell her at least four. Olivia always tells you she has no idea if she can get you back on RHEI but ultimately pulls it off anyway. You feel like the uncertainty is a good thing- if you never know whether you can ever return here, it gives your current visit a sense of urgency that helps drive you to get the most out of each visit. "Ah- there is the others." Soma started to turn east. From the air you can see Qo, Lilac, Kalha, Beau, and Nebela all gathered into a grassy field east of the homes but west of the eastern woods. They have a rather large fire pit set up. When Soma mentioned they plan to stay the night out; you imagined tents and sleeping bags. You suppose RHEI is so warm normally that no one really needs shelter, especially if there is a fire nearby. Soma drops you down, but you are not as good at stopping your momentum as she is, and stumble a few steps forward which puts you dangerously close to the fire. Nebela puts out one of her huge paw-hands and stops you from face-planting the fire pit. You thank her for the save. "No problem. We really need to get some sort of ankle harness for Soma so she can fly people around a bit safer." Nebela's hair is quite impressive- the last time you seen her it was wet so its shape was pulled straighter by its weight. It is snow white, which already makes it stand out, but also it forms into massive ringlets- each series of curls is so large you could fit the cardboard roll from a paper towel roll into it. Because the fur on her large paws is also white; it takes you a moment to see she is offering you a marshmallow as you sit down- the marshmallow is the same color as the hand offering it. Kalha hands an extra stick for you to use to cook it over the fire. Beau is murdering an entire bag of marshmallows on her own- she is eating them raw while she waits for the ones on her stick to cook! You ask where they got all the wood for the fire and such. Do the forests on the island really grow fast enough to give them a steady supply of lumber? Qo chuckled. "RHE has Geomancers who could rapidly grow a section of forest if anyone needed to. A section burned down a few years back because of a lightning strike that was regrown only a day later thanks to them. But, all this junk wood we use for burning came about thanks to Ambrosia. She is mostly alraune so she is constantly causing overgrowth wherever she goes." Hmm, well that is a little weird. That means the wood your burning to cook food with is technically part of a test subject's body. Soma sits in the spot she occupied before retrieving you, so she is on the opposite side of the fire. Because the light of the flame causes your eyes to adjust to light- she is almost entirely invisible to you against the darkness of night. You can only see her because of how reflective her metallic colored feathers are- you can see the glint of her vibrant colors in the dark. You are sat between Nebela who you are sharing a marshmallow bag with, and Lilac who as per usual is rather quiet. Lilac's legs are crossed and her hands are on the ground between them- hiding her mismatched genitals on reflex alone. Qo teases Lilac, placing a marshmallow on the end of her single long horn. Lilac fakes a pout but is smiling and lets out a musical giggle as she pulls it off her horn again. She has to be careful when holding the stick to the fire, because the long fetlock hair on her wrists could catch a spark from the fire. When everyone had their fill of sweets they let the fire die down a ways so you can all look up at the stars. It looks like someone spilled glitter dust on a black canvas- there is so many stars visible that you cannot find a single blank area in the sky. It is hard to believe this is the same sky you look up to back home. You ask the others what they all think the most beautiful sight is on the island. Not including the starry sky- obviously. Everyone looked deep in thought almost immediately but Soma was the first to answer. "Oh, this is easy for me because I am one of the only people who can even get there in the first place!" She looked up at the sky and squinted, trying to search the darkness. You see the shimmering feathers on her wing as she points north-west. "''That'' mountain peak behind the main complex. There is a super thin trail around the summit. There is a sort-of tent set up in a crevice in the rocks with a small table and some mats, but you have to bring your own blanket because we tried leaving some up there before and they just //froze// stiff. There is some test subjects I can't ferry up there at all because the oxygen is really thin that high up- it also makes it ''really'' hard to fly that high. It is always snowy up there but you can see (text-style:"shudder")[soooo] far across the ocean from up there- it is absolutely perfect for watching the dawn. When the sun starts to crest over the ocean the water looks like it is on fire!" You can only see the mountain she is pointing at as a void of stars- it is too dark to actually see the mountain //itself//. Lilac hummed. "I mean, I have to say the meadow in the south. It is surrounded by the woods, the Great Plateau looms over it, and the flowers~ so, so many flowers of different shapes and sizes and colors! Butterflies and bees, even colorful little spiders and their intricate webs. Tiny song birds are always flittering around. The meadow itself is open and the air smells wonderful, but the forest and plateau isolate the area- so if you are a bit agoraphobic, it is still a nice place to be." Having been there yourself, you have to agree- the meadow is definitely a gorgeous sight. Though you also imagine the place to be a //nightmare// to anyone allergic to pollen. Qo shook her head. "No one on the island has allergies. One of the initial baseline elements to all tinctures is an immune system re-write. If test subjects had different immune system reactions it would cause unpredictable results from the tinctures in every person. So one of the mandatory changes is that everyone has to have a synced up immune system." Nebela nodded. "Yea- remember my tincture goofed up because of a rare bloodline trait. Sometimes seemingly minor differences in how a body reacts can cause the tincture to be accepted differently- which then alters the result." Beau was flopping the top two teats on her udder up and down in idle thought. "Do we have to each choose a different location? C'est difficile." Well, preferably. Come on- a gorgeous island like RHEI has a //hundred// great sights to see and she can't think of //one//? "W-well they are not all made equal, mon ami." Qo laughed. "Well, how about what sight you personally like more, rather than one that is objectively //'better'// than others." "Mmm, well this is quite a different direction than the places you guys have mentioned but... //Lace's house//." The home of a test subject, as her favorite sight? Beau nods and explains that Lace's home is underground- and only looks like a small shed from the surface. She controls the island's brewery though, and had her living room and kitchen area made into a lounge and bar for anyone also looking for a place to take a seat while they drink. Her house is all wooden interior so the lighting and feel of her home is very warm, and it has a sort of log-cabin smell to it. Beau explains it as making her feel nostalgic for something she doesn't actually remember experiencing. It is a very comforting, and welcoming environment, so she really appreciates Lace having done that to her home. Beau does not drink often, but she will always bring a friend or two and hang out in Lace's house when she does drink. Qo looked at you and smiled. "You already know my favorite spot- the arcade. I know... not exactly a good pick for a //'view'// but, don't you kind of love how retro it all looks? Sort of like Beau with Lace's house- the lighting there is soft while the light from the machines is bright. The walls and carpet look like they were revived from the 70s. You also have all the cluttered sounds of the many different games playing in tandem... I dunno, it just really feels comfortable in there. My hooves don't even click in there because the carpeting is so plush. You also see RHE staff playing there, which is cool, y'know? Test subjects have this natural paradise in the valley, RHE staff generally live in the sterile complex building- but the arcade is one of the few places where the two //overlap//. I occasionally see some XV subjects in the arcade- there is a passage that connects the bunker to the main complex directly, so it isn't too far for the Extreme Variants to wander out to. So, it is a great place to meet people too. I guess it is more //'beautiful'// for its feel and purpose, than its actual appearance." She chuckles. "//Beauty is more than skin deep//, after all." Everyone nodded, and there was a moment of silence before everyone's eyes slowly migrated to Nebela. "O-oh, my turn. Uhm... well, if test subject homes are on the table- Laurane and Lorelei's home's on the isle of Little Light. Particularly Lorelei's place, but they are both really cool. I slept there one night and it was so beautiful at night, I slept so well." She was lost in thought for a moment before snapping out of it. "Lorelei has a //moon pool// in her bedroom- it is the only way into her house so you can't get in without getting wet. But the sound of the water gently lapping at the edges is (text-style:"sway")[sooo] perfect to go to sleep by. And as the name would imply- the water of the pool reflects the moonlight on nights when the water is calm, causing it to glow blue-grey. Little Light is so remote you do not even have the path lanterns or lights from other homes out there- the moonlight shimmering off the waves is the only light in the dark. The only downsides are you basically cannot get there without getting wet, and the wind is downright chilly. Little Light is always //several degrees// cooler than RHEI." Qo hummed. "You could actually get to Little Light by the boat on the west shore- Captain Gaorath can sail you there without getting wet. You still wouldn't be able to get inside of Lorelei's house without getting wet though- since the moon pool is the only way in. You can climb up the abandoned lighthouse though- which is another ''fantastic'' viewpoint." Beau quickly spoke up. "''Oh!'' And the deck of The Ark! The Grotto is a pretty location on its own, but you can get Captain Gaorath to take The Ark out to sea a ways if you want to feel like you are on a luxury cruise ship, or do some fishing. The ship itself is bigger than the entire valley town though, so you have to be careful you do not get lost. It is a very, très grand ship." Nebela nodded slowly in thought. "Yea, the springs in The Grotto are nice. Everyone goes there to relax in the fresh, hot water; but it is pretty there too. The tall, sheer cliffs that encapsulate the area always sort of shimmer with the reflection of the light off the water surface. And the springs themselves are rainbow-colored, because of all the different minerals that get spewed up in the water." Now everyone's gaze drifted to Kalha. She was enjoying just listening to the conversation and was taking the braids out of her hair so it took her several moments to realize everyone was looking at her and blush. "''Oh!'' //Sorry//. My favorite place is also the first spot anyone will see when looking at the valley- the market. You have the colorful paths and murals from all the spray paint artists, the colorful banner cloths crisscrossing overhead, and best of all; all the //people//! Everyone likes to meet up in the north end, so it is ''always'' crowded during the day! All the hustle and bustle- friends meeting up, people doing trade in the stands. I love all the life the area is filled with all the time!" Qo chimed in. "It is funny- the north pool is probably one of the lesser used pools on RHEI. Everyone gathers to it and around it for BBQs, parties, just a general meeting place; but because they gather //around// it with something else in mind- no one actually gets ''IN'' the pool." Nebela nodded. "I think Amber is the only person I ever see in the north pool regularly. I personally always use the west pool, because it is enclosed and beautiful when the cherry blossoms bloom." Beau spoke up now as well. "And the southern pool is the largest, so it is used for all the summer games events. Though... I don't think it is very popular outside of that? Ai-je tort?" Kalha nodded. "The central pool is the most popular for just splashing around. The ground in that area is totally flat, and it is sort of between two half-circles of buildings so it is both close to a lot of buildings, but also sort of off on its own. In the //middle// of everything but not attached directly ''to'' anything." Once everyone started yawning, everyone quieted down and just enjoyed the sounds of the night. Frogs in the eastern woods, crickets in the plains. Even as the fire died down, the embers of the fire pit still crackled softly. If you listen carefully you can hear the high pitched chirps of bats in the darkness, hunting bugs. They stopped putting any wood on the fire and just let burn itself down. The ground sloped upward very gradually toward the east where the forest starts, so everyone grouped up on that side of the fire to rest relatively close together. You can tell they have gotten together before for such events because everyone but you seemed to be able to wordlessly organize themselves in their placements to sleep. Qo having an absolutely behemoth collection of boobs gently grabbed Lilac and pulled the tiny woman in toward her. It almost looked like Lilac might get// absorbed// into her cleavage, and then Qo flopped back still holding onto Lilac, making the little woman giggle as she was pulled back to plop down on Qo's many mammaries. Qo acted as a pillow for Lilac! You also notice the sheath between her legs becoming plump and round; an //almost-erection//. Nebela waited for Beau to lay back and then the bovine pat her large squishy udder to welcome her in. Nebela rest between Beau's legs and used her udder as a pillow, but then made grabby-hands toward you. You sit by Nebela and she wraps her large paw-hands around your shoulders and crosses them over your chest, holding you close to her. Nebela's huge mono-breast fits its curve against the back of your neck and underside of your head perfectly, and the powder-soft fur of her arms keeps you quite warm even after the fire is reduced to glowing embers. Kalha snuggles up with Soma who flops down between everyone- spreading her wings and tail feathers out to create a blanket of feathers for everyone. Everyone slowly falls asleep while looking up at the starry sky. When you wake up, the sky is still fairly dark. The light of dawn is just a glow on the eastern horizon and since you were up so late- you are extremely tired still. The grass is cold and slightly moist everywhere that isn't touching the heap of bodies, which further makes it difficult to will yourself awake. You realize it is Kalha gently rocking you awake, and she motioned for you to be careful and quiet. You were sleeping on top of Nebela who in turn was sleeping on Beau- both of whom are still asleep. Kalha woke up faster than you did when Olivia softly called to you, so she helped you wake up without alerting the others. She tossed a few new sticks on the embers of last night's fire and got a few flames going again. She took out a tiny cast-iron pan and held it over the fire, cracking some eggs into it. Olivia sat down close to you as you shift your seat over to the fire and she offers you a thermos of coffee to help wake up- freshly //yoinked// from the office. You comment that you are surprised your neck doesn't hurt from sleeping like that. Olivia laughed softly. "Boobs are surprisingly good for pillows because they conform when you press in on them, but are springy enough that they still fully support. Plus the curve is almost the same as the crook between neck and head- like a neck pillow you'd use to take a nap in a vehicle." Kalha pat the side of her own cluster of four breasts. "Mine are a bit ''too'' springy- same with Soma. Curve is too steep to use as a pillow." She hummed in thought a moment, feeling her hand around the outside curve of her breasts. "Hmm, think I need a //milking// soon." Olivia nudges you with her elbow, but you don't know what she is trying to say, till Kalha speaks up again. "You like a little //cream// in your coffee?" Your face heats up as you blush, thinking she must be just teasing you, but then both women are looking at you expectantly. Kalha glanced over the others to make sure everyone else is still sleeping and shuffles closer to you without fully standing up. Her nipples are all standing in attention thanks to the cool morning air. Since they are charcoal grey in color they stand out quite a bit from the rest of her flesh, and are almost long enough to be classified as teats rather than nipples. Kalha can see you are struggling with embarrassment and takes you gently by the shoulders, pulling you closer till the rubbery nipple bumps your lips and you suckle onto it. You press your lips into the soft flesh of her areola and suck- getting rewarded right away with a flow of warm, thin but creamy milk. Neither donkey nor deer milk is especially far off from human- though it is a bit less sweet. Kalha's ears lower so they stick straight out from the sides of her head and she closes her eyes and hums softly in pleasure. Olivia tends to the eggs to make sure they do not burn while Kalha is distracted breast feeding you. After a short while you mostly empty one of her four breasts and your eggs are ready to eat. Olivia puts a hand over her brow to try and protect her eyes from the slowly rising sun as she looks back to the main complex. "I think I see people on the tower. They might be starting to load the helicopter now." She takes out her onyx slate. "I better call us a shuttle so we can make sure to be back in time." Qo spoke up startling you three. "I could empty some of your //other// boobs, if you want." Kalha turned to her, her face turning red immediately. "(text-style:"rumble")[H-]how long have you been awake?!" Qo smiled- her eyes only now actually opening. "Long enough." She manages to squirm out from under Lilac without waking her and skitters over to the fire to be beside Kalha. The shuttle back to the main complex arrives for you and Olivia a few minutes later and you say goodbye to everyone, wrapping up yet another trip to RHEI. Every time you visit and think you had as much fun as you could have- the next trip somehow manages to top it. (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You have a bit of trouble sleeping at night because you cannot seem to shut off your brain. You keep thinking about the events of the day, and wondering if you can return to the island again. You have visited several times now but every visit can potentially be your last, so you cannot count on //'next time'//. Since you have visited multiple times now your body is more used to enduring such active days, so you are not as tired or sore from all the walking as you were the first time you came to RHEI. After a bit you decide to go to the bathroom again and pause in the middle of the hall, looking back toward the office you freeze up at an unusual sight! Kiri and Luan are standing in the dark office, right by the opening into the overpass and Mint is sitting on their shoulders in the crook between their forked neck! Before you can question why they are all there- Pepper dashes up to you and is already beside you before you realize. "Heya! Did we wake you up? Sorry..." No you were already awake. But why is everyone here in the middle of the night? "Faith told us to come to the main complex because she wanted to show you somethin'. But Faith herself isn't here yet." You walk quietly as you can to the others and since you are with them now; everyone heads down to the arcade on the main floor. With the sound of the arcade cabinets around you- you feel safer to make more noise without disturbing anyone. Apparently Faith enjoyed showing off to you before, and wanted to hijack a mega-mix of traits to see just how wild of a form she could become. The twins are redundant but you can't get one without the other- they do not travel alone. Luan and Kiri pose an interesting question though... what happens when Faith mimics their genes? Will she just be a draconid, or will she gain an additional head? Because they are two different people, but they only have one body. While you are all waiting, Kiri starts playing some of the arcade cabinets. The joysticks are long enough that she doesn't have to worry about accidentally scratching up the console. Luan is apparently //terrible// at games, but enjoys watching others play- so he gives full control of the body to Kiri. Mint and Pepper chase each other around the arcade, hiding and dashing between machines before settling down at a ping-pong table and challenging each other. As expected from identical twins- neither scores on the other. They manage to swat the ball continuously without error. You wander around looking at the various games available till you spot Maple slowly making her way down the stairs from the second floor. She is wearing a lab coat again, but it is just loosely draped on her- her arms aren't even in the sleeves. Her hair looks mussed up and she is yawning pretty heavily. She sleepily lifted her onyx slate. "Faith...(text-style:"buoy")[//*yawn*//]... wanted to do a test for you?" You tell Maple that she hasn't arrived yet. "//Mmm.//" Maple shuffled her way to the bar counter and just rest her chin on it, sitting on one of the stools. You ask her why she came from upstairs. She lives the valley, but she was in the main complex in the middle of the night? "Sleepover. I was hanging out with Juniper- my old understudy- and just decided to sleep over at her apartment. To be able to contact RHE if they need help- all test subjects can contact RHE researchers using their onyx slate. It is usually to contact your //handler// but... I suppose this is another use for it." After a while the twins burned themselves out playing ping-pong without either ever scoring a point. Giving up on that they decided to use a game of their own to test their skills. They locked the tips of their long tails together and both yanked away from one another, trying to walk away. It is like a strange version of an arm wrestling match. Finally everyone looked over as Faith dashed in through the front doors, actually wearing her default form for once. "(text-style:"rumble")[Muahaha-] I got Aloe's DNA. Oh... Laurane isn't here yet?" Luan turned to look at her while Kiri's eyes remained forward playing the game. "She is part //snail//, so if you thought she would get here quickly- you're wrong." Faith sighed, crossing her arms. "Well yea, but I invited her first- it's already been a while." Pepper skittered up onto her sister's shoulders and pointed to the front doors. "No, she ''is'' here!" Lauran was walking with a forward lean so the bottom rim of her shell would not drag on the pavement. The bottom of the shell is the thinnest, and easiest to break- though it also lacks any nerve endings so it wouldn't actually hurt her, and regenerate slowly. The closer you get to the peak of the shell where it fuses with her tail, the more nerves it contains and the thicker the calcium walls are. She pauses at the front doors- only just then realizing that it is physically impossible for her to actually enter the building. She can get her body in easily- but her shell is at least five times too large to get through the door. Since everyone Faith invited was here already, everyone shuffled out the front door into the lot. Even at night, the paved lot immediately around the building is still well-lit- though quick moving shadows dart around thanks to the moths that flock to the light. The coolness of the night air is refreshing, and you breathe deep. You look sympathetically to Laurane and say that she must have had a hell of a walk. She is not fast on land, and she had to walk through the entire western plains and up the slope to get here. She also would have had to have crossed the sea to get from Little Light to the main island, but you suppose she is a lot faster in water. She laughed and held up her onyx slate. "I called a shuttle once I was on the shore- if I actually walked the entire way, I probably wouldn't have gotten here till ''tomorrow'' night." Wait... how did she ride a shuttle? There is no way her shell would fit. "I get in on the left side, and then sit in the right side seat while my shell is pushed against the left side of the vehicle. If I sit on the left near my shell the vehicle becomes lop-sided and can flip over. They have to drive real careful with me, since my shell can catch on things while it's jutting out the side." She plopped her giant shell onto the ground on its side and then climbed up and sat cross-legged in the opening. Pepper and Mint were quick to race each other trying to see who can scramble to the top of the shell first- using the rounded spikes as handholds. Maple sat on the edge of one of the hedges along the outside wall, and Kiri and Luan went down onto all fours. Faith giggled looking everyone over. "Okay, I have gathered you all here so we can show our guest just how wild things can get on the island, and also for a bit of an experiment. Maple is a good baseline- plain ol' cow. Then I have already copied the genome from Aloe for bee DNA. Snail from Lorane, mouse from the twins, hydra from Kiri and Luan. Even I have no idea how this will turn out- (text-style:"shudder")[so let's find out!]" She held her hand up to Maple who gave her a lazy high-five. Faith's hand became a translucent pink and wobbled a bit on the impact before pulling back together- her cells divided when they touched so she could more easily copy the genes. She then walked up to Laurane and placed a hand on the lip of the shell, copying her genes while getting a high-five from both of the twins. Even Faith did not know how accepting Kiri and Luan would work, so she placed either hand on either of their heads to make sure if there was any major difference in sides- she would get both. Faith concentrated a moment, her thoughts momentarily becoming a jumble as she visualized everyone she recently touched to try and convince her body that was her own shape. She stuck her butt out a bit suddenly and turned to the side so you could see as well. Her tail bone looked like it was going to extend- her flesh turning slightly translucent pink and shiny. Rather than grow out though, it seemed to just bulge and deform like something was keeping it from extending. Faith blushed and almost fell forward when there is a loud //*thunk*// sound and the muscle basin that is her pelvic floor completely dislodged from her hips! The muscle let go of the pelvis entirely and her entire lower torso extended out as a gigantic tail- dragging her vulva and anus out along with it. This change is similar to what Aloe had gone through to get her insect abdomen. The faster and more extreme the changes are, the more like a translucent pink gel her body looked, slowly condensing back whenever the changes slowed or stopped. The forming tail was oddly shaped due to it stealing away her anus and vulva- the end was a downward curled bulb to house her two holes. Faith moaned and tensed her tail up a moment. The end of her tail started to sweat grey-white liquid which turned a dull yellow as it almost immediately solidified on contact with the open air, and then more dripped from her, extending the hardened formations! Watching the giant shell form was almost like watching a candle melting in reverse. The downward side of the bulb on her tail remained exposed on the underside of the shell at around its mid-point, so her holes were still exposed on the outside. This means unlike Laurane, the tail does not link to the point of the shell. Faith's snail shell is almost identical to hers in shape, though the end is a bit longer and comes to a sharper point. Then the spikes around the shell started to darken and extend out- the ends becoming actually dangerously sharp, because they had adopted aspects from a bee stinger! The black spikes on a yellow shell also mimic the coloration of bee's black and yellow stripes. Faith hunched forward, placing her hands on her knees to keep herself from falling to the ground entirely and moaned loudly as a visible surge of growth travelled down her back! With a sound similar to bubbles in a water cooler, a bulge surged down her tail from her body, causing all the muscles to tense on their own. A moment after the burst of growth vanished into the length hidden inside the shell, the entire tail started to bulge rapidly! It looks like it is inflating like a balloon! It swells so massive that it completely takes up all of the space inside of the gigantic shell! It is basically like a giant insect abdomen, trapped inside of a snail shell! It is clear that Faith is struggling to keep the tail upright already, but then is hit with a wave of weakness and the shell immediately drops to the ground- which unfortunately because of its position, causes her genitals to get squished under its weight. The wave of dizziness and weakness is accompanied by the shock of the shell hitting the ground and her being yanked completely off the ground! The girth of the shell on its side exceeded the reach of her legs, so when it flopped over she was yanked up by her own rump! Faith has shrank- but the shell and bug butt remained the same gigantic size, making her even more ludicrously disproportionate! She is literally hanging by her butt! The mouse genes caused her size reduction! Not everything shrank proportionately however. In addition to her butt and shell; her ears and two front teeth remained the same size they had been as well, which means they now look too big on her. Her ears twitch several times as muscles gather into the base, pulling them tight at the base but granting them the mobility to pivot, raise, or lower. The tips became more pointed and their overall size increased even more- taking traits from Maple's cow aspect and overlapping it with mouse. Faith's long front teeth started to get even longer, but also became more round in the base and sharp at the tip! Rather than the chopping teeth of a rodent- they turned to long fangs, taking traits from the hydra! The muscles in her back bulged and squirmed on their own again, but this time the sensation travelled up instead of down! Faith let out a few breathless moans and grunts as the sensations continued to bombard her. You can always tell where a change starts by what area of her body turns shiny and pink. Her back let out a few muffled pops which increased in speed as her neck stretched away from her shoulders- the veins bulging obscenely in it, trying to keep up. Her fingers twitched as subdued pads of fat formed on the insides and her nails became narrow but much, Much thicker and extend into large claws- not quite as hooked as the hydra. Her dangling legs made muffled snaps and crunching sounds as the bones rapidly shifted and her lower legs turned so far to translucent pink that they looked completely liquid for a moment. Her feet devolved into a pair of cloven hooves- though the hoof segments were oddly sharp-pointed. The skin of her legs up to her butt stiffened and became thick, and segmented. Toward the hooves this layer of chitin is charcoal grey like the hooves themselves, but then fades to her regular skin color before transitioning back to the actual skin. With almost three feet worth of neck alone, Faith was sure her spine would settle down, but when her neck refused to accept the new vertebrae the rest of her body took it instead, and the rapid-fire, hollow pops continued! Her midriff became longer and then her ''actual'' tail bone extended, giving her a normal tail above the abdomen her alternate //'tail'// turned into. It still adopted snail traits, forming a shell but it came in small bursts as the tail was still growing, and squirming around became of the uneven muscle advancement inside. This caused the snail shell on her normal tail to grow in segments, forming curved square plates on the back of the tail rather than encasing the entire thing. The plates still had subdued, rounded spikes on them. The tail finished growing almost as long as the first, but not even remotely in the same league as its overall mass. It writhed around wildly on top of the giant shell below it. Faith made a sound that was almost a laugh in glee- though she was so out of breathe from the strain of the changes. She smiled and grabbed her breasts when she felt her chest muscles contracting. Her smile became distorted itself though- because at the same time the cartilage in the bridge of her nose popped loudly and her entire skull started to enlarge and stretch forward! Two neon pink nubs formed on her chest below her breasts and the flesh below fattened up, blossoming into a new pair of boobs. Her existing breasts started to grow, turning slightly translucent and inflating so quickly they produced a sound like fingers rubbing slowly across the surface of a fully inflated balloon. Faith winced as her nipples started to pinch. She grabbed the top of her breasts and pulled back on the skin and with a quick, soft sucking sound, her nipples split in half! Her areola started to fade away- the pink coloration of them bleeding into the rest of the skin, turning her entire breasts a soft pink. Her top breasts ballooned out massively; their translucency did not fade till they looked like mid-sized beach balls- and were also unusually round like a ball. The breasts below that swelled fat and round, stopping at G cups. The top pair have two nipples while the bottoms only have one. The twins, Maple, and Aloe all have cow traits- so they all sort of blended together here. Laurane's genes helped rein the mammaries in- since her breasts are entirely ornamental remnants; they do not actually function as breasts. Faith squealed at the feeling of blood pressure surging into her six nipples and quickly yanked on them hard and twisted them in her fingers- the blood pressure made them feel itchy. They quickly engorged, bloating up fat and quite long, making them too large to be considered nipples anymore- she has six teats now. Faith made a gagging sound and her throat popped several times in rapid-fire, thickening suddenly. Her face strained further forward as the bridge of her nose equalized with her growing muzzle, making it indistinguishable from the rest of her face. Her nostrils flared large and her nose became moist as the skin leading down to and on her lips turned bright pink- giving her the cute boxy nose of a cow. Her jaw was suddenly yanked downward as the hinge changed where it socketed to the rest of the skull, then it felt like it yanked back up- but a pocket was created between top and bottom. Faith was terribly confused as to what happened, because she is unable to see it herself. You and the others however can see that the expansion of her neck in girth is because she developed a second throat under the existing one! Her jaw split in half- she now has two mouths stacked on top of one another! She has the upper jaw which is part of the rest of the skull, but then a straight jaw that has sharp fangs on both the top and bottom rim divided by a muscular basin, and then a normal bottom jaw below that! So she has a double-sided //middle jaw//! This also means she has two tongues- each fused to the esophagus of a different throat. The tongue is long like the hydra but also very thick thanks to cow traits. Her lower canine teeth on the very bottom jaw became absolutely massive- growing into large tusks as if to try and match the two saber-teeth at the very front of the top jaw. Faith let out a sound that was half a groan and half a whimper as the sides of her skull bulged and two horns emerged from the middle of the bulges. As they grew out, they became thicker and thicker at the base. The bovines and the hydra both have horns, so Faith's was doubling down! They grew at a backward angle off her head, but very gradually turn upward, forming gigantic arks forward, stopping when they curve slightly back toward the ground. Every few inches there is a seam on the horn where a new layer formed, and each segment has a small bump on it- but these get longer toward the middle of the horns where they extend out into almost tiny horns of their own. The extremely thick base of her horns is hollow- otherwise she would not even be able to lift her head. The only thing on Faith that did not change is her eye color and her hair. Her hair got slightly longer but remains the same color and shape. Her iris remain the same color, but her pupils narrowed into fat slits. She flails her limbs a moment, trying to get onto the actual ground. It takes Faith a few tries to finally rock the giant mass of a butt so her tiny hooves can click down onto the pavement. She still cannot get her butt off the ground, but she stands it up wedging the lower rim against the ground just behind her. Her breasts are so huge and round compared to her reduced body size that even fully standing on her legs her breasts eclipse most of her torso. "(text-style:"rumble")[W]-well. ''Tadah!'' Now whee knhow whaut all theesh formths look lhike togesther." She had a hard time speaking with two mouths- the movement of one partially interrupts the other. Maple was the first to stand and head back into the building. "Well... I am heading back to bed. And probably having //nightmares// now." Laurane cocked an eyebrow. "How does it... feel?" "Ghood. Quite ghood. Rheely... heavy though. I don'th th-hink I can move ahround at all." You slowly walk around her, looking at her mutated body from several angles. You ask Faith how her growth works. Her body became smaller, but that still does not account for how much larger she got overall- especially with the tails and shell. Her body's neutral DNA allows her to imitate traits from anyone she touches, but how does her actual mass change without the use of magic? "Ick doethent. Same mass- more shpread out." She told you to push in on her shell and you do. At first it feels hard like you would expect, but then your hand sucks into it! Your hand is ''inside'' of her! It is only hard on the surface, where it is imitating the shape of a shell. If you manage to push through that outer layer, her insides are ''extremely'' soft because her mass is spread so thin! When she takes on a form smaller than her own, her body removes some of the empty space within the individual atoms of her molecular structure, causing her to become much more solid and small. When she grows however, her form becomes spread out and softer. If she were to steal the shape of Tria the colossus for example- she would be so spread out that she would be pink and translucent still even after finishing the transformation, because her body would not have enough mass left to compress into the correct coloration or texture. It would be a giant jelly version of Tria. You are able to pull your hand out easily, and the hole you made collapses so quickly you do not even see it. Her inner mass is so thin you could not even feel it until you move your hand and can feel it softly flowing around your fingers. Once you are done your examination of her; Faith's entire body turns pink and collapses in on itself as if having turned to pure liquid, but when it splashes up in the middle it continues to rise and compress into the shape of a woman and she resumes her default form. Her biomass even takes the shape of an outfit as the coloration fades in. You would never know she was actually still naked. "Well, thanks everyone for humoring me and the outsider. Sorry it had to be so late, but he is only here for so long and this was the only time of day when I knew I could find him." Kiri and Luan nodded, preparing to leave, but paused to convince the twins to go to sleep- they wanted to remain out and playing. Kiri caught them as they jumped down from the top of Laurane's huge shell and the hydra helped escort the twins most of the way home. Laurane said she was too sleepy and simply stood her shell up and went to sleep right there beside the front doors! Her shell protected her from the outside world, so it was basically a mobile home- so she could really just go to sleep //anywhere//. It was smarter than trying to swim back home in the darkness of night while she is sleepy. The shuttles could take her to the beach, but not all the way to Little Light. Faith said her goodbyes to you and returned to her own home. As she left, she isolated Laurane's traits to gain the tail shell back, then drew herself into the shell and knocked it over from the inside! She rolled down the length of the slope into the valley sideways inside of her shell! Then once at the bottom she turned back to normal again to walk the rest of the way. It must have been frightening as hell when she initially transformed, because she came so close to being reduced to nothing but a pool of biological goo. But it certainly is a convenient form now. If she somehow managed to get close enough to tag a bird she could even turn into a feral animal and nab its ability to fly. You yawn and shuffle your way back into the building to return to bed. You are too afraid to actually look at a clock and see how late it now is, but know you will have absolutely no trouble going to sleep this time. You are still sort of processing what you have seen this night, but you will have to think more on it tomorrow on the flight back- now is the time for sleep. (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

Before going to sleep, you start to wonder more about ALUA. Even when you are alone in the simulation- ALUA is still watching. She is the core of the simulation itself- the conductor of this orchestration. (text-colour:blue)["Should I include you among my unification efforts, Alua?"] (text-style:"upside-down")[That is not my decision to make.] (text-colour:blue)["You know it is super hard to read that... we should talk in person."] (text-style:"upside-down")[Please standby. ''(text-style:"fade-in-out")[(text-colour:red)[ERROR]]'' – Simulation Aborted] Your room seems to become a jumbled mess of colored blocks flickering around you before your perception is distorted and you wake up in your chronostasis pod! Chief Engineer Endraja opens the door to your pod- having retrieved the password from Alua. She holds a blanket for you to cover yourself with and leans on the wheelchair you use whenever you wake. "You order a tour of my girl Alua?" You chuckle. (text-colour:blue)["I suppose that is one way of putting it."] You wrap yourself and plop down heavily in the chair with a sigh. (text-colour:blue)["Network Administrator and Chief Engineer... at such a young age."] Endraja raised an eyebrow behind her thick glasses. "I am 24." (text-colour:blue)["That is quite young considering your achievements."] "New blood is typically the best with new tech." She starts pushing you toward the supply elevator, since you cannot go up the maintenance path with a wheelchair. Her glasses almost look too big for her face, and so thick you could probably step directly on them without breaking the lenses. That is what you get for having your face two inches off a computer monitor in an otherwise pitch black room as your go-to environment. In addition to that though, she has a pair of goggles up on her forehead and another hanging loose around her neck! One set of goggles is infrared, the other is ultraviolet. If you look around the office and arcade especially using the ultraviolet goggles you will see notes and math equations scribbled all over the place- Endraja's notes to herself; since you cannot see them without using special goggles. The infrared goggles are just handy to quickly spot overheating in larger electronic systems at a glance, so you know where to install heat sinks to optimize performance. You speak up again in the awkward silence of the elevator ride. (text-colour:blue)["So, what do you actually proffer to be called, Endraja or Mouse?"] "Mouse. Keep everyone on the same page. I like my real name but whenever anyone reads it they always pronounce it wrong because my parents spelled it weird. So it left a bitter taste in my mouth." (text-colour:blue)["Why Mouse though? Wouldn't a rodent in your line of work be a nightmare? They are known to gnaw on electrical lines..."] She gently bopped her fist on the top of your head. "Mouse as in the peripheral on PCs, not the animal, numbnuts." Ah, the literal guiding hand in electronic environments. Well, that makes more sense. Mouse bizarrely has two sets of earbuds in at the same time- the left from one set and the right from the other. One leads to her cell phone to listen to music while she works and take calls, the other leads to her onyx slate which has been modified to be a remote link to her personal computer deep in the main complex- the office known as the 'rat's nest'. She is wearing pale grey cargo pants far too large for her- a belt of various tools helps hold them up. The bottoms of the legs are frayed from her stepping on the ends when they were too long, slowly shredding them down to a better fit. She is wearing a plain white t shirt, but has written on the front in permanent marker; '`(If: variable 'Sun' = out) [run: 'inside']`'. Behind all the gear though, Mouse is rather pretty. Both her facial features and overall size are petite, making her look even younger than she already is. Her hair is dirty blond and to her shoulders with mid-length bangs in the front- it is usually a bit messy. Her eyes are hazel- easily seen though the heavy magnification of her glasses. She has black polish on her nails but it is chipping at the edges from her using her nails to pry apart metal bits. She has two piercings- both are spike studs; one in her belly button and one in her tongue. A detail you only now notice for the first time though; when she turns to open a door to help you though you see a //barcode// tattooed on the right side of her neck! You wheel yourself forward and she gets behind you again as you approach the stairs at the back of the building. The equipment elevator does not go to the third floor, which unfortunately is where ALUA's core processor is. So Mouse has to very carefully wheel you up a flight of stairs, backwards. (text-colour:blue)["The barcode on your neck... what does it say?"] "32." You furrow your brow. (text-colour:blue)["The barcode just says the number 32? That's it?"] Mouse laughed in her soft, dry voice. "Yea. That is the point- it is needlessly complicated. It is just the number 32, but presented in a format only machines can read typically. Furthermore- 32 in Hexadecimal is actually 00110010 in binary." (text-colour:blue)["(text-style:"sway")[Wwwhich] is...?"] "The number 2. When I was younger I had to make due with Frankenstein'ing old PC parts to upgrade mine. I used to joke that most PCs speak in 1s and 0s- yes or no. But mine had a third option; 2- //'maybe'//. So whenever my PC was screwing up and I needed to restart I would just message the people I was talking to the number 2, and they would know that means things got borked. Converting 2 into binary, then into hex, then into a barcode is the eventual evolution of that joke. It makes things even more needlessly complicated and obscure, which is what the joke is in the first place. So the fact most people don't get it is //exactly the point//." You and Mouse finally arrive at the top floor and head into the central room. Mouse has typed the password in for these doors so many times that she taps it in so quickly you cannot see what she put in even though you were looking directly at the console. There is a huge platform near the middle of the room and many dark metal cylinders sat beside it. "Well; here she is. My little girl, ''Alua''." Mouse explains that Alua exists entirely thanks to TS51's discoveries in the Supercolossus golem. RHE reverse-engineered the methods of copying and combining the will of multiple people to create a single, more whole artificial mind. All golem are powered by a copy of someone's will, and obey them absolutely, but the Supercolossus was the will of an entire kingdom. Trying to copy a more whole imprint of someone's mind, and then layering it with many others you can create a mind that is entirely its own. Alua does not have emotions, but Mouse says that she should be able to //learn to feel// eventually- or at least imitate it to the point where no one knows the difference. Mouse opened one of the cylinders and brought out a dark metal sphere and six small pyramids- three colored green and three red. She placed it all down in the middle of the elevated area and the air around them was filled with electric blue energy for a moment. "Alua- resolution 640-480." The orb started to float, stopping at the same level as Mouse's head. The six pyramids arranged themselves around the edges of the sphere but tucked the colored side down in to hide it. Mouse motioned to it. "This is her original body- very simple because she was //just a lil baby// and still learning... well, //everything//. The red triangles represent //'no'// and the green are //'yes'//. She has three of each so she can show the degree of which she agrees with, or disagrees with something. She cannot speak in this form. Well... physically I mean, she can still talk over the network." Mouse hovered her hand near it, and Alua deactivated the form so she could collect and put the parts back away. Usually onyx, quartz, or obsidian is used as a conductor for mana to power the slates and obelisks for standard PCs, but the parts that make up Alua's body are not any of those, so you ask Mouse what they are made of. "Triiron tetraoxide." (text-colour:blue)["...what?"] She lowered her brows. "Magnetite. As the name implies- it has a high capacity of magnetic induction. That is how it floats. Alua's body doesn't use any mana- it is entirely electrically charged." Mouse hooked and arm around one of the four mechanical beams around the raised platform and then pulled her sleeve up on that arm- all the hairs on her arm are standing up! "Magnetic induction is how she is powered- if you put a standard hard drive or a compass inside of these four pillars, they would get fried." (text-colour:blue)["But her mind is composed of Automancy runes?"] "Her mind isn't in these bodies; it is just projected onto them." She pointed to a huge machine taking up an entire corner of the room, connecting to this platform directly by several thick cables bundled together. "Alua's brain is in //there//. That part runs off magic runes but is still powered by electricity. There is a powerful filter that only dribbles in trace amounts of electricity- which is basically the same as a high concentration of mana. Both electricity and mana are pure energy- just in different densities. Mana is the thinnest concentration of ambient energy that is still detectible and able to interact with the physical world. If it were any less dense it would be intangible." She then opened another cylinder and released a pile of magnetite squares. The electric blue haze filled the air a moment again before the cubes all launched upward and very quickly assembled into a large hand! It made an //'okay'// gesture with its fingers. "And here we have Alua resolution 1080-720. Clunky and pixelated but able to again convey decisions and gestures- this time in a more human manner." The hand re-arranged its shape into a very basic human figure and took a bow. "She started to imitate the form of other objects as well to tell us things directly outside of the network. Like an arrow and a ball to say we are //'on the ball'// or two fingers walking through an arch to ask if someone is //'leaving'//." The blocks reassembled into the word //'yep'//. Mouse chuckled and motioned to it. "Or just literally write the word. The point was to get creative with it though. We knew she could talk because she did it over the network. The point of giving her a physical form is that she could learn to interact with the world and be more... human." Mouse de-activated the parts again, putting them away to get the next cylinder out. (text-colour:blue)["Each iteration is referred to by resolution- like a computer monitor. Each form has more blocks."] "Yup. Once she masters the range of abilities of one shape we give her something more complex. Her first two forms have no face; because she doesn't have emotions and didn't yet understand how regular humans talk, so what is the point in giving her a physical mouth? She would only just speak the words the way they were typed already, so you might as well just leave it as text." Mouse released the contents of this cylinder; ALUA's 4k resolution. This contained dodecahedrons that are only half the size the cubes had been, and in three times the number. They assembled into the figure of a woman- including hair. Because each piece is small enough; they can imitate the bending of a body or the movements of the mouth. ALUA still does not have a high enough resolution to pull off detailed facial features however. "This is my current form. My 8k resolution body is ready for me, but I am not ready for it." Her voice still sounds electronic, but also feminine. Mouse dunked her hand into the last cylinder so you could see the thousands of tiny magnetite spheres rolling back out into the cylinder- each the size of a large bead. With perfectly round beads composing her body in that tremendous amount, she would look almost exactly like a human... except entirely made of metal. Her physical voice is produced by rapidly vibrating shapes rubbing together- which is why it sounds electronic; it's being made with metal parts. (text-colour:blue)["Can you leave the platform, or is this the only place you can manifest in the physical world?"] ALUA casually stepped off onto the floor beside you. "I can leave, but my range is extremely limited. I can wander into the hall immediately outside of this room, but only if the doors are left open. Any further than that, and my body will crumble. My mind however is networked into the entire main complex and its sub-facilities so I have limited control over everything constructed on the main plateau- as well as administrative control over the XV Bunker. I can lock or unlock any door, completely control any PC or slate, and the building across the way is a printing facility where I can custom build any part to specification within the nanometer. I also safeguard all crystallized memories in RHE's possession. As you are aware- I also generate the simulation you have been taking your tours in." (text-colour:blue)["And that is what I really wanted to know more on. How do you feel about all that? The simulation I mean."] "I do not. I lack the capacity to feel." Mouse laughed, crossing her arms and taking a seat on one of the closed cylinders. "He means objective assessment. Means to goal ratio efficiency." "Unclear. There has never been a project of this nature to compare results with. Through this means you are forming bonds with all test subjects- this is strategically wise in terms of your given role as Overseer of RHE but also furthers your goal of uniting everyone. This method is extremely slow due to you being in chronostasis for so long, much time has already been wasted before the conception of your current plan. However; things of an emotional nature generally cannot be rushed without disastrous results, and much like the researchers are particularly meticulous with their work, you are being necessarily careful with yours. It is typically more time consuming to repeat an action than to perform the action slowly to ensure you do it correctly the first time. Following this string of logic- in spite of your tremendously slow progress- you may still indeed be moving at the fastest acceptable rate, without compromising the results." You chuckle nervously, scratching your head. (text-colour:blue)["Oof. Didn't think I was working that slow."] Mouse hummed in thought. "She is counting the time since you promised Serene to do this, I think." "Incorrect- project starting point; //Wotan's Day, fifth moon of the 451st era//." You nod. (text-colour:blue)["So when I became a test subject. That is still counting all my time in chronostasis, before this plan was actually made. Technically I had started my efforts then but not specifically this operation within the simulation. I think since starting the simulation I have been progressing quite quickly. Three or more test subjects per visit..."] "True. You however are a single staff member." A ring of blue glowing text spin around her eyes like a colorful iris for a moment. "124 staff currently employed by RHE- 128 if you include those who are currently test subjects. While in chronostasis you can participate in roughly 3 tours of the island a day before straining your mental capacity and memory retention. If you meet 3 test subjects in each tour, that allows you to form a loose bond with 9 test subjects per day. There is currently 89 test subjects present on the island. That means it would take you 9.888888888888889 days to complete your connection. Multiplied by the 125 other RHE staff; your project completion date projection is 1,260 days from now, which is 3.5 years or 42 months. Again; there is no point of reference to assess this as //'slow'// or //'fast'//." (text-colour:blue)["Well... everyone doesn't need to meet everyone else. Think of me as forming a bridge between the two. Rather than bring everyone to one side or the other, I just create a path for either side to mingle."] You look at Mouse. (text-colour:blue)["Is there really only 125 total staff? I remember there being over a hundred workers alone."] Mouse took out her tablet to double check the numbers. "Yea, but that was the initial landing party. When Moth left; so did half the initial crew. Plus we no longer actively recruit test subjects so Mahogany downsized our numbers tremendously." After a slight delay, she nodded. "Yea. 125 staff. Only 22 researchers total. Used to be around that many researchers working on a single test subject. It is a skeleton crew. Almost the entire research staff is currently involved in some way with Dr. Daniella Seraphica, so it's no wonder Olivia is //baww'ing// over her piddly little team." You sigh. (text-colour:blue)["She will have the entire research staff once the Mark 2 Tinctures roll out. Since you have the roster pulled up already- how many general maintenance workers are on staff? Are they still all trained to milk breasts and udders?"] Mouse chuckled. "Yes- even though basically no one ever calls on them to be milked. They use the lactation stations, their own milkers, their own hands or the mouths of friends. Too many alternatives to bother calling in a nobody from the maintenance crew to handle such... //delicate matters//. 35 on staff currently working $10 per hour for a daily cost of $2,800." She laughed. "It only costs $400 more to have 35 people on payroll than it does to just keep the helicopter in the air for ''one trip''." (text-colour:blue)["Fueling the helicopter costs $2,400?!"] "$600 for a tank, but it needs to refuel at the halfway point because RHEI is so far in the middle of nowhere. It also needs to come back to the island, so quadruple that and you have your daily chopper bill." You scrunch up your face. (text-colour:blue)["Eck... how are our funds doing?"] She let out a nose laugh. "We are... ''more'' than fine. If we were just selling //cow milk//, we would be fucked. Of the 89 current test subjects on the island... only 58 of those are actually able to lactate. 20L a day is the average, and cow's milk sells for a pathetic $1.68 per liter because the market is disgustingly oversaturated... you end up with a profit of $33.60 per woman, per day for a total of $1,948 and 8 cents. Now compare that to the $15,338 per day it costs to keep RHE running. And that is the cost of running RHE //only// because we filter our own water, take care of our own sewage, and generate our own electricity or it would be a great deal more." ALUA spoke up after doing a brief check of global market prices. "RHE however produces a great deal of variety in dairy products from different species. Species that would otherwise be ludicrously difficult to milk. Horse milk for example sells for $10 per liter which would produce $200 a day for every woman able to make it. All test subjects save for Nada and Zero are at least partially human- human milk costs $67.63 per liter allowing for a profit of $1,352.60 per person, per day. The hardest to harvest is mouse milk due to the size of the creature. It would require 4,000 lactating mice to create a single liter of milk in a day. However RHE has Pepper and her twin sister Mint, who produce mouse milk and are the size of humans. With upwards of 20L produced a day. Mouse milk costs $22,000 per liter. That means Pepper and Mint alone create a profit of //''$1,760,000'' every day//." (text-colour:blue)["Good lord. We put out a lot of milk though... how long are those markets going to stay thirsty?"] Mouse shook her head and put her slate away again. "We sell to the entire planet, not any one country. That is to keep eyes away from RHEI but it also means our products are spread thin. We also have the distillery right next door to the water treatment facility in the main complex basement where we can turn that milk into other things to sell to other people. Cheese, butter, oil... even alcohol. Don't worry about our profit margin. We have enough in savings to start throwing dollar bills into a fireplace like they were kindling." After speaking to ALUA herself you begin to head back to the XV Bunker, with Mouse following close behind to make sure you make it back safe- and to also seal the door on your pod behind you. Going down the back stairs is always a pain. Technically you could walk since there is nothing wrong with your legs but... your genitals are so huge and malformed it would be just as awkward in or out of the wheelchair- and it's easier in the chair when not on stairs. Mouse speaks up again on the elevator down. "So how is the simulation anyway? I mean, I glance at it occasionally and it would alert me if it actually crashed, but... no hitches?" (text-colour:blue)["Alua has tried to contact me here and there on rare occasion, and a few people have made some very minor slipups. I don't think you could repair that with all the programming knowledge in the world. So within what is physically possible for you to do- it runs //perfectly//."] Mouse nodded. "Well I theoretically could fix that, by just being more simulated and less real, but that would defeat its greater purpose. The actual emulated portion is very minor- as minor as we can possibly get. The rest is live feed through the drone's artificial senses. Your own perceived body inside the simulation is actually the biggest emulated portion most of the time. Alua monitors it all closely as it is being fed to your pod, so she can try to autocorrect hiccups as they happen but even she can only work so fast, since it's all live." (text-colour:blue)["Yea... what was that 3 tours a day about? How would that work?"] "She was talking optimally. To actually pull that off she would need to either emulate their reactions to you so you'd basically be playing a VR game of the island... or she would need to emulate ''your'' reactions to them and //speed-run// tours, then give you the resulting feed afterwards. As it currently is- //which is the only way that actually makes sense//- you can only do one tour a day, because it happens live and you can't magically speed up or slow down time. Alua is an artificial being so she talks in absolutes and hypotheticals a lot. If you were to watch a video replay of a tour- you could watch three in a single day. You can't actually ''do'' three tours." (text-colour:blue)[You chuckle. "How does Alua get along with Zero?"] "Hmm? (text-style:"buoy")[Oh]. I actually never thought about that. They were both artificially created. Yea- I should test that. See how they interact with one another. Maybe use Null or Void though, since they are younger. Zero is a lot older than Alua so their age difference would definitely affect the results." (text-colour:blue)["How... what is Zero's life expectancy? He was created when the island was first founded- when I was only 9 years old. Serene was 19 at the time... she died of old age years ago... Zero is still fine. I mean, I am fine too but I have been in chronostasis so that doesn't count."] "No one knows. I am not even sure Moth knows. He isn't human- the only others of his kind are his own offspring so we have no way to know when or even ''if'' he will ever expire. RHE did successfully complete the //Age X project// so... we ''can'' make someone immortal, if we needed to." (text-colour:blue)["If we //needed// to, yes. Extending one's life could be considered a gift... but to remove the time limit entirely is more often viewed as a curse. I wonder how TS49 is doing these days with her immortality."] "I can get Zero to report on her easily enough." (text-colour:blue)["Nah. I like to imagine."] After a bit of a pause she speaks up again. "So... why the tours in the first place?" (text-colour:blue)["Hm? Part of my unification effort."] "You don't need a //tourist// to do that. You could just touch grass and actually meet them in the flesh. So, okay... you don't want to show off your //mutated bits//. That still doesn't explain why you masquerade as a tourist. Everyone ''knows'' that it is you on top of it all, so then why bother pretending? What does the RP //achieve//?" (text-colour:blue)["Puts me another step back at first."] She grinned. "Afraid of interacting with them?" (text-colour:blue)["No! It... hrmm, I am not great at explaining things. Imagine if their boss told them he was going to go around meeting them."] "That is literally what happened." (text-colour:blue)["No- they were told their boss was coming to pretend tour. If it was the Overseer of RHE, they would be stiff and formal. If I am pretending to be someone else, and they are pretending I am someone else, it becomes a bit silly- more whimsical and less serious. Instead of thinking about what they would report to the overlord of the island, they are thinking of what they would say if an outsider were here. And given that I went into chronostasis almost immediately after my transformation..."] "You basically ''are'' and outsider. Which means you //are// a tourist... at least to the //current// test subjects. You've known the island most of your life. Yea... that makes sense." (text-colour:blue)["... you arranged the simulation and have been running it this entire time and you never understood why I was doing it in the first place?"] Mouse shrugs. "It isn't my place to question my //superiors//. But I'd question a ''tourist''." You just smile and roll your eyes. You arrive back at your pod and with a huff of effort you get onto your feet and flip around, laying back into the pod. As you hand the blanket back to her Mouse smiles at you. (text-colour:blue)["What?"] "Is that elephantine dong actually bigger? That for little ol me?" You lower your brows. (text-colour:blue)["From the movement if anything."] "Yea, I figured. I am always just looking for excuses to use //this thing//." She turned and pointed to a cattle prod on the back of her belt. //(text-colour:blue)["What the hell do you have a cattle prod for?!" ]// She shrugged. "I like to fuck with people. //Nighty night, boss//." (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

You suggest Olivia run to one last location before the day is through; your chronostasis pod. Mahogany wanted to hold a private meeting with you tonight, and you cannot release yourself from the pod. Olivia pouted. "And you are only just now telling me, after having me run around the island with you all day? The feedback receptors only //simulate// muscle strain for you- my //actual// feet are //actually// tired." You chuckle. (text-colour:blue)["Sorry little sister. Did you not also have fun though? As my sister, you are naturally the first I would incorporate into the unification. Did you not learn something new about the subjects we encountered today?"] "Well, yea. But it is a lot of walking around and you already know where to go, you are just pretending not to! You have been on RHEI longer than I have! You were already visiting the island since you were 9. I had only just been born back then!" (text-colour:blue)["But this island is part of your home now too- not just this glass and metal box on a hill- the whole island. You can't meet your neighbors properly without walking over to them first. Besides, I would have thought your feet to have better endurance. We used to walk around aimlessly all the time, just for the hell of it."] Olivia just puffed up her cheeks in an exaggerated pout; not having any actual counter argument. After a few moments she reached over- to you it looked like she was going to touch your face, but in actuality she was hitting the power switch on the drone you are seeing through. Everything goes dark for only a moment from your perception before she is opening the door on your pod down in the bunker and your physical body wakes from chronostasis. She offers you a blanket to cover yourself and a wheelchair to help you get around. "You know, you should sleep in an actual bed too. You do not get worn out or tired while in chronostasis but it is also not actual sleep. You are suspended in time, not sleeping, so you still need sleep at some point." (text-colour:blue)["There will be plenty of time for that once my work is done."] "I think you are underestimating the time needed to finish. There are 106 test subjects, it takes you a day to complete a tour and you meet an average of at least 3 test subjects per tour." (text-colour:blue)["...where are you getting 106? Aloe is the final test subject and her designation is TS103."] "There are two TS13s and two TS44s. Also, Zero is TS00 so the roster starts counting ''before'' 1." (text-colour:blue)["Allan Richter is TSXY, so the overall total would actually be 107 if that is how you want to count it. But only one TS13 is still alive, Zero was made as a separate project before RHE's conception, and numerous test subjects are either dead or were released from the island. The actual count is //under 90//."] "90 divided by 3 per day... you are still looking at around a month. You are considered //legally insane// after not sleeping for 4 days." (text-colour:blue)["Fine, I will take a nap soon...ish. Depending on what Mahogany has to say, I might just catch some Zs during this meeting."] Olivia takes you up the equipment elevator to the ground floor. She is going to take you up to the second floor offices but you stop her and tell her that Mahogany wanted the meeting to be relatively private, so she told you to meet her in the palace. Serene's former home, and Io's current home. She wheels you over to the shutter door of the garage and calls out a shuttle for the two of you. To fit your wheelchair, the back seat of the shuttle collapses back, and the back of the shuttle opens up to extend it. The rear expansion is to allow taur-type bodies to potentially also ride them. Only one at a time though; the shuttles are a type of hovercraft and they can only keep so much weight off the ground. It feels like forever since you have stepped foot in the palace in person. Even when you came here on a tour, Io did not take you to the very top. There is technically a third level to the palace, but she only guided you through two. That also means that Serene's palace is taller than the RHE main complex- it has the same number of floors, but the roof is so high up on each level that the overall size is greater. You see a flash of fire in the early night sky when Sage lets out a huff from effort as she lands on the roof of the palace. It seems Mahogany has summoned some test subjects here as well. Since she chose this place to hold the meeting- Io is most likely involved in the conversation. By the time your shuttle arrives at the outskirts of the hedge maze and central path; Sage has gone inside ahead of you. There is a statue of Serene on the island, but it is back on the main plateau to the west of the main complex- sort of off on its own. You can see her grave from the front of the palace, down a rather steep slope toward the main valley. It is not unique from the other graves though- you only know it is hers because you have visited it so often. You would have constructed a monument worthy of being another World Wonder for her, but Serene would not have wanted that. The only thing special you offered her resting place is a single rose. A rose made of solid diamond, because like a diamond, your friendship with her can never wither. As soon as you walk inside you see Io in her fully transformed state- though her bust unchanged so her regular top fits. She still has nothing below her midriff, since she has a completely unique taur form. She is divergent even from Serene who she got her shape from, because the shifting genitals would incapacitate her with stimulation overload every time she transformed. So rather than have them shift places like Serene- Io's genitals fork, giving her two vulva when fully transformed, while Serene only had one. Io's horns are also more forward, while Serene was straight up- though the shape of the horns is almost identical. Io has her very long hair wrapped loosely around her horns to hold it up in her transformed state. Io waves at you and motions you inside. "(text-style:"sway")[Hey~] actually see you in the flesh. What do I even call you? Julius? TS37? Boss?" You laugh at that. (text-colour:blue)["Definitely not boss. You are not RHE staff- I have no authority over you. Julius is just fine, Io. Where is Overseer Mahogany? Or has she not arrived yet?"] "Nah, she is here- she is just in the atrium. Also; Eve is upstairs in the study so don't make too much noise, ya?" Olivia cocked an eyebrow at that. "This is really far out for Eve to wander, are you sure it is okay?" Io shrugged. "It was Mahogany's idea, not mine. I hang out with Eve lots, but I have never taken her too far from the bunker. Lorelei took her to see the west beach once though apparently and she was okay for that. Mostly. //'Okay'// by Eve standards." In the day the atrium has a heavenly aura about it from the bright sunlight shining off the white marble walls. You can see straight up through the entire building with the huge glass dome roof here- the atrium is perfectly round and bordered with balconies from the second floor halls connecting across, and catwalks at the very top connecting both sides of the third level. There is hanging plants around the edges of the very top that thanks to their elevation have grown very long and large. The garden of shrubs around the olive tree in the middle of the ground floor is where everyone gathers, to sit on the smooth stone block edge. It is early in the night now though, so the radiant light from the sun is gone. You can see pale beams of moonlight from the dome far above, but they are at a steep angle still so they stop on the walls high above and do not reach the ground floor. The only light in the room now is from the enchanted sconces around the walls, so dancing orange light from the flames. In this darker lighting it almost has a dungeon-like feeling to it, or a medieval castle. The chandeliers in the palace have a brighter white light to them- the light generated magically as bodiless nodes suspended around the chandelier like gems. But... obviously there is no chandelier in the atrium, and even if there was it would be so high up that it would serve no purpose. Mahogany is not alone waiting for you in the atrium, as you had expected when you spotted Sage arrive ahead of you. Sage herself is not present, but you can hear someone rummaging around in the kitchen just beyond the atrium without having turned the lights on in it, so that is most likely her. When Sage needs to see something in the dark she just vents a little of her flaming breath. Although indoors she has to be careful when she removes her mask that she does not set off a fire alarm. Ranos and Rosemary are with Mahogany, sitting on either side of her. A very cute and a very beautiful test subject to be in the same place at the same time. A bit dangerous for you, because of your mutated endowments you have hidden below the blanket. It is physically impossible for you to get an actual erection, but if your body tries hard enough you might get dizzy and pass out from anemia. Both subjects are at least somewhat covered in similar fashion- Ranos has her cloak shrouding her and Rosemary has her favorite knitted green poncho. Moth suddenly appears from a shimmer in the air! "Are we still waiting on people?" Mahogany shook her head. "No. Aloe is in the rooftop garden and Eve is in the study lounge. Everyone is here." Moth clunked the end of her staff on the floor, causing the lantern on the top to rattle. "Alright. We have all been called together here to discuss the Mark 2 Tinctures- //the implementation end//, since no one here is on the actual research team in charge of it." Ranos cocked her head to the side. "Wait, why am I here then? And Rosemary?" Rosemary nodded. "We-.. eeEE are not researchers nor the extreme variants that the tinctures would be-HEE used ''HAW''n." Olivia spoke up, having been thinking hard trying to read the situation since you two arrived. "Ranos has sensory deprivation, Eve has sensory overload, Rosemary has a speech impediment. Extreme Variants are the //obvious// target of the MK2 Tinctures... this meeting seems to be on the less obvious, //potential targets//. But why Aloe? Her transformation came out exactly as intended. Sage is also perfectly fine." Sage wandered back into the room with a toasted sandwich. "Huh, what about me?" Mahogany smiled. "Very astute Dr. Wingael. Aloe is exactly how she wanted to be, but she is a very unique mix, so I brought her here to get a better idea of how her transformation felt like, and continues to feel like in her day to day. There are three other insect hybrids but Aloe's features are further from the normal human and also perfectly in line with what she wanted. Viola is still quite human in overall figure, and Hazel's transformation had slight chaotic variations from the original design. Lace would have been a closer runner up in choice- but we only need one example so there was no reason to call them both and Lace would be just waking up at this time of day. Io is here to give us a reference point both to the Genesis form and the Gummy Tincture. Eve is actually here not because she is an extreme variant but because of her super-enhanced emotion. I want her opinion on the tincture itself because no one's emotions are as easily read as hers. Sage is here as insight to flight-enabled subjects." Io walked further into the room- she had been standing in the doorway from the main hall to the atrium. "Why call us all here in person though?" This time you are the one to speak up. (text-colour:blue)["Because it concerns all of the test subjects. Dr. Hedgewall started things off with the valley labs- getting test subjects more knowledgeable on what created them. It is time the researchers learned to step back from their work and enjoy the world and mingle with those whose lives they changed. And it is time the test subjects become more hands-on in the research end. If they do not care, that is fine. But test sbujects should not have a lack of information simply because they thought it was over their head, or none of their business. We keep our research secret from the outside world; it should never be a secret from you."] So Mahogany began discussing things with the test subjects and getting their opinion on the matters, while you mostly sit back and observe. You entrusted Mahogany to the title of Overseer till your own form is repaired, so you let her run things how she thinks is best. When she heads upstairs to talk to Eve no one follows her, knowing it would overwhelm Eve. You glance over when you see the fridge light in the dark kitchen- Olivia is rummaging for snacks herself. You motion to everyone else to follow. (text-colour:blue)["C'mon, lets hang out while Mahogany does her thing upstairs."] Serene's kitchen is obviously gigantic- the size of the entire living area of most other homes. The island counter is also massive and lined with six tall, narrow stools. Serene and Io require two stools each to sit, due to having two hips. Ranos, Moth, Sage, and Rosemary took seats- you already have your wheelchair and Olivia took a seat once she got a snack. Io did not have enough stools left to seat herself, but also did not stick near the others. She wandered to the far side of the kitchen to look out a wall almost entirely made of sliding glass doors overlooking a small but ornate patio area. You can look out over the south edge of the north-east woods from there. Sage let out a sigh, muffled by her gas mask. "I feel so out of place here... like, //why me?//" Ranos shrugged. "She did not want to badger me with too many questions I guess, since we can both fly. But all her questions for me were focused on my lack of sight." "Yea but... I dunno. I feel like I don't //deserve// to be asked these sort of questions. Like it's too important to bother with an opinion like mine. Like what if they change something about the tincture based on what I say, and then everyone else hates it? I don't... really care about a lot of stuff, y'know? I just go with the flow or do my own thing. If people want to tag along, cool, but if they don't- I don't really care. So... I am not really... in touch with what anyone else thinks." Olivia looked at her, having to pause a moment to swallow the food in her mouth before speaking. "Doesn't that make your opinion more important, not less?" Sage cocked her eyebrow. "How do you figure that?" "If you were fully integrated with everyone else, your opinion would be heavily influenced by them- it would homogenize with your surroundings. That would mean that we could question ''anyone'' and basically get the //exact same answer//- making it irrelevant who we ask. The island is composed of very different people, with different hybrid bodies, from different parts of the world. There is no real consensus to be found here. The best we can do is pinpoint two complete opposite ends of the spectrum, and then measure a middle ground from there." Rosemary looked at Ranos. "You said you were afrai-E''E''ee-d of getting eyesight... what h''HA''are you afraid of? What do you think you will see?" Ranos shrugged. "I have no idea! I am blind from birth so I have absolutely nothing to compare to. I don't know what it is like to be able to see in the first place. It could be frightening, or... //I don't know//! Blind is what I know... I am fine as I am. If I had been able to see, I would probably want it back- but I have ''never'' seen." You nod. (text-colour:blue)["It isn't the same when you close your eyes and see only darkness- //she cannot even see black//, her eyes literally do not function whatsoever. And having never seen anything, she also cannot //visualize// anything. Even in her imagination there are no imagined visuals- her memory is sound, touch, and smell only. To us, sight to her would be like encountering a sixth-dimensional being for the first time. Something so far removed from everything we know that we could barely comprehend it, and it could overload your mental capacity just trying to take it in."] You let out a small nose laugh. (text-colour:blue)["And you are a bit ''too'' eager to be rid of your troubles, Rose."] Rosemary pout. "My voice is hoh-h-''HAAW''-riffic! Ugh." Olivia smiled. "I think it is kinda cute, actually." Rosemary just lowered her tall ears, so you shake your head. (text-colour:blue)["I think you are the only one your braying actually bothers. Which means it would be easier to learn to accept it or even appreciate it than it would be to actually change it."] "//Appreciate// sounding like a dumb beast?" (text-colour:blue)["Well- do you dislike your body?"] "No. I think I look fine. It is just the voice." (text-colour:blue)["But they come from the same place. The same 'dumb beast' your voice mimics is what gave you that body. It might not be what you mean to sound like, but there isn't anything //wrong// with it either. People know you cannot control it, no one is going to complain."] You get up out of your wheelchair, claiming to want to stretch your legs, but really wanting to talk to Io. You are momentarily surprised by the clop sound of your hooves against the crystal floor. ''Wow''... been in chronostasis and simulated realities or wheelchairs so long you for a moment //forgot you have hooves//. You have to make relatively small steps, since putting your legs forward also shoves your giant mutant genitals to one side or the other. You also walk bowed forward a bit, because the weight yanks the front of your hip downward. It wouldn't do that if it hung between your legs like normal genitals- but they are far too large to fit between your legs. While everyone else was talking Io slipped out and was on the patio outside, a few loose strands of her pale hair blowing in the firm night breeze. Out here everything was painted in blue-grey light from the half-moon- strong enough that everything casts a shadow even in the night. It makes Io's pale body seem to glow. (text-colour:blue)["Hey... don't feel like socializing? Or just tired?"] "Sorry. It... is just... kinda funny... seeing you in person. This body of mine must be awkward for you to look at." You furrow your brows in confusion. (text-colour:blue)["What? I already knew what you looked like. I was literally here before! Just... not in person."] Io hummed in frustration. "No I mean... because it's... hers." You have been catching yourself unintentionally thinking of this palace as Serene's. It was built for her, and she did live here- but //not anymore//. Even in your own thoughts you should not be calling this //Serene's house//. (text-colour:blue)["It is yours. Your transformed state is not identical to hers- and you are able to change the proportions at will as long as the overall total mass does not exceed hers. You inherited much from her, but you are still your own person, Io."] "W-well you really //liked// her though... right?" (text-colour:blue)["Ah..."] You blush. (text-colour:blue)["N-well, it is complicated. Do I really make you that uncomfortable? You think I look at you like... //her?//"] Now Io blushed as well, though due to her pale complexion her blush was just a shade of light pink. "//I don't know//. I didn't think about it when you were here earlier because it was just a drone, y'know? But now that you are here in the flesh I feel like someone masquerading around as someone you loved- in their former house. It almost seems ''insulting'' to you." (text-colour:blue)["Io... you don't have a family that you can remember. Serene helped you get on your feet and you lived with her here before you inherited the palace to yourself. Doesn't that make her a big sister or mother to you? Do you think someone would get offended at a child, for looking like their parents? I wasn't... //in love// with Serene. I mean... not like you seem to be thinking. She was sort of like a big sister to me. She even babysat me while I was on the island when I was really young and my father got called in for work while I was here. If she were my sister, that would make us family too."] "So it's not... weird?" (text-colour:blue)["Not at all.] After comforting Io you see everyone in the kitchen in another conversation, so you do not want to butt into it in the middle. You continue to walk back to the atrium and ascend the spiral stairs on the far side up to the second floor to see how Mahogany is doing with Eve. All the rooms along the back of the palace on the second floor are dedicated to each of the seven Lost Founders. There is two guest rooms on the west side facing the front with a single bathroom between them. On the east side is where Eve is- the study lounge. There is a fireplace on the near wall between the two doors entering this room. The inside is polished dark wood on the walls and warm, velvet furniture and carpeting giving the room a very soft, warm ambience. There is many shelves of books on the long northern wall, while the southern wall is covered with framed photos of test subjects and places around the island. You try not to idle your eyes on the photo of you and Serene too long. You should try to encourage Io to put some of her own up- she has never had the heart to remove Serene's collection of memories. There is an end table in the middle of the room with a powerful illuminary spell on it to create a bodiless light, but because Eve is so sensitive it is not on right now. The fireplace is the only light source, so the room is actually quite dark. As you enter the room, Mahogany is already standing back up to leave it- you seem to have caught just the tail end of the meeting. (text-colour:blue)["Well, how are things?"] Mahogany is surprised a moment to see you- she had been facing Eve so she did not see you enter. "Good. Even if we could have guessed what their responses were- it is much better to actually get it from them. And know that they know what we are doing." You nod. (text-colour:blue)["The foundation of any lasting relationship is good communication. So are you all done now?"] She shook her head, causing her curly hair to bounce around. "I am going to talk with Aloe now- she was in the upper atrium when I spoke with everyone else together. How about I take Aloe down and sit with everyone downstairs again, and you bring Eve up to see the upper atrium? She has never seen it." You offer Eve a hand, though have to be careful of all your talons. A tiny prick can hurt her because of her overactive nervous system. Eve is wearing the giant frilly bows on her head to tie her hair, and her tail as decoration, though she is not wearing the earmuffs this time, so you are careful never to raise your voice above a loud whisper. As you two entered the atrium to ascend, she glanced down at Aloe and Mahogany walking down the stairs. "Aloe is really light on her feet, and her butt keeps hitting the steps behind her, heh." You looked down in thought a moment wondering how she could tell from this high up. (text-colour:blue)["Wait... can you hear her footfalls?"] "Yea. I could also hear your conversation with Io earlier." You start blushing again. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to! And I was talking with Mahogany at the time so I only heard parts of it." Her eyes glazed over with tears. "You aren't mad are you...?" Her long but relatively narrow ears tucked back and down. (text-colour:blue)["No, no, of course not! You didn't mean it. I just did not expect you to be ''able'' to hear that. You could not hear the conversations in the kitchen? Just the patio?"] "Yea, the balcony windows in the study lounge were open to let the breeze in because the fireplace was making it too hot- the patio is outside, so I heard you through the open doors. There was at least one closed door between me and the kitchen on both sides, so I could hear that people are talking but can't actually hear anything they are saying." Eve can also tell if you are lying, so trying to pull the wool over her eyes is pointless- she can hear your heart beat and tell how you are feeling regardless of any guise you may try to put up. You tell her you are going to take her to the most beautiful place in the palace and her eyes light up immediately. Since the ground floor has crystal floors and solid gold light fixtures she is having a hard time believing //anything// can top that. You are a bit nervous about delivering on the promise- it has been a long time since you saw it yourself and it would no doubt be much prettier during the day time, but you cannot help what time of day it is. The third floor of the atrium is just heavy metal mesh catwalks instead of solid structured balconies and stairs, so if you are afraid of heights; //you won't like being here//. What you cannot see from the ground floor however is that the glass of the dome branches to the east. The entire east half of the third floor is glass with rounded edges. The sides are lined with large daylilies in their soft pink and white coloration. The middle is the taller lavender with deep purple and extremely fragrant scent. The end of each long, narrow planter is a 'big daddy' hosta; a short plant with gigantic green leaves. The glass wall parting the main atrium and the rooftop garden is entirely swallowed by climbing hydrangea. The opposite end is elevated by three long steps and covered in grass, with a huge pink blossomed wisteria tree. Eve is totally silent, utterly awestruck by the sight of the garden. It is even more beautiful in the daylight, when the sun kisses the flower petals and makes them seem to glow. It also gets rather humid and hot in here during the day though, so, //you win some you lose some//. You lead Eve through the garden rather quickly, eager to show her the flowers around the edge of the grass clearing the wisteria is in. Eve sits down on the soft, short trimmed grass and rests her head on the trunk of the tree to look up at the tiny beams of moonlight that make it through the many flowers hanging from it. You hum in thought, crouching by one of the Faetrail blossoms. You hope you still remember this spell correctly or there will not be much to show- the flowers are just bulbs at the moment; gone asleep for the night. You successfully cast an illuminary spell, creating a bodiless light in your left hand and hold it close to the flowers. After a few moments the bud starts to open; being tricked into thinking the sun was out again. Eve gets onto all fours and scrambles over to get a very close look at the flower. Its petals are long and narrow and coral colored; a mix of orange and pink. (text-colour:blue)["The Faetrail are a rare flower. They used to be everywhere shortly after the Lost Founders arrived in our world eons ago. Since humans learned to harness magic; the global supply of mana has gone down drastically because people use it for spells now- that has caused these flowers to decline. On RHEI though, there is quite a lot of life energy and not that many spell casters, so mana is pretty rich here. The island used to be a caldera long, long ago, so there is actually a natural leyline that runs under the island. Go on, touch the petals."] "//Really?// Flowers usually don't like being touched..." Eve touched it lightly but you smile and tell her to do it a little harder than that. When she touches it a second time- from the point she touched, out across the entire blossom the coral coloration quickly transitioned to green! The petals of the flower are now the same green as the stalk and leaves! (text-colour:blue)["Faetrail got their name because people believed them to be used by Faeries to mark pathways. In actuality, the flower changes color as an indicator to pollinators- //like bees//- that the flower has already been visited. That way all of the blossoms get equal opportunity to be pollinated and the species as a whole is stronger for it. It takes almost a full day- but the coral color of the flower will come back. A lot of different critters are color blind to green- //including dogs//- so by turning green once visited, the flower effectively makes itself invisible."] Serene taught you that, long ago. Eve's eyes started watering again. "Oh... ooh it's (text-style:"sway")[so...] so pretty. The garden is (text-style:"rumble")[''SO PRETTY'']! Oooh. And you must have come here with Serene back in the day." Tears started to fall heavily now. "You two were so close, oh my god I am so sorry!" She clutched your blanket cover and started bawling into it. (text-colour:blue)["I-it's okay Eve. //Calm down...//"] She just kept saying //'it's so pretty'// muffled into your blanket as the wet spot from her tears increased in size. Hm, maybe it is a good thing you didn't bring her here during the day- you might have given her a //critical overload//. She is full-on sobbing and all you can do is softly pat her head- afraid saying anything will only make it worse. "I'm okay... I'm okay, I know how much it doesn't look like I am, but I am..." After a few minutes she pulls away, her eyes a bit puffy and red but her tears have stopped. "(text-style:"shudder")[S]-sorry. This is why people don't take me anywhere..." (text-colour:blue)["You going to be okay?"] "I am fine now. Feeling never killed anyone. I mean, it's exhausting, but how often do I try to go out for it to happen? It is great everyone is looking out for me, but I wish they wouldn't be so afraid to take me out more. It's //okay// to get ''destroyed'' every now and then, heh." On that note, you ask if she is up to see something else then. You lead Eve back across the garden through the atrium and to the door on the other side of the glass dome. The west half of the building is a gigantic sphere- though because of architectural ornamentation, the sphere looks like an old castle tower from the ground; you can only see the curvature from this angle. You motion for her to go through first so you can swat the light switch on after her, but you do not turn on the primary lights. Eve gasps as a billion stars appear around her once the power to the planetarium turns on. The huge room is lined with chairs all facing inward toward a projector that casts a copy of the night sky onto the dome roof, slowly turning like the actual sky. The projector in the middle has several rings around it that can be aligned to form dates- causing the projection of the night sky to match whatever date you put in, allowing you to see the sky in a specific time period. You are both startled when Moth speaks up- neither of you seen her in the dimly lit room. "I spent so long studying the stars, only to find a whole new set reflected elsewhere." (text-colour:blue)["A different universe born from a divergence of yours."] "An infinite number of universes forever diverging from the origin. Charting any of it on that grand of a scale is utterly pointless. Universes that diverge can re-converge, and do so whenever a similarity occurs further down the progression of time." Eve looked very confused. "How does it even work though? Every time there is more than one possibility, a new universe is created for each possibility? Where does all the energy and mass and stuff come from to instantly create an entire new universe?" Moth smiled and shook her head. "There is no new mass, really. It is the same universe just playing out a different scenario. Like, imagine turning the radio to a different station. Same radio, just playing a different track. Going to a different universe doesn't actually ''move'' you anywhere- you just phase into a different frequency of existence. But there are a literal endless number of frequencies, so the level of accuracy you would need to land anywhere specific is literally impossible for a human to do. Even Diovllun of the Lost Founders could not entirely predict where he was going, he just wandered. I can flip between my world and this one because I already did it once- so I just use the exact identical spell to end up in the identical location. And the only reason I found this world in the first place is because the Lost Founders themselves had been here- creating a sort of //landmark// to find it by." You hummed in thought, leaning against the back of one of the rows of chairs. (text-colour:blue)["The world is how you perceive it. Everyone perceives things in a slightly different manner according to their life experiences and physical ability. So whether you stub your toe or miss the leg of a couch alters your perception slightly... altering your world."] Moth nodded. "Creating a new universe. What does the //actual// universe look like? Who knows. ''Shape'' is defined by sight and touch- remove those and does //'shape'// even exist in the first place? But those are human senses- interpretations of reality, not //reality ''itself''//. So then, //what is// reality? If you remove all senses of reality, what is it then? ''Or'' a better viewpoint would be- what senses do we yet ''lack''? If all five senses and any senses that exist that we do not even know- if all of those were perfect in every way, would we see the ''true universe''? Would it no longer diverge? Rather than an infinite number of universes, it would be a single universe with infinite possibilities." Eve held her head and groaned. "This is too complicated, aaargh you're too smart." You and Moth both laugh and tell her it is fine. They are questions for philosophers- nothing any normal person ever needs to concern themselves with. Knowing the answer likely would not affect or change anything you can or choose to do in your day to day life- so it isn't important. After some time of taking turns pointing out celestial bodies in the planetarium you all return downstairs- everyone else suddenly becoming hush when they see Eve so they do not hurt her delicate ears. Aloe is in the kitchen, but she is balanced between the counter and a stool- //she fell asleep//! Io said it was fine and to just leave her be; Io enjoys having guests over, so Aloe can just sleep here the night. Ranos on the other hand was just waking up so she was full of energy. Ranos and Sage were outside again; darting around in the air around the palace racing each other. Sage unhooked her mask so she could breathe deep while flying- but that also meant she leaves a slight smoke trail wherever she flies, and you will see the occasional flash of flames from the half dragon. You see Rosemary yawn. (text-colour:blue)["Need a shuttle home?"] "Mmm, no. It is so peaceful at night, I would proffer to walk." You both look up as Ranos and Sage fly over quickly, low enough to the ground that the slipstream created blows Rosemary's long hair and poncho around. "Well... //peaceful by RHEI standards//." You both laugh. Olivia and Mahogany were in a rather intense looking conversation, ping-ponging ideas off each other about her limb regeneration project. Once the MK2 tincture research is done the number of researchers on either of the teams will reverse. The MK2 tinctures will get a skeleton crew of researchers to devise iterations and then the bulk of its current workers will then go to Olivia as their team leader to do the limb regeneration project. Right now she is working through theoreticals and the baseline stuff with her tiny team in preparation for when they have enough people to actually work. You do not mean to make one project seem more important than the other, but RHE does not currently have enough researchers to fully operate two major research projects at the same time. The fewer researchers each project has the slower its overall progress is going to be. Technically one researcher could do it on their own- but it would take them several lifetimes to pull it off, and no one has that. You ask Moth to escort Eve back to the bunker. Moth can shield her in a sensory deprivation bubble to keep her safe along the way. It has already been a pretty big night for her. Ranos and Sage were already running off to do whatever they wanted. Rosemary said her goodbyes and headed home slowly on her own. Io returned inside to see if she could carry Aloe up to a guest bedroom instead of sleeping on a countertop. You once again plopped down into your wheelchair and wheeled yourself along behind Olivia and Mahogany as you all returned to the RHE main complex. It has been an... //interesting// night. (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:5s)[[Replay?->Re:Arrivals]]

On Sun's Day a plot of land had been taped off in the early morning. There is still a good bit of building material still waiting for use on The Ark, so RHE workers started to open up the storage in its massive hulls to find the printed building parts they needed for the current project, while ALUA got to work printing off custom construction elements. Many test subjects were curious because RHE was not looking for any new test subjects, but then they noticed the size of the plot barricaded off is too large for a standard home. It isn't a house that is being constructed. Before anyone had even figured out what the first plot is; a second was sectioned off in the very south end on the steep slope just beside the valley labs. The first plot is to the east middle of the valley, almost directly beside the shed that leads down into Lace's home. Part of the construction project is upgrading the little shed to a modern looking structure, and putting up some low-radiance neon signs on the side to make it stand out more when its dark out, but make sure all the lights are on the side facing away from the forest as to not disturb its ambience. By Moon's Day afternoon the construction was already complete! The building parts are all pre-printed, so putting together structures on RHE is sort of like working with giant Lego blocks. The pluming is the hardest part to work in, because you require the Geomancers to open a hole through the earth for you to lay the pipes without upheaving everything. There is also a gigantic underground lake under the east side of the island; so if you dug too far down you could potentially fall straight through. Only loosely attached to Lace's upgraded bar entrance is now a café! Kalie is the first to go inside, since she is the first awake this day without any plans to tend to first. Suzy joined her, but rather than walk she is sitting on all fours on the base of Kalie's tail- riding it like a baby pangolin would. Kalie's tail is plenty strong enough to pick her up and carry her off the ground. When she flexes her tail muscles this much, you can actually see the start of the tail progress up her backside as the muscles bulge out a bit- visually showing just how deep her muscles entwine. Ren tips his flat-top had at them from behind the café counter and welcomes them in. Snow is here as well, skittering across the counter to get to the cups to pull two out for the guests. "Welcome to ''BJB''- //the Bean Juice Bar//! What can I get you? We have quite a selection of coffee beans imported from around the world." Suzy spoke up first while Kalie was craning her neck around to look all over the inside of the café. "What... where did this come from all of a sudden? Did you just get hired for this? //Wait//, does Snow actually work here?" Ren chuckled. "This is my job now, but I had already been working in RHE as a general maintenance crew member. The name is //Ren Holsweld//. Snow is a volunteer- the café obviously does not ask for nor pay money, but if someone wants to learn how to brew some tasty bean-water or just looking for something to pass the time doing, we accept volunteers." The inside of the café is adorned with many paintings and photos in various sized frames all fit closely together like a loosely assembled puzzle on the wall. The lighting is soft and there is a soft jazz track playing in the background. The tall chairs at the counter are red velvet on top and the counter itself looks to be a polished cherry oak, again giving warm, soft vibes. There are several booths around the room as well with soft looking seats. A group of four women and a man enter behind Kalie and Suzy and walk around to get to the counter. "Oh, morning ladies." Kalie was a bit stunned still. "Uh... good morning? Construction crew just finishing up?" One of the women shook her head while another ordered the drinks. "Oh, no. We are from the //research// department. Well- except Maria, she is //maintenance//." Maria quickly turned to her. "Awww, why did you have to out me like that?" "There is nothing wrong with being in the maintenance crew!" "Yea but it's not as cool as being a researcher..." You walk in a moment later, placing a hand on Kalie's shoulder, picking up on her confusion. (text-colour:blue)["I commissioned this. Several RHE staff have been talking about wanting a café for some time but no one submitted an official request. I thought it paired well with Lace's bar, so I constructed it here and upgraded her little shed entrance. She is awake at night only usually- but finding her shed in the dark of night is quite difficult because it is away from most paths and rather small- so I fixed that too."] Suzy gave a playful //'well hello there'// while her eyes were clearly on your gigantic package. Your wheelchair is outside, but you decided to leave it to stretch your legs a bit. Rather than hide yourself under a blanket today, you are wearing a jean vest with slots cut into the back to let out your proto-wings. Your monstrous genitals are restrained in a custom leather sling that holds your phallus into the cleft of your balls and links it all to a belt to keep it all from wobbling around too much. Enough of it is covered that you cannot see the glans or the vulva at the end. You roll your eyes at her obvious gawking. (text-colour:blue)["If you did not see it yet- there is now an apartment building by the valley labs in the south end. A five-floor tower containing full-sized apartments for RHE staff instead of the micro-apartments in the actual main complex. So staff now live in the valley- you have //plain human// neighbors now."] Kalie tilted her head. "Really? Can a five floor tower really fit everyone in RHE?" (text-colour:blue)["Oh, no, not //everyone//. Just researchers. They worked on the test subject's bodies, and the handlers cared for their test subjects post-transformation carefully, so their relationship with the subjects is important. All staff are encouraged to venture into the valley starting today though. So, this café is step 1. By this time tomorrow, the valley will also have its own movie theatre."] Suzy really perked up at that. "Really?! Where?" (text-colour:blue)["The south end of the graveyard. Some subjects had expressed complaints in the past that the graveyard isn't very enclosed- you can see it from some distance away, and it sort of brings the mood down. By having a theatre on one side and the palace on the other; this should no longer be a problem. We are going to be putting up a mix concrete-iron fence around the west and east side of the graveyard to better encapsulate it. The theatre will only be one screen, and rather than have a set schedule it will be viewer's choice- with a queue for when multiple people make a request at the same time. So... think of it like a gigantic community TV. It should also help promote the RHE staff to venture into the valley."] Snow paused on the edge of the counter, having been listening to the conversation too. "What about the //non-researchers// though? They just stuck with the old mini apartments? Won't they get kinda ''mad''?" (text-colour:blue)["Yes and no. Some people proffer smaller spaces, so the old micro apartments will stay, but we are also greatly expanding onto the west side of the main complex to add another full sized apartment complex that attaches to the main complex directly as well as the existing apartments. So ''everyone'' is getting a living space upgrade, it is just that the researchers got theirs //first//, and theirs is located in the valley. The construction team can only do so much at once- it won't take that long to get the other apartments."] Kalie and Suzy took a seat in a booth- Kalie can only sit in the booth so she can put her tail up. In one of the tall chairs she would need to help balance herself with her tail- so technically not all of her would be up off the floor relaxing. You order your drink to go and head back out into the brisk morning air. Half the sky is still purple from the night, the other is highlighted in pink by the rising sun. It would be another fifteen or twenty minutes before the sun was high enough to actually touch the valley over the mountain peaks, so the air was quite cool still and moist with dew. You see Lace outside of her house entrance, with her hand around the corner of the structure on the neon sign facing west away from you and the café. (text-colour:blue)["Closing shop for the day?"] "Mmmmhm- (text-style:"shudder")[OH!]" She turned to actually face you and was stunned. "You- (text-style:"buoy")[oh]. I was not expecting to see you. I mean, ''YOU''-//you//. Without the drone I mean." You chuckle. (text-colour:blue)["No one ever does. You can ''start'' expecting it now, though. I finished my tours now, so no more hiding behind a drone. You know me now. Everyone knows me at least a little."] "So... //what//, you going to move into the valley now too?" Lace knew about the apartment building and the café already ahead of every other test subject- since her house is part of the construction. (text-colour:blue)["I plan to, yes. Not right //now//, though. I am still technically an //XV subject// so my house and I would need some special equipment, similar to what Vivianne uses when she ventures into the valley. I haven't chosen where I want my house to be yet, either. I don't want to screw with any of the existing views, but also don't want to just stick it off in the middle of nowhere."] Lace motioned across the ground to the café. "(text-style:"sway")[Aaand], a pathway?" Oh, yea, //that//. There was never a shale path to Lace's house since the actual house itself is underground. You tell her that it will also be coming soon- within a day at most. There will need to be shale stones laying into the grass to complete a new branch to the existing paths to get to both Lace's house and the café doors. You plan to have the path keep going and sort of taper off toward the east forest without directly connecting it. Lace tells you she //loves// the new neon signs. She can turn them on and off as a clear indicator of when she is awake and her bar is open, so she will likely end up with more test subjects visiting her now; they no longer have to be nervous about waking her up on accident, or otherwise bothering her. She is just out now to turn the sign off- she is heading to sleep. Ranos groans, surprising you both as neither of you seen her, hanging upside down from the edge of the café roof. "I wish I could go to bed..." (text-colour:blue)["Why, what happened?"] "Well the café opened when I was still awake so I wanted to get //something// and be its first customer!" Lace laughed. "You dummy. Now you can't settle down because you're hyped up on caffeine. Hanging upside down probably isn't helping- it is all going to your head! //Anyway//; I ''can'' sleep, so, //night all!//" You chuckle. (text-colour:blue)["Good... //morning//? Night? Anyway; have a good sleep, Lace."] Ranos groaned again. "Brain tired, body too awake, (text-style:"shudder")[uuuugh]." (text-colour:blue)["You know the café also has hot chocolate and tea- it just specializes in coffee."] "Well ''NOW'' you tell me!" You head back to your wheelchair and have a seat, sliding out a metal ring onto the end of the right arm rest to use as a cup holder for your drink and start to wheel yourself back toward the center of the valley. You see Audumbla walking on all fours toward you, heading to the café. (text-colour:blue)["Good morning Astrid."] "//Wow//, actually in the flesh today! Hey, shouldn't there be a path here for the new building? I walked around either side of the buildings thinking I was going to the wrong way, but a right way doesn't exist." (text-colour:blue)["It's coming, the Geomancers need to map it in- we can't just flop the stones anywhere."] "//Map it in?//" One ear lowered to stick straight out while the other remained erect in a look of puzzlement. (text-colour:blue)["The Geomancers renew the grass and plants, and make sure nothing shifts around geologically. When they do that- they do not personally walk across the //entire island// to look at //everything//. They have a runic map of the island in the areas that need to be touched up regularly, and the spaces that never get touched- like under homes and pathways. If you put down a path and did not tell the Geomancers- the next time they refresh everything; //the path will be overgrown//, because they did not know it was there. They have to remove the path from their geological map for it to be made official."] She motioned with her big bovine nose to the south. "What about the apartment building?" (text-colour:blue)["Sure, it is getting one too."] "No, but... it is for research staff, but it is on the opposite end of the island." (text-colour:blue)["Ah. Increased shuttle activity. Yes, we have taken that into account- there will be a vote for where to have the shuttle route, and we will be gathering the vote of everyone on the island. //Especially// those subjects able to fly- because they have a better view of traffic."] You tell her that RHE does not plan to scar the island with an ugly road. They will have a designated route for shuttle traffic between the main complex and apartment building, marked with increased lanterns to illuminate it, and relatively small traffic signs where it intersects with already high-traffic paths. There is four different routes plotted that will be voted on to decide which one is actually used. The apartment building is also directly beside the valley labs- so depending on what research they are doing; they may not actually need to go anywhere. After talking with Audumbla you smile as you walk out onto the west side of the eastern buildings and see how many more people have woken up in the time you spent at the café. There are RHE researchers scattered all over, with groups of test subjects around them. The handlers are all out today- gathering their subjects to tell them about what all is going on. Some of these test subjects have not actually spoken to their handlers in ''years'', but today that changes. You notice Amber looking a bit aimless. Her hair is a bit disheveled and she looks sleepy- this is likely too early for her, but she was woken by all the commotion. You wheel your way over to her, knowing she has no handler. Her handler was one of the researchers who retired from RHE when it downsized- so he is no longer on the island to be with her today. (text-colour:blue)["Hey. Confused?"] "Very. I hear something about a café opening? But there are also a ton of RHE staff in the valley... is the //apocalypse// here or something? Main complex burning down?" You explain to her what is happening. (text-colour:blue)["- so it won't be as busy as this normally but... there should be a bit more //bustle// to the island's //hustle//."] She put her hands on her robust hips. "Hmm." She looked around briefly but then back at you, and then her eyes lowered a bit. "You are almost as //big// as I am." You blush brightly, but before you say anything you are both surprised by Kiri and Luan who managed to sneak up behind you unintentionally. "That is right- you are a ''test subject'', not //just// the Overseer." Kiri tilted her head. "Does that mean you are going to live in the valley too?" Luan glanced at her. "He is an //XV subject// though." "//So am I.//" Everyone turned as Vivi walked up, her tail swishing energetically behind her. She turns her arms to emphasize the nodes connecting into her cryogenic pack. "Not all XVs are //full-time//." Amber nodded. "RHE has been arguing about whether or not I am an XV too- because I can't walk around without my dolly lift, or my udder would anchor me in place." Amber leaned over to rest her elbows onto the giga udder's surface so she could in turn rest her chin in her hands. You ask if they don't have handlers anymore, either, but Vivi says she does. ''Mahogany'' herself is actually Vivi's handler. Kiri and Luan are without handlers though- which you suppose isn't that surprising. They are TS15 and TS16- early tests, even if RHE did not downsize, their handler may have just //retired// by now. It is hard to tell the age of the couple because of their reptilian features- and like many test subjects they do not age normally due to their transformation. As a cell reproduces it loses a miniscule bit of information- a copy of a copy is never as good as the original. Eventually the quality degrades so far that it just //stops working//- and the person dies of old age. When they are initially transformed though, the transformation changes how that cell is made- completely refreshing the //'quality'//, basically resetting the timer on their //'expiration date'//. That is what initially sparked the Age X Project- seeing if they could take that side-effect and run with it. |FinalAmber>[(link:"You ask them all if they have a problem sharing the valley with regular humans.")[(replace: ?FinalAmber)[You ask them all if they have a problem sharing the valley with regular humans. Kiri and her husband both shook their heads, almost unintentionally colliding with one another. "No! It makes the island even more lively!" Luan nodded. "It will definitely take some getting used to though. Haven't seen //regular humans// around normally in many years, heh." Vivianne shrugged. "Since I am in the bunker most of the time, I regularly speak with them anyway- so makes no difference to me." Amber shrugs as you look at her. "I don't mind. I know I take up a lot of space myself- but there is still plenty left. (text-style:"buoy")[Juuust] as long as you don't ruin the view trying to// modernize// the place." You shake your head. (text-colour:blue)["We are being extremely picky about where we put structures to preserve the island's natural setting. And we will never put down roads or anything like that. That is why we put the apartment building in the south end; it is wedged in a slope so it //can't// block anything."]]] (link:"You ask if Amber is interested in the MK2 Tincture to... lighten her load.")[(replace: ?FinalAmber)[You ask if Amber is interested in the MK2 Tincture to... //lighten// her load. "(text-style:"sway")[Noooo] chance in hell. I fuckin' love my body! (text-style:"buoy")[Hehe~] a //LOT// of people love my body." She thrust her butt out, yanking her udder under her further and fully flopped on top of it, burying her face in her cleavage as her breasts were shoved up, wedged between her head and udder. Her arms hung over the sides and softly squished in, hugging the udder and causing the top to billow further up into her face and hummed into her own fat flesh. Only the tips of her hooves were touching the ground still- her weight all on the udder, causing her comparatively tiny horse udder to peek from around the back of her legs between them. The golden ringlets of her equine tail bounced around as it flicked lightly from side to side.]] (link:"You ask where would be a good place to stick your own home.")[(replace: ?FinalAmber)[You ask where would be a good place to stick your own home. Vivianne just shrugged, but Amber spoke up. "Plenty of space on the south end. You know, between the south western forest and the actual south forest- where the two used to be disconnected? There is a pretty big space there no one uses for anything." Luan turned and pointed to the western plains. "The homes on the north west- the very first block? They form a corner pointing away from the forest, but are so far from the forest that the western-most home has a rather large gap between the structures and the trees. With the plains right there; //prime real estate// no one is using." (text-colour:blue)["Hmm, that would make me your //neighbors//, neighbor. That is a nice placement, actually. My view would be a split of plains and forest- with the beach in the distance."]]]] Speaking of //old//- you spot Esther and Jacob in the background talking to two RHE staff as well. Their handler is definitely long gone- those two are getting on in age by now, but they stopped some RHE regular staff to ask what all was happening today. It puts a smile on your face. The test subjects and RHE staff should not be afraid to interact with one another. Usually the test subjects assume the RHE staff are on business and do not want to interrupt them with conversation, so they never approach. RHE staff are afraid of interrupting their perfect little paradise in the valley and stay hands-off. But today is the start of a //change//. Now that your tours are done- the true integration begins. You wander to the south-central valley and hear laughing and yelling and head toward the foot of the Great Plateau. There is little drops of liquid all over the walls of the gallery and library, concentrating toward where Gabby, Ceba, and Fate&Basil's homes are! Many test subjects are running around squealing as they get pelted by snowballs! Though the snow melts almost immediately after falling to the grass, now that the sun is properly out. The gate between the two embedded homes is wide open so they dash in to gather some of the snow and then dash out to chase one another with the snowballs before they melt down their own arm! Ceba is of course joining in the fun, but unlike the others- she does not stiffen up and scream when hit; it's //refreshing// for her, she ''wants'' to get hit. Fate is just lying in the doorway to her house, enjoying watching everyone play without joining in. The door is open so you can smell breakfast in the air- Basil is likely cooking inside. Throwing the snowballs is Ruby, Amunet, Gina, and Grace. Grace is the only one //completely// dry still- she is too fast on her feet for anyone to hit her! Amunet's huge hump makes her an easy target so the others deliberately do not throw as many at her, because it would be too easy. Ruby isn't too quick on her feet but her long flexible torso allows her to squirm her way around their projectiles. Gina uses her powerful leg muscles to jump almost straight sideways out of the path of the snowballs. She cannot jump straight up and down without incapacitating herself for a moment with the //slap-back// from her huge pouch-tits. You wheel yourself to the forest edge by Gabby's house and have a tough time getting through the forest path itself with your wheelchair, but you manage it. The deeper pits sunken between tree roots are covered with planks, so there is nowhere for you to get //completely// stuck in. Faith startles you, patting you on the shoulder suddenly as you roll past her house. "(text-style:"rumble")[Hey!] Good to see you finally getting outside //for once!//" You sigh. (text-colour:blue)["You know copying my DNA won't let you mimic my chakra signature. You cannot use my genes to get past high-level security in the main complex."] "Pff, you can keep your S-rank security access. I just want to take that ''//junk//'' for a spin!" She grins devilishly at your mutated genitals. You sigh even harder. (text-colour:blue)["Well, I can't actually stop you so... have fun, I guess."] |FinalFaith>[(link:"If I hear you tried to steal my identity to mess with people, I will put you in one of the chronostasis pods in the bunker for a week.")[(replace: ?FinalFaith)[(text-colour:blue)["If I hear you tried to steal my identity to mess with people, I will put you in one of the chronostasis pods in the bunker for a week."] "Ouch. Understood."]] (link:"If you somehow manage to tag Eve, you can finally experience what it's like to completely burn out your pleasure receptors and put yourself into an orgasmic coma.")[(replace: ?FinalFaith)[(text-colour:blue)["If you somehow manage to tag Eve, you can finally experience what it's like to completely burn out your pleasure receptors and put yourself into an orgasmic coma."] "Ooooh, I like the way you think!"]]] You can see parts of the meadow through the gaps in the trees before you actually get to the clearing yourself. The twins Pepper and Mint are once again in the meadow- but this time they are actually picking flowers without getting distracted. At least... they aren't distracted ''yet'', anyway. You can hear Lilac humming, but cannot see her- she is likely hidden within the flowers of a wisteria tree. You are startled by Rosemary and Okra, who say //hello// from ''behind'' you as you get to the clearing. You smile and say hello back- spotting them slightly above you! They are both sitting on part of the spiraling path up the Great Plateau, with their legs dangling off the side. You see a shadow pass over a moment- looking up only in time to see the glint of metallic hued feathers. Soma landed on the top, likely to practice her dance in the warm morning sun from as high up as she can be, without it being cold like the mountain peaks. You continue north around the edge of the Great Plateau's base, where the trail is almost //nonexistent//, because traffic on this side is rare. You hear the groan of shifting tree bark and manage to spot Ambrosia. She is too deep in the woods for you to get to without getting the wheels of your chair stuck. It looks like she is asleep anyway- her human form is resting in a hammock made of vines. When you enter the bright sunlight on the opposite end of the forest, into the middle of the western plains you see a //hill of breasts// across from you! Lucria and Kaila are both laying in the grass looking up at the few clouds in the blue sky, with the tops of their heads touching. Because they are on their back, their many, ''many'' boobs have rolled off as far apart as they can go- to ensure they get at least a little bit of a tan all the way around their massive globes. Ariadne sits on one side and Io on the other, having carried the two XVs subjects here themselves, since they are too endowed to move on their own. Looking to the east back toward the town you spot Yuko in her kimono riding on top of Danalah like a mount! Though, her legs both hang off one side because Danalah does not have a saddle. Janette is lying in the grass nearby, and her and Danalah are nose-to-nose investigating each other, since neither are able to speak. To the west you see Laurane's giant shell bobbing around in the water and Lorelei's massive form looming over the side of the beach. You can faintly hear her singing from where you are in the plains- that woman's voice is ''power''. Laurane's shell is //capsized// and Angus is precariously balancing a foot on either side of the edge of the shell! Jun is sitting on the beach cheering him on. Someone likely made a bet that the buoyancy of Laurane's shell still couldn't keep Angus above water. Well, he is standing on it and above water ''now''. You wonder if they will ever tell him she //isn't floating//. You can tell from where you are- the part of the water they are in is so shallow that the tip of her shell is probably wedged into the sand and rocks on the bottom- so she isn't actually floating at all. You see the subjects have set up a volleyball net as well on the beach and four more subjects were swatting the ball back and forth. It is a bit close to the water though- if the ball goes sideways far enough someone is going to have to jump into the water to get it back. But maybe that was the point- there is enough beach that they did not have to set it up that close to the water. Lauren and her close friend Nancy were on one side. You imagine Lauren is brutally hard to go against- she is the type of person to spike the ball //constantly//, and she is so extremely tall that you cannot get the ball over her head. You almost mistook Nancy for Lulu- she has shifted all her cow traits to the top of her body for this match, because cow hooves don't do well in sand. The other side of the net is Beau and Amour... but Amour seems to be doing the lion's share of the work. Beau's bouncy bits are a bit too heavy to be jumping around with sudden movements. Plus her mammaries can orgasm; and her teats flopping around drumming on her soft flesh would spark her pleasure receptors. Amour is taking full advantage of his many arms to put up an almost //impenetrable defense//. You wave at Yuko and Danalah as they ride past you- now done talking with Janette. You wander back toward the town and as you approach the north end again you see many test subjects gathered at a distance pointing and talking about the construction. You see part of the new fencing being put up around the graveyard to encapsulate it, and the construction crew already has the property for the soon-to-be movie theatre squared off. You also have plans for a large fountain in the plains between the palace and Tria's house and a flower garden around its base, but, one thing at a time. At the head of the crowd talking about the construction is of course Opal the gossip. Marcy, Nail and his wife Rachel are also there, talking among themselves at a safe distance from the construction crew. You startle them all a bit when you wheel yourself up behind them and speak up suddenly. (text-colour:blue)["You know you could just ask them what they are building."] Opal put her hands on her hips- her belly already looking a bit pregnant because of milk that built up while she was asleep. "Well that would take all the fun out of guessing." Nail shrugged. "They are busy anyway, wouldn't want to interrupt the construction itself just to ask what they were doing before you interrupted them." You sigh. (text-colour:blue)["They are also human, and enjoy conversation. Maybe they would like the opportunity to show off what they are doing. //One question// isn't going to take up enough of their time to make a dent in their schedule."] |Theatre>[(link:"Spoiler alert; it is a movie theatre.")[(replace: ?Theatre)[(text-colour:blue)["Spoiler alert; it is a movie theatre."] Opal huffed, proffering to guess over actually knowing. Rachel's eyes glittered at the news though. "(text-style:"shudder")[Oooh~] the ''big screen''! I love how the audio in theatres //rattles// your rib cage!" Nail laughed, motioning to her. "Yea, she really liked going to the movies back in the day. This will be like back when we were still just //dating//." Marcy hummed. "I hope I can use the seats in it..." You nod. (text-colour:blue)["The seats fold back so the back of one seat links to the seat behind it to support taurs- you can use that and just... have a bunch of extra room."]]] (link:"RHE staff will be in the valley much more frequently now, so don't be shy.")[(replace: ?Theatre)[(text-colour:blue)["RHE staff will be in the valley much more frequently now, so don't be shy. Opal- I know you more than anyone would enjoy more ears to whisper secrets in."] She blushed. "Well... yea. It would feel weird just approaching them out of the blue though... perhaps I should hang around that new café, BJB." Rachel tilted her head. "What does its name stand for anyway? I haven't been inside yet." You chuckle. (text-colour:blue)["//Bean Juice Bar.//" You laugh again at her puzzled expression only deepens. "Yea, not the best name but, eh. It was a coin toss between //BJB// and //'Hold The Cream'//."]]]] You hear someone shout in surprise after a loud splash. You look over and see a soaked Gabby on the beach of the lake and large waves rippling out from a single point, before Tria emerges from the water and laughs. Tria dove into the lake by her home to help wake up, unintentionally soaking Gabby who was still easing herself in on the beach. Hmmm, now you wonder if wet goat fur smells like wet dog fur. Tria and maybe Audumbla are likely the only test subjects unable to fit into the café, but it has sealed cups for take out, so they can still order from it- they just can't sit inside. If Tria curled herself up, her body would be about the size of half the entire building the café is in. You could use her thighs to practice //wall climbing//. You start wheeling yourself back toward the café again to check on things and get a refill on your drink. When you are crossing the market you unexpectedly see Eve! The air distorts around her in the shape of a bubble while Saanvi leads her by hand on a tour of the area! Moth must have cast a type of //barrier spell// around her, muffling all senses. You also see Lulu and Moby in an arm-wrestling match using one of the currently empty shop stalls as a table. Or more accurately; Lulu's ''golem'' is arm-wrestling for her. Moby is in his suit of armor, so it is //golem versus golem//. Looks like Ron the dollmaster is going to have another project to work on... whatever golem loses the match is likely also going to lose its arm. Nemia slithers around her husband's suit of armor cheering him on- adhered to the side of it by her many, many suction cups. You can see Kalha offering Chastity a piggyback ride- but it seems Chastity just used it as a thinly veiled excuse to get the jump on Kalha; reaching down to grab her four-pack of breasts from a position where Kalha could not bat her hands away. Aleiha is in the north pool beside the market, slowly slithering her tail around the water and Vicky is standing on her tail, looking around for where it peaks over the water to step over to the newest formed arch- trying to stay above water while the surface she stands on constantly shifts. When you get to the café again you can see Taylor and Xiangxin inside having a drink. You hear a bunch of commotion in the eastern forest though, so you end up wheeling yourself past the café. The ground is too uneven for a wheelchair to navigate these woods, so you end up having to park it by the edge and go on hoof the rest of the way. The ground in these woods is rocky, which also causes a lot of the roots to be exposed on the surface, creating a lot of rising and falling surfaces. The forest floor is covered in mushrooms in the autumn, but right now the only mushrooms you spy are //Frog's Crowns//. As you approach the clearing in the middle back of the woods you see many test subjects gathered, as well as several packed bags of items, indicating they are leaving on a trip. Marcus and Marcene, Dannis and Lucia, Jinx, Yu, and Tiffany. You walk up to Tiffany, since the others are busy carrying their luggage into the hidden door leading to The Grotto. (text-colour:blue)["Fishing trip?"] Tiffany smiled and nodded. "Dannis, Lucia, and Jinx are just here to relax on The Ark like a cruise ship- but the rest of us, yea. I don't mind some fishing. Relaxing but still productive. Lots of action on the island now. I think Jinx and I proffer to wait till the dust settles and just observe the aftermath, haha." You smile. (text-colour:blue)["Yea, there will be quite a few changes when you get back. I hope the island will remain safe while its Arbiter is away."] Tiffany huffed. "The threat of the police prevents more crime than the police themselves. They all know I will crack them over the head if I hear they have been up to no good while I was gone. That is enough." Roxi suddenly came dashing up behind you, her paws pounding against the earth. "Your drink, Tiff!" Roxi kept switching which hand she was holding onto the cup with- probably because it is too hot, even for the thick pads of her paw-hands. Tiffany took it and took several small sips from the hot chocolate before motioning to the cup. "Mmm, might have a new favorite place to loiter when I get back." Tiffany went to catch up with the others in the Grotto. Roxi looked at you rather wide-eyed. "(text-style:"sway")[Oooh~] you're ''big''!" You lower your brows. (text-colour:blue)["If I was normal sized I wouldn't be an XV subject."] "Oh, yea... I guess that's true." As you return toward the café and get back into your chair; you spot Olivia and she spots you at the same time, and you walk past the building yet again to meet her in the middle. "Here you are! I was wondering when you would head out- then I check on your chronostasis pod and find it is //already empty//!" |FinalOlive>[(link:"You complained before about having to wheel me around the valley, so I did it myself this time.")[(replace: ?FinalOlive)[(text-colour:blue)["You complained before about having to wheel me around the valley, so I did it myself this time."] Olivia pouted. "Hrmm(text-style:"buoy")[mmm]. Fine. So what are we doing today anyway? Your tours are all done now." You shrug. (text-colour:blue)["Nothing. I mean, you can do whatever you want, but I am just... //existing//. Taking in the activities, people's opinions and just being in the valley in the flesh for once. Today is the start of a new future."]]] (link:"Didn't know you wanted to come down with me.")[(replace: ?FinalOlive)[(text-colour:blue)["Didn't know you wanted to come down with me; figured you would just come down on your own whenever you wanted so I went ahead of you."] She puffed up her cheeks. "Well I figured you would come get your ''sister'' when you go out on an important day like today." (text-colour:blue)[//"Sorry Olive."//] "Aaargh don't you start calling me that again!" She punches you in the shoulder. (text-colour:blue)["Ow."]]] (link:"You were going to come visit the new coffee shop, so I was going to meet up with your again inevitably anyway.")[(replace: ?FinalOlive)[(text-colour:blue)["You were going to come visit the new coffee shop, so I was going to meet up with your again inevitably anyway."] "Mmm, I guess. We could have missed each other though if we visited at different times." You chuckle. (text-colour:blue)["I figured you had enough of babysitting your older brother anyway." ] "(text-style:"rumble")[Never~!]"]]] You two wandered back to the main paths. It was getting more and more active out as more people woke up and started to wander. Not just test subjects now but RHE staff as well. Handlers surrounded by the people they helped shape- laughing and reminiscing on old accidents and funny mistakes as their subjects got used to their new bodies. The library was especially busy- packed with RHE staff looking to read something new that isn't a research document for once. You and Olivia wander around the entire day. No objectives this time, no one you are trying to meet or schedule to keep, and no research for her to do. Just //existing// and taking in the island life. At lunch you two pass through a large BBQ just south of the north pool and market and grab some good food. In the afternoon you two form a duo and face off against Nebela and Sage in a tennis match. In the evening the construction crew is starting to wrap up work on the theatre already- it is only one screen so an admittedly small theatre. You and Olivia and a rather large group of other test subjects all gather to the west beach to watch the sun set beyond New Eden. It is already totally dark before you and Olivia start heading back to get dinner in the main complex. It feels like you have never stopped having dinners with your little sister, but it has been half-simulated for some time now. Dinners where you are present in the flesh have become sparse, but you can change //that// now too. Olivia put her hand on your chest to stop you from following her once you were at the top of the slope. "Hey, have you ever looked ''closely'' at the statue of TS01?" (text-colour:blue)["What? Not particularly, no. I mean, I already know what she looked like well enough. The new apartment building is going to be built around it, so a lot of people will be seeing it soon. It will be in a small central court."] "Mm. Well, //before// that, ''you'' should check it out. I will wait for you in the restaurant." Well... that is rather out of the blue. You are rather leery of the statue, actually. You are glad it is sort of off by itself west of the main complex normally, because you could not stand to face it every day. You want too badly for it to be flesh and blood rather than stone. Your mother died almost immediately after Olivia was born- your parents were quite old to be having kids, so the birth was too hard on her. Serene became like a mother to you in her place. You wheel yourself around the far side of the current apartments. The ground here is mostly dirt and small rocks. Grass does not take root here, but there are a good number of leafy plants and small shrubs around. Several hearty flowers that enjoy dryer, harder earth to lay their roots in. Serene's statue has a bit of moss on the base and sits in a grassy patch at the end of the plateau where it abruptly cuts up a steep cliff- the grass and several vines having creeped down the cliff face to spill out here. You can tell the statue was made in her prime- her giant breasts held impossibly high on her chest. Even in statue form her body would not be able to hold itself upright due to the weight of the breasts- but the statue is not entirely solid. The stone breasts are hollow and the inside framed with rebar. The plaque at the base simply says //'''Forever #1'''//. There can only ever be one, number one. You wheel yourself slowly around the statue scanning the base and statue for something off. Something someone etched into it after the fact? Olivia wanted you to take a close look, which means there must be something amiss. Though it is dark out, the light from the windows of the main complex that face west still illuminate the statue well enough. Aside from moss and some small pastel purple flowers growing on the base and a few on the statue itself- nothing seemed off. When you returned to the front you finally noticed what was wrong. The 1 on the plaque- if you look at it from an angle there is a thin gap between it and the actual plaque. The number 1 is a separate piece from the rest of the base! You wiggle it a moment but it doesn't come loose. Then you push it in like a button and the plaque clicks and lifts up! There is a small compartment behind it, housing a single crystalized memory. You gingerly take out the crystal, and click a switch under the left arm of your wheelchair to reveal the compartment in the arm rest that contains your own golden slate. You touch the golden slate but you do not know who the memory belongs to, so you touch the crystal to the slate next to tell you where it came from. It belongs to ''//Serene//''. But, that means the memory is //unreadable//. She is no longer alive to give her consent, so ''no one'' can unlock access to the memory- your S rank security authorization means nothing when it comes to crystalline memories. The slate suddenly beeped. (text-colour:red)[(text-style:"bold","expand","fade-in-out")["Priority access granted, differing ownership rights as per //final will and testament.//"]] (text-colour:blue)["''(text-style:"shudder")[W]-what?!''"] Before you can ask ALUA what this is all about, the memory activates and your perception is shifted to that of Serene herself. You hear her clearing her throat and for a moment all you can see is a wall of cleavage! Her breasts are absolutely titantic. Because she is also very tall, the size of her breasts looming overhead is a rather intimidating sight, though their soft warmth is ever inviting. If you rest your head against one you can faintly hear her heart beat inside and the muffled sound of liquid occasionally as they produce massive amounts of milk. Serene looked up into her bedroom mirror, which allows you to see her face since you are now seeing reality //through her//. "(text-style:"sway")[Heyyy] kid, //er//, I guess not a ''kid'' anymore, (text-style:"rumble")[a-haha!] Or I guess hello RHE staff, if someone other than you finds this..." She furrowed her brows. "If you aren't Julius, put this back where you found it, ''you thief!''" ALUA had not been invented yet when this was recorded likely- so it was technically possible for someone else to look at this. Serene's face looked a bit serious for a moment and she leaned in closer to the mirror and then ran her index across her hairline. "Do I really have that many white hairs...? (text-style:"sway")[Sigh.] (text-style:"shudder")[Ah]-anyway, //sorry//, distracted myself." She locked eyes with herself- staring at you through time. "So, I don't know if this is really necessary at all, but, I dunno... //insurance// I guess? Your test went a little bit ''sideways'', and you put yourself into chronostasis to give yourself time to weight the options. Makes sense... be hard to //oversee// RHE if the //Overseer// cannot leave the XV bunker. Just another bump in the road... we all learn to adapt to our bodies, or RHE invents a new path for us to walk. This island is a testament to people's refusal to lie down and accept fate. People who lost limbs, who could no longer fit in on the outside, who lost everything, or never found a place to call their own in the first place. They find their way here, and with RHE they help progress human knowledge to help human evolution take that next step, beyond our limits, while also making a place on our little //island of misfit toys//, heh. I know you will keep your promise, however long it takes. I see the seriousness in your eyes every time you remind me you will make it happen. This is... just in case I am //not around// when that happens. I just wanted to make sure that you hear it from me; //''thanks''//. Thanks for taking my silly little nit-pick so seriously. Thanks for being someone I could bitch to all the damn time. Thanks for all the hard work you put into keeping this island the paradise we have all come to love." She bumped her head on the mirror a moment in deep thought before standing up straight again. "You were going to outlive me by a ways no matter what, but I guess since you started using chronostasis you are going to outlive me by a ''LOT''. So, I guess when I am gone you can use //this// if you ever miss the sound of my voice. When we first met on The Ark, I just wanted to stick around you because everyone else was so //dire//. I wanted to help out and be there when the magic happened but as you know- I definitely do not fit in with the researcher types. And as a little kid back then- //neither did you//. Your dad seen I was the next oldest to you and figured I would be a good babysitter for you, I didn't really mind- figured you were old enough that all I had to do was make sure you didn't get yourself killed on the equipment, (text-style:"buoy")[haha]. You seemed to look up to me, at least //back then//, which was a little weird. I was used to annoying people or getting into trouble... not being a role model for anyone. I am glad we met though. You will guide RHE in the future, so by helping you along, I guess I am also still helping out, even after I am gone." She groaned. "Oof, //grim thoughts//. Guess it is going to happen eventually. Well, don't mean to be a downer, just... //yea//, that is it. No need for the big speeches. Or my usual ''rants''. Just... thanks Julius. You’re a good kid." Olivia watched you from the office windows solemnly as you cried, with a soft smile on your face at the foot of Serene's statue. //Thank you, Serene, for being my best friend... for being everyone's best friend. For being silly when people took things too seriously, and being serious when people got careless. Today RHEI is guided to an even brighter future, by your command. My promise kept.// (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[(text-style:"bold","double-underline","expand","fidget")[[[~ THE END ~->Absolute]]]]

Congradulations on obtaining all endings and exhausting all content in this CYOA! Just in case anyone doubts you actually obtained everything; (text-colour:red)[`"FCY04_CG13"`]. Only someone who has been to this page will know that password. And if you are the first person to have ever made it this far- ''double'' congradulations! PM me the password for unlocking the Almighty ending and I will provide you a relevant prize! No links beyond this point! You've already read everything so... no reason for there to even be a replay button. If you are a completionist like me- consider this page your (text-colour:yellow)[(text-style:"shadow")[trophy]].

You look around your room at all the keepsakes you have collected from your tours. Each is more than a heartwarming trinket; they also represent the progress toward your greater goal. (after:10s)[[[Stop looking at keepsakes.->Re:Arrivals]]] (if:$Io is true)[The plushy udder from Io. Cute, pervy, and soft as all get-out! ](if:$Olivia is true)[The childhood ring from Olivia. The braided copper ring used to fit only on her middle finger because it was large on her- now it only fits on her pinky. ](if:$Hydra is true)[The seashell from Kiri and Luan. Pretty- and found in the same place and time as you met, so directly relevant to the memory. ](if:$Aloe is true)[The... well, empty tin the honey icecream was in. It has an ice rune on it so its a useful storage container to keep. The ice cream itself was delicious. You need to wait for it to melt a bit though- when totally frozen it is so stiff you'll deform your spoon on it. ](if:$Esther is true)[The thermos Esther's own milk was in. Obviously you drank it already- half of it before you even got home. You use the thermos for coffee now, and it still reminds you of where it came from. ](if:$Brimstone is true)[Sage's red dragon scale. The edge is so sharp you can use it to open letters and packages. ](if:$Ass is true)[The worn copy of The Golden Ass with a maple leaf bookmark that you got from Rosemary. Shamefully you still have not read it to completion. ](if:$Lucky is true)[The clover lapel pin from Saanvi. May it always bring you luck. ](if:$Bookmark is true)[The cute cow bookmark you got from Angelique at the library. ](if:$Sketch is true)[The beautifully done sketch done by Beryl of Tiffany. You had it framed to keep safe and put up on the wall. She used cross-hatching shading. ](if:$Homunculus is true)[Papillion, your homunculus, fluttering around the roof of your room wherever the beams of light filter in through the window. You were definitely not expecting to get a pet as a souvanir. ](if:$Bushido is true)[The stone wakizashi made by Xiangxin. You have it up on pegs in the wall. You were considering putting it over the door to your room, but if you accidentally slam the door- you don't want it to fall off and cleave your head. ](if:$Blossom is true)[The crystal bloom Ambrosia gave you. It is pretty damn solid, but just in case- you have the unwilting blossom under glass. ](if:$Memory is true)[You have your trapped memory imprint in a bottle on the window sill, thanks to Mercy. It is a moment with a test subject in the outside world- which would seem to break RHE's code of secrecy. Because of the format though- the bottle could just as easily contain a dream, so no one needs to know that the person in the bottle is actually real. ](if:$Skalie is true)[You have Kalie's giant golden scale mounted on the wall over the head of your bed. You still wonder what happened to cause such a pristine scale to be disloged... ](if:$Wolfwool is true)[The spool of wolf wool you got from Fate. You kind of feel like googling some sewing instructions so you can actually make something from it. ](if:$Shark is true)[The shark tooth Gina gave you. You should drill the base and make it into a pendant. It is probably the most normal souvanir you could get from RHEI. She literally had it as a souvanir for herself from the outside. ](if:$Piano is true)[You keep two matchsticks beside the tiny grand piano Jinx and Snow gave you, so you can play the tiny keys. You play surprisingly well for being several hundreds of times larger than the instrument you're playing. ](if:$Kumis is true)[The still half full bottle of Kumis from Danalah in your mini fridge. It isn't that strong, alcohol wise but its definately a... unique taste. ](if:$Wisteria is true)[You keep the laminated pressed wisteria flowers on your bookshelf. The flowers of the meadow would never look as good once removed, but it still brings you back to your time with Lilac. ](if:$Eitr is true)[You still have the tiny crystal vial on your shelf, containing the single drop of Eitr that Audumbla gave you. The next time you get sick, you can drink it to almost immediately get better. ](if:$Oppai is true)[Ah, the huge oppai ball wobbling on the edge of your desk. When your head-empty you just take it and jiggle it around- the motion of it wobbling is hypnotic. ](if:$Fromage is true)[The wheel of twice-aged cheese from Beau. You have had a bit of it- it is very strong. Since it is a dry, aged cheese it keeps quite well; you don't have to worry about it going bad too quickly. ](if:$Sword is true)[The silver sword piercing you got from Amunet. You may never get the hole to put it in, but it makes a neat little trinket on the shelf anyway. ](if:$Coin is true)[You keep the arcade coin from RHE on the shelf- a glint of silver in front of your books. You wonder if Qo still has the top score. ](if:$Ring is true)[You often wear the glass ring you got from Nail as a pendant. People ask you where you bought it, and you have to just tell them you do not remember- even though you most certainly do. ](if:$Salt is true)[The salt crystal that Nemia gave you sits by your books- shielding them from moisture. You often space out while looking at it- trying to imagine the underwater river it originated from. ](if:$Charm is true)[Your house keys are accompanied by the chibi cowgirl charm that Ruby gave you. Adorable. ](if:$Bull is true)[Your cellphone dangles the white bull charm you got from Ruby after your visit with Jack. So cool! ](if:$Brandy is true)[You had some of the olive brandy that Lace gave you, but the rest is still sitting on a shelf. You... think you enjoyed it? You honestly don't remember a lot after drinking it. ](if:$Angel is true)[The tiny wall safe in your room contains only a single object- Serene's bra clasp, that Kalha gave to you. Even if your entire house burns to the ground- it will always be safe. ](if:$Canon is true)[You feel a little bad about collecting keepsakes, since you are actually on the island with them and not actually an outsider. But they already knew that- and still gifted the items to you. They serve as emblems of budding friendships, and you will cherish them all.]