Noticing 3: Day 5 (Patreon)

Megan awakes and begins what seems to be becomming a growing habit, she checks the bathroom mirror for further changes, any changes that had happened overnight were not very noticable, it was getting hard to tell, when so many things change at once you lose reference on them, it all looks different. Megan rubs off her make up from yesterday to apply a new layer, she looks at herself for a moment she found one. the line that went from her upper lip to her nose went from a discolouration to an actual divide, she stretched out her face in a smile and noted the groove stretch out to accomodate. The groove was now a permanent feature to her face like the rest of her burgeoning muzzle it would be impossible to hide with make up. she noted other minor changes like how the pulling from her muzzle had changed the shape of her eyeline, it grew more pointed in the direction of her nose. Megan spent what felt like an hour scrutinising herself in the mirror, it was a bright sunny day outside, she made her excuses for college feigning illness.

A terrible hunger overtook megan standing infront of the refridgerator looking at the half finished yoghurt and the stale bread, she looked outside her window to the corner shop just a short distance away. Could she? She certainly couldn't go until sandy came over without eating. Megan made the decsion that if she waited until mid morning and planned what she was going to get before hand she could run in and out using only the self service machines and in doing so not be seen by anyone...probably. Putting up make up was a challenge, her fingers could barely hold the brush they had lost alot of their dexterity in the last couple of days and her thumbs had grown smaller, holding the brush felt a bit like trying to write with your left hand un co-ordinated and messy. She eventually finishes the lipstick goes on worse but still a passable attempt. She reviewed herself once more, she looked weird, she stuffed her ears into a her hat, they made strange shapes under it but people would assume it was her hair despite the lack of it down her neck. For good measure she add's a hooded coat. hoping it would make the profile of her face less abviously deformed. FInally finished after another hour of prep work, she looked like someone ready to explore the artic circle, she experimented taking her wallet out of her pocket, pulling her card out and putting it back in with a swift motion to limited her hands exposure outsite her wolly gloves, to mixed success, her fingers struggled to slide the card out and she had to use her teeth, but she managed. She re-gloved and left, not wanting to let her nerves make her performance clumsy by procrastinating.

Megan left her flat as quickly as possible, she only lived on the second floor but it being a student flat there was a high chance of running into someone on the stairwell. She got lucky though and found herself outside unnoticed, the morning air filled her nose of the invasive smell of traffic, she covered her nose to try and relieve it, she began a fast paced walk to the shop, she could see it only a couple hundred yards away but between her and it was a long striaght footpath with several people on it, Her heart quickened anxiety biulding. She whipped out her phone and aimed her head down pretending to be normal and trying to further hide her face at the same time, as she walked she felt unbarabley hot, the weather today was warm for march and people were out in t-shirts making the most of it. Her outfit worked against her, it drew an occasional look from some of the less polite public. The smell was awful like she had walked into a factory floor only this burned her nostrils, suppressing the need to sneeze she again covered her nose, in doing so she dropped her phone. It skittered on the floor to the feet of an older man who picked it up for her. Without a word he gave it to her looking at her in confusion and curiosity before walking away, "t-thanks" she stammered. Megan got into the shop, the shop owner looked suspiciously at the hooded teen before returning to his newspaper.

Megan grabbed a trolley, the possibility occured to her this could be her last chance to buy food herself so she decided to bulk buy, she sailed the aisles grabbing bags of potatoes, rice, cereal anything large and likely to last a while, she looked at the tinned section and thought how on earth she'd be able to operate a tin opener before abandonning the idea.She was being too pesimistic she thought, she had to believe this could be fixed but part of her contingency planning told her to prepare for the worst just in case. She passed the vegetable section she needed long lasting items and her stomach turned at the sight of the brocolli, her hunger re-awoke with fury in the meat section, both fresh and frozen lit up in her eyes the glass case holding what seemed to be a treasure beyond anything she'd ever laid eyes on. It was then she spotted that one of her contacts had fallen out. One artifical blue, one golden orange with a large black pupil stared back at her in the display case. Megan re-filled with fear and an urgency to return home grabbed several packages from the frozen section and pulled away. Nerve shaking her hands she pulls out her wallet at the check out machine. She managed well enough to scan and bag but the fine motor skills required to pull her card out were simply not there anymore. Her thick palms bunched up benieth her gloves making the wallet slip from her grip, card dented by her canine teeth goes into the reader. Her hands feel worse now, just arranging her index finger into a point proved a small challenge either all of them wanted to bend or none of them, much like her toes. She presses the number pad with her claws rather than her fingers and with as much grace as she can manage pulls out her card and throws it in her wallet rather than putting it back in its slot. Megan struggles with the bags a bit but manages to leave head lowered as she passes the shop keeper.

The walk back went about aswell as the walk there, people stared but no one acted on it, she got to her door and pulled out her keys. she tried to pick out her door key but struggled, it was hard to pick out one specific key, she removed her gloves to make it easier and saw why, her fingers were perhaps 2/3's there original length and so thick they constantly rubbed alongside each other, the skin of her pals had gone from being merely thick to like a coarse leather and darkened further. Using both hands Megan teases out her key and quickly plugs it in her locks before she dropped them. Inside at last Megan drops her bags she struggles with the zip and just wriggles out of her coat instead, she finds herself on the floor on all fours, her hands dont look much like hands anymore, they still hold the vague shape of hands but all the parts had changed, she could barely touch her thumb and index finger together, she puts her food away and goes to call sandy as texting is out of the question now. She gets a response that she'll be finished soon but needs to go buy new razor after school, she had more changes overnight and her leg razor wasn't good enough. Megan mentions her further changes and that she cant operate her own door keys, Sandy scolds her for going out adding she could of just waited for her to come back and that she shouldn't be so defeatist, they will fix this. Sandy pledges to not go back to college again until they find a solution, no more distractions. Megan sits down tears welling up feeling defeated. The changes were becomming increasingly unmanageable, just yesterday she could at least write and type but now she'd be lucky if she could brush her teeth, she licks her teeth in thought, they felt sharper, more uniformed in shape. Her teeth before were a bit crooked in places but these teeth felt as though they were sculpted by an artist. She went to the mirror again and bared them to herself, they did look impressive it had to be said, she bet she could chew through rope with them with ease. Her mind wandered to the probability that she would end this month by being released into the same woodland as Sam. She again looked at her hands looking more like proto-paws than what she used to write her dissertation only a month ago. She kneels down and tried them out on the floor, her palms grip the hardwoord floor nails clacking as she wriggles her fingers. Strangely it didnt feel wierd at all, almost natural, she padded across the room a bit, her nails clacking as she went, a faint twinge in her head made her stop, it felt like a very short mild head ache but then stopped followed by static in her ears. She sat up insantly and tried to rise but fell over, she tried again this time with care and managed, finding herself wobbly and off balance like she'd been bed ridden for weeks. "No, i only did it for a second dammit!" Megan screamed. She stumbled over to the kitchen counter and held herself up determined to keep her footing. Her hands slipped on the slick surface and she found herself again on her hands. The static grew louder but meg pulled herself up before it could do anything. " ok so this thing seems to have a mind of its own and its actively seeking out any excuse to change me further" meg thinks to herself. " I need to stay up right from now on, i cant lose my legs if i go on all fours its over". 

Sandy arrives later than usual she had to go pick up Sam first, she comes in with a dog crate in hand Sam yelping excitedly at Meg, " why are you leaning weirdly on the counter? " Sandy askes. " this thing whatever it is that's changing us i think its sentient" says Meg. "What do you mean? quizzes sandy. "i went on my hands and knee's today for literally 2 seconds and it started removing my abiltity to walk from actually within my fucking head!", I've taught myself again but im still a bit shakey". Whatever this is it's intentionally choosing its moments, its intelligent." blurts Meg. "Why on earth did you go on all fours megan we just spoke about this yesterday" glares sandy angrily. "I dropped one of my contacts and i was looking for it" megan lied. "hmm i guess this rules out the bacterial idea for good then". "How could it be intelligent though?" asks Sandy, I have no idea its just an idea i had based on what just happened to me, but thinking about it further whenever ive changed its usually been while i was using that particular thing." "Well what about your ears, what were you doing with your ears to make them change so much?" asked sandy, "i erm well i was touching them alot?" "well yeah but you presumably touch other things alot too like say for example your whole body when dressing." Sandy points out."you've done that several times in the past few days and most of you is no further along the whole foxification thing." "Ok look i haven't got it all figured out but what im saying is its very odd, perhaps maybe its incredibly selective about what changes, it could be sadistic and choosing the things that incapacitates me preventing me from seeking out a solution?" says Megan. "hmm that is a possible and does explain some things but it would require evidence to proove and i dont think its a good idea to experient with this." Says sandy. "look i re-taught myself to walk i can do it again" megan say's. "this is risky megan are you sure you want this?" "If this works out how i think it will then it will give us a base to work from, possibly leading to a solution. It's worth the risk." Megan sits down on her knee's hands placed on the floor. "ok so im gonna do the best i can to describe to you whats happening and you write it down, we need all the data we can get." Says megan scientifically. Sandy nods, Megan begins to crawl, for a couple of seconds nothing happens then the headache starts again. " ok so i have a headache its stronger this time", the static picks up almost deafening, Sandy says something but the static muffles it, Megan say's despite not understanding: "the static is stronger too, its loud, its all i can hear." Something cracks in megans lower back and she snaps up from the floor. the static dissapates, sandy is looking concerned. "didnt you hear me telling you to stop"? "No why" asks megan. "Look at your arse". Megan turns to see a short bunched tail, mere inches long undoubtably there. Megan stood up with no apparent loss of balance. " i dont understand" says megan. "this makes no sense, We learnt nothing and now i have a tail." says megan angrily, " i dont suppose you can re-learn not having a tail?" sandy says in dark humour. Megan slumps down defeated again on the couch only to jump back up in surprise pain, " for fucks sake i cant even sit properly now!"megan exclaims. Megan sighs, "I'm sorry this has been a really stressful day i forgot to ask, what changes did you have last night?" "Oh mostly superficial, nothing like what you're going through those whiskers weren't the only new things, it seems we seem to be experiencing a different set of changes though which further solidifies the non-linearity of...whatever this is." Sandy Says. " whats changed" asks megan again. "Fur, i have fur, well did have fur anyway. I shaved it off now but it itches like crazy. "Where?" asks megan " all over my shoulders, absolutley coated i was, my leg razor gave out halfway through" says sandy. "I bought an electric razor though so its easy to remove now." Sandy smiles showing just the hint of sharper teeth. Megan decides to let her find those in her own time. Sandy and megan order a chinese take away, Megan lets sandy get the door as she hides in the kitchen. Megan unable to use a fork let alone chopsticks went with her instincts and ate straight off the plate much to Sandy's shock. "im not having you spoon feed me" Megan glares. Without thinking about it megan licks her face clean. "Oh fuck did i just do that?" Megan blurts, sandy just nods. Sandy stays over that night, the pair sharing megans bed, Megan tosses and rolls a bit before finding her comfort rolled in a ball on a pile of her sheets.