Antz (World Guide, Sapient Species) (Patreon)

Few would even begin to contemplate the idea that the world would be a much better place if it had a population of ant people running around. Trying to keep ants out of the pantry is tough enough when they aren’t five feet tall and bent on turning the tables by setting out to trap you. It seems like common sense, really.

Thankfully for all the transformation fetishists out there, biologist Doctor Ti’kin Ch’vurri was not the sort of woman to be deterred by pesky little things like common sense. The tentacle-haired darinni worked in secret for several years, carefully concocting a composition of very specifically configured genes and chromosomes which took the world’s ant problem to a whole new level. The resulting species of giant ant proved to be one of the few examples of a ‘completely engineered’ life form with true long term species viability. Secretly released into the transformation fetish scene in the year 4502, they’ve proved to be quite a successful, if generally little known, species.

Antz appear as black ants about two meters long when walking on all six legs, or about a third of a meter less when standing on their hind legs only. They are surprisingly light compared to their size, which is the primary reason they can exist at all, weighing 30-35kg each. Antz have no particularly unusual traits or abilities besides their emission of a particular blend of pheromones which produces an attractive effect of sorts. This effect seems tailored to make the members of the species seem just as socially, and even intimately, palatable to mammalian humanoids as attractive members of their own species.

Antz are fully, individually sapient, and can exist in normal society with few issues. Unlike their tiny natural counterparts, they are unable to dig out colonies in soil, instead living in existing natural caves or abandoned, albeit stable, mines. Their primary food source are the several species of benign, luminous fungi that they cultivate within their subterranean homes, though they are capable of safely consuming just about anything the typical humanoid can. It is not uncommon for members of the species to exchange labor with locals for different types of food. At least one colony, living in an old mine in the mountain just north of Kima, near the city of Mashiva, has its own small farm.

If there’s one thing Antz are known for, by those who know about them, it’s their willingness to take just about any sapient mammalian humanoid back to their colony for ‘intimate purposes’. Within the colony, guests are denuded and introduced to the two different forms of so-called demi-antz. Female demi-antz are eyeless, legless creatures endowed with gummy maws and a female reproductive orifice at the very tip of their abdomen. Male demi-antz are similar, but their male member is mounted upon a long, articulated leg, of sorts, protruding from their own abdominal tip. The former are found mounted along walls in masses of hardened ant-spit, while the latter are found mounted upon low ceilings.

Visitors to the colonywill generally get to watch as male demi-antz copulate with females, both orally to feed them, and genitally, to fertilize their eggs. They also witness female demi-antz lay eggs. Females lay six to twelve eggs per cycle, each cycle lasting four days. Most of these eggs are not viable and will be fed to the males by the proper antz as part of their diet. The few that are are collected and cared for in special, secret chambers that visitors are not allowed to see.

Unlike most species with transformative powers, antz do not simply take what they can get. If a visitor is not overtly disgusted by what they encounter on their first visit to the colony, the antz will invite them back for a series of ‘dates’. Each of these dates will involve similar encounters with the demi-antz, along with samples of their pleasantly sweet fungus. The fungus is perfectly safe for mammal consumption, and can often be found for sale in communities near antz colonies.

Only those who are sufficiently attracted to the intimate features of the demi-antz are considered acceptable prospects for addition the colony. Female visitors are expected to imbibe at least a few mouthfuls of male demi-antz effluent within the first four visits to the colony, while male visitors are expected to consume an equal amount of natural juices exuded by the female demi-antz in the same time. Both forms of effluent are mildly intoxicating, and have complex flavors that many mammalian humanoids find quite pleasant.

The reproductive effluents of both demi-antz sexes may contain the mutagenic triggers that will result in the imbiber’s slow transformation into a demi-antz of their own physical sex. There is little chance of transformation during the first encounter with the fluids, but once the demi-antz sense that their ‘partner’ is comfortable with consuming their effluent, the chances of transformation rise. A first encounter transformation generally occurs in only one in a thousand cases. A second encounter transformation takes place once in every hundred cases. For the third to sixth encounters, the chances are one in four. Beyond that, transformation is nearly guaranteed.

When the antz sense that a visitor has begun their transformation into a demi-antz, they will come together in a large group to apply a mass of softly glowing, fungus laden spit in the spot selected for them. The visitor will then be lifted up and be stuck in place. The antz-spit adhesive is quite permanent, and the spot will remain the new demi-antz home for the remainder of their life.

Transformation into a demi-antz takes upwards of three days to complete. During the time, the subject is fed plenty of fungus and, for females in reach of an existing male demi-antz, plenty of masculine effluent as well. Sensations provided by the transformation have been described as strange, twisted, mildly uncomfortable, and mind bending, though never in a manner or magnitude to make the subject want it to stop.

The transformation into a demi-antz has a severe mental diminution effect. Demi-antz have no real need for complex thoughts, and therefore their brains are reduced to something more appropriate for their sole purpose in life. The subjects themselves are largely unaware of this, experiencing a smooth transition that, at any given moment, makes it seem that their current state is how they’ve always been.

There are only twenty-seven known demi-antz colonies at the time of this article’s writing. Only the one at Kima is well known to the general public. Access is by antz invitation only.