Temporal Trash
Shay stared at the solid door. He took a deep breath and smiled.
"Hello," he said. "I'm Shay Evans, I'm the new hire and I--"
He shook his head and adjusted his stance, relaxing his shoulders a little. He took a deep breath again.
"Hey," he began, raising one hand. "I'm Shay. I--" He blinked. "That rhymed." He shook his head again. "No, no, no, I can't rhyme. I've got to be calm. I've got to be cool. I've got to be..."
He sighed and shut his eyes. Once more he took a deep breath, breathing only through his nose. When it was complete, he opened his eyes and stared at the sign upon the door.
"Mythic Registration, Individual," he read softly. "MRI?" He tilted his head and his gaze lowered. "A governmental agency serving the people of Cascade. Hours are..." He caught himself and then checked his watch. "Oh crap! Ok, ok, calm, cool, collected..."
He looked down at the tag around his neck and saw his smiling face with words printed: Cascade Mythic Registration, Intern. He was meant to be here, he worked here--about to work here. This was his place and he belonged here.
Shay nodded solemnly. Afterwards, he pulled open the door and stepped inside. While the heavy door noisily closed behind, he took in the details. The interior of the building was cool and dimly lit, so that he had to squint to see what resided inside. There was an elf seated and turned away from him playing solitaire on his terminal, a suit wearing half-beetle, half mantid sort of humanoid sorting through floppy disks with its six arms, and also an entirely normal older woman standing in front of him, gazing at him expectantly.
"Oh!" Shay said, and gulped. "Hey, I'm Shay."
He raised his hand and looked into the woman's lined face, a smile coming upon his own when he saw something suddenly glimmer and sparkle over the woman's shoulder. He squinted at it and looked and--
Shay suddenly faced the solid door. His hand was raised to clutch its handle. He stopped himself and blinked in confusion. He stared at the door, uncertain.
"What is the cause for delay, Shay?" a light voice asked behind him. "Did you leave something?"
Shay looked over his shoulder and saw the elf he had noticed before. One of his thin eyebrows was raised, and it rose only higher when Shay stared at his tag, looking for a name.
"Shay?"
"I...uh, what?" Shay mumbled. "I don't...I don't know you, I just saw you and--"
The elf cocked his head. "Is this your way of telling me you do not want to go to lunch?"
"Lunch?" Shay blinked. "I-it's and i-it's my first day and..."
Shay looked down at his watch. It was a little before noon and the date was a week from today. No, it was today--no, it wasn't, it couldn't be--
The world spun. The man swayed and would have fallen had the elf lunged forward and caught him. With a grunt, the elf managed to get Shay unsteadily to his feet.
"Careful there," the elf panted. "You are larger than I."
Shay shook his head and blinked, nausea quickly rising within. Abruptly he lurched forward as he felt his gorge rise and tasted bile.
"B-bathroom," he belched. "Where's the bathroom?" The elf looked at him quizzically, but pointed behind him. Shay nodded and lurched towards the indicated direction.
"Shay," the elf called. "Shay, are you alright, friend?"
Shay didn't answer, instead choosing to keep his hand cupped over his mouth as he made his way towards the restroom. He looked to and fro while he staggered there, and as of such caught sight of the strange insectoid from before. This time it wore a sport jersey and was sifting through a plateful of steaming, squirming grubs. Shay paused and watched as it speared one of the wriggling grubs with a pincerlike finger and lifted the still squirming thing to its proboscis. Shay dry-heaved when he saw the humanoid insect feed, sucking the juices and insides from the fat little grub. It was only because he turned away from the sight and stumbled back towards the bathroom that he didn't vomit there and then.
A few moments later, Shay made it into the bathroom. He slammed the door shut behind him and lurched towards the toilet. He flipped the lid open and knelt, retching. Thankfully nothing came out and after several seconds of dry heaving, he felt somewhat relieved. He stood shakily and shut the lid. Though his stomach was relieved, his head still ached horribly. Groaning, he clutched his head, sat upon the shut toilet, and closed his eyes. His mind raced as he tried to understand what was happening. Had he been drugged? Was there some Mythic magic amiss? Was he merely forgetful?
He shuddered slightly and felt his stomach drop. His eyes flew open and he instinctively looked down. He gasped.
His legs were spread, his pants were down, and so were his...panties? He blinked and stared befuddled at his crotch. It was soft and flat and covered with a layer of grey fur. He realized he was staring at a woman's crotch, as his masculinity was gone. In its place smooth was a smooth, furred feminine mound. Shay stared.
"Agh!" he screamed, not recognizing the high-pitched squeal that emitted from his muzzle. Yes, muzzle. He stood and reached for his short snout, all the while feeling something brush against the toilet's cold porcelain tank, his chest wobble slightly, and the lack of any movement down below. There was truly no reason to touch his muzzle, he realized, because a portion of it was always in his sight. He took in a ragged breath and felt his chest bounce again, while something twitched behind. Simultaneously he looked down and reached back, catching hold of a fluffy protrusion while also catching sight of a pair of palpable lumps upon his chest.
Breasts, he realized. He had breasts upon his covered chest, and in his hand he held a fluffy tail that twitched this way and that. He lowered his gaze down past his breasts, beyond his smooth gray-furred stomach, and to the feminine form that lay between his wide hips. He felt his ears lower as he whimpered.
He shuffled awkwardly over to the bathroom's mirror, leaving his pants and panties behind in the process. He looked into the reflective surface and saw the masked face of a raccoon staring back, a visage very similar to the animal though possessing eyes that somehow appeared distinctly feminine. Shay whimpered and raised his hands while he rubbed his naked, pawlike feet against the ground. His fingers were like a raccoon's with long, clawed digits that had sensitive hairs above them. Unlike a real raccoon, he at least had thumbs. He twitched his fingers and then laid them upon his breasts. Fueled by pure curiosity, he squeezed--and screamed.
It wasn't so much that groping his mammaries hurt; in truth, the sensation was quite the opposite. What pained him was the realization that he was a lady raccoon or at least in the body of a humanoid female raccoon. None of it was right, none of it belonged.
"Shay?" a muffled voice called, followed by a knocking on the door. "Is everything okay in there?"
Shay turned and looked towards the door. He opened his mouth to speak and...say what? Instead, he only whimpered again.
"Shay?" the voice called again, and this time Shay was able to identify it as a woman's. "What's going on in there?"
"I--" Shay began and choked, surprised by how high and feminine he sounded. "I-I don't know."
"Ah." For a second there was silence and then the voice whispered: "Are you on your period? Er..." More silence. "It's not pregnancy, is it?"
Pregnant? The word echoed through Shay's mind and he instinctively looked down to his belly. Did it protrude more than it should? Was he truly--
"No, no," Shay mumbled to himself, stepping back until he hit the bathroom's tiled wall. He slid down it until he came to sit upon the cool floor and slightly shifted about so his tail had room to move.
"I'm not...I'm not a raccoon lady and I'm not pregnant," he said in a soft voice. "Hey, my name is Shay and this is my first day here, my first day..."
He looked to his wrist, but there was no watch there, only a slender, grey-furred arm with a black paw. He closed his eyes and muttered over and over:
"My first day, my first day, my first..."
He shivered as someone pounded on the door. Shay opened his eyes and stood without the twitching of a tail or bobbing of breasts. He was a male human again, fully clothed--he was himself!
"Yo, Shay," a voice hooted. "That's your name, right? Look, he's waiting on you. Come on, hurry up."
Shay stood and opened the door. He peered out and there a humanoid owl stood, his feathered arms folded over his tag and chest. The owl blinked and turned his head nearly fully around.
"He's in the office," the owl said, nodding. "Let's go, rook."
"Umm..." "I said go, rook!" The owl snapped, swiveling his head back. "I gotta go!"
"Oh." Shay scratched the back of his head. "Sorry."
As soon as he stepped out of the bathroom, the taller owl shouldered past him and slammed the door shut. Shay stepped further away when he heard a sigh of relief. He winced and looked towards the open office the owl had nodded at. The shades were down, but apparently there was something in there, perhaps someone who could explain what was going on. He hurried over to the ajar door, groaning as his head ached again. Just as he was about to enter the office, something flashed behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw a shimmering, gleaming shape. He blinked and shivered.
"Miss?" someone called from the office.
The glow was gone and so was something else. Shay's paws flew to his crotch and he found only flatness. Not only that, but the muzzle, fur, and troublesome bosom had returned. For some reason or the other, he was a lady raccoon, again.
"Ma'am?"
Shay looked up and found a nervous looking humanoid doe in ill-fitting, mannish clothing in the office. She sat in front of a desk with a chunky computer. The female deer stared up at Shay with wide, unblinking black eyes.
"Are you okay, ma'am?"
Shay stared at the doe and slowly removed his hands from his crotch. He clamped his muzzle shut and entered the office, walking around the doe before collapsing into the desk's swivellable chair. He sighed and abruptly sat upright when he accidentally crushed his tail.
"Ouch! Do you," he began, wincing at his soft tone. He looked at the computer's bouncing Windows 95 icon rather than the doe as he continued: "Do you know what's going on?"
"Er," the doe said. "They said you would be taking down my story and getting me registered."
"Right," Shay nodded, and kept on nodding. "Getting you registered, right."
He glanced down at his tag. Sure enough there was his smiling, feminine raccoon visage and his name under it, though the words below that were altered.
"Cascade Mythic Registration, Employee," he read. He looked up at the doe and shook his head. "I'm an intern."
The doe stared back, mirroring his confusion.
"Ma'am," the doe squeaked. "They said--"
"They," Shay murmured. He stood and smiled, ears leaning forward. "Sorry, I'll be right back--"
"Steve," the doe supplied.
"Right," Shay said, smile shrinking. "Steve."
Shay pushed his chair back in and hurried out the office. He glanced about hurriedly and only managed a few more steps before he shuddered again. He stumbled and fell onto his hands and knees with a grunt.
"Mr. Evans?"
Shay looked up. The older woman he had seen upon first entering the building stooped in front of him, one hand extended. Shay took it and got to his feet. He was himself again.
"Are you always so clumsy, Mr. Evans?" she asked.
"No, ma'am, I--" He grit his teeth together and looked around nervously. "Something strange is going on I'm..."
"You're what? This is odd behavior for your first day."
Shay's eyes widened. "My first day! I'm back!"
"Back?"
Shay nodded. "Yes, Miss..." He squinted at her tag. "Miss..."
"You've already forgotten my name?"
"No, I just never knew it!" Shay said. "We've never talked!"
"Of course we have. You made introductions minutes ago."
"No." Shay shook his head. "I swear to you..." He faltered. "I keep jumping."
"No, you just fell."
"Yes, but..." His voice lowered. "Listen, I've been...blipping through time or something and I'm not always me! I'm some raccoon lady."
"Raccoon," The woman said, pursing her lips. "Raccoon lady?"
"Yes! I know it sounds insane--"
"No." The woman sighed. "It does not. This is Cascade. This city is near the intersection of at least three major ley lines not to mention the countless other ones that cross seasonally. Strange occurrences were commonplace here even before the Mythic recursion. Mr. Evans, tell me what is happening."
"I don't know!" Shay ran his hands through his hair. "There's no pattern, it's just a shiver and sometimes some light and..." He paused as he saw something shine over the woman's shoulder. He pointed excitedly. "Like that! Look, it's like that! Wait, no--"
The light was too intense. He raised an arm and averted his gaze.
"No?"
Shay lowered his arm, noting that it was covered in fur. He heaved a sigh and shifted about on his feet, his center of gravity adjusted for his feminine form. He glanced down his muzzle at his breasts and his tail twitched in annoyance.
"No what, Shay?" A voice buzzed.
The humanoid insect stared at him expectantly. He motioned with one of his six arms at the pile of floppies piled in front of him on the table.
"You wanted to see one, right?" the insect clicked. "Do you know who?"
"Er..." He mumbled, unsure what to do until a sudden thought struck him. He tore the tag off from around his neck and eyed the smiling lady coon on the ID that purported to be him. "Strange occurrences..."
"Huh?"
"I changed, didn't I?" Shay said. "What happened to me?"
"Hell if I know," the insect said, shrugging as best as it could. "You never told me. Plus, shouldn't you know?"
"Yes, I--" Shay paused. "I do know. I just...need to see what I said."
The insectoid's antenna's twitched and his mandibles clicked together as he eyed her with his bulbous eyes. Shay smiled back, trying his best not to remember how he had seen the insect eat previously.
"Awright," the insectoid said, turning away towards another table. He pointed to a cardboard box. "Your physical file is in here, let me--ouch!"
The insectoid stumbled back after bending down far too quickly and brushing one of his sensitive antennas against the table. He chittered, his nearly translucent wings suddenly unfurling with a buzz from beneath his carapace.
"Shit!" he swore. "Why don't you...why don't you get it?"
Shay nodded and walked towards the table. He kneeled down and opened the box, finding that his dexterous fingers made such a simple task even simpler. There were a great many folders in it, each with a name upon a tab.
"Sorry," the insectoid apologized. "We're getting cabinets as soon as Jorge orders them."
Shay looked over the names. There we so many.
"Oh yeah," the insectoid continued. "And they're not well organized. Ever since they wanted most Mythic things on digital too it's been a hell of a time getting this organized especially since we haven't got a new intern yet..."
"Aha!" Shay exclaimed upon finding his folder. "Shay Evans!"
He leaned forward to grab the document and his head hit the top of the table. He cried out and held the top of his head, a small lump already forming underneath his short hair. He scowled and reached for the file again. He stopped. The folder was gone and his hand wasn't a paw.
"You lost, rook?"
Shay attempted to stand and hit his head again.
"Fuck!" he swore.
"Hey, hey, rook," Shay heard as he felt talons upon his shoulder. "Miss Korba ain't fond of that language. You OK, rook?"
Shay looked over his shoulder and saw the owl peering down at him. The man sighed and extricated himself from the table.
"I'm fine," Shay said. "I'm just going insane."
"Aren't we all, rook, aren't we all," the owl murmured and then gestured to the box. "What are you doing, rook? We gotta chuck those. That enchanted stuff finally came in."
Shay squinted. "Chuck it?"
"Yeah, rook, it's most of what you'll be doing. Menial work, the traditional intern toil."
"And what do you do?"
"Tell you what to do. Come on, pick it up, rook."
Shay returned his gaze towards the box. Something within twinkled.
"Hey--" Shay began and then the lights went out. No, they had already been out and he was once more in another time and place. He shivered, finding himself suddenly naked and furred. In the cold his nipples poked up erect beneath the fur of his breasts and his tail wrapped around his lithe legs. Shay blinked and found his vision actually quite good considering the dark, even if it didn't explain why he was naked and a raccoon lady in his workspace. It certainly didn't bode well.
Before Shay could think further on the matter, talons gripped his shoulders and pushed him down on the table. Shay squealed and thrashed, but the strong, feathery arms kept him pinned down.
"H-hey," Shay whimpered. "Stop!"
The arms relinquished their grip. Shay remained bent over on the table, breasts pushing into the wood, legs apart, and feminine lips exposed. His ears lifted when he heard some shift behind him. He sniffed and there was a certain scent in the air that only seemed to excite his already flush nethers.
"Stop?" a voice growled. "I thought this wasn't your first time. This wasn't my idea to screw here."
Shay froze, his tail lowered to cover his sex. His eyes widened when he felt talons brush his tail away.
"Is this part of your play? Hmph, I'll oblige, rook."
Talons brushed against Shay's slit. He moaned and shivered and--
It was dimly lit again. Shay blinked and found the box on top of the table with his arms around it as if he were just about to lift it.
"Lift with your knees, not your back, rook!"
Shay turned around and froze. The owl tilted his head.
"What? Is something wrong?"
Shay picked up the box and hastily walked away from the owl as fast as he could. He stopped when he realized he didn't quite know where he was going.
"Out the front door, rook," the owl called. "Turn to your left, you'll see the dumpster."
Shay nodded mutely and walked towards the solid door. He had to get out of here. First he'd dump the box then rush to his car. He could explain the situation over the phone. He just couldn't stay here, he had to leave before he lost his sanity.
He kicked the door open and rushed down the stairs. At the bottom, he took a left and saw the dumpster. Box in both hands, he sprinted towards it and miraculously reached it without tripping. Breathing raggedly, he reached one hand and lifted the top--and froze.
Something glimmered and sparkled at the bottom of the bin.
"No!" Shay screamed. He pushed the top open and dropped the box. Without any hesitation he jumped in and grabbed at the glow. Surprisingly he touched it and felt it, a semi-shattered hunk of shimmering crystal. He stared at it and anger flared. Although he wasn't sure what it was or what it was doing exactly, he lifted it high above his head for there was certainty in one thing. With a yell, he threw it against the ground. It smashed, and shattered.
"Yes!" Shay crowed, raising his hands above his head. "YES!"
Something misty swirled from the remnants and floated up towards him standing in the dumpster. He stared in bewilderment as the wispy residue spun around him.
"No..." he murmured, his voice rising when he saw the hair on his hands start to grow out. "NO!"
Yet there was nothing he could do. Standing atop trash, he stumbled back from the wispy residue even as it wrapped itself and dissipated into him. He shivered, for its clutch was cold and there were whispers within the mist, murmurings of other times. He whimpered and shivered again, crossing his arms over his chest and hugging them together even as he felt grey fur began to spread from his wrists up his arms. Worse still was the sensation of his fingers thinning slightly and lengthening, the tips of his digits curling into small claws while the skin of his hands roughened and darkened before promptly twisting into slighter shapes. The spreading fur left behind furry flesh, thinner arms, and narrower shoulders.
Upon the fur reaching his chest, Shay felt a sense of relief as its warmth spread. However, pressure upon his chest dashed away his relief. He watched in horror as the covered flesh beneath his nipples bulged and bobbed, swelling out into two small teardrop shapes. He uncrossed his hands and let them journey up, cupping his swelling breasts while they covered with fine fur and his nipples thickened and poked out against his shirt. He sighed as the mounds continued to grow until they were a size he was unfortunately familiar with. He held his bosom firmly and then let go, his paws racing towards his neck as the fur spread up there.
Shay gripped near the top of his neck and felt as his Adam's apple slipped away while a tuft of hair sprouted under his collarbone and between his breasts. Patches of fur sprouted under his eyes, forming into a circle of black that extended to the sides of his visage while gray fur grew from his skin and over his short hair. His now fur covered ears flicked and traveled oddly upwards before rounding out at the top of either side of his head. They twitched and flicked back slightly while his cranium cracked. Shay sneezed and coughed simultaneously while his nose and jaw pushed forward, forming into a short, white-furred snout with a prominent black nose and a streak of brown fur from the tip of his nose to his wider forehead. He grit his sharpening teeth together as small, sensitive whiskers pressed out of his snout. He closed his blue eyes when his skull did the last of its reshaping. Afterwards, he opened them again and they were brown and slightly rounder. He blinked and touched his snout.
Shay's attention was drawn away from his muzzle when his hips ached. He winced and dug his claws into his snout as his hips cracked and widened, his waist likewise tapering to leave him with a curvy feminine shape. Luckily his pants stayed up thanks to a belt that was probably tighter than it should be.
"No!" Shay whined, paws flying to his crotch as the fur flowed down his thighs, thickening them in the process. His round eyes widened as he felt his manhood shrink away even as his rear rounded out and a nub of a tail began to push out. He undid his belt with one hand and reached into his falling pants and into his underwear with the other. While his pants felt around his furry, lithe legs, he groped at his crotch and ground his thighs together in a desperate attempt to keep his manhood from shrinking, but nothing could save his masculinity. With a whimper, he felt his member withdraw and invert, the throbbing tugging of its departure matched by the pull at his spine as his furred, black-ring tailed pushed out inch by inch. As Shay's tail neared its full fuzzy length, so did her womanhood finishing forming so that her questing fingers pressed into a puffy feminine mound. She withdrew her paw with a squeak and looked down at her altered sex. She sighed and abruptly yelped as her tail pulled one last time. She fell onto her rounded rear and into the trash. She looked over at her tail and watched it twitch and turn--not just watched, felt. It was as much a part of her as her breasts and her--she gulped--pussy.
Finally the fur brushed past her knees, switching to black fur about halfway below them before reaching her feet. Hastily she kicked off her shoes and threw her socks off into the trash as her feet altered so that her toes largely resembled her fingers save they were larger and slightly less dexterous. She curled them together momentarily and then realized with a start that she was finished. She was the raccoon lady again, and this time she suspected the process permanent.
Shay sighed and sniffed, and immediately regretted her decision. Her sense of smell had improved and the trash smelled terrible. She stuck her tongue out in disgust and stood, her ears flicking up when she heard movement nearby. She hastily pulled up her pants and looked out of the dumpster. She squeaked and drew back when she saw the owl and the older woman walked towards the trash.
"Rook?" the owl called. "Rook, are you ok?"
"Uh, yeah," Shay said, her voice not sounding too alien now. "Just don't--"
But it was too late. They came around the corner and there she was, a lady coon kneeling in a dumpster.
"Mr. Evans," the woman said. She tilted her head. "Or is it Miss?"
Shay smiled and held her pants up tight, now regretting that she had ever undone her belt. The owl stared up at her and she swore she saw a sort of smile upon his beak.
"Geez, rook," he said. "Just because you're a raccoon doesn't mean you got to act like one."
"Yes," the woman agreed. "Get out of that filth and come inside. We'll talk."
Shay nodded meekly and stepped out of the dumpster.
"Temporal trash," Shay said, sitting in the woman's office. "It was temporal trash."
"Precisely," the woman said. "Some passerbys treat our dimension as a...dumpster, unfortunately. You are fortunate, however."
"Fortunate," Shay grumbled, cupping her breasts. "I'm a freakin' female raccoon."
"Yes. Not all such trash is benign. It merely misaligned you." The woman smiled. "Alas, what has been done is irreversible, but it is a perfect opportunity." "For what?"
"For you to learn the ins and outs of the system! You'll be going through the process. In situations like these, Miss Evans, it is better to look at the upsides."
"Upsides?" Shay said, pushing up her breasts. "I'm a freakin'. Female. Raccoon. How the hell do I even explain that to my family?" She ran her hands over her ears. "This was an internship and--"
"It's now full time employment if you wish, Miss Evans," the older woman said. "Only if you wish."
"Well..." Shay sighed. "Why the fuck not?"
"Language, Miss Evans."
Shay sat back. "Right, right, the owl warned me about that."
"The owl? You mean Mr. Walsh?"
"Yeah, mister..." Shay shivered. She sat forward and rested her paws on the desk. "There were a few things I experienced and saw in my...jumps. Were they all real?"
"In some sort of way, yes." The woman shrugged. "At least I believe so."
"Right. You know I don't remember how this went since the jumps and all and..."
Shay fell silent, and then abruptly stood. She extended a paw. The woman looked at the hand curiously. Shay smiled.
"Hey," she said. "I'm Shay and this is my first day."