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[b][u][center]Human Addiction

Chapter 13: From Whence They Came

Sponsored by DuskCypher

By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]

For all that he had been informed of a great many things in the last twenty-four hours, the biggest one was the fact that his pheromones didn’t just affect someone’s sex drive. It had been easy to condense it down to that when he had been experiencing what the Watfords, the cheetahs, and the others had done with him, but he had just gotten the reminder that it was more than that. It reached into the other instincts that the Anthros had, pulling at other things beyond just the desire to rut and mate. It pulled at the things that they had known before, as animals, whether they were domestic or not.

And the fact that it had started making Lisa stupid sent a shiver down his spine that he really didn’t like.

As André started discussing options with the reptiles about how they might minimize the sort of effect that the human was having on them, Roger leaned back against his chair. The fact that he was causing this much trouble for the different Anthros that he had stayed with made him wonder if the resettlement idea was a good one after all. He liked the attention that he was getting, and there was no denying that, but at the same time, there was clearly something less than ideal going on here, and most humans would start fucking with it given half a chance.

After all, they’d fucked with just about everything else in their history.

[i]And it’s not like we can talk about this back home. Some of the people running this project would run off and tell people in government, and they’d just see it as a way to retake all the old territory. Just send a bunch of randy fuckers in and let the submissive ones come under their control, and let the wild ones take charge of the others. It’d be chaos.[/i]

He glanced at André. His worries must have been plain as the nose on his face, because the cheetah suddenly stopped what he was saying and shook his head.

“No. We’re not stopping,” the feline said.

“Huh?” Lisa blinked. “That was a topic change and a half.”

“What’s going on?” Louise asked, the crocodile woman cocking her head to the side.

“Roger and I have had a small discussion on this matter before. He worries if it is a good idea for him to keep on this side of the Wall or not, and I believe that it is. He is…questioning it.”

“I can see why. No offense, human, but you are causing a lot of problems just by being around,” the crocodile said.

“I’m aware of that,” he muttered.

“Yes, but the difference is, he is trying to be well-behaved about it.”

“Say that when the gun goes off, Peacekeeper,” the crocodile muttered.

He rubbed the back of his head. He knew what she meant. She’d been showing some of her feral side when he had been in his bedroom, when the smell had started to permeate through everything and before he had managed to get a window open. The fact that she was already under house arrest for threatening a student meant that she had a record of sorts already. If she started getting territorial and assaulted him, or worse, went back to work with some of that running through her system, she could lose a lot more than just the daily freedom.

Roger winced just thinking about it, but managed to put it in the back of his mind. If André was deciding to go forward with this, then there was very little that he could do to try and dissuade the cheetah. It meant that there were commands coming from higher up about it, and he doubted that it was going to stop that easily. If the authorities out here were anything like the ones back at home, a few peoples’ discomfort was never enough to stop a big enough plan from going through.

Sighing, he started to get up, only for André to pull him right back down. He blinked at the sudden sit, and looked back at the cheetah for an explanation.

“You need to stay here, and there’s a reason. Trust me.”

“Then, maybe you should explain?” Lisa suggested. “I would like to know why you think this is better for anyone.”

“It is quite simple. Slow, effective exposure.”

“…You’re talking about building up herd immunity,” Louise said.

“Yes, something akin to that, yes.”

“With one human. Who can make our species just go nuts just from smelling him on a hot day.”

“…Well, yes, but tell me. Would you prefer that to happen with a limited number of humans that we can control, or would you prefer that to happen after they start moving over here again?”

The table fell silent. Roger didn’t have to tell them what would happen, he felt. Whether they were remembering from their old wild memories in the back of their mind, or whether they just looked up stuff on the news about humans, they were probably informed.

There were plenty of folk on the human side of the Wall that were more than willing to start moving over here once it was proved to be safe. They were still waiting for reassurance on that, but once the resettlement project was up and running, there would be dozens, if not hundreds, of humans that were rushing to apply for land and more on this side of the Wall.

And when they hit the Anthro population and realized what they could do, when there was no prior immunities to all the things that they would be exposed to…

Both of the ladies shivered at that, their tails rising for a moment or two before coming back down in a rush. Roger winced.

“Sorry.”

“Not your fault,” Louise muttered, rubbing her nose. “It’s just…remembering that.”

“I guess. But still…”

“It’s better to know these things happen,” André insisted. “That way, when it comes time to dealing with it, you have a few ideas of what to do at the start. You’re not completely blindsided when things start going off the rails.”

That was true enough, but he still didn’t like the fact that he had essentially turned the lives of multiple Anthros upside-down in order to do it. He remembered how the Watfords had been particularly broken up to see him leave, but he wondered if that was all down to the pheromones or if they were genuinely like that. He knew that they cared, but…how much? And how much was them and how much was him?

The cheetah poked him along the forearm, startling him out of his reverie. He blinked a few times, glancing back at the feline.

“You need to think carefully, Roger. While we’ve put out the information that humans can do this to Anthros, and the other humans in the project have been pulled in for further examination, it’s important that we keep the illusion of this running as well as it can. If the people on your side of the Wall think that things are going off the rails, what will happen?”

“Well…at best, they’d probably cancel the project.”

“And at worst?”

“…They’d probably try and dig into the whole thing, try and uncover what happened, so that they can find out why you’re so worried.”

“Indeed. And what happens if they find out that there’s a way of taking the pheromones and using them as more than just an in-person advantage? What if they find a way of turning it into a gas that they can send over the Wall?”

“…You really think that they’d…” Roger sighed. “Yeah, they probably would,” he muttered, rubbing his face with one hand.

The ladies were still staring at him and André, and Roger started to wonder if they were really keeping up. He knew how smart Louise was from her writing, but he didn’t know where Lisa landed on that scale. Either way, they didn’t need to keep hearing this, not from him, and not from André.

“So…you’re keeping me here, hoping that people like Lisa and Louise can start…I don’t know, getting used to it? Building up a resistance?”

“Essentially, yes,” André said. “If it is done in small doses, particularly once we have the medication figured out, then there’s a real possibility that they can start learning how to handle being around you without wanting to bow to everything you say.”

The cheetah looked rather smug, and Roger half-glared at him. The urge to try and wipe some of that smugness off the cheetah’s face, combined with his own irritation, made him push that.

“Fine. Then let’s see how you’re doing.”

“What?” André blinked, then blushed. “Oh, I didn’t…that wasn’t quite what I had in mind.”

“No? What’s the matter, thinking that you’re not so immune to it as you thought?”

“Well, that…um…”

“What was it that you said? That I ruined barbs for you forever?”

The two women sputtered, with Louise barking out laughing afterwards while Lisa stared at the yellow-furred feline. Her mouth hung open, and André’s cheeks were about as red as they could get. Roger smiled slightly, leaning back and pulling one leg off the ground. He pushed his bare foot right up against the cheetah’s chest. The feline’s nostrils flared, and he gasped softly to himself.

“See? Not so immune, are you?”

“Mmmph…that’s…that’s not…”

“Who’s a good little kitty?”

He was lost in the grip of his own petty annoyance, and he knew it. It was impossible for him to just stop now, but he needed to keep going. Some part of him wanted to see just how far he could push this, how far he could take it, and he was let loose. He smiled as he dragged his foot up and down the feline’s chest, watching as André shivered and moaned, the cheetah slowly going from panting to purring as the petting continued.

“Ah…ah…”

“That’s it…who’s a good kitty?”

“I’m…I’m a good kitty…”

“Uh-huh.”

Still aware of Lisa and Louise watching, he grumpily pulled his leg down, putting it back on the floor. Almost as if he had been released from a spell, the cheetah gasped, pulling himself upright. He blushed, rubbing the back of his head. Roger shook his own, gesturing at the feline officer.

“And that’s why I’m worried.”

“And this…this is why…I’m convinced we need to do this.”

The cheetah groaned, rubbing his cheeks a few times, patting them until the blush went away. The Peacekeeper slowly got to his feet, brushing himself off before pulling his shirt on a bit tighter.

“As you can see, it affected me in seconds. While that is likely partially due to my sexuality and…domestic nature, it will start to affect the two of you, as well. Possibly faster than usual, depending on how it works on the chemical level.”

The two scaly women were clearly shocked at what had happened, and Roger couldn’t blame them. They looked back and forth between him and André, their mouths moving soundlessly, their eyes wide.

[i]And now they’re never going to trust me around them again,[/i] he thought, feeling some of the responsibility catching up. [i]Why did I do that? I didn’t have to do that. I could have just left well-enough alone.[/i]

Once more, he started to get up from the table, but this time, it was Louise that reached out and grabbed him.

“Don’t you fucking dare.”

“What?”

“I don’t know how it all works, but I know that André’s right about this one.” The crocodile grunted, coughing. “Oh, shit, I can’t believe I just said that.”

“Neither can I,” the feline admitted.

“Yeah, shut up. He’s right, though. If this is a biological thing, really down to those pheromones and some genetic memory, then the only way that we’re gonna get through it is through some gradual exposure. There’s too many different species out here for us to come up with a vaccine or something, and trying to treat pheromones instead of germs is a pain in the ass anyway. Combine those two problems, no way in hell is that getting fixed on its own.”

“So, what, I’m supposed to just sit here and watch when it turns Lisa dumb and you angry?” Roger asked.

“Yep. That’s the long and short of it.”

“But…but…”

“I’ve always had anger issues. This just makes it a hell of a lot harder. But that’s something I can work on. Lisa? That’s her issue, and I trust my wife to find a way to deal with it. But we can’t back down. We gotta see how this works, because if we’re gonna fix it, we’re gonna have to start with fixing you.”

“Me?”

“Easier to dose one species than hundreds.”

While that might have been true, it had rather neatly boxed him in. He couldn’t just keep running away. Whether it was him or another human, someone was going to do this, and André was right. He was one of the few that would probably not be a dick about it. He could take what was happening to him and not just immediately think of how to take advantage.

Well, as long as he stayed in a decent mood.

[i]And she’s right. We can’t just make everything better by coming up with a way to dose everyone else. If there’s a party, and there’s one sick person that comes in, then you don’t blame the people that got sick for their condition. You blame the guy that came there sick and got everyone else in the same condition.[/i]

“Alright. Alright. I’ll stick around. I’ll do what I can. I don’t know what I can do, but I’ll do everything that I can.”

André nodded in approval, but Roger still didn’t know how he was supposed to do anything to help. After all, he had already done quite a bit to fuck with his new hosts, and he had just done the same to the cheetah.

And said cheetah was already buttoning his shirt up, getting himself pulled together. The Peacekeeper nodded to himself.

“At any rate, our medical professionals should have the first experimental dose ready in six days. We’ll be able to start testing things then. In the meantime, I’ll be coming by tomorrow to take all three of you to one of our doctors, just to see if there’s a change in your biology from being around him.”

“Wouldn’t you be a better baseline?” Louise asked.

“Yes. And they have used me for that, but they want to see how it might have affected someone of a markedly different species.”

“Figured.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, with the arrangements that will allow you to leave the house. Be well.”

And with that, the cheetah was gone.

Still trying to figure out what he was going to do, he was swept off his feet by a sudden yank from Louise. He yelped as he was dragged down the hall, pulled almost right off his feet in the process.

“What are you doing?” Lisa asked.

“Distracting myself. And teaching him.”

“This is going to be a biology lesson, isn’t it?”

“Yep.”

“Well, have fun. I’m going to see if I can get the kitchen cleaned.”

[i]Somehow, I doubt I have much input into what happens next…[/i]

#

A few hours later, he stumbled out of his bedroom, feeling mentally drained and, yet, altogether too well-informed at the same time.

[i]I don’t think that I’m ever going to get a handle on all of this…[/i]

But at least Louise was trying to help him. And at least he could help her a bit in return. The crocodile ran out of the room with the binder of her rough draft held overhead, grinning from ear to ear.

“Oh-ho-ho-ho, I know exactly what I’m going to do with you now…”

“Glad I could help.”

“You helped a lot more than you think. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make that better for weeks.”

“…Well, the stripping down of exposition will help you out a lot.”

“Heh, I’m enthusiastic, what can I say?”

She was that. They’d gotten an hour into the biology of reptile Anthros and how they differed from the mammalian ones before she started pushing him for comments on her book. He’d given her what he could, but then she started pushing him…hard.

He rubbed his jawline where she’d gotten a little too pushy, where he’d had to remind her that he was a guest and not a student. That had snapped her back out of it, at least enough for them to continue talking normally.

[i]I don’t want to know what the hell she’s like as a teacher if she’s that intense as a tutor.[/i]

As they walked out of the well-aired bedroom, he wasn’t surprised to find that Lisa was still in the kitchen, though she was cooking rather than cleaning now. He cocked his head to the side at the leopard gecko, seeing her in an apron to go along with her dress, and he could smell something that was almost like chicken. Almost. The seasonings were there, but the actual meat smell was just a bit off.

“What are you making?” he asked from a safe distance.

“Hmm?”

“What are you making?”

“Oh, just some fried meat fingers.”

“Anything I can do?”

“Not really.”

“…A bit worried about going dumb again?”

The gecko shrugged, but it seemed like he had hit the nail on the head. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. With all the smells in the air, he was thinking it might be an idea to go in there and spend some time helping out, but with what had happened before…

“Maybe I should take a walk.”

“If you want,” Lisa said, shaking her head.

“…I’m sorry.”

“…I’m sorry, too,” she said, sighing. “Look, we’ll talk it over later, okay?”

He nodded, and just hoped that they actually would. There were too many people that were more willing to just let something slide rather than confront it, but he hoped that Lisa was strong enough to actually want to do something about this. She seemed nice, and he didn’t want to kill that.

Grabbing his shoes from the shoe closet by the door, he left the little house. The poor area by the zoo was just as ramshackle today as it had been when he arrived, with most of the homes showing a bit of a downgrade, and the yards of the abandoned houses looking like they had been completely left to do what they wanted. They were filled with weeds and more, and he shook his head as he saw that some had completely taken over the sidewalk.

Despite himself, he glanced towards the zoo. It had been abandoned, according to André, but the cheetah had also said that it had been turned into a museum of sorts by the city.

[i]Maybe that’d be a way to get some time to think…[/i]

He turned himself towards the path down to the zoo, and wondered how empty it would be.

#

The answer was, very. As he walked up to the front door, he was surprised to see only one booth for tickets, and more surprised to see that the person inside was snoozing. Roger rapped on the window a few times, and the gazelle jolted up, startled back to wakefulness. The Anthro blinked at him, staring for a few moments before shaking his head.

“A customer?” he asked, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“Yeah, um…first time over here. What’s it cost to go inside?”

“A human?” The gazelle shook his head a few times. “I gotta be dreaming still…”

“Well, no, you’re not. I kinda wanted to learn the history out here. Is there an extra fee for, um, well…guides, or do you offer that, or…”

There were no price signs on the booth or anything that suggested what it would cost to go inside. He was starting to see what André meant about this thing being a bit of a failure, something that the city kept up as a monument more than a museum. The gazelle wasn’t helping things, still just staring at him rather than helping him out.

By the time that gazelle finally found his voice, Roger was on the verge of turning around and leaving. The ticket man tapped a few keys in front of him.

“Sorry, it’s just…you’re the first customer.”

“Today?”

“Ever,” the gazelle said, shaking his head. “I’ve been here for three months, and nobody’s come in.”

“Surprised that you still have a job.”

“You and me both,” he said, shaking his head. “Uh, 15 AD.”

He held up his card, and the gazelle gave it a scan. The machines on the other side beeped, then buzzed, then beeped again after he hit them a few times.

“Alright. You’re good to go.”

“Thanks.”

“Um…enjoy…”

It wasn’t the pheromones this time, as the gazelle was in an enclosed glass structure, but it was still weird. The fact that this was something that the entire city avoided almost made it feel like the site of some great disaster rather than the start of one’s rebirth into a new species. He wondered how it would feel to go through it.

#

The answer was painful.

At first, seeing the empty cages was no different to seeing any other inactive place of entertainment, but Roger stopped himself when he started being blasé about it. He asked himself, how would he feel if this was where his ancestors had been kept? How would he feel if he was walking down a path, looking at cages where his dumber, unable to understand ancestors had been kept?

He looked at the cages with fresh eyes, and it…it didn’t make him feel good.

[i]When people start coming over the Wall and seeing this, I wonder if it’ll make us feel different about the animals on our side of it?[/i]

He doubted that it would. Humans didn’t always work like that, but he could hope that there was a little bit of understanding, a little bit of mercy for those that were still kept like this. The stone cages, the concrete walls, the bars that ran up and down in some of the enclosures and the broken glass walls in others, all reminded him of what it must have meant for the Anthros when the Mutations first started.

Imagining being in an enclosure and having been…well, if not happy, mildly content in his own stupidity, only to start realizing what a horrible place it was, sent shivers up and down his spine. The more that Roger imagined it, thinking of the glass walls and the concrete bars as a real prison rather than just the boundaries of his living quarters, imagining how it would feel as he grew more intelligent and began to understand what he actually was to all the humans, was something that made him almost want to vomit.

There was a ghostly feeling to this place, almost like the lingering suffering of the animals was still there, and he suddenly found himself wanting to leave.

He stopped as he reached the middle of the zoo, where the old plaza for the food court and other places would have been. Finding a bench, he sat down, taking a few deep breaths as he looked down the path he’d taken. The old elephant circle had been down that way, as well as the primate exhibits, and a reptile house. He had seen an old water feature that, he imagined, had been where Louise’s ancestors might have been kept.

[i]And they all had to escape from this when they started changing…all of them had to find a way out, because there were no humans here to let them free…we all ran away…[/i]

It had been some time ago, yes, but knowing that his species was so guilty for the suffering of others was like a punch in the gut. He pulled his legs off the ground, hugging himself slightly.

[i]We have a long way to go,[/i] he thought. [i]The fact that they’re willing to let us resettle here…[/i]

He wondered if there was some sort of memory or genetic thing that the Anthros in charge still carried, some sort of odd affection that some ancestors of the current generation still carried. Was there a part of them that still loved humans as pets had done, that devotion tempered by intelligence? Or were they far enough removed to simply have forgotten all the incidental patronizing and cruelty?

It was hard to know, and he didn’t know which one was worse.

So much for just coming here to get an education and settle his mind. He leaned his head back, looking up at the sky. At least he had a better understanding of why they’d completely abandoned this place.

As he shook his head at the empty cages again, he caught sight of something moving out there. He cocked his head to the side, half-swearing that it had been his imagination, but then he saw the flicker of shadow again.

[i]What the…[/i]

Roger got to his feet, making his way along the pathway. The shadow didn’t move again, but it had been sneaking around the edge of one of the cages. Something big enough to notice, so it probably wasn’t one of the smaller Anthro species.

He rounded the corner, and there it was. A big dog, a gray wolf, as a matter of fact. His eyes went wide at the sight of the canine Anthro, taking a step back as the big wolf turned his way.

The first thing he noticed was that the big wolf was naked, as in, completely naked. Despite being an Anthro, he had taken off all his clothes, and Roger could just barely see them poking out from under some of the nearby shrubbery. The wolf’s cock was partially out of his sheath, and his big balls were dangling low and heavy.

The second thing he noticed was that the wolf was as surprised as he was, taking a step back as well. He expected to be attacked, due to the wild species thing, but no, none of that.

The third thing he noticed was that the wolf was wearing a collar.

“Uh…”

Roger slowly lifted one hand, waving at the big guy. The wolf did the same, slowly nodding back.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” Roger responded.

“…”

“Um, sorry for just walking up and seeing you naked.”

“Are you…are you the human that just moved over the Wall?”

Roger slowly nodded, half-prepared for a mauling. Instead, the great wolf smiled slowly, nodding happily.

“Oh, man…I can’t believe this.”

“What? What’s going on?”

“I’m…” The wolf shaking, his tail wagging almost like a pet dog that was about to get the zoomies and start running all over the place. He took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm himself down. “Sorry, I just…I didn’t expect this.”

“And I didn’t expect to find a naked wolf in an abandoned zoo. I guess we’re both finding surprises today.”

“Yeah, I guess.” The wolf nodded. “I’m Wuru.”

“Wuru? That’s a bit different. I’m Roger.”

“Nice to meet you.”

They started to shake, only for Wuru to grab him by the wrist and pull him forward, sniffing at his palm. It was almost like a feral dog’s behavior, in a way, trying to get the scent quickly, and weirder, it was almost like Wuru was doing it as a remembered thing, like he was reminding himself to do it rather than doing it naturally.

[i]Weird.[/i]

He pulled his hand back when the wolf finally let him go. Doing his best not to look down at that slowly-growing shaft, he kept his eyes on the wolf’s face, clearing his throat to get his attention.

“So, um…why can’t you believe this?”

“Oh, yes. I should start from the top, shouldn’t I?”

“Well, unless you wanted to lick from the bottom.”

“I could. We didn’t do any of those greetings yet.”

“…Let’s start from the top.”

“Right. You’re the boss.”

[i]Am I?[/i] Roger wondered as the wolf cleared his throat. Then, as if remembering something, Wuru crouched down, almost but not quite sitting on his haunches the way that a ‘real’ wolf might have done. The effect thrust his hips forward just a bit more, forcing his rising dog dick into the open.

[i]Oh boy…[/i]

He tried to look anywhere but there, but as Wuru was sitting like that in front of him, it was a really, really hard thing to miss. The wolf cleared his throat.

“I’m part of a group that likes to roleplay that we’re still feral. We sneak into the zoo from time to time to spend time in the cages, and…and sometimes, some of us take the role of zookeepers, pretending to be humans…”

“…What?”

“It’s kinda…” Wuru blushed. “It’s kind of a ‘fun’ thing, but…come on. We’re animals. We’re supposed to be kinda feral, at least. Why are we going so far to live like the humans did? Why don’t we go back to the natural order again? At least a bit?”

Roger couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Sexual roleplay in a zoo, plus they…they believed that?

[i]Oh boy…oh boy, oh boy…[/i]

He wondered if André knew about this. He wondered if [i]anyone[/i] knew about this. And he didn’t have time to think about it very much, because the wolf barked again, panting.

“So, wanna be my zookeeper for a bit?”

[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: Roger ends up having to deal with a lot of guilt and bad feelings about what he’s been doing just by living out here, then has to learn some history.

Tags: No sex, M/solo, nudity, history, foot fetish, musk, hypnosis, human/anthro, human addiction, series, culture, zoo, exploration, wolf, cheetah, crocodile, human, gecko,