{"sf1_id":2249431,"sf2_id":"naO49xXe","title":"Nyandemic Story, pt. 23","author":"nothingsp","words":2453,"posted_at":"2025-05-06T06:48:46.000Z","tags":["Billy mays","Cat","Catgirl","Gender Transformation","Multiple Breasts","Nyandemic","Ron Popeil","Transformation"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2249431-nyandemic-story-pt-23","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/naO49xXe","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/86/7e/867e0aca-5640-4f77-af36-70f51c927b9f","description":"Kit's life is fine...or basically alright...or at least not particularly bad...depending on the day. Or, at least, it \\*was\\* fine, before \\*everyone's\\* life went topsy-turvy with the arrival of a global pandemic. Sure, the new bug might not \\*hurt\\* you, but it certainly has the capacity to turn your life upside-down - and his life is \\*fine\\* as-is, isn't it? But as society tries to cope with the necessary preventative measures, and Kit struggles to come to terms with his own feelings on the matter, it's an open question whether he'll make it out of this without ending up a bit different than he went in...","content":"I bristled, but couldn't quite bring myself to pull away from her touch; instead, I turned my head and brooded – at that, at the thought that there might not even _be_ much I could do about these instincts, and at the reminder of how I'd spent the weekend. (What an absolute _fool_ I must've made of myself…)\n\n\"…You knyew, didn't you?\" I muttered stiffly.\n\nNicole gave me a sympathetic look, but couldn't hide a trace of a knowing smile on her face. \"Um, _myeah,_\" she said. \"It was kinda harrrd to _miss._\"\n\n\"Why didn't you tell me?\" I wasn't quite sure why that irked me as much as it did; it felt like another nagging suspicion that, while she hadn't _really_ been laughing at me the whole time, she might've been in a _position_ to.\n\nShe chuckled softly. \"Didja rrreally need me to spell it out for you?\"\n\nI made to answer, tail lashing, then stopped short as my brain insisted on considering the question first; ultimately, I said nothing. After a moment, she leaned back and folded her arms behind her head; I felt a little disappointed to have her stop scratching, but also strangely aware that, in my current mood, I'd probably hit my freak-out point if she continued. (Was this just going to be my _life_ now…?)\n\n\"I tried brrreakin' it to Frank,\" she said, her whiskers twitching ambivalently. \"Couldn't get thrrrough, nyat while…she…was all fuzzy in the brrrain. Nyand then, next morning, she just looks over at me and says, 'It's happening, isn't it?' Still out of it, all huggy with Alex, but she just…put it together, I guess.\" She shook her head slowly. \"I don't think it can stop us from rrrealizing, but…maybe there's some things nya can't just _tell_ people, things we've gotta figure out on our own.\"\n\nI sat there for a minute, running it over in my mind, the tip of my tail twitching in agitation. Should I have realized? _Could_ I have realized? Would it've _helped?_ Would it have been easier to come to terms with this if I'd still been whacked out on my own neurotransmitters, high enough on the warm fuzzies to cushion my psyche from the shock, or would it have compromised my judgement re: having my gender and species scrambled the way it'd played merry hell with my social instincts, and made me get stupidly into it and do stuff I'd feel horribly embarrassed by later? I shuddered at the thought.\n\nAnyway, with the initial shock long since passed, it'd be silly to continue brooding over what-ifs; for better or worse, I was facing this stone-cold sober.° But it was deeply weird to think about what came next; I'd been worried for so long about _losing_ a battle to retain my sex and species, and that phase was over now. Yet this wasn't The End; there'd be tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after _that,_ for decades to come.°° Like it or not, this was the _start_ of a different phase of my life…\n\n° (Random hormonal outbursts notwithstanding.)   \n°° (Unless I got hit by a bus or something.)\n\n…one where a bunch of things would be different for me, in ways I didn't even _know_ yet, and where I wasn't even sure what _I'd_ be. Okay, Nicole's reassurances _might_ make me feel a bit better; but if I was still _me,_ yet different…was it really up to me to decide who the new _me_ was? Could I _handle_ that, when I never quite felt like I'd gotten the _old_ me together? What if I couldn't figure _this_ out, either!? Could I ever really be _okay_ like this? _Should_ I be? My brain swirled with questions…\n\nNicole leaned back and shifted around on the couch, letting her tail slip between her legs and assuming a normal human-type posture. (I'd noticed when she hugged me, but we were already the same height; even assuming that part of that was from walking on her toes…) \"Anyaway, I was gonnya ask,\" she said, batting idly at her own tail. \"Nyat to prrry, but…how _arrre_ you comin' nyalong?\"\n\n\"Coming along\" was a little irksome – like I was baking a pie or something, not having my entire _body_ remodeled without my asking – but I heaved a sigh and thought it over, trying to figure out where to even _start._ \"…Nyew could say I've 'brrroken grrround,'\" I said at last. I felt my cheeks turn a little pink, and my tail lashed at the air.\n\nShe nodded. \"I figured; Frank was about the same. Mya, I dunniaow if that's a 'condolences' thing…?\"\n\n\"Hell if _I_ kniaow,\" I said. I was getting a little fed-up with the vocal tics; I tried to measure out my words, focus on enunciating… \"It was freaky to see it _in prrrogress,_ but it's nyat like anything's actually _gone…_but then people make it such a big deal _culturally,_ and what do _I_ even think…!?\" I shook my head, staring into space.\n\nShe said nothing, waiting for me to continue; but truthfully, I _didn't_ know what to make of it. Congratulations, me, you've got a furshlugginer _vagina,_ aren't you just _thrilled?_ A brand-new body part you never asked for! A fun new angle on questions of how people perceive you and what they _want_ out of you! A whole _galaxy_ of new euphemisms to feel weird and uncomfortable about, in a _rainbow_ of flavors: twee, crass, cutesy, florid, tittering-schoolboy \"clever\" – you got it, we name it!\n\n_BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!!_ Order now and you'll also receive a set of breasts and complementary curves! _(Sizes may vary. Offer void where prohibited by law. Void offered regardless.)_ We'll even throw in a rich heritage of associated cultural baggage stretching back to the dawn of history! That's right, you get the reproductive tract, the secondary sex characteristics, and the disruption of your social comfort zone, all for the low, low price of just _the entire rest of your life_ – and it really, really works!\n\nI grimaced and shook my head – how the hell _was_ I supposed to feel about that!? But my fuming was interrupted by Scraps, who moseyed over, hopped onto the couch, and promptly made himself comfortable in my lap. It didn't exactly cure my disgruntlement, but I reached down and absent-mindedly scratched him under the chin. Why do we do this for cats, I wondered? It makes _them_ happy, but there's no guarantee they'll even acknowledge it, let alone…but there he went again, purring up a storm between my legs. Okay, sure, I thought, but it's not as if this is _usual_ cat behavior or anything…\n\n\"I just…I can't stop _thinking_ about it,\" I said, at last. \"How it'll all end up. Even if I _am_ still me, I'll be all different, and I don't even know what that'll _look_ like. But my dumb brrrain keeps jumping in with speculation, and then I have to sort out how I feel about _that,_ even if it has no basis in reality…\" _To say nothing of whether that's even a_ normal _thing to be thinking about,_ I thought.\n\n\"Curiosity's killin' the Kit, mya?\" Nicole said wryly.\n\n\"More like I've already seen what it _can_ do,\" I said, \"but I have nyo idea what to _expect._ Is…is _whatever_ I end up as…gonna be the kind of thing that people think of as 'prrretty?' 'Cute,' 'hot,' 'a total bombshell,' any of those things? Would I _want_ that? What _do_ I want to look like, and _why!?_\" I sighed. \"I never had to _think_ about that before; now I'm stuck knowing I'll arrive _somewhere,_ but nyat _where._\"\n\nShe nodded knowingly. \"'S only nyatural, if it makes you feel any better. I had nyo idea how _I_ was gonnya turrrn out, as a teen; all I could do was look at my mom 'n _guess._ I bet nyew didn't either, didja?\"\n\n\"No,\" I said with a groan. Her talking about it in _that_ context made me feel all weird; it'd been one thing with my sister, but hearing it from some other woman I just happened to know felt oddly initiatory, like I was becoming part of a group I'd never belonged to before. \"But going through that once was _more_ than enough.\"\n\n\"Mya, can't dispute that,\" she chuckled, tail lashing slowly; down in my lap, the calico arched his back up into my lower abdomen as he nudged into my touch, still rumbling like an engine. \"But…if it helps, that's all more a state of mind than anyathing. Nature plays its part, sure, but 'prrretty,' 'cute,' 'hot?' Those're all how we choose to _prrresent_ ourselves, I think.\"\n\nHer whiskers twitched, and she gave me a fangy grin as she got up off the couch and padded into the kitchen.° \"Whaddya think they sell makeup for?\" she continued, rummaging through the fridge. \"People try to look a certain way 'cause they want to be _seen_ that way. Sometimes it's 'cause they imyagine other people will like 'em better, sometimes it's that they're trying to exprrress how they feel inside – but it's all prrresentation. Nyathing wrrrong with that, but it's somethin' nyew _choose._\"\n\n° (Our apartments were built in an open-plan style, to save on walls; I could've followed her even without my enhanced hearing.)\n\nI turned that over in my brain as I scritched Scraps's ears. It was weird enough trying to process the question of how I wanted to _look;_ re-framing it as a question of how I wanted to be _seen_ made it a little easier to wrap my head around, but no less confusing to consider. I already _had_ a pretty clear notion of who I was as a person, didn't I? Dry, snarky, detached, a loner, never getting involved, lurking in the background and never quite fitting in with the rest of the world? I could still be that when this _thing_ was done with me, couldn't I?\n\nBut did I _want_ that, or was it just that I didn't _know_ anything else? Why _shouldn't_ I want it? Was it so wrong to not fit in, like they try to hammer into you as a kid? Was I under some _obligation_ to involve myself with the group, to draw attention? Was it a bad thing, to be a loner? I found myself almost instinctively getting hot under the collar, thinking about that – and I felt my tail stiffen up, the fur beginning to puff out. Whether or not I engaged with people was _my_ business, dammit!\n\nBut…\n\n…did I _like_ being alone…?\n\nI shook my head violently in an attempt to dislodge the whole line of questioning from my brain. _Gahhh,_ maybe it was less trouble to just think of it in terms of _looks_ after all. But trying to do _that_ just brought me back to everything I'd already been running over in my head…\n\n\"…What about Frank?\" I asked uneasily. Nicole had fetched something from the pantry, and I heard the soft crack and crunch of the can-opener; the pungent aroma of _fish_ drifted over, and despite being all worked up, I couldn't help turning my gaze in its direction.\n\nShe snorted. \"Okay, sometimes Nature's just unfair. Girrrl got _blessed,_ what can nya say?\" She drained the tuna and dumped it into a bowl, where it mingled with the tang of mayonnaise, then began to blend it with a fork. \"'S _that_ what nyew're all moody about?\"\n\n\"It won't go _away,_\" I groaned, cringing and feeling myself redden at the admission. Even if I _knew_ what I wanted, what if I just got stuck with…with something like _that,_ regardless? It might not be likely, but surely it wasn't _impossible._ Could I even _handle_ that? Was it a thing you could get _used_ to being…?\n\nShe padded back over and put a hand on my shoulder. \"Kitten, nyanless things take a _serious_ turrrn in the next coupla days, I don't imagine nya have to worry about it,\" she said, with a sympathetic smile. \"By this point, it was _prrretty_ obvious how she'd come out. Nyew're prrrobably stuck down here with the rrrest of us mortals. Here, lunch.\"\n\nShe handed me a sandwich on a plate; some buried kid-instinct still balked at seeing it cut angle-wise rather than down the middle,° but after many years it no longer truly bugged me. (I wondered if I'd ever get that kind of a handle on _these_ instincts…) \"Can nyew, uh, _have_ brrread?\" I asked, as she tucked into her own. I knew there was some uncertainty around catgirl dietary restrictions, especially for the anthropomorphic types, but I'd never looked into it closely, hoping it'd never be relevant.\n\n° (Even now, I cannot offer a rational explanation for this; it was pure kid-logic that that is How You Do Sandwiches. My mother, in mild exasperation, once cut a square out of the middle as a prank.)\n\nShe shrugged. \"Nyo harm done nyet,\" she said cheerily. \"Even the kitties _can_ eat it, it just doesn't do 'em any good. The chives're a differrrent story, but I think that's in the dosage.\"\n\nI took a bite; she _had_ added chives to the mix. It was a nice touch, even if it was the tuna that commanded my attention. Scraps shared the latter sentiment, raising his head off my leg to offer an inquisitive look; Rasputin signaled his interest by resuming the caudal assault on my lower back.\n\nFeeling slightly silly for indulging him, I dabbed a bit of filling out of the sandwich and offered it up on my fingertip, after checking for chives. He licked it clean with his delicate sandpaper tongue, which got me wondering about mine; I hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, yet, but it wasn't something I normally paid much attention to. I ignored Rasputin for a bit, but eventually relented and gave him some; Nicole smirked, but said nothing.\n\nNeither did I, for a bit. I hadn't realized I was hungry 'til I smelled the fish, but I hadn't actually had breakfast, what with all the Big Emotional Mess this morning; and having a bite helped take my mind off that, too. I sighed, and for the first time this morning week it wasn't a sigh of disquiet or exasperation. The apartment was warm and comfy, even as oddly-dressed as I was, the midday sun filtered in from the windows, I had food (nourishing _and_ tasty,) a cat was curled contentedly in my lap, emitting a soft, strong rumble, and that was joined by a gentle, relaxed thrumming welling up from within my—\n\n_Oh for God's sake._ I was _purring,_ wasn't I.","series":{"name":"Nyandemic Story","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2249429-nyandemic-story-pt-22.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2249433-nyandemic-story-pt-25.json"}}