User:JonBuck/Tall Tales
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{{#ifeq: User |User| Tall Tales | Tall Tales}}[[Title::{{#ifeq: User |User| Tall Tales | Tall Tales}}| ]]
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{{#ifeq: {{#ifeq: User |User| Jon Buck | Jon Buck}} | |
{{#ifeq: {{#ifeq: User |User| JonBuck | JonBuck}} | ||
Author: [[User:{{#ifeq: User |User| JonBuck | JonBuck}}|{{#ifeq: User |User| JonBuck | JonBuck}}]] [[Author::{{#ifeq: User |User| JonBuck | JonBuck}}| ]]
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{{#ifeq: {{#ifeq: User |User| JonBuck | JonBuck}} | |
Author: {{#ifeq: User |User| Jon Buck | Jon Buck}} |
Author: [[User:{{#ifeq: User |User| JonBuck | JonBuck}}|{{#ifeq: User |User| Jon Buck | Jon Buck}}]] [[Author::{{#ifeq: User |User| Jon Buck | Jon Buck}}| ]]
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{{#ifeq: {{#ifeq: User |User| Jon Buck | Jon Buck}} | |
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Authors: [[User:{{#ifeq: User |User| JonBuck | JonBuck}}|{{#ifeq: User |User| JonBuck | JonBuck}}]]
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{{#ifeq: {{#ifeq: User |User| JonBuck | JonBuck}} | |
Authors: {{#ifeq: User |User| Jon Buck | Jon Buck}} |
Author: [[User:{{#ifeq: User |User| JonBuck | JonBuck}}|{{#ifeq: User |User| Jon Buck | Jon Buck}}]]
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The registration line extended all the way out the hotel's front doors, filled with nervous newbie furs shifting nervously to from foot to foot--paws and hooves alike. The horses had all congregated in an ad hoc herd, forming a lump in the middle of the line. Closer to the front, Jerome Slater and his fellow whitetail Tara Janssen, kept watch on them with one eye. There was an amazing number of humans mixed in.
They were, of course, completely oblivious that the "anthrocon" they were attending had actual furries. The so-called Reality Distortion Field saw to that. Most of the furs were like Jerome and his girlfriend, only having changed two months ago. This "convention" was more intended as an information session for new furs than for humans to roam around in. But it still had a public face to maintain.
Tara flicked her ears nervously and stayed close to Jerome. Close enough that she could gently grasp his tail and fidget with it. "There's wolves here, honey," the doe said.
"I smell them too," the buck replied. As a human he would have stood tip-toe to see over the people in front of him. But since he was half a deer, he was already as tip-toe as he could get. Whatever was holding up the line had delayed registration for almost an hour. "Move your tails!"
The pudgy male raccoon behind the table looked in his direction. "We're working on it." Merely human ears could not have heard him over the grumbling crowd, but Jerome could rotate his to focus in a specific direction. He leaned over to tap on a keyboard with claw-tipped hands. "Almost there. Keep your fur on."
"This is a lot bigger than I expected," BD said. The female lynx waiting in line behind the two deer wore a rather typically male outfit--a polo shirt and slacks. After two months she spoke with a clipped Canadian accent tainted with a little New Englander mixed in. "But the newbie distribution tends to be uneven, from the data I've seen. Maybe there were more in this area..."
The young human woman behind her tapped the feline on her shoulder. "Are you from Canada? Whereaboots?"
BD reflexively folded her arms across her breasts. Unlike Jerome and Tara, her sex had changed as well. But due to the Reality Distortion Field the woman still saw a short, goateed man dressed in the same outfit BD was wearing. The woman had a Canadian accent as well. "Edmonton," BD said.
The lynx swallowed awkwardly. Thankfully, the line started moving before she needed to reply, interrupting them as the Canadian girl started rummaging in her purse for a pair of cat ears.
Once started the line moved quickly enough. Jerome and Tara paid their fees, then stood aside to wait for BD to get her own. The raccoon was one of a half dozen furs--and one human--behind the registration tables. He took one look at BD and put a little sticker in the upper left corner, and gave her a separate pamphlet. "Have a good time, Mister Derringer," he said, hopefully so other furs would hear it.
The sticker--which looked like a hollow square--identified as a gender-changed fur. Considering how many humans mixed in with this crowd, this convention was going to be very difficult for BD. In her everyday life people still treated her like the man she had been, because that's what humans saw.
Furries, though, saw her as she now was and would likely react to her as such. Even after being changed for fourteen months, she was more nervous about this convention than the new deer were.
Jerome motioned for the lynx to follow. BD sauntered behind them as they looked for a hopefully more private space for a moment or two. The three of them were already sharing a hotel room. They ducked into an unused conference room. "You going to be okay, Brendan?" Tara asked.
"Never seen so many other cats before," she said. BD took a cell phone with larger buttons out of her pocket. "Wonder if DL is here already. No offense, my dear deer, but I need to find that support group that's coming together."
Tara's ears drooped a little. "I've tried to help, haven't I?"
Brendan nodded, holding the phone up to her tufted ear. "Er... yes. A little too enthusiastically, to be honest. I'm just not ready for the really girly stuff yet." Her ears perked as someone on the other end picked up. "Ah! Hey there, Derek... You're in the lobby? I didn't see... oh. Oh my. I'll be right there." BD looked apologetically at the two deer. "Pardon me. I'll catch up with you two later, okay?"
"Fine with us," Jerome replied. Tara nodded her agreement.
In just a few minutes the area outside the empty conference room became crowded with dozens of furries. Many had wrinkled noses, and the odors hit Jerome like a hammer. It was more than the "con funk" that he'd read about. It was the sheer volume of animal musk that pervaded the air, mixing with each other. Add human sweat and attempts to use Febreze on the whole thing, and the deer felt like gagging. It was only the sight of several other pairs of antlers that took his mind off.
The antlers acted like magnets, drawing the eight of them together. Jerome felt his heart to thump in anticipation. He had emailed some other deer the past few weeks, but now he could meet them in person. Elation and a little anxiety simply drowned out any instinctual responses. Three other whitetails, a mule deer, and two elk. Five men, three women. It was the elk's massive antlers that really caught everyone's eye.
Everyone started talking at once, the three females--Tara, another whitetail, and the elk cow--quickly hived off into their own little trio. The men quickly exchanged business cards, shook--and sniffed--hands. Jerome was absolutely overwhelmed. Suddenly here was a group he could talk to.
"Okay, forehooves up. Who here bought a convertible?" James the elk said.
Two raised their four-fingered hands. "I have a sunroof in my RAV4. Puts a kink in my neck, but it keeps me in the dry when it rains," Jerome added.
"Adaptation is hella expensive for us," Peter added, ears a-flick. "Could be worse. Could be a giraffe. Or have horns. At least we'll drop these in a coupla months." He sounded like he was from Minnesota. "I just take the bus until then, hey."
Aaron the mule deer pointed his thumb back towards the chatting female cervines. "And then we'll look more like them," he said with a snort. He looked at the business cards he'd collected from everyone. "Diverse group, ain't we? Sorry I didn't have one to give you guys. I'm just a college student." Cocking his ears, he gave the impression of a smirk. "Any more does around? Ah figure as long as our lives've gone all furry I might as well enjoy meself."
"There's at least twenty singed up for the deer SIG," Jerome said.
The one stag who hadn't spoken yet was somewhat effeminately dressed with a circle on his nametag. Correction, "her" nametag, Jerome thought. Mary Pickens.
"Just call me MP," he said glumly. "I hate to think I've drained all the conviviality out of this group..."
"Convi... what?" Peter said.
"It's great to meet all of you. It really is," MP continued. He seemed close to tears. "But it's even harder to have this happen to you when you have young children. So just... bear with me?"
"Okay. No problem," James said. "Meet again for dinner? When's that group meeting thing?"
Jerome looked at the program. The book was a fancy one, with color art that he suspected was actually drawn from life. There was an invitation-only newbie meeting in the Main Ballroom that evening. Then the various Special Interest Groups--SIGs--were scheduled over the three and a half days of the convention. Canines, felines, cervines, equines, rodents, and others. Strangely, no birds. There was a betting pool on whether they were going to show up at some point. There were always new species reported every Change Week.
"I'm glad I'm not a dolphin," Aaron said. Those were the newest ones. "See you bucks and does later."
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