(F to Honchkrow)

“Okay, everyone online?” Raleigh looked at her Discord, beaming at the familiar faces. She flicked her eyes over to her chat, less to read it and more to check that there were enough messages to keep the feed moving at an acceptable level.

As expected, she’d already hit the rate limit, and incoming replies were automatically delayed. That was good, because this was a very, very special stream. If it went off right, she’d be famous for this, immediately and perfectly viral.

“Okay everyone. So, you know how my dad works for some super secret lab? Well, get this. Apparently there’s something going around where just listening to a certain sound… Changes you into a dog. And I happened to ‘borrow’ a copy from my dad’s computer.” Her heart hammered, and she waited for a few messages to load.

+LOL, no way+
+u sure this won’t get you in trouble+
+Probably just a stunt.+

“I know, it sounds too crazy to be real, right? So, here’s the plan. I’ve got my usual crew all watching so they can help me if anything goes wrong, and I’m going to mute everything but my mic so it doesn’t affect you. Isn’t that nice of me?”

+Definitely a stunt.+
+srs u SURE this wont get tyou in trouble+

Raleigh rolled her eyes. “Anyways. Amber, Ben? You two good?” She waved across the camera to her best friends. They gave her a quiet thumbs-up, courteously having muted themselves to not distract from Raleigh’s big moment.

In all honesty, it was kind of a stunt. Raleigh had seen a muted video, and it looked too surreal to not be faked. Some anxious-looking volunteer-at least, she hoped they were a volunteer-had looked to nearly explode with thick, curly fur before becoming some kind of posh dog.

It was probably a prank her dad had played on her, for remoting into his work computer while she was away. But honestly, she’d always dreamed about transforming herself into a dog, so this was too good to pass up. Worst-case, it didn’t work, and she’d just act like a dog for a bit on camera for fun. Best-case… Well, her dad was smart. He’d definitely have made a cure.

“No sense in waiting, then.” Raleigh clicked on the audio file she’d stealthily downloaded. A long, drawn out sound started to play. It was weird, it sounded almost stretched out. Was that something her dad was working on? Taking whatever magical sound this was, and slowing it down for… Some reason?

Or maybe it really was a prank.

+How’re you doing that+
+Whoa! So cool!+
+At least you put some effort in+

Raleigh’s brow furrowed in confusion. The sound kept playing, but there was something else going on. A rustling, something that sounded like a brush being run along her headphones. She looked to her camera.

Her hair, normally blonde with streaks of green, was rapidly darkening to a shade of black. That on its own would have been alarming, but this change was eclipsed by the sight of her hair somehow styling itself. The thin, soft strands were weaving together, twisting into what looked like a hat.

“Wh-oaw.” Her breath hitched a little bit, a hiccup working its way into her speech. Had she been paying attention to her friends’ muted video, she’d have seen them flinch in their seats. But Raleigh was too focused on her own changes.

She brought her hands up to her head, pausing at the sight of a darkness spreading across them. She looked down and rubbed against the backs of her hands, feeling something bristly rub back against her. It was like she was growing some kind of thick stubble. Or… Something thicker than that. There were dark quills pressing their way out from her hands, from her arms. Each of them was firm to the touch, and she could feel them tug at her skin when she pet them.

The slow, drawn out audio kept playing, and some part of her brain finally caught up with it. It was the sound of someone panting ferally, exhaling directly into a microphone. The audio hitched, and slowly started to lift in pitch and volume. She wondered if this was a slow-motion bark.

Well, when in Rome…

“Okay, so I have a honch that this isn’t just a prank from my dad…” Raleigh mustered up her courage. Her chat wouldn’t judge her for this. Probably. Lots of guys thought it was cute when girls acted like dogs, right?

She unsurely let her tongue loll from her mouth, breathing into her microphone. “Haah… Haaoon… Haah…”

+Hhaa whsats she doing+
+Anyone else hear like a weird word in their head I think something’s wrong+
+I thought you said you were gonna be a dog, why do your friends have beaks?+

Raleigh thought that last chat was a little weird, but she’d already gone this far. She was really going to bark on stream. “Hawoof!” She yipped cutely, blushing. The sound of the slow, drawn-out bark in her headphones kept playing, echoing in her brain.”HaaAAONNCH!”

The volume of the sound caught her by surprise. Her eyes snapped wide open as the quills on her arms burst with thick dark fluff, soft downy feathers covering her arms. A pang of disappointment gripped her heart – she thought she was supposed to be some kind of dog. But like this, she looked like a raven, or a cr-

The thought fell apart in her head as she looked to her friends. In Ben’s seat was what looked like a dopey plump bird, with white fur around his head, and a pudgy red-feathered belly. His headphones were still firmly clamped to his head, his eyes were glazed, and his beak kept opening and closing as though he was calling out to someone.

Amber’s headphones were around her neck, but she wasn’t faring much better. Her lips had merged into a curved yellow beak, but it didn’t look like there was a way for her to open it. One of her arms was a large, white-feathered wing that waved anxiously. The feathers looked stiff though, almost like they were carved from wood. Her other arm pressed against her new beak, her eyes wide with panic.

“Hhhoaunch?” Roleigh breathed into her microphone, looking wide-eyed at her friends’ streams. Ben shuddered at the sound, and flapped excitedly. Amber’s head seemed to shrink, growing almost perfectly round. A distinct shade of green washed over the girl’s features, washing away everything from her face except her wide eye and frozen beak.

Raleiw’s world felt like it was closing in on her. She didn’t think this through. If this really was real, if this really was… Then was there a chance that anyone watching her stream would be infected? She looked to chat worriedly.

+Ajlknmmh wjhnadns hppnnnnnnn+
+Whoa are you all serious?+
+The word… Kind of like… Mare… Marill…+
+Holy crap glad I muted this+
+There’s no way audio can do this to people, right?+

It was real. It was really real. Or this was a super-complicated prank, but then how would that explain what was happening to her? And why was her viewer count… rising?

She furrowed her brow, crinkling her nose. It felt stiff. She didn’t pay too much attention to that. Instead, she looked at the numbers on her screen, wondering why she had to think about whether they were increasing or decreasing.

The slow bark in her headphones kept playing, and her chest ached. Rohleiw arched her back, crooning as she started to swell. Or… At least, her upper chest did. Her legs felt like they were sucking up into her body, and her toes kept curling and uncurling. Thick, downy feathers kept pushing their way out from her.

And honestly, it felt amazing. Sure, she wasn’t a… Whatever she wanted to be. It was an animal, but that animal didn’t register with her brain as well. Her friends weren’t like it. They were clearly a Delibird and a Xatu, weren’t they? How did she know that?

Or… Why would she expect that she shouldn’t know it? Raleigh shook her head to clear her thoughts, her feathered finger-wings brushing off her headphones. It was an instinct driven by her fading subconscious, to try and remove the noise that was affecting her.

Unfortunately for her, this made it even easier for her to feel her own squawking. “Haaoon! Hoonch!”

It felt like her head was suddenly squeezed in a vise, but it was one that was warm and cozy instead of painful. Still, the effect was the same. Her skull suddenly compressed around her brain. Her vision spread as her eyes shifted a little to the sides of her head, and she was sure they were unfocussed, as a bit of drool slipped past her lip.

Honchleigh Honchlow honch raleihonch… She wobbled. She didn’t know what she was. Who she was. She looked like some kind of crow. Crow crow krow. That was a nice word. It was the only animal from her old life that she could think of. She tried to say it.

“Krrooow! Honch! Honchkrow!”

+jadsfknbajlv+
+I’m calling 9-1-1 maybe they can help+
+Mrrrllrlrlll+
+Just joined whnmnnfngown+

The words made a bit of sense to Honchkrow. They were people watching her. They were becoming a flock. Or some of them were at least. She preened happily, fluttering her feathers as best she could around the thick shirt covering her body. That wouldn’t do. She wouldn’t be able to fly with that.

Deep, deep inside, a part of her panicked. That shirt was the last part of… Her. Of the her that wasn’t the name her subconscious couldn’t think of, didn’t want to think of. She tried to fight back against the alien coldness washing in across her brain.

All that did was give it a fleeting memory of the person she’d been. The hotkey to unmute her friends’ streams. Her wing slapped at her keyboard, hitting buttons largely at random. Her screen brightness dipped. Her livestream ended, then reopened, then ended, then reopened. Her volume muted and unmuted. Then she finally hit the call unmute button.

“-birdelibirdelibirdelibird-” The Delibird babbled like an idiot. The Xatu remained silent, its psychic cries bouncing off a microphone unable to convey them. The audio was quiet, coming from Honchkrow’s headphones on the floor. But it was enough.

Her brain was her own, finally. That other feeling, that human, was quiet. She pecked at her shirt, no longer able to read the last messages flitting across her screen.

+Mute this stream, don’t listen to it!+
+jjjjmmbwrrl+
+Why shoulbidoof biddoff bbfddd+
+Hey what’s going on? At work so can’t hear+
+Mute this stream, don’t listen to it!+
+Hey why did this shwooupin recommend+
+User was banned: Too many repeat posts.+