Becoming Monsters: Tidbits 01

Hey, everyone! Since I finished up what In The Mirror was doing for book one after 39 chapters, and I just really like having fun in this world, and I have a number of ideas that just don't fit with Jay and his team, and... well, you get the point. Going to do something a bit different, but same universe. Welcome to Tidbit's Tale.

Becoming Monsters is the creation and property of Ai Loves, setting used with permission.

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Chapter 1: Higher Education

Normally, Truck-kun comes along to send you to your isekai. Instead, Todd Reed got to watch his barely miss, and in an instant he found that he was in the middle of everyone else's.

It was the usual, petty nothing of a driver. Some rich kid cruising late at night, and Todd was walking home from a friend's house after an evening of fighting games and smack talk. He had stepped out into a crosswalk and came so close to being struck by the distracted driver that the wind of its passing pushed him backwards. After it was gone, he felt... different. Odd. The glance he got of the driver gave the impression of a gorilla in a letter jacket. More so than usual.

When he got home, his parents were still out. His older sister was in her room, moving around. It sounded like she had another boy in there, one of an endless parade of them she'd had since sprouting curves and losing morals. Todd had homework.

Homework that was eventually interrupted by a blue status box, congratulating him on his new Bard class. One that assigned his Performance type as Carnal Arts. He shook his head, the blue box vanishing, and decided he was more tired than he thought. The bed beckoned, if he was seeing things like that.

This comfortable belief lasted for eight more hours, until he woke up in the morning to find that his sister had gone from a nymph to a Nymph. Her curves had gone from "man-catching" to "cartoonish" overnight, with a libido to match, and when she tried to get to the bus she found out that she couldn't get more than about a hundred yards away from her tree (an evergreen in their parent's backyard) without collapsing to the ground in pain.

The bus had fewer people on it than usual, but of those? Well, a lot were not their normal selves. Nor were his friends at school. Half had become various fantasy creatures, and the rest had Classes that gave them powers out of their dreams.

Todd, formerly the king of the nerds in his school, suddenly became "Tidbit." No usable Class. No amazing Race. No natural aptitude for athletics or self defense. Just a weak little target. A short, skinny, pale nothing, watching as his life upended, and left him behind.

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Three Years Later...

"Now, son, I know you picked this place for its math program, but..."

"Yes, Dad, I know. It got set up because of the Changed, so a lot of them come here. It's why the math program got so good, half the professors can't really work anywhere else right now."

Todd and his father were sitting in the car outside his new dormitory building. Yellowstone University, situated at the intersection of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, was a very new place. This would be its second year in actual use, having been hastily built at the tail end of the chaos of the First Year. It was the first, and currently only, institution of higher learning anywhere on Earth to be constructed from the ground up to accommodate students and staff affected by the Change.

Heavy emphasis on STEM topics, along with research on the new Races and Classes. The US still hadn't really recovered from its losses during the chaos of the First Year, but it was at least pulling itself back up by the bootstraps since. They didn't admit anyone who would be under 18 on entry, due to needing to be able to adapt to various circumstances.

"Are you sure you aren't..."

"Yes, Dad, we've been over this. Claire's new needs didn't drive me away. Neither did her memory after the kidnappers ripped down her tree. I just... I need a new start, Dad. This degree is one thing that stayed the same. Ten squared is a hundred whether a Human or a Hippogriff is doing it, and both mathematicians and statisticians are always going to be needed somewhere."

Outside, a perky human-looking girl in a university tee shirt (showing two hands shaking, one Human and one obviously Beastfolk) was walking towards the car. Father and son got out to meet her. "Hi! I'm Stacey! Welcome to Yellowstone University, are you one of our incoming Freshmen?"

Todd sheepishly nodded, trying to hide a blush. Stacey was an attractive girl, blonde, bright-blue-eyed, and... bouncy. "I am. Todd Reed. Orientation is tomorrow if I read the pamphlet right, but I wanted to make sure I was set up."

"Perfect!" She pulled out a couple of name rosa-blanca.ru with space to write on them. "These are for later. Are you Human, or a Race? Need to know so we can put you in the right room."

Todd was slightly bewildered. "Uh, Human." She handed over a blue wristband.

"Wear this for the first week or so. We don't discriminate, but as you know we are set up to help people of various Races. Until everyone gets used to everyone else, it's best to be up front about it. Anyone wearing a green band is a Race with no particular special demands. Red means that they have at least one thing that has to be considered, and they'll have a card on them that has an approved accommodations list."

Mr. Reed seemed a bit nonplussed. "This... is the right building, correct? We didn't see many others on the way in."

"Oh, of course! The University is still being built. Admin building, most of the dorms, and a couple of class halls that couldn't do without were the priorities, but construction on everything is ongoing. Our library is remote-access, for example. Our program is accredited, though, the education is absolutely top-notch!"

Mr. Reed nodded at her. "Okay. Let's go up to the room, then."

Stacey frowned a bit. Still managed to look bouncy and cute while doing it. "I'm sorry, sir, but for student privacy during orientation and in-processing, we have to take it from here. Parents can start visiting next week! If he has a lot of luggage, we can help."

"Dad, it's two suitcases and they have wheels. I got it. I'll miss you!" Father and son embraced, then unloaded. He drove off, and a tear that Todd would later swear he never shed rolled down the new college student's cheek. He turned back to Stacey and found his first shock of what would be many.

Gone were the blue eyes and blonde hair. Gone were the generous curves and cheerleader complexion. In their place was a vaguely-feminine, hairless, gray-skinned humanoid, wearing the same university tee shirt. Her eyes were blank white, with facial features that looked... unfinished. "Whew, okay, sorry for the quick-change but I'm not used to holding that for too long yet. So, hi, still Stacey."

Todd barely managed to keep from jumping out of his own skin. "Uh, hi. Does this happen often?"

She nodded. The effect was a bit different in this form. "We're all trying to get along, getting used to each other and the new courtesies of the Changed world! Three years just isn't enough time to do that, and a lot of what we're doing here will model what scientists and scholars will present to the rest of the USA."

"Ah... I see. I think. So, where do I go?" This was fairly obviously not going to be what he expected. Todd was doing his personal equivalent of desperately grasping at anything normal.

"Right inside the door should be a table, they'll look you up and give you your room key. Rooms are small for Humans and Human-likes, like me, but they're at least singles. Don't miss the social tonight! Gotta break the ice." She led him to the table, where a couple of others were waiting.

One was another Human... I mean, A Human, he thought. Unremarkable guy, dusky skin and a bit chubby. Name tag said Gabe. The other, though, was a fairly obvious Angelic type. His entire body looked like it was carved from alabaster, and glowed faintly with an inner light. What exact Race was hard to say, but he certainly was one and not trying to hide it. His own name tag said Bill.

Really is no way to tell, huh?

When Bill spoke, it was with a distinct Southern accent. Maybe Tennessee? "Name?"

"Todd Reed."

The glowing man looked through a couple sheets of paper. "Ah, here you are. Room 222B." Gabe started grabbing a few things together. Pamphlets, papers, a small plastic bag with contents unknown, and a key card. "Welcome to Yellowstone University! Once you get your stuff up to your room, please take a moment to look over the campus map and fill out your survey. It's all important, so please be honest."

"Oh... kay... anything else I need to know?"

"Yeah, the potion is going to taste horrible, but make sure to drink it all." Gabe handed over the bag. "Oh, and this place doesn't have an elevator, so I hope you didn't pack too heavy."

Those deceptively cryptic words echoed in his head as he dragged his stuff up the stairs. The hallways were fairly new, but scuffed in the way that could only come from college parties and reckless teens. There were fire doors at a few places. It all felt... actually, oddly like a video he'd seen of Army barracks. Just really standardized everywhere.

Door 222 led to a small common area. Kitchenette, couch, sink, cabinets. Four doors led from it, the second one labeled 222B. The key card thankfully worked. Inside looked like someone went to a Swedish furniture place and just bought out a few of the staples, but it would work.

Basic desk and chair. Slightly-uncomfortable looking bed. A chair. Floor of cheap tile. Small closet. Not much else. Home for the next four years, if all went well. Todd breathed. It wasn't much, but it was a new beginning. First time away from home, first time away from his hometown. A place he could get going on his own.

First things first. The bag. A lot of it was absolutely standard. Pack of pencils, couple pens, laminated map of the school (with a note that it was all subject to change for the first few years), a blue lanyard with a plastic card holder, a schedule for the next couple of days and weekend events until the first real class day on Monday. The "survey" turned out to be an instruction sheet and a QR code to download a phone app. The initial questions seemed a bit personal, but fairly standard otherwise. Likes, dislikes, hobbies, year, planned major, that kind of thing. A lot of this should have come from his application, but it wasn't the first he'd seen of dumb redundancies. What was truly odd was the segment requesting he fill out a full Status Screen for himself, with a requirement to update it within the first week of every month.

Todd's Ten weren't exactly intimidating. Decent, for sure, at least by the standards of all the other Level 1 Humans with 0% Class Progress. Todd had never really figured out how to activate his Inspiration ability, had thoroughly lost every fight he had ever been in, and wasn't in position to utilize Carnal Arts on anyone ever. He was... unimpressive, both in endowment and body. Pale skin, dark brown hair and eyes, glasses. Skinny nerd life, the very image of a math major.

This was an image reinforced by what he unpacked. Blue jeans, tee shirts, one polo for special occasions, a gaming laptop he'd justified to his dad by saying the power would be needed for advanced mathematics. A couple of anime posters for the walls, one depicting mighty heroes and one depicting buff, busty, pink-haired girls.

The last thing in the bag, though... A bottle, fairly typical of alchemical potions. It was labeled as a strong antimicrobial, supposed to kill everything not a part of his body to begin with. Next to it was a capsule to take to reestablish necessary systems in his gut. There was a safety sheet with it, containing the standard warnings, stating that it was there as a precaution against various diseases that were going around. For most present, those illnesses would be annoying and start the school year off poorly. For others, they could be lethal. Todd read the directions VERY carefully and took the potion, gagging on the utterly vile taste.

It was getting late. Cafeteria would be opening soon, and supposedly tables would be set up there explaining things to incoming students. Todd made sure his key card was on the lanyard (never having been a fashionable type, he thought nothing of actually wearing the lanyard), and stepped out.

There he found almost exactly not what he had been expecting. On the couch was a regrettably familiar face. A woman, easily seven feet tall and both heavily muscled and generously curved, dark of hair and deeply tanned, wearing a witch's hat. Between her legs eating her out was a different girl, a redhead of about 5'6". More detail than that was concealed by clothing and the couch, but the large woman saw him. "Well, if it isn't Tidbit Reed! Who'd have thought you'd be in my common!"

"Jennifer Lyons. Still the queen bee? No need to stop on my account, I'm just heading out." Jennifer was, in many respects, exactly what Todd was there to get away from. Four years ago, she had been a nothing loner, but a combination of late puberty plus Changing into a literal Amazon Witch shot her straight to the top of their high school's hierarchy. She was the one who had given him his hated nickname, and the one who had made sure it stuck.

"I go by Jem, now. You still on about your Class? What a laugh."

A spark of fiery anger lit in Todd at that moment. "You're calling ME a laugh, Jem? You wouldn't recognize the truth if it bit you on your left boob."

She grinned, an evil little thing. "Why, now, I say you're lying, but unlike you I've been pushing myself. I can put this to the test. Brittany, need you to take a break while I take care of this." The redhead came up for air and stepped to the side. She was really sexy, but the look of fear on her face spoke volumes. "This will be simple, Tidbit." A shimmer surrounded them, binding them together. "Boon and Bane. All things in balance. One here shall be blessed in their mission. One bound to serve the other's until the next new moon, two weeks hence. I'm going to ask you three questions. Answer me truthfully and prove your old claims, and you win. Don't, and I do. Deal?"

Todd had a really, really bad feeling about this. From the look on the redhead's face, Jem was serious about this. Two weeks of being bound to her "mission" could mean nearly anything, and given her reputation and actions it probably meant nothing good.

Jem, for her part, wasn't nearly so afraid. A level six Witch of the Balance School had long since learned that prices paid were as they were meant to be. She accepted that the occasional unpleasant time was just the price of doing business, and often advanced her standing even further than a win.

Thing is, Todd did have one weapon of his own. Bardic Knowledge. The only class feature he'd ever gotten to work, though it never advanced him. He had a lot of random knowledge on rapid recall, a lot of memories he could sort through. All of them said this was worth it. "I'm in. Do your worst."

The redhead, Brittany, looked devastated. Jem grinned much more broadly. "I'll start you with an easy one. What's your Class, Level, and Progress?"

Of course she'd go for the throat. "Inspiration Bard, level one, zero percent."

Gem started laughing. "An Inspiration Bard can't level? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Alright then, short stuff. Everyone knows about Inspired Performance. Why can't you use it?"

Todd turned red. This. This right here. This is what he didn't want to have to say, but it looked like it was going to have to be in the open. "I got randomly assigned Carnal Arts as my performance. Nobody believes me, so I've never gotten to try it. You were one of the first I tried to tell, and the school was calling me a perv and a liar by the end of lunch period."

"I remember that. Worst lie I ever heard, and I've heard a lot of them trying to get into my pants since I Changed. I still don't believe you, but it isn't my job to judge this afternoon. Fine then. You get one more question to answer. You are a Human. You could go anywhere. Why here? Why to Yellowstone?"

Todd opened his mouth to give a quick answer, but closed it again. Truth. Truth was the weapon today. "That is a list that would take a long time to tell. Short version? Home hasn't been home since the Change. No friends. No status. Family cut in half. I'm coming here for a good math degree, and to get away, but the universe seems determined to chase me down." As soon as he stopped speaking, the room went dark. Todd felt a moment of panic, wondering if his words had been good enough.

The electric lights held no sway, but suddenly the space was filled by an ethereal glow, as though the light of the full moon shone upon them. Jem's grin was frankly a bit creepy. "That is what you have chosen to speak. That is what the world has heard. It is neither yours nor mine to judge the worth of the words or their intent."." Her eyes held the look of someone who knew she had won, who was merely deciding how she would apply her winnings. The pale gray light shifted, rippled. It suddenly took on a blue tone, making the room feel as though it were suddenly underwater.

Jem's grin vanished faster than if she had been shot. "But... but... all of it? ALL OF THAT?"

Todd's face was hard. "Maybe next time, check before ruining someone's reputation so badly that they spend two years without friends right when they lose half their family." He would never be quite sure why the next sentences came out of his mouth, but many things happen in the heat of the moment, in the pale light of the moon. Even if the moonlight shone at four thirty in the afternoon. "The way I see it, there isn't a way for you to actually repay the karmic debt you owe me. There is no getting that back. The closest you can is to put me back on the track I should have been. In social standing, and in Status. You're the one who has to stay in balance, here, and now you know how far out of it you actually are."

The light in the room returned to its plain white. Jem stood, shaking. She looked at the pretty redhead at the wall. "I will have to return the favor some other time. For now, I apparently have a Status concern, and it cannot wait." The redhead, Brittany, fled the room. As soon as the door closed, Todd found himself the subject of intense attention. "You. You took the potion already, right?"

The question seemed to be exceedingly random. "Uh... yes, why?"

The enormous Amazon strode forward and literally lifted Todd from the ground. "It also kills STIs. You have just been blessed with temporary infertility. You can practice your carnal craft without consequence, so you're about to practice it with me." She flung the smaller man over her shoulder and hauled him away, through the door to 222D.

He caught a quick glimpse of the room as she threw him down onto her bed, one significantly larger and sturdier than his own. It was not heavily decorated yet, the desk lined with crystals and a large tarot deck, the walls bare. He bounced once, and in that moment, Jem was fully nude. She flung her robe to the side and climbed on top of him, pinning him securely. "Let's see what we're working with, here, shall we?"

Todd had, thankfully, managed to see what was coming and fumbled his belt open just in time. She ripped his pants from his body, and it would have been quite literal if he hadn't managed it. His shirt followed rapidly, and he was nude in front of a girl for the first time in his life, his manhood doing its best to stand proud with its five inches of rigid effort.

"Not the greatest, but I'll at least feel it. Come on, Brittany already got me warmed up!" She straddled him with room to spare, gripping his torso with her powerful legs, and sank cleanly onto him. The new and powerful pleasure gripped his body even more strongly than her thighs, and behind his eyes a new Status window appeared.