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"Hey!" Avery pouted, giving the other boy his best puppy-dog-eyes look. "I don't get distracted that easily. I'd probably break something though... so it's probably better that I just keep my hands to myself... or on you," he smirked.

"Well, that's true... but I don't mind dancing for you at all," Avery slid his arms around the other boy. "I liked the surprise! Besides, I already got everything I need right here." He nuzzled Timothy. "Anyway, my birthday is soon you know... you can make it up to me then," he teased him.

R o l e - P l a y _____________/ In which Avery turns 20!

R o l e - P l a y _____________/ In which Avery reaches 75% and learns you don't have to have four legs to lose your humanity.

Avery knew something was wrong when he woke up with an open-ended dog muzzle over his face and locked up in a cage. He whimpered, trying to open his restrained mouth, but he could only open it just enough to allow him to speak. Avery reached up with his hands - paws - attempting to unbuckle the muzzle, but his claws and padded hands made his grip too clumsy to get a firm hold on the straps behind his head. Failing this, he decided the next best step was to try and figure out where he was - and get out of this damned cage. Avery attempted to stand up, but the cage wasn't big enough to him to get up on his feet - he could only sit up onto his hands and knees. He peered out of the barred door, but he couldn't see anything that could help him identify his location. His long muzzle also hindered his ability to press his face fully against the caged door.

Avery's ears perked up when he heard footsteps approaching the cage - coming closer and closer, walking up to him from behind. He tried to look around, but Avery could only see outside the door; the other walls and ceiling of the cage seemed to be made of a thick hard plastic, much like a carrier cage. The person walking towards him stopped beside the cage, but didn't walk far enough for Avery to see who it was. "H-hello?" Avery called out, hoping the person was here to let him out. "Who's there?"

"That's funny," the person spoke, and Avery couldn't identify the gender of their voice or who it might be. "I could swear I heard someone talking, but dogs don't talk... it couldn't be you, could it, Dog?"

"I'm not a dog!" Avery spoke up quickly, desperate - the person could understand him, couldn't they? "Please, I'm trapped in this cage... I can't get out, it's locked."

"Oh my," the person laughed, and their feet came into view in front of the cage now. "It seems my dog can talk... well, we'll have to fix that, won't we? A dog should behave like a dog, not a human." The person reached down, unlocking Avery's cage and pulling the door open. Avery crawled out, but as soon as he tried to stand up, he received a sharp blow to his sensitive nose from a rolled up newspaper. He yelped, cowering down low on the ground, whimpering. His tail tucked between his legs and his ears were pressed back against his head.

"Dogs don't stand on two legs, either," the person said, their tone of voice harsh and angry - scolding. Avery couldn't help but feel like he had just done something terrible. "I-I'm sorry," Avery whispered almost automatically - but then he paused, realizing what he was apologizing for. "No, wait - I'm not a dog," he insisted. "I'm human! I'm not a dog... I'm not a--" he was cut off with another sharp blow against his nose, yelping from the pain.

"Dogs don't talk!" the person shouted at him again, and Avery quickly shut his muzzle, fearful that he would again be hit. But another blow didn't come - instead, he felt hands in the back of his head, pulling the buckle tighter until the muzzle was snug around his jaw, his ability to speak now completely taken away from him.

"There now, that's much better." Avery felt a hand touch the back of his head again, and he flinched away - but the hand didn't strike him. Instead, it scratched behind his ears, and Avery's tail betrayed him, wagging slightly. "Good. See? You're learning to be a proper dog already." At these words, Avery's body tensed up. No, no... he's not a dog. He wouldn't be a dog. He jerked away from the person, clawing at the muzzle on his face as he tried to stand up to run.

But he wasn't fast enough, and his captor grabbed him by his hair, jerking him back onto the floor again. "I see you're going to need quite a bit of training," the captor spoke. "Back into the cage with you, dog, and you'll stay there until morning." Although Avery struggled, he just couldn't quite escape as he was shoved back into the cage, the door slamming shut before he could try to run out. He grabbed the bars, pushing as hard as he could, but it just wouldn't budge. He was trapped.

"I hope you'll be better behaved tomorrow." And then Avery was alone, cast into darkness when the lights were shut off and the door closed behind his captor.

Sure enough, the next morning, Avery was woken up by the stranger opening his cage door again. He hesitated for a moment, before crawling out on his hands and knees. "Good boy," the person said, "good behaviour does not go unrewarded. Here's your breakfast, I'm sure you're hungry."

Two bowls were placed down on the floor in front of Avery, one filled with foul smelling dog food and the other filled with water. "I'm going to take your muzzle off now so that you may eat. If you attempt to speak at all, it'll go right back on. Do you understand me?" Avery nodded meekly, although he had no intention on eating the meal offered to him. The person unbuckled the back of his muzzle, pulling it off Avery's face. He stretched his jaw at the freedom from the muzzle at last. He gave the dog food an experimental sniff, before backing away from it. He was too afraid to speak up and ask for something different - for human food, at the very least. The threat of being muzzled again kept him quiet.

"You won't get anything else, Dog. That's the only kind of food you get to eat now. You'll have to learn to eat it, or you will starve."

Deciding to see how long he would be able to go without eating, Avery reached for the bowl of water, intending to pick it up. "No," the stranger said sharply, causing Avery to stop his actions immediately. "Not like that. You drink from the bowl like a dog, or you don't get any water at all." Again, Avery wanted to protest, and for a moment he considered just not drinking the water at all - but drinking from the bowl couldn't be so bad; at least he would be getting water.

But even as Avery bent his head down, sticking his canine tongue out and lapping at the water in the bowl as he was told, he couldn't help the feeling of humiliation and shame that crept over him. Just who was this person, and why were they making him do these things? Why were they treating him like this? When Avery had his fill of the water, he stopped drinking and sat back on his haunches. After a second of hesitation, Avery decided to try and speak again. "U-um... why are you doing this..?" he asked softly.

The stranger did not answer and, instead, grabbed Avery's muzzle, holding it shut as his captor placed the open-ended muzzle back onto his face and strapping it on tight. "I warned you, dog," the person said, obviously angry, "that if you spoke again, you would be muzzled again. Just as good behavior gets rewarded, bad behavior gets punishment." With that, Avery felt the p***k and slow burn of an injection in his arm - and then the last thing he could remember was blacking out.

When Avery woke, it took him a while to get his wits back together. He felt groggy and light headed, and he felt like something was different about him. Slowly the world around him slid back into focus, and that was when he noticed the mirror sitting just outside the door of his cage. As Avery gazed in the mirror at his reflection, it was immediately obvious why he felt different. His clothes were gone - as were his piercings. His hair had been completely cut off, save for the fur covering his entire body. To top it all off, there was a collar strapped around his neck with a dog tag on it, and he could make out the words 'Dog, property of,' but the rest of the text was unintelligible. He still wore the tight muzzle. Horrified, Avery attempted to remove the collar; but again, he couldn't get a firm grip. He tried pulling it off instead, but he couldn't get it up any further than below his jaw. A whine escaped his throat as the rough leather pushed harshly against his skin.

The light in the room suddenly flicked on, and Avery stopped what he was doing, heart beating rapidly in his chest. "Now now, Dog, I wouldn't want to have to restrain you even further than you already are... but I can't have you hurting yourself like that, can I? I'll let you off with a warning just this once, but I won't be so kind next time," the stranger said. The person walked over to Avery's cage, opening it up and allowing him to crawl out. "Are you hungry today, Dog? You didn't eat last time, so you must be starving..." Two bowls were placed in front of him again, with the same dog food there was before. Avery stared at it, but he would refuse to give in and eat it, no matter how hungry he was. His captor unbuckled the muzzle and removed it from Avery's face - but that had been exactly what Avery was waiting for. With a snarl, Avery attacked, leaping at the person and sinking his teeth into their hand, tasting blood on his tongue. The stranger cried out, falling underneath Avery's weight.

Unfortunately for Avery, he was never a good fighter. He did the best he could, scratching his claws along whatever he could reach, all while keeping his jaws clamped down on the person's hand. In the end, he ended up pinned down on the floor underneath his captor, the muzzle being forced back over his face again. He growled and struggled, twisting his body around in attempt to squirm away. He made a small whine when he felt a familiar pinching sensation on his arm as a needle was pressed into him again, injecting something into him. This time, Avery did not black out, but his struggles slowed until he lay there motionless underneath the stranger, feeling too weak to move anymore.

"Be careful, Dog," the stranger warned in a tone of voice that made Avery's fur stand on end. "I wouldn't want to have to put you down. After all, what could I do with a dangerous dog?" Avery was guided back into the cage, and he collapsed down onto the floor once he was inside. The mirror was taken away, and he was left alone.

A whole day passed before Avery's captor visited him again.

By then he was starving and felt too emotionally drained to think about trying to escape or fight back. When his cage was opened, he merely crawled out, sitting on his knees with his hands on the floor. "If you don't give in and eat, you're going to fall ill," the person said, placing Avery's food bowl and water bowl down in front of him again. Avery looked at the food. He was very hungry, painfully so, but he was sure he could probably hold out for a little longer... but for what? Rescue? Was anyone even going to rescue him... did anyone even know he was missing?

He sniffed at the food, then decided that no, he wasn't going to try eating it. He wasn't going to give in... not yet. Instead, he just settled for drinking the water. "Still not going to eat, eh, Dog?" the stranger laughed at his dog's stubbornness. "Well then, back in you go..." With a sigh, Avery crawled back into the cage, his tail tucked between his legs. The routine continued for a few days until, finally, Avery could stand it no more - he knew he needed to eat, or die.

When the dog food was offered to him again, Avery tried not to smell it as he tasted it. He gagged, and tried his best to eat it all before he got sick. He managed to gulp down most of it, thinking about anything and everything else but what he was currently doing. He thought drinking water from the bowl was bad, but this was much, much worse. He felt like his captor had won now that he has given in to eating from the bowl, as if he were admitting defeat - but Avery was too afraid of dying.

"Good boy," the owner said, and Avery could hear the amusement in their voice. Avery drank the water next, trying to get the taste out of his mouth. Truth be told, it was not as horrible as he had been expecting - but it still was not exactly pleasant.

"Well, now that you've decided to start eating... I think it's time we started with your training, hmm?" his owner smiled down at Avery, giving him a pat on the head. He wanted desperately to protest, and to ask what exactly that meant... but Avery just whined instead, eyeing the muzzle held in his owner's hand. He definitely didn't want that put back on, and he's learned that if he spoke, he would be muzzled again.

"Sit," Avery's owner commanded, and he hesitated. He was being taught dog tricks!? There was absolutely no way Avery was going to give in to these commands, and he growled softly in his distaste at the turn of events. "Good behaviour gets rewarded," his owner reminded him, and Avery could suddenly smell the scent of bacon - real bacon. The thought of getting real human food was enough for Avery to change his mind, and he sat down on the floor, tail wagging slightly.

Indeed, as promised, his owner gave him half a strip of bacon, which Avery gobbled up hungrily. "See? Listening to my commands isn't too bad. You'll learn... I have many things to teach you."

And so Avery's lessons began. Sit. Stay. Beg. Play dead. Roll over. All simple commands for a human, but still difficult to carry out, shame making him hesitate before obeying his owner. He had lessons once a day every day, and as they went on, he received less rewards for his good behavior. Obeying began to become an expectation, not a request. He had lost track of time, lost track of night and day, but it no longer mattered as Avery did everything he was told to do, mindless of if he was being rewarded or not any longer.

It was the routine now, something normal that he began to cling to - something Avery needed to do. As the weeks turned into months, Avery was no longer required to sleep locked up in a carrier; instead, he was given a soft padded dog bed made big enough for him to fit in for sleeping. He learned early on not to speak, and he has forgotten the last time he's seen the muzzle. Months passed on, and slowly, ever so slowly, Avery began to forget how to read and how to speak like a human at all. What did he need to know for, anyway, if he was not allowed to do either? But Avery was not concerned; he still felt something was rather... off, about the situation, but overall it was becoming his world, his normal reality.

Life as a dog wasn't so bad.

One day, when his owner entered the room, Avery lifted his head and wagged his tail. "Avery," his owner said, and Avery tilted his head to the side slightly in confusion. His owner smiled and called, "Dog," and Avery's tail wagged faster, climbing out of bed to greet his owner. He received a pat on the head and a scratch behind his ears.

Who was this Avery, anyway?

Avery woke from his nap with a gasp, nearly falling out of his bed - the sheets were twisted around his legs, making him feel confined, and he struggled out of the bed, shoving the sheets off his body. He reached up to feel his face, feeling it flat - and unconfined by any muzzle. Next he touched his neck, finding nothing but fur and skin - no collar, much to his relief. He stood up, making his way slowly to the bathroom, feeling sweaty and disturbed. Avery looked at himself in the mirror, at a reflection that was slowly becoming someone he no longer recognized. "That isn't going to happen to me," he told himself. "It was just... a ******** up, horrible nightmare..." Avery muttered, turning on the faucet to splash some cold water onto his face. He turned the water off and dried off his face with a towel.

Weary and still a little drowsy, Avery climbed back into bed, even though he wasn't sure he would be able to fall back asleep after such a horrible nightmare. Still, he closed his eyes, relaxing in the bed and trying to forget what he had just dreamed... but that's when he felt that familiar itch. Avery scratched at his legs, slowly becoming more aware of what exactly he was feeling. "No," he whimpered as more fur spread over his body, wondering why this had to happen now, when no one was around to be here with him? He had just gone to take a nap, and now...

Avery cried out in pain as his spine lengthened, his tail growing out further and fur becoming thicker. The pain from his growing tail distracted him from the slight growth of his ears, more flopped over than before. Uncomfortable but not quite painful, he felt the skin bottom of his feet and hands thicken and become darker, becoming thick protective pads.

Then the most painful part of all - and the most painful change he's ever felt - his face began to push out, growing into a muzzle. Avery howled in pain, clawing at his face and wishing it would just stop growing. It felt like it would go on forever, and he writhed on the bed, tears dampening the fur around his eyes and rolling down his face as he sobbed.

Just when he wondered what else could happen to him, the changes finally stopped. He lay curled up on the bed, his body trembling from pain and tail tucked between his legs, whimpering constantly. Tim, Tim, Tim, where was Tim...

... and the portable DVD player lay on the counter unnoticed for now.

Timothy had been up at his studio working on some music off and on. Lately he'd been uninspired, but that happened from time to time with any artist. He idly tuned his guitar as he made the walk over to the other duplex.

Timothy wandered back to the duplex, opening the door as usual. Oblivious to anything that might be wrong.

Timothy blinked at Avery as he grabbed him and lead him over to the bed. He didn't know how to handle Avery being weird.

Timothy looked down at Avery with a look that very much said "Umm... what's your deal." but of course even Timothy wasn't that dense. He looked at Avery as he popped his question.

"Ummm... I love you?" Timothy said quizically.

Timothy really had nothing to say. His mouth agape as he stared at the screen. His head started sweaing profusely. What killed him most was he'd thought about being honest with Avery time and time again.

But he couldn't bring himself to fess up. Things were too good between them, too comfortable. He'd been horribly afraid to do so. Timothy said the first thing that came out of his mouth. "How'd you get this?"

Probably not the best thing to say either.