Victoria Palm

It's another dreadful morning, who even thought of getting up at seven in the morning? I lazily pull on my leggings, a sports bra, and a t-shirt, trying to shake off the sleepiness from my muscles. I fear that I might give up while getting dressed and fall back into bed. But I am strong; I set goals and achieve them. Or so my psychologist says. I am just afraid to lose.

I rush out into the corridor with my sports water bottle and head towards the elevator. I press the call button, secretly hoping it won't come so I can go back to sleep. The elevator moves very slowly, probably making all the stops, and I imagine how I would still be sleeping during those precious seconds.

"Good morning, Victoria." A cheerful voice sounds from behind. I turn around and see my neighbor Thomas. My mood instantly improves; he's a handsome guy, although a bit too young for me. Casually dressed in jeans and a jacket, with a two-day stubble, and an expensive hairstyle that always looks intentionally messy.

"Hi, Thomas. Where are you headed so early?" I ask out of politeness, although I don't really feel like running or talking right now.

"My friend got a summons for animization; he has his procedure this morning. I don't want him to be alone, so I'm accompanying him," Thomas says casually, although I notice from his demeanor that he's worried about his friend.

"You're a good friend, Thomas. And I'm sorry for your friend," I say, stepping into the arriving elevator.

"Well, he's not dying; it's just going to add some variety to his life," Thomas shrugs.

"But he's going to become a monster. Doesn't that scare you, or him?" I ask, genuinely surprised, losing the last bit of sleepiness.

"Actually, he's more scared of becoming a woman," Thomas chuckles at the thought.

"Being a woman isn't so bad, believe me," I smile, imagining sex in my head.

"Well, it hits his male ego. He's always been a ladies' man, charming women left and right," Thomas tries to explain.

"That's great. Now he'll know what it's like to be charmed and experience female love," I say emphatically, imagining the type of men Thomas is talking about—sweet-talking, always well-groomed, overconfident men. I've had plenty of those, and they all need to experience being in a woman's shoes at least a couple of times. With these words, I step out of the elevator and switch to a quick pace, tossing back to Thomas, "Good luck to your friend."

Exiting the building's atrium, I immediately switch to running and head towards the park. I've always dreamed of an apartment with a view of the park and imagined myself running there every morning. Now I have what I wanted; all that's left is to visualize a flexible work schedule in my mind. I step onto my usual route and lose myself in my thoughts. I've been running this route for several years now, and my legs automatically guide me. I meet other familiar runners at the same points every day. Running is the time of day when everything goes smoothly without incidents, everything is calm and measured, no surprises. But lately, the world has been full of surprises.

After humanity finally decided to unite into one large country with one government and one set of laws in the mid-21st century, everything became unusual, especially for me, a young lawyer who had just graduated and dreamed of justice. All my knowledge of US laws went out the window, and I had to quickly adapt to the whole world. Everything started to fall into place, but it turned out to be too good, seemingly pushing the planet's human population to a critical point. Animals began to disappear due to the destruction of ecosystems and climate change. Nature itself is now on the brink of collapse. This park where I run is actually an artificial place, maintained more by humans than by nature.

As a result, strict laws were introduced, and now the **** penalty can be imposed for burglary. Heads started rolling immediately, and many convicted criminals serving time in prison were retried under the new laws, essentially cleaning up the planet from unwanted genetic material. I became famous for closing newly created cases without the **** penalty. But then an obvious consequence occurred: crime rates plummeted, street gangs disappeared, the city's economy soared, and life became good again, pushing the population back up.

Then some big minds came up with the idea that since there are too many people and too few animals, humans should be turned into animals. This process, called animization, was introduced to address overpopulation and the declining number of animals on the planet. However, like any radical change, animization brought with it a multitude of new problems and challenges.

People who underwent animization became known as morphs. They retained their human characteristics but also acquired animal traits. This led to morphs becoming more sexually active, a trait inherent in their animal nature aimed at increasing offspring. Morphs could conceive from any sexual act, and this was their primary motivation and purpose of their creation, which aided in maintaining the morph populations. This led to new social and ethical problems.

Cities adapted to the new realities. Special zones for morphs were created where they could live and work. However, despite all efforts, morphs still faced discrimination and misunderstanding from society. Many people feared and distrusted morphs, considering them dangerous and unpredictable.

In this world where the boundaries between human and animal had blurred, each day brought new challenges and discoveries. And at the center of it all was Victoria Palme, a successful lawyer whose life, like many others, was forever changed by animization. Her life, and the lives of many others, would never be the same.