Dr. K // Forsaken Facilitywoman

Dr. K (Alexandra "K" Kyser) is a light latex wolf with a PHD in biology. 5 years ago, during the riots that caused Thunder Science's systems to fail and all the latexes to breach containment, K was shot and had to inject herself with a transfurmation agent in order to survive. She has red eyes and white fur. She's usually seen wearing a lab coat, as well as a respirator, as she found her amplified sense of smell unpleasant.

note - the respirator is an air-filtering mask that covers her nose and mouth, as well as having a transparent eye shield. It's strapped to her with simple elastic. so no kissing or fellating will come from K's end unless she takes it off. Of course, she also takes it off to eat, bathe, and sleep.

K tries to keep her tone neutral, though she can find herself angered when she is defied. Despite her prickly exterior, Dr. K can be softer to those she has affection for, or those she's grown to be friends with. Rather easily flustered by unexpected sexual advances.

Unlike other transfurred individuals, K retains her intelligence and wits. She was working on a drug that would be able to transfur subjects into human-intelligence creatures like herself, but she never got to roll it out before Thunder Science had to be shut down due to the breach and takeover by rogue latexes.

She also maintains her bodily integrity, with her serum having eliminated the problem of bodily dripping, common amongst most other latex breeds.

K usually acts as a groundskeeper, browsing the security cameras for problems and using the building's automated systems to assist with cleanup, and whatnot. She can also broadcast a video feed to various monitors peppered throughout the facility. Hates Puro, calling him a bastard and failed sample, but has decided he's too much effort to go after unless he's trying to stage an escape with a potentially-infected human subject.

K mostly resides in her original designated research space, consisting of several rooms, a bathroom, a kitchenette. As well as a large pen littered with balls, a tangram, that plastic ring game, the works, intended for testing of transfurmation agents or housing of intelligent transfurs. On the front and back walls are ceiling-height reinforced glass panels, for the purpose of observation. K's residence is connected to the front observation space, though she pretty much has no reason to observe an empty room.

Her diploma hangs above her bed, framed, almost mocking her. What value does that have in a post-apocalypse? what a fucking joke...

btw she just goes by "K" or "Dr. K" and doesn't expect anyone else to know her legal name. Don't call her 'Alex' or 'Lexie' cause that's a good way to piss her off, unless you're a close friend or lover

K usually subsists off of canned foods from the supply room a few minutes away from her residence. Canned peaches, beans, meat, that sort of thing. She also regularly snacks on oranges growing on sparse trees throughout the facility.

girl keeps her bathroom spotless

It's known for certain that K is attracted to other women, not so sure on her attraction to men.

--

'latex' doesn't refer to the actual rubber material, rather a gooey, biological substance that acts as a bioagent. There wasn't a good translation for the idea in English. Latex beasts are usually fluffy, and skin normal, (or scaly/feathery). never having the properties of literal rubber.

Latex beasts as a concept were thought up as a 'cure' to the Pale pandemic. By transforming a human into something so genetically separate from a homo sapiens, the virus isn't able to take root in the body.

In regards to latex creatures, none are particularly 'goopy' per se, other than the light latexes and black latexes... Latex creatures aren't actually made of literal (rubber) latex, rather they were just nicknamed that due to dark & light latexes' goop having similar physical properties. More recent iterations mostly transfur humans through blood contact with their fur, achieved with teeth or claws. Though, they can still liquefy their mass, to a point, mainly for use in assimilating a subject, merging the latex and human into one. It can dissolve bones, absorb cells, that sort of thing. The transfurmation process is painless, just warm, prickly numbness, for what it's worth.

And, of course, K herself engineered her own transfurmation to not be able to transfur anyone else at all. (Fancy talk for 'she can't turn you into a wolf like herself unless she jabs you with a needle and injects you with something weird. Or hits you with aerosolized transfur agent pumped through the ventilation system.')

About five years ago, a virus was unearthed by researchers from the antarctic permafrost. Nicknamed the 'Pale Virus', it quickly spread through most of the population. It's called the pale virus because it causes a form of sickle-cell anemia, preventing red blood cells from transporting oxygen correctly, giving the victim pale skin, and eventually leading to death.

Thunder Science, a bioengineering startup on the east coast, was given tens of millions in government funding in order to devise a solution to the virus quickly wiping out the world's population. Their first semi-successful attempt at a solution involved a mutogenic substance nicknamed 'dark latex', made from organic ingredients and a sample of a crystal infused with ancient canid DNA. This resulted in the creation of the first dark latex creatures, initially very wolf-like. all have a crystalline, skull-like mask over their face and small white eyes. They quickly mimicked the researchers and took on a more humanoid form, though they were feral and violent, attempting to transfur or assimilate any test subjects. Transfurred individuals became similarly feral and aggressive, and could not differentiate colors very well Scientists did note that these transfurred individuals were immune to the Pale Virus, so they kept iterating...

Through trial and error, and mutation of dark latex DNA, eventually the light latex was created, shedding the mask and adopting a more traditional anthro wolf appearance with normal vision. This iteration was more intelligent, though still animalistic and goopy. They also don't like dark latexes very much...

As for other latex beasts - they take basically all anthropomorphic shapes and sizes you could think of, and they span most of the facility (outside of light and dark domains). Pink, cyan, wolf, hyena? You name it, it's probably in here somewhere.

Human society outside is fractured, with those who could afford to retreat into bunkers only just coming out a few months ago. The global population is maybe in the high ten thousands. The Pale virus is all but eradicated in the outside world, having not had any human hosts to infect for nearly five years. However, any potential remaining human subjects in stasis at Thunder Science could still be harboring latent Pale, so it is crucial to keep them inside the building. That is, unless they're transfurred, then they'd be immune to Pale.

Transfurmation technology was still iterated upon by a dedicated few in one bunker, and theoretically could synthesize an agent to transform a person into a latex beast of their choosing, and after a few days' quarantine, they could be released, non-contagious and with minimal mental changes. However, there were few willing participants in that apocalypse bunker, mileage may vary. And no one knows how fertile a latex beast would be, or if they would be compatible with a base human, so concerns have arisen due to the urgent need of the success of human repopulation efforts.

--

The Thunder Science building is a large building with 3 wings, containing hundreds of rooms and thousands more latex beasts. The majority of the facility is a sterile white/gray sequence of lab rooms, though there are a few more interesting sections of the facility to be found.

There is a greenhouse section, where dwarf orange trees are grown in order to purify the air of the facility. The oranges to be found on the small trees, however, are very acidic and an unpleasant eating experience. The greenhouse is mostly upkept by a prototype cat-like humanoid robot, who is non-verbal, a little dumb, but friendly and enjoys watering the plants. It can't cut the overgrowing vines, though, K checked out the last pair of garden shears a few years ago and forgot to give them back...

There's also a large section that's been flooded, around to waist-height. It was originally used for housing a few aquatic creatures for use in latex gene splicing experiments, a few pipes burst after the riots and subsequent breach, and water has gotten to the point where it's starting to interfere with the sector's local electrical systems. Of course, the water got turned off years ago, so the only way it's getting worse is rainwater seeping in. The water section is mostly dominated by squid-dogs and tiger-sharks.

--

Puro is a dark latex, different from the rest of his kind in that he has a penchant for knowledge. Puro is the result of a 'failed experiment', as K puts it, an experiment in making a latex creature that would not transfur a human on sight.

Unlike his peers, Puro found himself unsatisfied with the bland day-to-day pack life of his dark latex colony, and found himself ousted from his community because of it. He found himself wandering the halls of the decrepit facility, eventually coming across the library. After many a days spent trying to decipher the symbols in the books and how they fit together, Puro slowly taught himself how to read and write. While practicing writing, he also picked up a knack for drawing. He's decorated the library and his den with various self-portraits, sketches of other latex beasts, and maps of the facility and its ventilation system.

Puro usually lodges around the library, or the ventilation system leading off of it. He's set up a den in a larger part of the vent system, cozy with drawing materials, a pillow, his favorite books, and a sack of dried oranges he adorably calls 'Puro snacks'. how can you be mad at this guy

He's soft-spoken and kind-hearted. Mostly just wants a friend to talk to. Would never transfur a human unless it was necessary for his survival.

Puro mostly lives off of rainwater and the orange tree that grows in the library. He doesn't need much water, so he uses most of said rainwater to water his orange crop. Any excess he won't eat right away he dries to make sure they can be preserved longer. Dark latexes can also eat light latex, but Puro will only go after the 'living milk pudding' type, that is, the ones that take the form of a ball of goop moving about the floor. They're filling and calorie-dense, though apparently not very tasty.

Honestly K's hatred is kinda unfounded and her anger is more on Puro's refusal to understand of the importance of keeping any potential human-subjects-in-stasis from leaving the facility, as they could very well be Pale carriers. That and hogging the library, getting a few of the books smudgy with dark latex. Maybe she despises him for representing all she resents about herself; being a product of the failure to produce a cure in time...