(Article taken from a newspaper)
It has been a year now since Genium was released to the public. According to the latest census 87% of the country uses it. For many of us it has become unthinkable to not take one every day, we have started relying on the benefits it gives us, a construction worker takes a strength pill, a mailman an endurance pill and a programmer one for intelligence. But what about long term side effects? There are action groups claiming the animal genetics they add to the formula are affecting us but have no proof to back up their claims. The company that makes them: F.U.R. (Foundation of Undisclosed Research) claims that there are no side effects to the pills, but so did cigarette companies for decades and we know different now.
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I started to notice it a few weeks ago, I had started to grow back hair, I thought it was just a normal thing, plenty of men get hairier as they get older. But it did not end there, it was over my entire body and it was getting more and more dense, and again I thought this is just me getting older. Until one day a colleague started to talk about how he was getting more harry himself during lunch and another said that he had the same, and so did another and another and even one of the woman agreed she was. People were mostly confused and hectic until Tim called for attention and rolled up a sleeve and showed his arm, it looked normal at first but some of his arm hairs were longer than others and looking closer those hairs were hard and had small thin hairs on them in a straight line almost like feathers.

Not long after that the news started to catch on, it first started off with a guy who went to the doctor thinking he had a tumour right above his butt. However, once the doctor took a closer look, he found that there was a bone in the bump, a tailbone and it was growing. Once people started to grow feathers all hell broke loose, it was quickly connected to the increase of hair growth most people were developing and soon after the source was found, Genium.

Finally, truth came out about Genium causing mutation in the body due to all of the animal DNA they stuffed into those pills. F.U.R. was sued to hell and back, had a dept to pay from there to the moon and immediately filled a bankruptcy. You would think that that would be the end of Genium, but no, it sold better than ever. People had gotten so depended on the stuff that all the stores were sold out instantly as people were afraid of not being able to get it ever again and some because they were crazy enough to want that they wanted the side effects. Even though Genium was no longer legal it still was being made. Drug lords saw the opportunity and quickly began producing their own Genium pills which turned out to have the same side effects only this time far more severe.

Before I knew it my ears and tail started to grow out and became moveable, my nose and mouth started to elongate. I actually liked the changes strangely enough, especially the heightened hearing and smell. I even enjoyed the longer tongue and the feel of my fur. Funny enough the dependency of the pill only grew, people just found them to useful, to be able to be significantly stronger, smarter or dexterous that they just kept taking the stuff despite it all. You could see who took the stuff and who doesn’t from the pointy ears, the thin layer of fur or feathers covering their face, well I say thin, but some people were starting to grow full on fur and plumage.

It didn’t take to long before the government legalised Genium however the newly made pills that were made in proper factories instead of meth lab type laboratories had hardly any lowered side effects, probably because they knew people would buy it regardless. Eventually people stopped mutating from the pills, apparently it stops around 50% new DNA and 50% human DNA, so people are left still walking on their hind legs, with hands and human vocal cords but now with a tail and the face of animal and covered in fur with even small details like pads and talons.

I myself turned into a raccoon, apparently the intelligent Genium pills contained DNA from intelligent animals like crows, rats, raccoons, parrots, and pigs. The same way strength pills contained among horse, bovine and cobra, and agility pills contained feline, ferret and a bunch more.

In the end people stopped using the Genium, because it was no longer necessary once the transformation was complete the effects of the pills stayed permanently, and as some researchers discovered so are the transformations.