So...Before I knew what the heroine's species was going to be, I was imagined Joe having a potentially awkward moment in discussing French cuisine because of certain animals in French Cuisine, the most obvious ones you might be thinking of is frogs and snails, and on the subject of snails lets just say for the few intelligent mutant inveretbrates that do exist (They're so rare that most mutants don't think they exist) similar in the Humanimal world there is an instinctive understanding that vertebrates and inveretbrates don't mix because there are do many biolgical differences also snails and slugs are hermaphrodites and most vertebrates aren't into that, but back on track there's ducks and geese and the unfortunate way Faux Gras is made but perhaps the most contriversial is the thing about French eating horse meat, now I won't go into the history of why but Dick-King Smith the author of The Sheep Pig which is what the movie Babe is based on among his other animal stories wrote one called 'Horse Pie' in which three heavy horses are in danger of being rustled across the channel to be eaten in America and pretty much the enitre English speaking world eating horses is seen as only slightly less bad then eating cats and dogs being put firmly on the side of companion animals rather than food animals, however in doing my research horse meat consumption is rapidly declining in France particurally among the young on account of taking a more Anglicized view of the animal, Glass Joe would probably be among that group seeing his favorite food is Baguttes he's probably just not super obsessed with meat as one can see from his physique, so Dana being a dog, as man's best friend Dogs in the Western World seem to have been practically given the status as honorary humans, so much so that any culture that does eat dog meat is seen as disgusting by Western Cultures
'Both a little scared, neither one prepared' so goes the classic Beauty and the Beast song only here it seemed gender and species reversed, those most people wouldn't call Glass Joe a 'Beauty' these days when he first got started he was quite the 'pretty boy' and still quite a bit of those attractive features remained. But of course now Don Flamenco was the one most reknowned for being the sexiest man in the W.V.B.A. Much to Super Macho Man's chagrin.
So when Glass Joe heard his doorbell ring that evening he felt his heart leap into his throat.
He opened the door and for the first time, saw his rescuer in full since before he was only able to see her upper half and through not-too-clean glass.
The first thing he noticed was her attire, she seemed to be wearing the same green T-shirt she wore last time and now he could see Khaki shorts, and she had an ordinary brown purse over her right shoulder he was relieved fearing she might show up in a little black dress but both sides seemed to know this wasn't a date this was simply getting to know each other and maybe that might result in a date for now this was strictly bussiness not so much pleasure.
As he quickly took her in with some eyes some more as male humans can do to quickly assess a female that Dana had learned long ago that this was basically the human equivilent of sniffing butts Joe could quickly see the female Doberman mutant was the classical meaning of 'Buxom' with large brests and a plump rear accented by her tail which was wagging, similar to her ears she had a natural long Doberman tail which had not been docked, Joe realized that these features really did look better in their unaltered forms.
Just then the Dog Mutant's shiny black nose started twitching and then she sneezed
"ACHOO!" Her sneeze was not dainty "Sorry..." She said "...I see you're wearing cologne..."
"Just a little..." Glass Joe said as he blushed "...I felt really gross after being in jail and felt I had to do a bit more to freshen myself up." Apparently even what little he had put on was enough to irritate her more sensitive nose, he would never put on as much as Don Flamenco who practically liked to drench himself in perfume!
"Now where are my manners?" Joe chuckled "Please, come in!"
As Dana entered Joe watched her stride from behind, now as a boxer he could see from her movements that most of her bulk was more muscle than fat! As a Doberman she was clearly strong, strong enough Joe sorrowfully reckoned that if they fought...(Joe had no way to tell if she was one of the few remaining survivors of the original Mutant Army, he felt pretty sure he didn't want to ask, but was feeling he was going to have to...) That she could defeat him merely by sitting on him!
However he unpleasant thoughts were cut short by Dana sticking her nose in the air and taking in all the scents of his apartment.
"You have a lot of fancy ingrediants..." She sighed blissfully "...I'm a pretty good cook but unfortunatly I don't know anything about French cooking, I only really know American food."
"Please Madame!" Joe said "...You shouldn't be thinking about cooking, you're the guest I'll provide refreshments! Since you said you don't like coffee what would you like to drink."
"Uh...Just water would be fine for me thanks." Now she was beginning to get bashful, it seems what the other boxers said was true this Glass Joe really was a sweetheart!
Neither of them had anyway of knowing that in the older dimension on First Earth, the Pink and Purple Cat-Girl Marzipan Cheshire, the 'Mage Monarch' has having another one of her strange dreams...She had been having a lot of strange dreams as of late, normally her Phothetic Dreams had been things that related to herself or her Social Circle, but lately her dreams had just been getting weird!
She saw gray morose world, a world of gray trees and gray-green grass a world of perpetual fog and mist, a world of eternal twilight, this was the Forest of Eternal Twilight the afterlife for ordinary non-intelligent animals (The equivlient for aquatic species is presumably the Ocean of Eternal Twilight)
Then in her mind's eye she saw where the Forest of Eternal Twilight bordered on the afterlife for humans and other intelligent beings she saw one particular tall tree that seemed to be serving as a judge's stand for a strange shining spirit who at first glance seemed human but he...She? It was kind of hard to tell, seemed to have tree branches instead of hair and on closer inspection seemed only vaguely human shaped, was inhumanly thin and the face didn't seem to have a nose she had no way of knowing that this spirt was The Woodkeeper the Guardian of the Forest of Eternal Twilight who protected the animal spirits from being poached by evil spirits.
Beneath the spirit's tree stand stood about a dozen or more Humanimal ghosts all looking dull and gray unlike the spirits of happy beings who are in full color Marzipan took a closer look because they were all gray, translusent and their souls seemed ragged and frayed at the seems from pure misery she couldn't see what kinds of creatures all of them were, but at the front she could see a male wolf some small female snake, maybe a garter snake? And a female dog that on closer inspection seemed to be specifically a Doberman Pinscher, they all looked old like grandmas and grandpas that in their frail state didn't have the ability to shapeshift to whatever age they wanted to appear to be which again most happy spirits take the form of what they looked like in the prime of life (It's been stated before that taking the child form comes off as extremly odd, once you've had adult experience you don't come off as a child you come off as an adult in a child body which sets off uncanny valley vibes) Then Marzipan took a look at their clothing and ornaments and their mannerisms, and she gasped! They were all Mizzeran Humanimals! These were her Countrymen!
"So..." The Woodkeeper said "...All of you have come to me to request reincarnation, on the grounds that you have all been so broken by your lives that you are incapable of enjoying the splendors of the afterlife."
"Please Oh Great One!" The Old Wolf-Man beseeched and he stepped forward leaning on his cane "We were such fools! We couldn't appriciate all the good things in our lives, that we had a Paradise all to ourselves! We spent our entire lives doing the opposite of what would make us happy because we thought if it makes us happy it's because it appeals to our animals instincts therefore it must be shameful...But now we are all dead and realize we don't get a reward for never being happy in life...It just completely ruins us and makes us unable to enjoy the afterlife!"
"We've seen what has become of some of our fellow Mizzer Citizens..." The Snake Woman slithered foreward because she was a Reptile she wasn't quite as withered as the Warm Blooded Humanimals but still her appearance gave one the idea she was once a great beauty who had gone haggard from never being able to enjoy her life so once was beautiful turned cold and stiff "...We see that their minds have completely broken and now they wander the Forest and Ocean for Ordinary Animals their minds gone, complete drooling vegetables!"
The other Humanimal Ghosts groaned at having to call fellow animals 'vegetables' because of that old feeling of enmity towards plants because of the Biollante Wars.
"Reincarnation for Rehibiltation is not something that is handed out like candy!" The Woodkeeper said "Such treatment is normally for those who had great potential to do good in life but didn't and instead often ended up doing evil, so they still used their potential for greatness, just did great evil...While you all still have enough spirit that you come and ask for reincarnation rather then become drooling vegetables like your fellows I'm not sure I see any potential for greatness in any of you...For the whole reason you died miserable is you utterly squandered your lives! You dedicated your lives to be as dull and boring as possible you feared sticking out in anyway because you didn't want to be noticed by the humans you worshipped and feared, the most malicious thing you did was your enforcing the playing of this 'game' on others who had the potential to become something more and in some way those 'small evils' are even more unforgivable than a lot of the 'big evils' all I see before me is a lot of nobodies! Tell me, what reason do I have to give any of you a second chance at life? What good will it bring?"
The Humanimal Ghosts trembled before this rebuke knowing all of it was true, quietly they contemplated an answer before they only answer they could think to give was a song they all knew
"Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in
When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin"
Remembering this was still a dream she was dreaming, Marzipan scanned the group to see if any of them were fellow Cats but it was still to hard to tell what most of the ghosts were.
But the song seemed to please the Woodkeeper "Very well." The Spirit said "Your willingness to sing the song proves to me you're still Humanimals, and you will understand what I meant by that soon enough..."
The Woodkeeper opened a book and flipped through the pages "There is another world, another Earth that we can reincarnate you to...But it's not ready for Anthropomorphic Animals yet...This Earth is much younger it's still in the Bronze Age, for your Domestic Humanimals almost all Modern Domestic Breeds don't even exist yet! So we'll put you in suspended animation until this world is ready for you."
The Woodkeeper summoned giant colorful bubbles, "Now before I put in in this deep slumber until you are ready to be sent to this new world...Remember this world will not be the same as Mizzer the gifts you squandered there will not be available there you will be in a world where many humans will actually be hostile to intelligent animals, instead of it being all in your head like it was on Mizzer, you will suffer things you could never imagine on Mizzer and hopefully this will help you apprciate life like getting everything handed to you on a silver platter with a cherry on top never could! Now that I've given my warning do you still want to reincarnate?"
And even with that terrifying warning, all the Humanimals Ghosts eagerly nodded, they were in so much pain right now that any future suffering seemed worth it!
And the bubbles enveloped all the ghosts to keep their spirits stable until the time was right.
Marzipan woke from her dream "What the heck was that?!" She asked not sure what that vision had to do with her or the ones close to her...
So obviously that other half the story needs some explanation in my 'Mizzer Tales' most of which are on my Fictionpress Account there is this planet called Mizzer where the humans wanted to live as equals to their Humanimals where everyone else enslaved them, but because of a complicated misunderstanding, the Humanimals got it into their heads that their beloved humans wanted them to metamophize into humans which they tried to acomplish by not doing anything animal-like after four generations of no results the Cat-Man who came up with that idea only half renounced that idea on his deathbed causing even more confusion and a near disaster thus resulted a generations long game of 'telephone' where the message got increasinly vague and harsh that they must strive to be as human as possible but must always be ashamed because of their non-human bodies not worthy of being gazed at by the humans and that they must always strive to do the opposite of what makes them happy and be as dull and boring as possible none of which were anything the humans actually wanted. And this was finally making canon an idea I had been toying with for a while and finally decided to go through with the further connect the two universes that some of the OC Mutants are reincarnated Humanimals and in particuraly Humanimals from Mizzer (The Humanimal who were slaves, had their relgion that helped them cope with their situation so most of them were content upon reaching the afterlife) so Lovelace, Rover and Dana are reincarnated Humanimals which will become important later in this story, not Scruffles she was mutated by accidental exposure to ooze not deliberate experimentation, Scruffles mutation was not planned but almost all the reincarnated Humanimals were set on paths to ensure they became Anthropomorphic again and also the humans got the 'inspiration' to name the names they had on Mizzer (Humanimals might give their children odd names, but they would never name a child Fliffles' Buffles Scruffles' Truffles) and while this is more 'reincaration as rehibilation' less 'reincarnation as punishment' I think there is still a punitive element in the tortures their receive at the hands of humans both for squandering their previous lives and enforcing 'The Game' to ensure other Humanimals squandered their's also because in their previous lives they worshipped their humans as Perfect Beings the hope is they will gain a more balenced view on Humanity and finally since I established First Earth is five thousand years ahead of First Earth when Humanimals were first created in First Earth's 1998 Third Earth was in the Neolitic Revolution, these Humanimals are from smack dab middle of the timeline three thousand years ago, Third Earth still in the Bronze Age, hence why they had to wait so long