log: Matt and Sharon
Nov. 14th, 2023 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_daredevil posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsMatt meets Sharon, surprises her and keys her steal something of Darcy's, as a treat. and because Darcy is fully capable of getting her things back from Sharon
Sharon crouched on the computer chair, studying the bed's current occupant. Some might have said expending energy to shift to her smallest form for the sole purpose of snooping was frivolous, but these people never got quality blackmail material.
Yes, she decided, her initial assessment had been correct. Granted she hadn't seen Doug with his shirt off, and the only other contender she'd yet met was Inez, but she felt confident she was in the presence of Darcy's hairiest paramour. Inwardly, she nodded her approval; monogamy was not a feline trait, and as such Darcy's personal life struck her as one of the more logical arrangements.
The cat jumped from the chair onto the stack of blankets and pillows piled near the foot of the bed. Curiosity satisfied, Sharon could have simply returned to the kitchen to partake of her Allowed Meat as she'd originally planned. It was the smart play. But no -- the feline urge to press her luck drove her on. Slowly, very slowly, she crept onto the bed.
Movement on the bed woke Matt unexpectedly. He didn't move at first, using his senses to figure out it. If it was Darcy or someone joining him, he likely wouldn't have awoken like that, their familiar scent alerting his hindbrain or whatever area remembers these things and let him sleep. The scent now was familiar, but reduced. And not one he expected in bed with him. That was why he woke. Okay then.
"What, Sharon?" he groaned, stretching. He wanted to move her bodily from the bed, but that was probably not something he should do to a cat with human intelligence.
She hadn't been expecting to hear her name. In this context it triggered that same primordial sense of guilt she associated with phrases like "Sharon, don't tear up the couch" and "Sharon, get away from that burner". Startled, Sharon did what came naturally: she bolted off the bed.
Unfortunately the first thing she encountered was the pile of pillows, which instantly lost cohesion under her momentum and sent her careening directly into the computer chair.
Sitting up, Matt was half out of bed as Sharon went ass over tea kettle into the chair. Graceful cat she was not. "You okay?" he asked, voice still rough from sleep. Clearing his throat, he offered her a hand up.
Now definitely caught, the cat extricated herself from the wheels of the computer chair and hastily reverted to her hybrid shape so she could verbalize an alibi.
"I would not have touched," said Sharon, who had absolutely been considering a touch. "Was only exploring my environment. Is important for enrichment."
"Uh huh," Matt replied dryly. "No one believes me when I say that and no one believes you either," at least he didn't. Her shifting was interesting to him with the sounds of bones and sinew and muscle reshaping without breaking or tearing. "If that was the case, you wouldn't have been on the bed in the first place."
From her position in the middle of a pile of spilled pillows and blankets, Sharon sniffed. "Darcy says I am allowed."
"When I'm also there?" Okay, he was awake and not going back to sleep. Pulling pants on, he found his socks before his shirt.
"This was unspecified. Is the middle of the day also. " Grudgingly, Sharon began to restore the pile of bedding to its original order. The courtesy of cleaning up her own mess was a rare one, and Darcy wasn't even here to give her credit for it. That hardly seemed fair.
Matt didn't have body modesty, but he was also pretty sure Sharon was one of the teens who had recently joined the mansion, so it was better that he be dressed. Buttoning up his shirt he shrugged, "I have a condition called 'Non24' which affects my circadian rhythm," he explained easily, "And I haven't been making any attempts to stay on or return to a normal diurnal sleeping pattern. So. I sleep when I'm tired," nor had he returned to his own room to do so. Now he wanted coffee and food.
Despite herself, Sharon warmed a little. "I understand this. Have polyphasic sleep schedule. No practical advantage to sleeping in arbitrary eight hour chunk. The rest of the world may accommodate." As the cat watched Matt move around the room one of her ears flicked in curiosity.
"Your eyes do not focus," she remarked. She crept away from the pile of bedding to get a better look at his face. "Pupils do not dilate."
"I'm blind," he stated calmly, slipping his phone into a pocket and strapping his watch to a wrist, "That's why I have non24. With no light perception, it's easy to fall into whatever schedule my body wants, not what is considered normal. There are advantages and drawbacks." Not everyone with non24 was NLP, but as far as he knew, all those who were NLP had non24 as well. "I've found that the world is reluctant to accommodate anyone too far outside the norm."
Sharon regarded him for a moment, quadrupedally.
"Yes," she stated with equal blandness, "is also my experience."
Angling for a better look, the cat raised herself onto her hind legs. At eye level she could see the man had no obvious physical differences other than what might have been faint scarring around his eyes. Her tail flicked. "This is your mutation? Congenital condition?"
Sharon was indeed a cat, if not in appearance, then in personality. And had all the tact of a brick. "Chemical burns from an accident when I was a kid," he answered, "My mutation is unrelated. Your vision must be better than average, most people can't see the scars anymore unless they are looking for them," but that didn't stop him from hiding them behind his glasses anyways. Calmly, he reached for them on the night stand and slipped them on.
"In some circumstances my vision is superior. Catching small movements for example. Mostly it is only that others do not pay attention." Sharon took a few steps backward before dropping onto all fours. "Detect no telltale scent or irregularities of size relative to mass. No obvious physical abnormalities. Your mutation is what?"
Without moving, Matt replied, "You're weight varies as you change forms, but you are approximately 12lbs as a house cat and 130lbs in your current one. Given that you're still mostly quadrupedal, I assume you have a third more humanoid form, if not others. Your heart rate has varied since you woke me, but is mostly calm now. You shed. You don't smell quite like a house cat, even in your small form, there's an underlying scent of human always on you. Not other humans, though they're there too, but one that is distinctly you. Not cat or human, but both. You don't have fleas." He hadn't touched her and there was no need to taste, but that was a decent demonstration.
Sharon examined Matt with new respect.
"Again people assume all shapeshifters have human form," she said with mock-weariness. "Accuracy of assessment in this case beside the point. How was this accomplished?"
"Human is the default," Matt pointed out, "At least here," on other planets or other dimensions, that was variable. "I have enhanced senses. Minus the obvious. Have you met Clint?"
"Is not my default," Sharon replied haughtily, "but yes, have met Clint. Very good eyesight. Nictitating membrane, like raptor. Gave me actual shirt off his back also because people are too easily scandalized. But enhanced senses, this is interesting. Do you have particular adaptations? Possess vomeronasal organ, for example? I have this. Or equivalent of pit organ, maybe, that allows you to perceive infrared radiation?"
Okay, not where he expected the conversation to go, but that sounded like Clint. "Yes. Also my brother," not genetically, but it was still ironic that they both had sensory-related mutations, especially regarding their vision. Their dad's were still lamenting that. "Not that I'm aware of. I do have great balance as that's related to hearing, though I did have to relearn how to work without traditional sight and I can use my hearing sort of like echolocation as well to get impressions of my environment."
"Your balance is good? This is interesting also. Equilibrioception in humans is often reliant on communication between sight, proprioception, and vestibular systems. Could be compensation from mutation. Or some extra structure like statocyst, maybe. Receptor is found only in invertebrates, but mutant anatomy is magical. I am proof." Sharon tread in a loose circle around Matt, her tail flicking with enthusiasm as she peered up at the man. "Echolocation in humans, I have heard of this. Sight was lost after birth? In baseline human would expect this information to be processed through primary visual cortex thanks to neuroplasticity. In you, different, maybe. You have done an MRI? Would be curious to know if this is achieved through neural remapping or if, like cetaceans, you have greater capacity to detect infrasonic and ultrasonic frequencies."
She sounded a lot like Clint on one of his information spirals. Different topic, but similar. "Blind people have been taught to navigate using sound historically. Ray Charles, for example, did. He always wore hard soled shoes so he could. Not that it's very effective outside of a limited area," Matt answered, "It was more important to first get control of my powers and then learn how to use them effectively than to look into why they work like they do. I can tell you that my brain processes a substantially larger volume of information than most people."
Shoes now on, Matt headed towards the door, "I need coffee. You want a cup?"
"Science is my stimulant." As Sharon moved to follow she slipped a fluffy light-grey scarf from the bureau and wrapped it loosely around her neck. It would go well with her small but growing collection of familiar scents. So far she had an old t-shirt of Liam's and one of Felicia's scrunchies. The scrunchie wasn't the best for sleeping on, but she was afraid to take anything larger. Felicia's clothes seemed expensive.
Okay then, more coffee for Matt. "Well, I was woken up from my nap, so I need caffeine. And maybe breakfast," were there any croissants left? He doubted it, but was still hopeful.
Sharon twitched her tail as she padded past him. "All food belongs to Catseye. But tell me more of your powers and you may share my Allowed Meat."
Sharon crouched on the computer chair, studying the bed's current occupant. Some might have said expending energy to shift to her smallest form for the sole purpose of snooping was frivolous, but these people never got quality blackmail material.
Yes, she decided, her initial assessment had been correct. Granted she hadn't seen Doug with his shirt off, and the only other contender she'd yet met was Inez, but she felt confident she was in the presence of Darcy's hairiest paramour. Inwardly, she nodded her approval; monogamy was not a feline trait, and as such Darcy's personal life struck her as one of the more logical arrangements.
The cat jumped from the chair onto the stack of blankets and pillows piled near the foot of the bed. Curiosity satisfied, Sharon could have simply returned to the kitchen to partake of her Allowed Meat as she'd originally planned. It was the smart play. But no -- the feline urge to press her luck drove her on. Slowly, very slowly, she crept onto the bed.
Movement on the bed woke Matt unexpectedly. He didn't move at first, using his senses to figure out it. If it was Darcy or someone joining him, he likely wouldn't have awoken like that, their familiar scent alerting his hindbrain or whatever area remembers these things and let him sleep. The scent now was familiar, but reduced. And not one he expected in bed with him. That was why he woke. Okay then.
"What, Sharon?" he groaned, stretching. He wanted to move her bodily from the bed, but that was probably not something he should do to a cat with human intelligence.
She hadn't been expecting to hear her name. In this context it triggered that same primordial sense of guilt she associated with phrases like "Sharon, don't tear up the couch" and "Sharon, get away from that burner". Startled, Sharon did what came naturally: she bolted off the bed.
Unfortunately the first thing she encountered was the pile of pillows, which instantly lost cohesion under her momentum and sent her careening directly into the computer chair.
Sitting up, Matt was half out of bed as Sharon went ass over tea kettle into the chair. Graceful cat she was not. "You okay?" he asked, voice still rough from sleep. Clearing his throat, he offered her a hand up.
Now definitely caught, the cat extricated herself from the wheels of the computer chair and hastily reverted to her hybrid shape so she could verbalize an alibi.
"I would not have touched," said Sharon, who had absolutely been considering a touch. "Was only exploring my environment. Is important for enrichment."
"Uh huh," Matt replied dryly. "No one believes me when I say that and no one believes you either," at least he didn't. Her shifting was interesting to him with the sounds of bones and sinew and muscle reshaping without breaking or tearing. "If that was the case, you wouldn't have been on the bed in the first place."
From her position in the middle of a pile of spilled pillows and blankets, Sharon sniffed. "Darcy says I am allowed."
"When I'm also there?" Okay, he was awake and not going back to sleep. Pulling pants on, he found his socks before his shirt.
"This was unspecified. Is the middle of the day also. " Grudgingly, Sharon began to restore the pile of bedding to its original order. The courtesy of cleaning up her own mess was a rare one, and Darcy wasn't even here to give her credit for it. That hardly seemed fair.
Matt didn't have body modesty, but he was also pretty sure Sharon was one of the teens who had recently joined the mansion, so it was better that he be dressed. Buttoning up his shirt he shrugged, "I have a condition called 'Non24' which affects my circadian rhythm," he explained easily, "And I haven't been making any attempts to stay on or return to a normal diurnal sleeping pattern. So. I sleep when I'm tired," nor had he returned to his own room to do so. Now he wanted coffee and food.
Despite herself, Sharon warmed a little. "I understand this. Have polyphasic sleep schedule. No practical advantage to sleeping in arbitrary eight hour chunk. The rest of the world may accommodate." As the cat watched Matt move around the room one of her ears flicked in curiosity.
"Your eyes do not focus," she remarked. She crept away from the pile of bedding to get a better look at his face. "Pupils do not dilate."
"I'm blind," he stated calmly, slipping his phone into a pocket and strapping his watch to a wrist, "That's why I have non24. With no light perception, it's easy to fall into whatever schedule my body wants, not what is considered normal. There are advantages and drawbacks." Not everyone with non24 was NLP, but as far as he knew, all those who were NLP had non24 as well. "I've found that the world is reluctant to accommodate anyone too far outside the norm."
Sharon regarded him for a moment, quadrupedally.
"Yes," she stated with equal blandness, "is also my experience."
Angling for a better look, the cat raised herself onto her hind legs. At eye level she could see the man had no obvious physical differences other than what might have been faint scarring around his eyes. Her tail flicked. "This is your mutation? Congenital condition?"
Sharon was indeed a cat, if not in appearance, then in personality. And had all the tact of a brick. "Chemical burns from an accident when I was a kid," he answered, "My mutation is unrelated. Your vision must be better than average, most people can't see the scars anymore unless they are looking for them," but that didn't stop him from hiding them behind his glasses anyways. Calmly, he reached for them on the night stand and slipped them on.
"In some circumstances my vision is superior. Catching small movements for example. Mostly it is only that others do not pay attention." Sharon took a few steps backward before dropping onto all fours. "Detect no telltale scent or irregularities of size relative to mass. No obvious physical abnormalities. Your mutation is what?"
Without moving, Matt replied, "You're weight varies as you change forms, but you are approximately 12lbs as a house cat and 130lbs in your current one. Given that you're still mostly quadrupedal, I assume you have a third more humanoid form, if not others. Your heart rate has varied since you woke me, but is mostly calm now. You shed. You don't smell quite like a house cat, even in your small form, there's an underlying scent of human always on you. Not other humans, though they're there too, but one that is distinctly you. Not cat or human, but both. You don't have fleas." He hadn't touched her and there was no need to taste, but that was a decent demonstration.
Sharon examined Matt with new respect.
"Again people assume all shapeshifters have human form," she said with mock-weariness. "Accuracy of assessment in this case beside the point. How was this accomplished?"
"Human is the default," Matt pointed out, "At least here," on other planets or other dimensions, that was variable. "I have enhanced senses. Minus the obvious. Have you met Clint?"
"Is not my default," Sharon replied haughtily, "but yes, have met Clint. Very good eyesight. Nictitating membrane, like raptor. Gave me actual shirt off his back also because people are too easily scandalized. But enhanced senses, this is interesting. Do you have particular adaptations? Possess vomeronasal organ, for example? I have this. Or equivalent of pit organ, maybe, that allows you to perceive infrared radiation?"
Okay, not where he expected the conversation to go, but that sounded like Clint. "Yes. Also my brother," not genetically, but it was still ironic that they both had sensory-related mutations, especially regarding their vision. Their dad's were still lamenting that. "Not that I'm aware of. I do have great balance as that's related to hearing, though I did have to relearn how to work without traditional sight and I can use my hearing sort of like echolocation as well to get impressions of my environment."
"Your balance is good? This is interesting also. Equilibrioception in humans is often reliant on communication between sight, proprioception, and vestibular systems. Could be compensation from mutation. Or some extra structure like statocyst, maybe. Receptor is found only in invertebrates, but mutant anatomy is magical. I am proof." Sharon tread in a loose circle around Matt, her tail flicking with enthusiasm as she peered up at the man. "Echolocation in humans, I have heard of this. Sight was lost after birth? In baseline human would expect this information to be processed through primary visual cortex thanks to neuroplasticity. In you, different, maybe. You have done an MRI? Would be curious to know if this is achieved through neural remapping or if, like cetaceans, you have greater capacity to detect infrasonic and ultrasonic frequencies."
She sounded a lot like Clint on one of his information spirals. Different topic, but similar. "Blind people have been taught to navigate using sound historically. Ray Charles, for example, did. He always wore hard soled shoes so he could. Not that it's very effective outside of a limited area," Matt answered, "It was more important to first get control of my powers and then learn how to use them effectively than to look into why they work like they do. I can tell you that my brain processes a substantially larger volume of information than most people."
Shoes now on, Matt headed towards the door, "I need coffee. You want a cup?"
"Science is my stimulant." As Sharon moved to follow she slipped a fluffy light-grey scarf from the bureau and wrapped it loosely around her neck. It would go well with her small but growing collection of familiar scents. So far she had an old t-shirt of Liam's and one of Felicia's scrunchies. The scrunchie wasn't the best for sleeping on, but she was afraid to take anything larger. Felicia's clothes seemed expensive.
Okay then, more coffee for Matt. "Well, I was woken up from my nap, so I need caffeine. And maybe breakfast," were there any croissants left? He doubted it, but was still hopeful.
Sharon twitched her tail as she padded past him. "All food belongs to Catseye. But tell me more of your powers and you may share my Allowed Meat."
