Lock Your Doors
Jan. 6th, 2024 05:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsPaige gets a surprise visitor.
"This you have accomplished in less than two weeks? Untidiness is most impressive."
The observation was delivered without rancor and from roughly waist-height from the middle of the already-cluttered entranceway of the guest suite. The speaker's apparent equanimity might have been mitigated just slightly by the fact they were a roughly 120lbs purple cat with humanoid hands and an appraising expression, but that depended on the individual. Sharon had found experienced cat-owners tended to respond with much less surprise.
Paige jumped at the unexpected voice, and then again when she turned around and saw Sharon. "Uh, hello...who are you? And why are you in my room?" Paige had probably forgotten to lock the door to her room again. Sam had told her that if she didn't do it, she might get some unexpected guests, but since Paige wasn't in the habit of doing it, she constantly forgot.
"Unless explicit barriers are present, all rooms are my rooms. This warning you have been given." The cat was studying the contents of the guest suite with naked curiosity. She said, matter-of-factly, "I am Sharon. I go where I please."
"Right...ok. Nice to meet you, I guess. I'm Paige." She wasn't really sure what the...cat? Cat-person? was looking for.
The great purple cat had begun to pace the suite, or at least what parts of it could be traversed between the haphazard piles of books, laundry, and various household implements that had been purchased but not actually put away. Sharon treated most obstacles as optionally interactive, brushing a cheek against the corner of a box here or sniffing a book there. When she reached the couch she paused, nostrils flaring, and crouched to inspect something beneath the base. One clawed hand slipped below, questing, and withdrew.
A twelve inch strip of dry, papery skin was dragged into the light. Sharon lay it across the carpet like an entomologist setting out a rare specimen of butterfly to pin and regarded it with intense interest.
"These shreds I have seen elsewhere," she declared, rubbing the desiccating substance between two clawed fingertips. "Smells of keratinocytes. Your personal scent also. Stratum corneum, maybe? This is your molt?"
Paige was used to the barn cats that lived on her family farm, but they were pretty anti-social, which she had learned at an early age. Sharon, however, was very different from them, taking an interest in what seemed like everything in her room.
It took Paige a moment to place the technical terms. "That's my skin, yes. Must have missed a bit when cleaning up. Here, I'll toss it out." She reached out to pick up the strip of dead skin, making a mental note to check the corners of the room a bit more thoroughly the next time she practiced her husking.
"This is interesting," Sharon remarked as Paige retrieved the castoff. "It is a stress response? From change in climate, maybe, or simply persistent state? Assume this is not a result of outgrowing current integument. Seems to be skin only, not cuticle as would be shed with traditional ecdysis. Absent rigid structure such as scales found in creatures such as squamata also."
“It’s from my mutation. I don’t think it’s like when reptiles shed their skin for growth.” Paige relaxed a bit now that she was on the more comfortable topic of her mutation. Sharon seemed to know a lot, maybe she would have some insight into how her mutation worked. “I can peel off my outer layer of skin to reveal new forms. Gets a bit messy, as you can see.”
"New forms?" Suddenly the cat was at Paige's side, her yellow eyes shining with attention.
"Changing forms, this is interesting," Sharon said eagerly. "You will show me."
Paige crossed her arms and smiled. Sharon was starting to remind her of Lewis and Cissie not too long ago. “What’s the magic word? I’m not going to do it if you don’t ask nicely.”
The cat took a seat in front of Paige, immediately obliging in a way only one who recognized the other party as holding the advantage could be. Her tail curled demurely around her.
"You will show me, please," Sharon amended.
Paige nodded and promptly ripped the skin off her left arm, revealing a shiny metal skin. Titanium, if Paige’s focus worked. This time, she made sure to drop the torn skin in her trash can. “Ta-da.”
In an instant the cat surged to her hindlegs, bringing her to eye level with Paige as she sought a closer look at the appendage.
"I will touch?" Sharon asked excitedly. One hand extended tentatively, but did not actually make the threatened contact. A question.
“Yes, you can touch,” Paige said, holding out her arm.
Sharon's tail lashed in delight. She reached out to the offered appendage.
“This change, it is globalized or restricted to arm only?" she asked as she stroked the smooth titanium of Paige's arm with her fingertips. She bent her head closer, whiskers quivering with curiosity as she inhaled the new scent.
“Depends on if I shed all of my skin or just in one area. Right now, everything but my arm is still skin, but I could shed to make my whole body titanium if I wanted to.”
The cat stumbled a little, clumsy in the bipedal stance, and blurred. Fur and feline features receded to reveal a plain-faced girl with wide-set yellow eyes and purple hair, attention still firmly fixed on Paige's arm. Having this happen while Sharon was actively tracing the seam where metal ended and flesh began was a unique sensory experience.
"It is only this form you may assume, or others? Can personal morphology be changed also, or is fundamental anatomy a constant?" Sharon stealthily hooked a loose shred of skin on one claw and prized it free. "I change across a single spectrum only, but forms quite variable in between."
Paige’s eyebrows raised in shock as Sharon transformed. She was just full of surprises. Sam wasn’t kidding when he said life around here was never dull.
She pulled back when Sharon tore off the shred. “Please don’t pull anymore off. And, no, my anatomy stays the same, just the chemical make up of my body changes.”
"Pulling off further skin increases area of change?" Sharon asked, but the moment Paige pulled away she dropped her hands and took a respectful step back. As a human she was several inches taller than the other girl, though also clearly a few years younger. Between the ears, possibly more.
“Yes, it does, and if I’m not thinking about what to change into, it can get…weird and painful.” At least the other girl was good at respecting physical boundaries, even if she did ask a lot of in depth questions. “But that’s pretty much everything I know about my mutation so far. What about yours? You said it’s a spectrum, so you can choose how far your transformation between forms goes?”
Paige shed the metal on her arm, returning it back to her regular skin. The titanium shreds landed next to the trash bin. Oh well, she’d pick it up later.
The younger girl ventured to the trashcan and dropped into a crouch to examine the shards. She picked one up to roll between her fingers like a metal shaving.
"I am an ailuromorph. Feline shapes only. Four forms are accessible to me: house cat, big cat, and two you have seen. I am now experimenting to see if further gradients may be achieved. Selective alterations, maybe. So far no success. Is opposite of you, maybe, because I have had my powers always. I have never had to think to change. You may become organic matter also, or inorganic only?"
“I can do organic matter, too. I wonder if meditation might help you concentrate on what forms you want to achieve. Studying the anatomy of cats and humans may help as well.” Paige started ticking things off on her fingers as she began to get lost in her thoughts. “You could also try- oh but I’m sure you’ve already thought of these. Sorry, just thinking aloud.”
"Collaboration with qualified individuals is welcome. Is condescension that is not to be tolerated." Sharon palmed the curl of metal in a manner that indicated she not only didn't care whether or not Paige perceived the theft, but was actually daring the other girl to notice. She straightened and turned to face Paige, her expression calculating. "Some shapeshifters are here, but like me they change form only, not matter. But Sooraya, maybe. Her own body she may convert to silica particles and manipulate at will. Yes. Is closest equivalent, I think. You have met her?"
"Yeah, I ran into her in the library. She was very nice, and we had a good conversation about books." Paige watched Sharon play with the metal shaving, unsure of why she was so interested in it but unbothered by it.
Sharon nodded solemnly. "Diversity of human mutation is so interesting. Similar effects may be achieved through vastly differing mechanisms. Compare notes, maybe."
"Yeah, I need to see if I can fit that in before my classes start." Paige scratched at her neck. There was a lot she needed to make time for these days. It would all get done. Eventually. That's what her spreadsheet calendar was for. "Anyway, it was nice to meet you. And I guess you can keep that shaving if you want?"
Sharon looked her dead in the eye.
"What shaving?"
Oh, so that’s how it was going to be. “Alright, but don’t be surprised if I start locking my door from now on.”
"This you have accomplished in less than two weeks? Untidiness is most impressive."
The observation was delivered without rancor and from roughly waist-height from the middle of the already-cluttered entranceway of the guest suite. The speaker's apparent equanimity might have been mitigated just slightly by the fact they were a roughly 120lbs purple cat with humanoid hands and an appraising expression, but that depended on the individual. Sharon had found experienced cat-owners tended to respond with much less surprise.
Paige jumped at the unexpected voice, and then again when she turned around and saw Sharon. "Uh, hello...who are you? And why are you in my room?" Paige had probably forgotten to lock the door to her room again. Sam had told her that if she didn't do it, she might get some unexpected guests, but since Paige wasn't in the habit of doing it, she constantly forgot.
"Unless explicit barriers are present, all rooms are my rooms. This warning you have been given." The cat was studying the contents of the guest suite with naked curiosity. She said, matter-of-factly, "I am Sharon. I go where I please."
"Right...ok. Nice to meet you, I guess. I'm Paige." She wasn't really sure what the...cat? Cat-person? was looking for.
The great purple cat had begun to pace the suite, or at least what parts of it could be traversed between the haphazard piles of books, laundry, and various household implements that had been purchased but not actually put away. Sharon treated most obstacles as optionally interactive, brushing a cheek against the corner of a box here or sniffing a book there. When she reached the couch she paused, nostrils flaring, and crouched to inspect something beneath the base. One clawed hand slipped below, questing, and withdrew.
A twelve inch strip of dry, papery skin was dragged into the light. Sharon lay it across the carpet like an entomologist setting out a rare specimen of butterfly to pin and regarded it with intense interest.
"These shreds I have seen elsewhere," she declared, rubbing the desiccating substance between two clawed fingertips. "Smells of keratinocytes. Your personal scent also. Stratum corneum, maybe? This is your molt?"
Paige was used to the barn cats that lived on her family farm, but they were pretty anti-social, which she had learned at an early age. Sharon, however, was very different from them, taking an interest in what seemed like everything in her room.
It took Paige a moment to place the technical terms. "That's my skin, yes. Must have missed a bit when cleaning up. Here, I'll toss it out." She reached out to pick up the strip of dead skin, making a mental note to check the corners of the room a bit more thoroughly the next time she practiced her husking.
"This is interesting," Sharon remarked as Paige retrieved the castoff. "It is a stress response? From change in climate, maybe, or simply persistent state? Assume this is not a result of outgrowing current integument. Seems to be skin only, not cuticle as would be shed with traditional ecdysis. Absent rigid structure such as scales found in creatures such as squamata also."
“It’s from my mutation. I don’t think it’s like when reptiles shed their skin for growth.” Paige relaxed a bit now that she was on the more comfortable topic of her mutation. Sharon seemed to know a lot, maybe she would have some insight into how her mutation worked. “I can peel off my outer layer of skin to reveal new forms. Gets a bit messy, as you can see.”
"New forms?" Suddenly the cat was at Paige's side, her yellow eyes shining with attention.
"Changing forms, this is interesting," Sharon said eagerly. "You will show me."
Paige crossed her arms and smiled. Sharon was starting to remind her of Lewis and Cissie not too long ago. “What’s the magic word? I’m not going to do it if you don’t ask nicely.”
The cat took a seat in front of Paige, immediately obliging in a way only one who recognized the other party as holding the advantage could be. Her tail curled demurely around her.
"You will show me, please," Sharon amended.
Paige nodded and promptly ripped the skin off her left arm, revealing a shiny metal skin. Titanium, if Paige’s focus worked. This time, she made sure to drop the torn skin in her trash can. “Ta-da.”
In an instant the cat surged to her hindlegs, bringing her to eye level with Paige as she sought a closer look at the appendage.
"I will touch?" Sharon asked excitedly. One hand extended tentatively, but did not actually make the threatened contact. A question.
“Yes, you can touch,” Paige said, holding out her arm.
Sharon's tail lashed in delight. She reached out to the offered appendage.
“This change, it is globalized or restricted to arm only?" she asked as she stroked the smooth titanium of Paige's arm with her fingertips. She bent her head closer, whiskers quivering with curiosity as she inhaled the new scent.
“Depends on if I shed all of my skin or just in one area. Right now, everything but my arm is still skin, but I could shed to make my whole body titanium if I wanted to.”
The cat stumbled a little, clumsy in the bipedal stance, and blurred. Fur and feline features receded to reveal a plain-faced girl with wide-set yellow eyes and purple hair, attention still firmly fixed on Paige's arm. Having this happen while Sharon was actively tracing the seam where metal ended and flesh began was a unique sensory experience.
"It is only this form you may assume, or others? Can personal morphology be changed also, or is fundamental anatomy a constant?" Sharon stealthily hooked a loose shred of skin on one claw and prized it free. "I change across a single spectrum only, but forms quite variable in between."
Paige’s eyebrows raised in shock as Sharon transformed. She was just full of surprises. Sam wasn’t kidding when he said life around here was never dull.
She pulled back when Sharon tore off the shred. “Please don’t pull anymore off. And, no, my anatomy stays the same, just the chemical make up of my body changes.”
"Pulling off further skin increases area of change?" Sharon asked, but the moment Paige pulled away she dropped her hands and took a respectful step back. As a human she was several inches taller than the other girl, though also clearly a few years younger. Between the ears, possibly more.
“Yes, it does, and if I’m not thinking about what to change into, it can get…weird and painful.” At least the other girl was good at respecting physical boundaries, even if she did ask a lot of in depth questions. “But that’s pretty much everything I know about my mutation so far. What about yours? You said it’s a spectrum, so you can choose how far your transformation between forms goes?”
Paige shed the metal on her arm, returning it back to her regular skin. The titanium shreds landed next to the trash bin. Oh well, she’d pick it up later.
The younger girl ventured to the trashcan and dropped into a crouch to examine the shards. She picked one up to roll between her fingers like a metal shaving.
"I am an ailuromorph. Feline shapes only. Four forms are accessible to me: house cat, big cat, and two you have seen. I am now experimenting to see if further gradients may be achieved. Selective alterations, maybe. So far no success. Is opposite of you, maybe, because I have had my powers always. I have never had to think to change. You may become organic matter also, or inorganic only?"
“I can do organic matter, too. I wonder if meditation might help you concentrate on what forms you want to achieve. Studying the anatomy of cats and humans may help as well.” Paige started ticking things off on her fingers as she began to get lost in her thoughts. “You could also try- oh but I’m sure you’ve already thought of these. Sorry, just thinking aloud.”
"Collaboration with qualified individuals is welcome. Is condescension that is not to be tolerated." Sharon palmed the curl of metal in a manner that indicated she not only didn't care whether or not Paige perceived the theft, but was actually daring the other girl to notice. She straightened and turned to face Paige, her expression calculating. "Some shapeshifters are here, but like me they change form only, not matter. But Sooraya, maybe. Her own body she may convert to silica particles and manipulate at will. Yes. Is closest equivalent, I think. You have met her?"
"Yeah, I ran into her in the library. She was very nice, and we had a good conversation about books." Paige watched Sharon play with the metal shaving, unsure of why she was so interested in it but unbothered by it.
Sharon nodded solemnly. "Diversity of human mutation is so interesting. Similar effects may be achieved through vastly differing mechanisms. Compare notes, maybe."
"Yeah, I need to see if I can fit that in before my classes start." Paige scratched at her neck. There was a lot she needed to make time for these days. It would all get done. Eventually. That's what her spreadsheet calendar was for. "Anyway, it was nice to meet you. And I guess you can keep that shaving if you want?"
Sharon looked her dead in the eye.
"What shaving?"
Oh, so that’s how it was going to be. “Alright, but don’t be surprised if I start locking my door from now on.”
no subject
Date: 2024-01-06 10:55 pm (UTC)"Hide your children, hide your wives..."
That's what the 'lock your doors' bit reminded me of.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-07 09:53 am (UTC)