xp_logs | Jessie and Sharon || Shapeshifting Philosophy (backdated)

Sharon finds Jessie reading Nimona. The two talk about their abilities, and what it means to be a shapeshifter. Backdated to February 22.

Jessie really had only meant to read a few pages. She had homework to do. The sink was full of dishes. And she was lying on the couch, completely engrossed in the hardcover edition of the Nimona comic. It was somehow more heart-breaking than the movie. How was that even possible?

"Is interesting?"

At some point during the reading process Sharon had occurred. The other girl had taken the unlocked suite door as an invitation and let herself in, as was her custom. As was also her custom, she had done so in her hybrid form. For some reason people seemed to take a four-legged intruder a little better than one who was six feet tall.

Jessie squeaked in surprise, half sitting up and looking around for the voice. "So interesting," she said when she finally found Sharon. "It's the Nimona comic, the one the movie is based on."

"I have heard of this. An Eisner Award was given, yes?" Sharon stalked closer to the couch, whiskers quivering inquisitively. "Curious. Was adaptation executed with sufficient skill? Often nuance is lost."

"It has a lot of the same story points, but it's also really different from the movie. But the movie is also still really good. Like they kind of stand on their own."

"Yes. Afterwards it was not left to me to scour the internet for clarification." The cat craned her neck for a better look at the graphic novel, then shifted. An instant later a girl in a dark romper stood over Jessie, her purple hair spilling forward as she scrutinized the pages.

"I appreciate she was given no 'true' form," Sharon continued. "Such assumptions plagued me also. Preferred forms were had, but she changed always, subject to mood or situation. This is my experience also."

"Right? I've seen people online talk about how the form she used in the movie was obviously her 'real' form, but it wasn't really. We saw a thousand years earlier that she had a different form she preferred when she was friends with Gloreth. And she still used it a couple times in the present day."

"Such a form did not exist until humans were encountered. Always she was herself, translated into another species only." Sharon leaned back and stretched her arms over her head, arching her back with lazy flexibility. "This is my wish also. Still I toil to attain shapeshifting beyond my four forms. Yours is the potential to select from many more. Within human parameters," she clarified, which in her opinion was an important distinction. Shapeshifting without the ability to jump onto a different branch of the evolutionary tree seemed rather limited. She straightened and studied Jessie curiously. "Features and pigmentation change based on personal affinity. Does protective camouflage occur also? When space is predominantly male, or majority non-white, maybe."

"I could maybe do something like that?" Jessie tilted her head, thinking. "So like - it's not for protection or anything, but the face you see right now is all kind of subtly changed. When I first manifested, my face liked to change to match my mother's features more than my father's, probably because of gender preferences, so if I preferred blending in... I've never changed my skin color, though."

"It would be the most useful. Adaptive camouflage. But unsure of your level of intentionality?" Carelessly, Sharon dropped to the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees so she could gaze up at the shorter girl like a kindergartener at story time. "Instinctive reorientation towards gender preferences, this is interesting to me. Assumption is always that shapeshifting conceals, but this is lies. For us it reveals."

Jessie marked her place in the book and rolled so she was on her stomach, looking down at Sharon. "I never really thought about it like that. I've always felt like I'm kind of cheating, especially as a trans person, because most people can't just think and make their face look the way they want it to look - and believe me, trans people would kill for an ability like that. But I can hide the parts of myself that I don't like. But who I am underneath the changes isn't really me either. It's my 'default' form I guess, but it's not who I am."

Sharon moved her head in a short, dismissive jerk. "Is not hiding if it is our nature. Our flesh is not fixed. Therefore, all forms are equally ours. Why should we not choose the expression that best suits us? Is this not 'mutant pride'?"

Jessie perked up a little. When Sharon put it that way... "Yeah, I suppose it is. Using our powers to choose the face we show the world, right?"

"Felicia says that a different face is different armor," said Sharon matter-of-factly. "A projection of who you are that day. This is truth. Felicia is the most wise."

"Is Felicia also a cat person?" Jessie asked, tilting her head. "That sounds like a cat name."

Sharon's nod was solemn, but her eyes shone. "Felicia is the most Cat of humans. She has taught me much of shapeshifting without shapeshifting using clothing and makeup only. She has claws also, though they are made of metal. Even her disadvantages become strength." The girl hugged her tail to her chest with remembered excitement. "I fought at her side. She took the lives of two men with a dumpster."

"She..." Jessie blinked a few times, trying to parse all of that. She thought she had been following pretty well until they got to the part about the dumpster. "Is that a metaphor or did she really kill people with a dumpster? No judgment, I'm sure they deserved it. Just curious."

The ailuromorph considered this. "Yes," she said at last. "You have shared with me your knowledge of Nimona. This debt shall be repaid." Sharon dropped her tail, straightened her spine, and nodded to herself.

"I shall tell you of Felicia Hardy."