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Thursday, May 8--Letting Elizabeth, Emma's mom, in on it.
Today was the day. Emma asked if I wanted her to handle the talk with her mom, Elizabeth, but I said no. I should do it. (I didn't want to, deep down inside, but I rather suspect that to curry favor with a Get's mother, one should not come across as a pansy-ass who lets the girl do the hard/awkward things.) So we went. The three of us had a nice sit-down. Emma and I explained to her we were pretty serious about one another and wanted to make sure that was okay--along with me partially moving in. Elizabeth seemed legitimately happy for us both. (I think she likes me.) So after all that was taken care of, I told her there was more. And that with my occasionally living at her place and being more involved with family-related stuff, she'd eventually start to notice some peculiarities about me. Rather than being secretive about it, I told her I wanted to just put it all out on the table--and ask her to not tell Emma's father: "I'm also a world warper." She was surprised, and wanted a bit more information/reassurances, but seemed accepting of it--probably because Emma seemed okay with me. But Elizabeth did agree that it was something best kept from Emma's father. (This is largely what my Magic 8-ball told me in advance. What? Did you think I went into this blind or something? Sheesh. Get real.) And the rest of the day was me moving in a few things to Emma's room and then alternating between family time and adults talking time. I didn't get asked to do some magick for her. Big points for Emma's mom there. Emma and I opted to go back to my place to spend the night. Any way you cut it, the first time I spend the night over there is going to be a little weird.
Friday, May 9--Familiarizing myself with my cougar form
Emma and I had a very, very lazy morning that bled in to a lazy mid-day. As she was preparing to leave, I told her I was going to try and spend about 2-4 days as a cougar. This time I was going to stay on my own private property instead of the all-but-unused Walker territory. I'd opened a large window downstairs and removed the screen so I could go in and out of the cabin that way. I also rigged the Winnebago's door so it doesn't latch, making it easy to pull or push open if you don't happen to have opposable digits--and giving me a place to hole up if Emma needed/wanted the cabin. LOLcat? In the upstairs half-bath with an ample supply of food and water so he doesn't run off. After Emma left, I spent a few minutes programming my Kindle Fire so that, by tapping the screen three times within 10 seconds, it would select one of three nearby pizza places' websites, fill out the data fields with the appropriate data, and auto-order a cheese pizza with delivery instructions to just ring the doorbell and leave the pizza. (That's universal delivery code for "we're naked in here having sex and don't want to come to the door while someone is there.") I plugged the Fire in and put it in the corner. If I get hungry, I can just tap the device thrice and summon a paid-for pizza from afar--and it's a large amount of calories, vegetarian, and likely palatable to a cougar.) I then ate as much as I could (why start off hungry?), called Val to invite her over (and to use the open window when she got here), stripped naked, and then activated my cougar-ring talisman. I intentionally did not use Mind magic to circumvent the painful effect of shifting that I'd been cautioned about. Holy shit, ow! Having my bending and rubbing against one another probably the least pleasant of a wholly unpleasant experience. I'd rank that up there as being as painful as the time But I've taken the mystery out of that now, experienced in once, and there's no need to do that again. Ever. Ouch.
One of the first things I noticed post-shift (and post oh-god-it-hurts)? The smell. The smell of my cabin is very different from the smell of the woods when I'd transformed before. Also? OMG, the smell of sex was everywhere in the cabin. Oh, man. Salem might have noticed what Emma and I had been up to in the cave a few weeks ago. How embarrassing! Perhaps the whole "locker room rules" Slug talked about before applies also to we-had-sex smells? Sheesh, I hope so. Because if that cave reeked of sex anywhere near as much as my cabin does right now?
Note to self: Wash all the bed linens. Twice.
I climbed the stairs and waited for Val to arrive. I figure I might as well tell her and play a prank on her (a mild one so as to not get shot) as opposed to her finding it out later and getting pissy. She arrived, I moved enough to get her attention, and she freaked only a little bit. Her smell seemed to change afterwards. Fear? Nervousness? I'm not sure what it was, but it was different. I assumed fear, so I was pretty cautious in not making any sudden moves. (That and I might very well have fallen over if I'd made any sudden moves.) With a few hints, she figured out who I was and did Mindspeak so we could chat normally. I assured her that when I was in that form, I had no discernible instinct to behave like a predator, so she didn't need to worry about me frenzying on her. We got to talking about homid-born shifters and how they sometimes lack instincts as well, and she said she had watched a lot of nature documentaries to learn more about raven behavior earlier on--just like I'd told her I'd been doing to learn more about cougars and the larger cats. Val mentioned running into Karuvar again, and Alicia, and how Alicia was all but drooling over Karuvar. I pointed out that Alicia was at the age where the biological clock tends to start ticking louder. Val theorized that Alicia might have remembered me from a decade earlier (when I hadn't remembered her at all) because she had the hots for me. (Sorry. Taken!) We parted ways so Val could go visit the farmhouse and I could go experiment with scratching on a tree with my new claws.
It feels inexplicably good to dig my claws into things and then rake them across stuff, whereas in homid form I'd probably end up ripping fingernails out attempting that sort of thing. Is it the novelty of the sensation that's appealing? I don't know. I spent the night re-familiarizing myself with the form and working up to jogging/trotting and later running. I think the time studying LOLcat paid off a bit! By the time dawn rolled around, I was able to walk, trot, and jog well. Running is mostly hit rather than miss. Erratic, evasive moves? Those still need work as I keep getting my leg tangled up. On a tangential note? Excretory functions are... physically different, but similar enough that it wasn't a significant issue. Also? Cougar junk is weird.
Sight--especially night vision--is exceptional good, though not as good as Forces-aided sight. Although color-wise, it's not as good as humans. There's color vision, but it doesn't work well at all until an object is very close by. Probably useful for picking out bloody scraps of meat on the forest floor. (Gross. I guess there's no 5-second rule in nature, though.) Depth perception feels a tad bit more accurate than humans, and there's a definite increase in overall field of vision.
Smell? Wickedly acute in comparison to a human's sense of smell, but there doesn't seem to be much of a directional function. I need to start figuring out what smells belong to what things. Oh, hell! I should have bought a catnip plant!
Note to self: Buy a catnip plant or three.
Hearing? Excellent. Well beyond a human's abilities, but not beyond Forces-enhanced senses. When I took occasional breaks from physical exercise, I discovered that I could move my ears to get a better sense of where sounds were coming from. That will take a little more time and effort to get good at, though.
Touch? The nose and paws are relatively sensitive, but in a good way. Surprisingly, the paw pads seem to be roughly as sensitive as--or perhaps a bit more than--human fingertips are, which is useful for telling what kind of surface I'm standing on. I imagine this is very useful for determining traction for running and leaping purposes.
Taste? I don't plan on catching and eating any small woodland critters. Depending on how hungry I get later, we'll see about ordering a cheese pizza and see how well that tastes (and if it stays down).
I was good and tired by the time dawn rolled around. A very productive night! I debated sleeping outside like a cougar would do, but then I decided I didn't want to deal with things like bugs or other stuff that might bother me. I crept in through the cabin's open window and stretched out on the futon downstairs. I cannot believe how much of the couch I take up in this form. No wonder cats are such bed hogs. And it still reeks of sex in here, though not quite as much as 12 hours ago.
Saturday, May 10--Mobility and balance exercises. I can still work magic when I'm a cougar. Sweet!
I slept long and hard. First time sleeping as a cougar! My dreams were pretty typical, though. Nothing unusual at all. That's both reassuring and disappointing at the same time. Ah, well. I got up a little after noon, slipped outside to take care of business, and then came back inside for more napping on the futon after practicing at accelerating up to running speeds for about an hour. Tiring! The futon is smelling a bit like... me. As a cougar. Which I can now clearly tell is a totally different scent than my human one. It's like A is not equal to B, even though A is B. Interesting.
I woke up from my nap a few hours before dusk. I felt like I ought to be hungry, but I wasn't--just thirsty. Cleverly, I'd forgotten to put out water for myself. I debated drinking from the stream that runs across my property (or should I call it territory?), but I was concerned about microoganisms in the water. Could I get sick--or worms--as a cougar and still have them after I turned back to human? Maybe? It's not something I felt like chancing at the moment. Instead, I managed to turn on the faucet to the tub downstairs and got a drink there. And I managed to shut the water off once I was done. Go me!
Out to the woods again, this time working on some leaping. I'd read that cougars can leap up to 45 feet horizontally. (From a running start, I'd guess? The world record for humans is 29'.) And up to 15' vertically. (The record is barely over 4' for humans. Holy crap!) I didn't try anything that crazy. I just went to this partially fallen pine tree (it was at about a 20-degree angle of incline) and worked on jumping over it starting from a stationary point, a walk, and a trot. I then practiced leaping on to it at different points/heights. It took a while to figure out that I needed to use my tail to help with the balancing so as to not fall off the other side. I need to work on using that appendage more consciously to aid in balance now that I'm getting better at using all 4 legs instead of just 2. Walking and then jogging up and down the length of the fallen pine tree seemed like good practice for that. I am glad no one was around to see me fall off a good dozen or so times. After a while, I got tired and just rested atop the highest point of the downed tree. I managed to doze off accidentally--and didn't fall off. Even though it was only a brief catnap. (Ha!)
Dawn was approaching. I could hear a LOT of movement happening in forest, so I spent some time just sitting where I'd napped earlier, listening and getting my ears to work more efficiently. I decided I might as well experiment with magic at this point, so I gently reached out with Forces magic to sense where a noise was coming from--the simplest and most coincidental of things--and I found the working of the magic to be as effortless as if I'd been in my human form. I didn't think there would be a problem, because my mind is still the same in this new shape, but it is comforting to finally confirm that suspicion.
I'm getting the hang of this cougar thing. I will definitely have to spend a lot more time on learning and mimicking cougar behavior and mannerisms if I'm to pass myself off as one to someone in the know. But to casual, inexperienced observers from the general populace? I've got this!
Today was the day. Emma asked if I wanted her to handle the talk with her mom, Elizabeth, but I said no. I should do it. (I didn't want to, deep down inside, but I rather suspect that to curry favor with a Get's mother, one should not come across as a pansy-ass who lets the girl do the hard/awkward things.) So we went. The three of us had a nice sit-down. Emma and I explained to her we were pretty serious about one another and wanted to make sure that was okay--along with me partially moving in. Elizabeth seemed legitimately happy for us both. (I think she likes me.) So after all that was taken care of, I told her there was more. And that with my occasionally living at her place and being more involved with family-related stuff, she'd eventually start to notice some peculiarities about me. Rather than being secretive about it, I told her I wanted to just put it all out on the table--and ask her to not tell Emma's father: "I'm also a world warper." She was surprised, and wanted a bit more information/reassurances, but seemed accepting of it--probably because Emma seemed okay with me. But Elizabeth did agree that it was something best kept from Emma's father. (This is largely what my Magic 8-ball told me in advance. What? Did you think I went into this blind or something? Sheesh. Get real.) And the rest of the day was me moving in a few things to Emma's room and then alternating between family time and adults talking time. I didn't get asked to do some magick for her. Big points for Emma's mom there. Emma and I opted to go back to my place to spend the night. Any way you cut it, the first time I spend the night over there is going to be a little weird.
Friday, May 9--Familiarizing myself with my cougar form
Emma and I had a very, very lazy morning that bled in to a lazy mid-day. As she was preparing to leave, I told her I was going to try and spend about 2-4 days as a cougar. This time I was going to stay on my own private property instead of the all-but-unused Walker territory. I'd opened a large window downstairs and removed the screen so I could go in and out of the cabin that way. I also rigged the Winnebago's door so it doesn't latch, making it easy to pull or push open if you don't happen to have opposable digits--and giving me a place to hole up if Emma needed/wanted the cabin. LOLcat? In the upstairs half-bath with an ample supply of food and water so he doesn't run off. After Emma left, I spent a few minutes programming my Kindle Fire so that, by tapping the screen three times within 10 seconds, it would select one of three nearby pizza places' websites, fill out the data fields with the appropriate data, and auto-order a cheese pizza with delivery instructions to just ring the doorbell and leave the pizza. (That's universal delivery code for "we're naked in here having sex and don't want to come to the door while someone is there.") I plugged the Fire in and put it in the corner. If I get hungry, I can just tap the device thrice and summon a paid-for pizza from afar--and it's a large amount of calories, vegetarian, and likely palatable to a cougar.) I then ate as much as I could (why start off hungry?), called Val to invite her over (and to use the open window when she got here), stripped naked, and then activated my cougar-ring talisman. I intentionally did not use Mind magic to circumvent the painful effect of shifting that I'd been cautioned about. Holy shit, ow! Having my bending and rubbing against one another probably the least pleasant of a wholly unpleasant experience. I'd rank that up there as being as painful as the time But I've taken the mystery out of that now, experienced in once, and there's no need to do that again. Ever. Ouch.
One of the first things I noticed post-shift (and post oh-god-it-hurts)? The smell. The smell of my cabin is very different from the smell of the woods when I'd transformed before. Also? OMG, the smell of sex was everywhere in the cabin. Oh, man. Salem might have noticed what Emma and I had been up to in the cave a few weeks ago. How embarrassing! Perhaps the whole "locker room rules" Slug talked about before applies also to we-had-sex smells? Sheesh, I hope so. Because if that cave reeked of sex anywhere near as much as my cabin does right now?
Note to self: Wash all the bed linens. Twice.
I climbed the stairs and waited for Val to arrive. I figure I might as well tell her and play a prank on her (a mild one so as to not get shot) as opposed to her finding it out later and getting pissy. She arrived, I moved enough to get her attention, and she freaked only a little bit. Her smell seemed to change afterwards. Fear? Nervousness? I'm not sure what it was, but it was different. I assumed fear, so I was pretty cautious in not making any sudden moves. (That and I might very well have fallen over if I'd made any sudden moves.) With a few hints, she figured out who I was and did Mindspeak so we could chat normally. I assured her that when I was in that form, I had no discernible instinct to behave like a predator, so she didn't need to worry about me frenzying on her. We got to talking about homid-born shifters and how they sometimes lack instincts as well, and she said she had watched a lot of nature documentaries to learn more about raven behavior earlier on--just like I'd told her I'd been doing to learn more about cougars and the larger cats. Val mentioned running into Karuvar again, and Alicia, and how Alicia was all but drooling over Karuvar. I pointed out that Alicia was at the age where the biological clock tends to start ticking louder. Val theorized that Alicia might have remembered me from a decade earlier (when I hadn't remembered her at all) because she had the hots for me. (Sorry. Taken!) We parted ways so Val could go visit the farmhouse and I could go experiment with scratching on a tree with my new claws.
It feels inexplicably good to dig my claws into things and then rake them across stuff, whereas in homid form I'd probably end up ripping fingernails out attempting that sort of thing. Is it the novelty of the sensation that's appealing? I don't know. I spent the night re-familiarizing myself with the form and working up to jogging/trotting and later running. I think the time studying LOLcat paid off a bit! By the time dawn rolled around, I was able to walk, trot, and jog well. Running is mostly hit rather than miss. Erratic, evasive moves? Those still need work as I keep getting my leg tangled up. On a tangential note? Excretory functions are... physically different, but similar enough that it wasn't a significant issue. Also? Cougar junk is weird.
Sight--especially night vision--is exceptional good, though not as good as Forces-aided sight. Although color-wise, it's not as good as humans. There's color vision, but it doesn't work well at all until an object is very close by. Probably useful for picking out bloody scraps of meat on the forest floor. (Gross. I guess there's no 5-second rule in nature, though.) Depth perception feels a tad bit more accurate than humans, and there's a definite increase in overall field of vision.
Smell? Wickedly acute in comparison to a human's sense of smell, but there doesn't seem to be much of a directional function. I need to start figuring out what smells belong to what things. Oh, hell! I should have bought a catnip plant!
Note to self: Buy a catnip plant or three.
Hearing? Excellent. Well beyond a human's abilities, but not beyond Forces-enhanced senses. When I took occasional breaks from physical exercise, I discovered that I could move my ears to get a better sense of where sounds were coming from. That will take a little more time and effort to get good at, though.
Touch? The nose and paws are relatively sensitive, but in a good way. Surprisingly, the paw pads seem to be roughly as sensitive as--or perhaps a bit more than--human fingertips are, which is useful for telling what kind of surface I'm standing on. I imagine this is very useful for determining traction for running and leaping purposes.
Taste? I don't plan on catching and eating any small woodland critters. Depending on how hungry I get later, we'll see about ordering a cheese pizza and see how well that tastes (and if it stays down).
I was good and tired by the time dawn rolled around. A very productive night! I debated sleeping outside like a cougar would do, but then I decided I didn't want to deal with things like bugs or other stuff that might bother me. I crept in through the cabin's open window and stretched out on the futon downstairs. I cannot believe how much of the couch I take up in this form. No wonder cats are such bed hogs. And it still reeks of sex in here, though not quite as much as 12 hours ago.
Saturday, May 10--Mobility and balance exercises. I can still work magic when I'm a cougar. Sweet!
I slept long and hard. First time sleeping as a cougar! My dreams were pretty typical, though. Nothing unusual at all. That's both reassuring and disappointing at the same time. Ah, well. I got up a little after noon, slipped outside to take care of business, and then came back inside for more napping on the futon after practicing at accelerating up to running speeds for about an hour. Tiring! The futon is smelling a bit like... me. As a cougar. Which I can now clearly tell is a totally different scent than my human one. It's like A is not equal to B, even though A is B. Interesting.
I woke up from my nap a few hours before dusk. I felt like I ought to be hungry, but I wasn't--just thirsty. Cleverly, I'd forgotten to put out water for myself. I debated drinking from the stream that runs across my property (or should I call it territory?), but I was concerned about microoganisms in the water. Could I get sick--or worms--as a cougar and still have them after I turned back to human? Maybe? It's not something I felt like chancing at the moment. Instead, I managed to turn on the faucet to the tub downstairs and got a drink there. And I managed to shut the water off once I was done. Go me!
Out to the woods again, this time working on some leaping. I'd read that cougars can leap up to 45 feet horizontally. (From a running start, I'd guess? The world record for humans is 29'.) And up to 15' vertically. (The record is barely over 4' for humans. Holy crap!) I didn't try anything that crazy. I just went to this partially fallen pine tree (it was at about a 20-degree angle of incline) and worked on jumping over it starting from a stationary point, a walk, and a trot. I then practiced leaping on to it at different points/heights. It took a while to figure out that I needed to use my tail to help with the balancing so as to not fall off the other side. I need to work on using that appendage more consciously to aid in balance now that I'm getting better at using all 4 legs instead of just 2. Walking and then jogging up and down the length of the fallen pine tree seemed like good practice for that. I am glad no one was around to see me fall off a good dozen or so times. After a while, I got tired and just rested atop the highest point of the downed tree. I managed to doze off accidentally--and didn't fall off. Even though it was only a brief catnap. (Ha!)
Dawn was approaching. I could hear a LOT of movement happening in forest, so I spent some time just sitting where I'd napped earlier, listening and getting my ears to work more efficiently. I decided I might as well experiment with magic at this point, so I gently reached out with Forces magic to sense where a noise was coming from--the simplest and most coincidental of things--and I found the working of the magic to be as effortless as if I'd been in my human form. I didn't think there would be a problem, because my mind is still the same in this new shape, but it is comforting to finally confirm that suspicion.
I'm getting the hang of this cougar thing. I will definitely have to spend a lot more time on learning and mimicking cougar behavior and mannerisms if I'm to pass myself off as one to someone in the know. But to casual, inexperienced observers from the general populace? I've got this!
