Solo [Flashback]Morphing on the High Seas (solo)

[Wrenmae]

Summer 25, 508 AV

One never quite became accustomed to waking with the waves. The nameless island had been one of the few stops Sable made during her journey and Wren had been left to tend the casino as she frolicked island-side with her Tavan. The sun washed across his skin, searing the creamy white of his flesh and baking it toward red. Wrenmae glanced over the side of the ship, enamored by the water. It moved with such serene undulation, constant movement. The ground itself envied the water’s adaptability, but none so much as he.

Would that he could be as water, flowing along the coast and out to open sea. He could touch the lands of all Mizahar, see things he’d never experienced, and tell a story fit for even the gods to listen.

I know, right? Being water is pretty much an ideal

Wren chuckled, pulling the small flask from his belt and shaking it. Good morning to you too, Zan.

Is it? I find most mornings terribly similar. You know. Same sun, same earth, same breeze. Beats the shyke out of home, but…you know, kinda repetitive.

You’d prefer something else rise in place of the sun?

It’s like you can read my mind.

Like what?

I dunno. Something. A giant Miza, or…or…a face. Man, wouldn’t that be terrifying? A giant sun face staring down at you.

Wrenmae shielded his eyes and looked up at the sun, wincing, It would be rather disconcerting.

Damn right it would. Psh. Fleshy telling ME what would be disconcerting. Boy. You out of your damn mind.

What?

Sorry. Personality hiccup. Heard that sort of talk from a desert folk back in Alvadas. Trying it on for size. And now I'm discarding it. I like to liven things up.

Or be completely baffling.

I can’t be both? Live a little! Be confused! Petch, mate, I’m confused why we’re even out here.

Family.

Oh yes. The family with magical immunity to your disease spreading hugs.

I…

Oh come off it. I don’t want any more moping. Blah blah blah Vayt. Blah blah blah Lonely. Blah Blah Blah woe is me.

Shut up, Zan.

Why? Seriously. Make do. We have life and breath. You have me. There. Family.

Not quite the same.

Right. Right. I forgot that the requirement to be your family is a skeleton and skin.

Oh come on, Zan.

Tell me I’m wrong.

You’re wrong.

Once more, now with feeling.

Shut up, Zan. You don’t understand.

I don’t understand? What am I…a sentient tapeworm? Of course I understand.

Just. He sighed. Anything else you want to talk about?

Oh. Yeah. Sure. What’s that thing?

What thing?

The thing climbing into the boat.

Wrenmae spun around in time to see…something, sliding into the back end of the casinor form the sea. It had a bulbous head, strange eyes, and eight tentacles gripping the boat for support as it lunged its way over and into the belly of the ship. It took a few moments for Wrenmae to realize it was an octopus, but one far larger than any he’d seen before. It was pale, with blue circles running across its body like suction marks. Idly it sat in the boat for a moment before pushing forward and into the catch Sable had left aboard. The large fish was still flopping when the octopus fell upon it, suckers latching onto the creature and pulling it close. In a few moments the fish had been stricken still. Wrenmae watched in morbid fascination, having retreated to the prow of the ship to watch the predator scavenge the food left for him.

[Wrenmae]

What do you think it wants?

My food, obviously.

I dunno. It has way too many arms to be satisfied with your dinner.

You think it will come after me?

I suspect it wants the ship. Best name it crew.

What would that do?

Placate its raging ambitions.

What?

Are you mad, man? Do you not see the savagery in its form? It wants command! Oh gods! Mutiny! Mutiny!

It’s just an octopus.

And you’re just a people.

Person.

Bless you.

Sighing, Wrenmae watched the creature devour the fish. He’d seen octopi before, but never one so big or beautifully decorated. He watched it pull the fish beneath its bulbous body, to where the beak in the center of those tentacles resided, and knew it would be a process of tearing that prey apart. Evidently the creature possessed some sort of venom in its suction cups, certainly fearsome if it had taken down this prey so easily.

I know what you’re thinking.

I want it.

We’ll call it Cuddles

No, I mean its shape.

Oh. Does that mean we can’t keep Cuddles?

I need to kill it to study it.

But…but…I’m already emotionally attached!

We’ll find you another one.

You’ll just kill it.

I…ok, you're right. Sure. We can’t keep an octopus.

Sable gets a fish, her sister gets an otter. I get nothing.

I can’t even KEEP a pet!

Doesn’t mean I can’t

It’ll still DIE

BECAUSE YOU’RE A MONSTER!

YOU’RE TALKING WATER!

Point taken.

Thanks.

Racist.

Sighing, Wrenmae pulled the anchor from the water. Slowly, not disturbing the beast, and carried it step by heavy step to above it. For a moment he held it there, prepared to drop it, and was once more taken by its beauty. Maybe…killing it wasn’t the best way he could go about this. Placing the anchor to the side, he squatted down over the creature. It stared up at him, reproachful of being interrupted its meal. A tentacle slithered toward his feet, but Wrenmae cast Djed into its personal aura, pushing his hypnotic reserve of power into calming the beast as he studied it. The skin was soft to the touch, a mucous across the lithe muscles. Much like his Dhani model, the octopus was skin and muscle. The thickness and density of the muscle in each of the tentacles was a solid sort of feeling. Should the creature have deigned to clamp onto Wrenmae, he doubted he or anyone else would be able to remove it without consent.

[Wrenmae]

The creature was docile under his power, limp when he moved its tentacles to examine the suckers beneath. Like a myriad of tiny mouths, they clambered onto his skin and then off. He could see how the creature had crawled onto the boat. With the powerful suction from all these mouths, it could clamor up nearly any surface. That might be a useful talent to have. Next he ran a hand along its bulbous head, stared into its strange eyes, turned it over to see the bloody beak, still tearing at the fish. He had the basics.

Holding out his hands, he began with those. Djed rose within him as he willed the magic into his arms. That same pallor that took the octopus’ flesh took his own. Blue rings shifted along his skin. To aid in the transformation, Wrenmae plunged his hands into the sea, letting his arms soak the cold and the wet, incorporating it into his morph, the slimy viscous material of its body. His fingers melted together, his arms grew limp as muscle replaced bone. Small mouths, puckered, hungry, leaped from the backs of his arms. The suckers continued up to his shoulders where the tentacles ended. Pouring more Djed into the transformation, those tentacles lengthened, shifting, meeting, undulating, and eventually proliferating.

That’s disgusting.

Says the water that can’t decide what form it wants.

Not that one. I can safely say, not that one.

Well I don’t want yours.

Thank the gods. You could never pull off a Sarawanki

OH GODS LOOK AT THAT A SHINY THING! LOOK AT ME BE ANNOYING

…what?

That’s my impression of you.

You’re terrible at impressions.

The next transformation was his body. It shifted downward, collapsing in on itself. Minute after minute passed as he painstakingly transformed bits of himself piece by piece. Collapsing his ribcage, pushing his organs around, creating one for the creation of ink. He remembered Sable having caught an octopus before, the creature had been dissected on the deck. She’d picked up its ink gland, spraying him with the viscous black stuff, laughing. Now he had to make the same in himself, mimic the poison, the muscles, the eyes, the way it moved…

So many details to morphing, but by now he’d learned the hard lessons. Shift only when necessary, acquire when you can, and never overdo it. Once or twice he’d felt the edges of overgiving, the sweet whispers telling him to just morph every part of his body, give in to the power and become everything, anything.

And become nothing in the process.

His head extended, eyes shifting golden, his pupils widening sideways. His skin was the rubbery texture of the octopus now and he fell foot by foot until he was suckling the deck with the same intensity as his clone a ways away. His arms had extended, feeling out the deck and this new environment. His mouth had hardened, become a beak, scraped along the deck till he morphed and retracted it up into his body. The trick to the tentacles was maintaining muscle density. He had to be strong, powerful, moving not by the structure of bones but by the raw strength of his limbs. His face extended out bulbous and longer strands of flesh erupted from his sides, becoming tentacles of their own. Blue spots roared over his skin, widening to rings. His body was in a state of constant flux. Wars broke across his new form, ideals trying to re-situate themselves, adapt to his new form. Wrenmae the octopus was having trouble adapting. Movement was hellishly hard as things were and he had difficulty not clinging to everything around him. Besides, the form wasn’t perfect. The difficulty was both in maneuvering and adapting to a new physiological makeup. To be honest, he’d had better days morphing. The raven incorporated hollow bones, but bones all the same, and the other morphs were humanoid. Ever since he’d begun expanding his shape repertoire, he’d lost the ability to firmly define the shape of the ‘other’. In truth, this shape was hard to grasp. He poured Djed into the transformation, rocking back and forth and trying to purge himself of the bones that robbed his body of its mobility.

In the end, he was forced to return to his own shape, his body shifting and warping back to the ordinary human it was before. Every part of him ached, burned even. He needed the break from morphing, but was left with the problem of the octopus still in the ship. Now that he’d seen it, memorized its form, it really didn’t help to keep the sloppy thing in the boat.

With the little Djed he had left, he refined it to Res, a process that took time and patience. His skills as a reimancer was still pretty bare bones, but eventually he had enough to seep beneath the octopus. With the res soaking the deck beneath the placated beast, Wrenmae clenched his hand and raised his fist. Go, he mimed, become wind. And a blast of torrential wind hurled the octopus into the air and off of the boat.

Exhausted, the sorcerer fell back into the casinor and let sleep cast a caul over his eyes.

He needed the rest.

[Wrenmae]

Wrenmae awoke with a start, staring directly at the floating Zan across from his face.

Wakey, wakey, Look what poppa ocean sent us from his bountiful plate of leftooooooovers.

Sighing, Wrenmae put a hand on the edge of the casinor and peered over. The sight had him scrambling back into the boat and drawing his blade. For a few moments he sat like that, long dagger drawn and facing out toward the ocean, before he slowly peeked over the edge again. The massive corpse of the great white shark had bumped along the casinor sometime while he’d slept and remained there. The beast was larger than the boat and one sightless black eye stared into the domain of Zulrav with unspecific malice and hunger. The beast had not been dead long, certainly not long enough to suggest it was rotting. The gills did not flutter, however, and its grey and white body was still, save for the movement it had along the waves. Swallowing his fear for the giant creature, Wrenmae took a few moments to still his beating heart. The beast was dead, dead and gone, but fortune had left him the body to study. Had he not had trouble capturing this form before? He’d had the eyes, the skin, and the gills, but the shape was one that eluded him. After a few moments of calming himself down, the boy threw some rope over the creature, binding it to the Casinor and unfurling the sail. He’d be better able to study it on or near the land. The wind filled the sails of the little ship and Wrenmae struggled with the process of steering it. Wide, too shallow, the whole of it shook in his grasp. The shark did not help.

Neither did Zan.

So. Are we steering out to open sea? Or just to the bottom of it?

Shut up Zan. You aren’t helping.

No sir, I am not. What task did you suggest for me oh captain, my captain? Shall I ease the sweat from your brow? Shall I enter into negotiations with the sea? Oh! Of course! I’ll keep a sharp vigilant watch for anymore mutinous octopi. Aye sir, Aye sir, a sailor’s life for me.

Despite his annoyance, Wren laughed. Zan was always good for at least cheering him up.

They made the shore in an hour, far more time than it should have taken. The boat ground across the sand and came to a rest, letting Wrenmae leap out to survey the shark. The beast was still, blind to the world. It did not flinch as he cut its stomach, struggled with its powerful jaws, and pulled the organs from its body. A smell arose and Wren did his best to not breathe deeply. Pulling Djed into his eyes, he let Auristics tell him what normal observation might not. Of course, there was little to tell. The beast was a combination of muscle and cartilage, similar material as what shaped his ears. The flexibility of the cartilage allowed it two swim so well and the muscles provided both defense and power the rigidity of bones did not. By far, the most muscle was concentrated around the jaws. Layers of jagged teeth filled its scarred maw and several other sets existed below it. The shark was said to never be without teeth. This jaw was further proof of that very assertion.

[Wrenmae]

Letting his auristic enhanced senses run over the beast, Wrenmae planned his transformation. Already his skin was growing grey and white, shifting into the expected transformation of the beast. His pupils expanded, adopting the same void-like depth of the great shark. Stepping into the water, he pushed his hands along its tail, its body, feeling the skin, shifting with it. Gills cut across his neck and the boy stepped into the waves, vanishing beneath.

Morphing gills first gave him the time he needed to work on the transformation slowly. Before it had all been panic, but now he could concentrate. Unlike the octopus, there was a rigid order to the shark’s body. Both his legs fused together, his feet lengthening into a shark’s tail. He used the tail to propel him into deeper water. Shaping the tail with slow and deliberate care, he let his memory of that shark propel that particular transformation. Pushing through the water, he mixed his knowledge of muscle from his previous stored form, Bones the Dhani. Snakes and sharks were similar in the respect of muscle, and he borrowed heavily from the snake. His arms shifted into his body and dorsal fins followed, long triangular guiding fins to stabilize his passage. His back buckled as a dorsal fin pushed its way up and his shoulders and neck fused into his head, extending all out into a pointed nose. Wrenmae morphed his teeth, concentrating on the jagged edges of the shark he’d studied, layering more teeth behind it, flat until needed. More muscle piled into his jaw and his face lost all definition. His gills flared and his body pushed forward into the deep, turning slowly in the water as he adapted his shape, bit by bit. His sense of smell beneath the water was incredible, astounding even. He smelled the blood trailing off the dead shark, the blood of other creatures around, he sensed them!

Returning toward the shallows, he shed the shark form bit by bit, pushing down and letting the Djed retake him again. His pectoral fins became tentacles, grasping, and his body shrank as the entirety of it reconfigured. Arms, fins, skin, and bright blue rings converged upon each other. He shrank, shifted, pulled eight tentacles out and swam by pushing them together, his head shaping into a bulbous one pushing forward, his mouth a beak at the center of his eight legs. The octopus was easier to grasp now, both creatures used a different construction than bone. Even as Wrenmae re-entered the land, his body was once more shifting away, human skin pushing out, bones separating and reforming, and all of him coming back to its own. He tried to remember what he’d looked like, how he appeared in reflection, in the water, in a mirror. Luckily, he had not overgiven of yet and still had enough wits about him to return to human form.

Gasping on the shore, Wrenmae took a few moments to simply lay there and pant. Zan had busied himself among the coconuts and sand.

[Wrenmae]

It wasn’t enough to leave things the way they were. He may have forms to traverse the ocean now, but the body of the beast would be left to carrion crawlers at this rate. Although there wasn’t much he could salvage from the giant, its jaws might prove to be a beautiful Maledicted item when finished.

He waited till his strength had returned a bit, drawing his blade and cutting against the shark. The process was long winded, taking hours for him to cut along its muscles, saw at the cartelige, and finally remove one of the few truly solid pieces of the shark’s body. The jaw was massive and Wrenmae washed it off in the sea before setting it down on the sand. Facing the shark directly, he pulled res into his body again and pooled it in his hands. Laviku’s children fed upon each other. It was rude of him to leave such a massive piece of meat to molder in the sun. Pushing both palms out, he concentrated on putting his res into a single blast of high pressure wind, something strong enough to jettison the shark out into the sea. He’d already removed the ropes from its body, and spreading his legs apart, he pushed his hands forward and released the res outward. A screaming blast of wind pushed the shark out into the surf, spinning aimlessly as blood clouded the water. Already smaller sharks had begun testing their luck in the shallows, nipping at pieces of the larger one, feeding themselves and darting away. Wrenmae watched for a few moments before returning to work.

The jaws took a bit to dry, but once they were, he set upon them with the care of a craftsman. His dagger worked the circles into the jaw, four of them. Careful, painful careful as he drew the circles. He traced them first, as he always did, digging them into the dried cartilage only after. In the first circle, he drew a stick figure holding the jaws, struggling over the shape before moving to the next. The next circle was an enlargement of the picture. A tooth was snapped from the jaw by the stick figure’s hands. The shapes were hard, overlapping lines to keep the shape understandable.
To what extent was malediction the purpose of the creator and what part was how intelligent the magic was to follow the direction of the carvings? The third circle showed the same stick figure, muscles bulging, running, terrifyingly fast, and with jagged teeth in its jaw. The fourth and last picture was the stick figure biting into another, the spray of blood. Pausing, Wrenmae continued on to draw a fifth circle, showing the drops of blood equating the normal stick figure again, as if the blood of another would stop the transformation he wanted to impart on this Maledicted object.

Cutting his finger with the knife, he pressed blood onto each of the circles, sealing in the djed into the shape, bit by bit….till only the jaw was left, the jaw he had scavenged from the shark whose form he’d stolen.

He remained that way till evening, waiting for Sable to return.

Wondering, always wondering, where else he would be, come years end…come the next year beginning.

Who would die because of him.

[Cascade]

Adventurer's Loot Wrenmae's Loot : Skill XP Reward Familiary +1 Sailing +1 Auristics +2 Reimancy +1 Morphing +2 Observation +1 Malediction +2 Carving +1 Lore: Zan's Ideal Morning The Unhelpful Zan Tending Sable's Casino Model: Blue ringed octopus Model: Great white Shark Model: Octopus tentacles Model: Great White shark jaws and teeth Auristics: Examining a body Items & Consequences: Maledicted shark jaws - Gives the user powerful shark jaws that can only go away after he's tasted blood. As usual, the antiques of these two are always amusing. Enjoy your new lore! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!