[Flashback] Harder Than It Looks (Solo)

[Seidaku]

Timestamp: 42nd Day of Summer, 510 A.V.

Seidaku stared down at the elongated nails of his right hand. Well over a handspan in length, the change came easier to him now. Admittedly, he had never done anything terribly difficult with it, but as long as he maintained his focus, he felt confident in making aesthetic, non-structural changes to his form.

Forming an image of himself in his mind's eye, upon the backdrop of darkness created by his closed eyes, imagined the flesh of his hand and forearm deepening in color to a sun darkened bronze. There was a ghost of sensation, fleeting but definitely there, and when he opened his eyes, his hand was now the honeyed tone of a man who spent his life outdoors, working beneath Syna's gaze.

These changes did not last beyond his intent concentration, of course, and the darkening of tone faded back into his own natural paleness. But it was a platform from which to move on to other things, greater changes.

Which was exactly what he intended to do today. Temporary though the result might be, he was intent on a more dramatic change.

[Seidaku]

He flexed the fingers of his right hand, opening and closing his fist, fluttering his fingers in the air, turning his wrist first one direction and then another. All the while, he observed the interplay of muscle and tendon beneath the skin. It was incredibly complex, but through careful study, he thought he could see where it all fit together.

He closed his eyes and felt the Djed around him, ebbing and flowing like an ocean of invisible force. Forming the image of himself in his mind was easier now, a familiarity brought about by long bells of practice. With his eyes still closed, he focused his attention on his right hand, stretching and pulling at the tips of his fingers, shaping and drawing out the bones of his fingers and his nails, strengthening them, making them more dense, sharper. He could feel the change, a sensation of tightening that stopped just short of pain.

When he opened his eyes, he held up his hand and beheld not nails, but something that could only accurately be called talons. Five daggers of sharpened bone topped his fingers, beginning where his fingers split away from his palm, they extended for perhaps a foot before curving downward into sharp spikes for tearing or cutting.

Laughing delightedly at his success, Seidaku brandished his claws at the small stand mirror on his desk and put on a menacing snarl. Yes, he cut quite the terrifying image, if he did say so himself.

He tried to waggle his fingers and discovered that, despite their possible utility in cutting and tearing, they were useless for any sort of fine manipulation. There was no movement at all, he had made the bone too dense and had solidified the joints of his hand.

Still, he thought, taking an idle swat and liking the sound the claws made as they cut the air, They look well made for what they were designed for.

Pulling his hand back over his shoulder, Seidaku lashed downward viciously at the edge of his writing desk. The talons bit deep into the wood, tearing a series of ragged gouges in its surface before they splintered and cracked, breaking away about halfway down their length in an explosion of pain.

Crying out and grasping at his wrist to hold the hand steady, his concentration was completely gone. Without his will to maintain their form, the broken edges of his claws began to writhe and retract, pulling back inward toward his palm, the edge fading, bone losing density to become flesh.

Panting at the fading rush of pain, Seidaku stared down at the broken ends of his nails, snapped of halfway to the base, oozing blood from the exposed skin.

He was obviously not going about this the right way.

[Seidaku]

44th Day of Summer, 510 A.V.

Gods above, how much harder can this be?, Seidaku wiped a sticky mixture of sweat and grime off of his forehead with the back of his sleeve. He had been wandering the back streets and alleys of Alvadas for a day and a half now, to no real result.

After his ill fated attempt at making claws two days ago, he had realized his mistake and the cause of his failure. He had tried to make claws as a human weapon, rather than mirroring the natural defenses of creatures that were innately blessed with such trappings.

Which is how he found himself crawling through the dirt and grime of the side streets of Alvadas, lugging a battered cage in one hand that jostled and bumped painfully against his hip as he walked. The cage was, in and of itself, a minor expense, but in the heat and dirt it was worth thrice its weight in frustration. In order to study one the anatomy of a clawed animal, he had to have some way to contain said animal. And so, six gold Mizas later, pure highway brigandy on the part of the merchant, he found himself with a perfectly servicable cage with a scuffed wooden base, and slightly bent metal bars, more than large enough to contain his intended prey.

Another two bells later, and his diligent hunting and searching was rewarded. Turning the corner of one blessedly cool night shrouded alley and into a thinner, twisting tunnel that was nontheless lung searingly hot and bright as a noon day. There, less than a dozen feet in front of him, stood a pale tawny cat, watching him intently. Opening the front of the cage and setting it down, Seidaku advanced on the cat slowly, crouching slightly and with his arms down and his palms forward, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. He stopped his advance when the animal made a low sound in its throat and arched its back, hackles raised angrily. He licked his lips nervously and, when the cat made no move to attack, contined edging forward slowly.

Once he was safely in range, the feline still eyeing him menacingly, Seidaku lunged forward and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck, trying as he had seen others do to keep it immobile. His attempt was entirely for naught and, as the cat left the ground, it exploded into furious motion. Seidaku felt teeth sink into his wrist and blood begin to flow as he fought it back up the narrow alley toward the cage. With one hand gripping the back of his neck, he tried to grab its body with the other, but succeeded only in keeping its claws away from his face. Leaning back, away from the hissing, spitting ball of hate that he had clutched precariously in one hand, Seidaku grunted with the effort of restraining the vicious animal.

When he reached the cage, Seidaku took a deep breath and pushed the cat toward the open front of the cage. As soon as it neared the hatch though, its paws shot out and it locked itself in place, bracing itself against both the ground and the cage. Spared from the effort of fighting with it directly, he reached out with his other hand and, as gently as possible, set about unhooking it from he cage door and finally shoved the cat, furious but ultimately unharmed into the cage. Simultaneous with his release of the back of its neck, he snatched his hand back and slammed the door of the cage, a hair's breadth ahead of the cat's spitting, screaming maw.

Collapsing onto his backside with his legs splayed out in front of him, Seidaku sat back, chest heaving in exertion, and took stock of his injuries. Several cuts and gouges decorated his right wrist, most of them bleeding freely, and his left forearm was streaked with red, plastering the torn sleeve of his shirt to his arm. Certainly nothing life threatening, but definitely enough to prove the effectiveness of the creature's claws.

He pushed himself to his feet, hissing at the pain in his arms as the movement pulled at the cuts, and bent to retrieve the cage. He pulled his hand back abruptly however, as one paw shot out from between the bars and tried to add to his injuries. After a moment of consideration, he tore the left sleeve from his shirt at the uppermost of the tears from the cat's claws, and used it as an improvised glove, to keep the animal's attacks at bay.

With the cage held as far away from his body as possible, Seidaku headed home with the cat in its cage glaring balefully at him and releasing the most awful ululating growl.

OOCSelf-Moderation: Spent 6 Gold Mizas (intentionally overpriced because of poor haggling skill) and acquired one Small Cage, in fair condition.

[Seidaku]

Back in his home, Seidaku found himself in something of a dilemma. He had the cat now, to study. He could see it, crouched in its cage, glaring sullenly at him from across his small room. Periodically, it would release an angry, low growl, as though to remind him that it was still there, and it was not pleased with him in the least.

However, the whole purpose behind finding and capturing that cat had been to study it. Something he could not do if it flew into a rage, hissing, spitting, and lashing out at him anytime he came within an arm's breadth of it. And so he paced, arms and hands stinging with angrily inflamed tears beneath improvised bandages formed from the remainder of the sleeves of his shirt. Thankfully, he still had better than half a Season to replace it before the weather started its turn towards cold.

All he needed to do was get close enough to the cat to study it. A few hours of study, a few hours to practice Morphing, and then he could release it. Back to whatever unholy realm that had spawned it.

[Seidaku]

OOCSelf-Moderation, subtracted 8gm for an ounce of poppy seeds. This cat is getting expensive.

Timestamp: 45th Day of Summer, 510 A.V.

Jamisia had been right. Steeping the seeds of poppies in hot water to make a sort of 'poppy tea' had been both simple and surprisingly effective. He had not wanted to poison the animal, despite the argument in favor of it posed by the painfully stinging cuts on his hands and forearms. All he needed was to get close enough to study its paws, and then he could be quit of it.

Looking back at the remainder of the ounce of seeds he had bought, he realized now that he had woefully over-purchased. Well, he thought with a slight shrug, More for next time. He wondered how long they would keep. Maybe he should go back to the Inn and ask Jamisia?

Regardless, even a few grams of the seeds had been more than enough. As it was, he was worried that he might have given the cat too much. He winced at the realization that his own unintentional cruelty had helped him as much as the poppy tea soaked meat. When he had brewed it, the smell had been strong enough that he worried that the cat would not eat it. However, over a day in captivity with no food had apparently made it something less of a picky eater. Even so, it had hesitated briefly before consuming its meal.

After almost half a bell with no visible results, he had grown impatient and fed the cat another piece of meat soaked in the poppy tea. It was shortly after this that the cat began to become lethargic. Too soon for it to have been the effects of the second piece of meat. Even so, memory of his last encounter with the cat kept him at bay for the other half of a bell, before he could work up the courage to walk forward and give the cage a gentle shake. A shake that elicited no reaction from the apparently unconscious animal.

Despite his worries that he had poisoned the poor creature - a creature that he could look upon with pity now that he was no longer screaming, spitting, and doing everything in its power to render him edible - Seidaku flipped the latch holding the cage closed and withdrew the animal markedly more gently than he had stuffed it in originally.

Laying the unconscious but thankfully still breathing cat out on his desk, Seidaku pulled one of the paws away from the body and studied it intently. With a sheet of parchment and a quill pen on hand, he lifted the paw and studied its structre, making notes and attempting to sketch out what he discovered.

His first mistake had been an obvious one. The claws he had made were too long. Too long and too straight. With his left hand holding the cat's paw, Seidaku applied slight pressure to force the pads apart and reveal the claws. They were surprisingly small, given the amount of injury they had inflicted upon him. Short, and wickedly curved. He wondered if the curve of the claw added additional strength by allowing the force of an impact to be spread out over a larger area.

On the sheet of parchment, he drew what he was forced to admit was a crude representation of the cat's paw with its 'fingers' extended and its claws revealed. Beside and below the image, he made copious notes about structure, texture, and the presence of what appeared to be living tissue within the core of the claw.

Moreso, the entire anatomy of the forepaw appeared to be designed around the concept of using the claws effectively. While he had just crudely slapped claws onto the ends of his fingers, the claws here appeared to be anchored more firmly in the flesh, with wider, shorter fingers that were much more densely muscled than his own. Those shorter fingers were matched with a longer palm Possibly again to deflect and absorb the force of impact?, he wondered.

Over the next two bells, he took copious notes, studying the paw from different angles and fixing firmly in his mind how all of the individual pieces would work together. He ended up with three full sheets of parchment, covered front and back with crude images, diagrams, and spidery scrawls of notes, all to capture one aspect of the cat's anatomy.

In order to form claws of his own, he had discovered, he had also needed to study the cat's bone and joint structure, as well as its muscles and ligaments. He supposed it made an irritating sort of sense. Nothing existed in a vacuum, afterall.

By the time he finished inscribing his notes and rubbed a hand across his tired eyes, the cat was beggining to stir. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that he had not killed the poor thing. However, with it regaining its senses, it would not be long before it recovered its hatred of him and desire to do him harm.

Gingerly, with the groggy cat held at arm's length, he slipped it back into its cage and locked the door after it. He wanted to be rid of the thing, but it would be unfair to release it back into the streets before it had fully recovered.

He had what he needed from it.

[Seidaku]

With pages of notes and anatomical drawings spread before him on his desk, Seidaku stared down at his right hand, turning it slowly and committing its new geography to memory before he began. Unwrapped from the makeshift bandages, his hand and wrist were speckled with the marks of bites and claws, the wounds red and inflamed. Apparently simply washing them had not been enough, he thought with a sigh.

Shaking his head and dispelling any negative emotion, Seidaku formed a blank canvas in his mind, perfectly black from his years of studying the Void, and imposed an image of his hand upon it. Perfect in every detail, this was his hand, captured in his mind.

With that image held in place, he took a deep breath and again studied the images of the cat's paw, absorbing each angle in turn, until he had a model formed, an example of what his hand would look like. After that, it was just a matter of sameness, just as with Voiding and Summoning.

Seidaku frowned in concentration, grasping at the Djed of his hand with his mind and bending it to a new shape, and slowly he felt his hand beginning to shift, drooping and flowing, like the wax of a candle under the Summer sun.

It started with his fingers, as they grew shorter and blunter, their mass retracting into his palm and up into his forearm. The nails on the tips of his now shorter fingers shifted and grew, lengthening and hardening into curved claws that were now hidden by the pads of the paw. This thumb drew in, disappearing almost entirely into the rest of his new paw. With a faint crackle, carpal bones lengthened and bent slightly as the structure of the tendons and joints of a hand conformed themselves into their new configuration.

The entire process took almost a bell, and left him sweating and shaking with the effort of maintaining the focus necessary to shift his form. When he opened his eyes, he grinned broadly at the sight that greeted him. His effort had been rewarded. There, at the end of his arm, was the tawny furred paw of a cat, proportioned to fit his human form and still scarred with the injuries gained acquiring the knowledge of how to change it. Laughing in delight, he held up the result of his work and studiously ignored the baleful growl of the cat he had templated the change upon.

The musculature was difficult to control, he realized as he managed to half-extend his new claws. The muscles and joints moved in a fashion that was similar at times but largely foreign to his own human experience. With practice though, he was able to consciously extend and retract the claws on his right paw.

Now though, it was time for the real test. With his claws fully extended, Seidaku pulled his arm back and struck at his desk again, the tips of his claws biting into the wood and catching, not fracturing painfully. His hypothesis had been correct. The structure of the claws themselves had prevented the over stressing of any one point.

After a well deserved round of self congratulation, Seidaku became aware of a dull aching in the muscles and bones of his paw. Upon closer inspection, he also realized that the pads of his paw were cool to the touch and beginning to turn slightly blue. Wincing as the pain increased, and the skin of the paw began to tingle, he realized that it had only been a partial success. There was something wrong. He had missed some crucial element of construction that would allow him maintain the form.

Now cradling the aching limb to his chest, Seidaku tried desperately to calm his mind enough to reverse the changes. Without his concentration maintaining them, the flesh began to lose its form and slowly began to slide back into its proper shape. It was a painful process though, and one that he could not muster the focus to ease through. With gritted teeth and watery eyes, he curled into a ball on the floor, wrapped around the searing agony blazing in the half melted ball of wax that was his hand and forearm.

[Fallacy]

XP Award! Name:Seidaku XP Award: Morphing- 3 Observation- 3 Meditation- 3 Hunting- 2 Drawing- 3 Writing- 3 Lore: Model: Talon Claws Breaking the Talon Morphing Mistakes Caging an Alley Cat Angry Alley Cat Cat Paw Anatomy (Basic) Model: Cat Paw Notes: -6 GM for Small Cage +1 Alley Cat -8 GM for one once of Poppy Seed Interesting little thread. Sorry for the long wait, Ive been busy and time really files when you have a lot to do. Well earned exp, and more importantly the models I included the Talons as well but because they were a prototype I don’t think he will use them much. Any questions or concerns about the rewards gained please send a PM