[Self Mod/Morphing] "Like Humans Do?"

[Chaelnomyl]

Timestamp: Day 1 of Fall, 509 AV

Taking a quiet reprieve from her brother's side, Chaelnomyl wandered along the shoreline of Matthew's Bay on the edge of Zeltiva, a bit away from all of the docks. The wind was starting to get a bit colder; the watch towers had recently shifted and heralded the coming of Fall. Still, the feminine Akvatari paid it no heed, adjusting the cloth around her torso as she dipped lower towards the shoreline and eventually came to rest herself on the lip of the chilled eastern waters, fins splayed out towards the blue depths.

It was high time she took back to practicing one of the oldest art forms she knew. Something that involved the dreaded Djed and not her paintbrush, not this time at least. Things had been slow at first – the hardening of her fins to slap something harder, the eventual gain of fur here or the removal of it there. Altering the shape of her wings. Simple things, but they had gradually grown into more with practice… and now she was planning to undertake one of the most drastic transformations she’d have done – if it was successful – to date. Chaelnomyl planned to learn how to imitate a bipedal.

The problem with morphing was that only the fabled best were able to immediately learn the uses of foreign appendages and the like when they acquired them through the shaping of their own body and the use of their own Djed. That was the exact problem Chaelnomyl was then going to have to deal with as she furthered her course of manipulating her body into things it was not meant to be: She’d never had legs, and therefore never knew how to walk on them. Hopefully they would not be too far different from her tail or say, arms, but as a precaution, Chaelnomyl had set herself down by the water’s edge so that she could scoot into the bay and first practice moving them in an environment that was unlikely to break the bones due to misunderstanding of use. Well, that and this way she didn’t look too odd from afar, closed off from most of the population and therefore couldn’t frighten them with the potential consequences of what she was about to do.

Settling down with her tail curled out towards the water, Chaelnomyl allowed her hands to fall back onto the ground behind her and she closed her eyes, head rolling lightly back on her shoulders and allowing her ears to revel in the sounds around her, the pictures they painted and the stories they told all without having to been seen to tell them. The birds and their cries overhead, the beat of their wings – Chael’s responded in turn with a quiet wave… the crash of the waves on the shoreline and the distant bustle of life. It was relaxing – especially the crash of the bay’s waters as it lulled along softly under the quiet watch of.. What had Akuaysun called her? Ah yes, Syna’s rays. Beautiful and serene. Perhaps the God of Peace, had he been alive still, as she recalled from their talks that one night in Ravok… would have lived on an island simply to listen to the peace of a quiet sea against the shores.

Honestly, Chaelnomyl knew little of Djed and magic outside of what she had learned of morphing from an Akvatari in Abura with a crazy desire to shift the sculptures he created out of random rocks and something he’d called “glyphing” – Chael, being a fellow artist, had been found fit enough to be taught as a child to use morphing, though nothing past a well grounded understanding of how to change varying body parts had been given to her. After Chaelnomyl took an interest in drawing, the eccentric Akvatari sculptor took slight offense (to any outsider, it would have looked like disinterest, but Chael knew better) and refused to speak with her any longer on the subject.

That had left her to attempt to do to her tail now what the sculptor had done to boulders. An artist must practice in order to be great, that was at least something Abura in general had taught her… artists practiced endlessly around her and Chael was no exception.

Abura seemed so far away, and slowly Zeltiva and the world around her began to join that distance as her eyes felt heavier and heavier. Her mind had begun focusing quietly and serenely on the muscles that composed her tail, while attempting to remain completely relaxed as had been one of the things the sculptor had stressed. Chael barely moved as the waves rolled up towards her tail and brushed her fins, not managing to wet her fur or distract her. In fact, the rolling sound added to the wonder in which she was immersed…

So it was that, as her fins brushed the lip of the water once more, Chael relaxed enough within herself to separate her mind from her body just enough that tapping into the vaguely familiar and highly volatile Djed had become possible once more.

[Chaelnomyl]

Leaning forward over her tail, spine curled as close to folding herself in half as Chael could manage, she began to pull and stretch her tail into two separate appendages like that of the humans in town. Her eyes were still shut as she worked meticulously to pull them into rounded shapes, upper teeth biting into her bottom lip softly. Perhaps it was for concentration; perhaps it was for the odd sensation of reshaping her flesh. Her brow furrowed systematically as her eyes opened, squinting at her furred flesh as she rounded it out and applied pressure to smooth them down, tapering them into ankles. It was much like molding clay, though Chael had never really taken to that part of art either… just observed it occasionally from afar like any good artist does of fellow proprietors of the skills. Slowly her hands worked their way up each side of the tail, willing it to separate. Though she was watching with her eyes what she was doing, it did not feel as if she was the one performing the shaping. Focusing on the distinct separation of mind, body and spirit, Chaelnomyl let the familiarity of the one constant throughout life – that it all had Djed, the creator and destroyer inside it – govern her actions.

The Sculptor had once told her that Morphing was a type of magic that forced the artist’s inner self to be “consumed”. He had said something very interesting to her that day, and had Chael been vain… she might have believed it. ”One must suffer to be beautiful, Chaelnomyl.” And he had meant that even in relation to the very core of his art. He suffered so that beauty could be pulled into the world. He allowed his Djed to be consumed so that a boulder might look like one of the Council to accompany his masterpiece. He had also spoke at length on knowing when to stop. Chaelnomyl had gotten good at that and never used morphing at any strenuous amounts so to prevent her from becoming harmed by the transformations. Through practice, she’d learned what it felt like to run out of what the man had called “your Djed’s clay” before you started picking away at your own. He was a very eccentric man with how he described things… but it had worked well enough.

Moving her hands up to what would eventually be shaped into thighs, Chaelnomyl made sure to include muscles in her tail so that they were incorporated into the leg. Granted, she was not an anatomical expert, but she did realize that the bipedals possessed muscles in their legs much like she did in her tail and in the base of her wings, so it was necessary they were included to hold the form up. It was the same principle that governed why she could sit up on her tail, or raise and lower her head. Muscles. Rounding out the connection that would have led to her hip, the Akvatari paused trying to envision how that part actually worked and glancing towards the docks before continuing. She made it a joint, kind of like her shoulder was a joint. Legs moved in similar ways to arms, after all.

The end of the thigh tapered off into the knee joint. Not that Chaelnomyl was familiar with “knees” but she did see enough of the bipedals to know that their legs bent about half way down, and only bent backwards towards their hind parts and could not go forwards. So She rounded the part out in a bump, assuming that was where two bones connected, and moved on down the leg, slowly making it smaller again until it reached the ankle. Despite having previously molded that part earlier, she wanted to make sure they were all connected and moved in unison. Her hands went to work on the other leg, willing the Djed within her to shape that leg too in much the same manner it had shaped the other. When all was said and done, she reached for her flippers and began to roll them slightly, narrowing them into these “feet” portions that bipedals possessed. Her eyes kept glancing towards the docks, though everyone was wearing shoes or boots so it was hard to see them. She did remember vaguely that they had tiny portions on their feet called “toes”, or well… her supposed aunt, a human, had possessed toes. And there were five of them. Four of five. She couldn’t remember. Five sounded good though, because her hands had five fingers so feet probably had five fingers too. Toes were like fingers, just shorter. At least, that’s what the Akvatari told herself… and toes became rather long – not that anyone could fault her if they’d seen it happen… She just wasn’t that familiar with feet.

Giving the ankle the ability to roll almost in all directions except for a complete rotation and keeping it from pointing directly down in line with her new “legs”, Chaelnomyl did not dare to test the meddle of her inner Djed’s work on land. Not yet, at least. Wings spurred to life and she allowed the legs to hang limp in the air, just above the ground as she fluttered towards Matthew’s Bay and gingerly dropped herself into its watery embrace. Wings naturally kicked into action in an attempt to propel her, and Chaelnomyl made a vague attempt to kick her legs, though it was difficult to do anything other than swing them in unison as if they were still her tail. A slight frown inwardly crossed her mind. This was going to be difficult.

[Chaelnomyl]

One leg extended independent of the other and quickly drew back – the sensation completely foreign as the water coursed around her inner thigh, tickling the newly formed flesh and causing her to jump in surprise. Each muscle was a movement that the Akvatari had never experienced before, each twitch heightened her senses and not in a particularly pleasant way. A twinge of fear had started to creep up from the base of her spine, threatening to overtake her senses and making it impossible for her to stop her wings long enough to give her feet a shot at working. Despite the ability to hold her breath for a rather long time, Chaelnomyl was still very fearful of letting go of the crutch that was the brilliant sky blue wings that were keeping her afloat.

Long, agonizing minutes passed as the Akvatari female flexed the toes – or tried to – and realized that they were not bending like her fingers did in two spots. Noticing this defect, Chaelnomyl decided to give her legs a shot at propelling her towards the shore so that she could fix this oversight. With a deep breath that sucked in all the cold, salty sea air that she could around her, the Akvatari slipped beneath the water’s surface and kicked her right leg, then left in an attempt to propel herself towards the shoreline again. Given that her muscles in her tail were generally fairly strong and sturdy, it was not completely tiring like she had expected but it was certainly much less efficient to have to move two appendages instead of one. A small frown crossed her face as she slowly pushed at the water with her feet, allowing the bend in her knee to help push her through the water. It was still a very hard and odd sensation, especially the bending of the hips which were particularly new and rightly sore as a result.

As the land came upon her and the seabed was shallow, Chaelnomyl’s hands dipped into the bottom of the bay before pushing herself up out of the water. First her hands were supporting her weight, then the Akvatari slowly bent the knee of her left leg, allowing the foot to slip into the wet sand that quickly worked its way between her newly acquired toes. That was yet another shocking sensation and Chaelnomyl’s hand flew to the foot quickly as if surprised or worried that it was getting damaged. It didn’t hurt, it was just… very odd. Once the sensation had passed, she slowly bent the other leg and crouched over the feet that were now pushed into the calf deep water. Pushing up slowly with her hands, Chaelnomyl attempted to use the muscles much like she would use her tail to sit up higher while resting on the ground.

The legs only supported her weight for a short moment before the Akvatari toppled backwards into the water with a great splash, wings first.

At first, her hands flailed in the water behind her before the Akvatari was able to right herself and make another attempt to pull back out of the bay. This time though, the female decided to stay crouched over the legs and use her knees to crawl up onto land before turning over so that she could mess with the toes once more.

When her feet were in position to push herself up again, Chaelnomyl instead rocked her body forward and began to move them like she would her hands as she dragged herself across the ground, concentrating on not merely dragging the appendages behind her but forcing them to work with her. The motion of the hip joint still felt awkward to her and when she had crawled far enough out of the bay, she rolled over, hands pressed out behind her for a second to support her frame before rubbing at them with her palms.

A good amount of resting ensued as Chaelnomyl thought quietly and intensely about how the toes were supposed to bend. She supposed they were like fingers and she had neglected that they needed to be able to fold twice instead of just once like the knee. Stretching herself back over her body, the Akvatari was practically folded in half before she slowly dragged one foot after the other up towards her body again and then pushed her knees out to the side so they fell off quietly and stretched the roughly formed joints. Reaching for the big toe on her right foot first, Chaelnomyl closed her eyes and focused on the familiar calm that was necessary for the art of sculpting the living body. Deep breaths were sucked in and slowly exhaled as she released the stress within her and instead focused on feeling every movement, every action that was happening inside her body. The flex of every muscle, the contractions and relaxations of her chest as it rose and fell. The quiet and the calm had ulterior motives, though. She was looking for a connection with more than her body. She was looking for her personal Djed.

At length, Chaelnomyl’s hand slowly moved half way down the first toe and bent it forward, as if to break it, but instead she was quietly sculpting out a joint so that it could bend just as her fingers did. The rearrangement of bones was not painful, for she was not actually injuring herself. It tingled, but that was really it. To any onlookers, the serenity in which the winged humanoid broke her toes without so much as a flinch would have probably sickened them. Luckily, the Akvatari cared little for what anyone else thought.

With one foot’s toes properly arranged now, Chaelnomyl moved on to the other, gingerly rearranging the bones themselves so that they could bend like her fingers. Legs were so complicated, and feet doubly so. Being a bipedal seemed like more tedious work than it was worth.

[Chaelnomyl]

Toes now properly created so that they could be used as they were intended, Chaelnomyl decided to give crouching completely out of the water another shot. It was a slightly foreign concept to her, still, but she related it to the way her tail was positioned, and decided that if her tail had the ability to bend twice, that was what it would look like. Crouching.

Rolling back on to her knees – which Chaelnomyl noted were quite a deal more tender than her tail was upon being dragged or scraped across land – the Akvatari pushed the newly flexible toes into the shoreline’s depths and then used her hands to rock back on to the balls of the feet. However, therein lied another flaw: Chaelnomyl had not smoothed out arches in her feet, and consequently they were not as flexible. Landing on the ground with an unceremonious flop but successfully positioned on her recently created feet, the Akvatari frowned and thought for a long time about what could be wrong. Perhaps the feet were meant to have palm-like areas, just as the hands were.

Therefore, sitting crouched on her hands and feet didn’t last long and the Akvatari quickly rolled back off her “feet”, back to her bottom with a thud. Had the sand not been there, her tailbone area would have surely been incredibly bruised… Thankfully there was only a little sting in it as she landed on it there on the beach.

Pulling her right foot in towards her, Chaelnomyl looked at her left hand carefully and curled it up slowly so that it was cupped. Feet should probably be able to bend or flex like fingers on a hand could, their fingers just were not as long. Yes, that had to be it. Foot cradled in her fingers and body bent over it in concert, Chael closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, focusing on the meditative state necessary to mold her body once more. Carefully she pulled at her skin once more on the foot, rearranging the bones found therein and pushing her thumbs down into the center of the mass of skin, bone and muscle so that it bowed inward. Gradually as she ran her thumbs down towards the toes – rather, “foot fingers”, Chaelnomyl let up on the pressure so the curve was not sharp and created a smooth arch. Following the same sort of guideline for creation on her left foot, the Akvatari took a big breath and leaned back on the sand, flexing her toes and watching the arches bend and flex. The sensation was completely awkward.

Resting for a longer time than one would have originally thought necessary, the Akvatari eventually buzzed her wings to life and used them to help propel herself back onto the feet, crouched to avoid a potential toppling of her entire body at first. When she was steady and the sand was crawling in between her toes, the Akvatari strained against her better judgment to flex the calves and thigh muscles to force herself up on to her feet. Still bent over at the waist, Chaelnomyl spread her wings wide to stabilize herself and slowly pulled herself upright. She wobbled back and forth on them shakily and could not bring herself to take a step forward. Instead, the Akvatari spurred her wings to life again and pulled her body through the air, back to the water. The bad part about all this effort to look like a human in case she needed to not draw attention to herself was that she would have to eventually learn not to rely on her wings to move her about, too. That would prove quite the issue… And it was probably something that needed to be worked on a different day, once she had mastered the legs. That was the main reason for relying on the wings anyway at this point, right?

Dipping back into the water, Chaelnomyl took a deep breath and dove beneath its surface once more, focusing on kicking each leg separately. It was safer to learn to move them independently here, where she couldn’t fall and break what would eventually be her tail. Quite a deal of time had been passing, though, and Syna’s rays were dipping low on the horizon, barely sitting above Laviku’s domain. The Akvatari gave a small smile and began to kick one leg out at a time. Each fin – no! Foot! Was still pointed as it moved, but there was an improvement nevertheless.

Nearing the shoreline once more – for that was the direction she had been heading – the Akvatari forcefully pushed her feet into the embankment and rose out of the water, trying to force the legs to support her weight and not rely on the giant butterfly wings if she could help it. Painfully, slowly, the foreign limbs moved independently. Not that she had it down pat at all; the right leg’s knee didn’t bend and move like a normal human’s did but she pulled it forward – stiffly – nonetheless… and didn’t immediately fall over. Her hands flailed out regardless for balance while moving was not something the Akvatari was used to, and she was leaning towards the left. When the foot arched and hit the ground, pointed like a ballerina’s, Chaelnomyl pushed her weight onto it and then began trying to move her left foot in the same fashion. The knee did not bend, but nonetheless it was carried forward. This was silly. Bipedals were insane to not invent some other way of moving about. Perhaps they had just not been blessed by the sea and the sky as gracefully as the Akvatari had been.

A few more haphazard, stiff steps through the sand and Chaelnomyl toppled onto her side, right hand bracing against the sand as she let out a frustrated cry. Perhaps that was enough for today.

[Chaelnomyl]

A small grunt left the Akvatari’s mouth.

Eyes narrowed themselves as her left hand moved over her top leg and her right hand braced into the sand. She rolled back onto her bottom, which hadn’t been formed very well at all. If she was going to be doing this often, perhaps she’d need to study the intimate workings of human anatomy or at least buy some pants or a skirt to wear. Perhaps the more exotic races could help with that, ones that didn’t have human tendencies in their fashion. That just wouldn’t do for a disguise at all.

With a heavy, shoulder-racking sigh, Chaelnomyl pulled her two legs together and began to pull her hands over them, eyes closed. Deep inhalation of the salty air followed by gradual, slow exhalation continued even as she began to picture the tail she possessed… And thought of some subtle changes. She could, after all, make herself absolutely pristine. Change her appearance so that she was without blemish, without scar. A true goddess of beauty… except the whole being mortal thing. Not that Chaelnomyl was terribly concerned with whether or not anyone found her pretty; more if she was a living form of art. She wouldn’t make any minute changes quite yet, but perhaps large changes, like the shape of her flippers so they weren’t so rough.

As meditation stepped in and she began to feel the Djed moving inside her very being once more, the Akvatari began to force the fur back out, mold the two legs back together, remove their individual bones and create the actual tail again. The feet were forced back into flippers as she arched her back over them, deep breathing heaving her chest as her fingers and mind rolled over the tail. First, when it formed, it was a mass of human skin. Eventually the fur had begun to return, spots and all. As her slate gray flippers came back, Chaelnomyl smoothed out their edges and tapered them so that they flowed more, and were more aerodynamic. It wouldn’t make a huge difference in the big scheme of movement, but it would make her smile to know they were perfect.

When the tail had returned in its entirety, Chaelnomyl stretched out on the shore, arms spread wide over her head and fins curling up towards her body every now and again to feel it move as once and not two separate appendages. She allowed the flippers to flop forward and back as they willed, and brushed the sand off her wings. Eventually, the Akvatari arched her back and pushed her tail into the ground to make sure it still bent all the right ways. It wouldn’t do if she had somehow messed up a form she knew so well.

When several minutes had passed – and she had no idea how long, in actuality – Chaelnomyl rolled on to her stomach. Hands braced as they pushed into the sand and her arms pulled her body away from the ground. The wings shook slightly to remove the sand, and then with a huge shove, the Akvatari took to the skies again. Pausing, she brushed at her fur before heading out into the bay to catch something to eat. All of that work had piqued her appetite!

[Liminal]

So...incredibly late, how about you have +2 XP in morphing? Will that be enough for you to forgive my slackerness? ^_~