Something Strange
Your form writhes and shifts, refusing to take on any defined shape. Sensations roast your nerves as they themselves shift into different forms matching your physical one. A long coat of fur forms before melting back into your ever shifting flesh. Multitudes of colors flow under your shin as a thousand beasts vie for final control over your physical appearance.
But something strange happens to you, instead of a single form, your form simply dissolves. Bone and muscle turn gelatinous the boundaries between them blurring. Your skin ripples with a fallen droplet of some wayward potion like a still lake of water being disturbed by a child throwing a stone. You lift a hand to your face only to see your fingertips grow translucent then fall like so many droplets back onto your chest. Panic washes over you . You lose your sense of control over your raised arm as it rains down on you, eventually it collapses into your chest when you can hold it upright no longer. You make to scream but the only thing that comes out is a dull gurgle as you feel your vocal cords washing away.
And to make matters worse everything around you grows dimmer, then darker and darker still until you are no longer able to see, you can still thankfully hear somehow, but you know that you no longer have ears. Your sightless head still lifted in a vain hope to catch some wayward glimpse of light, you have no choice but to settle gently backwards as the muscles keeping your head upright dissolve away.
"Well I guess I should get a mop then." You hear Ivan say tsking under his breath. "I hate it when they get all gooey, makes cleanup a bear... I wish she had been a bear. Get some excitement back into these old bones." You get the feeling that Ivan talks to himself frequently
A new sense blossoms in your mind as the walls of your physical form fall away. One of shapelessness one of your thoughts and body flowing as one like water. You feel the stone floor, you feel the cracks in the stones as your body pours into them, you feel the earth beneath the stones and the coolness it conveys to you. You can feel the wood grain of the table as your body spreads out enveloping its feet.
The new sense grows stronger in the darkness. You can hear Ivan rumbling around in the back office. You can see the world around you, not in a literal sense but you can feel the objects close to you as though you were touching them with your fingers. An image forms in your mind of what you used to look like and you can feel yourself contracting. Your form withdraws into itself slightly. From the pit of despair you might find salvation in this. Frantically your thoughts race seeking to heighten that contraction, seeking to maintain any sort of physical form.
With the mental picture set and your willpower strong you will yourself to take shape. You will yourself back to what you were. You hear Ivan knock something over in the storeroom and curse. You have to come together before Ivan flushes you down the drain!
Slowly, eternally, your form coalesces into one of your prior self. You will yourself to have hair and can feel some sprout on your head. You will yourself to have eyes and stickily open them to have sight again as if for the first time. You will yourself to have arms, legs, feet, and hands again. You can do this. You must do this.
Your head turns as you draw your gelatinous form up, there is no need to stand you simply will yourself to flow upwards, to see Ivan emerging from the back storeroom with mop and bucket in hand.
"Oh you're alive?" He says with more than a little disappointment, dropping the bucket.
You will a mouth to form, but the only sound to come out, is a wet gulping and slushing sound. You'll need more time to figure out speech.
"Oh this is gross. Oh... You're getting your... On my... Ah.. Alright... Um... here. Let me help." Ivan said raising his hand. You hold up a gelatinous arm and hand to Ivan. Who mutters words lost on you, and a red beam shoots out of his arm, hitting your new form.
Your form collapses further, lines become more clear, features become more distinct. You gasp as your throat forms and vocal cords spring into existence.
"The spell is temporary of course," Ivan said "You can figure out the rest when you're out there, doing whatever you want to do I guess."
"Wha.. What's happened to me?" You ask your vocal cords still forming.
"Well you swallowed a bunch of potions and now they're all fighting for control of your body. I thought it was perfectly obvious." Ivan said sarcastically.
"How... How do I change back?" You say.
"Well on that, I have no idea. Maybe it will resolve itself or maybe you'll be a puddle by the time you hit the door. But please. This is your mess, deal with it on your own time. If you will..." Ivan gestures to the door with a plaintive hand asking you to leave.
With a sigh and a gentle gloop you turn and exit the shop. Your new form flows easily as long as you keep a strong idea of what you are and what you want to be in mind. Now then... Where should you go next?
Written by crunchynachoes on 17 October 2018
The end (for now)