In a room
The sign reads
"Welcome all new travellers.
To continue you must go through a series of doors.
After going through you will pick a costume. You will then become a half- human and half that creature.
After a week(100 mins a hour,20 hrs a day,10 days a week) has passed you may morph and get another costume. To start of with you will only be able to become 40% human to 60% human.
If you put on a costume you will then become that creature, be teleported to it's home town and have to wait a week before being able to morph.
After 50 costumes you may change into one of your other costumes and become 30% to 70% human. When changing costumes you must wait at least an hour before you can change costumes again.
100 different species/gender costumes allows you to gender-morph and become 20% to 80% human
200 different species costumes allows you to combine costumes and become 10% to 90% human
400 different species costumes allows you to return to your world with no more morphing
And 800 different species costumes makes a polymorph and allows you to morph outside of this world.
Also if you have a costume like a centaur then the human part will always be human and is counted towards the human percentage.
Any gender/species transformation magic of yours can only change your gender(if you have at least 100 costumes) and the animal part to a different animal.
When you change into a different costume (that you already have) you may teleport to that species home town but you will have the week penalty where you have no costume changes.
If you die while wearing a costume you will be reborn at the local inn (or appropriate location ). If you have more then 100 costumes you will lose the costume you had when you died and go to an appropriate place for your next costume.
If you fail to make it out in 100 years(100 weeks in a year) one of your possible forms will be chosen and you will be permanently stuck in that form(apart from magic) until you die. Also there will be no possibility of going back to your world.
Also, one final note: should you take a female form and become pregnant, you won't be able to change your gender until the child is born, though the other aspects of your form may change (the child will change to match.) That is all, and good luck!
You realise that you have to do what the sign said to do and go through the doors and grab a costume.
Alternatively you could use the key system to determine the room
Written by Catprog on 11 February 2004
Water Creatures
You find yourself in what appears to be a glass room deep in the ocean.
The stairs are blocked by a force field.
You realise you have to go through one of the three dark blue doors numbed 1,2 & 3.
What door do you want?
Written by Catprog on 11 February 2004
Myth Water
You go through the door.
All of a sudden it slams shut and with no handle on this side it appears that you are stuck.
There are two more doors however and both of them have a sign on them saying
Costume room for Element: Water
Type: Myth
Gender: ????
So which door do you want
Written by Catprog on 01 January 1970
Female Myth Water
You go through the door.
All of a sudden it slams shut and with no handle on this side it appears that you are stuck.
There are five costumes in this room, all of them female, all of them are myth water creatures.<P/><small>
- A shell which you assume belongs to some giant tortoise. (thanks to Mr.Peaches) <span class="female"><li>Hippocampus</li></span>
Written by Catprog on 26 February 2004
Selkie
You stop in front of a particular costume, curiosity getting the better of you. It looks like a mermaid tail, but it’s slick, and brown with a very fine layer of fur. And the fish tail part looks like a single webbed flipper. A Sea lion? Or a seal? Either way, it’s only a tail, and you remember these costumes are still supposed to leave you part human.
But this doesn’t look the right size. And it doesn’t exactly look “leg shaped” like a mermaid tail. You pick it up, pinching it between your fingers as you look at the thing. Would it conform to you? Or would you conform to it? Looked like you’d have to discover for yourself.
You self-consciously glance over your shoulder at the door, then around the glass walls for any peeping eyes. Then you quickly set the tail back down so you can grab your shirt and slip it off. Your hands are trembling now that the moment is finally here, but you move fast to avoid anyone walking in on you changing.
But you hesitate at your bra clasp, realizing that there’s no seashells or anything to cover your top half. You bite your lip a moment before deciding to leave it on.
But when you move to slip your pants down, you stop at your underwear, realizing that this was specifically noted as a female costume. Which makes you wonder for a moment what’s going to happen to your male anatomy. Your hands, still pinching the sides of your underwear, freeze as sudden indecision grabs you. But remembering how many costumes you’re going to have to change into, and that if magic promises to change your species then it probably won’t permanently remove your goods, you finally push it down your legs.
You grab the tail again, and by now your heart is pounding. You swallow nervously, and whip out the costume so you can open it up and step awkwardly into it. You rustle around the slick insides, shimmying it up and slipping your feet into the thick flippers of the costume. Only after you’re standing in it do you realize the top edges go well past your waist. You wonder if you’re suddenly going to grow another foot tall just to fit it.
Well, you’re about to find out.
An uncharacteristic sense of calm washes over you. Though your heart still pounds in your chest, your tremors have ceased. You release the tail. The fabric floats right where you left it, eerily still in the soft blue light of the deep ocean. A soft whoosh like a vacuum seals the costume to your body, like a wrinkled trash bag, before slowly expanding. It starts at your feet, like filling a water balloon. It is an apt metaphor, since the part of the tail filling with flesh is cold. It numbs your feet and up your calves, like the magical material is eating away at the human part of you to dissolve it into the tail.
You yelp as you fall, your support suddenly gone. You hold yourself up on your forearms, leering down your shoulder to watch in abject awe as the fabric swells up past your knees, up your thighs and hips to your waist.
As you watch the costume work, you realize the ‘tail’ actually reaches up to your chest. As the swelling rises, you hurriedly reach back to unhitch the clasp. You swipe off the straps, and tug it out of the costume just as the magic reaches your ribs.
You gasp, feeling slightly claustrophobic as the magical swelling presses against your lungs. Your chest cramps painfully before growing heavier with each gasp. You wince, a loud crack of your ribs terrifying you into thinking you’ve broken one. But the sound of snapping bones keeps going, and with each heave of your cracking ribs, your breaths get bigger, as your lungs expand along with the rest of your flesh. You reach to clutch your growing chest, in an instinctive urge to stave the panic.
But the transformation doesn’t stop at the edge of the costume like you assumed. That same feeling of your growing lungs is climbing up your throat, making your gasps bark and echo in the silence of the room. When it finally reaches your throat, you sigh in stunned relief, even as your head tingles. Blinking past the new, thick protective membrane of your eyes, a dark curl bounces in front of your eyes. You blink as more follow its lead, and quickly turn your head to peer down your back. Your hair- dark brown to match the tail- is growing at a shockingly accelerated rate. It folds in on itself and the curly, rolling mess tumbles down your back onto the floor.
And then the magic stops, bringing the room into eery calm once more. You glance down at your new body, blinking down at the large, plump curves of the seal.
No, not seal- selkie. The rim of the costume clings to your body like a sweetheart gown, and your breaths, though steady, fill your whole body deeper than ever before.
Then you blink, and shield your eyes from brilliant sunlight. Salt water and rotting seaweed assaults your nose, crying gulls scratch your ears, and a sharp, cold wind stings your face. You peer through your fingers hesitantly as your dark eyes adjust to the sudden change. Once they do, you can’t help but gasp in awe.
You’re on a shoreline, precariously perched on the edge of a short cliff. To your right, there’s a small, but bustling little town. Filled with many, as you note, women with thick, curly hair, ranging from dark to light brown, or light gray to black. To your left, the cresting waves foam at the shore.
Despite your worry and trepidation before, a new sense of excitement fills you, though it is dulled by pesky indecision. Should you head to the town? Or take this new body for a spin straight into the ocean?
Written by HiddenFruit on 31 May 2016
Into the ocean
It is after your transformation that your mind teases over your options. Each has it’s advantages and disadvantages, though in your current state as a Selkie you question if it is a good idea to walk among humans. Sure your form is more anthroish, but you doubt if humans might respond well to a Selkie suddenly walking among them. Yet, at the same time, you seem worried about the steep drop from the cliff side into the ocean.
What if there are rocks waiting at the bottom of the drop to smash your body to bits?
Then of course there is the matter of, the longer you debate, shifting uneasily upon the rocks, the longer you wait to find out what you can do with this new body. Your curious… it seems so strange that a costume could be filled with such magic. Yet here you are, looking upon your now feminine body with a smile. A hand brushes through those long, dark brown locks of hair you have as you thank whatever higher power above that your new body is something appealing. This is a bonus to the change of events that have taken over your life even if everything else seems a bit strange.
The minutes tick by before you finally give in to the desire to be in the water. The ocean seems the most natural place for you right now and so you edge closer to the cliff’s edge to gaze down at the salty water below. From what you can make out there doesn’t appear to be any rocks waiting for you below… perhaps you were just feeling a moment of paranoia and assuming the worst?
At least now you feel a little more settled about the idea of jumping into the ocean from here. You take a deep breath, aiming to steady yourself, and jump from the cliffside down to the water below. Moments later the cool, salty water of the ocean envelops your body.
You gasp upon reflex, a shiver going down your spine as your body begins to get used to the new temperature. The water welcomes you almost like a lover who has not seen you for some time. You feel at home, and figure that taking your new body for a spin could be a rather interesting and rewarding experience.
Written by HiddenFruit on 04 August 2017
Dive deeper
As you plunged into the ocean, the feeling of the ice cold water was almost relieving the deeper you pierced into the water. You could feel your body cutting effortlessly through the ocean as you continued to swim.
Somehow, you never felt this alive in your life- maybe it was just the cold water on your face, or your heart beating out of your chest. Still, there under the water, you still had that same sense of calm keeping your mind from racing. Before long, you realized how much you actually loved it under there. It almost didn’t seem to cross your mind to come back up to the surface from how large your lungs had become.
Despite having held your breath for so long, you didn’t seem to need a refresher for some time. You could feel your double eyelids closing tightly- though you still retained better vision than if you had your eyes open normally. You loved the feeling of the water swishing against your chest and you almost found yourself being lost in the process of exploration.
Suddenly, your eyes started to pick up on some kind of large object underneath the ice. You quickly took a dip up on the surface before taking a deep breath and sliding back down to see what it was.
When you finally made it to the deeper depths of the ocean, you could see some kind of figure stuck in the ice. Upon taking a closer look, you were absolutely shocked by what you had seen. To you, it looked like frozen animals that you’ve never seen before. For a moment, you wondered if these alien creatures meant you had somehow been transported to an alien world, but somehow, they were similar enough to the animals you were used to.
It seemed as though you had discovered some undiscovered extinct species from simply swimming around under there.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 01 September 2023
Take note of the location and continue.
You were particularly freaked out by what you had noticed, but you took note of the shape of the iceberg sticking out of the water over where you had found the bodies. After looking at the sun and noticing that it was starting to set, you realized that it would be a better idea to not meddle in this situation yourself, at least not right now.
In the moment, you were enjoying your new Selkie body as you continued to swim through the ice. Before long, you notice the sound of seals and their dark shapes dotting the icy shelf just ahead.
Your heart started to beat out of your chest in excitement as you noticed them. Somehow, you figured that in this form, it would be easier for you to meet and interact with your fellow animals. Your heart almost skipped when you thought about the people you would meet along your adventure. Of course, a group of seals would be a nice place to start. You wonder if it’d be a good idea to approach the nearby animals.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 05 September 2023
Approach the seals.
You decide to approach them. You could hear their barking together and after you got a bit closer- when you started to really focus your hearing on their banter, it started to sound like english to you. Before long, you started to make out what they were saying.
“Yeah. The fish nowadays just aren’t the way they were before.”
“I agree, there are far fewer of them as well.” Another voice responded.
“We’re going to have to do something soon or else our children will starve.” You could hear a frantic mother’s voice adding in.
“Mommy, is everything going to be okay?” A youngin’s voice rang out.
“Of course dearie, we’re just talking about what the plan will be.”
“The plan will be to find another place to stay.” Another adult added in.
“How could we possibly do that? We’re barely able to-” Suddenly, they all stopped and turned their heads in your direction.
“Who’s there?”
Written by Drifting Dragon on 07 September 2023
Announce yourself
“Hey, I’m… Uhhh.” In that moment, you kind of forgot your own name. You were mostly just distracted by how everyone was staring at you, showing their sharpened teeth defensively.
“Hey, Is that a human?” You heard one voice cry out.
“No it couldn’t be, humans cannot be in the water without their fur like that.”
“Wait… Something’s different.” You continued to slowly approach them and they watched your every move attentively.
“What… are you.” The curious mother said, slumping her body towards the edge as the other larger males gather around to protect her.
“It’s okay. I’m female as well.” It was the first thing you could think about. In hindsight, maybe it was a bit strange, but you were still adjusting to this body and felt a bit overwhelmed considering everything else that’s going on around you.
“Stay back!” One of the males called out.
“No, it’s okay.” The mother retorted before sliding into the water and swimming up next to you. “You’re not from here, are you?” she said before perking up in the water. “We need to get out of the water. Come with me.” She said before guiding you back onto the sheet of ice. The other seals gathered around you and started aggressively sniffing in your direction just to get a better idea of what you even were.
You looked down at your double set of flippers and for a moment felt almost like a centaur as you slid along the cold smooth ice.
“You’re right. I’m not from here. I’m an adventurer.” You explained.
“Yes. And why are you here?” One of the largest male seals asked, somewhat threateningly.
“I’m here to… Uhh…”
Written by Drifting Dragon on 09 September 2023
I’m here to help
“I’m here to help.” You mentioned.
“Help with what?” he asked. In that moment, you wondered what you could have helped with anyway.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 11 September 2023
With the fish
“I’m here to help with the fish problem.” you mentioned.
“What? How did you know about that?” Someone asked.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 13 September 2023
Lie
“Well. Even I haven’t been able to catch fish the way I used to.” You mentioned. “It’s been rough for us everywhere, and I’ve come from a far away land because of that. We’re all out of fish in my homeland and I haven’t seen my family in years. I don’t know if they’re starving or not, but I had to go to find more fish. I can see that what happened where I am from is happening here and I just wanted to make sure to be able to stop whatever is going on.”
Your speech seemed to compel the others. Some of the seals were looking at you with concern and you almost started to feel bad for them feeling bad for your complete lie. Still, in a sense, in every lie is a bit of the truth, you are away from your family though it may not be as long as you made it seem. You were actually quite enjoying your time here. The sympathy of the others started to feel good as you watched their reaction, waiting for their response.
“Oh my lord. I see.” The woman replied. “Well, what happened to the fish from your home?” she pondered.
“Humans came and took them all.” You said ominously. “The only thing we could do was run away from it. We tried finding new land but by the time we had left it was too late. There were no other fish for miles. I am lucky I had finally come this far and survived. You all are helping me out more than you could understand and for the fish that helped to sustain me this far will be repaid tenfold if you accept my help.
“And why should we believe you.” The intimidating male asked.
“Well. Do you really have any choice?” You asked.
“What if she’s just another mouth to feed? What if she has pups? That would be far more trouble than what it’s worth.” Another random voice suggested.
“But she’s right, we have a lot to lose if the same thing ends up happening to us.”
“Yeah, she seems experienced. Trustworthy.” The mother seal mentioned. “And if she is lying, then she’ll get what’s coming to her.” She said in an ominous tone, other seals nodded seriously as though they understood exactly what she meat.
“Thank you so much. If you want, we can all talk more about some kind of plan we can maybe move forward with?” You asked. “There are a few things we should be talking about, considering you all do trust me. Here’s some of my ideas.” You said before laying it all out to them.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 15 September 2023
We need to leave and find another group
“We need to find another group, with more people we can go hunting easier, and chances are, if we can find a small group, we can send out scouts to be able to find a place where we could all settle where there’s more food.” You suggested.
“That sounds kind of risky.” A random voice mentioned.
“Don’t you think it would be harder to feed more of us?” someone else asked.
“Well, I guess if we have more people, our territories will be more secure, we can protect ourselves way more than if we were as small as we are now.” A male voice replied.
You listened to them all banter for a moment and after a bit of talking things through, the largest male turned to you once more, finally having come to a conclusion.
“We agree. Do you know where we could go?” He mentioned.
“Well, I came from the north, it’s getting worse and worse up there so coming south- here- I found more fish. I assume the pattern will continue if we keep going south.”
“If that’s the case, we’ll leave first thing in the morning.” The giant seal mentioned. It was settled then and there. You could tell by the shere speed that this little group of seals were incredibly desperate. For a moment you wondered if you were actually just taking advantage of them for the sake of your adventure but that thought didn’t last too long in your mind.
You didn’t even think twice about whether or not your lie would have backfired, you just wanted to have fun and do some adventuring while you were here and in this magical new world.
The next day rolls around and you rise with the sun. You could see the others waking up around you and promptly, everyone started on the journey to a new land. Somehow, as you took the long trip with some of what almost felt like your brethren, you started to feel more connected with the earth around you.
Occasionally, you would stop and chat with some of the mothers and they would tell you endless stories about their upbringing and how they plan to bring up their own children. Somehow, it made you feel like you too wanted to be a part of it all. Throughout time, you all traveled several miles and along the way you felt as though you had many friends of them all and somehow you started to feel more whole than you ever would have.
Slowly, you all started finding some more fish and even stopped in a perfect spot for resting and getting some food. You all filled your bellies and many of the other members had finally felt satisfied for the first time in a long time.
“Hey! Where’s my child!” one of the mothers called out. “I can’t find my child!” She started swimming around frantically. “He was just here with me catching fish, has anyone seen him!” She screamed and cried desperately for the others to help out. Of course, you too felt inclined to help the situation as it quickly started to unfold.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 17 September 2023
Dive down and search
“Everyone! Be sure to stay together!” you called out before shooting into the water like a bullet almost instinctively, a few others were still scanning the surface, but not many of them went as far down as you had just to find the mother’s young child. In the chaos, it was starting to hard to make anything out clearly, but you still tried your best to keep yourself composed enough to spot the young seal as you searched around.
Your body was pushed around by the strong underwater currents and before long you found yourself almost swept into a rocky underground area. Fear started to grip your mind as you were being knocked around the sharp walls of the cave and you almost wondered if this was it for you.
A sigh of relief exited your lungs as you were spat out into an underground air pocket- some kind of massive cave opening underground.
“Hello? Help? Mom?” you heard a weak voice echoing out from the darkness.
“Hey! It’s not your mom, but she’s looking for you. Where are you at?” You asked. “Keep talking to me. I’ll come find you. Are you hurt?” Your heart was beating but you stayed strong as you followed the sound in the pitch darkness.
Before long, your eyes had fully adjusted and you watched a small dark figure inching towards you as you. You heard him whimpering and you could see that they were clearly hurt. Their tail was bent oddly and your heart sunk as you noticed the damage that the rough ride had done to his frail young body. “Heavens! You are hurt!”
“It’s okay. I’m not in pain. Aah!” He almost limped towards you.
“Come on, lets get you out of here.’ You said to him, getting behind him and helping to push him along. You used your human-like arms to help move his tail in a way that he wouldn’t feel pain when applying pressure to it. At this point, you noticed that the young child had some kind of spinal fracture. It must have been all those sharp rocks along the narrow snaking tunnel.
You figured you would be able to muscle yourself back out through the flowing water, but you also wondered if the young weak child would have been able to. “Don’t worry. I’ll try getting you out. We have to go through that hole, I’ll try pushing you. Okay?” You mentioned.
“Okay. “ He replied weakly. Soon after, you helped lift the young seal up to the hole and used both of your hands to slide him into the narrow passageway. You inched your way back up and fought against some of the water just to be able to get him out. You could tell he was having a lot of trouble swimming from the way he was jerking around painfully every time you tried pushing him forward. You wondered if he could even get him out from how small and weak your body had become. Though you had built bulk in a different way, somehow, being in this form seemed to impact your strength.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 19 September 2023
Leave him
The decision was easy at this point. You sighed deeply, your muscles were aching with exhaustion at this point and you figured there was nothing more you could have done to help.
“Hey… Kid…” You mentioned. “I don’t think…” You could already see him starting to panic.
“NO! Please don’t leave me!” He cried out. Halfway in pain, halfway in fear. “Just go get my mommy. I want my mommy. Please.”
“Hey… That’s a good idea. Listen, I’ll go to get someone else for you, okay? What do you think about that? We’re going to try to get you out.” You said, lying once again, knowing that no other seal would have the dexterity to come down here and get him out safely. You knew that the pack would have been burning far too much energy just to attempt this rescue mission. “I’ll be back soon.” You mentioned, recalling what you said earlier. “Just wait for us okay? Don’t worry, please.” you begged, knowing quite well your true intentions.
“Okay.” he sniffled. From your time spent with him, he saw you as someone you could have trusted and you knew this. It hurt even more as you inched your way back out to the surface.
Before long, you’re once again at the surface of the water. The other seals are looking around, concerned, but relieved to see you.
“Could you find him?” The mother asked.
“No. I couldn’t find anything other than some shreds of fur. I think something may have got him.” You mentioned. “Something’s following us. We need to keep moving, or else we’re going to lose some others.”
“No Please!” She begged.
“Yeah, she’s right, I don’t want to risk my kids’ life right now, if something else is down there.” Another mother suggested. The crowd started to get tense for a moment, murmuring among itself before the largest male seal stepped up and gathered the crowd’s attention.
“No, she is right. We must keep moving on.” And like that, it was settled. Though the tension between different members of the group was so thick it felt like you were swimming through it even the moments when your upper body peeked out of the water.
Before long, you all seemed to come across another seal pack up ahead and just as you said earlier, you all cautiously approached them with your concerns.
“There are others here.” You could hear the leader of their pack sensing the pack you were with approaching.
“Make yourselves known, make it known we are not a threat.” The leader of your pack said. “We mean no harm, we are in grave danger.”
“State your intent.” The other leader mentioned.
“We are here because of a famine.” the large seal floating in the water said. You then came up next to him and continued.
“Yes. We are also here with a warning. Hard times are coming and we must work together as one.” You mentioned.
“Throughout history, each of our packs had remained separated, but at peace. You mean to bring warnings of hard times?” he mentioned before turning to his pack and muttering amongst them. “We can accept you if you pull your own part. Everyone here works for the betterment of the pack.”
“We agree with that. Though we hope not to intrude during our assimilation.” He mentioned. It was settled then and there. Both packs had started mixing and mingling during their integration and before long it was like one big happy pack.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 21 September 2023
Stay with the new pack
You decide to spend most of your time with the pack, after everyone settled down. Before long, you even found yourself enjoying the time you’ve spent with the rest of the pack. On your journey, you have made lots of friends and some of them were particularly interesting to you.
Even after so long, you couldn’t figure out who your best friend was- there were lots of colorful characters all around you to choose from though. You would spend your days subtly thinking about the new people you had come across.
First, there was the pack leader. He had made himself quite well known to you throughout your journey, and even after. Occasionally, you both would sit and talk about the health and wellness of the pack- you started thinking about it more and more as time passed.
Thenagain, you couldn’t help but think about the mother who lost her child on the way here. Somehow, you kept feeling at fault about it, but you just put those thoughts to the back of your mind as time went on. Still, in a way, maybe you felt the need to comfort her… somehow.
Finally- more mysteriously, you wondered about the pack leader of the new pack, now fully integrating with your pack almost seamlessly. You kept wondering if he had any kind of underlying intent with your original pack. He was being so nice after all, and considering the looming threat to not only your pack, but eventually, even their pack, he was playing it pretty cool.
You couldn’t seem to figure out which one had excited you the most. So you spent a bit more time thinking about which path you would ultimately take.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 09 October 2023
Your pack’s leader
Honestly, you had grown pretty attached to this pack as a whole. After what seemed like ages over the past few days, you had become friendly with more of the seals, but there wasn’t anyone in the pack more grateful for your help than the pack’s leader. He was a massive elephant seal, far larger than you, but your own size still made you significantly larger than some of the other seals. The seal leader must have liked how much stronger and smarter you were than the other seals. This made you feel pretty good, so of course, your obvious option would be to spend some more time with him.
“Hello there. Thank you so much for all your help. I don’t think I’ve had the chance to say thanks.”
“Oh that’s fine. I really appreciate you all taking me in as well.” You replied.
“Can I confide in you about something?” He asked and you nodded in response. The two of you go off into a more private place, farther away from the rest of the pack underneath a really comfortable patch of rocks, “I feel as though the danger here is barely over. I worry that our worst problems have barely even begun, though I have no idea what it could be about.” His voice sounded genuine, solemn, and a bit depressed as he talked it over with you.
“Really? What makes you think that?” You asked him.
“I’m not too sure.”
“Do you have any proof or evidence?” You asked.
“No, this is why I’ve kept all of my theories to myself.” He said, pausing for a moment. “Actually, there are a few things that I’ve been noticing. Remember when you mentioned something about the ocean getting hotter? Well That just seemed to happen so fast, over the course of a few days. I don’t think anyone else noticed how weird that was, but it was really weird to me. I couldn’t talk to anyone about it.”
“I see I see. That sounds suspicious…”
“Yeah… It’s nice to be able to talk about this with someone, honestly, I’ve just been really paranoid about it.” He started to get awkward, maybe now would have been a good time to give him some form of reassurance. After all, if something was still happening, maybe it could be something to help you more quickly find your next outfit!
Written by Drifting Dragon on 11 October 2023
Business
“You mentioned something coming. Right? Do you think we can talk a bit about that.” You said, bringing the conversation to a more serious note. You truly did want to help these people out, especially because in the long run, it will be helping you out. That’s just how the game is played.
“Let’s see. Maybe if we could find some kind of evidence about it then we can convince the others about something being wrong. There’s a lot we can do honestly, If only I knew who would be chill enough to go with what we’re putting out there. Maybe we could start with the others- maybe we need to work on our relationship with them.” You mentioned in a flurry of different and actually pretty decent ideas.
“Hmm I’ll think about that.” He sat for a moment, thinking hard about the options. “I would like to know how you think we could go about this. Like I mentioned earlier, if you wanted to have a bigger part in this group, you would be making some pretty significant choices about how we could continue to improve the lives of the people here. That’s what you said you wanted to do here, correct?” He asked.
“Right!” You agreed. Soon after, you felt the anxiety of your next decision creeping up on you.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 25 October 2023
Talk about Politics
“We should try to find a way to get in better with the new tribe.” You mentioned. “Maybe what you think is coming has something to do with them?” You pondered with the leader for a while.
“What do you mean?” He asked inquisitively.
“I mean like, what if they’re being nice because they want something from us?” You thought. The leader was quite- attentive as he listened to you. “I don’t know, it was just something I was thinking about. Maybe we need to work on improving our relationship with the other group. I mean… How much time have we all really spent with each other. Genuine time, not just together hunting or eating.” You suggested.
“I see what you mean.” He responded after a long pause for thought. “In terms of politics, I do have a bit of experience in that regard. May I offer a few suggestions?” He asked.
“Sure, I’d love to hear what you think.” You responded. The two of you chatted about some suggestions and soon after, properly laid out your options.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 09 November 2023
Focus on them
“The idea about considering their needs and hearing out from their side seems pretty good. I think that will help us both find more favor in this situation” You suggested.
“Yes I was thinking that myself. The best way to gain favor is to give the people what they want. It’s good to know that you agree with that.” You nodded and continued the conversation with the leader until you both found the right combinations of options to yield at least a somewhat good outcome, despite all that everyone had gone through prior.
It took a couple days, but by the time it was over, you both had a solid idea and both leaders had set up a meeting for all seals to hear. It was your job to give them a little speech to convince everyone that there were some otherworldly problems going on and that everyone should be working together to figure out what it is to help ensure the survival of as many seals as possible. When you stood on the rock to deliver your speech, the crowd already didn’t look pleased. You hadn’t spent a lot of time preparing the words you were going to say, but you just figured you’d let it all flow from the heart.
“Hello everyone. We wanted to bring up a major issue that some of you may have already known about. Now we’re trying to fix it. Right now, we’re opening the floor to your suggestions, and today, ideally, we can all have an organized discussion about all of your needs such that we could all come together and figure this out in the vein of increasing the longevity of our kind.” You kept talking and talking until you watched their dull expressions starting to brighten up and when you noticed how receptive they were being, you continued.
By the time you were all done, everyone was barking and cheering for you and soon after everyone started to come together democratically to help solve the issue. For the first time, the leader of your original pack was able to talk about the strange happenings he had noticed and to your surprise even some others were having suspicions about whatever was going on in the world. To you, this all was new and you knew you couldn’t have put in much input yourself, but listening to all the possibilities and outcomes from the others made you feel so much more satisfied than ever.
Before you knew it, the night was coming and the tensions between both of the packs seemed to be waning. Maybe not completely, but it was still a good start. You felt satisfied with yourself and almost even a bit redeemed from some of the bad things that had happened earlier. You were quite satisfied with yourself, but you couldn’t help but wonder, now, what exactly was the seals’ perception of you.
Unbeknownst to you, there would soon be an answer. One of the elder seals from the opposing pack had come to you in the middle of the night to talk.
“Hello, you were that interesting individual from the opposing pack” He started.
“Yes I am.” You started. “Was there something I could do for you?” you suggested.
“I was actually curious… What are you?” he questioned. “Oh, by the way, your speech, you may not have seen the impact of it, but I wanted to reassure you there was a massive impact.” he continued speaking with you, detailing the positive impact of your speech and encouraging the pack leader to speak out about what had been going on. Turns out, there were many other seals in agreement and after the conclusions you all had discussed everyone started feeling a bit better about the potentially dire situation before it had escalated.
“It’s good to hear all of that….” You thought for a moment about his first question and at this point, finally came to realize the positive impact of telling the truth, so in that case, you did. “I’m actually.. A human. Like my upper half, there was this magic I’d used to get here, and soon I intend on leaving upon finding my next ‘outfit’” you explained.
“Outfit?” the old seal replied inquisitively.
“Yes, like. Some kind of suit of fur or flesh that I can wear to transform into the next being and continue my game.” You mentioned.
“... Follow me.” The elder said. Like that, the two of you were off in the middle of the night. “Do you see this cave?” he asked you as the two of you stood at the mouth of a deep rocky depths far on the other side of the islands seen in the distance.
“What’s in here?” you asked.
“Well, you said something about magic. This is one of the most magically charged, yet dangerous places known to our clan. Not many others know about it, but as an elder, I remember it from when I was young.” He mentioned.
“I see.” You replied. “How is it dangerous?” You asked.
“There is a pod of orcas in these seas, it has been told that they come around here often, this is why nobody comes here. We can’t stay long, but if you’re truly interested, you could see what’s inside.” He offered.
“Yes! Thank you” You mentioned. “What about the others?” You asked.
“It’s alright, I can tell them you have left. IF your job was to bring peace to the two parties, then you have. We have been surviving for so long, now, if it’s your time to go, you can. We will continue to fight and survive as we always have, with the orcas, the humans, I’m just happy that now, we will no longer be our own enemies.” The sentiment brought a smile to your face. You didn’t anticipate something like this from when you started, but now, you had felt like your impact was meaningful, even though it was small.
“Thank you so much.” You reiterated with a smile and he nodded in approval. Though you knew that you didn’t have much more time left, so you allowed him to begin the trek back just before the sun started to rise. At this point, you were already exhausted and lugging your heavy body deep into the cave was far more difficult than swimming smoothly through the water. Still, you kept fighting- you kept going like the seals had done and the words of the elder echoed in your mind as you made it to the back of the cave.
It was dark- almost impossible to see so you took your time as you moved through but as you pressed on, you could see a glowing light in the back of the tunnel. For a moment, you thought you were hallucinating from the exhaustion you were experiencing, but soon after, the familiar warm glow started to draw you towards it- it almost filled you back up with energy as you started galloping your way down until the bright light had completely blinded your adjusting eyes.
In the dark depths of the cave, you found your next outfit and it sent your heart fluttering. You closed your eyes and took a moment to just feel the soft smooth texture of your following transformation. It reminded you of the cool feeling of the water against your selkie skin, but selkie no more, you will now calmly slide it over your massive body like a drape and started to feel the transformation taking place.
You didn’t know what you were in for next, but now, you could at least say you could feel satisfied in the outcome you had achieved this time around. Yeah, you made some mistakes along the way, and maybe in a different world things could have turned out better. But hey, you made it here, and you’ve had the chance to live this life to the fullest so you were satisfied about how you played it this time.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 11 November 2023
The end (for now)