there's only so much I can turn into

[mswoods]

The thirteen-year-old girl is coming back home from school, on foot.

There's a cat following her. It's been following her for a while, but from a distance.

She decides to be friendly. She stops and turns around to look at it. It stops as well. "Mow?"

The girl's face- changes. It's still a human face, mostly, but now there's something different about it. More feline than anything. Whiskers grow, her pupils dilate and her eyes get a bit rounder, her bones move under her skin, their shape changing a bit. "Mew," she says, vocal apparatus having changed a bit, apparently.

The cat blinks and approaches cautiously. "Moow...?"

She doesn't giggle, but she feels like giggling. She's talking to a kitty! Well, kinda talking to a kitty, it's not like she can understand kitty-speech. But still! "Maw!"

Comments

[taste_tester]

"So why the constraint to biology? What if you wake up one morning and want to be a cyborg?"

[mrwoods]

He blinks. "I don't know? I mean, I may be completely wrong here and that's a just-so story, maybe it's just the whimsical mercurial thing, you're the witch genius, I dunno how my power relates to myself. I mean, if you were trying to explain that constraint, how would you explain it?" Pause. "I just thought of a way maybe but I want to hear what you have to say anyway."

[taste_tester]

"Your guess will be better than mine but I'm starting to wonder if it's aimed more at cosmetic results than practical ones."

[mrwoods]

He thinks about that. "Kinda? I mean, I guess it'd be super cool if I could shoot lasers out of my eyes but that's, yeah, not really what I meant. My guess is mostly that my magic is about my body, and cyborg isn't as much about a presentation as it is an... addition. Kinda like clothing? I wouldn't feel like clothing is a way I am, it's just a thing I have on me at the moment and that's not the same at all."

[taste_tester]

"Hmm. What things are about what you are, then? Hair color counts, cyborg parts do not..."

[mrwoods]

"...everything that grows?" he tries. "I don't think I could shift hair that fell or nails I cut."

[taste_tester]

"So you identify with things that you grow more than things that you build, because they're part of who you are. ...You know, I've never met a witch who could do magic to their magic before, but I'm just going to toss that idea out there, you grew it, it's natural to you."

[mrwoods]

"Metamagic? Okay that sounds really cool."

[taste_tester]

"Might not work, but your power's as plausible as any for it."

[mrwoods]

"Got any thoughts on how to go about doing that? Because I have no idea what I'd even focus on, if that's possible it might be better to wait until I can maybe shift without knowing what my destination would look like or something?"

[taste_tester]

"Well, I don't know if this helps, but to my magic, your magic tastes like eggwhites."

[mrwoods]

"...my magic has a taste? Why does my magic have a taste? Is that common?"

[taste_tester]

"It's just how my own witchcraft interprets things. Plenty of witches have synaesthesia to go with it. When I grab something, I taste it and how to use it. It's a nice compensation for my dietary constraints."

[mrwoods]

"Well, do these tastes usually mean anything?"

[taste_tester]

"I can usually make up a just-so story. But there are only so many foods with so many properties."

[mrwoods]

"Are tastes typically unique?"

[taste_tester]

"No exact duplicates, but I've met several different kinds of bread and so on."

[mrwoods]

"Hmm... and did those breads have anything in common? And just how many witches have you met?"

[taste_tester]

"Nothing obvious. A certain general applicability and Western upbringing. And lots, but I don't spend as much time with most of them as you."

[mrwoods]

"Really? We've only been at it for three days and you've given me so many ideas and there's so much to do!"

[taste_tester]

"Sometimes I find witches whose powers are stuck. Or only flex in one or two ways. Or who simply don't want to work with me for some reason."

[mrwoods]

"Hmm, I guess that makes sense. What kinds of powers have you found? On the one hand I really really want to develop mine, but on the other I'm pretty sure I could listen to you talking about them for days but you probably care more about the former."

[taste_tester]

"Yours is unusually good, if slow. Sometimes it's just, say, an enhanced sense, or the ability to find people you're looking for. There are some good ones, though. Telepaths and precogs and one guy who controls the four classical elements."

[mrwoods]

"Whoa, there are precogs? That is super cool I think I'm a bit jealous. ...oh I forgot to say! I can see ultraviolet!"

[taste_tester]

"Oh, good for you! Your cones came in?"