Anything But Numb

[Luna Moon]

Alec smiled at Tau\'s words. "No, a few years older, a bit of gray at your temple, but you wear it well." She smiled falsely though, fighting the pain at seeing him like this, and also the jealousy that came back to her at seeing Morgaine touch his hair. She watched however at Morgaine\'s reaction. The woman seemed to be fighting deep sadness, Alec licked her lips, tasting the air for the sorrow and finding it. She looked down at the ground then back at Morgaine. Alec knew all too well how she felt when she realized that Tau was so young. She felt so sad and scared for him.

She smiled sadly at the woman sitting beside her. "It\'s okay Morgaine," she said softly, feeling the own pain return to her. She knew it was probably visible in her eyes. She put her still-warm hand on her shoulder. Alec knew the need to comfort was hard-wired in her somewhere from her own mother. She looked back up at Tau and smiled slightly. "You make a good cat. Almost tame if you ask me. Very playful." She grinned slightly at this as she scooted back some, giving him some space. "It was a remarkable experience, seeing as I\'ve only seen one other big cat shifter." She sat and watched Morgaine and Tau again, knowing somewhere that Tau would be wanting to see her shift soon.

[Existentially Odd]

Tau was able to partly relax when Morgaine said he looked distinguished, not unattractive and then Alec backed it up.  It was a relief to him that he wouldn\'t have to struggle to keep his clients near him but he was fully aware that there was suddenly a lot more to it in the heads of those around him.  He frowned, trying to figure out why the one wouldn\'t look him in the eye any more and the other moved to touch her reassuringly.

There was... sadness but he simply couldn\'t fathom why; it was another case (as far as he could tell) of people saying one thing with their words (you look fine) but another entirely with their bodies.  This time, however, he couldn\'t read the body language like he usually could, because he didn\'t understand where they were coming from because it was about him and he wasn\'t able to have that outside perspective.

After looking from one to he other - and back again - to no avail, he realised he would just have to ask about whatever was bothering them later, starting with Morgaine.  For the time being, he was still sitting on the rug on his lounge area floor completely naked.  Instead of sliding over a little to simply collect his pants, he stood and walked over them, hoping that his movement would make Morgaine lift her head (not necessarily to watch the movement of his powerful muscles beneath his sleek skin or assess... his other gifts, but simply because he wanted to move proceedings along and for her to have something to think about besides... whatever it was she was thinking about right now).

"Well, I am a cat," Tau told Alacer somewhat sharply - not because he was mad at her, but simply frustrated she would say something so obvious.  Of course he made a good cat and was somewhat tame; even if he wasn\'t aware of it in that form, he still had a human side that modified his behaviour!  Still, it was interesting that she\'d seen another cat shifter and he would ask for comparisons and details later, when they were alone and he didn\'t have a guest to entertain.

"So it is easy to act like one," he finished wryly, picking up his underpants, holding them open and putting one foot in at a time before pulling them up.  After a moment\'s adjustment - well, a bit more than a moment really, because he hated underwear and would likely never get used to the restriction of having his penis pushed awkwardly against his body, so it always took him a while to find a position he could stand (but the alternative of having hairs pulled by a zipper if he went without undies was even more uncomfortable) - he did the same with his jeans.

He reached down a hand to help Morgaine up (unless she\'d already retreated to one of the couches so as not to share the floor with him while he dressed) but spoke to Alacer.  "Would you like to show us what sort of snake you make, now?" he enquired, wondering if the pall on proceedings that he\'d somehow cast would be changed or lifted entirely by seeing a snake amongst them.

[Harlequin]

Morgaine wasn\'t often caught unawares, but Alacer\'s hand at her shoulder did just that, though the only evidence of this was the sharpness with which her head came up to look at the other woman. She wasn\'t used to being touched in such a manner by someone who wasn\'t part of her core group – and even that was a rarity. Morgaine wasn\'t the sort of person who needed reassurance. She smiled, "I was just...surprised," That wasn\'t entirely a lie, as she\'d certainly been surprised, but there was obviously much, much more to her reaction.

She watched Tau as he walked by, but her gaze held more of an attitude of consideration than simple appreciation (though he was an impressive specimen). And raised a brow at his sharp tone, though she felt it was deserved. She\'d only been bothered by the comment about tameness, and how she\'d mentioned it in the positive. He hadn\'t been tame – he\'d been aware. In some way, at least, as far as she\'d understood it. Which was still not much, so she kept her mouth shut. Either way, in Morgaine\'s mind, tameness was wildly overrated, and twice as undesirable.

The singer accepted the hand when it was offered, giving a slight squeeze of thanks before letting go. She took a moment to work out the stiffness that had settled into her abused muscles with a short series of little stretches. As she bent to rub the tops of her aching thighs, Her head swiveled  to follow Tau\'s gaze to Alacer as he spoke. Glad for the change of subject, she nodded agreement as she straightened. The sadness still felt like a weight in her chest, but it wasn\'t so hard to breathe any more, and she masked it very well, "Yeah, man," she joked, "We\'re all waiting with baited breath, over here."

[Luna Moon]

Alec watched Tau with no surprise as he spoke to her sharply. "I meant more like a house cat than a big cat. There is a big difference there. House cats are.....gentle. Big cats, in my own personal past experience...." her eyes looked far away and sad for a moment while she remembered something, she regained composure after a few seconds and smiled, "Big cats are....wild. Based completely on instinct." She shrugged and retreated to the couch as Tau pulled on his clothes.

Alec smirked as they wondered if she would shift now. "Well, I have an idea. I will shift in my room and you two can watch me in there, then when I\'m ready to shift back, I\'ll go back and put my clothes back on without you how about that?" She looked at them curiously before standing. Alec sighed and looked at them seriously this time. "I have a few rules. When dealing with poisonous snakes you do have to have some. Okay, first is abslutely common sense. Do not poke near my head or make me do something I don\'t want to do. Next, I guess you could say I\'m more like a dog and more in control of myself than Tau. I will get near ou and you can pet me and hold me if you wish, if I get agitated or know my snake insticts are taking over, I\'ll rattle my tail." she took a deep breath and looked at the two beings in front of her.

"Understand?" she asked, the always constant fear of rejection for a serpent running through her. Alec was always scared of people scared of snakes or those that disliked them. She waited patiently in front of them, making sure they knew her rules before turning. she didn\'t want to lose what little bit of control she had and end up biting one of them.

[Existentially Odd]

The cougar shifter positively glowered as he was likened to a domestic cat - he ate the stupid things from time to time, he didn\'t wish to be \'favourably\' compared to one!  He found it best to ignore the rest of her comments about cats and focus instead on what she wanted for her shift.

"Those rules are fine," he agreed decisively once she\'d outlined her expectations, but was compelled to ask a question.  "So... you wish to go into your room and shift... and then we come in after a short while?  And when you are ready to shift back you will... go to your clothes in snake form and put them on?" he queried with a frown, showing that he was quite confused by what she\'d said - willing to meet any wish or rule she had, yes, but confused about how he and Morgaine would know it was time to leave Alacer alone in her room to shift back to human form.

She couldn\'t actually wear her clothes in that form, so... what did she mean?  It seemed easier, to him, if they just waited in the lounge for her to come out and retreat when she wished.

[Harlequin]

As Alec kept rationalizing her earlier comments instead of letting the uncomfortable subject go, Morgaine\'s expression could most accurately be described as \'Eurgh\'. There were pursed lips and a brow raised over the housecat comment, but her mouth was twisted to the side in sympathy for the girl\'s previous experience – though she had no way of knowing what that was, exactly – wide eyes, aimed toward the ground indicated the treacherous ground she tread, and the other half of her brow knit over the fact that she was digging herself deeper into an already awkward pit. Overall, it was a strange, unhappy – yet comical – arrangement of those tattooed features.

It was also mercifully short-lived, however, and soon replaced with the simple pursed lips and single cocked brow of noncomprehension as the girl continued speaking. Thankfully, Tau seemed to understand her at least slightly better than the singer. Her expression smoothed as he explained, and expressed his own confusion. Unbeknownst to either of them, Morgaine\'s thoughts almost perfectly matched those of her host on the subject of how they should go about this whole business; Alec\'s plan seemed overly complicated. But, once again, what did she know? "I think I can manage to keep my hands and feet inside the cart at all times," she said, as a circumspect way of agreeing to Alec\'s rules. Maybe too circumspect, "I mean, I got it."

[Luna Moon]

(I made that confusing for myself. Sorry!!)

Alec chuckled at her confused spectators. "Okay. More simple: Just follow me until I go back into my room. I want you to se me shift and I have a feeling Tau wanted to see how I, a creature with arms and legs and much more mass than a snake, shifted into one."  She looked at them with an uncertain expression on her face. "How about I just rattle at you when I don\'t want you to follow me?" she asked, thinking it may have been more simple. She smiled as she turned to go to her room.

She walked to her room quickly and fluidly, leaving the door open for Tau and Morgaine. She glanced over at the rats in cages, hoping she wouldn\'t go for them as a snake. She turned and her feet and sighed as she sat down in the floor. She laid down and was on her stomach as she could feel her muscles and bones start to move. Alec lay still as she let herself shift into a more natural form. The bones popped and cracked as some split and repositioned themselves. Her arms and legs shrank until the bones from them repositioned themselves and became sections of rib bones and vertebre. Alec\'s skin changed into scales and became harder. The birthmarks on her legs shifted into rattles and shivered slightly.

The complete process took a little longer than Tau\'s but was still short. Alec was buried in layers of clothing which she quickly found her way through. She squirmed and slithered a few minutes and came slithering out of the neck hole of her shirt. She tasted the air and saw the heat coming from Tau and Morgaine. Alec slithered over to Tau\'s feet, tasting them for a moment before moving to Morgaine and tasting hers. She slithered past them and out of the room. Alec as a snake stretched out was just as long as Alec was tall.

[Existentially Odd]

Tau, for one, was quick to agree and to follow when Alec clarified her intentions, arriving at her doorway as she lay on the floor on her stomach.  He leaned against one side of the opening, cheek pressed against the wood and watching avidly as, even though the room was technically his, he didn\'t feel it was right to intrude on space he\'d allocated to his houseguest.  He also didn\'t want to take up the whole doorway, as Morgaine needed room to stand there and see as well and as much as the fleeting thought of her crammed up against him to do so was very pleasant, he couldn\'t bring himself to be rude about it.

"Whoa," he breathed in wonder as woman arms and legs shrank in and became part of a body he couldn\'t see, due to the mask of clothes.  When she slithered out of them, her movement immediately stirred the cat within him and his gaze darted all over her length, watching her curiously and anticipating her next move (almost like he was going to pounce on her - his body was coiled, yes, but he wasn\'t that stupid).  As Alec slid past, he turned on the spot, looking up at Morgaine as he did.  "She is a pretty snake... but I am not sure I want to hold her after all those warnings," he grinned.

[Harlequin]

Morgaine followed as well, though she arrived at the doorway shortly after Tau, since walking fast for him was practically running for someone with much shorter legs -- and Morgaine just wasn\'t going to make herself look like a fool by jogging to catch up, though she was intrigued enough to want to.
 
They both got to the same place eventually, however, and Morgaine took up much the same position as her host on the other side of the doorway to take in the show. Of which there wasn\'t much, seeing as to how Alec vanished inside the puddle of her clothing fairly quickly. The singer didn\'t mind; she had the idea in her head that Alec\'s transformation might go along the lines of seeing a human body getting squeezed through a toothpaste tube, which had never ranked too high on her list of Things to See and Do.
 
When the finished product appeared, however, Morgaine was no less amazed, depsite the fact that that product was more or less exactly what she\'d expected. Only bigger. By kind of a lot. Alec had been taller than her, so the snake was too (well, longer, at least). And that was a bit nerve-wracking, any way you slice it. Morgaine\'s wonder vastly overwhelmed her fear, however, and the latter was silenced as the now-transformed young woman slid over the tops of her feet. It was hard to be afraid when one was concentrating so hard on not jumping up in the air and squealing like a schoolgirl -- because damn, did that tickle.
 
She exhaled once it was over, though, turning as Tau did, "I\'m with you there," she replied, "God, just look at the way she moves." The singer lowered herself slowly into a crouch, watching the rattle as she did, not wanting to irritate the snake, but desiring a better look.

[Luna Moon]

Alec reacted to Morgaine crouching down, turning to inspect the heat she looked at Morgaine and raised herself off of the ground to inspect her closer. Alec raised up and tasted the air near her. She lost interest after a few seconds and turned back toward the living room, where she smelt the feline side of Tau. Alec slithered into the room, lightly tasting the ground as she went.

Once in there she went around, tasting various objects, the TV, parts of the couches, and the floor. Finally tired of that and with a slight chill she curled up in a coil in the middle of the floor. She sat her head on top of her and looked to Tau and Morgaine. Even in her animal form, somewhere in the back of her mind the question of what they thought about her flitted through her mind.

[Existentially Odd]

"It is beautiful," he agreed with Morgaine, walking slowly after Alacer and watching the muscle in her body work so subtly they barely moved at all - yet she did, so they must have been.  He sat on one of the couches to watch the snake explore her environment, encouraging Morgaine to sit beside him with some beckoning hand gestures and an expression to match.

When the shifter became a coil, Tau could suppress his urges no longer; he simply had to play!  "I am going to pick her up," he announced, sliding off the plush chair and onto his left knee.  His right leg was raised and folded in against his body, heel against backside and knee not far from his chin.  He reached around it to slide his large hands gently beneath the enormous rattlesnake on his lounge room carpet.

Recalling Alec\'s rules, he moved slowly when picking her up, allowing her to slide and slither over his hands and forearms in order to find a position she liked, listening for the rattle that would tell him he should freeze and let her go altogether, lest he be bitten.  When it didn\'t come, he slowly backed into a bent over position and then moved back to sit on the couch.  If Morgaine had chosen to sit with him, he would try to sit a little apart from her, in case she didn\'t want the snake so close to her, otherwise he would position himself in the centre of the settee, on the edge of the cushion, sitting up straight and watching the reptile in his hands in rapture.

"She feels so smooth... yet powerful... cool against my skin and- oh!  Her muscles bunch and squeeze when she changes direction!" he cried delightedly, sounding very much like the young boy he technically was, enchanted by the beast he held within his grasp.  "Do you want to hold her?" he asked the gorgeous Indian woman nearby - even though he couldn\'t bring himself to look away from the snake in order to make eye contact.

[Harlequin]

When the snake reared in front of her face, Morgaine could feel her heartbeat quicken, bringing a rush of heat to her face. She barely dared breathe, but still she held the reptile\'s gaze until she lost interest and slithered off across the carpet. It was only when Tau moved after the snake that the singer realized that she was not, in fact, breathing. Fortunately, she was able to maintain her composure as she took a deep breath, pulling much-need Oxygen into her lungs.
 
This done, she followed after her host, sitting next to him on the couch, as he\'d indicated -- even though he was soon gone again. She nodded in response to his declaration, but couldn\'t keep her muscles from tensing in anticipation as he carried through with it. Her mother had taught her how to tourniquet and excise a snake bite, and she ran through thee steps hurriedly in her mind. But he moved slowly and carefully, and the snake did not initially seem disturbed by his touch.  She even smiled as she watched the two of them.
 
She folded her legs over themselves, and placed her hands between them on the couch cushion to steady herself as she leaned forward to get a better look. "Wow," she breathed. Morgaine didn\'t blame him for not looking at her as he spoke (She\'d have reprimanded if he had, even), "Let\'s give her a second to get used to you first, yeah?" Though this was probably a very good idea, morgaine was also afraid of hurting the snake. As a guitar player, her hands were very rough, and she was afraid of Alec\'s scales getting caught on one of her calluses, or something equally unpleasant. It didn\'t stop her from at least wanting to at least touch the snake; she loved the way she moved  over Tau\'s fingers; like living water, or a chain of some intelligent alien metal.

[Luna Moon]

Alec tasted Tau\'s hands as he picked her up, letting him take her with him. she moved over his hands, feeling him move with her. She curled over his hands and arms from elbow to elbow, coils overlapping. She tasted the feline in him and tasted his skin. Moving over his arms she lifted herself up and tasted his chest and arms, barely touching with her tongue, feather-like licks.

The heat that Morgaine possessed made Alec turn toward the girl again. She reached slightly over Tau\'s arm, watching the moving heat then lay back in his arms. He tasted familiar and she was completely comfortable with him in this form. Morgaine was also familiar and if she were to take Alec from Tau, the snake wouldn\'t mind that much, thought Tau was a lot warmeer than the woman. Alec moved and curled slightly in Tau\'s arms to lay impossibly between them.

[Existentially Odd]

Tau\'s head jerked back and forward and he giggled delightedly as the snake hovered over his bare chest, tongue moving incessantly as she explored the swirls of hair and peeks of skin evident between.  She was feather-light and cool upon his skin, something he enjoyed greatly (though if he gave too much thought to the fact that he had Alec resting upon his nudity, he felt awkward... so he quelled such thoughts as soon as they began).

"I think she has had plenty of time to get used to me," he announced ruefully, once the rattlesnake stopped sliding across him and appeared to settle in his arms.  He gathered as slowly and carefully as he could and held her out towards Morgaine.  "Here, you have a turn.  Be ready though, she is heavy.  I wonder if it is anything to do with her being a shifter, rather than a normal snake?" he mused aloud, already pretty certain that the creature he held was far heftier than a normal rattlesnake (bigger, too) and convinced it had to be because she was a different species.

[Harlequin]

Morgaine enjoyed watching the two of them. And as she she did, Tau\'s form transformed momentarily into that of a delighted Adam in the Garden, mindless of his impending fall, and simply happy to be alive – wait, did he just giggle? She stifled a laugh of her own. Though she couldn\'t rightfully blame him, she was still going to razz him about it later.

"It might have something to do with her being fucking huge," Said Morgaine, who had no experience with snakes, She slid off the couch to sit next to him on the floor, however, and held out her arms once she was solidly seated. The transfer was a bit tricky, but both of them were very careful not to hurt the transformed woman, and eventually everything got settled. With the full length of Alec\'s body curled in her arms (or wherever Alec chose to go, after that) the snake-to person ratio of the two of them was obviously somewhat high, but everything balanced out eventually. Then Morgaine knew what he\'d been talking about, "Whoa, yeah, she is a little on the heavy side, isn\'t she?" Then, belatedly, "No offense, Alec. If you\'re in there. Or whatever." Snake or no, no woman liked to be referred to as heavy.

But Morgaine forgot all of this when Alec bean to move, and she felt the sensation Tau described: the liquid bunching and coiling of the muscles under the cool, smooth skin as the rattlesnake moved through her hands, over her skin. "Oh, wow," the singer reiterated. Apparently, the hesitance of before had all but dissolved – though she was still listening keenly for the sound of the rattle.