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
Normal Land
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: Land
Type: Normal
Gender: ????
So which door do you want
Written by Catprog on 26 February 2004
Male Normal Land
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 male, all of them are normal land creatures.
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Written by Catprog on 26 February 2004
Snow Leopard
You slipped out of your clothes, into the fur of a fluffy, toothily grinning snow-leopard, and the very moment that the head of the suit had slipped down over your own...
You woke up.
You had been so eager, so desperate to put on the costume, but when you were all wrapped up in its warm synthetic fur, breathing heavily into the head surrounding yours, that began to fade. You found yourself wondering why? Why had you been so eager, so overwhelmingly delighted by the idea of putting on this snow-leopard? Indeed you felt your cheeks beginning to burn. Embarrassed. Frustrated a little by how childish you seemed to have gotten so carried away.
You had a job to do, and this was most definitely not a part of it.
So, you tried to take the head off.
Tried being the operative word.
You felt for the seam, the obvious gap on the fabric between the base of its neck and the top of the bodysuit. You dug your big, padded, fur-enclosed fingers into the fabric, but couldn't find the point where the two items of this costume's main form were connected. It was then your heart rate began to quicken. To race. You tried to flick off the gloves, the paws making it so impossible for you to feel that seam which was obviously still there, how could it not be, after all. But even now, those gloves seemed tighter than you remembered. They didn't slide off with the ease you'd put them on, indeed the more you tried, the more it felt like a futile effort. Like trying to throw aside not a costume or a piece of clothing, but a part of yourself.
It was then that panic truly began to overtake you, as you grasped one hand in the other and pulled, only to draw back your hands with a cry as you realised that you could feel yourself tugging upon the fur. Fur that seemed to be affixed to your own skin. Looking down at the paws before you, they weren't quite as bulky or cartoonishly large as they had been before. They looked more natural now. More real. Only, still belonging to a bipedal, anthropomorphised snow-leopard rather than the human you had been.
No.
No.
Not had been. The human you were. The human you were, dammit!
Your head began to spin as you tried to pull off the costume. To tear it from your body, uncaring now if you damaged any part of it. You grabbed your ears as you felt them begin to twitch. Your tail as it began to flick urgently, nervously from side to side. You clutched at your own muzzle and snarled in pain as you tried to pull your head up and off, fur bristling as your hands instinctively drew back, not wishing to damage the sensitive whiskers protruding from your growling muzzle.
By the time you collapsed to your knees, hyperventilating through a mouth that was not yours mere minutes before, you knew you had to be dreaming. You pinched yourself with clawed fingertips, mewling in frustration and pain but still not waking.
Darkness.
You fell down to all fours, passing out for a moment but lurching back to consciousness just long enough to see trembling grey furred hands resting on the floor beneath your gaze, clenched into tight fists of fear, confusion, dismay.
That was exactly how you felt in that moment, and that was the first time you admitted to yourself what was happening. The first time you allowed yourself to believe.
There was a good reason why those hands looked and felt like they were experiencing the same emotions as you.
Because they were your hands, and this body in which you were trapped and panicking, it wasn't some costume. It wasn't some trick.
This body, this snow-leopard, was you.
Written by Jeeves on 01 September 2017
Footsteps
You hear someone approaching.
Footsteps. Or rather, the padding of bare feet against smooth stone. Dragging yourself to your feet at last, oddly, comfortably balanced even in this unfamiliar body, you feel something moving behind you and turn your head. At first, you panic. Something is attacking you. Biting you, writhing and thrashing against your body as it strikes from behind. But then... then you find yourself practically laughing as you realise the truth. It's a tail. A long, thick, luxurious tail. Your own.
“Good morning.”
Before you can reach back and touch the lush fluffy fur of that new limb however, a voice draws your attention back to the newcomer. You wince slightly as you look at them, the figure holding a flickering, fire-lit torch in one hand. Until now you didn't realise just how dark it was, your vision able to compensate in a manner which never would have been possible in your human form. Now however you can see in the orange-yellow glow, and not only can you see the person addressing you, but the space in which you are being addressed.
She is a wolf. Wrapped in rich white cloth, adorned with bracelets and necklaces and earrings and other jewellery all a rich gold in hue, smooth and simple but obviously of the highest quality. And around her, around both of you... high stone walls. Pillars. Walls inlaid with designs somewhat like ancient hieroglyphs, only even more alien and unfathomable than the most obscure Egyptian text ever would have been to your former eyes. Truly an alien language.
"Your name is Serrin. Do you know this?"
You blink at the wolf as she addresses you, calmly and yet with a curiosity that shows she doesn't entirely expect you to know the answer to that question.
Written by Jeeves on 03 September 2017
Shake your Head
When you shake your head, too stunned and overwhelmed to lie, she smiles. You see something in her eye for a moment. Maybe a flicker of sorrow, of regret. But she hides it well, and you have no idea how you would begin to ask her why she looked that way for even a moment, considering all the other hundreds upon hundreds of questions flooding your head in that instant.
“Then... it has happened again.”
She steps closer to you, and moves as though to reach out and take your hand. When you do not reciprocate her gesture however, she seems to think better of it, withdrawing and giving another momentary glimpse into that more sorrowful, frustrated mindset lying deep within her.
She smiles.
“I am Lira. And this... this is a place where stories tell that our world overlaps with others. It acts as a source of magical ability for our people. A place where one can come to study, to learn, to untangle the secrets of reality itself. Sometimes objects are left here, gifts from other worlds. Sometimes knowledge is imparted to those studying here. And occasionally... the mind, the essence of a person from another world enters the body of one studying here.”
Your head spins, but you try to wrap it around what she is saying. In a voice deeper than you remember, a rumbling purr behind every word, you speak to her.
“So... i-if what you're saying is true, then... the name you said was mine? Serrin?”
You touch a hand to your chest. Strong, firm. Clad in what you look down and realise is the same white robing covering the wolf.
The woman nods.
“The body you now inhabit... it is his. Or, it was. And, it may be again. There are rules. Precepts that we have heard come from the mouths of others who have been transported and transformed over the years and centuries. You are bound to this form for at least two of our weeks. Twenty days. After that, there are... there are ways that you can move on. Other worlds you can explore, if you find another version of whatever it was that led you here.”
Written by Jeeves on 06 September 2017
So many costumes..
You close your eyes for a moment, and picture that factory. Not just one costume lying upon a table, but filled with rows upon rows of costumes almost as far as you could see. If putting on this costume had led you to this world, then... did each costume lead here? Or, to a different realm for each one?
The idea makes you reel. So many realities. So many worlds, all possibly suddenly summoned into existence within your mind.
You stumble.
“Serrin!”
The wolf, Lira, lunges forward to steady you. She cries out with care. With distress. She does not want to see you... or rather, the body you possess, come to harm.
You steady yourself once more, and look at her with a furrowed brow.
“You've told me what this place is. W-what I'm doing here. But... please. If I'm in someone else's body. If I'm living someone else's life, I need to know. W-who... who am I?”
Written by Jeeves on 08 September 2017
Workers
Together the pair of you walk through a courtyard in the midst of the temple building. Lira talks. Tells you of your job. Your life here, back when you were Serrin. But, you only half listen.
“We work here. Serve here, at the pleasure of the people. We guide visitors who wish to learn or grow from the worlds beyond, and in return we ourselves are granted the boons of living in such close proximity to such a powerful arcane source.”
Your eyes are fixed upward. Above the temple walls, staring at the cityscape to the north and west of this location. The temple looks ancient. A mixture of something like ancient Greek and Egyptian combined in design, but despite that and the classical attire in which you are dressed, the city beyond makes clear that this world is anything but backward.
Skyscrapers tower up through the clouds, glimmering in the light of the small but intensely bright sun overhead. At the peak of each one, a spire of some sort of crystal reaches higher still, and a crackling violet lightning arcs between the various rods, causing a shimmering field to cast a faint purple glow over the entirety of the city below. You see shapes darting between the buildings, too small to be aircraft but too large to be any sort of bird life with which you are familiar. Somehow, you can't help shake the feeling that they might be people. Flying, magically imbued people.
Only then do you turn your attention back to Lira, and jump slightly as you look down at where her hands are outstretched before you, a glowing, flickering ball of energy resting several inches over her poised fingertips. An orb of magical light in the shape of a planet. Flickering blue and green over sea and land with swirling white clouds over its surface. You look for familiar landmarks.
Continents you've known since you were a child. But of course, there's nothing remotely like your world.
Written by Jeeves on 11 September 2017
Lessons
Still she speaks, seeming to not have noticed your earlier distraction. You try to follow along, but even if you'd been paying attention the whole time it feels as though what she is saying is so very far beyond anything you could possibly be expected to know.
“...after the expansion of the Western arcane focal, we began to build. The magic spread throughout our world and its people. Feats of engineering which would have been impossible to even conceive of before now were shared into the minds of some, and others with magical ability enough to construct based upon those visions did so. It was then we realised much as it goes against most of the laws of physics, magic isn't entirely unrelated. Magic, odd as it sounds, is a substance here. A tangible thing, measurable in power, in quantity, even in mass. That's why you see it up there.”
She points to one of the spired buildings of the city.
“Magic, when not bound to a person or when used by them, rises. The spires gather it and return it to the earth, rather than allowing it to dissipate. Because of that, we no longer are bound only to the temples themselves as fonts of arcane power. So, while our jobs are much more ceremonial these days, we're still privileged to have a great deal of respect and love from the rest of the world. After all, without people like me and you...”
Her voice trails off for a moment, and the wolf frowns as she catches herself.
“Without people like me and Serrin, that is. We wouldn't have this world. A world where people can support themselves and provide for themselves with magic, and thus devote their time, their energy to doing things they love, and sharing those things with others.”
She stops, standing in the centre of the courtyard beside a large and beautiful fountain. Only, rather than water running from the fountain, you see a rainbow. A rainbow of fractured light pouring and tumbling down the several tiers of the stone fountain, before finally pooling as a silvery, shimmering liquid in its base. The wolf sits down upon the edge of the beautiful fountain, sighs, and looks you up and down.
“So. Do you think you want to continue Serrin's work? Who knows. When the time is up you may be able to return to the chamber and meditate there as he was. You may find yourself swept off to another world, or you might need to physically seek out whatever object it is that will allow you to move on. That is, if you decide to move on. I... I know that choice is yours, and yours alone, and I respect the arcane too much to question that choice.”
Written by Jeeves on 13 September 2017
More Options
In that moment, you see another flash of sorrow cross the wolf's features. But still, you don't know why.
She shakes it off once again, forces a smile, and gestures over the fountain to the city beyond.
“Or... there's a whole world out there for you to learn about. I'll help you. Others will too, of course. Whether you tell them who you are or not, I can't imagine anyone not being thrilled at the idea of helping someone find their vocation in life. Helping someone find out that one thing, that special gift which will make them happy.”
She reaches out a hand, almost without thinking, and takes one of your hands in hers. She squeezes, and only then seems to realise what she's doing. Lira doesn't withdraw though. She just smiles another of those smiles with sadness and concern behind them as she finishes what she has to say.
“Whatever you choose. Whatever you do with this opportunity. Just know that I'll be here. That I'll be ready to help any way I can, t-to make sure that whatever you choose, it's something worthy of who you are. W-who you were"
Written by Jeeves on 15 September 2017
Stay
For the first day, you stay at the temple. You try to learn what you can about this world from books, thankfully in a language you can read unlike the symbols upon the walls of the room in which you awoke. You try to learn about yourself, too. About Serrin, the snow leopard whom now for all purposes is you.
He was a good man. Of that, you're glad. He was a practised magic user. Of that, you're a little scared at first. But, after a little time spent with Lira, you realise that using magic is just like using your hands to juggle, or your feet to kick a ball into a goal. It's all just muscle memory. Practice. Magic or not, it's something which is inside your body every moment of the day, and thus it's not long before you begin to grasp how to make it manifest.
And for a moment or two, as you watch a small flower sprout from between two paving stones upon which your eyes are currently focused, you stop thinking about the world from which you'd come. You stop thinking about being a stranger here. You watch a small violet flower rise from between the stones, sprouting leaves before gorgeous curved petals burst outward, and you feel like maybe you could actually belong here.
You eat with Lira that evening. A meal of sushi, fresher, tastier than anything you'd ever known before. Whether you liked sushi or not as a human, you love it now. Lira giggles. Serrin loved sushi,but to see him... to see you shocked by how tasty it is, as though eating it for the first time? It makes her happy.
For several hours after you eat, you sit and read and practice your magic. You can still only manifest some small conjurations, suggest reality to bend in slight and subtle ways like the growth of a flower or the appearance of an apple within your hand. You know that with practice though, more will be possible. Much more.
You sleep in a chamber made for guests visiting the temple. Only as you lie in bed do you wonder where Serrin normally lives, and why you aren't offered his room. But, perhaps that's expecting too much. You're still growing used to the fact that this isn't all some dream. That any of this could be real and happening to you. Why should you expect the people of this world, Lira in particular, to be any more open in return?
Written by Jeeves on 17 September 2017
Start of answers
The following day however, as you rise and find yourself struggling your way into your wrapped linen robes once again, you begin to understand a little more.
You work in the temple as though it were your job. You assist Lira in guiding visitors to various rooms, and listen, as rapt as they are, while she tells them about magical history and truths of this world that you should obviously know too. Around noon however, you find yourself alone in guiding a couple to one of the chambers you have already visited once that day. Lira has other tasks to accomplish, and though she knows that you are not entirely at home here yet, she trusts you. A fact of which you are both grateful, but also somewhat nervous to be told.
You make it about half way there before the questions begin. Not questions of lore or history, but personal, friendly questions. Only then does it occur to you that this pair were familiar in their introductions with Lira. They acted as though they knew her well, and thus, they probably knew Serrin, too.
Now they joke with you. They laugh as they ask you why you're being so quiet, whether you had some great cosmic secret revealed to you which stole your tongue away. You can't help but laugh back at that. If only they knew.
When you arrive at the location in question, you turn to see the two men, fox and otter, holding hands. They move closer to one another before entering the chamber to which you have led them, and they kiss.
The fox looks at you, smirking at your slightly bashful glance.
“When was the last time you and Lira visited this chamber?”
Written by Jeeves on 19 September 2017
They were more then friends
He gasps as the otter jabs him in the ribs with an elbow, and look nonplussed as the other male apologises with a smirk of his own.
“Ignore him. Friends or not, we're not going to start asking the temple acolytes about their private business.”
The fox blushes. He apologises, and seems relieved when you shrug and tell him its okay. The pair disappear into the chamber, hand in hand. You close the door behind them as instructed, and then...
You realise you have no more instructions. No more tasks to accomplish. You don't know whether you are meant to wait here for the pair to be done with whatever they're doing in that room, or if you're meant to do other jobs in the meantime. Uncertain, you decide to go and find Lira. You know a time will come when you need to be able to stand on your own two feet... or rather, your own two paws, but right now you're still too unsure. Unwilling to act on instinct, because those instincts are still working with the rules and abilities of a whole other world.
It takes a little while, but eventually you find Lira. She is in the room where you awoke. Kneeling, meditating upon the same stone floor from which you rose in your new body. When she hears you enter, she turns, and you see her wiping her eyes.
“W-what's wrong?”
You should be the one asking her that question, but it's her who speaks first. All you can do is answer, face reddened with embarrassment beneath your fur.
“I... nothing. I just... I didn't know what to do next. I took them to their chamber.”
She looks weary. Sad and weary, her eyes obviously filled with tears even now. But as though you haven't noticed, she nods and smiles.
“Okay. We can find you another job.”
Before she can do more than rise to her feet though, you find yourself speaking again. Talking with that deep and purring voice that still doesn't seem entirely familiar even though its your words emanating from it.
“The room they went into. What's it for? They... they said something about us. Or... I mean, you and... Serrin. Using it.”
Immediately, you feel as though you've made a huge mistake. The look on Lira's face goes from sadness to anger. From embarrassment to humiliation and fury.
In that moment, as you see the rage and the anguish upon that wolf's face, something clicks.
The sorrow you've seen upon her face right from the start. The respect she's shown you, but the distance she's kept. Not showing you anything of Serrin's own life beyond his work. No possessions he owns. Not telling you of his family. Of the life he lived before you appeared into it.
And that room. That temple chamber... into which the two men walked hand in hand.
Of course she's sad. Of course she's angry.
You didn't just move into the body of her colleague. Her friend.
Serrin was more than that to her. Much more.
And now here she stands, facing his body, the same body that had stood with her and smiled at her and probably held and kissed and touched her countless times... only occupied by a stranger. Someone who looks at her, and sees nothing of the life they shared, bound by not only their service to the arcane and the whole of this world, but their love for each other.
Lira begins to cry, and though you move towards her, to comfort and reassure her, and to apologise for all of this, she steps away. She shakes her head.
Written by Jeeves on 21 September 2017
Leave
And that's when you know. When you realise.
Whatever your place in this world might be, whether brief or lengthy, it can't be here.
This place might be the best spot in the world to learn and study and grow accustomed to how things work here. How magic intersects daily life and vice versa. But... it's not worth it.
Not worth the pain it would cause. Not to you, but to Lira.
You have to leave.
And you do.
By the end of the week, you find yourself packed and ready to leave.
To explore.
To seek meaning, purpose, and perhaps another costume. Another body. Another world.
You haven't seen much of Lira since your realisation of what you are... or were... to her. You've both avoided one another, probably for the best. But now, as you stand with a rucksack over your robed shoulders and a map of the city floating in front of you, conjured into being by your rapidly developing skills at wielding the innate magic of this world, she stands beside you.
She takes one of your hands into hers, and turns to face you as you do the same.
“Y-you... you don't have to go.”
Written by Jeeves on 23 September 2017
Yes you do
She looks scared. You shake your head.
“Yes. I do.”
The wolf growls in frustration, but squeezes your hand tighter rather than letting go.
“I've been an idiot, this past week. Selfish. I know you didn't choose to replace Serrin. I know you didn't ask for any of this. But I blamed you. I... I acted like you were at fault for taking him away from me. The man I know. The man I love. But this? It's worse. I'm becoming my own worst enemy. Making you leave. Forcing whatever is left of Serrin to go away. F-for all I know... if you leave now, I'll never see him, or you, again.”
You try to reply.
“Lira, I...”
Before any more words can slip through your muzzle though, her hands lets go of yours. Her strong arms reach up and wrap around your neck. She pulls you in close, and kisses you. A kiss so strong, so deep and familiar that for a fraction of a second you forget that it's the first time you've kissed this woman. You forget that you haven't known her and loved her for years, because within that kiss is all of that affection, all of that intimacy, and so much more than you can possibly conceive.
She pulls back after almost half a minute.
Panting.
Weeping.
She stares at you. Expectant. Hoping that maybe somehow a miracle would happen. A fairy-tale ending would come to pass, and you would be restored to your former self. Or rather, Serrin would be restored to his former self, and your mind... goodness only knew where that would end up. Buried. Cast aside. Forgotten, if only he could come back again.
Written by Jeeves on 25 September 2017
A final goodbye
When she sees the shock in your eyes though. The confusion. She knows its still you, and she whimpers as her legs nearly give way, stumbling into your arms as she sobs.
By the time she stops crying, you've started. So sorry, so ashamed and embarrassed to have inadvertently caused all this heartache. As you rise back to your feet with the wolf, you remain quiet. Both of you do.
This is why you have to leave. And now, more than ever, she knows that too.
“I'll be safe. I... I don't know what I'll do, yet. But whatever I do... I won't let any harm come to... well, to me, or to Serrin's body.”
You look out over the city. So beautiful. So vast. So many people within it, all working to share, to give something back to this world that provides for them.
Maybe somewhere out there is a spot for you to give and to share in your own way. Or maybe there's a costume, waiting to whisk you away back to the world you knew, or somewhere entirely different and unique.
You look back to Lira.
“Thank you.”
Without her, you wouldn't have known where to begin in this world. You would probably have gone mad just trying to understand how all of this could be happening.
But thanks to her, you have a chance.
You step forward. You hug her, and she hugs you back.
Then you step back. And back.
And back.
You step off the cliff upon which the temple stands, overlooking the vast magical city beyond. But, you don't fall.
Like the tiny figures floating between the skyscrapers you witnessed on your first day in this wonderful, magical world, you defy gravity with but a thought.
Lira waves as you float away, your tail twitching and your lush fur ruffled by the gentle breeze of your motion. And with a smile, just before you turn to look at the city and find a place to start your journey of self-discovery, you wave back.
Written by Jeeves on 27 September 2017
The end (for now)