From: tim@mik.uky.edu (timothy c huesman)
Subject: +obadu becomes +obadu [inn] 
Keywords: +obadu phu Inn Indigo stick figure Examniner
Summary: +obadu transforms to look more like a phu
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 08:34:44 GMT

    +obadu who is a tracker knew pleasure.  The seaman had sent for broth
 for him to drink.  +obadu prepared himself for the nourishment as Mary
 brought the broth in a cup.  This would not be easy.  None of the phu
 within memory had reabsorbed and reshaped their own body tissue to the
 degree that +obadu had, thus it was as though +obadu were breaking new
 ground.  He began to make changes within himself which quickly became
 visble.
    One of the hands on the stick figure began receding into its stalk
 and over the following twenty minutes the stalk itself disappeared
 completely into the torso.  At the same time the other handstalk
 lengthened and, reaching up to the head, pressed upon the tissure below
 the nostril slits.  A hole appeared at the point of presure though no
 fluid issued forth.  Five minutes after the stalk had fully receded,
 the tissue around the facial 'hole' began to thicken and a sphincter
 took shape.  The stick figure lifted the now cold cup of broth with
 the three-fingered hand that remained.  Gingerly the cup was raised
 over the sphincter and tipped so that a few drops trickled into the
 opening.  The hand lowered and the spincter closed.  This process
 was repeated every few minutes until the broth was emptied.
    The outer tissues of the stick figure that were not covered in
 chitin took on a lighter hue and the hand signalled for more broth.
 As it was brought, the hand pushed the second pearl toward Mary
 (she had taken the first as payment) but Mary ignored it as there
 was still plenty of credit left from the first pearl.  The stick 
 figure consumed this cup much more quickly than the first and the
 reason was evident as the torso began to thicken and then lengthen.
 When Mary brought the third, larger cup, the stick figure emptied the
 whole of it into the small sphincter and the front of the torso 
 swelled to contain it.  The changes in the stick figure became rapid.
    All but a slender vertical band of chitin disappeared into the long
 legs of the stick figure and it sat to relieve the weight of the now
 heavier torso.  As if on cue, the legs shortened rapidly, decreasing 
 from ten feet in length to approximately three.  The softer leg tissue
 began increasing and closing around the vertical band of chitin which
 also was thickening and taking a cylindrical shape.
    At that point, one of the bar patrons, who had enough phu ancestry
 to have heard the legends of the phu, gasped.  He remained only long 
 enough to see the barely covered brainpan thicken and grow taller.
 He knew that soon this creature, who had entered the Dragon's Inn
 looking more like a giant insect, would soon appear quite human, 
 though the grey caste to the skin would remain.  The bar patron,
 knowing where his loyalties lay, and hoping to get sufficient monies
 to buy a lay, rushed off to the Generican Examiner to sell the news.
 Little did he realize that a representative of the Examiner was 
 already here and was watching the slow transformation between hands
 of a game of chance.  Nonetheless, few in the bar would realize that
 this monstrosity would appear human in a few hours.
    
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  Doc  Pan       tim@mik.uky.edu          Tim  Huesman