All 20.1 - Kind of Neat

As the Gunakadeit shoved off into the water again, leaving the coast near Schlonsberge, Cress milled about the hallways. Everyone was on edge, but that was understandable after what had happened. Still, he couldn't help but try and think about it. He couldn't remember what had gone on during the last two nights when he had apparently been a wolf, except for snatches of emotions. When he woke up though, he'd felt happy. It couldn't have been too bad, to have been a dog; what was it like to be a dog? He considered this deeply, trying to remember something from the event. As he concentrated on this issue, he felt a queer tingly feeling, and it was if his thoughts tried to slip away from him. Mentally clinging to himself, he shook the feeling away, then noticed that he had changed: running to the bathroom to find a mirror, he saw that his body had altered dramatically. His face had shifted to look more canine, in a way: elongated, fanged, and his eyes and nose had taken on a dog-like appearance. His nails had become thick and hard, and white fur-like hair had appeared over much of his body, including along the sides of his face and jaw. His ears looked much like a wolf's, and he appeared to have grown a tail, though the question of how his pants had changed to accomodate this addition didn't cross his mind. That wasn't the only thing though: he could make out smells that he couldn't notice earlier, and he could swear he at least looked stronger. He grinned, and his teeth made the smile look feral. Cress couldn't help but giggle. He ran out to tell the others of his discovery. 
Upon exiting the room and taking a few steps, he crossed paths with Cheko and Virgil. Before he could even make a word, Cheko's eyes went wide and she bolted away towards the command. "Hey wait!" he said, holding out his hand, but she was already gone. Virgil still stood still in the hallway, watching as Cress scratched his head, then became interested in the touch of his ear. The child began laughing, catching Cress' attention.
"You look like you tried to turn into a dog and got stuck halfway," he said between chuckles, making Cress grin.
"Heh, yeah, I guess so," he admitted.
"Did the doctor do it? Oh! Or did you find something cool while you were gone?!" Virgil's eyes lit up. "What didja find?! Didja have to fight a monster?!"
Before Cress could reply, Pierce and Victor ran into the hallway, looking worried. They saw Cress and stopped in their tracks; Pierce looked confused, while Victor made a tight-lipped frown. He called for his son to come, who at first made to argue, but quickly relented when he saw his father was in no mood for contention. With one more look at Cress, he walked dutifully over to his father and went back into the command room with him.
Pierce stayed where he was, looking confused. "What...?" he was at a loss. Gesturing widely, he merely exclaimed again, "What?"
Cress grinned again, "I know, right?"
"Did this just happen, or...?"
Shrugging, Cress replied, "I don't know. I was trying really hard to remember something from when we were wolves, and I was thinking about wolves, and then this happened?"
Pierce raised an eyebrow, "So, it was on purpose then?"
"I guess? Maybe? You try it."
Pierce blanched a bit, "I don't think I..."
"Come on! Don't you wanna know? If you can do it too, it means we all can and it's like, controllable or whatever! Plus it's neat, I can smell, like, everything. Which is kinda gross right now, 'cause everything smells like blood and sweat," he shrugged, "but still."
"Can you change back?" Pierce raised an eyebrow as he asked.
Cress' ears wiggled as he considered that before replying, "...I don't know, I haven't tried."
"Why don't you try to turn back, and if that works, I'll try," Pierce offered. 
"...Ok, I guess so," Cress shrugged. Closing his eyes, he tried concentrating very hard on being a person. After a minute of watching him make faces, Pierce turned to leave. Cress' ears twitched forward and he opened his eyes, "Hey, wait!"
"Let me know if it works, I'm going to go check the monitor system," Pierce said over his shoulder. Frowning, Cress returned to what he was doing. It took nearly 5 minutes, but eventually, Cress felt the peculiar tingling feeling. He vaguely noted that this time he didn't feel like he was mentally slipping, but gave it little mind as he ran to the command room. Pierce was the only one there now, and he looked up and saw the fully-elf Cress standing behind him. He looked to give a slight sigh of relief. 
"Alright, I can turn back. Now you," Cress said. 
"...Well, I guess if we can turn back..." he assented.
"There you go!"
Rolling his eyes at the encouragement, Pierce asked, "What do I do?"
"Think about being a wolf!" Pierce closed his eyes and looked to be concentrating. It took a minute, but Pierce also managed to make the shift, giving him similar fangs, sideburns and tail to Cress earlier, though in the brown shade of his own hair. Inspecting the change with his eyes and hands, Pierce's expression was ambivilant. "Cool, isn't it? You think you're any stronger? I think I was a bit stronger, but I didn't try anything out."
"Cool...probably isn't the word I'd pick..." he replied, looking at his tail. 
"...It's at least a little cool?" he looked hopeful.
Pierce looked at him for a second, then said dryly, "...Well, it could certainly be worse. And there are spells that do weirder things, so..." he shrugged.
"Yeah!" Cress looked pleased.
Pierce wrinkled his nose, "Though I see what you were saying about the smell."
"I know, right?"
"...When you changed, did you feel like you were going to...lose yourself?"
Cress lost his cheerful demeanour for a moment and winced, "A little? It passed, but..."
Making a face of concern, Pierce said, "If it's all the same, I think I'll change back now." 
"Oh, yeah, whatever," Cress said, a bit distractedly, turning to leave, "I'm gonna tell the others, I guess. Probably good to know we can do it, right?" 
"...Yes, probably," Pierce agreed, his eyes shut, looking like he was concentrating.
Cress left the command to the lower level. He stopped at the doctor's room and knocked at the door, "Hey, Doc?" he shouted. 
"Yessss?" his reply was drawn out and sounded a bit agitated. 
"Did you know that if you think about being a wolf, you can turn into a wolf-man?"
There was a long silence from inside before Cohen replied, "...I did not know that. I assume you figured that out from experience?"
"Yeah. Mr. W can do it too. Oh, and we both got this weird feeling when we changed, like we were gonna pass out or something, so yeah, that too?"
His voice was dripping with sarcasm when he finally replied, "...Well, I'll be sure to keep that in mind for when turning into a dog-man becomes relevant."
"Yeah, ok," he ended the conversation relatively politely and turned to leave. Looking around the rest of the boat, he found that Mr. Erzebet and his son had gone into the common room, but the look the man shot him when he went to enter was one whose meaning couldn't be misinterpreted, so he left again immediately. Lucca had climbed into a bed, and rather angrily told him to go away when he entered. Cheko and Carrot were nowhere to be found, and Ryuji was showing Clover around and didn't look like they wanted to be interrupted. With a bit of a frown and a vague loneliness, he went to the storage room and began to do push-ups, lacking anything better to do.
Category:Advent of the All