TRP: Ba'ob and Ombre (Polymorph)

**Izzy:**

 [SETTING: After Candynight. I got nothin' else on
chronology. It's fine.]

Butterscotch the fox finished having a very good nap in
Azriel's house, curled up on a cushion in the sun with Lockjaw. She stretched
and nudged him awake as well, and the pair hopped off the couch and trotted,
shoulder to shoulder, for the door, passing by Ba'ob and Wolfy on the way.
Butterscotch glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then stared at
the door for second.

It popped open. The foxes dashed outside, leaving it open
behind them, and nipped at each other and tussled into the back garden. They
dawdled for a moment, then made for the gate -- and beyond it, the forest
outside of Skyport, strolling along with a completely carefree, oblivious air.

When they'd made it some ways into the forest, they stopped
by a stream, and Butterscotch stretched her front legs out in front of her --
then shifted onto her hind legs as she grew much taller and resumed her
humanoid kitsune form. Ombre kept stretching her arms above her and onto
tip-toe, yawning. She sat down next to the stream, and the fox that Jasper had
endearingly dubbed Lockjaw curled up on her lap. She sighed contentedly and
looked out over the stream. It was just nice to get back into the right body,
sometimes.

**Muse:**

 Houses were BORING. Too many walls, too much stuff. Had to
be so careful or else something broke. Not that Ba'ob cared.

...Azriel might though when he found the scattered pieces of
some vase that got busted when Ba'ob was tussling with the wolf. So, Ba'ob
figured he'd go ahead and take off for a little while, let things blow over,
and then show up and pretend he had no idea what was going on. (Never mind that
the mud and pawprints would probably reveal who's fault it was. He was the
tracker here, Azriel was soft and musical. It'd be fine.)

So he took off. The door was open, for some reason, and
Ba'ob was just in time to see the two foxes disappearing out the gate. Good
plan, better plan than wrestling around in the house. Ba'ob followed them, the
foxes were fun to play with. But by the time he'd caught up, Buttersco- the
orange one was looking different. Stretching and growing and- almost looking
person-shaped?

He stayed put, watching for a breif moment. Quiet and enthralled.
She was- really pretty. All person-shaped and- and looking so soft and tails.
Nine of them! And three were a different, silvery color. Ba'ob wanted to touch
her. With a gesture he told the wolf to stay put, and slowly crept up. Tails
were closest. Slowly, he reached out, and gently petted one of the silvery
colored ones.

**Izzy:**

 Ombre had closed her eyes, totally convinced that no one had
followed her and her scam was still completely in place. Regular fox. She could
scope out Skyport like this, make sure it was really safe. Until then, the
little gang of ragamuffins she'd ended up hanging out with were pretty good
company.

That one, though, with the wolf? He was sneaky.

She yipped at the touch and jumped to her feet, spinning around.
Oh. Oh no. Uhh. Too late to shift back. Had he seen her? Oh no. If he hadn't
maybe she could convince him that she had nothing to do with Butterscotch The
Extremely Ordinary Fox, but ... well, she was holding Lockjaw in her arms,
still.

"Uhh." Her tails waved indecisively. "Hey,
man. Whatcha doin'." Smooth.

**Muse:**

 Ba'ob stared. Even her voice was pretty. Even making
people-sounds. "Following you," he said. Edged a little closer,
reaching for her arm. She was really soft too. "You changed. Was little.
Now," he gestured up, indicating her big self.

**Izzy:**

 She couldn't help grinning a bit. Aw. She really liked Ba'ob
-- he was weird, and sweet with her and Lockjaw and his wolf. It figured he
wouldn't think this was crazy.

"Yeah." She dragged the word out and slowly
crossed her legs to sit back down. She felt kind of bad looking down at him.
"Sorry I didn't show you before. It's a secret, 'kay?"

**Muse:**

 "Kay," Ba'ob agreed, sitting down next to her. And
then scooting a liiiiiittle closer. His heart was thumping in his chest. Too
fast, too loud, but he didn't care. "Good with secrets," he said,
reaching and resting his hand on her arm. Playing with the fur a little.
"I have secrets," he said. Grinning a little, feeling kinda giddy.

**Izzy:**

 She glanced down at him playing with her fur. Yeah, people
tended to be like that. Not a lot of kitsune around anymore, she'd noticed. She
bet he was just a fan 'cause he clearly liked furry animals better than people.

She flicked one of her tails forward to tickle his face.
"Easy to have secrets when you don't talk a lot, huh?"

**Muse:**

 Ba'ob felt some- noise coming out of him. Laughter, he
realized. This was actually nice. He grinned and grabbed the tail, hugging it
to his chest. "Yup," he agreed. "Tell you one though," he
said impulsively.

**Izzy:**

 Ombre laughed. She hadn't seen him get like this with the
rest of his gang. She shifted to put a couple other tails in range of his
cuddles, because that was really adorable. No one in the last group had wanted
to cuddle her.

Then she leaned in conspiratorially. "'Kay. Tell
me," she whispered, hugging Lockjaw against her chest.

**Muse:**

 Oh wait. Ba'ob had secrets for a reason. He wavered- not
really wanting to say any of his secrets. But he did have something he could
say. He only kept hold of the one tail and leaned forwards, so he could whisper
in her ear. "You pretty."

And then promptly fled back to the bushes and buried his
face in the wolf's neck. That was the worst secret why had he said that. His
heart was racing.

**Izzy:**

 He seemed to falter for a second, there, and Ombre's ears
flicked in concern. She had a lot of secrets, and now that she thought about
it, a lot of them weren't fun to share. Maybe he'd gotten a little starstruck by
seeing something he'd never seen before and said something he hadn't meant to
--

Oh. Aww. And he scurried away, clearly embarrassed, and she
had to cover her face with Lockjaw (who dangled from her hands placidly)
because she didn't want him to think she was laughing at him or anything. If
she'd been in her human form, she'd've bit her lip to keep it in check.

Instead, she composed herself, like an adult would do, and
lowered the fox again to solemnly state, "You're right. I am very pretty.
Don't tell anyone."

Then she let Lockjaw go, giving him a spell and a silent
command, and he trotted over to Ba'ob to bump his nose against Ba'ob's knee,
the mage hand she'd whispered to him ruffled Ba'ob's hair. She grinned.

**Muse:**

 Ba'ob jumped, looking around wildly for the phantom touch.
Pretty fox lady was over there, nobody else that had hands was around. He made
a distressed noise, clinging to the wolf. She didn't seem bothered, giving him
a couple licks.

**Izzy:**

 Ombre tilted her head. A few of Ba'ob's friends had magic,
but now that she thought about it, none of them seemed to have fun with it. She
guessed he wasn't used to such things. Well, that wouldn't do. She snapped her
fingers and summoned up little dancing lights like friendly will-o-wisps all
around them, then blinked out of place and reappeared closer to him.

"Just magic," she said brightly, and mimed the
same motion with her actual hand as the mage hand tousled his hair again.

**Muse:**

 Magic? Ba'ob flinched again when he felt the magic hand
ruffling his hair. "Stop," he whined, rubbing at his wrist. Didn't
like this. Liked having distance, when he wanted it. Didn't like magic being
able to cross it.

**Izzy:**

 "Aw." She dismissed the spectral hand and the
lights with a wave of her hand, and Lockjaw padded back over to her. She could
dismiss him, too, but Ba'ob probably didn't even realize that he was magic. He
crawled back into her lap and she petted him idly. "I don't use magic to
hurt people," she assured Ba'ob. "It's just for fun. It's just
tricks."

**Muse:**

 Ba'ob took a second, resting his hand against the wolf. The
giddy, excited rush that he'd gotten caught up in had broken when she'd used
her magic. But he could feel it coming back. "Lights were okay," he
said, edging back towards her. "No magic hand."

**Izzy:**

 "Gotcha." She snapped her fingers to bring them
back and gave him a thumbs up, then edged closer like he had -- close enough to
swish one of her tails at him again.

**Muse:**

 Lights were pretty. Wolf started chasing one, playfully
attempting to bite it. Ba'ob grinned, and eyed the swishing tail. Why not then?
He pounced, hugging it to his chest again. "Gochta!" He could feel
his grin getting wider, and face getting hotter. Felt weird. Didn't really want
it to stop.

**Izzy:**

 Ombre brightened. She hadn't meant to freak him out with the
mage hand thing, just mess with him a bit. He was pretty easy to win back over,
at least. She tried to think of some other spells she knew that he might like
-- she'd seen the little bard entertaining him with music and prestidigitation
and illusions, and she was much better at illusions, but she was a little
worried that she'd do something too elaborate and he might not realize they
were illusions.

She did have one idea, though.

"Hey, hey." She flipped a couple other tails at
him, both because watching him eyeball them like a cat was adorable, and
because maybe she really liked the attention. She kinda wanted to just scoop
him up and carry him around, the way she did Lockjaw. "You saw how I can
be a fox? I can be a human, too. Aaand --" she grinned -- "I could
make you be something else, too, if you wanted. Just for a little while."

**Muse:**

 Ba'ob had already pounced on the flicking tails and was
adding them to his armful when Ombre offered her new idea. He froze, staring at
her with wide eyes over a bushel of fur. Be something else? Like she could?
Ba'ob glanced over at the wolf, still playing with one of the lights. Could be
like her. For a little while.

"Her?" he asked, jerking his head towards the
wolf. "Wolves nice," he added, quieter.

**Izzy:**

 Yes. She knew she'd be able to come up with some other magic
he'd like, and she kind of wished she had someone to crow 'called it' to over
him picking a wolf. Okay, that one hadn't been difficult, to be fair.

She batted him in the face with another tail. "You
betcha. And if you don't like it I can just turn you back, okay?" She
didn't think that was very likely, she just wanted him to know it was an
option.

**Muse:**

 Ba'ob wrinkled his nose and playfully nipped at the tail as
it whisked away. Tickled. Was kinda nice though. "Okay," he agreed,
nodding. Didn't think he'd take it, but was nice she told him. "How
do?" he asked, figuring he'd better let her tails go if she was gonna
magic him. Didn't really want to, so he gave 'em a bit of a squeeze before
letting go. Maybe she'd let him squeeze her once magics was done. That'd be
nice.

**Izzy:**

 Ombre had a brief moment of wondering if this was actually a
good idea, then shrugged it off. Nah. What was the worst that could happen? The
spell would wear off on its own in about an hour. He couldn't get in that much
trouble in an hour.

She shifted a little, arranging her tails to wave behind her
as if there were a breeze, then made a fist in front of her mouth and blew on
it. It was all showmanship -- all she really had to do was look at him and
murmur a word. But she liked the show, and she thought he might, too. She
summoned up little illusory cherry blossom petals inside her fist, and opened
it up to blow them towards him, sending them swirling around him as she cast
the actual polymorph spell.

The transformation was fast, and she let the flower petals
drop and melt into the ground, grinning at the new wolf and opening her arms in
a gesture that said eh? what do you think? 'Course, he couldn't talk, now, but
he barely did anyway.

**Muse:**

 Ba'ob watched in awe and fascination as- Butterscotch?-
summoned up her magics. It looked complicated. He reached out, swiping at the
petals as they blew towards him, and felt the spell take hold. Changing was-
strange. Didn't hurt, just a brief moment of utter wrongness as his body
twisted into something new, and then it was over. And he was a wolf.

Ba'ob was a wolf! With actual paws, and a tail, and fur and-
and everything! He could feel his ears perking up as he ran in a circle, trying
to get a look at himself. Grey fur, smaller than he'd expected, but he was a
wolf!

Ba'ob charged over to the fox-lady, jumping up and licking
her face several times over. The happy barks were so much easier coming out of
this throat! Being a wolf was awesome!

**Izzy:**

 Ombre laughed in delight and scritched his ears, wrinkling
her nose a little at the licking. Perfect. This was exactly what she'd wanted
-- he was such a happy wolf boy now, and it was infectious.

**Muse:**

 Ba'ob jumped down, bounding over to show the other wolf. He
barreled into her, barking excitedly.

She didn't take it well. Growled at him, even. It was like
she- didn't recognize him. Oh. Ba'ob whined, crouching down apologetically.
Tried to tell her. "It's me, it's Ba'ob. It's your silly pup." But
this throat couldn't form words. It left him crawling towards her, whining.
Standing right in front of her while she looked around for him. Didn't like
this.

He whined more, finally getting her to allow him to
approach. She sniffed him over, studied him, whined more. The magic connecting
them was still strong, but everything else was saying this was not Ba'ob. It
took her a minute, but slowly, she realized. This was still Ba'ob, just Ba'ob
in wolf form. She didn't like it. Her ears pinned back and she whined, pawing
at Ba'ob.

This wasn't right. Ba'ob hadn't even been a wolf five
minutes and it was already going wrong. Ba'ob licked the wolf, trying to
reassure her, but it didn't seem to work. He glanced at fox-lady, not sure what
to do.

**Izzy:**

 Oh -- this was one of those things she probably should have
thought ahead about. "Uhh." She held up a finger and reached into the
little bag on her hip, pulling out a book and flipping through it quickly.
Nope. For someone who could turn into a fox, she didn't have anything about
communicating with animals. She knew Ba'ob could, but -- not when he was one.
Polymorph didn't work that way.

"Uhh," she said again, very wisely. She stowed her
spellbook and looked at the wolf. It probably understood a little Common,
right? Just from exposure? She put on a soothing voice. "Hey, it's okay.
It's still him. I can turn him back."

She looked at Ba'ob doubtfully. He'd been so happy to be a
wolf.

**Muse:**

 Ba'ob glanced from the wolf to the fox-lady. Wolf was upset.
Fox-lady's words helped, a little. She stopped pawing at Ba'ob at least, and
slunk away towards the bushes where she simply watched instead.

This wasn't worth it. Ba'ob pawed at the fox-lady's leg,
whining. Hopefully she'd understand.

**Izzy:**

 Aw. This hadn't gone well at all. Ombre pulled a face. Maybe
some other time, when the wolf wasn't around to be weird about it -- but in the
time she'd been with these guys, it didn't seem like Ba'ob was apart from the
wolf that much. But it'd made him so happy, for a minute there.

She sighed. She'd think about this some more. Maybe there
was a way to make it work. For now, she closed her eyes and tugged the spell
off of Ba'ob, no theatrics to it this time because she was too glum. She was
too out of practice with this stuff, and out of step with modern people -- and,
apparently, with modern wolves. But he was back to being an elf again, so
hopefully that would make his friend happy, at least.

**Muse:**

 This time there was no fanfare, just a brief moment of ohnowhat'shappening
and then Ba'ob was himself again. Two legs, two hands, pointy ears- metal cuff
on one wrist. Elf.

He sagged to the ground, just as an excited wolf barreled over
and knocked him down, licking him over and over and over. Ba'ob didn't even put
in a token protest, just let her. Waiting till she calmed down a little before
sitting up and giving her a hug, burying his face in her fur. Was nice, even
for the few minutes it had lasted. But maybe- maybe they could try again. Some
other time.

**Izzy:**

 While the wolf attacked Ba'ob with affection, Ombre shrank
into herself, shifting back to her single-tailed, normal-looking fox form. That
was just ... easier, sometimes. She glanced at Lockjaw and the two of them
padded up to Ba'ob, fixing him with identical stares from tilted heads.

Ear scritches, the stare demanded.

**Muse:**

 Ba'ob kinda missed fox-lady form. She was prettier like
that. But he smiled a little at the two foxes and obediently reached out,
giving them the pets they demanded. Being an elf- well- it wasn't what he'd
chose but he'd made it work. Maybe though, he considered, batting lightly at an
orange tail, maybe he'd see if his new friend could teach him a few tricks.

[END]