LIKE I WAS | power discovery | SOMEONE ELSE

[ophelia.]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 65%; line-height:120%; text-align: justify;font-family: verdana;"]Soft morning light poured in from the window of her small home, and Ophelia let out a groan as she turned her head to cover her eyes with a paw. The warmth of her frame was nice, comforting, and she was much too tired to get up just yet. It'd been a while since she'd slept so soundly. Barely aware of it, she shifted her wings to- Nothing moved. That caught her attention, and her eyes fluttered open. She was still lacking a certain awareness, but she knew something was off now. Her gaze moved to her side, where her wing... wasn't there. Instead, she had smooth fur, much lighter than it normally was.

Startled, she shot up, stumbling as she tried to adjust to the length of her legs. Her paws were too big, her legs too long, her nose too long, her body... What? Scrambling a bit as she adjusted, she tried not to panic yet as she moved to the mirror she had placed in her home on shaky legs. This wasn't bad, it was just different, and she was different, and... Oh, god, what was going on? Her eyes looked at a body that most definitely didn't look like her own, and she swallowed thickly. Before her was the image of a dog, a german shepherd.

At least her eyes still looked the same, or at least they were the same color, and she was very thankful that she took her choker off before she went to sleep. It could have choked her if she was still wearing it at this size. Oh dear... She'd definitely have to get a new one, one that had a longer chain on the back to adjust to bigger forms. Being without one on made her feel even more upset and odd.

Getting the hang of it now, she moved toward her door, swallowing down the intense discomfort she felt. Did she have a power? That was the only explanation, wasn't it? Could she shapeshift? So caught up in her thoughts, the newly changed canine barely paid attention to her surroundings as she walked through the town toward the newly formed mess hall to get something in her stomach. The fridge there had a lot of food put away, some if it her own making, and eating might help calm her down a bit. Hopefully.

She must have been quite the sight, a dog with the heavy scent of Tanglewood in her fur but being no one that anyone here would recognize, face scrunched up in discontent thought as she padded along.

[toboggan]

Honestly, nothing made sense anymore. Half of Tanglewood had practically died off since the day he called the contaminated glade his home. That one spider he was terrified of? Gone. Medic-boy and his angelic, food-critiquing love interest? Out of the picture. That fact did not cooperate well with the other reality of the little to zero amount of joiners this place had in the last month. Soon, the swamp dwellers were going to go extinct, unless they got absorbed by another group or something similar. Morgan was doing good so far, but assuming that the group’s population continues to dwindle, that pup wouldn’t have much of an operation to run, would he?

Ophelia did a goddamn swell job the mess hall, it’s been attracting people. Attracting attractive people that he did not know. He hadn’t seen her around before, though she sure smelled of it. And those eyes, those two blue beauties - they seemed awfully familiar. How could he have missed this broad’s enrolment into the clan? He’d been committing a lot of time to looking out for potential joiners along the border, so, out of everyone, it would’ve been him to say hello to her. He missed his chance that day, but it looked like there was still a chance- it was just her, him, his awesome pick up lines, and that fridge.

"Baby, as long ‘s you’ve got those curves, I’ve got the edges," Leroy coquetted dashingly, his eyes set on getting the stranger’s name. ”If tha’ ain’t your thing, I know a good place t’ sit down an’ talk. I’m Leroy, haven’t seen you ‘round here before”. Yet, he felt that he had. Just something about her headlights. That scent, too, whew it was strikingly similar.

Oh wait.

[ophelia.]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 65%; line-height:120%; text-align: justify;font-family: verdana;"]At the sound of Leroy's voice, her head lifted almost immediately, a little relieved to see her friend during such a turbulent time. Surely, she could talk to him about this and- Oh. As she actually listened to what he was saying, she very easily understood that he didn't recognize her. And that he was flirting with her. Oh. She'd never... had something like this happen before. As much as she didn't understand the way romantic advances normally worked, she couldn't miss the tone and intention in the way he was speaking now if she tried.

Laughing uncomfortably, a knee-jerk reaction that she couldn't stop herself from, she took one small step back. Thankfully, she wasn't nearly as clumsy now as she had been when she'd woken up, and she managed not to stumble. Heat was prickling under her pelt, but it wasn't... bad. It was just as surprising to realize that she didn't mind being flirted with as it was that she was being flirted with in the first place.

"I do think you've seen me around quite a bit, actually." she managed, tilting her head ever so slightly as she returned her gaze to his expression. She struggled for a second to think of something to say to him. It would be incredibly difficult to make this not awkward, so she settled for at least making an attempt at normalcy. "Good morning, Leroy. It's good to know that this new form is... easy on the eyes." She cleared her throat, then, a soft ahem in the relative quiet around them. Her gaze flicked away, moving back toward the fridge, clumsily opening it with one of her too-large paws. "Right. Well... Breakfast?"

[VIGENERE CIPHER.]

[ophelia.]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 65%; line-height:120%; text-align: justify;font-family: verdana;"]The sound of Vigenere's voice pulled her out of the awkward tension that had been built around her, and her ears pricked up. Where had he come from? How did he automatically know what was going on when even Leroy had mistaken her for a stranger? The questions rattled around in her head, but she pushed them down for the time being. It was good that he intuitively knew these things, and it didn't matter how he knew. Maybe he'd be able to help her, if only a bit.

"No." she murmured, still leaning toward the fridge. She collected a bag filled with roasted meat, carrying it to one of the counters and pulling down plates before continuing. "I, quite literally, woke up like this. I... have no idea how to control this power, but I'm sure I can figure it out, in time, and it will be a great asset to me and to Tanglewood. I figure I will just have to practice, tone it like a muscle. It surely can't prove more difficult than learning to fly. Right..?"

[toboggan]

From there on in, he’d allow his actions to speak. For, one, Ophelia had taken on the appealing form of a dusty canine, and two, the words that scarcely escaped that maw of his weren’t mere compliments. Shocked at the realization of what just transpired, the gray canine stammered, something about him being sorry, in addition with how he couldn’t help himself. Shaggy cheeks warmed with embarrassment, he’d dart his head to the opposite direction, and exclaim "Wow!". How foolish of him not to absorb what was happening beforehand. The situation made perfect sense now that he thought of it clearly - new face with familiar features, and an absence of the black feline. And, it was because of his pruriency for fooling around that Leroy forthrightly philandered the one person he was actually mature to, especially after just recently confessing how he truly felt about their relationship a short whiles ago.

This, the new apparent body, as well as the situation he had gotten into surrounding it, would get interesting.

Hailing Vigenere’s presence with a flustered rise to the brow, he’d face his fellow canine cohort square in the exact same eyes she bore as a feline. ”Now I ain’t doll dizzy or anythin’ ‘bout you, ‘kay? Don’t go thinkin’ that. I was jus’ conveyin’ that you were lookin’ very pleasant right now - not that you didn’t before, - shit.” Broad shoulders suddenly hunched as an unshorn neck stooped towards the ground, his face wincing at his failure of not being able to mellowly speak his mind. She wasn’t going to forget about this anytime soon.

”Seein’ that I’m a large mutt and you’re one too, now, I suppose I coul’ offer some help, if ya need any”, Leroy offered in response to the yellow feline’s inquiry, conjointly to Ophelia’s following statement. The time she would stay in this body was undefined, then. It could be gone in a week, a month, or possible never. Perhaps she could grasp the ability to shift forms? Regardless, he figured that getting used to a new body like this might get uncomfortable, which was why he was here, as one of the few canines in Tanglewood, to help. Morgan was also an option, if Ophelia truly wished to not be flirted with again...

[arrow]

[color=#208030]"Smooth moves, Romeo. D'you think you can schedule me a class in top tier flirting?" Arrow called from the sidelines, snorting after watching all the events prior go down. Although, even as she gave him shit, Leroy wasn't half bad at hitting someone up. The greaser boy had a charming way of speaking.

Now she knew she shouldn't be harassing the poor dude, and lord knows her existence was horrendously annoying to all members of Tanglewood involved, but she would never turn down a chance for some company and social interaction. Hell, she was having withdrawls after being cooped up so long. Finally, her brain organ had decided to stop cockblocking her happiness and general mental health. Well, it was back to it's prior state.

Arrow observed Ophelia's new form from beside Leroy, trotting up with a cheerful purr rumbling in her throat. [color=#208030]"Aw man, a dog too? Tsk tsk, I feel betrayed over at Fort Cat. I'll be smaller than all of you at this rate. Hey, can you hand me some breakfast, pretty please?"

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