#slipshape

[cydork]

This guy has 4 pages worth of tagged posts on my blog but no proper introduction, so I'm fixing that now.

This is Gold, the main character of my eventual graphic novel, No Devil Use. He's a cat slipshape (shapeshifter) who's deeply distrusting of most people, a kleptomaniac, a good liar, and a bad judge of character. He gets by via a variety of petty crimes and is in a totally-not-a-relationship with his dealer, Cain. The story follows his No Good Very Bad Time after a person from his past suddenly reappears.

[cydork]

“Rage”

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Even instinctive shifting can express itself differently in different individuals. Kai’s tends to be concentrated in the face, while Gold is a more full body blend.

[cydork]

Slipshapes are named for the fluidity of their shapeshifting, “slipping” from one form to the next. It is inherent and effortless as breathing. Gold demonstrates here by shifting while yawning :) 

[cydork]

Is there a most common type of shifter? Are there more of one species than another, or is it pretty random and evenly distributed?

Not evenly distributed! They don’t spring out of the (non-human) animal population randomly. I have a comic explaining some of the lore, it was absolutely butchered by tumblr when I tried to upload it though. I might resize it and try again... But tl;dr, the first slipshapes arose in early human civilisation for a few main reasons:

To take advantage of that sweet Warmth and Shelter

To avoid persecution by humans

Out of curiosity/love for humans (a la The Little Mermaid)

So that requires the ability to recognise humans as their own beings and willingness, or significant pressure, to leave an animal life behind. I hope that makes sense, haha. Add on the size issue I mentioned here, and that narrows the playing field quite a bit. I can imagine medium to large animals that were heavily persecuted are more common as slipshapes, like coyotes. There’s also simply luck of the draw. Using coyotes again, maybe there were more of them, but they’re tracked down as humans too. Meanwhile, another animal is more lowkey, evades, has kids, etc. So I can’t really give a good answer about commonality ^^” 

Recapping the lore also made me think about octopuses. I feel like they’re happy being octopuses, but on the other hand, are also extremely curious and apparently petty. I can see an aquarium octopus turning into a human out of sheer spite to #prank the volunteer who didn’t give them their favourite food. 

[cydork]

I really love the worldbuilding for NDU. :) I was wondering- what would happen to a shifter with a disability/deformity? Such as a lost limb, scoliosis, etc. (I have the latter, and i was just interested lol)

Aw thank you :)

First of all, same 🤝 To answer your question, they keep that disability in both forms. A shifter with scoliosis would turn into an animal with scoliosis; pretty much any animal with a spine can have it, even snakes!

If their animal form doesn’t have a spine, then they wouldn’t have it. The octopuses are safe.

For things like missing body parts, it gets a bit more complicated. It depends on whether the animal form has a homologous body part, and how that body part is used. A bird shifter with a missing arm would be missing the wing on the same side, but if they were missing a finger, they’d still have a full wing since all the “fingers” are fused anyway. A lizard shifter missing the end of their tail would be unaffected as a human, since we only have the base vertebrae left. Going back to the octopus, a shifter with no limbs as a human would have all eight limbs as an octopus, since their tentacles evolved from a muscular foot, which has no homologue in humans. Maybe the abs? I’m really reaching here haha.

Also, injuries can’t be healed by shifting. In fact, shifting with a fresh wound can actually make it worse. I’ve considered extremely bad injuries locking a shifter in a particular form, or at least making it very difficult/risky to shift anymore.

tl;dr if a shifter has a condition affecting a body part/system that both forms have, both forms will have that condition. Shifting cannot heal.