Species Reflection: Shapeshifter
Evangeline spent much of her life unable to embrace her Shapeshifter qualities. As a baby, her parents were made quickly aware of what she was due to her unending appetite. But as lowly Ones, they had no means to provide for her and with her blindness, doubly so. She’d never survive. So they abandoned her. That’s what Eva’s been told, anyway. She remembers their leaving, a series of feelings, scents, voices. They left her nothing.
Much of Club saw Eva and did their best to help, but most couldn’t take in a blind, half-starved Shifter who couldn’t even shift. As she grew older, Evangeline became more frustrated, angry, lost. She knew what she was, but couldn’t reach that side of her. She understood nothing of what it meant to be a Shapeshifter, let alone how to become one. She had an identity, a history, that she’d thought she’d never be able to access.
Eva will never admit it, but before Prospero, she had a crisis of identity. If she was a Shifter who couldn’t do what others of her kind could…was she really a Shifter? Or was she simply human? Was she meant to be at the bottom in every way? That thought had sent her into a fury that cause her to jump into a fight she could never win and a scar that would remind her of her foolishness.
Just when Evangeline expected her life to remain as it was, Prospero appeared. She remembers how he smelled, what he sounded like, the persistence he showed in gaining her trust. Eva could laugh now. She thought she had no Shifter in her and yet her hard-to-earn trust and instinctual fight mode were there in full-form in the face of a man she’d never met who seemed adamant about giving her everything.
It was a new experience. Being a Shapeshifter in her true glory. Evangeline could remember the nights spent agonizing over what animals to pick all while her adoptive father grumbled and groaned about her indecisiveness. Prospero had been patient, though, despite all his complaints. Eva had questioned him relentlessly about Shapeshifters and while he didn’t have all the answers, the Spade did the best he could to find them for her. So when the day arrived that Evangeline Santiago could shift into a bat, she was ready if not a tad nervous.
Eva wishes she could relive that experience again. The feeling of finally finding herself. It was like the Shapeshifter in her was saying welcome home. After much screeching and flying and trying to figure out how echolocation worked, Eva was human again, but this time she felt powerful, hopeful. Like she could take on the world and win.
It was also not practical. Eva knew she couldn’t go around with bat wings or a wolf’s tail or armadillo armor just because. But after exploring the various qualities of her animals, Eva knew that she could put them to good use in her daily life. It took months, years to perfect, but Eva did it. Bat ears constantly presented so her hearing was second to none, little changes in her nose so she could have the olfactory senses of a wolf, and only using her armadillo skin if she needed to fight or avoid being hurt by a wall.
Finally, Eva was a true Shapeshifter. It was all thanks to Prospero. He helped her find her confidence, her identity. All of it and not just a piece of it. For Eva, being a Shapeshifter means being herself.