Shifters

A series of stories about shape shifters

• Shifters have two (or, in rare cases, more) sets of DNA that they can choose between to express themselves
  • Interspecies mating usually results in a miscarriage as the two alter species DNA can't merge
  • In rare cases, merging doesn't happen and you end up with a shifter with two alter forms
  • In really rare cases, the human DNA doesn't merge, and you end up with a shifter with two human forms, each one a clone of one of the parents
  • They can also select the other gender if they want
  • Shifting is not possible when pregnant, however this block does not happen for a few days after conception. Shifting during those few days effectively terminates the pregnancy
    • This can happen with same alter-species mating as well, but is even rarer then
• Higher brain functions remain the same and don't morph, but lower ones are encoded in the DNA for things like muscle coordination
• A Shifter is not able to shift until they reach full human maturity around 25 years old.
  • When they do shift, the form is reset to the genetic form - in particular, fixing any aging or injury
    • This makes Shifters effectively immortal - no natural death and difficult to kill
    • Normal humans can't be infected, so human/shifter relationships are problematic, which means, of course, a gay human/shifter couple will be the primary characters
  • Mass is conserved, so if, say a human shifts to an eagle, it's a very large eagle, conversely, a bear would be a small bear
  • While a fat shifter stays fat, shifting takes a lot of energy and generally, there aren't fat shifters
• Nudity taboos are silly in general, and unworkable for shifters
  • It can be dangerous to shift while clothed if the clothes are stronger than the form being shifted to, e.g. birds and their light bones
  • Shifter communities masquerade as highly exclusive nudist communities
• Work out how they keep the secret as it's bound to leak out over time
  • opening story line has mundane see a shifter gay bashed who shifts to an owl and flies away to escape
    • they are destined to become the gay couple protagonists
• Predator/Prey shifter types conflict?

• Shifting Worlds