Shifting Worlds V1
NOTE: early version before world rules were developed
Alex Cartwright took one last look around the Eagle before deciding to call it a night. A clothing optional gay bar in Portland, it was his favorite hangout, but Thursday nights were quiet, and he didn't see anyone he knew, or had a hankering to get to know, tonight. He'd mainly come for the chance to shoot some pool without heavy competition for the table and space around it, and hadn't really paid much attention to the clientele. Downing the last of his root beer, having switched from alcohol an hour or so ago before heading home, he put on his clothes and headed out.
Almost immediately after leaving the din of the bar, he heard what sounded like a scuffle from the back, in the shadows. This didn't sound good, and he ran around to see what was going on. What he found was every gay man's worst nightmare: two rough looking men with swastikas on their shirts kicking another man laying on the ground, his shirt ripped off and pants pulled down. Alex immediately pulled out his cell phone and called 911 while blowing on the whistle he kept in a pocket for exactly this situation, though he hoped he'd never need it. Unfortunately, rather than scaring them off, they focused their attention on him and started for him.
"Another fucking faggot whose ass we can kick!" yelled one of them.
With their attention on Alex, and their backs to the man on the ground, they didn't see what Alex couldn't believe he was seeing: the man on the ground blurred, and suddenly became a large - very large - owl. With a couple of wing beats, the owl took to the air and, using its sharp talons, clawed at the heads of the attackers. The attack was brief, but successful, as the human attackers broke and ran, and the owl flew off into the night, after making a low pass and grabbing the clothes it had been wearing in its human form.
It took a stunned Alex a few moments to realize that his call to 911 had gone through as they kept asking "what is the nature of your emergency? Hello?" He responded, "Sorry, they've gone now so there's nothing to report." Although stunned, he knew there was no way he was going to get anyone to believe what he'd seen and hung up. Looking over where the attack had happened, Alex saw something white standing out. When he went over to check it out, he found a white sneaker, which, when he picked up and checked it over, turned out to have "HW" written in permanent marker on the inside. "So, will I be able to find my Cinderfella?", he mused.
Knowing that the victim was likely a patron of the bar, Alex resolved to become a more frequent visitor, as he had many questions, and a shoe to fill.
---
Jim Wiseman, known as Hoot to his friends, particularly those in his Shifter community, knew he'd been stupid to go into the shadows behind the bar to shift, but flying was so much easier than trying to find parking. He thanked his lucky stars that hot young man had come around just in time to distract the neonazi assholes enough for him to Shift, having the dual effect of healing him and giving him weapons to drive off the scumbags. Unfortunately, that meant he'd had to Shift in full view of a mundane. This was not going to go over well if The Powers That Be found out. So he'd just have to make sure they never found out.
Now he had a dilemma - stay away until everyone forgot him, or go back and make sure the HYM wasn't telling tales, not that anyone was likely to believe him. Still, it wouldn't do for stories like that to get around. He'd better keep an eye on the place, but be more careful about his surroundings and leave with other groups. And, dammit, find that other shoe he'd dropped!
---
The next night, being a Friday night, was much busier, and since he'd not gotten a very good look at the owl-man, Alex wasn't sure what he was looking for, or how he'd find it in the crowd. He'd left the shoe in his clothes bag, with his own clothes, just in case though. He was chatting with Jerry, a friend of his, when Jerry looked up at the door and said "That's an interesting do..." Looking over, Alex saw a small, but reasonably fit, 25ish man stopping at the clothes check and stripping. His hair was an interesting mottled mix of sandy blonde and dark brown. With a shock, he realized that the coloration looked an awful lot like the coloring of the owl-man's feathers as he'd flown off. He said to Jerry, "I think that's a guy I saw last night, I think I'll chat him up tonight." "You go girl!", Jerry responded, and went off to get another drink.
Alex watched Hoot check his clothes, head over to the bar to get a drink, and then look around the bar. He quickly took a drink before he got caught watching, but when he looked up, he saw the guy heading for his table.
"Hello" Hoot greeted Alex, who responded, "I guess I don't need to take your shoe around to see who it fits. I'm Alex". "You found my shoe? Good, that was a fairly expensive new pair I wasn't looking forward to replacing. I'm Jim, but my friends call me Hoot. What gave it away?"
"Your hair looks an awful lot like something I saw last night."
"Ahhh yes, that. We do need to talk about it, but this is probably not the best place to discuss it."
"I'm guessing you didn't drive either." "Nope", Hoot replied with a smile.
"That's OK, I did, and my car should be private enough for that discussion."
"Well, I just got my clothes off, and I'd rather not put them back on right away, how about you tell me a bit about yourself while we at least finish these drinks?"
...
Hoot realizes 24yr old Alex is about to emerge as a shifter and takes him hiking to a remote wilderness lake, advising him to pack very light - <10kg. They have sex so Alex becomes both an otter shifter and an owl shifter - the 10kg limit was so they could fly out, though he doesn't tell Alex that beforehand.
--
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