Chapter 28 ~ Scripting

Name: Giraffe
Shape: neck
Friendly: Hard to hug
Cuteness: They have cute eyes
Distinguishing features: neck
Overall rating: somewhere around 56th

Name: Hippopotamus
Shape: Bean
Friendly: They look huggable but apparently they're dangerous
Cuteness: They look huggable
Distinguishing features: Heavy and thick skin
Overall rating: Easily in the 4th tier

Name: Crocodile
Shape: Always crawling and tubular (note to self: check with Meus if that's a real word)
Friendly: They don't move much but always seem angry
Cuteness: Thick bumpy skin and fierce eyes so no
Distinguishing features: Big tail, big bite
Overall rating: A 3 at best

Name: Wolf
Shape: Like some dogs but not other dogs
Friendly: They weren't as aggressive as another wolf
Cuteness: Fluffy
Distinguishing features: Ears and tails and fangs. I kept blushing... I'm not allowed to reach inside the enclosures, so I used some wind magic to brush and pet them.
Overall rating: #10 out of 10

Name: Boa constrictor
Shape: Long and wiggly
Friendly: They don't shed much blood when they kill.
Cuteness: They keep sticking their tongues out and have big eyes. Long cuties.
Distinguishing features: Acts as if they have their own gravitational field. Crawling up walls like they're the ground. Very strong crushing force too.
Overall rating: 65%

Name: Humans
Shape: Humane
Friendly: Sometimes
Cuteness: Increasing correlation with small and girly
Distinguishing features: These humans were wearing rags called "loincloths" and were included in between animal exhibits.
Overall rating: 50

Name: Unknown
Shape: Unknown
Friendly: None
Cuteness: None
Distinguishing features: It's been watching me again. It usually doesn't appear when other people are around. Miss Irene says she can't see it. I stare back and my head hurts. I wish it would go away.
Overall rating: All-zero

Kurai's handwriting had become more refined, but it kept a distinctively feminine lightness to it with the occasional superfluous curl. After a certain past imitation, she thought Irene's would be quite similar, but the apothecary instead wrote with a sharp, clearly legible style of handwriting. It was almost clinical, though it lacked the distinctively professional squiggles of actual doctoral handwriting. The descriptions themselves were equally as dry.

Crocodylus palustris (Mugger crocodile)
~2.25 meters in length, ~130kg (female)
~3.25 meters in length, ~200kg (male)
Aquatic quadrupedal poikilothermic reptile w/ carnivorous diet.
Nocturnal sedentary ambush predator that relies primarily on the high force of its bite (~2000 PSI).
The tradeoff for the intensity of its strength in biting down is that it has little strength in opening its mouth, leading to an exploitable method for hunters to bind their jaws and render them vulnerable. Thrashing can still prove dangerous due to sheer weight, but as ambush predators, they are not equipped for any extended conflict. Can be unexpectedly docile being dragged by the tail. The jaw strength is achieved via a muscular density to the outer jaw region, and the force is potent such that it does not chew with its teeth, using them solely for predation. The need for chewing is substituted by an increased acidity by closing the right aortic arch, flooding carbon dioxide rich blood into the stomach via its muscles using its left aortic arch.

Each of her notes were similarly descriptive, focusing primarily on different specific strengths and weaknesses, with a rough sketch accompanying each entry.

The two women handed their notepads to each other under the evening sun, sitting in a quiet, isolated corner of the zoo. Kurai rubbed her chin repeatedly as she read through each entry, constantly shifting her legs and nodding or tilting her head as she went on. Irene barely did more than blink as she turned the pages noticeably more quickly than the novae was doing. The most reaction she gave was a single "Hm," partway through the entries. She had already turned the page before the novae could see which one garnered the response.

"Oh, are you done already? What did you think, Miss Irene?"

"It was alright." The apothecary set Kurai's notepad down beside her on the bench. She stared wistfully into the sky.

"Ehe... I wish I thought to draw them like you did. I haven't done much drawing, so I could use the practice. Oh, but yours are quite pretty!"

"Thank you."

"...Is everything alright?"

"Yes." It sounded like that was all she was going to say at first. "...I'm just thinking about how you must see the world."

"What do you mean?"

"When I think about what I would do with such a capability with shapeshifting, I shuddered at the thought of all I could do with it. But that's from the perspective of a skinny girl who's had to learn to live with her limitations, suddenly having them removed. For you, someone who has never had to learn that, you don't see just how much you can overcome by exploiting your abilities. If anything, I can only see the ways you limit yourself in order to conform with standards you don't need to hold yourself to."

"...Wait, is this your way of saying you don't think I'm taking this seriously enough?"

"I'm saying several things. The fact that you have such frivolity is... illuminating in its own way. I don't think it's a bad trait for you to have. If anything, it might be the case that I'm taking things too solemnly."

"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself! I am interested in trying this stuff too! I think it could be neat to try a few new things."

"...Quite. I had given it a lot of thought about different adaptations that could be possible. Such as simple eyes, the black dots you see on many simple creatures that could imperceptibly be added, letting you see around you at all angles with no blind spots. Redundant lung access mechanisms letting you breathe when your throat is suffocating, or even underwater as needed. Dense, longer muscle fibers allowing for significantly more strength even without additional mass. Likewise with bones. Honestly, is that even close to what you're capable of? Could you even alter your own endocrine glands and their productions? Science is only just starting to glean into what hormones and other neurochemicals are capable of. Considering all the ways your body has to have evolved from a typical nova vitae into what you are now..."

"Um... I think you're giving me too much credit, Miss Irene. I only have this form because of all the ways I can replicate what humans do. I don't know enough to even guess how to do any trailblazing with all of your chemicals... I'm not even sure if I actually have all of your hormones in the first place. I've only tried to make sure I get the appearance right, not all the functions. That's why I was able to live through..." She twirled her hand in a nervous gesture. Even Kurai wouldn't start talking so openly about her own attempted murder, even with nobody else nearby. "...Well, you know."

"...Right. You really don't have the same limitations in the first place."

"You call it limitations, but I don't see it that way at all. Actually, just recently... ehehe..." Kurai covered her mouth with a hand bashfully. "...Actually, I learned recently that being powerless can be a very enjoyable thing."

"What does that mean?" Irene had no clue what she was getting into.

"Wellllllll, since you asked... In fact, I was really wanting to tell you this earlier but couldn't find the right time, but...! You see, I was going outside more often to ready myself for this trip, when I encountered this beastly woman, and..."

Once again, Kurai began regaling an easily distracted, overly detailed account of her sensual experience with the wolfgirl. This time, though, she didn't go uninterrupted. The apothecary danced through all five stages of grief on her face before she finally could articulate any sort of response.

"...Kurai, Kurai. Stop. Stop! Just stop!" The look of exasperated shock lingering on her face would be less intense if she got shot than what she was having right now. "Why in the nine Hells are you telling me all of this?!"

"Huh? I mean, you did ask what I meant, so..."

"I... I don't even know what to say to you right now. Kurai, you can not just drop something like that out of the blue. You shouldn't even be doing anything like that at all, much less talking about it, and much less talking about it to me."

"...What's wrong with that? It was something I had fun with. Isn't it normal to discuss your interests and hobbies?"

"That is completely different from talking about perversions!"

"Huh... Surely you understand where I'm coming from. Haven't you ever had such intimacies?"

"No...? Why are you asking me that?"

"Oh. ...Ohhhh." She put her hands together with an excitable grin on her lips. "So that's why you don't get it. Ah, let me show you what I was talking about! I've only done it once, but I'm sure I can give you mostly the same experience I had!"

The apothecary rubbed a hand from her forehead to her chin. She looked as if she was dying on the inside.

"...I'm... I'm going to pretend you did not just say that."

"Are you nervous, Miss Irene? I was too, but don't wo—"

"Shut. Up."

As the novae reached to put a hand on the older woman's shoulder, it was smacked away with such force, it felt like there was a poorly restrained murderous impulse behind it.

"...I take back a lot of what I said. Clearly whatever your physical advantages are, you are severely lacking in other aspects." She was breathing deeply with a forced calmness behind it. "I think it's about time you go back home. Tell Lord Meus that I strongly advise him to give you The Talk."

"What's... that?"

"You'll find out."

"Oh, um... Okay." She awkwardly tugged at her collar, before holding Irene's notepad back to her.

"Keep it. The notes are for you."

"Oh." She even more awkwardly accepted both notepads back. "...I'm sorry if something I said made you angry. I didn't mean it."

"I know you didn't, and that's why I don't want to be angry with you right now." She sighed wearily. "You really do need to learn there are some things you simply don't start speaking of out of the blue. Nor at all, really."

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to keep apologizing. I realize you're very... inexperienced with polite society. Goodness, though..." Standing up, the apothecary began to lead their way to the exit. She seemed eager to pretend the past few minutes never happened. "At any rate, I hope you have learned a lot from our observations of the fauna on display. Please do let me know if there's any adaptations you've decided to take on the next time I see you."

"Um, sure. I'll try out a few things in your notes! Thank you again for all this," she said, overlooking the fact it was the first time she's thanked her here.

"Yes, well, ignoring the past five minutes it was very enjoyable, I hope. I don't have as much free time as I used to, but I wouldn't mind having another excursion sometime."

"Of course! I'm always free, you know?" She meant it to be inviting, but it really only made her sound lazy. The two continued their small talk for a bit longer, before separating and leaving Kurai to go home alone.