OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO oOOOO OOOO. OOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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OOOO oOOOO ""OOOO OOOO "OOOO OOOOOO
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| There Ain't No Justice |
| |
| #127 |
| |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Morphology
by Ace Lightning
"She changes everything She touches, and everything She touches changes..."
"Change is...touch is...touch is... change is...
Change us! Touch us! Touch us! Change us!"
"We are the changers; everything we touch can change..."
- contrapuntal lines of a popular Neo-Pagan chant.
The envelope from Australia contained a six-page letter and an airline
ticket. The letter began, "Someone actually BOUGHT some of my stories. If
I'm not careful, I'll become a Famous Author. Anyway, I paid for your
ticket with some of my ill-gotten gains." Ace knew better than to dispute
her good fortune; and besides, she'd been wanting to visit Arifel for
*years*.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
She trudged through the arrivals gate at the airport in Melbourne,
scanning the crowd for only an instant before spotting the faintly
disreputable-looking character in black jeans and a Skinny Puppy T-shirt.
He saw her at the same moment; an overweight middle-aged woman in a
brilliant purple tunic outfit, metallic-purple toenail polish gleaming on
her sandalled feet. They dashed towards each other and collided in a
vigorous welcoming hug. They chattered and laughed all through the process
of collecting baggage, finding a taxi, and giving directions to Arifel's
place. By the time they got there, they were finishing each other's
sentences.
They might have talked all night, not stopping even during dinner, but
Ace's internal clock had been utterly disrupted by the long flight and the
16-hour time differential. Arifel teased her gently about yawning in the
middle of nearly every word. "Er, you take the bed, of course. I'll just go
arrange the sofa cushions in the bathtub... it's quite comfortable,
really..."
"Don't be silly. You know I'll sleep in your bed, with you. And all I
want to do right now is *sleep*. My body doesn't know whether it's bedtime
or the middle of next week!" Without a trace of self-consciousness, she
stripped off her clothes and slipped into bed.
Arifel was unsure about how to respond. The sight of Ace's naked body -
sagging neck, drooping breasts, midriff roll, pouched belly, fleshy thighs
and upper arms, flabby buttocks - was far from arousing. But they'd been
friends, and more than friends, for a long time, with a deeply felt mutual
affection. Finally, with a mental shrug, he undressed and got ready for
bed. When he slid in beside Ace, she was already asleep.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It might have been daylight outside when Ace awoke, but the thick black
curtains kept the room gothically dark. She got out of bed as quietly as
possible and headed for the toilet. When she was done, she tried to get
back into bed quietly, so as not to wake Arifel.
"Don't worry; I'm awake."
"Sorry. We can go back to sleep. I just had to pee."
"It's okay. I'm awake now anyway. Want some breakfast?"
"I'm not hungry yet." Under the covers, she took his hand. "It's just so
*wonderful* being here with you! I haven't even properly thanked you for
sending me the plane ticket." She gave him an enthusiastic kiss, and they
slid together into a friendly, full-out hug.
They were both naked, and Arifel had just woken up; his morning erection
bumped against her thigh, and he said "Oops..."
"We *could* do something about that, you know..." she said, looking him
straight in the eye. The unvoiced question hung in the air between them for
a long moment. Then he pulled her closer to him and kissed her, gently but
with intense passion; by way of answer, she opened her mouth and began
questing softly with her tongue.
Considering all the cybersexual adventures they'd shared, their actual
lovemaking was hesitant at first. She badly wanted to stroke his penis, but
confined herself to tweaking his nipples lightly. He gasped, and she felt
his erection twitch and harden against her leg. In turn, he caressed her
time-ravaged body with unbearable gentleness. He marveled at her
responsiveness; her nipples had stiffened at his merest touch, and when he
nibbled one lightly she trembled and began to writhe. He reached down to
finger her clitoris; she whimpered faintly, thrusting herself against his
hand, and ran her fingernail along the underside of his penis from base to
tip. Then their hands and mouths were all over each other, stimulating and
titillating every erogenous zone. Ace wondered dimly how his fingers seemed
to be teasing both nipples *and* her clitoris at the same time; but she was
too aroused to think very clearly. When he kissed the tiny "signature"
tattoo between her breasts, she moaned and opened her legs, arching her
pelvis against him to receive his thrusting, throbbing penis inside her. A
few minutes of the ancient dance, and they reached orgasm simultaneously,
which surprised them both.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
They lay in each other's arms for a while, enjoying the afterglow, until
Arifel's left arm grew numb. He shifted position, and she looked
questioningly at him. He seemed to want to say something, but not know
quite how to begin. Finally he spoke.
"Ace... you know those metamorph stories of mine? Well, they're true,
sort of..."
"What do you mean, 'sort of'?"
"Well, I really can change my body's shape to a limited degree. I can't
negate gravity, or excrete weapons-grade plutonium, but I *can* change the
basic form of my body. I, er, grew myself some extra fingers just now..."
"I noticed. I didn't know *how* you were doing it, but it felt so good I
wasn't going to ask questions!"
"Tricks like that. Fairly simple shape-shifting. I'm afraid that the
stories aren't completely true about being able to make one other person a
metamorph. I can't make you a metamorph. I'm still sort of a beginner
myself. Maybe when my powers are more mature, I can change someone
permanently. What I *can* do, though, is sort of 'loan' you the ability
temporarily. It'll hurt like hell for a few hours, and then you'll be able
to change just like a full metamorph for about a day and a half. Then it'll
hurt some more when the ability goes away. If it's any consolation, it'll
hurt me too when I give it to you, although not nearly as much. Would you
want to try it?" he asked almost shyly.
"Wau. Yes, I think I *do* want to try it. How many times can I be a
temporary metamorph?"
"Just one. As far as I know, everyone who's tried it twice has died in
horrible agony. The human body just can't take the overload. I *think* you
would survive if you were permanently transformed... but I can't do that
for you."
"I'll take the temporary conversion, definitely. Breakfast first,
though. Am I right in assuming it takes a fair amount of fuel for our
bodies to do this?"
"You're right. Breakfast first."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
After an enormous meal, Arifel explained a bit more of the metamorph
process to Ace. He showed her some of what he could do. He made his hair
waist-length and bright purple; he grew a third eye in the middle of his
forehead, then playfully transformed it into a miniature penis. "I'm not
going to do a full-body transformation right now, though, because that
takes a fair bit of energy, and I want to have that energy available for
triggering your temporary change."
"Just exactly how will that work?"
"It's awkward to explain in words, but it's like magick, in a way. I
make physical contact with you," - they both smiled at that - "and I just
*will* your body to become changeable. It's an energy drain on me, and I
feel an echo of the pain of my own, um, 'metamorphosis'. But you, my dear,
will feel almost as much pain as in a complete transformation. The only
consolation is that it only lasts a few hours, instead of days."
"I'm ready. We might as well do it now. Would it help if I put myself in
trance first?"
"Hmmm, I never thought of that. Yes. It might just make it easier for me
to trigger the process in you."
They clasped hands. Ace closed her eyes, and her lips moved slightly.
Arifel knew she was repeating some sort of hypnotic mantra. Her body
relaxed subtly, and when she finally spoke, her voice seemed to be coming
from very far away.
"Now..."
Still holding Ace's hands in his own, Arifel leaned toward her and once
again kissed the tattoo over her heart. As he did so, he concentrated all
his will into giving her the ability to shape-shift. Her trance state did
seem to make the process easier, but his breathing grew ragged and a fine
sweat broke out on his face as he poured all his energy into her. He knew
he had succeeded when he felt the familiar burning sensation beginning on
the deepest cellular level. He sat back and let go of her hands, and let
the painful ecstasy take him...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Deep in trance, Ace felt the energy Arifel was sending into her as a
tingling sensation, almost like a mild electrical shock. This merged with a
strange burning, as if each individual cell in her body were responding
simultaneously to cold and heat. At first it was almost pleasurable,
especially with the unmistakable "feel" of Arifel's mind behind it. But
then his presence dropped out, and the burning and tingling intensified
rapidly. It soon grew so painful that she snapped out of trance, into a
hyper-aware state composed entirely of bone-deep pain. She could feel
herself breaking out in a sweat, and each individual droplet burned like
acid. The stink of her own sweat was the foulest stench imaginable. Her
eyes were open, and even in the dimness of the black-curtained room, all
colors were too bright. The sound of her own labored breathing was an
intolerable din. She wanted to scream, but she found that her body was
unable to move or respond. She could only lie there, helpless and in pain,
while her cells strove to adapt themselves to alien functions. Dimly she
remembered the time she'd tried to trip on baby woodrose seeds without
burning off the strychnine-containing seed coat. This was several orders of
magnitude worse.
Time passed. Her bones were red-hot metal, her skin was bathed in liquid
nitrogen. Sounds and colors and textures and smells assaulted her, until a
kind of synesthesia of pain set in, and she heard pressure and tasted
light... and ALL of it was unbearable. In the tiny corner of her mind that
always remained rational, she wondered how much worse it had been for
Arifel, becoming a full metamorph.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Arifel felt his pain ebbing; each time he gave someone temporary
metamorph powers, his own agony seemed to get shorter and shorter. He felt
that he'd actually miss it if it ever completely stopped being painful. He
blinked and stretched, and looked at Ace lying rigid and semi-conscious
before him. She still had hours of torment to go, and she needed what
little help he could give her.
He got some ice water, and carefully moistened her feverish lips with
it. He spoke to her, in the softest of whispers, knowing that even his
attempts to relieve her pain would be painful.
"I'm sorry. It's not like in the stories. I can't take away some of the
pain by touching you. The only consolation is that it'll be all over in a
few hours."
The ice water scalded her lips. His words were a cacophony that
assaulted her ears, but carried no meaning. Her brain was a pitifully
fragile meat-thing, sizzling and shriveling in a pool of glowing magma...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Something had changed. She didn't hurt any more! Although her senses
were still heightened, Ace found that the stimuli were merely intense, not
agonizing. Arifel's arm was behind her shoulders, helping her sit up, while
he held a glass of cool water to her mouth. She drank gratefully, savoring
the feeling of the refreshing liquid as she swallowed it.
::Take it easy, Ace. You're all right now. You're a metamorph... at
least for a while.::
::Wau. Hey, I actually feel *good!* Now how do I.... ARIFEL! I'VE GOT MY
TELEPATHY BACK!::
::Yes. That's one of the things in the stories that *is* true.::
::Do you think it'll stay when I change back?::
::I don't know. This is the first time I've ever changed someone with
your particular history. People who weren't telepaths to begin with don't
keep the ability when they change back. But we'll just have to see what
happens.::
::Wau again. Um, now, how do I do it? Just think about it?::
::Basically, yes. But let me show you how it's done. I can spare the
energy now for full transformations.::
His features began rearranging themselves, bones shifting beneath the
skin, shapes twisting and sliding. It was almost nauseating to watch, but
at the same time weirdly fascinating. The transformation was quick. The
figure before her had waxy, corpse-pale skin, divided into precise squares
by many bloodless straight-line cuts. At each intersection of the lines, a
metal spike protruded. ::The ultimate Pinhead mask...:: Arifel thought.
::Impressive. I know that's one of your favorites. But can you change
into something a little less ...intimidating?::
::Your wish is my command, my dear...:: Again that shifting and
twisting. Her friend now wore the semblance of a barely pubescent girl of
about fourteen, with short, pale-blonde hair and too much eye makeup; she
looked like a cross between a goth, a punk, and an early-60's "mod". Even
the mental "voice" had changed. With a delighted cry of recognition, Ace
spoke aloud. "DAVA!"
::In the flesh, so to speak.::
::I never thought about how convenient it would be for someone with
multiple personalities to be a metamorph. Now each of you can have your
proper body! Dava, love, you look *exactly* the way I thought you would!"
Dava's black tank top and leather jeans went away. ::D'you like what you
see, then?::
::Um, actually, well, yes...::
Dava leaned over and gave Ace a wet, sloppy kiss, with plenty of tongue.
If she expected to shock the older woman, though, she was disappointed. Ace
returned the kiss with enthusiasm, then bent her head to suck the girl's
petite pink nipples. Dava's fingers (nails painted iridescent black and
severely bitten) went to Ace's crotch, causing her to squirm closer and
plunge her own fingers into Dava's pale-furred slit. Their bodies tangled
and writhed on the bed, and Dava nibbled aggressively at Ace's breasts.
Somehow the sinuous young girl maneuvered herself into a "69" position
relative to Ace, and they found themselves eagerly tonguing each other's
genitalia.
::It's been a *long* time since I made love to a woman,:: Ace
apologized.
::You're - ooh! - doing okay so - mmmmnh - far!::
::You're not too - uuuuhhh - bad yourself...::
Dava plunged her tongue deep inside Ace, using it like a prehensile
phallus, and Ace lost her own rhythm on Dava's clitoris as she suddenly
came. It took a few moments for her to regain enough composure to finish
the younger woman off the same way.
::Sorry; I told you I was out of practice.::
::Not to worry.:: came Arifel's mental "voice", and with another vision-
twisting shift, the body beside her on the bed became male again. ::But YOU
haven't morphed at all yet.::
::I've been busy...:: she giggled. She concentrated hard on her new
bodily awareness, and began to transform herself. At first the process kept
getting away from her, and one feature would drift back to its original
form when she paid attention to another. But soon she got the hang of it,
and smoothly changed her body to an idealized version of her self-image.
The new body was younger-looking, slimmer, taller, and had longer hair, but
was still recognizable as Ace.
::Very good, for a first effort.:: said Arifel. ::But you ought to try a
few other forms too.::
::Won't I lose the ability sooner if I use it a lot?:: she asked.
::No; actually, the more you morph, the *longer* you keep the ability.
But when you do change back, the process will be more painful.::
She shuddered, thinking of the agony she'd just endured. ::But I think
it's worth it, if I can keep these powers a bit longer.:: She concentrated
again, and became a reasonable simulacrum of Madonna. When Arifel smiled at
this, she exaggerated the resemblance, caricaturing the pop star's pointed
breast-cups and bleached-blonde hair. A sudden inspiration struck her, and
she continued the transformation through Jean Harlowe, Jayne Mansfield, and
Marilyn Monroe. As Arifel began to laugh, she ended the sequence with
RuPaul, cracking him up completely.
::Whew! That's hard work!:: she commented.
::It gets easier with practice. Now try something less familiar, like a
male form. RuPaul doesn't count.::
::Okay. But this is going to take a bit more imagination.:: Slowly, and
with a number of "erasures" and false starts, she transformed her body into
a remarkably handsome young man. "He" was slim, but well-muscled, with
light brown hair, amber eyes, and a sweetly curved butt. The genitals were
the last part to transform, but when they were done, "he" was remarkably
well hung. The mental voice remained unchanged, though - female, and
unmistakably Ace's.
Arifel stared appreciatively at the young "man's" impressive equipment.
Ace caught the stare, and enlarged the penis to half a meter long. As
Arifel's eyes widened, she made it tie itself in a knot. They both giggled,
and she reduced it to proportions nearer the average human male's.
::I always wondered what it felt like to have a cock...:: she thought.
::'Fascinating':: ...and she added the suggestion of tilted eyebrows and
pointed ears.
Arifel's response was to kneel in front of this young Vulcanoid Adonis
and take the head of the penis into his mouth. The fact that the
personality radiating from the figure was still that of a middle-aged woman
didn't seem to bother him. He squeezed the testicles gently, while pressing
hard on the spot behind them.
::Wau. So that's what it feels like. No wonder men like blowjobs so
much!::
::You like this, hm?:: he said, running his tongue around the tip. Ace's
male body shivered, and "his" erection swelled and grew more taut with
every flick of Arifel's tongue. Suddenly Arifel drew away, leaving Ace
aching with lust. ::I think you'll like this too...::
Arifel quickly morphed into a copy of Ace's idealized female body. ::Now
you *can* fuck yourself!:: Ace's mind was totally blown. She was in a
beautiful masculine body, extremely aroused, making love to what looked
like her own body, now inhabited by her dear friend Arifel. She quickly
brought the female body to a matching state of arousal, and entered "her"
deeply. All coherent thought fled in a state of complete gender and
identity confusion. Arifel's female body, with her own responses, reached
orgasm in a few moments; the internal muscular spasms triggered the
beginnings of her male body's own orgasm. But as "he" began to ejaculate -
another new experience for Ace! - the orifice surrounding it turned into a
rectum, as Arifel resumed his normal bodily form. When the final spasms
subsided, she reverted to her own form as well. They lay in each other's
arms, as Ace tried to sort out the bewildering series of sexual experiences
she'd just been through.
::Sshh. Everything's okay. Was that a little too much for you?::
::Not really... I just never thought about some of these things before.
Oh, I thought about them in an abstract way, I suppose, but I never thought
I'd *experience* them personally. Thank you!::
They simply cuddled for a while, without verbal or mental speech,
content just to be together. Then Arifel sent, ::You know, this *does* take
a lot of fuel. I think we'd better get something to eat again soon.::
::I think you're right. All this morphing is depleting my energy. And
we've been fucking like bunnyrabbits as well. Speaking of which...::
Morphing was getting easier and easier. It took relatively little effort
for her to assume the form of a sleek grey rabbit, long ears, wiggly nose,
fluffy tail, and all. Not a humanoid rabbit like "Harvey" in the old Jimmy
Stewart movie; simply a pretty grey bunny the size of a human being. ::Hey,
now I can wiggle my nose!::
As they laughed, she returned to her preferred human form.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
They passed the entire afternoon and night, and all of the next day,
morphing into various forms, occasionally finding new sexual permutations
in the process. Ace learned how to transform herself into everything from
graceful winged things to furniture. Arifel was patient with her,
encouraging her to try the most improbable shapes, and showing her some of
his own more exotic variations. In the constant semi-darkness, they lost
track of the passage of time.
Ace was attempting to assume the form of a miniature Lear Jet when she
realized it wasn't working. Her body reverted to its everyday form,
complete with cellulite and wrinkles. Then the deep icy burn began to
attack from within. ::Uh-oh...::
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It really was worse this time. She was being electrocuted, frozen to
death, flayed, and drowned in boiling acid. There was not even enough
consciousness left for synesthesia; only relentless pain. Arifel felt no
pain himself this time. He sat beside her, knowing better than to touch her
or make any sound, but also knowing that his presence was a comfort to her.
::It'll be over soon, dear Ace. I hope it was worth it for you.::
Time passed. She was being compressed, constricted, boiled down to a
mere fraction of herself. Her mind was being forced back into its cramped
box of bone. All senses were being reduced to one, and that sense was pain.
She longed for the power to weep, but once more her body refused to
respond.
Eventually it was over. Arifel was helping her sit up, comforting her.
He held a mug of tea to her lips this time; somehow the warm, fragrant
steam helped her ground herself in the here-and-now.
"Arifel?"
"I'm here. You're fine; just take it easy for a bit."
::Arifel?::
::Arifel...??::
Nothing.
She collapsed against him, sobbing....
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was written as a conscious attempt to fit a story of
my own into Arifel's science-fiction universe, in direct response to the
"Metamorph" story recently serialized as several TANJ files. There is a
joyous irony in it, however: not long after I wrote it, Arifel actually
DID (to his own great surprise) help me get my telepathy back!
-- Ace Lightning
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