werewolf biology 101

What do knotted ropes tied to the fridge door handle, large quantities of probiotic drinks, and a dog's water dish have to do with each other? Well, they're all in dhezeall's kitchen, and not because she owns a dog. They're actually three things that she finds very useful because of her ability to shapeshift.

When dhezeall shifts forms, the energy released by the transformation causes everything on or in her body, that's not actually part of her body, to be atomised. It's a very localised reaction-- if you're touching her arm at the time you may get the top layer of your skin burnt off, and clothes have various chances of survival depending on what they're made of (though they can expect, on average, to get a little scorched), but the main things that go are things like dead skin cells and bacteria.

This has a couple of obvious advantages: for one, every time she changes forms, she becomes preternaturally clean. Even a baby, newly born from its mother's womb, is an unpleasant creature by comparison; having spent nine months surrounded by and drinking in the fluids of its mother, it's been part of life's natural interchange of microscopic lifeforms for quite some time. When dhezeall reforms, she does so as a being that has had no contact with the world until that point. She may look like a wild animal, which doesn't normally inspire thoughts of dazzling cleanliness, but in truth she's basically sterile to touch; her breath is pleasant, and her body doesn't carry the slightest hint of scent. As one might suspect, this feels pretty wonderful-- like the best exfoliating treatment imaginable, and then some.

The other advantage to this, of course, is that any bacterial or (non-computer-)viral illness she was harbouring inside her will be utterly destroyed, making her effectively invulnerable to infection as long as she has energy to shift. This isn't actually as impressive a skill as it could be, that said; most Reyvateils can achieve similar effects with healing magic, and a simple heal generally requires a lot less energy than a full physical transformation. dhezeall is a rare Reyvateil in that she doesn't really know how to heal at all, and so shapeshifting is her only way of shaking off disease.

In addition, this skill has one major downside. You need bacteria in your body to be healthy; the "friendly" kind, as they're frequently called, that help dispose of nastier bacteria and assist in food digestion. dhezeall's shapeshifting powers don't discriminate between the two, so every time she shifts, whether from Reyvateil to animal or back again, she needs to replenish that supply of bacteria or else have trouble digesting her food. Hence the large amounts of probiotic drinks, which she'll usually pour into a drinking bowl beforehand if she knows she's going to be shapeshifting; for the occasions where the desire strikes her suddenly (her magic is fairly unpredictable), the rope on the fridge door makes an easier pull handle for animal teeth to clamp onto, and she buys the drinks in large cardboard cartons so they're easier to tear open. There's also a similar rope attached to the faucet, so she can get herself water; the energy release from shapeshifting also dehydrates her cells, and she generally wants to drink a lot afterwards.

If asked what these are for, she'll generally say she has trouble with her wrists, and the ropes make it easier for her to operate handles that would normally cause her pain. It's quite easy to believe considering that she walks with a cane, and not everybody in her life knows why.

Opening cartons in animal form tends to make a heck of a mess, though, so she tries to avoid it where possible, instead resisting the temptation to eat until she can return to Reyvateil form. There's another reason she prefers not to eat as an animal, too; while her intelligent mind remains largely intact, pretty much the only food that seems palatable to her in that form is raw meat, and if she gives in to the temptation to hunt something, she's inevitably sickened by the memories afterwards. She can eat cooked meat, too, but actually getting access to it is the trickier part; there's rarely anyone around to cook it for her (and she trusts few people with the secrets of her magic), and she can't very well do it herself.

Furthermore, even consuming vast amounts of yoghurt drinks won't replenish all the bacteria that need replenishing-- not in such a short space of time. In practice, she's frequently not at her healthiest after a shapeshift until her body's had time to return to its normal state.

So there you go: being a werewolf isn't quite all it's cracked up to be, although there's still little that compares to the feel of bounding over open land, the earth beneath your paws and the wind in your fur. (Except... she actually can't do that, either. The install port doesn't go away in animal form, and neither does the limp.)

So what unusual items do your characters keep around the house, if any?