Forms - Homid Lilian Pithus Crawlerling

Forms - Homid Lilian Pithus Crawlerling “Would the same salad go well with steak that does with crêpes?” She asked. “At what point do you want to eat your salad? Is it the first course, the final course, or a supplement to the main course? Is it meant to cleanse the palate, or is it better suited to enhance the flavor of the other dishes? What is its role?” The young boy looked into her cold eyes, finding the answer that he had sought. “That is for me to decide. The perfect salad is the perfect compliment to the meal that you have chosen. You cannot know how to accent your meal, until you know what you’re having as a main course. I cannot decide the little things until I have decided what I am ultimately going to become.” She smiled at his words, and began walking him towards their giggling guest. “Tres bien! You have earned a treat. Let me tell you another secret: there is one spot on a Nuwisha that has a flavor unlike any other. It can be our little secret. I will show you.” Survival A young girl stepped before the students, just barely in her teens by the look of her. She had long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, and wore a cheerleader’s outfit. Her demeanor proclaimed that she knew exactly how attractive she was. “I’m here to speak to you about survival and about the many forms you can now assume to ensure your survival.” She lifted one eyebrow when she heard a few of the students snicker. “You don’t think I’m qualified to discuss such matters?” She slipped down from the slightly raised outcropping from which all the instructors had spoken, walking among the younger, more inexperienced Ananasi. She walked among her peers, looking each of them in the eye before moving to the next. “How old do you think I am? 14? 15? Well, I’ll have you know that I’ll be celebrating my 69th birthday in the very near future. Yes, I rather thought you’d find that surprising. Before you ask the question I see on your lips, I’ll go ahead and answer it for you. No. We are not immortals. We can die of old age, we can die from injuries, and we can die when one of us feels a sudden need to feast on another. So, technically, we are not immortal. But we can come fairly damned close to the idea if we feel like it... and if Ananasa permits it.” She smiled at them, the sort of smile many of them had dreamed of seeing on a face like hers, especially directed at them. It stirred old emotions, old desires, but muted. That alone made several of the Damhàn in the cave truly realize how much they had changed with the Metamorphosis. “I thought that would get your attention. No questions, not just yet.” She moved with the sinuous grace of a predator, walking through the crowd and touching each of them. “I’ll answer your questions soon enough. First, you have to listen to my speech, no matter how boring you might find it. Ah, ah, ah…” she gently chided, “Patience is a virtue.” She moved over to the Nuwisha still bound in webbing, and ran a hand across his forehead. He cringed, still giggling incessantly and throwing a few whimpers into his usual background noises. She sat next to him, patting him affectionately. “You’ll learn everything you need to know, just bear with me for a while longer.” We have four established forms, which all have their own names. We’ll go over each of them, some of their advantages and disadvantages in a moment. But understand this: no matter what I tell you about what we can and can’t do, we’re not immortal. Never take for granted that any form you have is impervious to harm. Better to be wary of all risks at all times. Homid The human form is one of the basics. In this shape, which the Garou and other Ovid often call “Homid” for whatever reason suits their fancy, we are as close as we will ever get to being mortal. X-rays show that we are human, but are likely to show a few strange shadows that doctors can’t explain. Most doctors look at the anatomy of an Ananasi in human form and then decide their tests were inconclusive or corrupt, but there are a few who would look a second time. Avoid doctors; it’s for the best. Why? Because contrary to what might happen with the other Changing Breeds, we are not human anymore. We can merely look the part. After the First Metamorphosis, our organs aren’t quite human anymore, and our blood, while often red, isn’t human either. Humans have hemoglobin molecules in their blood. These molecules have an iron base. Spiders have hemocyanin molecules in their blood. They have a copper base. We have both types of molecules in out blood. We also have vestigial fangs and pedipalps behind our teeth. Lastly, there’s a bit of a difference in our lungs, which are an unusual merging of standard human lungs and the book lungs of spiders. Damnedest thing, to my knowledge this doesn’t occur in any of the other Ovid. But then, we aren’t quite like any of the others, as you’ve probably guessed by now. They can’t break themselves down into hundreds and hundreds of little, bitty spiders. We can. Despite these differences, we can and frequently do — at least in my case — mate with humans. Something to do with genetic codes and the right form of hormones in our bodies. I personally don’t care enough to study the issue in depth. I much prefer to simply enjoy the facts for what they are and leave details on human-Ananasi breeding to those of us who find the matter interesting. Why do we call our form human? Because that’s what it is for all intents and purposes. We call our human form human and we call our spider forms by their proper names, which are different. The reason for this is remarkably simple. The name is easy to remember for the human form, and the rest of our forms need a bit more explanation. Also, words and names are things of power. Those who follow the Weaver’s way can use names against you if they have the right knowledge. That’s why I’ll never tell any of you my real name. It’s none of your business, and you just might have opportunity to use it against me some day. Bit of advice? Come up with a simple name to give to those you meet. While you’re at it, come up with an appropriately strange name for dealing with the Ovid. They all have tribal names, and they’ll just feel even stranger about you if you don’t have something along the same lines to tell them. I tell most people my name is Christy. I tell the Ovid my name is Walks-on-Moonlight. Most of them seem to like the name. What the hell? The second form we take is quite powerful, and rather disquieting to most of those we meet. We call it the Lilian form. It serves a purpose, just as the others. The difference is, it’s mostly meant for serious combat and intimidation. Do you have any idea how many people have arachnophobia? I suffered from it myself before my Metamorphosis. Little bastards used to scare the hell out of me. One tiny little eightlegger and I’d have my dress around my knees and be dancing the fandango on a chair, screaming for someone, anyone, to save me from the nasty crawly thing. Just knew they’d eat me alive if they ever got hold of me. Imagine my surprise… At any rate, the Lilian form is unique for each of us. Sometimes we feel the need to walk upright, and sometimes we still walk like a spider. Sometimes we’re about as hairy as your average ape, and sometimes the shell we develop is decidedly smooth and shiny. A part of that comes from whatever territory we’ve dwelled in the past. We are what we eat, if you catch my drift. Yes, I said shell. Also known as an exoskeleton. That’s one of the biggest changes. Our skin hardens, and our muscles go through some radical alterations. Hell, I’ve even run across a few Ananasi who developed barbs and spines on their exoskeleton. Mean looking bastards. I’m still working on that little trick, but I haven’t mastered it yet. We can change the form of our Lilian bodies, but it takes lots of practice and a diet consisting heavily of spiders, mostly the sort of spiders we want to take aspects from. The best we can figure, the Lilian form is something that our minds have drawn up, a combination of form and function that each of us finds pleasing. Some of us have almost human faces when we change, and others look decidedly arachnoid when it’s all said and done. Is arachnoid a word? I have no idea, but it works as well as humanoid, doesn’t it? At any rate, we are stronger, faster and tougher in Lilian than we are in human. We also get a circulatory system that is much more spider than human at that point. That means we can do things differently, like lifting weights we could never hope to lift in human form, and, with some of us, jumping several stories into the air with the greatest of ease. Most of us also put on good hundred or so pounds when we get to the Lilian stage of transformation. Now for the strange part. Some us don’t change the same way others do. No, I don’t mean how we look, I mean what we can do. Some male spiders are physically weaker than females of the same species. Just the same way that, in humans, females are sometimes smaller and slightly weaker than their male counterparts. It’s something that carries over. In some cases the differences are negligible, but in a lot of cases, the changes are significant. Pithus Lilian Now, boys and girls, we get the heart of the matter. The Pithus form. Sometimes people call this the Pit Spider form. Either way works just as well, but what it means is really, really big spider. How big? Well, that depends on your normal mass. If you normally weigh 150 pounds, your Pithus form will weigh in at around 225 pounds. That might not sound like such a big deal, but when you consider the anatomy of a spider, that means a substantial increase in strength, durability and damage potential. You get about half your weight again, but it’s spread out in spider form. Well, with a few qualifiers. First, just as with the human form, you’re getting a blend of organs. I’ve heard a hundred people discuss why insects and arachnids could never get to the same size as humans, because their organs couldn’t take the difference in size. Well, that might be true, but we aren’t insects or spiders, we’re Damhàn. We get the best of both worlds. Once again we get a blend of human lungs and arachnid lungs, and the spirit power that suffuses us makes our flesh and chitin far more efficient than science would dictate. It’s just one of the Mother-Queen’s little gifts to us. We can breathe more efficiently, and we can react for longer times than either of our kin. But one of the biggest advantages to this form comes from the fact that spiders are… well, hydraulic in nature. Their muscles don’t work in the same way, and neither does their circulatory system. Spiders can shift the blood in their bodies, and that allows them to increase the amount of strength they have substantially. Damhàn can do the same thing, but it takes more out of us. Yes, we can increase our strength very efficiently, but we will have to replenish our blood if we do it too often. I personally don’t have a problem with that; I like the taste of blood. Here again, we have the special bonus of adding in the fear factor. All of you who are human from birth, raise your hands. There, that’s a good half of you, as it should be. Now, I’m going to ask a question, and I want you to consider the answer. Have you ever really looked at a spider’s face and body up close? Have you ever imagined running across one the size of a VW Bug? Think about it for a minute. People run screaming when they see a little spider, so imagine how they feel when they see a tarantula the size of their economy car. It’s a wonderful thing to watch. I like fear in my enemies; it adds challenge to the situation. No, not all of those who see us in the Pithus form will turn and run away. A decent number will decide that we must be destroyed at all costs. They get irrational when you mess with their sense of perspective. Still, it’s fun to watch in either case. Crawlerling Lastly, we come to the form that is the most easily misunderstood. What the Garou call the Crawlerling form. I’ve also heard the form called the swarm, the army, and the ohmygodlookhowmanyspidersthereare form. They all work as well as any other, I suppose. The Crawlerling, as you’ve already figured out, is composed of spiders. What kind and how many is up to you to a certain extent. Mostly, it depends on what type of spider you’ve been eating or what type of spider became a part of you through genetic marriage. That is to say, if your parent had a bit of black widow, you’ll be coming along in the same form. But there are thousands of different types of spider, and you could start off with any of them in your mix. The more of types you eat, the more interesting the possibilities become. You might start out as a brown recluse, but if you hang around and eat enough wolf spiders, you’ll see the differences as they take shape. You’ll become more wolf spider and less recluse, if you catch my meaning. In the long and short of it, you dictate the size of the spiders you become, based on your genetic makeup at the time. I also know a lot of Damhàn who simply take on the form of every spider they’ve ever eaten when they break apart, and that too has its advantages. You can blend more perfectly into the environment if you know how to handle that little trick. Especially if you haven’t moved around much. What good is the Crawlerling form? Its purposes are incredibly diverse. First, there’s defense. It’s easy to squash a single spider, but harder to stomp a thousand or so into putty. Mind you, a flame-thrower can handle the job very well, so don’t get too cocky, thinking you’re immortal. You aren’t. Not really. You see, the Crawlerling is when we are most protected and when we are most vulnerable too. How is that possible? It’s very simple. You can once again become a thousand spiders, and at that moment you have to decide which of those spiders will be the leaders and which will be the drones. Our consciousness can inhabit all of the spiders, but it’s a little disorienting that way. You cannot be in a thousand places at once and not get thrown by the experience. Okay, I’ll give an example rather than trying to scoop all of you back together. Let’s say you’ve broken into Crawlerling, and you need to escape from an enemy. Just for the sake of argument, we’ll go with another werewolf hell-bent on destroying you as a threat to everything he stands for. The first problem is that that Garou is now truly huge in comparison to you. He’s so big, in fact, that you can barely see his head if he’s standing on his hind legs. It’s like trying to see the billboard on the top of a 40-story building: you know it’s there, but you might not be able to read it. Oh, sure, you can climb a wall or even the werewolf for a better look. No problem, except that your mind is not capable of taking in as much information as you might imagine it is. You aren’t just seeing the giant werewolf, you’re seeing the giant werewolf from one thousand or so different perspectives. If you want to consider this in a safe environment, go into a department store that sells televisions, turn each of the fifty or so to a different channel, and try to pay complete attention to what is on each and every one of those screens. Yeah, I can see you pausing now, so just for kicks, multiply that chaos by about 200 and see if you can stay focused on any one thing. Now, while you’re trying to figure out what to make of all those images, the werewolf isn’t just standing there idly. He’s gonna do everything he can to stomp you out of existence. So, instead of trying to see from that many perspectives and think rationally, it’s best to make leader and drone bodies. The leaders are the ones who tell the rest of the bodies what to do. They are also the ones that hold the sum of your memories and consciousness. You can make as many leaders as you want, but about ten perspectives is the best most of us can manage to take in at the same time and still function. Ten isn’t that many, but they still have complete control over the Crawlerlings. They can still tell the mass of spiders which way to go and what to do. That means you can send half of your body to go attack the big bad wolf and the other half running for cover if you so desire. Or, you can be smart and get the hell out of there. Why? Because ten of your bodies hold the sum of everything you are, every memory you have and every decision you’ve ever made. Lose one of those ten, and you’ve just lost a tenth of you. One tenth of your life and memories goes straight down the tubes if that spider gets crushed. When you reform into any of your other shapes, you’ll notice the difference, believe me. I’ve been there, and it hurts in a way you can’t hope to understand. We are not an overly emotional people, but when you look at the world with a fraction of your self-awareness and memories extinguished, it’s like losing your closest friend in the world. Do you remember the smile on your mother’s face when you were a child? Do you remember how it felt when you were still a toddler and she picked you up and held you and comforted you after you’d scraped your knee or cut your finger on a razorblade you were stupid enough to want to hold? Do you remember the first time a lover gave you a kiss? The first time you impressed your best friend by doing something she couldn’t? Yes? Would you like to keep those memories and cherish them, even as much as you’re capable of doing so? Then you’ll understand what I mean when I say those memories are fragile, and they can be crushed under the heel on a stranger’s foot if you aren’t careful. I don’t know anything about what I was doing from the time I was 29 through the time I reached the age of 50. Why? Because I was careless. I’ve been told by brethren I can trust that I had a husband, and I’ve been introduced to my children, but I have no recollection of what my husband might have been like, and I can’t recall my children’s first steps, or what sort of ice cream they liked best when they were under my roof. There is an emptiness where that part of my life was, and not even echoes of what filled that emptiness are available for me to examine. Be careful… just for the sake of your own sanity, be careful. Well, now that we’ve discussed that little mess, let’s move on, shall we? Ten seems the safest limit, and the wisest number of leaders to have in the Crawlerling. More than that and you risk disorientation, less than that and you lose even more of your self if one of them gets hurt or destroyed. But there are times when you need only one leader. When you feel that you are going to lose, it’s best to get a few spiders out of the area and then beat a hasty retreat. Do not bother to collect your belongings or your friends, because you don’t have the time. You have to get yourself a new body mass as quickly as you can. Why? Because you need to survive. That’s the basics. You’ll learn more as time goes on, but there’s one more question you might want answered…. The Microcosm The students absorbed what she’d said, thinking over the possibilities, the risks and the advantages of the different shapes. Much of what their instructor had told them wasn’t exactly new, but was at least put into perspective. She smiled at them, a strange expression that seemed one part pleasure and two parts promises of pleasure. “Look at our visitor, won’t you? Some of you know him, have fed on him, and now you get to see his final fate.” The students turned to look at the Nuwisha they’d caught in their midst over a full week earlier. The pathetic creature was staring slack-jawed at the ceiling of the caves, which seemed miles and miles above their heads. A thick line of drool spilled down from the corners of his mouth, pooling at the base of his skull. Aside from an occasional twitch, there was no other motion. “Just in case any of you are wondering about the potential immortality we’ve been discussing, I felt a demonstration might be in order. Enjoy the sight, because it’s something you’ll ever see second hand. We don’t bring demo models with us to these classes, but in this case our guest took the liberty of inviting himself. Yesterday we had a student who decided it was all right to break the rules we established for you all. What remains of him was placed on our guest when I went over to pet him. While you were all listening politely, for which I thank you, that single spider took the time to start eating the werecoyote’s brain. In a few hours, he’ll be back to full size, but probably not with all of his memories intact. Instinct might have saved him, but there isn’t any way to know just yet. If he proves self sufficient, we will continue his training and forgive him this one transgression of the rules. If he is nothing but a drooling idiot, well, then we shall share in a feast when everything is done. Time will tell. In the meanwhile, we have much to discuss. Eyes on me, please. She gathered the students together again, making certain they paid attention to her words. We’ve discussed using the Crawlerling as a method of survival, but we haven’t covered everything just yet. So