Looking For A Lost Friend

[museicalmarty]

Have a confused Marty wandering around the general question area, looking like he's searching for something -- or, rather, someone. "Where the hell -- okay, you know what? Place is for questions -- anybody seen Victor? He said he was going to 'clear his head' about an hour ago, and we thought he'd be back by now."

[For those curious, Victor does happen to be in the Nexus -- passed out on a rather large couch that Marty just hasn't come across yet, thanks to the weird way space and directions work in this place. Maybe it thought he needed the sleep]

Comments

[museicalmarty]

[Marty waits patiently as Palmer walks off -- then laughs as he returns in vine-snake form] Oh jeez, that's wild. . .but yeah, guess there's a reason we eat food and don't just sit in the sun all day!

I dunno. . .I'd ask what you think the weirdest thing you can turn into is, but I suspect that would look kinda like Cthulhu.

[palmerthing]

Yeah, once you're bigger than a few inches long and more intelligent than a slug you need to be designed very differently for light to be enough. Plants don't move much for a reason.

Oh, worse. Lovecraft wasn't that imaginative. Cthulhu is even symmetrical! I could come up with way stranger than that.

[museicalmarty]

Right, yeah. Sunlight works best if you're pretty much stationary. And don't have a lot of brain to keep working.

Good point, I bet you could. Stuff that could give Outer Gods or whatever they're called nightmares. Though, thinking about it, Things fit pretty well into Lovecraft's whole "there are so many creatures in space and all that that we can't understand and would easily crush us if they thought we were worth the trouble" deal.

[palmerthing]

We do, don't we? *He thinks a moment.* Honestly there are so many weird things I could be that I can't really choose one. Not to mention that I can mix and match. I bet you could come up with just about anything and I could create it.

Now then, you mind if I become me again? Talking like this is hard.

[museicalmarty]

Heh -- so much choice you can't make one, huh? Well, I'm sure I'll think of something. . .

Yeah, go ahead. I noticed you sounded kinda funny in this form.

[palmerthing]

A huge overabundance, yeah.

*He slips away again, returning as his human self.* Had to redesign my whole throat to speak at all that way, man.

[museicalmarty]

Wow -- guess we should be grateful you managed at all!

[he pauses, running his fingers through his hair] And, uh. I did actually have a thought. . .though it's weird in a different way. . .

[palmerthing]

Yeah, it was a bit of a mess. But then the human throat is also something of a mess, so oh well.

Well now I'm curious, do tell.

[museicalmarty]

Do I even want to know? Biology was never really my thing. . .

Well -- could you do -- me? Except about Doc's height? Or better yet, Victor's, he's six-foot-three. [he starts blushing] Look, I'm short and I'm always gonna be short. I just wanna know what tall looks like.

[palmerthing]

Mostly the mess of both eating and breathing through the mouth, it's really stupid and a good way to get killed.

Doing an individual that's not Palmer takes some effort, he's what I'm used to, but I can try. *Palmer focuses on Marty's face for a bit, then starts to slowly shift. It's not the nightmare of him changing species, but it's still very unsettling.*

[museicalmarty]

Okay, but isn't the whole point of the nose so you can breathe even if you're eating? Or is it just the two tubes are too close together no matter how you slice it?

[Marty tries not to pull back in instinctive "holy crap" but -- damn, it's hard. He knows he asked for it, but it's still fairly creepy] Weeeeird. . .

[palmerthing]

The fact that breathing in food can happen at all is bad. Even if it's not common.

Yeah, that was kinda the point.

[museicalmarty]

Well, you can't blame us for that -- that's evolution. For some reason.

I know, I know, but -- it's one thing to think about it, another to see it.

[palmerthing]

I'm so glad I don't have to worry as much about that kind of thing.

*Palmer rolls his eyes a bit, then changes back.* Better?

[museicalmarty]

Me, I'm just grateful I haven't choked on anything in a long while.

Hey, look, sometimes you don't know something is a bad idea until you actually do it.

[palmerthing]

Alright, fair. We probably should have thought that one through a bit more. *He smiles slightly.* Next time.

[museicalmarty]

Yeah, next time. [he smiles back] Thanks for indulging my nonsense, though.

[palmerthing]

Hey, any time. It's a lot more fun to indulge in nonsense than to actually need to use my powers, man. I mean, if I needed to use them something bad would have to be happening.

[museicalmarty]

Trust me, I'm aware. I'm perfectly happy sticking with the nonsense. Plus it must be good for you to stretch the old transformy muscles, so to speak, without having it be a life-or-death thing.

[palmerthing]

*He laughs.* I think 'transformy' is a new word. I've never heard it before, at least.

Anything else you want to see? Hopefully less creepy this time.

[museicalmarty]

[smirking] I sometimes spit out gems like that, yeah.

Hmmmm. . .what's the biggest you think you can go right now?

[palmerthing]

Depends on whether you want something that would actually work long-term or if a balloon would be fine. Shape's important too, a human can only grow so tall before you need to completely redesign the legs.

[museicalmarty]

Balloon sounds interesting, but I think it would be one of those things that turns out to be pretty creepy in practice. And now you've got me wondering what like the max height of a human even is.

[palmerthing]

After about eight feet you start needing supports, I think? It was in one of the books. You might be able to get a humanoid that's bigger than that, but you'd have to redesign the legs at least.

[museicalmarty]

Redesign them like how? I can guess that maybe the bones would need to be thicker?