The Depot

This is set in the "Tales from the Blind Pig" universe.

beep beep beep Beep Beep BEep BEep BEEp BEEP BEEP BEEP ::wham!::

I hate alarm clocks. Even turned down most of the way, they still annoy the hell out of me. I lifted my paw from this one. Still intact, fortunately. That had gotten to be a rather expensive habit of mine, although this was was semi-custom built to stand up to the abuse of my massive paw hitting it at 6 in the morning. I stretched out about half way, paws against one side of the wall, tail brushing against the other. The room itself was rather spartan. I didn't need a bed after I got my SCABS-induced make-over, so I had sold it along with quite a few other thing that I could not use. Other stuff I had simply given away, or thrown out. I had enough normal people help me that some people passing by thought that I had died. A few, after seeing me were certain of it, even though I was sitting there talking to them.

After my little stretch and yawn (which tends to scare the crap out of people if done in public), I pawed out to the living room. Kerry, my roomie/SCAB/ good friend had already gotten up and had made breakfast. Kerry looks like a normal person, until you look at her drivers license. The Flu played monkey with her aging processes. The technical term is a semi-looping chronomorph. She will age normally for a month, then loop back that month. But it occurs every other month. She has told me that it plays hell with your body's "normal" cycles, and I believe her. She moved in after I tried to find someone who could provide assistance with helping me with day to day living, i.e., meals and housekeeping. A 'live in personal assistant' if you will. The first few people I tried did not last very long; either they were between jobs and left when something better came around, or they were trying to con me or some other non-sense. I placed an ad in the paper after I discovered that the state's referral agency for such thing would not help me unless I was completely broke, or if I was unable to function as my own guardian.

Kerry was the first person to answer the ad, and I hired her at the end of the interview. She moved in two days later. She had a 'normal' job in an audio studio, but needed additional income and a place to live. It was the right place at the right time, so we both got mutual benefit. I give her a place to live, additional money for whatever she was needing it for, and in return I get a clean place to live, actual food cooked, and the occasional ride into work, as her route to work allows her to drop me off on her way. I still ride the bike whenever I can't get a ride, though. My morning routine is rather quick: a good stretch, a quick grooming to hit the spots that look funny, and then breakfast. Kerry sometimes volunteers to help with the grooming, especially if the a spot is where I can not easily get to (like right behind my head, for example). I sometimes think that she enjoys using the fur comb on me as much as I like being on the receiving end, even though we had a rather long discussion one night on such things.

Breakfast is over, and I am riding in Kerry's car to work. I got rid of the help desk, as the callers were starting to drive me psychotic, and a psychotic tiger is not what you want roaming the streets. I had heard about that tiger back east, and it gave me quite a scare. I hoped to God, if there was one, that I never turned into something like that. My new job is at a repair facility. This job uses my skills a bit more, but it tires me out, as I end up shifting a bit throughout the day. Today might be different, though. I've been trying a new type of morphic form, and this should shock at least one person. This form has a higher lifting limit (about 200 pounds), and a much longer time limit. The testing with the doctor was great, as it was him that suggested the form. He mentioned something about a plateau form, one that can stay in shape longer then my 60/40 tiger/human morphic form. So I tried it, and I liked it. I can run almost this whole day like this, which is good. Shifting gets to be quite tiring when I have to rest an equal amount of time that I spend morphed. I walk in, say my good mornings, and start on my workload. The first item is something that I normally would need help getting, as it is a rather heavy printer.

In my area, where I have some small amount of privacy, I invoke my shifting ability and focus on my form. I feel my body slowly elongating in front of my forelimbs, twisting to an angle, and an extra set of limbs appears right where they are supposed to. The invocation done, I open my eyes. Perfect!. I grunt a bit, discover that I've regained a semblance of what my voice was. I take off the voder, and turn to get the printer off the shelf where it has been placed, my four paws making nigh a sound as they keep steady contact with the floor as I carry the printer back to my work area. The depot manager is a bit shocked at seeing me in my 'taur' form, but realizes that I can now get more done, and with less hassle. He's smiling at the thought of my increased productivity.

I ate the extra large lunch that I had packed with gusto, and realized that I was still quite hungry. I looked downward, and realized that I had quite a bit of extra mass, which explained why I was quite hungry still. I noticed that the front office was just placing their order, so I added a bit to it. I went into my area, and mentally checked my stability. So far, So good. I might make it the whole day.

::Ring!:: Yes? Ok, I guess. oh, they do, eh? Ok. ::click:: I hung up the phone. Great. A customer wants to "talk to the tech" to put in a special request, or to see who is going to fix his or her system. I figure this should be fairly interesting. I have seen some people take their system straight out the door after seeing that a SCAB worked there, once leaving the $50 estimate fee that the shop requires. Some people...

I walk out and the customer's jaw just about hits the counter. He's obviously never seen a 'taur before, but SCABs that can even morph are still somewhat of a novelty. Most work quite hard to not let on to the fact that they can shift at all. He recovers quickly though, and the session turns into a "If it is possible, try and do this or that" type of things, most of which I was happy to oblige him. We finished up the conversation, I took the note pad on which I was writing these things down on, and attached it to the work order. I then went back and finished up on the system I was working on. Work has it's bright spots on occasion...

The end of the working day came, and I was still holding my taur form. I was quite impressed with myself. I did have to change myself back, in order to fit into Kerry's car. I might give her a ride this weekend...