Somewhat Special Event: The Extras Talk Back!

[AmbushCat]

((OOC: Life can be a very distracting nuisance. Just putting that out there. ))

Zeke: *disconcerted* Sunny. Very sunny, very hot. *fans herself* Not kosher.

Ellen: ...The part of the Spam-verse that we live in is Florida-esque. As such, we've been stuck dealing with temperatures in the hundreds or high nineties for months now. (slowly exhales) ...Fall and winter can't come soon enough.

[Ookalf]

(I understand...)

Oh, yeah, I feel that. *Sassafras nods sympathetically.* We've had some hot days over at the manor, too. I mean, we've got air conditioning, but with fur that can still be rough... You know what I mean, right Zeke?

[AmbushCat]

Zeke: *nods repeatedly* Warm. Hot. Way too hot. Shedding doesn't help.

Ellen: ...As a cat or felinoid, Ezekiel undergoes peak shedding during the spring and fall like usual. While it makes things a little cooler for her when summer comes, it doesn't do her any good if she swaps to a human or catgirl (...or catboy). ...And when she inevitably swaps back to a cat later, she has to shed all over again. Her condition doesn't "remember" what her fur was like before.

[Ookalf]

*Sassafras winces in sympathy.* Oof, can't even shed, huh? That must be tough. And if you keep trying, the fur's probably everywhere. I can't imagine how hard that is to clean up...

[AmbushCat]

Zeke: Plenty of it. Tons of it. *shakes her head* Got a housekeeper. He handles it.

Ellen: ...She leaves behind enough that over the course of a year, what we have could be stuffed into a throw pillow. We picked up a Gaw housekeeper around the time I was born, though, and he's pretty capable.

Zeke: Was previously worse. Have trouble imagining.

Ellen: *rolls her eyes at some distant memory or other* ...She swaps once a week, but I remember it being a lot worse. Back when she was born, the shifts happened every single hour. Mom had to get in contact with godpapa and ask him to dial it down to something more manageable.

[Ookalf]

Every hour? *Sassafras let out a low whistle.* Wow... And did you shed during that, at all? That sounds like a complete nightmare... I mean, for reasons besides that too, of course! Was that hard for you, Zeke, changing like that?

[AmbushCat]

Zeke: ...Plenty of times. *glances at Ellen* Presumably? Other question... I don't recall.

Ellen: ...She was too young to remember, but yes; there was a fair amount of shedding going on. For us, that was the hardest part. *shakes her head* ...For her, it was more difficult. Even after Raleigh fixed the timing issue, there was still the issue of... you know... repeatedly swapping genders and species without one's own say-so. Thankfully the shifts are painless, but there's still some adaptability involved.

[Ookalf]

Hm, so like, you might be in the middle of something as a cat, then suddenly you're taller and on two legs? Or the other way around? Yeah, I can only imagine what a pain that must be... You probably have some stories about that, I'm guessing?

[AmbushCat]

Zeke: *nod-nods eagerly* Twenty-five kids. One classroom. Instant havoc.

Ellen: ...Her first day at kindergarten was a disaster. She turned up as a male catboy... nothing too unusual, given the Spam-verse. At some point the teacher let the kids do their own thing, and he was playing with two other kids. ...They began smacking each other over something entirely trivial... probably over which truck to play with, I forget. In the midst of it he went full cat, and one of the kids accidentally pulled his tail.

Zeke: *wincing* Very bad timing.

[Ookalf]

*Sassafrass winces in sympathy and wraps her own tail around herself.* Oof, yeah, I hate when stuff like that happens... So, you must have freaked out when that happened, huh?

[AmbushCat]

Zeke: *nod-nods emphatically* Super Freak Out.

Ellen: ... *sympathetic glance, sort of* The entire room was startled out of their wits, and a few started crying. Most of them were too young to have seen anything like that, so they made a lot of noise. The kid who had pulled his tail had no idea what happened. Zeke bolted, and he somehow managed to climb into the ceiling and wouldn't come out. Four teachers and the principal couldn't restore order, and Mom had to go over there and explain his condition personally to the class.

[Ookalf]

She did, huh? Bet more than a few people were surprised to hear about it... So was everything fine after that, or were there other problems?

[AmbushCat]

Zeke: Not the end. *shrug* Quite, anyway. Flooded ceiling.

Ellen: ...While he was up there, he began shedding from stress. No one found out about it until after the weekend. At that point, it was discovered that several of the students in that class were allergic to cats, after hair started drifting down from gaps in the ceiling tiles over the next week. ...The end result of it was that Mom didn't just have to go in again to talk to people, she also had to dole out some cash to cover the kids' allergy medicines. None of this was helped by Ezekiel continuing to show up to class in cat-form until his next shift.

[Ookalf]

She did, huh? I mean, I can see why they'd be upset... How'd the kids treat you after that, Zeke? They knew it wasn't your fault, right?

[AmbushCat]

Zeke: Well, eventually. It took time.

Ellen: ...Sometimes kids can be a little bit slow. It took them seeing the shifts in action a few times over the next few weeks before it finally sunk in. They were accepting of it for the most part after that, though the shifts to pure cat still tended to be bothersome for the kids whenever they happened. *sips some water* ...All this talking...

Zeke: You okay, Ellen?

Ellen: ...I'm fine. Throat is just a little dry.