Alchemy, by Pascal Q. Porcupine

Story name: Alchemy
Author: Pascal Q. Porcupine
Publication date: November 24, 1997 (on TSA-Talk)

Date: A few months after the Battle of the Three Gates¹
Location: A cave in Metamor Valley

Overview

Pascal visits a friend in a cave, and shares her morph ring with them.

+ Story info (Spoilers!)

Summary

A hunched-over figure in a red robe carries a candle into a dimly-lit cave, and is formally met by a gray squirrel of nonbinary gender. The figure, Pascal, takes off her robe and stands up straight, having enjoyed pretending to be so mysterious. The squirrel, whose name is Mil, embraces Pascal, and the two make small talk on Mil's couch.

Pascal then gives Mil a present: a morph ring, which is gold and embedded with a sapphire. Pascal has already loaded it with forms that Mil would enjoy. Mil closes hir eyes and focuses, and after the ring shifts hir features with an amber glow, sie becomes an anthro skunk. After admiring hirself in hir mirror, Mil decides to change back, but opens hir eyes too soon, leaving hir fixed with amber skin. Pascal assures hir that it's only temporary, until sie uses the morph ring again.

Pascal leaves to help one of the Keep's wizards set up a Van deGraaf generator. After one last kiss, she picks up her robe, and closes the door behind her.

Characters

Main Characters:

• Pascal: A Keep alchemist with a fondness for theatrics and playfulness. She is a porcupine morph with maroon-, purple-, and magenta-splotched fur with zebra stripes on her quills.
• Mil: A cave-dwelling recluse, unknown to the rest of the Keep. Mil's gender is neither male nor female; Mil goes by "sie" and "hir". Sie is a gray-furred flying squirrel morph with amber horns and amber-colored eyes. Pascal believes hir to be a great artist.

Important Mention:

• Copernicus: A lizard morph from the Keep. He wants Pascal to learn how to turn lead into gold.

Points of Interest

• In this story and in Potion, Copernicus is referred to as a Lord.
• The morph ring is introduced here. It is described as a gold ring with a sapphire in it. It allows a non-magical user to take on any form that has been previously cast into it.
  • The ideal operation of the morph ring is this: the non-magical user closes their eyes and focuses on the ring: they will see a list of options available. By focusing on an option, the user will glow a soft amber, shift in body, and stop glowing.
    • They must keep their eyes closed during the shifting, or the change will stop while in glowing amber form. This is apparently a minor bug in this particular morph ring, and can be resolved by morphing again.
  • The ring appears to be designed to easily allow new options, at least for Pascal's alchemy to create.

Behind the Scenes

• When this story was first released, the author specified that it took place a few months after the Battle of Three Gates.

Footnotes

1. As stated by the author.