It looked like just an ordinary house. There wasn't anything odd about it. One among many terraced housing with the occasional changed person walking by.
Zoe looked curiously at gate, protecting a small enclosure before the blue painted wooden door. She pushed it forward as it swung easily.
"What do you think Mister Hayes became?" She asked Athena.
The scorpion girl walked with her claws and legs more evenly stretched out. It looks like being outside gave her far more room, and her relative size became that much more imposing. The scorpion part bent downwards so that the human torso was slightly more level to the slime girl. "I don't know... it can't be any worse then what we've seen so far."
Brandon chuckled, his snake tail pushing against the side. "Adults tend to be softies about being changed." Most of his own friends handled it just fine. Even had fun with it.
"Having a snake tail must be awkward," thought Athena. Then again, her transformation was also quite difficult in small rooms.
"Eh, not really" Shrugged the snake boy. "I can move the same as I did before. It's a pain to sleep with sometimes but I get around that. My dad pays the heating bill" He chuckled.
They rang the door bell and waited....
"Maybe he's not home?" Brandon thought aloud.
"I saw a light on... someone is in there." Athena glanced at the window.
There was a silhouette, and it seemed to be having trouble moving.. it was approaching the door now, heavily.
Zoe tensed. her slime form actually started to become a little rigid. Not a healthy state to continue in, she managed to relax just a little as she watched cautiously.
the door opened...
They saw the impossible.
The creature looked snakelike, at least up to a torso that ended into scorpion legs. Weirdest of all, it was made of slime... the stinger on her head, very similar to Athena's dripped the slime onto its head. "Y-yes?" The creature spoke.
"A-Andrew Hayes?" Zoe asked alarmed.
"That's me... you are?"
"I'm Zoe... this is Athena... you used to teach us at school. We wanted to know why you stopped..."
The strange creature looked at the three of them. "Come in... just give me a moment... I don't know how you walk like this..."
It took a while for Andrew to explain his situation to them
"My appearance is based on who I am with at the time. I'm an amalgamation of those closest to me. At the moment, I have the forms of you three..." It spoke with a somewhat female voice. Probably because there were two females in the room making that aspect more dominant.
"Wow..." Brandon seemed quite impressed, shocked, and awed at the same time.
"It's a little random... I don't always know what part I'll get from someone else... But somehow it all works together in some way."
"What sort of range is it before you get something from someone else?" Asked Athena.
"No idea. Sometimes its enough for someone to pass by the street... usually though, they have to be in the same room as me. About twenty five meters if I were to take a guess. Often though anyone in the same room as me, I'll gain an... attribute."
"What happens when your not with anyone? Do you have like a ... default state?" Zoe was curious about this.
"I do... Its a humanoid form... very androgynous. A blank slate essentially. Nobody can see me in that form except myself..." Even ordinary humans, the teacher would tend to pick up. However the blank state was uncomfortable- almost painful to be in. It was just so... empty. Given he lived alone, it was not an easy situation for him. "I think you can see why, I had to give up teaching. In a full class of transformed students, I would probably pick up about twenty different parts of everyone. The results would be unpredictable... I don't know what it looks like in there."
"We- we hoped you would reconsider Mister Hayes" said Zoe softly. "We like you... your a great teacher." Though now she wondered if they were being selfish. What mister Hayes had was a serious problem. The random element made it that they just didn't know what would happen.
"Plus, if what you say is true, you could help students understand their own forms better. Why not become a P.E teacher? One on one or something?" Athena suggested.
The slimey-scorpion-snake amalgamation sighed, its arms sinking into itself. "urgh... sticky..." she tried pulling his form together.
"Ha..." Zoe smiled. "Yeah you need to concentrate. Otherwise you tend to just mush all over the place"
"See?" Said Athena. "Now if you encountered another slime like student, you could share that with them" the Scorpion smiled.
"I-I'm not sure how you all manage... I could barely walk the stairs like this. I fell over... but I guess being semi-solid I avoided permanent damage." Another drop of slime came from the tip of his stinger, and onto her head. She winced at it.
Brandon nodded. "You taught us some good stuff. Come on Mister Hayes,"
"Well...I'll... think about it"
"...and that's what happened" Zoe explained to Harry.
Athena nodded at the recounted events. "Though keep it quiet for now."
The oriental girl's three eyes blinked. "Yikes..."
"Yeah... It was a bit weird seeing him like that." To see a slime mould girl like her, mixed in with an arachnid, and a snake boy? It was beyond freaky.
"Do you think He'll come back?" Henry asked. She liked him too.
"I don't know. But if he did, he probably couldn't teach more then a few of us at a a time."
Harry looked thoughtfully. She then noticed Ken, the fox boy approach.
"Hey there!" The fox kid smiled to her.
"H-hi" She said quietly.
"Names Ken. I think you know my friend Brandon right?"
"Yeah... I saw you throw the spit-wad at Zoe."
"Hey that was Brandon's doing," he quickly said. How did she even see it?
"But your idea right?" chuckled Zoe.
"Well if you want to get specific. Anyway... what's your name?" He looked at the oriental girl with a lot of interest.
"H-H-Har-y" She said very nervously.
The fox boys ears twitched as he tried to put the name to her face. He didn't know that many eastern names. "Haru? That's a cute name!" he smiled. The girl still seemed nervous. Maybe she had recently moved in. He thought the extra eye was really cute. From what he had seen, the girl seemed very nice to people though also very shy and distant. She was also available from what he had seen, but not for long if he didn't make some sort of move.
Harry looked troubled at the mispronunciation of her name. "N-No- I-" she tried to explain.
"Sorry fox-boy" Zoe stepped in. "She's just not interested."
"Oh hey-" Ken blushed at being caught out. "I just wanted to say hello. Though- um- maybe we could just see a movie sometime? As friends? Maybe?" He looked hopefully. He hoped he wasn't pushing his luck.
"... I- can't. sorry.." Harry said eventually. Her voice very strained yet also delicate.
Ken looked disappointed. "Well okay..." He smiled again trying not to show the disappointment too much. The girl really was very cute. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained. He noted though that she didn't say 'no'. "Well... I guess it was the worst time to ask. Start of school..." he laughed a bit again. "But if you want to hang out and stuff... um..."
"Go away Ken" Zoe said flatly.
"Er- right! Well see ya girls" The fox boy waved. Ken was blushing very hard as he went back to class.
