A New Phase - Chapter 4
#4 of A New Phase
A New Phase
Chapter 4
Jack wandered out into the kitchen to find Farren already ready with a bowl of ice cream to present him - mint chocolate chip - and a spoon. They were definitely efficient when they decided to be. Sess'tha glanced at his pants and frowned for a moment, then shrugged off whatever had caught her attention. "You're going to have to show me sometime how you do that running on all fours thing," Jack mentioned as he was herded by all three of them to the living room.
"Sure, but later! Now we can eat ice cream and watch TV," Selkine proclaimed cheerily. He was urged to sit in the middle of the futon and Selkine took his right while Farren ended up on his left, and Sess'tha settled for sitting opposite Farren.
It was interesting, he decided, that all three tended to like the same sort of shows that he did. That boded well. Something seemed odd in a way, just somewhat nagging at the corner of his mind, but he couldn't really put his finger on it. The ice cream was finished in short order and Farren took the bowls to the kitchen, promptly losing her position adjacent to him to Sess'tha. Thankfully there was no grumbling when she came back.
Time passed relatively quickly, and since it was his free time, he was glad to spend it with these lovely ladies. Beat pretty much everything else he could do. Maybe he could get a good sleep this evening and actually be refreshed at work as well. Even with his previously-exhausted state, he always excelled at his duties at work, but it wouldn't do to slip further.
It was in the middle of a silly cartoon that there was a loud knock at the door, making all three of the girls jump. He realized just how cuddly they had gotten by the stark difference when they moved away to allow him to stand. He got up and went to look through the peephole, observing the two police officers standing outside as they knocked again. He looked over his shoulder at the three girls and murmured, "Police. I guess I'd better answer it."
He glanced down at himself; he was shirtless, but had pants on, so that would be good enough to talk to the police. He turned back to the door and grasped the handle, completely missing Sess'tha's sudden look of alarm. "Um, Jack..." Sess'tha began as he unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door.
"Good evening, officers. How can I help you?" Jack asked the two startled-looking police officers standing there. He hoped it wasn't anything too complicated, as he had been enjoying the attention of the soft females quite well, and he wanted to get back to it. The thought itself caused his loins to tighten and his flesh to twitch in anticipation.
"Ahh, Jack Starson?" the male officer asked, while the female looked somewhat miffed for some reason and walked to the side of the door, looking out into the parking lot.
"Yes, that's me," Jack replied, letting the annoyance creep into his voice a little.
"I'm sorry that we caught you obviously at a bad time. We just wanted to let you know that there were no leads and no luck with finding the person who broke into your house, and the case has been referred to a different investigator. We also wanted to make sure that everything was all right with you." The officer coughed lightly and focused his attention on writing something on the back of a business card. "This is the investigator's card and the case information is on the back. We'll leave you to your business now, just call if there is any more information, or any problems." He handed Jack the card and turned, letting his breath out with a woosh. Both he and the other officer beat a prompt retreat, causing Jack a good bit of confusion as he closed the door and re-bolted it.
"Well, that was an odd way for them to act," Jack noted as he turned to face the girls again. Then he stopped as he noted the looks of dismay on both Sess'tha and Farren's faces, and Selkine was apparently trying hard not to laugh. "Um, is everything okay?" He distractedly slipped the card into the front pocket of his pants, then blinked as the card fell to the ground by his foot. "What the...?"
Sess'tha took a deep breath, gathered her composure, and smiled meekly. "Jack... You're wearing a midphase copy of your pants... it doesn't interact with the outphase card or anything."
"Oh," Jack muttered as he bent to retrieve the card, then he stopped moving again after standing up. "Waaaait..." he frowned. "Nobody and nothing in the human... outphase... world can interact with the midphase stuff... or see it..." He stared at Sess'tha as she nodded reluctantly. "Soooo... I was just standing fully naked in front of those two officers." Sess'tha nodded again.
"And with half a boner," Farren offered helpfully.
Jack turned to the door and bumped his head against it. Well there was a hell of an oops. He took a while, hoping the redness had left his face before he turned back to them. Selkine was face down on the futon mattress, shaking with restrained laughter, while Farren and Sess'tha looked as guilty as a kitten caught eating the flowers. "Okay, this could be a BIG problem. You guys gotta help me not do this anymore."
Sess'tha sighed. "I can get a few mistfans tomorrow. We really don't have any need for midphase copies of your clothing unless you want to wear clothes here too. And maybe we can find out if you can learn to tell the difference on sight between midphase and outphase objects. That'll probably be pretty important. We can probably ask Master Takaran when you get home from work tomorrow."
"As long as it doesn't cause me any problems at work tomorrow," Jack observed. "Do you think I should call in a personal day?"
"Well, it should be fine as long as you are careful. The drive could be an issue though. You might want to consider walking to work. It's about two miles, right? Get some exercise, and it'll be much safer until we figure out what's up." Sess'tha thought about it some more. "Yeah, you interact with both phases, so it really could be an odd issue, and potentially dangerous. Midphasers would assume that they and other midphase objects can't touch you, so wouldn't try to avoid you."
"Um... Hmmm. Yes, that does sound like a problem. Getting run into or over would be bad," Jack observed with a shudder.
"We'll go with you to work tomorrow!" Selkine announced. "Then we can keep you safe."
"Wait... Are you sure that's a good idea?" Farren asked, looking doubtful.
"Of course! I mean, think about it. He can be attacked by shadows now. He doesn't know how to deal with them, but you two do. It just all makes sense," Selkine observed pragmatically.
"Okay, good point," Farren conceded. "We'll be able to head back here, or just hang around the area while he's at work. Plenty to do there anyway."
"And if I'm walking to work, I'd better get to bed and get some sleep, since I'll have to wake up a lot earlier," Jack observed. To his surprise, the three agreed with him.
"We've had a pretty harrowing weekend ourselves. Not much sleep while you were at the hospital," Farren said. "We could all use a good rest." Sess'tha nodded and yawned, then simply leaped up the side of the stairs to the loft, surprising Jack. "She sleeps in the bowl chair up there," Farren mentioned, thinking he was surprised at her going up at all, rather than the way she went up. "I sleep out here on the futon."
Jack blinked, and turned his gaze to Selkine. She grinned, "I sleep in your bed of course. But I'll be good. Snuggles only if you want them."
Jack shrugged and nodded, "Works well enough. I won't kick you out of my bed. It would be impolite I guess."
Several wishes of a good sleep later and Jack was in his bedroom with Selkine, trying to decide whether he should undress or not with her here. After watching her fussing over the bed sheets for a brief while, he realized that she had been in here for months already, and so his undressing was nothing new to her. Just that previously she couldn't touch him, she could only see him.
Jack shrugged to himself and removed the pants that nobody in his world could even see anyway, then flicked off the light and headed for the bed. He was aware that Selkine had already climbed into it on the side opposite that which he normally slept on, and he was almost taken aback by the bright glow reflected from her eyes in the dimly lit room. She could obviously see a lot better than him based on what he saw from her eyes. Her look was almost predatory in a way, and he knew that he was her prey, but he really didn't think this was a bad thing.
Using her eyeshine as a beacon to find his way through the darkness, he made his way to his side of the bed. Sliding under the covers, he found it somewhat odd at first that he was dealing with both phase's sets of covers, but soon he got himself situated comfortably. Selkine reached over to stroke a lock of hair from his face with a happy purr, but otherwise was true to her word to behave, staying over on her side of the bed.
He lay for a while, feeling the tension of her desire, and finally opened his eyes to glance over at her. She was still gazing at him as he suspected, her eyeshine framed in what he could see of her face now. Her ears perked when he looked at her, and he smiled.
"You can snuggle with me if you like, as long as you let me sleep," he murmured quietly, and saw the immediate interest she displayed. White teeth showed as she smiled and scooted over next to him, her warm body pressing against his as she sighed in pleasure and draped an arm across him. He glanced down at her face as she rested comfortably on his chest and saw her eyes droop shut. He felt her warm body close to his, and had to admit that he really did feel something here that was more than just a purely physical reaction. Yes... he could get to like this idea and this vixen, he thought, drifting off to sleep.
* * *
Jack awoke feeling slightly more restrained than usual. It took him a short while to figure out what was going on. From what he could tell, Selkine was still cuddled up to his side. But there was also a weight to his other side, atop the covers, and the same near his feet. He turned his head cautiously and at first swore there was a huge animal on top of the bed to his other side, but it was in fact Farren, curled up with her back against his side. The weight by his feet turned out to be Sess'tha, similarly curled up.
He glanced across at the alarm clock, and noted that it was about 15 minutes before it would go off anyway. He felt very refreshed, and reached over to flick the switch and disable the alarm. As a change from the past few weeks, he knew he wouldn't fall back to sleep either.
His reaching across Farren woke her and she yawned, showing off sharp teeth before she lifted her head, bumping his arm before he drew it back. She jumped, blinking over her shoulder at him. Her ears laid to the side, and she seemed somewhat embarrassed. "We meant to move back to our own beds before you woke up," she whispered, slipping off the bed without jostling it at all. She tapped the bridge of Sess'tha's nose very lightly, and the cat woke instantly, looking up. She too climbed off the bed silently, and both of them headed for the door.
"You know you're welcome to snuggle him too. You should have just asked," Selkine mumbled sleepily, causing both of the other two to come to guilty halts. Then Farren started shaking jerkily. Jack looked concerned for a moment until the laughter the grey fox was trying to hold in finally bubbled into sound.
Sess'tha patted the vulpine's shoulder and looked back at the bed. "You should have known we couldn't sneak that past her," the ocelot chided the grey fox.
Farren composed herself enough to reply cheerily. "Well, it was worth a try. I'll go make breakfast. Should be ready in about 20 minutes. That means we're ahead of schedule today."
Jack was suddenly distracted as Selkine woke enough to stretch. The full length of her warm body pressed against him while stretching was quite an experience indeed! He relished the feeling until she finished and was saddened when she rolled away from him and sat up on the bed. Well, he did have to get up also.
Sliding out from under the covers, he went to flip on the light, since it was still dim outside, much earlier than he normally woke. Opening the drawers of his dresser, he blinked in surprise at the contents. Overlapping clothing, much more than he owned. After thinking about it for a while, he finally dug out several sets, comparing each to others by touch. He started building two piles on top of the dresser. His actions caught Selkine's attention and she came to watch curiously, remaining silent despite her wonder.
When he finally had two similar piles of clothing, each a full set of clothes for the day, he picked up a sock from one. With a grin, he turned to Selkine and dangled the sock in front of her nose. She blinked, backing away a little, but he caught her wrist lightly and held her hand up, then dropped the sock onto it. She caught the sock easily and looked at him curiously as he gathered up the other pile of clothing and took it to the bed.
"Ummmm..." Selkine began, confused as she looked at the sock in her hand.
"That was very smart," Sess'tha noted from the door, and Selkine spun around to glare at her.
"No sneaking up!" Selkine exclaimed, then looked at the sock. "And what was that about anyway, since you obviously seem to know?"
Jack hummed merrily and made an effort to ignore them for the moment unless he was directly addressed. He figured he would have to get used to ignoring midphasers if he was to avoid being labeled as insane in the outphase.
Sess'tha walked over and took the sock from Selkine, then dropped it back on the pile on the dresser. "He just used your help to figure out which clothes were from the outphase, so he wouldn't go to work naked."
"Err... What?" Selkine asked, looking more confused.
Sess'tha grinned. "Well, obviously he is putting on outphase clothing, as you can see. But he can't tell the difference yet, as we found out when he answered the door last night. He knows that outphase clothing can't interact with midphase clothing, and so he made two piles. Everything in each pile interacts with each other, but the two piles won't interact obviously, because one is outphase and one is midphase. Then he gave you a sock. If you could touch the sock, it would be a midphase sock, if you couldn't it is an outphase sock. That way he knew which pile of clothing to wear. Very smart catch you have here Selkine."
Jack smiled as he finished pulling on his shoes. "Thank you for the credit, Sess'tha. And nice job recognizing my intent."
"Well, I -did- tell you he seemed smart too!" Selkine grumped. Jack blinked at her. She looked so cute that way! He walked over and hugged her, which instantly mollified her.
"Thank you for the help, Selkine," he murmured to her, and he felt her shiver happily within his grasp. He'd have to get used to the effect his touch had on these three.
"Breakfast is ready!" Farren called from the kitchen.
"Oh, that's right!" Sess'tha exclaimed, turning a serious look to Jack. "Do you feel about as hungry as you would expect to be right now, or more than you think you should?"
"Uh, about as hungry as normal... why?" Jack replied.
Sess'tha nodded. "You haven't had an outphase meal for several days, and we fed you only midphase food yesterday. Master Takaran said we have to make sure that you could be sustained on midphase food. So if you were hungrier now than normal, it obviously wasn't working. But you feel fine, so it should be okay."
Jack nodded slowly, "I guess that makes sense." He grinned, "It's good to know I can enjoy Farren's cooking. She's really good at it."
"Jeran's here too," came Farren's voice again. "Come out and get food before he eats everything."
"Hey! Hands off the food!" Selkine exclaimed and rushed out. Jack blinked at Sess'tha, and they headed out together.
Selkine was confronting Jeran, who had his paws up and was proclaiming that he already ate and was stuffed. Farren handed Jack and Sess'tha a plate each, as well as utensils, then went to try to pry Selkine away from the defensive black cat. It took only a plate of food to distract her away from the feline, and Jeran thanked Farren with a quick smile.
The meal was good, and Jeran simply was there because Master Takaran had thought of the whole "walking to work" idea as well. So they were simply ahead of the game. So, with a farewell to a departing Jeran, and Jack getting his stuff together in his backpack, they headed out into the early morning light for work.
* * *
The walk itself was a harrowing experience for Jack. Now that he was suddenly able to see the midphase, he was made aware of just how odd his world really was. Animals from the midphase were apparently not as dense as the human population of the outphase, but there were still a lot of them. He saw... Kids? Cubs? Kits?... around even this early in the morning, playing games outside. He also noticed large piles of all sorts of random stuff, including everything from actual trash to big screen TV's, blenders, couches, and various completely good-looking items.
The three girls surrounded him for the walk, Sess'tha and Farren leading the way to either side in front of him, and Selkine bringing up the rear. They had a look and feel about them as if they were on some critical mission, and other creatures out for morning strolls gave way before them. Jack realized this was likely necessary, since they would normally not make room for him, and he'd likely end up having to dodge them, which would bring up too many questions in both worlds.
As they passed by one of the large piles of stuff, Selkine pointed past his shoulder. "Look, Jeran is on dephasing duty today." He looked where she was pointing, and saw the black cat approaching one of the piles, wearing a green apron with some odd symbols and a starburst on it.
"Probably was told by Master Takaran to keep an eye on us too," Sess'tha murmured.
"Not a bad thing," Farren pointed out, and waved to the cat, hailing him. He returned the wave distractedly as he examined the junk pile, and then began poking at individual items in it.
Jack watched with interest as the pokes resulted in soft glows and short-lived puffs of mist rising from the pile. He wasn't certain what was occurring until he saw a desk be the recipient of one of the cat's prods. The desk glowed very dimly for a brief moment, then dissolved into smoke, drifting a bit in the air before fading away completely.
"Er, what's he doing exactly?" Jack asked.
"He's dephasing excess materials and objects from the outphase," Farren said. "There's no limit to how many copies of an outphase item can end up in the midphase, and if we didn't clean most of it out, we'd be swamped with everything. Literally everything. At least we don't have trouble with things getting intersected like we apparently used to. The spellmasters hundreds of years ago set in motion a great magic to prevent that."
Jack whistled. "Well, that's scary... I'm glad that stuff in the midphase is stuck there, otherwise people would just replicate everything back to the outphase and make a killing on copies." He blinked, thinking about this for a moment. "Wait, if there are unlimited copies of outphase objects, how can anybody sell anything in the midphase?"
"We don't," Farren answered. "While it may seem altruistic to you, we don't suffer from quite as many social foibles as outphasers do. Objects brought in from the outphase are free. We are almost what you would consider a socialist society. But we don't suffer from problems of need and poverty because there is absolutely no lack of necessary items. The exact opposite is the case in fact. If people are lazy, they end up having far too much stuff, to their own detriment.
"So basically, those who have special status make a living from services of all types," Farren concluded. "Heck, your call center is used in the midphase also as a call center, and it's for cable TV also. We have people who know how to operate all of the equipment that your phase uses, and we make good use of it."
"Well, that makes sense, then," Jack said, smiling, and realized that there was a hand on his shoulder. He blinked over his shoulder at Selkine, and she looked guilty and removed her hand.
"Sorry... it's just the..." she began, but was interrupted by Sess'tha.
"And wouldn't it be lovely to get questions about why you are holding your hand over some human's shoulder? Just the fact we are walking with him is odd enough already," Sess'tha observed. Selkine just looked more embarrassed and wrung her fingers in distress.
Jack was also disturbed by the fact that he watched cars going by from both phases, the midphase drivers giving no thought to going straight through outphase cars. He realized that this was why he wasn't driving. Sure, their cars would just go through his car, but they would splatter him all over the inside of his car on the way past. The fact that the girls were walking with him was the only reason midphase vehicles paid attention to him at some of the intersections that he had to cross. In fact, this would complicate his life to no end if he couldn't drive anywhere safely.
The trip was uneventful at least, with only a few odd looks directed at them from midphasers and no real notice from outphasers at all. While midphasers might find the three females following this human so closely somewhat odd, the humans in the outphase just saw a guy walking with a backpack.
When they arrived at his work, he noticed that things were liable to become a bit more complicated. There were enough animals working at his call center in the midphase that he'd have to actively keep his eyes open for potential collisions. And the girls could not accompany him in, since they didn't work there.
He sighed as they all paused at a distance, and shook his head. "Well, wish me luck."
"Just keep your eyes open, and stay aware of your surroundings," Sess'tha advised.
"You'll do fine!" Selkine piped in, leaning forward to give his cheek a lick.
"We'll save you if we have to," Farren added. "Though it'd cause a lot of questions."
Jack nodded and watched the dual combination of animals and people milling around and through each other. Taking a deep breath, he steeled his nerve and started walking towards the entrance, careful to stick to the sidewalk so as not to be clipped by a midphase car in the parking lot.
He took a moment to pay better attention to all the oddities he saw. Two cars parked on most of the spaces, overlapping with no problem. Foxes, wolves, cats, porcupines, weasels... animals of all shapes and description in the break area outside, often sitting overlapping humans and completely ignoring the effect.
Jack heard a scramble of claws approaching fast from behind him, and dodged off to the side, bending over to tie his shoe as an excuse for moving. He barely got out of the way in time, and felt a tail brush past his bottom. The canine owner of this fluffy tail paused in surprise and looked back at him searchingly, but he studiously ignored the creature. Soon she shrugged it off, probably as imagination, and took off again on all fours. He looked at his watch... 8:06 am now. He had 24 minutes before he had to clock in, but perhaps the canine was late.
Approaching the front entryway, he paid close attention to the movement of both animals and people. Crossing his fingers, he took a deep breath and dove into the meandering sparse crowd. Careful to pay more attention to the way the humans would perceive his movements, he managed to make his way to the secure doorway and flashed his badge at the guard on duty. He also flashed a smile at the guard, but he paled slightly as he realized that in the same seat overlapping the guard, was a very big wolf. This was probably the midphase guard, and he definitely looked capable of the work.
He kept moving quickly to avoid being run over in either phase, and was forced to step to the side to avoid the wingtip of a large owl as it gesticulated wildly during its conversation. He couldn't help but give it a second glance, as this was the first avian he had seen. Then he realized his glance had lasted a bit too long as the owl and its rabbit companion looked at him more than curiously.
He let his gaze travel through them, as if he were looking at something beyond them, and continued walking, aware that he had to be more careful. Then something caught his ear that made him pale again.
"Hey, isn't that Jack Starson?" He assumed it was the rabbit speaking.
"Yes, that's the guy. The best rep, wings down, on the outphase side, though they say he's been having problems recently," the owl responded. The owl lowered his voice, and Jack strained to hear. "There are rumors around the call center that he's been reacting to midphase stuff for a few weeks. Weird, huh?"
"Phaw," the rabbit exclaimed. "Don't go spreading rumors like that. We don't want to scare the trainees, especially since we use him to train them all. Lucky new hires," she sighed. "I hope to get rep of the month sometime so I can sit at his station. He really is great to be around. I hear it makes you all tingly and happy."
Jack was already straining to hear, and was too far away to catch the owl's reply. But his mind was churning. From the stuff he had heard, apparently the girls weren't the only ones affected by his presence. This could get very odd and complicated.
He made his way through the hallways to the call floor, then down the paths through the sections of the center to his area.
"Hey, Jack!" he was hailed, and turned to see his supervisor, Jennifer. "You're here early. Feeling any better than you have the past few weeks? I've got your QA composite results... You're slipping. You're not beating the next best rep by twice his score any more." She caught up to walk beside him. "You're looking better today at least. No dark rings under your eyes."
Jack smiled at her, "I had a tough weekend. Burglar broke into my house and konked me over the head. Put me in the hospital for a while. So I got a lot of rest."
"Oh, that's terrible to hear! You're okay now, right?"
"Absolutely," Jack assured her.
"Okay, well, let me know if you need anything." And with that, she peeled off to head to her desk at the head of the section as Jack headed back to his desk. Looking across the low sectional dividers between call desks, he noted all the animals with specialized headsets for their ears. Most of them were sitting in the same place as humans, overlapping, using computers that were overlapping the outphase computers, and the noise level was trice as bad from the activity of two sets of employees he could hear at once. Yes, this whole thing was going to be a challenge.
As he reached his desk, Jack noted the state of his workstation. Not only was his normal computer there, but also a second computer on the other side. Apparently the midphaser who shared his workstation was left-handed. Well, that would help avoid some complications at least.
Jack looked at the items stuck on the walls of his cubicle. One that caught his attention was a snow-white weasel-looking face in a photograph. The certificate it was on proclaimed, "Tereska, Representative of the Month". He couldn't tell if it was male or female from the face, though the name sounded feminine. He evaluated his post-ups, and decided he didn't need to move anything.
Pulling his chair out, he noted it had been lowered a bit, but he would worry about that when it was closer to time to clock in. Perching on the edge of it, he signed into the computer and started looking up the weekend's news.
He was busily taking note of the current promotions his company had for new customers when a hand fell heavily on his shoulder, startling him. "Jack! Cool trick, squatting at your desk like that, but just take a chair. We know you're the best rep here, but you don't need to go chairless to prove it."
Jack stood up in surprise to see Steve, one of his senior reps, push a chair at him. Steve shook his head. "And we'll make sure that nobody steals your chair over the weekend anymore." Steve grinned and turned to walk back towards the head of the aisle.
Jack looked at the chair that Steve had wheeled up overlapping the chair he had been sitting in. His face reddened, and he realized that only the fact that he had been sitting on the front edge with his legs tucked beneath him had kept some very awkward questions at bay. It had looked like he was supporting himself on his legs. What would Steve have thought if he had been lounging back, floating in mid-air?
Glancing around furtively, he pushed the lower midphase chair back a bit, and pulled the outphase chair to sit on instead. Ah, yes, this was his chair. Proper height and everything. He made a note to try to pay better attention... somehow... and went back to perusing the new information. He would definitely have to be VERY careful not to do anything abnormal that the humans could see.
Soon he noted the time to be within clock-in range. He put his headset on and with a few keystrokes he logged into the computer to alert the phone system that he was available. It was a slow Monday morning for a change, so he'd have a while before he got his first call.
Switching his screen to the available rep queue, he glanced at his name near the bottom of the list, slowly creeping upwards as reps at the top received incoming calls. He quickly checked his work list to make sure he scheduled time to do any callbacks he needed to do, then went back to looking at the new information.
As his name approached the top of the list, and the end of the clock-in window approached, he was aware of a few of his coworkers in his group scrambling to their desks to clock in before they were late. However he was too engrossed with the lovely deal he could give customers as a save offer that he didn't register the fact that there were animals intermixed with them, and sitting in seats overlapping his coworkers.
He glanced at the call queue and saw he was second from the top as he became aware of a presence behind him that smelled distinctly musky. Musky in a good way, mind you. He froze with his hand on his mouse as a white-furred arm reached past his left side to set a book on the desk. He was aware of the midphase chair being pushed in behind and beneath him. Only the fact that his chair was set higher kept the other chair from colliding with him.
The movement of his name to the top of the available rep queue caught his eye as he sat back slowly, a feeling of dread creeping up in him as a very sleek and slinky white ermine scooted around in front of him. He always sat a ways away from his desk so he had space to be comfortable. A quick glance indicated that Tereska was indeed female as her tail flitted up, probably to be out of the way when she sat down. It also occurred to him that though he was wearing outphase clothing so as to be proper at work, he was still completely nude to midphasers' touch. And he had no clue how he was going to get out of this mess.
He continued to be treated to a lovely view of a white-furred rump as Tereska shifted her keyboard slightly, and he leaned to the side himself to see his monitor around her form. Then two things happened at once. Tereska glanced back at him with a smile and began to sit down, and his name vanished off the top of the rep queue as he heard a beep in his headphone and the automated voice began giving him a summary of the call type for the incoming call. This short blurb would very soon be followed by a pair of double beeps, and then he'd have a customer to deal with. Jack squinched his eyes, gritted his teeth, and prepared for the worst.
Tereska was expecting for the back of her legs to hit the lower edge of her seat, as opposed to his knees, and she tumbled back into his lap with a squeak of surprise and dismay just as the double-beep came through his headset. Jack quickly wrapped his left arm across her to keep her from falling off the chair to the side and grabbed his mouse with his right hand, looking at the auto-populated account information without having to think too much about it. He released the mouse and jabbed the After Call Work button on his phone box, so the system would not send him another call immediately when he got off this one.
"Good morning and thank you for calling Telvidia. This is Jack, how can I..." He got most of the way through his greeting before Tereska finally got her wits about her somewhat, and leaped off his lap with an extremely astute exclamation of "Holy Shit!!" "...help you?" he finished with an inward wince, hoping he didn't come across too badly to the customer.
Tereska was staring at him with her short ears laid back and her eyes wider than he thought should be possible. He gave his ear to the customer's drawled and long-spoken desire to pay the bill, but he looked at Tereska with a meek wave. The ermine reached forward with a tentative fingertip and poked his shoulder several times; enough to annoy him and cause him to bat her finger away, which caused her eyes to widen more and her mouth to drop open.
"Well, certainly I can process that payment for you sir," Jack replied to the customer on the line, as a male voice came from behind him.
"Is there a problem, Tereska? You don't look so well." Tereska looked past Jack at the speaker and stabbed a pointing finger at Jack repeatedly. Her mouth was moving, but obviously she was at a complete loss for words.
"Would you like to pay today with check or credit card?" Jack asked the customer.
"You really look bad," the voice behind him said. "Tereska, take a moment to calm down, then tell me what happened."
"Okay, it looks like we have your credit card information stored for easy payment," Jack informed the customer, trying desperately to keep calm and ignore the two midphasers. "Since you want to pay the current balance, I'll just need you to give me the last five digits of the card, and the expiration date." Jack was beginning to break into a cold sweat.
Tereska looked at Jack again, then reached past him. He felt a hand placed on his shoulder from behind. Apparently Tereska had grabbed the speaker's hand and put it there. The hand squeezed his shoulder lightly, then froze. Jack hung his head for a moment, then reached to pat the hand on his shoulder. The voice was very shaky now, "Well... that's... umm... interesting. I'll... go check with the floor manager." The hand left his shoulder and its owner obviously beat a hasty retreat, leaving Tereska alone with Jack again.
"Thank you for confirming that information, Mr. Salida, your payment has been submitted, and a confirmation will be sent to your email. Is there anything else I can assist you with?" Jack gave Tereska a glance and a small smile, hoping to calm her down. "Okay, then thank you for calling Telvidia, and have a wonderful day." He sighed in relief as the customer hung up and the ACW light on his phone went on. He paused and looked around for humans nearby, then looked at Tereska.
"I don't bite," he murmured softly to her, looking directly at her and hoping to break through to her. "And trust me, this is just as big a mess for me too. Just please don't go poking me with your claw anymore."
"You CAN see me!" Tereska exclaimed with a hiss of surprise, her small rounded ears suddenly perking forward with curiosity. She reached out to touch his shoulder gingerly, using her palm this time, and feeling along his arm.
Jack nodded and quickly pulled up his work list as an excuse to not be on a call, looking at it and pulling up an account from it that he had to research. He began to look over the account as he got an inspiration, and he grabbed a pen and pad of paper that he didn't recognize from the desk. A quick pat of each against his body confirmed that they ignored his clothing, and he began to jot on the paper. "Yes, I can see you. But everybody else still can't, and they would think I'm crazy if I talk to you. I have to act like none of you are here."
He perused the account as he did this, occasionally pausing in his writing to move to other screens of account information. When he was finished, he pointed at the paper, and Tereska retrieved it. It didn't bypass his notice that she kept her other paw on his arm as she read it, and seemed to be growing generally happier as time went by. That also made him somewhat nervous.
She nodded to him after reading. "I understand," she murmured, moving to the side and taking her paw off his arm. He nodded as he found the issue with the account he was looking at and quickly corrected it.
He was aware that she was watching his actions avidly, but thought little of it until she leaned up against his arm and began to explore his chest with her fingertips. He fidgeted as he scheduled a callback for later that afternoon, and was distinctly aware of the changes in her attitude. She was obviously enjoying contact with him as much as his three roommates did.
She glanced up suddenly and stopped leaning against him as somebody approached, then the same person she was talking to before murmured behind him, "Come on with me, Tereska. We'll figure out what's going on."
She nodded and looked at Jack longingly, then grabbed the note he had written and departed with the other midphaser. Jack breathed a sigh of relief and turned ACW off as he closed the window of the researched account. Yes, things were definitely getting interesting.
Miraculously enough, he went through the day now uninterrupted by midphasers, though he could feel curious animal gazes on his back, and occasionally caught their attention on him over the low cubicle dividers. He got to his scheduled lunch break and finished the last call before lunch in perfect time (as usual, he thought proudly), then signed off the phone system and leaned back with a sigh of relief.
He got up and made a very cautious trip to the vending machine in the break room to get a quick pre-packed sandwich. This task was odd, because the midphase copy of the vending machine was stocked with different items and it was hard to tell what was what, but he finally managed to retrieve a sandwich from the outphase machine as the midphase machine claimed he needed to pay it. And he managed to not be bumped into by any other midphasers, though he got a lot more curious looks.
Heading back to his desk, he began to eat his lunch, and was halfway finished with the sandwich when he became aware of a presence behind him. "Do you think it's true?" he heard a hushed female voice ask.
"Only one way to find out," answered another female voice, equally quiet.
"I'm not going to do it... You do it!" the first voice responded
Jack groaned inwardly and steeled himself for the inevitable. A tentative touch landed on his shoulder, and a gasp of surprise came from the owner of the hand. "Wow!" the second voice exclaimed, then was shushed.
The two retreated a ways, and he could hear excited conversation in very hushed tones. He stood up to stretch briefly, using that as a way to look around. His coworkers were on the phones, as none of their lunches were at the same time as his. Being top rep had some privileges. He did note that apparently the whole midphase crew in this area was on break, as he saw no other animals around.
A surreptitious glance over his shoulder showed that his tormentors were both feline, one a small wildcat-looking creature, and the other a very large tigress. The latter gave him a bit of a chill, as she looked like she could break him in half with her fingertips. She was feminine, but obviously exceptionally strong. They noticed his glance and grinned, turning away from him more to continue their animated discussion.
Jack sighed and returned to eating his sandwich. Definitely an odd situation.
* * *
Outside, the three girls had been occupying themselves in the area for the whole morning, looking around the region more thoroughly, doing some peeking at new things, and chatting with some friends they met. They had gotten some lunch, and Selkine had finished her quickly. Then Selkine had decided that she needed to check on Jack and make sure everything was okay for him. A bit of persuading Sess'tha and Farren that she could get permission to go into the call center, and they let her go, figuring she'd likely be turned away by security and be back soon. Sess'tha and Farren continued to munch on their meals and discuss the situation in the meantime.
* * *
Jack had finished his sandwich and decided to spend the rest of his lunch break looking over industry news. He had just pulled up the page when he felt a warm presence behind him, and then a furred hand landed lightly on his shoulder. "Touch him, it really does feel really good," the voice he had heard before purred, and from the size of the hand, he guessed it was the tigress. Another hand tentatively touched his opposite arm, and he heard a quiet purr start up behind him. He made a bit of a face, and concentrated on reading the news.
"He can't react to us," he heard the smaller cat say quietly, as if just realizing. "He can see us, but the other outworlders still can't, and if he reacts to us, they'll think he's crazy."
"Oh reeeaaaallly?" the tigress purred with a mischievous tone underlying her words. She dropped down onto her haunches, ducking out of site below the dividing walls of the cubicle beside him, and tugged the smaller cat down as well. "This could be fun..." she said with a predatory growl of pleasure.
"Um, what are you thinking? I don't want to get in trouble," the smaller cat said worriedly, laying her ears back and fidgeting.
"Don't worry," the tigress purred encouragingly, her other hand moving to rest on Jack's thigh and her eyes widening in appreciation at the bare skin she found. She grinned at the smaller feline, "Everybody in this section is on lunch right now, and will be for another half hour." The tigress reached across to take the wildcat's hand and placed it on Jack's other thigh. "Can you feel it?" she hissed excitedly.
The wildcat looked doubtful for a moment, but her purr was increasing steadily. "It does feel all tingly and nice... really nice... like..." Jack felt her paw give a shiver.
The tigress interrupted her with a purr, "Exactly!"
Jack was trying his best to not react to increasingly intimate touches on his body as the tigress leaned across his lap to murmur to the wildcat, "So what do you think if we..." Her voice dropped too low for him to hear as she whispered directly into the other's ear. But the reaction of the smaller feline was telling.
The wildcat gasped quietly and her ears perked forward in astonishment. "Do you think we could get away with it?" she asked in a tiny voice.
"No problem at all!" the tigress claimed with a grin, and took the wildcat's fingers to place them on Jack's groin. Jack made more of a face and froze in surprise, and of course his flesh betrayed him, quickly becoming erect. The tigress looked at his searchingly, a very predatory look in her eyes. "He can't do a thing about it. And if he does, I'll just pick him up and carry him across the room over my head. Let him try to explain THAT to his people."
* * *
Outside, Sess'tha and Farren were chatting avidly, just nibbling on their lunches, when Sess'tha blinked and glanced at the call center building. Farren stopped talking and looked at the ocelot as Sess'tha stared at the building for a moment.
"She's been gone for a while," Sess'tha murmured. "Maybe she actually did get them to let her in."
Farren considered, then shrugged. "Shouldn't be too much of a problem either way. Checking on Jack will make her happier, and might encourage him too. She knows enough to not cause any problems."
Sess'tha gazed at the building a short while longer, then shrugged and nodded, resuming the prior conversation.
* * *
"This is not happening, this is not happening," Jack continued to repeat this to himself mentally. A bit more cajoling had passed from the tigress to the wildcat, and a few licks had been graced to his erect shaft. Now, with the two cats acting in the utmost secrecy, and a promise from the wildcat to leave some for the tigress, Jack was trying to determine how he was going to ignore and not-react to the developing situation. The wildcat had climbed onto his lap, keeping ducked low so as to not be seen, and was carefully lowering her bottom towards his stiff flesh which the tigress was helpfully aiming for her.
Jack was at a loss. He couldn't really do anything to stop this, as it would undoubtedly cause problems. He grasped the mouse so hard that he went white-knuckled, and felt the plastic of the computer mouse crack under his grip. He felt damp fur against the tip of his flesh, and heard a hushed giggle from the wildcat. He braced himself for the inevitable as he felt the heat of wet flesh about to touch his.
Then a familiar voice interrupted from down the aisle, "Hey, there you... what the...?!" Jack let out a small whimper of dismay, not sure if he was happy to be saved, or in for a lashing over this. He hoped that he could explain this to Selkine.
The two cats froze guiltily, and he heard Selkine approaching, but after looking, the tigress relaxed and drawled, "You don't work here. We're busy. You should scram before I get annoyed."
The voice that responded quietly was decidedly not Selkine. A low female voice, very controlled and subtle, "You will get off of him right now." Jack shivered, as the voice sounded... dangerous.
"Are you threatening me?" The tigress growled quietly. "You'd better leave, or I'll simply have the guards escort you out, and then you'll be arrested." The wildcat looked nervous at the confrontation, but had not lowered herself any further.
Jack risked a glance over his shoulder at the newcomer. Stark white fur with black eartips and extremities graced this vixen. Jack had no idea who she was, but she didn't look happy. He was sure he had heard Selkine, and now he was more confused, as Selkine was nowhere in evidence.
"I said, you will get off him right now," the vixen growled again. Jack was astounded by her voice. It seemed to echo through his entire being, being almost as much in his head as in his ears. He was also vaguely aware of the lights in the building flickering, and a sort of humming draw of power, but he had other worries on his mind right now.
"Maybe we should..." the wildcat began, but was interrupted by the tigress.
"Cute trick, but I'm not impressed. I don't think I'll get security. I think I'll just send you out myself." The tigress released Jack's cock, and he relaxed somewhat as his outphase clothing pulled it away from its aim towards the wildcat's body. The wildcat gave him a longing look, but slowly climbed off him, not liking the confrontation. The tigress blinked as she noticed this, then hissed at the wildcat, "Fine, if you don't want him first, I'll have fun. I'm not letting this bitch get in my way." She assumed a mocking cute voice, "And you know I can multitask well. Fun and work at the same time!"
* * *
Outside, Sess'tha and Farren perked their ears as they felt an odd disturbance. They looked at the building and noted the growing darkness and low hum around it. Sess'tha blinked.
"Shadow attack?" the ocelot murmured.
"No..." Farren squinted and stared at the building, where the midphase occupants were also beginning to notice the change. "It seems more like..." her eyes shot wide open, and she stood up at the same time as Sess'tha, both their lunches forgotten.
"I'll get master Takaran, you go see what you can do there," Sess'tha announced as both of them dropped to all four paws and took off like a shot.
* * *
Jack was shivering now as the tigress had quickly positioned herself atop him to replace the wildcat who had beaten a hasty retreat. She had one hand around his cock, aiming it for herself as she began to lower herself towards him, while her other hand was beginning to glow with a dim green haze. The wildcat had been cute and small and seemed friendly, but this tigress was very large, all of it muscle, and seemed a lot less friendly.
"Hey, Jack!" Jack jumped, holding in a whimper. It was one of his coworkers, peering across the divider at him. "Before you get off lunch, do you think you could take a look at this account for me? I'd really appreciate... hey, you don't look so good..."
Jack threw him a desperate look, his knuckles still white on the mouse. The sharp crack of the plastic breaking further caught the coworker's attention, and he jumped. "Shit, Jack, I don't know what's going on, but I'm getting help." The man yanked his headset off and ran down the aisle.
The tigress ignored the other human completely, her attention on the white vixen. "Now... I think halfway across the state should do it, then I can enjoy this wonderful creature." Jack felt her damp fur, and then her heated flesh nudge against his tip, then winced as she threw a bolt of green energy at the white vixen's waist. The tigress immediately ignored the white vixen thereafter as green tendrils of power wrapped around the vixen's form, and turned her attention back to Jack. "Sooo good," she purred in a quiet voice as her hot, wet lips rubbed against his cock.
The tigress finalized her aim with a tug on his flesh, and made a motion to bring her hips down, but suddenly the vixen's voice rang VERY loudly through the whole call center, almost invariably apparent to every midphase call. "I TOLD YOU TO GET YOUR FUCKING PUSSY AWAY FROM HIS COCK!" The tigress froze and Jack looked over at the vixen. The green bands of power shattered, and the tigress jumped as the whole midphase side of the call center went silent n shock.
Jack could hear shouts from his coworker, and running feet coming across the call center. "...no idea, but something's really wrong!" he heard, coming from a distance. He closed his eyes in dismay. So much for remaining inconspicuous.
"That's it... no more Miss Nice Kitty, and damn the consequences!" Jack whimpered as the exceptionally strong tiger hand that was wrapped around his sensitive flesh tightened its grip, clawtips pricking him lightly. The tigress quickly formed another green glow in her free hand, and started to make a throwing motion towards the white vixen, but the vixen was faster.
Hands with gloves of black fur lifted in an instant and crackling white energy like lightning arced from them to the tigress, picking up the hapless feline and tossing her across the call center like she was a rag doll being tossed by a recalcitrant young child. A strangled mewl of dismay escaped the cat's muzzle before she collided with the far wall.
Jack felt relief for a moment that her grip had not taken his flesh with with her. He heard Farren's voice over the crackling energy, and the white vixen looked back over her shoulder. But the distraction caused an offshoot of the burning white energy to arc into him. The world exploded into shards of pure agony for him. He was only very vaguely aware of the white vixen suddenly looking horrified and the arc of energy releasing him, but the unspeakable pain continued. He heard the heavy, shoe-clad feet of humans approaching nearby and a cry from one of them. As his consciousness faded further, he heard another voice that he recognized.
"Well, this is going to be a hell of a mess," Master Takaran exclaimed near him. "Jeran, go get two more spellmasters immediately! Take this gate." There was a brief pause, then Master Takaran growled, "Not enough time."
"Jack! JACK!!! What's wrong, what's happening?!" It was his supervisor, Jennifer. Jack was barely aware of Master Takaran muttering some incantation as Jennifer shouted, "JACK!! SNAP OUT OF..."
Then the whole world went dark and quiet. The chaos snapped instantly to complete and utter silence, and not a single noise reached Jack's fading hearing. Then a small cough broke through the silence, and Master Takaran mumbled. "Hell of a day." Jack winced and a weak groan escaped his lips at the pain still coursing through his body. Then a furred hand gently stroked his forehead and he faded to welcome oblivion.
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