Passersby, Propositions and Potions Potential (Picture by Paint)
Another Mini-Story, based on an illustration. A naga and a canine-constrictor hybrid run into one another on the street and have a little conversation, which leads to much more..
Passersby, Propositions and Potions Potential, A Parlay with a Python
by Amethystine, with the generous assistance of Paint aka Skink ( http://www.furaffinity.net/user/paint/ )
It might behoove you to become familiar with this character before reading: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6348733
It had begun innocently enough. Amethystine had been slithering along the sidewalk, minding his own business (and checking out the business of a few choice others, you might say), when he spotted something somewhat surprising.
"A canine-constrictor combination?" he blurted out, turning his snout to follow the female's path as she passed the python.
"Uh, yeah..? And..?" said the semi-scaly spitfire.
"Umm.." Ame stalled, having stopped in his slithering tracks to twist around to face the hybrid who he had accidentally angered. She had also stopped and turned to face back at him. "Oh, I'm ssorry, misss..?" he began, trailing off into both a question and a hiss.. his sibilance squeezing out when he was nervous.
"I'm Kirk."
"Kirk, yess.. I was just surprised to see this particular fusion of rather.. varied species," explained the naga, trying to be as delicate as possible. After a few beats of silence, he started back up, suddenly remembering something: "I'm Amethystine, by the way."
"Uh.. huh. Well, it's nice to meet you, I guess," she said, not that she sounded like she particularly believed that.
"Right, well.. I'm something of an expert in matters such as these, and I was curious as to where or from whom you might have gotten that transformation. I'm always interested in mixing snakes with other types, but this is an inspired integration method."
"What the heck do you mean, _transformation_? This is who I _am_!" returned the riled reptile-canine, gesturing at herself.
"Oh! So.. you didn't need any help at all to become that beautiful?" asked Amethystine, altering his stance slightly. The way he stated his words, very matter-of-factly, without making it sound like a cheesy come-on line.. it shocked Kirk slightly, in a good way, making her laugh with a single bark-like chortle.
"Ha! Good save. Don't worry, you're not the first- most people wouldn't imagine parents like mine would couple naturally."
"You never know, love is a funny thing. And so is physical attraction.." he trailed off once more, smiling lightly, thinking to himself for a moment. "Kirk, I'm sure you don't think much of me, both for being a total stranger on the street, and for my earlier.. miss-step.. but I do honestly have something to offer." The serpent pulls a business card out of his coat pocket, which he handed to her.
The card read: 'Amethystine S Python, Professional Potioneer'
"Now, before you ball that up and throw it into the trash, or at my face, let me explain.. I make transformative concoctions, and without going into too many details, it's hard to do hybrids well. Especially when it's a combination of two specimens from two different areas of the animal kingdom. I basically want your help in expanding my.. uh, catalogue."
"I don't know..." she hesitated, unconvinced, turning the card over a few times in her paws while looking at it. She was clearly grasping for a polite way to decline his offer, but was coming up empty.
"I can reimburse you for your time. I mean, I've worked on.. oh! Maybe you'd remember the last project I worked on. The, uh.. last one in the 'Swampling' series? Where those bad-guys turn into were-crocodiles? That wasn't CGI, you know.." he grinned, becoming proud of his work for a moment before reigning in his ego for the sake of humility, "..anyway, I helped with that whole sequence."
"Oh shit! Swamplings, really?! I was always amazed by the attention to detail in the changes! I never knew how they could afford such nice looking CGI when they couldn't even afford a good brand of fake blood. Are the rumours true? Was that really raspberry jam, old-school style? Man, how do you even DO that? Half the potions I hear about are... well, they're really, y'know.. permanent," the hybrid chittered excitedly, her speech animated with hyper-active hand movements. Her thick, sluggish tail wagged in a heavy looking manner, reduced to a less than happy sway, but its intent was clear.
"I think there was some ketchup in there too, but yeah.." smirked the snake, nodding. "And the potions don't have to be permanent. Just long enough for the shot of the shift. Then the actual crocodile bodybuilders were on camera. Not that my products wear off _that_ fast." Ame stopped himself before he began to ramble. "So, I'd be pleased if you were to call me once you've had some time to consider sharing a little part of yourself with me and my lab. I think that such a lovely mixture of mammal and ophidian would be a popular product. ..it'd be a nice change from the only other dog-snake combo out there, 'Coily Canines' the straight-up naga-fication of dog breeds. You know, add a snake body under a torso and call it a day?" he asked rhetorically, shaking his head at the lack of imagination in such endeavours.
Kirk nodded, half knowing what the serpent meant and half thinking about working with him. She didn't know what to expect. Did he just want a blood sample or what? If so, she thought it'd be no worse than giving blood for a small cash incentive at a hospital or blood bank.. just with the enticing, yet vague thoughts of links to film-making, as well as the definite connection to profitable potions.
Eventually, her ever increasing curiosity regarding the semi-hidden market of metamorphic materials leads her to call the constrictor. He arranges for her to visit his facilities, where he quickly formulates form-flexing fluids from the few samples she provides. He demonstrates his work by turning himself into a male specimen of her species, although he comes out coloured, in contrast to her albino appearance.
It doesn't take very long for either of the two parties to develop something of a distracting fondness for the other..leading to an inordinate amount of flirting and transformative wooing. (Both of them think it was them who had actually had the idea to have the python turn into the famous were-croc form.. Kirk thinking she'd gotten Ame to show it to her, and Ame thinking he was showing off.) But potions or not, the pair's actual inaugural interlude was one without potions. They went 'au natural' and had a rather rousing rendezvous in their true forms!
*(Art by Paint/Skink. To visit (or praise) her posting of this picture, go here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6344146/ )*
The End