Suddenly Scaled
This one's a real quickie, just took a couple hours to write. It was never meant to be a long thing, just one of those random ideas that popped into my head. I was amused at the thought of A) a transformation in a public place where the changeling can't get away and B) the complete and utter lack of any response to it.
The following story has been rated for all audiences.
He'd come to a conclusion rather quickly: this presentation definitely wasn't as interesting as he'd hoped it would be.
Spencer had hoped that he'd hit the mark when trying to fulfill one of his psychology class requirements, watching a presentation put on by someone in the department and writing a report about it. He had to do four of them, once per month, and the first one had been a complete bore, he'd actually fallen asleep during the presentation and it had gotten him a poor grade. When he'd looked up the schedule, this one had seemed like it could be a lot more compelling...but the subject was a lot more obtuse than he thought, and the stuff the person was talking about was going over his head.
It didn't help that the room where the presentations were held seemed to have bad effects on him. It was a cool environment, dark except for the projector, and the constant hum of the vents added enough to make him drowsy very quickly. Once again, he was having trouble staying awake...he was doing his best, but he knew this time he had the time to go see another one if he nodded off again, so it was harder to keep his attention focused.
He felt his eyes shut, and then shook himself awake. A quick pinch helped jar him back to attention. He hadn't missed any slides, but he definitely wasn't following the presentation well. With a sigh that he tried to keep as quiet as possible, he steeled himself, trying to will himself to stay awake. The people next to him didn't seem to be noticing his difficulty...he hoped they didn't, he didn't want to seem rude. It wasn't the presenter's fault, she was clearly an expert and he was just in an intro class trying to fulfill a requirement. The problem was him, not her.
As his attention faded in and out, he suddenly became aware of a peculiar crawling sensation in his body. It was like he was itching all over, underneath his skin...he glanced around surreptitiously, no one else seemed to be having that issue. What's going on? Ugh, this is the worst... He tried to ignore it, but it kept getting stronger, harder to deal with.
Maybe I should just leave...I can't concentrate...but that would be so rude, and if any of my classmates are here, they'll talk for sure...
He glanced down at his watch, wondering how long he had left...and his eyes widened at what he saw. The skin on his arms was turning green. At first Spencer thought it was a trick of the dim lighting, but no, he could clearly see a discoloration appearing, and it was starting to spread. Where he could see it, the itching had stopped, but a strange tightness had arisen. Whatever was happening, it was certainly not normal.
He shifted slightly in his seat, trying to stay still, but it was getting harder every second. Strange sensations were coursing through his whole body, not just itching but an uncomfortable twisting and churning that felt like it was at his very core. He knew he should leave, get out of there, go somewhere, anywhere private, but there was no way he could be casual about it now, he didn't want to draw attention to what was happening to him...
But what was happening was starting to get quite extreme. He glanced down at his arm again, and now he could see the skin scaling over. It had spread through most of his arm, and down his hand...there was a shooting pain through his fingers as the nails dug in and reshaped, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from yelling out. His arm was swelling up, thickening, and he had to pull off his watch quickly as he felt the tightness get uncomfortable. The same thing was happening with the rest of his body, but he didn't have the choice of taking off the rest of his clothes for sure.
Pain erupted in Spencer's head as he felt his face start to push out and reform. The same thing happened to his feet, where he felt things push together and expand at the same time, making things very uncomfortable inside his shoes. As if that wasn't enough, he felt another pain near his rear end, at what felt like the base of his spine. The combination of everything was making it hard to stay quiet and inconspicuous as possible, and he was regretting not leaving earlier when he had the chance.
And yet...no one noticed. Not a single person was looking at him, trying to figure out what his deal was or wondering what was happening. The presenter hadn't missed a beat with her lecture, the people sitting on either side of him weren't so much as glancing towards him. It was baffling...how could they not know something was going on? How could they not tell that he was turning into something inhuman right at this moment?
He felt his shirt stretch desperately as his body grew, tearing a bit at the sleeves and collar as the strain became too much. His pants were barely managing to avoid the same fate, though they were under considerable pressure as his legs filled out the space inside them. About the only place where that wasn't an issue was his groin, where things were shifting inside, an odd feeling but one that wasn't painful and thus did not have the impact that much of the rest of him had. Both his hands and arms had converted fully now, needing the least amount of change to reach completion; the rest of him wasn't far off.
He heard a ripping by his feet as his shoes and socks gave way to his larger feet. Three clawed toes burst out of the fronts of them, their shape wickedly inhuman; they were kinking upwards as well, as his ankles shifted higher, the bones and tendons shifting and locking in place and finally offering some relief. There was no way anyone nearby could miss this, but still the changes got no attention.
The pressure on the rear of Spencer's pants got to be too much, and with as much desperate stealth as he could manage, he used his new claws to tear the seat open, allowing his growing tail to spill out behind him. Thankfully the chairs didn't have solid backs, so the new mass of flesh forming from his spine had somewhere to drape...but it was large, thick and bulky at the base and only getting smaller towards the end. He hoped he wouldn't accidentally trip someone with it, and tried to keep it under his chair as much as possible.
The last of his changes were finishing at his head. His face has totally reformed into a long reptilian snout, a shape reminiscent of something in between a monitor-type lizard and a carnosaur. His teeth had changed to match as well, mostly becoming sharp and pointed as well as more numerous. A sharp pain rose in his tongue as it lengthened with a pulling sensation and the tip of it split apart, leaving it long and forked. As the pain finally faded away, he realized he could hear people clapping.
It's...done. The presentation's over.
Some people were shifting, getting up and moving to the door, and almost on automatic he did the same thing. Terror raced through him, as he awaited, dreaded the moment when someone looked at him and screamed at the monster in the room...but as he slunk out as fast as he could, it never came. No one said a word...they had to notice him, they couldn't NOT see what he'd become, but they didn't have even the slightest recognition of anything strange. Well, almost; he was certain he heard someone mutter about the "fashions of freshmen" as he made his escape.
It made no sense. They could notice his messed-up clothes, but not the fact that he was a giant lizard? Were they just completely unobservant? Or was it so weird that they were just in denial about it? Spencer didn't get it, but he decided to take the blessing where he could. If they weren't going to notice, that meant he could get home and try to make sense of everything that had happened.
He ditched his ruined footwear in the trash as he headed out of the building. His feet didn't seem to need them much anyway, they seemed a lot tougher than before. Ditto for his scaled skin, which felt toughened to the point of almost armored. His nerves were rapidly fading as he walked outside, and once again, no one seemed to take any notice of him. If they weren't going to be bothered by his new form, then he had no reason to worry either. He could focus on all the upsides of the change...namely, he had to admit, he looked pretty cool.
With new self-assurance, he made his way towards home, wondering only about what kind of modifications he'd have to make to the new clothes he'd have to buy.