#I think I've stumbled onto non-binary Travis

[kurithedweeb]

Travis should get to play around with the intricacies of his shapeshifting sometimes.

He can't change his hair or give himself piercings he doesn't have, but he can change basically everything else. Iridescent scales, cat eyes, tattoo-like markings, he can even make his freckles glow. He can change the shape of his horns too, his favorite shape is antlers like a deer. Maybe he makes his nails different colors like nail polish. He's not genderfluid, doesn't really care about the whole gender thing even after he's taught about it, but on occasion he'll shift into a more feminine or androgynous form.

He doesn't play around with it much after his mom died. He spends most of his time looking entirely human, looking like her son so that when he catches a glimpse of his reflection in the glass of the window or the ice of the nearby lake, he can clearly remember her face. He only shifts when he absolutely needs to, and he always changes back into the skin of his mother's son.

He doesn't shift freely, exactly, when he leaves Gal'ruk, but being around other people makes it feel easier to have a little fun with it when he does need to. In his wolfskin, he plays around with the wolf pups. When he's babysitting Anastasia's kids, he'll shift into Ana herself or one of the guards and act out stories with dramatic flair. He encounters a snake for the first time and when he wakes up a week later in a snakeskin he burrows into the warm sand on the beach and startles passersby when they accidentally wake him from the best nap of his life.

Once, he was relaxed and having a really good day when the itch came and changed into a woman right there, shifting in public for the first time, and started braiding the hair that now went down to his ass that he added 'cause he felt like doing something with his hands. The first person to look over and realize his very open shirt was now very open over a pair of breasts was so startled that he tripped himself and went sprawling with how fast he turned away. Travis got a lecture about Ru'aun modesty standards and asked about his pronouns for the first time, which led to an entire confused discussion that ultimately ended in someone getting tired of delicately going in circles and asking Travis if he goes by she/her in female form. He doesn't shift in public again for at least another year for fear of breaking another unspoken societal rule.

He doesn't ever feel completely right shifting if not for the sake of survival, but he gets more comfortable around other people and occasionally makes his skin changes a little self-indulgent with the aesthetics.