I'll be honest, my brain is fried. Somehow I managed to throw this together in about 2 weeks, yet I've spent several hours over the past couple weeks trying (and failing) to write a short story for this. I keep trying to condense it down to lessen the load on myself yet somehow that's making it harder?
Anyways, I'll explain the events taking place here. Said young man (as always anonymously referred to as) ventures out on a hike to uncover a rumored oasis hidden deep within the wildlands. His trek takes him far longer than expected, and by the time he finds the oasis, he's low on water. Luckily for him, there is a spring at the oasis with water clean enough to drink (Hmm..). Just as he lets his guard down, he's ambushed by a cougar (Also Hmm..). He uses his backpack as a makeshift barrier to shield himself, but he has to discard it during the attack. He survives the attack, but now it's too dangerous to retrieve his backpack. The loss is rather unfortunate to him because his power bank, as well as his food and water are left behind. With his phone battery draining by the minute, he knows that he needs to hurry back to civilization. The entire trip he had been using his phone to navigate, so if his phone dies there's a big chance he gets lost. He's in an area remote enough that he doesn't have cellular reception, and there are no competitor towers for his emergency calls to work (If only he had one of those new satellite beacon phones). Now, understanding the urgency of his situation, he knows things aren't looking good for him. He's out of food, out of water, his phone battery is dying and he may get lost without it, and for all he knows the cougar that attacked him is still stalking him. If he doesn't make it back before the sun sets, his chances of survival are low. By now, the only thing he's wishing for is to survive his adventure gone awry (HMM..). Little did he know, there were mysterious forces at play. Had he failed to make it back to civilization, he would need to *adapt* to his environment to survive. Were his wishes granted as the changes to his body began? Perhaps this had something to do with the cougar attack? Maybe there was something in the water he drank from the oasis? Either way, he was so determined to get home that he didn't notice the changes to his body at first. He mistook the tingling and other sensations as dehydration or low blood sugar. It was only after his face started to feel weird that he pulled out his phone to use the camera as a mirror. Much to his disbelief, he sees that he's transforming into the same type of animal that preyed upon him. Certainly he was hallucinating given his hunger and dehydration, right? However, the more his hunger grew, the more his body changed. The more he realized his chances of surviving as a human dwindled, the more his body changed. He became so fixated on the percentage of his battery he didn't recognize its impact on the transformation. Without any understanding of what he wished for, he had unknowingly created a self fulfilling prophecy. He was afraid he wasn't going to survive with what he had, so transforming into the apex predator of the ecosystem would guarantee his survival. For each percentage his phone battery drained, he felt he was that less likely to survive, and thus the transformation progressed by that much. The more the changes progressed, the more it slowed him down. The more the transformation slowed him down, the longer it would take to reach civilization. The more time he lost to these delays, the less his actual chance of survival, and therefore the more he would transform. He wrestled with this dynamic for hours and was completely unaware of the feedback loop that his worrying created. But after many hours of fighting the transformation, the sun hung low in the sky. His unrelenting determination kept him pushing until the last moment when his phone battery died. By then, the last remnants of his humanity waned as he fell to the ground, his feline body no longer able to stand on two legs.
Hopefully that sets the scene pretty well. If you're unsure of anything mentioned here, feel free to ask any questions you may have. I'd love to hear what you think about this! :3
Anyways, I'll explain the events taking place here. Said young man (as always anonymously referred to as) ventures out on a hike to uncover a rumored oasis hidden deep within the wildlands. His trek takes him far longer than expected, and by the time he finds the oasis, he's low on water. Luckily for him, there is a spring at the oasis with water clean enough to drink (Hmm..). Just as he lets his guard down, he's ambushed by a cougar (Also Hmm..). He uses his backpack as a makeshift barrier to shield himself, but he has to discard it during the attack. He survives the attack, but now it's too dangerous to retrieve his backpack. The loss is rather unfortunate to him because his power bank, as well as his food and water are left behind. With his phone battery draining by the minute, he knows that he needs to hurry back to civilization. The entire trip he had been using his phone to navigate, so if his phone dies there's a big chance he gets lost. He's in an area remote enough that he doesn't have cellular reception, and there are no competitor towers for his emergency calls to work (If only he had one of those new satellite beacon phones). Now, understanding the urgency of his situation, he knows things aren't looking good for him. He's out of food, out of water, his phone battery is dying and he may get lost without it, and for all he knows the cougar that attacked him is still stalking him. If he doesn't make it back before the sun sets, his chances of survival are low. By now, the only thing he's wishing for is to survive his adventure gone awry (HMM..). Little did he know, there were mysterious forces at play. Had he failed to make it back to civilization, he would need to *adapt* to his environment to survive. Were his wishes granted as the changes to his body began? Perhaps this had something to do with the cougar attack? Maybe there was something in the water he drank from the oasis? Either way, he was so determined to get home that he didn't notice the changes to his body at first. He mistook the tingling and other sensations as dehydration or low blood sugar. It was only after his face started to feel weird that he pulled out his phone to use the camera as a mirror. Much to his disbelief, he sees that he's transforming into the same type of animal that preyed upon him. Certainly he was hallucinating given his hunger and dehydration, right? However, the more his hunger grew, the more his body changed. The more he realized his chances of surviving as a human dwindled, the more his body changed. He became so fixated on the percentage of his battery he didn't recognize its impact on the transformation. Without any understanding of what he wished for, he had unknowingly created a self fulfilling prophecy. He was afraid he wasn't going to survive with what he had, so transforming into the apex predator of the ecosystem would guarantee his survival. For each percentage his phone battery drained, he felt he was that less likely to survive, and thus the transformation progressed by that much. The more the changes progressed, the more it slowed him down. The more the transformation slowed him down, the longer it would take to reach civilization. The more time he lost to these delays, the less his actual chance of survival, and therefore the more he would transform. He wrestled with this dynamic for hours and was completely unaware of the feedback loop that his worrying created. But after many hours of fighting the transformation, the sun hung low in the sky. His unrelenting determination kept him pushing until the last moment when his phone battery died. By then, the last remnants of his humanity waned as he fell to the ground, his feline body no longer able to stand on two legs.
Hopefully that sets the scene pretty well. If you're unsure of anything mentioned here, feel free to ask any questions you may have. I'd love to hear what you think about this! :3
Category All / Transformation
Species Cougar / Puma
Gender Male
Size 1440 x 2560px
Very nice picture, you improve with each one I see!
I, er, feel the pain of being unable to condense stories properly. I regularly try for something "quick and short" and end up giving up at 20k+ words having barely done the setup >_>
I, er, feel the pain of being unable to condense stories properly. I regularly try for something "quick and short" and end up giving up at 20k+ words having barely done the setup >_>
Yeah, I told myself I was going to make it short and straight to the point, then it was on track to be at least 10k words, so I scrapped it and started again and it was maybe going to be half of that, so I started a third time and it was STILL going to be too much, so then I just decided to explain what’s happening XD
Maybe the other cougar wanted to protect him from drinking the water. Anyway, now he's a cougar himself, he's arrived home, this kind of feedback loop is evil, battery empty, humanity gone.
A cougar doesn't need a smartphone, he can find his way around the forest, he can find food and drink and a safe place to sleep.
I like the accompanying drawing.
This look at the smartphone display when he sees that his face looks more like that of a cougar.
And then the full cougar who realizes that his smartphone has just run out of power.
A cougar doesn't need a smartphone, he can find his way around the forest, he can find food and drink and a safe place to sleep.
I like the accompanying drawing.
This look at the smartphone display when he sees that his face looks more like that of a cougar.
And then the full cougar who realizes that his smartphone has just run out of power.
Makes you wonder what caused the transformation to begin with. Perhaps that cougar was once a human as well. But I guess the secrets of this little story will only truly reveal if I do a sequel :P
Thanks for the feedback! There’s also some subtle symbology in the drawing. On the phone screen, the part that faces away from the sun is more changed than the part that faces into it, and the orientation of the final shot shows him walking away from the setting sun. The phone shows the further away from the light he strays, the more of an animal he becomes. The full image represents him leaving behind his humanity, embracing the changes, and becoming a creature of the night.
Thanks for the feedback! There’s also some subtle symbology in the drawing. On the phone screen, the part that faces away from the sun is more changed than the part that faces into it, and the orientation of the final shot shows him walking away from the setting sun. The phone shows the further away from the light he strays, the more of an animal he becomes. The full image represents him leaving behind his humanity, embracing the changes, and becoming a creature of the night.
I guess the other cougar was also human, and he wanted to protect him from becoming a cougar too. But in his fear and panic he ran away and got lost. Maybe he should have followed the sun, but even then he would have become a cougar in the evening, just like he is now.
I like the story behind the picture, and I didn't realize that in the self-portrait he is so much more cougar on the side of his face facing away from the sun than on the page where the sunlight hits him.
I like the story behind the picture, and I didn't realize that in the self-portrait he is so much more cougar on the side of his face facing away from the sun than on the page where the sunlight hits him.
Yes X3 There’s always subtle details I try to hide in each of my drawings.
Aww, now he can't hold phone with his fully forepaws.
But who need the phone with empty battery anyways?
But who need the phone with empty battery anyways?
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