Blue Whale Shapeshifter, I'M DOIN' IT. Options

[PresentPresence]

Lately I've been obsessed with this idea of the Flow. It's this metaphysical thing I made up. It's sort of like the paradigm in which I travel through crowds. I went to a crowded high school in Chicago (wish I could effectively use that background knowledge as a setting in Shadowrun), and I...learned things. About how to make your way through a torrent of people marching in your direction. About how different people react differently to different walking tactics. About when it's appropriate to go left or to go right when you are approaching someone. I feel like I've gained this semi-conscious ability to read people superficially in such a way that I know how to walk past them. And, on a subconscious level, I think I am reading them subficially (What's the word? I want to use subcutaneously for the lolz. I also don't want to say spiritual, because that's not what I'm getting an understanding of. It's almost like I can read their face to establish their emotions, subconscious or not, and react to those.). I have come to call this back-of-the-brain activity the Flow. One who is attuned with the Flow can get through a crowd in a much shorter time than others. One who is disconnected from the Flow simply acts in a way that fits their life's paradigm (an arrogant jock would muscle his way through, a meek bookworm might try to skirt around the edges, etc.). But I also think that this idea has shades, at least in red and blue. Red meaning you know how to cast yourself in an angry or serious demeanor and use that to make people subconsciously avoid you, making a path, and blue meaning you are more evasive, looking for ways to sidle and juke your way through your Path. I think there might also be a green, too, where you look for holes in a crowd and jump through them. I know right now I sound like some kind of bloggin' loser basement dweller, and I'll admit that this is a fantasy of sorts, that my hippocampus and other whatnots are not engorged in the same way a bird's is for migration and flock insticts, but I still think it sounds cool. I don't actively meditate on how to better attune myself to the Flow or anything crazy like that, I just realize myself using fluid movements to go along my (P)path. I have also come up with a little theory that, in the long run, humanity is inversely proportionate to walking speed (in the same way it is to wealth, as suggested in Neuromancer). When you walk more slowly, you see more faces, encounter more people, events, emotions, and natural beauty, and become more in tune with yourself and others. That's why that snappy business man in a hurry is so out of touch with reality (that or his wealth). Seems like "stopping to smell the roses" and "taking the scenic route" are good ideas.

I tried to implement this idea in a Technomancer, which seems to fit this very similarly, albeit with the Matrix and nodes as opposed to people, after reading the "People Watcher" character set-up in PACKS. But I'm no good with the Matrix, hacking, computers, or anything related to AR/VR in Shadowrun.

I was reading about Shapeshifters in Runner's Companion, and I thought about how humorous it would be to play a Blue Whale shifter. Then it started sounding cool and a background developed.

"I was abandoned by my pod when I was young. I think they were frightened of me, of what I could see, of what I could do. They made excuses, saying that I was too big, that the surface skimmers with their narwhal's tusks would see me and come for the pod. I was left alone. I couldn't decide whether to protest, to plead, to offer what I could. I saw their ripples. I knew what they were feeling, what they thought about me. And I knew that I would not, could not follow them. I stayed, and I moaned deep moans. They resounded through the ocean, and the lesser swimmers, and even those who glided in the air, were frightened. I drifted in the Flow, claiming no shade, and I waited, what for, I did not know. But something came. I heard the skimmer, turned to see it, dark in the Flow's current, with its splotches of color suggesting riders. I was tired and hungry, I had not eaten or slept for what felt like many migrations' time. I wanted to make myself small, I wanted to hide. And deep down, I wanted to be free of the waters. I wanted to be free of the Flow that had made me an outcast. And suddenly, I was small. The strangest of feelings came to me. My tail had split and started to sink, my arms extended and waved in all directions. And my chest hurt. I tried to breathe the waters, but my heart rejected them. My very being screamed out, it cried for freedom, freedom from this wet, wretched world. My wish was granted. I felt a wave of the lesser swimmers rise beneath me, pushing me out of the water and into the new world. I coughed and vomited the old waters from my heart, and breathed in the the beloved new waters. They were a delight to my soul. I drank and was satisfied. Wet tendrils embraced me, welcoming me to the bright sea. They felt like a network of seaweed. The wave of the lesser swimmers shifted, brought me gently to the upper side of the skimmer. New beings clutched at me, the vanguard of this shimmering universe. They were beautiful. I looked at myself, and saw that I, too, was beautiful. They were standing on their split tails without any difficulty, and their arms wriggled and gripped like the tentacled ones. I saw that mine did as well. But perhaps the most profound and startling thing that I noticed was the Flow. It had not left me, it was here in this gentle world, as well. But I did not feel cursed, as I thought that I would. I realized that the Flow had not betrayed me; in fact, it was the only friend I had ever had. It joined me in my new journey, and I followed in its footsteps, in the Path that it laid before me."

I guess I could also add a background on why he Shadowruns, as well, but all of this creative writing has left me drained. I'll deal with that and the statistical factors later. For now, I'd like to know what you guys think. And how in the world paragraphs work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)