A New Phase - Chapter 2
#2 of A New Phase
Waking up is hard to do.
A New Phase
Chapter 2
Jack opened his eyes to bright hospital critical care lights and the steady, monotonous blip of an EKG and the distinct discomfort of IV's and oxygen lines tied to his arm and face. He groaned as he realized that his head was bound, though it didn't hurt from being hit anymore, it just was throbbing from the tightness of the bindings.
He flicked his eyes at some movement to his side and saw the same wolf standing there along with the spotted cat that he had seen in his home originally. He blinked as a third creature came into view and as his vision cleared somewhat, he made it out to be a cat with stygian fur and amber eyes. He'd find this quite interesting on any other day, and if it wasn't him involved.
Jack swallowed and looked at them, opening his mouth to speak, but the wolf placed a finger on his lips. "Shhh... Not now, I'll be able to explain more when you are released from the hospital and have some privacy. Don't respond to me, it won't help matters. Just relax."
Both cats looked up suddenly as a fox in a lab coat entered the room looking a mite peeved. The fox's gaze landed on the spotted cat first and he immediately berated her. "I don't know who you folks are, but I got reports of three people hanging around in one of our empty treatment rooms. I'm the director of this hospital, and I'm going to have to ask you to leave. We need to re-prep this room for the next patient now!"
Ears laid back, the wolf turned slowly and fixed his gaze on the impertinent vulpine, who did a double take and quickly wilted in shock. "M-master Takaran," the fox stuttered. "I'm so sorry, I didn't realize it was you." The poor fox fidgeted, and looked pleading, "I really do need to get this room set for patients though, no disrespect intended."
The wolf simply stepped forward and with a swift move of his paw, caught the fox's wrist. The fox flinched, expecting the worst. Jack couldn't see precisely what was going on in his reclined position, but he suddenly felt a warm paw placed against his shin and pressed lightly. The touch froze, then squeezed his leg just a little, testingly.
The fox suddenly froze as if he had seen a ghost and he looked at Jack as if noticing the human for the first time. "He's... awake...though..." the fox mumbled, wide-eyed with his ears flat back against his skull as he noted Jack's alert gaze on him.
"Awake, and fully soft either way," the wolf stated. "He -IS- the patient in here, so I would suggest you update your records accordingly."
"I... I will!" exclaimed the fox, still looking shaken. "Er... What is his name again?"
"Jack Starson," answered the spotted cat, and the fox looked at her, then quickly pulled out a small notepad and scribbled. "And I am Sess'tha Prowniss," the cat continued, "A resident in his home. Send one of your registration folks, I'll give them all the information."
The wolf, Master Takaran, looked at the black feline. "Assist her with the information. The Mastery will be taking direct interest and control of this situation." His gaze returned to the fox. "Please do not attempt to treat him though. His medics are already doing so, and I have as well."
Jack was honestly getting more and more confused by the moment, though honestly he did feel better. He watched the byplay between the four animals though his eyes widened as a human doctor walked into the room through the fox. All four animals ignored the doctor completely, though they did obviously note his presence.
"Ah, you are awake!" the doctor exclaimed. "You had us worried for a short while when you came in, but after getting some history, and finding nothing seriously wrong in tests, we decided that it would be best to let you sleep." He scribbled some things on his clipboard. "I am Doctor Crissen, attending physician on duty right now. Seems that besides severe sleep deprivation issues, you also got knocked on the head by a burglar. Thankfully no major trouble from that, you'll just be sore for a week or so. We have a few more tests now that you are awake, and if all goes well, we'll have you home by early afternoon. Do you have any questions for me right now?"
Jack thought about this for a while, eyeing the animals who were still discussing business. "Umm... Doc, what if I have been suffering from... well... hallucinations?" All four animals heard him and glanced at him sharply.
"I wouldn't go there," murmured the wolf.
"You were seriously sleep-deprived," the doctor told him in answer. "That tends to make you end up not only experience what we call micro-sleeps, or up to ten seconds of actually being asleep, but also potentially enter something like a dream state. So you would be dreaming, even though you are awake, and this would seem like hallucinations. Not to worry though, they would be short-lived flashes, and should be gone once you get enough sleep." The man smiled, "Just to let you know, it's around 4 am Sunday morning. You've been sleeping since they brought you in Friday night. That should be most of the sleep you need to recover, though it may take a while for your body to get back on track."
Jack eyed the animals, all four of whom looked concerned, and the fox stepped forward, "I have to agree with Master Takaran, Jack-human. If you have come to be able to see our phase, I wouldn't go advertising it. And that's my official advice as a doctor of science, not of magic."
Doctor Crissen noted Jack's stare and glanced in that direction briefly, but he only saw the empty visitor's chairs. "Don't have anybody we can call to come see you?" the doctor asked, misinterpreting the reason for the stare.
Jack started, looking back at the human doctor. "Oh, no... Nobody locally at least. The rest of my family is in Maine, and they honestly wouldn't care." He quickly decided that he would have to take this at face value for now, as he could see the issues doing otherwise would cause.
"Good, a nurse will be in to take care of things soon then." And with that, the doctor nodded and headed out the door.
"Just relax," the wolf said. "They'll likely have you out by noon or so, and we'll discuss things with you at your home."
The fox departed after a quiet discussion with the wolf outside, and a ferret showed up shortly thereafter to take information from the two cats, leaving Jack alone in the room. He thought about the whole situation for some time, then a bit longer, and finally decided that the whole mess was just insane, and he would have to deal with things as they came.
* * *
The wolf, apparently named Takaran, and the two cats had left while he was being set up to go home by the human hospital folks. A bit of talk with the police, where he remembered the wolf's advice and kept his story clean, then he was good to go. Several animals had poked their heads in to observe his discharge, but otherwise it was uneventful. And so with a taxi ride home that he spent most of with his eyes closed and promise of a bill from the hospital, he arrived back home.
He was relieved that the officers had at least left his apartment locked. Upon walking in, however, things went back to about as crazy as before. The two cats were sitting on his futon, each reading a book, while he smelled the scent of cooking from the kitchen. Two feline faces looked up at him as the books were set down, and he opened his mouth to issue an internally-rehearsed calm inquiry as to what in the name of everything under the universe was going on, when he was promptly struck by what could best be described as a panic stricken freight train covered in thick red and cream fur.
The vixen that he had seen that night was a bustle of activity, checking him over thoroughly, sniffing at every part of him and touching him pretty much everywhere. She seemed satisfied even before he was finished reeling from her initial collision. "Oh, you're alright!" she exclaimed, fussing over him, taking him by the arm and dragging him to the futon to be pushed to sit between the two cats, both of those two diving out of the way to make room.
"I was so worried for you!" she exclaimed, and then called to the kitchen, "Farren! Is dinner ready? He's back! He must be starving!" She examined him some more, especially the back of his head, which surprisingly was now completely devoid of any evidence of the prior impact. "I'm still not happy with Takaran for hitting you. And I was worried because you were gone for so long. Are you sure your head's okay? At least I don't feel a bump. Doesn't hurt does it?"
"Selkine," the spotted cat murmured softly from his right, "Firstly, dinner will be ready when it's ready. Secondly, I think you just freaked him out. Thirdly, you might want to stop suffocating him with your chest. I'm sure he would like to breathe."
"Oh!!" the vixen exclaimed, leaping off him. She had been straddling his lap on the futon couch, holding his head against her as she had leaned over to examine the back of it, completely unaware of the shocked rigidity of his body nor of the fact that his face was well buried in the thick cream fur of her lower chest. "I'm sorry! I'm not trying to suffocate you or anything, I'm just so happy to see you back!" She promptly went back to checking him over without straddling him now, lifting his hand and holding it. "I wanted to make sure..."
"SELKINE!" the feline barked, causing the vixen to drop his hand as if she was a kit with her paw caught in the cookie jar. "Go let Master Takaran know that Jack is back."
"Yes, Sess'tha," Selkine replied meekly, and after taking a moment to brush a strand of hair out of Jack's eyes, took off out the front door.
"And YOU," Sess'tha whapped the black cat upside the head, "STOP LAUGHING!" That black-furred feline offender ducked away from the impact of the blow and tried his best to hold his mirth in.
"I'd offer to stop chuckling myself, especially since I have NO clue what the heck just happened out there, though it sounded very amusing," came an amused voice from the kitchen, "however laughter from the cook simply makes the food taste better." And then the grayish canine he had seen (And tried to smack with a flashlight) the first night was coming around the futon with a heaping plate full of what smelled and soon looked like an omelet with scrambled eggs, sausage, ham, and any number of things, as well as bacon and sausage links, toast, and pads of butter.
"It might be a little late for breakfast, but I figured since you haven't eaten for a day and a half, it's okay anyway," she said, pressing the plate into his hands. "Hold onto this, I've got a stack of pancakes for you also. And don't worry about eating all of it if you can't. I won't be offended."
Jack took the plate without offering up any resistance. The food did smell very good, and he was quite hungry. A fork was pressed into his hand, and he grasped it automatically. Farren headed back to the kitchen to grab the aforementioned pancakes in the meantime.
Jack blinked at the food and set the plate on his lap, then jumped and lifted it off his legs again, trying to gather his thoughts. "Okay, umm... Thank you for the food and stuff... and... Umm..." he shook his head and finally got some semblance of coherence together. "First thing I would like to know Is why I am sitting in my house and have talked recently to two cats, a fox, a wolf, and a... a..." He glanced at the kitchen, confused.
"Grey fox," Farren said as she rounded the corner from the kitchen, carrying another plate with a tall stack of pancakes on it. "Don't worry, I'm somewhat obscure. Regardless, I think Master Takaran will be able to answer that specific question better than we can." She set the plate of pancakes on the coffee table.
"Okay, fine... I can wait on that one," Jack muttered. "Maybe you can answer this one then. How come that fox girl and this plate," he held up the plate of food he was holding, "both touched my bare skin as if I am not wearing a lick of clothing? I mean, I -KNOW- I'm wearing clothing here. I can feel it, and I touch it when I touch myself."
His statement made the black cat's face scrunch up and said feline began chuffing in mirth again, only to earn another, harder whap between the ears from Sess'tha. "Not that kind of touch himself!" she exclaimed to the feline as he complained about the treatment of his head. "Get your mind out of the gutter and quite being jealous." She turned to a now thoroughly-red-faced human, who had noticed that even though the females had no breasts, they were obviously female between the legs, while the black cat was obviously male down there.
"As for your question, I'll summarize by saying that you ARE wearing clothes in your phase, but not ours, and so midphase objects don't interact with your outphase clothing." She looked thoughtful for a moment, "But if you interact with both phases... wow... that could get confusing."
Farren nudged Jack's arm, "Please eat before it gets cold. Takaran will be here to answer your questions soon, but I don't want all this cooking to go to waste." She blinked. "Oh! I almost forgot everybody else's! I'm so sorry!" She dropped to all four paws and dashed off to the kitchen, carrying stares from Jack as she went. His stomach quickly growled to regain his attention, and he dutifully went to eat his provided meal.
"Hey, this is very good!" he exclaimed after a few bites. Indeed, the food was excellent.
"You sound surprised," commented Sess'tha as Farren handed her another plate, which she accepted gratefully. "Farren is an excellent cook, and we are very lucky to have her here." She took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. "And I guess now you are lucky too, since you can partake in her cooking. Oh, and we haven't even introduced ourselves!"
She set her plate on the coffee table as Farren doled out a plate to the black cat and offered a furred hand to Jack. "I am Sess'tha Prowniss, the gourmet chef providing this meal is Farren Zarnan, and the currently-absent vixen who first scared the crap out of you is Selkine Charassa. This shadowborn tom of trouble is Jeran, one of Master Takaran's assistants, and the wolf you met is Spell Master Takaran, one of the Masters of the midphase."
Jack accepted the proffered hand... paw...? And shook it bemusedly, noting the strength and control in the grip as well as the velvety cover of fur, and of course the sharp claws that briefly brushed against his hand. "And you already knew my name," he observed sagely.
"Well, of course," Sess'tha smiled. "We've lived here with you for the past six months. It wouldn't do to not know the name of the outphaser you live with." She retrieved her plate and began to eat, throwing a nasty glance at Jeran over his lack of manners with his own food, which was vanishing at a surprising rate.
"Okay, wait," Jack shook his head briefly. "What are these phase things? You said outphase and midphase and outphaser... What am I, a Star Trek gun?"
Sess'tha chuckled softly and nodded to Farren, who had returned with two more plates of food in hand and glanced meaningfully at the door. "Nice show, but its really hard to explain, and again, I'll let Master Takaran explain that now that he's here. Um, and you might want to set your food down for the moment."
Jack blinked and looked over his right shoulder towards the door, but there was nobody there. Giving in to curiosity, he set his plate with its diminishing remains on the coffee table. He noted out of the corner of his eye as Sess'tha pushed it back a little further onto the table and Farren flattened her back against the wall near the front door. He gazed back at the front door and his eyes widened as a familiar red and cream stream came through the door without opening it.
"I'm back! And Master Takaran is here too!" Selkine announced with great gusto before sweeping around the couch, almost knocking Jeran's plate from his grip, and plopped down beside Jack, putting a possessive arm around him. "Ooo! Breakfast is done?" she exclaimed as Farren stepped forward and presented her a plate. The grey wolf stepped through the door with substantially more décor and was immediately presented with a plate as well by the attentive grey fox.
"Oh, thank you," Master Takaran smiled, accepting the plate of food. "I hope you are not offended if I only nibble, as I already ate, but your cooking is too good to pass up." His eyes lighted on Jack and he chuckled at the red-faced human who was trying unsuccessfully to disengage himself from a food-distracted extremely friendly vixen. "And you made it here with no troubles, I see. Time to get some questions answered for you, and even answer some questions you didn't know you had. So settle down and listen, because this does not lack in complexity."
Jack did his best to settle down, but he was, how to say, well-distracted by the feel of Selkine pressed full-body against his side, without the benefit of clothing to reduce the sensation to a tame level. It was somewhat like the dreams, only he was awake, and it felt even better.
"I'll begin with a bit of general information," the wolf stated. "Firstly, the universe as you know it is not as you know it. That much should be obvious by now. The place is actually broken down into numerous very nearby dimensions, layers, whatever you want to call them. We call them phases. Most of the time, these phases don't interact with each other at all, but occasionally two or more can become partially linked. That is the case with three phases in this grouping."
Jack nodded. He didn't fully understand it, but it was easy enough to take at face value. Though the distraction from the vixen was growing as she was nibbling on her food and snuggling closer to him at the same time.
Takaran continued, "So we have three phases here, effectively like layers. We call yours the outer phase, ours the middle phase, and the third one the inner phase. If you think of it as concentric layers with the energy source on the outside, it makes more sense. The outer phase is the world you humans live in. You normally have no way whatsoever to detect or interact with the middle phase, though obviously you are an exception.
"The middle phase is the world we... well, you would call us animals, we just call us people... live in. If we are differentiating between humans and ourselves, we are midphasers and you are outphasers." Takaran had stated intent to just nibble on his food, but he was becoming slightly more avid about it after the first taste. Jack decided to try to distract himself from the fox to his right by leaning forward to get his own plate of food. Though when he did, her tail flipped to snake behind him and curl around his waist when he leaned back again.
"Now here's where it gets a bit more complex," Takaran stated, "so I'm going to give you the brief rundown. EveryONE in the middle phase can see, but not interact with anything in the outer phase. EveryTHING that is not alive in the outer phase can slowly fade through to the middle phase. It is somewhat of a slow seepage of the item, like a drip from one place to another. If the item in the outer phase stays relatively stationary long enough, it will fade through enough to become a solid item in the middle phase. This is how we are provided with EVERYTHING we have."
Jack nodded, still listening and trying to understand, as the tail curled more tightly around his waist. So now he knew why his outer-phase pants did not block the tail from fluffing a sensitive spot, but it didn't help that fact.
"It takes about three to five days for most solid objects to fade through enough to become permanently solid in the middle phase. We just call the objects that have become solid 'baked'. Anything that has not baked will dissolve within a few minutes to a few hours if its outer phase counterpart is moved. So, basically, if you leave a soda can on your counter for a day, it will begin to sift through to our phase. If you move it after that day, the copy of the soda can in our phase will just dissolve into mist and be gone. But if you leave it for about three days, it will bake, and then be a solid soda can in our phase." The wolf smiled, "And if that doesn't make sense to you, that's the EASY part."
Jack fidgeted more now, as the tail had curled more tightly around him, and was now a full covering of fluff tickling his lap. He gave up on the meal, as he was indeed getting quite full, and so set his plate down. Selkine did the same with her empty plate, and resnuggled against him, putting her hand on his thigh beneath her tail, which didn't help his situation honestly.
Takaran gave Jack a short time to get comfortable, then continued, "Now, we figure that the transfer goes at a molecular, or atomic, or even subatomic level, because liquids that are unconstrained have a hard time sifting through. We figure this is because of the constant movement of the atoms within the liquid, taking them out of close range of their fade point, and thus slowing the process. Your invention of bottled water made life a LOT easier for us, as did your bags of ice. The ice comes through no problem, and can be melted."
The wolf glanced up as Farren retrieved his now-empty plate, "Oh, thank you. Anyway. That covers the outer and middle phases. The inner phase is a horrible place. It is populated by effectively solidified darkness with a mind of its own. Creatures of shadow and destruction. Thankfully they have no interest in the middle phase, but have to pass through here if they are to get to the outer phase. We work to prevent this at all costs. If a shadow were to reach the outer phase, they end up absorbing all energy and matter they come into contact with until they detonate in a glutinous massive explosion."
Takaran eyed Jack and waggled a finger, "Not a pretty thing. Last time this happened, some animals you now call Dinosaurs were pretty much wiped off the planet. But thankfully they are squishy and die well. As a general rule, just stay away from them and scream like a ninny for help if you see one and don't know how to deal with it. You can't miss them if you see them. They're that obvious."
Jack was trying very hard to pay attention, but Selkine had taken up grooming her free hand, licking it clean from her meal. Then she had decided that it was a good idea to groom him carefully around the face and neck. So he was ending up more distracted by the soft licks against his throat as well.
"Anyway, the main things you need to know right now are that you are effectively between phases. You can interact with both outer phase -and- middle phase objects and occupants. This has the potential to cause some confusion and potentially small problems for a while, but we will be working to get this resolved. Among other things, middle phase folks cannot touch outer phase folk except when the outphasers are asleep, and even then it's completely one-way and only with an effort. So you would feel hard as stone to us at that point, since your skin would not give in response to our touch. Since we can now interact with you without many of us REALIZING that we can interact with you, you may have to deal with some oopses as people discover that they can't just pass through you. Beyond that, we will be doing some work to figure out what exactly has happened." Takaran nodded and seemed finished speaking.
Jack cleared his throat, wondering if his face was as red as he felt it to be, and asked, "Okay, they called you 'Spell Master', and the fox at the hospital said he was a doctor of science, not magic. So there's magic in this middle phase too?"
"Absolutely," Takaran agreed. "Very potent magic at times. Though our least adept magicians can all at least dephase items. Um, How to explain that... Okay, your old soda can, that you leave sitting for five days, it creates a copy in the middle phase. But outer phase objects pass through it. Now, let's assume you move a frying pan to the place where the soda can was sitting, and leave it for three days. The frying pan will bake, and be permanently merged with the soda can in our phase. This creates a pretty useless frying pan for us, so we diphase it. Effectively forcing a baked item to dissolve."
Jack was beginning to relax a little now that Selkine had decided to stop grooming him, and he found himself actually glad for her tail draped across his lap, because her closeness and recent actions had caused his pants to become tented, and this was well-hidden by her tail fluff. He shook his head, trying to make sense of the information he had just been given. Then his face turned up the heat a few degrees and a squeak escaped his throat as Selkine's fingers tickled past his erect shaft. He tried his best to maintain decorum.
Takaran nodded, "I'll let these three lovely ladies answer any other questions you may have. Jeran, come on, we have research to do. Jack, I bid you well. Try acting as normal in your world as you can while we try to figure this out." He bowed to the distracted human and spun on a foot, then headed out through the door, the black cat following with a last tidbit of food in hand.
Farren hummed as she set about gathering up dishes, and Sess'tha settled down on the other side of Jack, leaving across him slightly. "Selkine?" the ocelot murmured.
"Hmm?" Selkine asked dreamily, gazing across Jack into the cat's eyes.
"Next time... please don't make his face red in front of the Master. Get your hand off him now and let him gather his wits. And ASK before you play," the feline chided.
"Awwww... but he likes it! See?" She flicked her tail away from his lap and onto the cat's lap, proudly displaying the tent in his pants, complete with her paw going through his pants to hold the pole causing it. Jack thought he was about to die of embarrassment.
Sess'tha carefully took Selkine's wrist and disengaged her fingers from his flesh. "You came to live here because you liked him, and we came because we are your friends and we agree with you about him. Normally you wouldn't be able to do a ruddy thing interactively with him, and now you've ended up with what is effectively a freak chance of an eon. So don't go scaring poor Jack away." She smiled at the poor flustered human and gave his ear an affectionate lick, then whispered to him softly, "You'd better be ready soon though. Hell hath no fury like a vixen who doesn't get what she wants, and she has her sights on you."
"I HEARD THAT!!" Selkine exclaimed. She laid her ears to the side and slouched. "I'm not THAT bad." She quickly brightened up and perked. "I know! Jack! I've always wanted to see if you still like that shower thing you do better after having a proper washing. Come on!" She scampered to her feet, unthreading her tail from behind him, and hauled him to his own feet off the couch with a strength that was seriously understated by her size. He found himself bodily dragged a few feet before she scooped him up into her arms as if he were a small child, and carried him quickly towards the bedroom.
"Be nice to him!" Farren called as they went past the kitchen, Jack trying to decide if he should register a protest or not. He had come to the conclusion that either this was for real, or this was a REALLY freaky dream or hallucination. Either way, he'd go with the flow. And it looked like things were about to get somewhat more interesting.
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