the cat

[instar]

Comments

[hold_infinity]

She glances at him in startlement, flicking her tail again. <Only forty-six?>

[morphbox]

<Yes. A much easier number to remember than the quantity of Earthly beetles. And far more than we have of birds.>

[hold_infinity]

<I don't understand why Earth would be this different,> she says. <Are we the only ones with hundreds of thousands of species?>

[morphbox]

Ax starts tapping his fingers together in what may be a thoughtful gesture. <As far as I know. I don't remember the total number from my home, and at any rate a new bacterium was discovered only fifteen years ago, so perhaps my knowledge is out of date, but Earth distinctly stands out in this respect.>

[hold_infinity]

<Fifteen years? We get new species of microbes - much faster than that. Well, that makes sense. Actually, come to think of it, beetles might just be a third of all animals and not a third of all species generally.>

[morphbox]

<That would make more sense, although still not very much sense.>

[hold_infinity]

<Yeah. I have no explanation for beetles.>

[morphbox]

Ax's main eyes squint in the suggestion of a smile.

[hold_infinity]

Robin giggles again.

<Right, I'm going to demorph and go brag. See you later.>

[morphbox]

<I am glad I was able to help you perform the maneuver.>

[hold_infinity]

<Me too!> she says. <Thanks!>

When she finishes demorphing, she gets up and dusts herself off and goes in search of someone to brag to.

[pandion]

Well, there's Andi, taking kitchen inventory and making a grocery list.

[hold_infinity]

"I figured out how to do combined morphs!" announces Robin. "I've got a lion-tiger-jaguar-leopard morph now. It's gorgeous."

[pandion]

"Ooooh! Are you gonna use it? Like if we have to actually fight aliens instead of being all ninja-y?"

[hold_infinity]

"Probably," she says. "It's got a lot of advantages over any of the contributing species. Being fucking enormous, for one."

[pandion]

"How enormous is that?"

[hold_infinity]

"Well, how wide is your garage? I was about that long. When I stood up my head almost bumped the ceiling. If I'd stood up straighter, it would have."

[pandion]

"Wow, big kitty."

[hold_infinity]

"Yeah."

[pandion]

"I wonder if there's anything you could combine with an elephant?"

[hold_infinity]

She shakes her head. "Probably not, except another elephant. The only animals I can think of that hybridize that well are horses and cats. Well, and dogs with wolves, I s'pose."

[pandion]

"Is there any good reason to want to be a wolfdog instead of just a wolf?"

[hold_infinity]

"Hybrid vigor?" she suggests. "I'm not sure what specifically. I'll look it up."

[pandion]

"What's hybrid vigor?"

[hold_infinity]

"The same reason my Panthera hybrid is bigger than any of the animals I acquired to get it. You get weird effects when you mix related species, and sometimes they're useful ones."