Summary: When Tao gains consciousness after being attacked by an agent, he finds that his body has changed in one very obvious way.
Contains brief strong swearing. Tentacles.
Aaaand for the more lighthearted 'contains' section: more xeno than Side Effect and Pace the Night put together. Tao's thought processes. Crackish premises taken seriously. Way too much crack in general. But this also a lot more serious than Side Effect and Pace the Night.
Set post-season 4, and before season 5.
Written for tentaclebigbang Yeeeep. The link to the art post is in my profile!
Thanks to Kaelin, Kai and Dogmatix for their help while I was writing this! :D And thanks to Kaelin for also beta-reading this! *hearts*
I feel like I have to say something about the unholy amount of crack in this fic, because there really is an unholy amount of crack in this fic.
Been working on this since January, ahahaha. XDD
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By Dark Ice Dragon
Fuck!
"Tao!"
Takeo gritted his teeth and continued shooting at the Union agent as the agent sped away, trusting M-21 to look after Tao, trusting Tao to be all right.
"M-21-"
"Go!"
Takeo nodded, not caring if M-21 saw it or not, and tore after the agent.
xOx
Tao was sprawled across the ground, feverish, and pale; he wasn't responding to anything M-21 said either. M-21 tried to find his pulse and his own briefly caught in his throat when he couldn't find it – he knew he wasn't thinking properly, but coming across Tao slumped over in the street, an agent standing in the shadows, his arm still outstretched… M-21 shook his head, focused, and finally found Tao's pulse.
He breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders sagging. M-21 pulled out his phone and texted Frankenstein, telling him what had happened; once it was sent, he scooped Tao up, intending to carry him where they wouldn't be seen so easily.
…Tao was heavier than the last time M-21 had had to carry him. A lot heavier. It wasn't even either, concentrated on-
Cloth ripped, practically a shout in the silent night after the retort of Takeo's gunfire, and M-21 stared, his eyes wide.
Shit.
xOx
Waking up to the regular beep of the heart monitor was never a good thing. Neither was waking up really hungry, 'cause that usually meant Tao's body had eaten itself to heal heavy injuries. Except Tao couldn't remember what had happened – he'd left Takeo and M-21 after school to buy a computer part, but he could only remember starting to take the route to the shop. After that, he was suddenly gaining consciousness in bed.
So, check-time: he had a bit of a headache; one, two, three, four, five – yep, he could feel and move all his fingers; his torso ached, but he'd had worse; and his leee – uh. …Okay. That was different.
Tao opened his eyes to the familiar recovery room ceiling and he grinned at the exclamations he heard. Everyone was there, either standing or scattered around on chairs, except for the Boss, but Tao didn't feel too jilted. Boss was obviously busy, seeing what had happened.
"Ta-"
"How are-"
"Are you all-"
Tao threw off his blanket and peered at his legs. Or what used to be his legs. He should probably start calling them 'tentacles', because there was no other words he could use to describe them (except maybe 'ramen noodles' and yeah, no, at least 'tentacles' sounded cool; who wanted to describe themselves having 'ramen noodles' for legs?). Tao lifted his top to see the tentacles started a little past his belly button and were the same colour as his skin, with little black bands thinner than his pinkie spread evenly around each limb, interrupted by a white one every so often.
"You painted me?" Tao asked, amused, two tentacles obediently curling up to his hands at a thought for closer inspection. They weren't (obviously, because no-one else had that sense of humour, but he'd mostly said that to get them to stop worrying for a second), the colours seamlessly going from one to the next, as if they were tattoos, or part of a design, like how a leopard had spots. The tentacles were about double the length of his original legs, and when Tao ran his hand over one limb, it didn't feel that different from when he had done that to his regular legs, both in terms of texture and the feedback he got from the tentacle. They were suckerless too, the underside a little rougher than the top, giving less at a squeeze.
"Tao!"
Good to know the distraction had worked as well as he thought it would though!
Takeo sighed, a wry smile on his face. "I guess we should be glad you're still the same."
"Of course I'm still the same!" Tao exclaimed, shoving himself up to lean back on the wall, a couple of his tentacles dropping over the edge of the bed. Tao didn't feel a wave of dizziness and he grinned; that was good. "All I have is a couple more limbs – they do seem kind of responsive though," Tao said as he made two tentacles twine around each other because he felt like it. It was like when he used his cables, except even easier. "Huh, I wonder if I can code or make gadgets with these…" It was an interesting thought. The tentacles were thicker than his wrist though, so they probably wouldn't be able to do anything too delicate, but coding… If he built a keyboard with bigger keys, oooh, that could be fun…
He heard M-21 shake his head. "Of course you aren't worried about anything."
"Nope." Tao grinned at him. "Boss is checking me out -and it's Boss, come on; he'll have a fix in a week, max- and think of all the stuff I can do with these!" he said gleefully, waving his tentacles.
"More jokes," Regis said, deadpan.
"That too." He had all these limbs - he may as well use them. "But there is something I'm worried about," Tao admitted, frowning as he tapped his cheek with a finger. The room was silent. "How am I going to pee?" Because his entire lower half had just rearranged itself; did he even have-
"Tao!" Regis shouted, outraged. "Seira's in the room!"
"Regis," Tao said gently, a grin growing on his face again, "I think Miss Seira's aware I pee." And he'd technically flashed her, whoops. Better hope no-one else realised that.
Regis made a grumbling noise anyway, missing Miss Seira's smile of amusement.
Boss entered the recovery room just then, still in his labcoat – he was also carrying a bowl of ramen on a tray, and really, the others thought Boss didn't have a sense of humour?
"Do I want to know what the other ingredients are?" Tao asked, lifting himself up some more –woah, cool, the tentacles could make him taller too- to try and peer inside the bowl.
"You could ask," Boss said, a small smile on his face, not trying to hide what was in it.
"Heh, so long as you haven't put squid in it, I'll eat anything. …I'd probably eat it even if you had, actually." His stomach roared at that point, and Tao chuckled. Things got a little weird though, when he tried to take the tray from Boss' hands. Tao reached out with his own arms, but two tentacles also rose to take it from Boss, a further two curling around Boss' wrists like they were trying to keep him immobile.
Which, apart from being a little embarrassing, was absolutely hilarious – Boss would be able to break their hold without even trying.
Boss raised an eyebrow, his smile still there, patient, at least.
"Hold on," Tao said, scrunching his eyebrows together as he tried to find which tentacles had decided to hold Boss, and now that he was concentrating on what the tentacles were telling him, he got a wealth of information flooding his mind, like the thickness of the bed leg, how soft the carpet was and-
"Tao, you've got my ankle," M-21 said, amusement clear in his voice.
"Good thing it was me who got hit, then," Tao said loftily, one side of his mouth quirking up as he continued to sort through all the information, "because if one of you ended up being-" Oh, dammit, he'd grabbed Takeo's waist now; when had that one climbed the chair? "-a hug monster, you'd die of shock." Or it would help them relax and Tao would count that as a good thing. Even if he was the one being grabbed.
…Huh. That was weird. Tao frowned, and the tentacles responded to that, stilling.
"Tao?" Boss said. "What's wrong?"
"My headache's gone." As in, it had just upped and left, taking all the other little annoyances too, so there.
Everything clicked into place with that, and Tao knew exactly which tentacles were where, and he tugged them away from Boss, Takeo, and M-21.
The headache came back. Smaller than before, but still, it came back. Tao blinked, his jaw dropping. "I really am a hug monster?" He'd been joking when he'd said that!
"Explain," Regis said, frowning.
Tao tilted his head at Takeo and M-21, who nodded; he looped his tentacles around their ankles and yeah, the headache left again.
"I have…a biological urge to hug people," Tao said, scratching his cheek, loosening the tentacles' hold on them, but keeping light contact. "Or touch people, I guess; I had a headache that disappeared as soon as the tentacles touched Takeo and M-21." Would he feel better the more people he touched at the same time? That…was a question for another time. Because he was still hungry.
The same tentacles as last time rose up and took the tray from Boss' hands (without the extra two trying to hold Boss still), and they held the tray steadily as they brought it to Tao. Tao dug in, and he bit back a snicker when he realised some of his tentacles were twitching every so often in tandem with how he moved his chopsticks. The Boss' cooking tasting as amazing as ever so it was good to know his taste buds had stayed the same after what had happened.
Boss hummed, and Tao's chopsticks hovered in the air as he focused on Boss. That didn't sound good.
Boss raised an eyebrow and Tao nodded, swallowing what was in his mouth and set his chopsticks down – there wasn't any point keeping it private if Tao would tell the others later anyway. "I think I know the source of what had caused your change," Boss started. "They've used something of a gorgon as a base for their poison," –Boss looked at him over his glasses- "but as you're a modified human, it had a different effect than expected."
Tao frowned as he tried to remember what exactly a gorgon was. It sounded familiar, but Tao couldn't think of what it was instantly.
"The most famous gorgon was called Medusa," Boss informed him.
…Ah. Yeah, that helped. Tao chuckled. "Her snakes were on her head, weren't they?" Tao quickly checked his tentacles didn't end with snake heads, and was glad to see they didn't. If he had been able to see what his tentacles could see… No, actually, that would have been kinda useful too.
"And she had a gaze that petrified as soon as she made eye contact," Boss said flatly.
Erk. "R-right, forgot about that, haha," Tao said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. It would not have been good to find out he had that when he woke up surrounded by the rest of the household.
"However," Boss said, frowning as he raised a hand to his chin, "both the composition of the poison and your reaction to it isn't something I've seen before, so at the moment, I'd hesitate giving you something to revert you back, in case I created even further, irreversible changes-" Tao winced, a couple of possibilities flashing through his mind. Yeah, he was fine with what he already had. "-if not kill you." Definitely didn't want that either. "If I had some of the original sample however…"
Takeo nodded, his lips a thin line. "I lost track of the agent, but I'll-"
"We'll," came the chorus of corrections, and Tao grinned, squeezing Takeo's arm too.
Takeo huffed, a small smile on his face. "We'll get it."
"Yep," Tao said, nodding. "And since I'm conscious again, we're definitely going to get it now!"
He was met with a collection of groans and sighs. Tao blinked at them. What?
xOx
"Do you think you should be getting up already?" M-21 asked Tao, frowning. Regis and Miss Seira had gone to finish homework, while Boss and he had left as well (Boss giving him an additional warning to not use the D drug; with how his DNA had rearranged itself, who knew how his body would react to it. Or they knew exactly how his body would react.), leaving only Takeo and M-21 with Tao in the recovery room.
"Why not?" Tao said, swinging all of his tentacles over the side of the bed. They snaked everywhere, but they were also limp like he'd, well, dumped them all over the floor. Hmm. It felt weird knowing what his tentacles could feel; it was like his feet had suddenly grown three times longer, and that was before he got into how they were completely boneless. "I'm fine otherwise, and if I don't practice how to walk, you're going to have to carry me everywhere!"
"It'll help keep you out of trouble, then," Takeo muttered – he yelped when one of Tao's tentacles smacked him in the chest. Heh, okay, the extended reach was a nice bonus too.
Softly tapping the ends of his tentacles on the floor, Tao said, "Hug monsters don't walk on the tips of their tentacles, do they?" he mused. They could do it, Tao somehow knew, but it didn't seem right, either.
"I didn't know you wanted to be taller," M-21 said, a hint of a smirk on his face.
"You'd hit all the doorframes though," Takeo added, and Tao flailed at them both with his tentacles again, not really trying to hit them. They ducked anyway.
"I like my height, and you say that like I can't see," he said, folding his arms and grinning at them. Letting out a sigh, Tao stared down at his tentacles as he considered how to start. He eventually shrugged and did what he normally did when he was testing something: start the program, see what it initially did, fix it to get the results he wanted, and then start the process all over again.
Tao pushed himself off the bed and his tentacles splayed themselves out as if to catch him; he peered down at the upside-down umbrella shape his tentacles had formed themselves into, the tips curled outwards. The tentacles were also telling him that there were ten of them and it was strange knowing that, feeling his legs form a circle around him. "Okaaay…" That was one thing down; now to see how he moved. Seeing how he was either standing on his heels or his knees, Tao just knew it was going to be interesting.
Tao nudged his tentacles with his thoughts, trying to get them to move. They did, but only two tentacles on his sides flopped forward, which wasn't surprising, and even if he did try to move half of them as one, they weren't… Except Tao could feel a shift, a change in the tentacles, and he frowned, leaning his hip area back on the edge of the bed as he tried to figure out what was happening. As soon as he tried to track down what had happened though, he felt the change stop, but if he had been thinking about how to move…
He tried again, attempting to think exactly how he had just been doing. If he wanted to walk, he couldn't pretend they were the same as his original legs because… Oooh. So that's how it worked. Tao dived right in, pointing his thoughts in the new direction and felt the tentacles react to them.
It took a couple of seconds, but Tao's regular legs came into view, the tentacles somehow fading out of sight – the weird thing was, he could still feel them, an undercurrent to his thoughts, but he could also wiggle his toes like normal, so it was probably something he was just going to have to get used to. Tao would take the double-feeling over being stuck with tentacles any time. To make sure, he lifted his leg and felt it – it was definitely there and not some sort of illusion.
"Sooo," he drew out as he lowered his leg, snickering, "are either of you carrying a spare pair of trousers?"
Takeo dragged his hand down over his face, sighing.
And they'd solved the toilet problem too! Awesome!
xOx
Once Tao had a pair of trousers -Boss had left a pair in the room, just in case- he tried walking again. And after years of being on two legs, it suddenly felt as if he'd gained another set of memories, his legs wanting to move in a way that was impossible for limbs that had, you know, bones.
He took an uncertain step forward, but he frowned at the insistent whispering in his mind that said using his tentacles would be easier, smoother, and the fact that another part of Tao's brain seemed inclined to agree was a little worrying.
"Is there something wrong?" Takeo asked, watching him carefully.
"Juuust that I might have more instincts packed away in my head than I realised," Tao admitted, taking another step. "On the other hand, I think it's just about moving, so when I'm all tentafied, I don't think I'll be falling onto my face all the time."
"Tenta-" M-21 sighed, shaking his head.
Tao grinned, closing the final gap between him and Takeo and M-21 and threw his arms around their shoulders. He only realised he'd taken a deep breath around their necks when he'd finished doing it, a part of him categorising what he had smelled: Takeo was rain, and M-21 was an open plain.
…Had he just…scented them? That was weird. Huh. Guess his sense of smell had been affected, then.
"Come on," Tao told them, putting the thought to the back of his mind as he tugged them towards the door, "we've got a Union agent to find!" He could worry about that instinct later; it was harmless.
xOx
"Wow," Tao said, shaking his head as they made their way to his room, "maybe you should have carried me." Because tripping over his own feet for the fourth time was getting beyond embarrassing. He'd been able to catch himself each time, but really, four times. He knew how to walk! And every time he stumbled, Tao could feel a flash of the tentacles straining to be loosed, wanting to help. Which was nice of them, but it was best he didn't get too used to them before he didn't have them anymore.
On the other hand, he got to use Takeo and M-21 as living crutches, and there was no chance he'd end up dragging them both down, sudden weight gain or no (except, did he only have that weight when he had the tentacles out since they weren't actually physically there anymore? Which didn't explain why he could still feel them, unless he had a really big case of phantom limbs).
"Now you're being lazy," M-21 said, but Tao could see his soft smile.
"Ah, no-one loves me!" Tao cried. He turned to Takeo, his eyes wide. "You'd carry me, if I needed it, wouldn't you?"
Takeo blustered an answer and then rushed to open his door. Tao didn't stumble when he did, because he'd braced himself for that happening, laughing as Takeo disappeared into his room. He heard M-21 snort, and Tao grinned at him, tipping his head.
M-21 only raised his eyebrows and Tao shook his head ruefully. Aah, why couldn't anyone in the house take a 'thanks'?
It wasn't long before Tao's main computer was humming to life, and Tao settled into his chair, swinging in it a little. Huh, he could feel his ghost-tentacles curling around the chair support, a feather-light touch in his mind, a few others winding around Takeo and M-21's ankles, but they didn't seem to notice. He tried pulling the tentacles away, but they didn't move. Huh. Weird.
"Did you get a good look at the agent?" Tao asked, his fingers flying over the keyboards as he brought up the programmes he needed.
"Mm," Takeo said, leaning over his shoulder, watching him work. "He was just under six foot, thin, and he had short brown hair." That wasn't a lot they could use to identify the agent, but Tao put them in anyway. "He was also wearing a green leather jacket."
The corners of Tao's lips twitched. "Do you think all agents inherently have a skewed sense of fashion," Tao mused as he put in the rest of the details, "or do you think it's how we deal with years of being experimented on?" By this point, all they had to do was look out for someone who dressed differently from the norm, and ta-da, Union agent. The only person who dressed what could be called 'normally' was Yuri, but he had gold eyes, so he still stood out. But seeing how clothing was pretty much the only place of freedom they had, it wasn't all that surprising, really.
"You're asking us?" M-21 said.
"…Right. We're a biased sample," Tao realised, his fingers never pausing, more and more windows flying open. "What do you think about asking the others?"
"You can ask them," Takeo said, shaking his head.
"Now who's being lazy?" Tao sighed. "But if you really want to know what Regis thinks of how we dress ourselves, I'll go ask him once we're finished." That way, he'd get more practice with walking and not falling face first into a wall.
"Wha - no!"
Tao leaned back and grinned up at Takeo. "Are you going to feel embarrassed if Regis says he finds you 'inelegant'?"
M-21 snorted before Takeo could reply. "If Regis didn't like how we dressed ourselves, he would have told us as soon as he saw us."
"Heh, yeah, he would have." He'd heard about Regis' comments to Shark. "Aaand done!" Tao said, double-checking the search parameters he'd put in, and then glanced back at Takeo, who was glaring mulishly at him. "Look okay to you?"
Takeo scanned what was on the monitors before nodding. "Yeah."
"Great!" Tao said, standing up as his stomach started to growl again. "Now I gotta get something else to eat." Maybe he had to eat the weight he'd gained before he stopped feeling hungry. How much energy output did growing tentacles and using them have, anyway? He felt like he should have a higher energy output, just through sheer paying attention to what the tentacles were telling him and making sure he kept his regular legs in sight.
"We're cooking," Takeo and M-21 said quickly, their expressions panicked.
"Aw, come on!" Tao said, huffing. "I have all these limbs now!" He waved to where the tentacles would be. "That's got to help!"
"No," Takeo said firmly, shaking his head. "That means you'll add even more strange ingredients."
"If Boss can-"
"That's Frankenstein."
They stared at one another before Tao threw his hands up in exasperation. "Okay, fine – you two're cooking." He could do it when they were asleep anyway.
xOx
Tao sighed as he padded down to the kitchen – he'd only been able to sleep for about three hours before his stomach had woke him up, demanding food. He really hoped his body would settle soon; he could deal with lack of sleep, but it felt nice being well-rested all the same. The ache in his chest had gone, so that was good; his headache hadn't though, feeling a lot worse than when he'd gone to sleep.
"Tao? What are you doing awake at this time?"
He turned around, grinning at Boss. "Midnight snack."
"I see." Boss nodded slowly. "You must still be lacking in protein. Very well." Boss began heading towards his lab and Tao started following him.
"Ah, Boss," Tao said, waiting for him to turn around. When he did, Tao said, "Do you mind…?" He held up a hand, waving his fingers.
Smiling, Boss lent him his elbow and when Tao touched it, he sighed, the headache flitting away. Boss smelled like a thunderstorm, practically crackling the skin of Tao's nose, and he breathed a laugh - that fit a little too well for Boss.
"What did you do to regain your legs?" Boss asked once they were downstairs and he started making preparations. When Tao saw rice and chicken pieces being pulled out, he had to guess Boss was planning on making dakjuk. Which… Heh. It was food usually for people who were recovering and/or ill.
"I just had to concentrate on thinking about them," Tao told him, watching Boss work. Tao didn't get to see him cook that often, usually only seeing the rows of ramen bowls afterwards, or whatever new food he had mentioned; it wasn't like seeing Boss fighting, attacking something with overwhelming force, but there was a flow to how Boss moved, a rhythm that just spoke of practice and knowing exactly what to do.
"Mm. Do you feel well enough to work tomorrow? Well," Boss added, chuckling, "today."
"Heh." Tao nodded. "Yeah. I only feel hungrier, and by the time we have to go, I'll be fine."
"That's good to hear," Boss said as he started to boil the chicken.
Tao grinned at him.
It wasn't long until they were waiting for the dakjuk to finish simmering (Boss hadn't let him help cook either), but then Tao realised something.
"Hey, Boss," Tao said, looking at him in confusion, "if I needed protein, why did you give me ramen?" There were a lot of other things Boss could have cooked for him instead.
Boss peered at him over his glasses, smiling. "Why do you think they're mutually exclusive?"
"Because there wasn't any-" Tao remembered who he was talking to and burst out laughing. "Ah, never mind," he said, waving a hand. If Boss could reverse-engineer an enhancement pill and improve it in the space of a few hours, he could easily add all the nutrients a body needed into a bowl of ramen without affecting the taste. And considering how often they had ramen, they had really needed that.
The dakjuk was gone in minutes, and with a full stomach, Tao went back to bed after bidding Boss goodnight.
xOx
Tao let out a whoop, slinging an arm around Shinwoo's shoulders, who laughed in response. "Did ya miss me?" They hadn't seen each other for a few hours, but it was a few hours. And who wouldn't miss him?
…Huh, touching Shinwoo felt different from when he touched Takeo or M-21; Tao couldn't describe it - he'd already been in constant contact with Takeo and M-21 on the way to the school so he couldn't compare how touching Shinwoo chased away the headache, but he was definitely getting that distinction from…somewhere. Probably the tentacles.
"Tao," Takeo said, his voice tight, and Tao glanced over his shoulder at him. What was wrong? He couldn't sense anyone else close-by, but if Takeo or M-21 had seen someone…
Both Takeo and M-21 were very firmly staring at him in the face, their eyes not moving, and it was because of that that Tao focused his attention on his legs and – uh. That wasn't good. He could still feel his regular legs, but the feedback from his tentacles was also stronger than it had been before – and one tentacle was a second away from curling around Ik-han's wrist. Tao jammed down on his thoughts, corralling them, and he let out a little sigh when he felt the tentacles retreat to wherever they had gone. He didn't want to know the point where his tentacles could be felt by others, especially with the children. But if he needed to keep concentrating to keep his regular legs visible it shouldn't be too much of a problem, now that he knew about it.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Shinwoo asked, blinking at him.
"Hehe, nothing!" Tao said, grinning. "Just those two are feeling a little unloved, so we should talk with them more." He nodded behind them.
He heard Takeo and M-21 choke at that, not hiding his grin in the slightest when all the children turned around and started talking to them.
xOx
"Tao…" M-21 said, frowning as he eyed Tao while they patrolled the school grounds. "What are you doing?"
Tao stopped digging into his packet of drumstix and directed his thoughts downwards. His tentacles weren't out –he glanced down anyway just in case, and nope, still not out- so what was M-21 talking about…? "Nothing. What do you think I'm doing?"
"You…" M-21 sighed, shaking his head. "You've been…giving off a scent since we arrived at the school, and…" M-21 paused, his frown deepening. "I think you're marking the school."
"Marking – like territorial marking?" Tao stared at M-21, realisation dawning in him. "Hey, is werewolf-you getting annoyed I'm encroaching his territory?"
"Enc-" M-21 groaned, grimacing. "I haven't – this isn't-" He stopped, huffing.
"I'd try to stop doing it," Tao continued, "but I have no idea how I'm doing it." He didn't feel like he was doing anything, and his tentacles were telling him everything was normal. Which, yeah, wasn't an indication of anything because, hello, tentacles, but he'd hoped they would tell him when they were doing something. He didn't want a fight on his hands because of something he could stop – and huh, they should probably check if his fighting style had changed, actually. It shouldn't have, but it was better they checked before the next fight, just in case.
"It doesn't bother me," M-21 finally said, shaking his head.
Tao hummed, looking up at the sky, twirling a drumstix between his fingers. "If you say so, but if the Boss finds you re-marking the school, I don't think-"
"Tao-!"
He couldn't help but laugh; it was far too much fun joking with him!
xOx
Tao sighed at the shredded remnants of his trousers as he rubbed the back of his neck, some of his tentacles helpfully picking them up and handing (tentacling?) them to him. Well, that hadn't worked. As soon as the spar between nearly all of the RK-5 had started and Tao had switched his attention from his legs to attacking and defending, his tentacles had come back, tearing through his trousers.
With enough practice, he'd be able to multitask all three at the same time, but until then… It would be a bit of a hassle pausing training every time he went back to his room to grab yet another pair of trousers; even if he brought them down to the lab, he'd still need to leave the room to change.
So unless… Well, that was a temporary solution. "Hey, Miss Seira," Tao said, turning to her, eyeing her up and down, "what's your waist size?"
Regis spluttered.
"'Cause I was wondering if I could borrow one of your skirts before I end up going through my entire wardrobe," Tao continued. That way, it didn't matter what form he was in, he'd be covered and 'decent' either way! …It was a good thing his fighting style didn't involve a lot of jumping or kicks.
Miss Seira didn't say anything for a few seconds, but then she nodded. "I have one that should fit you."
"All right!" Tao said, grinning at her. "Thanks, Miss Seira!"
She gave him a small smile and then left.
"Okay," Tao said, glancing at his tentacles for a second, and then back up at Regis.
Regis gazed back at him. "Yes?"
"I'm just going to use you as a goal," Tao told him, humming as he collected his thoughts. "Stay there – I'm gonna try and walk to you."
It was…weird, trying to work out how to move with tentacles. Grabbing things was easy, because it wasn't that different from using his hands, really, just a bit simpler – so walking shouldn't be that different either, if all he had to do was direct his thoughts. The tentacles could hold his weight, so Tao didn't think he had to drag himself across the floor to move, especially when their default mode kept him elevated. Hm, don't think about the individual steps, but just that he wanted to reach Regis – huh, that worked.
Tao had only moved a couple centimetres before he started trying to work out how his tentacles moved. His tentacles instantly started tangling around each other.
Tao chuckled, shaking his head, and tried again, not intending to pay attention to his tentacles this time. He could figure out how he did it later (Maybe he could record himself; he'd have to set up multiple cameras though, since he wouldn't be able to see all the tentacles moving on just one).
He slung an arm around Regis' shoulders when he reached him, taking in his slightly sour starfruit scent in one deep breath. "How did I look?" Tao asked him, grinning.
"Ridiculous," Regis said flatly, "as you always do."
Tao snickered, turning to M-21, who was the furthest away from him. "Maybe you just have to get used to seeing me walk like that." He let go of Regis and started tentacling his way towards M-21.
Who stepped away as soon as he neared him, a small smirk on his face.
Tao sent him a beseeching look. "Heeey…" But Tao grinned instantly after saying that, and he didn't pause, pushing himself to move faster.
M-21's smirk widened and he leapt away just as Tao reached him.
Bemused, Tao watched him, his tentacles pawing at the ground, like they were testing how hard it was. Tao bounced up and down experimentally, but his tentacles didn't want to leave the ground all at the same time. "Huh," he said, staring down at them, "don't think I can jump like this." Maybe if he thought of it like a piston? Gather himself up, lower his centre of gravity… Nope.
"No," Tao said, scratching his head, "I can't jump like this." It felt weird, not being able to do that, but he was glad they'd done this, or else who knew what could have happened if they'd found that out in the middle of a fight.
He hummed, and then shrugged, dashing towards M-21. He wasn't able to reach M-21 before M-21 got out of range again, but he hadn't expected to. Tao couldn't help but grin at the sight of M-21's flash of surprise on his face, even while he agreed with him – he was faster with the tentacles, with better balance too, so that could help offset his lack of ability to jump a bit.
Tao had only just been able to snag M-21 by the sleeve when the door hissed open and Miss Seira walked in, a–
"Is that a kilt?" Tao asked gleefully as he let go of M-21 to go to her side, lobbing his trousers next to his camcorder. And, actually… He recognised it – it was the one he'd helped her to order online some time ago, when she was curious about the different kinds of clothes other cultures wore.
She nodded.
When she opened it up before handing it to him, Tao realised why she'd chosen that particular piece of clothing. "The others really wouldn't fit," he said as he took it from her.
"No," she said wryly.
Tao grinned at her and then looked down as he started to wrap the kilt around his waist. He wouldn't have been able to put on a skirt, not with all the tentacles in the way – his 'hips' were a lot bigger when he had the tentacles out (which made a lot of sense, seeing how he had ten of them), and unless the skirt had some really good elastic, Tao didn't think it would be able handle him trying to squeeze all of them through at once without snapping.
It wasn't hard to figure out how to put on the kilt and Tao straightened it out once all the buckles were secured. The wool was a little rough on the tentacles, but it wasn't too distracting, so that was okay.
With a hand on the top of the kilt, just in case, Tao transformed his tentacles to his regular legs. The lab floor was cold under his bare feet (huh, the tentacles weren't as affected by the temperature?), but even with him switching what foot he stood on to lessen contact with it, when Tao let go, the kilt stayed in place and didn't slip at all. Good.
"Heheh, thanks, Miss Seira!" He took a step towards her and gave her a hug, breathing in her sharp glacial mountain scent.
"Okay," he said, turning to face them all, "let's see if we can do this now."
The others nodded and the second after that, they all rushed towards each other.
Tao blocked M-21's punch with an arm, and tried to sweep his feet from under him, but M-21 jumped out the way.
He caught sight of Regis speeding towards him, and he tried to dodge but Tao felt the exact second his tentacle-instincts surged, the tentacles replacing his legs between one step and the next, and while Tao sighed, he was still able to get out of the way – into Miss Seira's path.
He ducked and, huh, his tentacles definitely took up more floor space – but he could use that.
Someone brushed against one of his tentacles and he looped it around their leg and yanked.
"Shit!"
Heh. That was Takeo down. Okay, he was starting to figure these out. Now, if he could keep his regular legs when he wanted to, that would be great.
It didn't take long before Tao got 'knocked out', and after double-checking the camcorder was still recording and everyone was still in shot, he went over to Takeo's side. Takeo had sat down on the floor, leaning back on the wall (they'd tried to bring down furniture once; after M-21 accidently wrecked it in one slash, they'd decided against ever doing that again) and Tao blinked down at him once he got there. Tao snickered as he changed his tentacles back and then settled down next to Takeo, stretching. The floor was, unsurprisingly, still cold and Tao adjusted the kilt so he was sitting on it.
"What?" Takeo said, still watching the others.
"How do tentacle monsters sit?" With their tentacles out in front of them, or curled up underneath them in a pile?
Takeo blinked and didn't say anything for a few seconds, his eyebrows creasing. "Is it that important?"
"Heh. No."
While they waited for the others to finish, Tao held his hand up, calling his electricity to him. It came easily, crackling as it burst into existence. Though… Hm. Tao glanced past his hand and at his legs.
Would he still be able to do that when he had his tentacles out? They should, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure. Tao changed his legs back to his tentacles and he saw Takeo turn his head towards him from the corner of his eyes.
"Just checking a couple of things," Tao told him, opening his palm. The electricity still came, exactly the same as before.
Tao slid his gaze to look at Takeo when he thought of something. He could call his electricity to his hands – could he do it with his tentacles?
Hmm. It had been a while since he'd tried focusing his electricity through something that wasn't his hands, but it really wasn't that much different. He lifted one tentacle, placed its tip against Takeo's leg, and then sent a small charge through it.
Takeo's leg twitched and Tao grinned. Good; he could do it.
Takeo sighed, rolling his leg side to side. "And you needed to do that," he said flatly.
"Yup," Tao said, nodding. "It could come in handy later." And if not, Tao was sure he could think of something he could do with it.
Regis joined them next, just as Tao was pulling out his cable. Well, he'd already poked Takeo, so Tao directed his cable towards Regis, this time not charging it, since he'd already tested that.
When he started moving his cable though, Tao could see one tentacle move in the same way as the cable and he chuckled at the sight. Yeah, they did feel similar – he was going to have to figure out how to differentiate between them.
"Yes?" Regis said when Tao's cable tapped him in the arm.
"Nothing."
"Hmph."
M-21 won that spar, and before they started the next one, Tao decided there wasn't any point changing back to his regular legs again, not if he was going to end up tentacled less than a minute later.
"Heh," Tao said afterwards when they were going back upstairs, the shredded remains of his trousers in his arms, a tentacle curled around Regis' hip, another wrapped around M-21's wrist, "I think we – ow!" Tao tasted blood. What…?
"Tao?" Takeo's eyes flicked down to Tao's lips, and then Takeo frowned.
"It's nothing," Tao said, waving a hand, a couple of his tentacles making the same gesture. "I just-" It got a little harder to talk when Takeo leaned over his tentacles and put his fingers to his lips, pulling them apart.
"You have fangs," Takeo said, his voice faint, letting go of Tao's lips and stepping back. "You didn't used to have fangs before."
Tao poked at his teeth with his tongue and – yeeeah, his incisors did not used to be that long. They felt rounder, too.
Takeo was still staring at him and after the last revelation, Tao was fairly sure he wasn't going to like what else Takeo was seeing. "Your eyes are slitted."
Well, damn.