"McCullum!" Reid shouted, "That was uncalled for and dangerous!" The small bat-like pony slowly walked over to Babic and Bonner, muzzle creased in a frown. "We don't know how much damage we can do like this, and even a small horse's kick can break bone."
The hunter had the good sense to look abashed, before O'Connor caught his attention again.
"Boss, do you or the Doc have any idea how the two of you wound up like this?" The lieutenant gestured to their current forms, "I'd hazard it was something you were cataloging last night?" He turned and started moving over to the boxes.
"Aye," Geoffrey said, following after Beamard, gesturing to the box on top of his desk with a hoof, a scowl on his face. "It was a cameo of a unicorn, framed with feathers." He lowered his hoof with a stomp, "Don't touch it with your bare hands though. It shocked Reid and I," He motioned to himself and the Ekon, mood sour and ears back. "And we were already like this by the time he woke me up today."
O'Connor nodded as he slipped on a pair of gloves to examine the pendant in question.
Meanwhile, Reid was standing before the pair of Priwen captains, neck craned back and eyes unfocused for a moment before they snapped back into his Ekon blood sight. He looked up at them, large eyes trying to gauge what damage McCullum may have caused.
Jonathan gave a huff of frustration at how much shorter he was like this, before he carefully, oh so carefully, reared up on his hind legs, leathery wings splayed out to try and help his balance.
Vuka and Vincent gave each other a look, silently agreeing that seeing the Ekon's eyes like this, flicking between the two of them as he was using his abilities to look at their blood, was a tad more unnerving. The changes to the whites of the eyes as they darkened and the iris went from blue to red was deeply unsettling on eyes that large and expressive.
Vinny couldn't quite help as his skin broke out into goose-flesh as he watched those predatory slits trace along his blood-flow.
Reaching out, Jonathan lightly placed a hoof on Bonner's chest, eyes watching his blood pool to form the curving bruise. Frown deepening, and out of habit for checking his patients health, he let the toe of his hoof trace the damage, causing Vincent to shiver worse.
"Alright, that was creepy," the sniper said before stepping back. "I swore I felt fingers there, not just the hoof."
Blinking, and clearing his vision of his blood sight, Reid slowly lowered himself back down. "Really, how strange?" Turning his hoof to stare at it a moment in curiosity, before quickly shaking his head and looking back up at the pair. "While I don't believe McCullum broke or fractured any bones, he's still left you two with some rather nasty bruising."
Reid focused his attention back to Vincent. "You however, Mr. Bonner, we will need to keep an eye on. And you are about due for another bleeding session." He ran his hoof through his beard in thought, "Although I'd planned to handle that myself, I do not trust my ability to hold anything reliably or with enough dexterity to safely do so right now." He took a moment to scowl down at his hooves as if they had betrayed him.
McCullum gave a snort before a thought itched at his mind. "Reid, how exactly did you get from the other side of the building to my room without being noticed?"
The Ekon made a nervous hum as one wing seemed to unconsciously run the thumb claw through his hair. "Ah, I may have shadow-jumped from under table to table where available. And used my ability to hide in the shadow where there was nothing to hide under, or behind."
Geoffrey sighed, before giving Jonathan a flat look, jabbing a hoof in the Ekon's direction. "Alright, once we figure out what's going on, you, leech, are going to help train the men on their awareness."
He opened his mouth to try and protest, before thinking better of it with a sigh. "Very well, it is partially my fault we're stuck like this, so I suppose I can't quite object."
"Partially?" McCullum started, "PARTIALLY?!" He rounded on Reid, muzzle scrunched in a snarl. "If you hadn't tried reading whatever was on the back of that bloody necklace we wouldn't be like this in the first place!" Anger lined his frame as he stalked towards the Ekon.
Babic and Bonner used the distraction that caused Reid to edge away from the Ekon that their currently very angry boss was moving to, quickly ducking over to O'Connor.
O'Connor had dug the cameo out of the box, carefully looking it over. "Ya' sure you boys want to be over here? We might all wind up like the boss and the good Doctor." His eyes flickered up to watch Geoffrey corner Jonathan before the Ekon wisely shadow stepped across the room, and out of the reach of irate hooves.
The lieutenant shook his head and went back to turning the delicate looking necklace over in his hands, frowning at the flowing script on the back. The rough Serbain piped up, looking between O'Connor and Bonner. "Rather vind up pony then get betveen boss and Doc right now."
Vinny watched as McCullum charged after Reid, obviously still unhappy with his current state. The sniper had to quickly cover his mouth as the good Doctor shadow stepped away from their boss, only to wind up tripping over his own hooves, again. "Gotta' wonder why the boss is moving around so much easier then Doctor Reid though."
"Boss already had practice valking on hooves, just more this time." Vuka piped up, leaning against the wall as he watched both ponies try to take a turn, only to lose traction and wind up bowling each other over.
Looking up at the commotion the pair had caused, the lieutenant sighed, carefully putting the cameo away. "Are you two quite done chasing each other's tails?" O'Connor watched as McCullum very purposefully planted a hoof in Reid's side to leverage himself out of the tangle of limbs. Reid got his revenge with a swift slap of a wing to the face.
With a final huff and a shove, Geoffrey got back up to his hooves, and made his way over to his men. "That depends, you know how long this curse'll last? Or how to break it?"
"I would also like to know how long we're going to be stuck like this." Jonathan has a bit more difficulty getting his hooves under him, but still more sure then he'd first been this evening. "I have a number of patients I'd been hoping to check up on."
A look over the two men turned equine, O'Connor shook his head. "I don't know," his brow furrowed as he crossed his arms, "This doesn't look like a curse, or anything from the fair folk either." The lieutenant tipped his head back. "The magic's not anything I'm familiar with, I'll need to spend some time in the archive researching it."
McCullum let his jaw fall open, "I'm sorry, did I just hear you say this gobshite's not a curse? Or a fae prank?" The leader of the Guard snorted. "We're bloody talking animals, how is that not a fae thing?"
O'Connor sighed, "It's not fae magic, but it's similar." The man pondered on how best to try and explain. "It feels… gentler then the wild magic of the fair folk, but this magic's old, and that's made it unstable."
Vuka scratched at his chin as he noticed something on both Reid and McCullum's hips. "Unstable magic vhy they both have pictures on hips?"
A twin chorus of "What?!" left the transformed pair's mouths as the hunter and Ekon both whipped their heads around to check for themselves.
Jonathan was shocked and appalled to find he now had a some-what simplified depiction of a human heart on both of his hips, or would it be flanks in his current form?
While Geoffrey was stumped at how he'd wound up with the image of a sword and wooden steak crossed over one another on his hips, poking at one of them incredulously. "I think I'd remember the aftermath of a bender that'd have left me with tattoos on my ass."
He pulled his gloves off before running a hand down his face. "Regardless, I'll need time." O'Connor picked up the box the cameo had been in, "The change is done, so I'd suggest you both start practicing with your current forms."
"An' how am I supposed to lead the Guard as tiny fucking horse?" McCullum blurted out in exasperation. "I don't even know if I can still swing a weapon like this!' He sat back on his haunches and gestured at himself, shaking his front hooves for good measure.
Reid let out a thin whine. "I can't… I can't stay like this." His tail had wrapped itself around him as he sat down hard, face held in his for-hooves. "There are so many people on the Docks and in Whitechapel I need to check on."
Jonathan froze. "Oh no. No no no no no. Mother." His hooves fell from his face, as he started hyper-ventilating, despite no longer needing to breathe, eyes reddening. "I can't just disappear on her again, and I very well can't go see her like... like this!" He slowly slid to the ground, hooves coming back up to cover his eyes with a whimper.
The Priwen members all traded a look at seeing what was likely the most powerful leech in the city having a nervous breakdown because he wouldn't be able to tend to his patients in the poorer sections of the city, or see his elderly mother.
O'Connor took a deep breath, set the box back down, and walked over to kneel beside the panicking Ekon as he spoke, in the tone all of Priwen had come to know as 'the Dad' tone. "Doctor Reid," he reached out and placed a hand on his withers to ground him. "You've done a great deal since your return to London, from what I've both heard and seen. Are you really going to let this stop you?"
Hooves slowly dropped away from blood-shot eyes as red tears ran down Jonathan's face, ears drooping. "I woke up stripped of much of my physical humanity upon my return, and now I've lost what little I had left."
"Listen Reid, this we're not going to let this be a permanent change." O'Connor started unconsciously petting him along the spine. "And even if it takes a while, we've already seen your hooves have a near if not exact human range of motion, add the sensation of fingers Vinny felt, and I think with practice you'll be able to continue your work."
A disbelieving snort was his response. "Oh, because of course no one will notice or care that the overly-pale, nocturnal doctor is suddenly a tiny bat-like horse! On top of everything else!"
"Let's be honest, I think the whole city's used to weird by now," Bonner added, hand rubbing the back of his neck.
McCullum huffed a laugh at that. "Besides, you could show up at the Pembroke looking like that, and I'd fully believe Swansea would stuff you in the closest fitting doctor's coat, and then shove you out into the lobby with full expectations of you doing your rounds."
That got a watery chuckle from Reid. "That does sound like something Edgar would do." He sat up with a sigh, accepting the handkerchief the lieutenant offered him to clean his face, not noticing he was gripping it with his hoof. "I suppose after everything, letting something like this stop me would be foolish." His ears pinned back, his tone slightly sad, "And Mother already thinks me a specter that visits, I suppose showing up like this won't change anything."
Babic looked between McCullum and Reid, head tilted. "Vould this be bad time to mention both boss and Doc are naked?"
Four heads whipped around to stare at the Serbian, before turning to look at the ponies in the room.
The hunter discovered, to his mortification, he could in fact, blush through his fur. "They were too big when I woke up," Geoffrey huffed as he turned his head, pointedly not looking at his men.
Jonathan shuffled in place as his tail curled tightly around himself, wings reflexively unfurling to hide his face. "Well, it's not like any of my clothes currently fit me."
"If you're all done horsing around, I'm going to go look into the relic that did this now." O'Connor intoned, standing up and collecting the box, making his way out of the room. "I'll ask Gertrude if she wouldn't mind finding something to preserve your fragile modesties for the moment."
Groans and sighs followed him out of the room, the two captains shared a look as they as McCullum made his way over to his desk, and watched their boss clamber up into his seat before he began trying to pick up his pen.
"So," Bonner started, "you have any idea how you're gonna' break the news to the rest of the Guard yet?"
The hunter managed to hold his pen in his hoof for a few seconds before it fell from the frog of his hoof. With an arched eyebrow, he turned his gaze to Vincent and Vuka. "I figured I'd wait till I had fine control down, why?"
Babic snorted. "Probably vant to learn that fast."
'Deep breath in, deep breath out first,' Geoffrey told himself. "And why would you say that, Babic?" He asked with a flat look at the Serbian, one hoof lightly tapping on the top of the desk.
He reserved a raised brow in response. "How much trouble you think you'll have using bathroom vith hooves for hands?" Vuka stated bluntly.
"...Bullocks," was all McCullum could say.
That led to the pair cracking up, leaning against each other. Geoffrey leaned back in his chair, one forelimb draped across the back of it as he turned to look at Reid, who was watching the biplay amused curve of his lips. "Reid?" Geoffrey asked.
"Yes, McCullum?" Jonathan replied, quickly schooling his features, turning to look at the hunter.
His hoof tapped at his desk a few more times. "How good is your control over that leechy shadow magic of yours?"
Jonathan hummed and ran his hoof across his chin in thought, "It's gotten very precise. I've come to prefer it because I can use it without making a mess. And I've been experimenting with it in a number of non-combat uses."
That caused the pair to freeze before slowly righting themselves, nervous glances jumping between the ponies.
"Does that include non-lethal combat if needed?" He asked flatly, eyeing his trouble making captains.
The Ekon nodded, a grin starting to stretch across his muzzle, "It does." Sharp, cold eyes zeroed in on Vincent and Vuka.
"Care to perform a demonstration?" Geoffrey asked, waving a hoof at the pair trying to stealthily make it out of the room.
Shadows quickly raced across the room, coiling around Vincent to hold him in place. Another set wound around Vuka's ankles before jerking upwards sharply, lifting the large man off his feet and flipping him upside down.
"Shouldn't we set boundaries and safe words first?!" Bonner asked as his mouth got ahead of him in a panic.
"This is bullshit!" Babic shouted as the shadows holding shook Vuka roughly for a few moments before Reid slowly released the two of them. McCullum was impressed with the level of control, but not what the good doctor had chosen to do.
"That it, Reid?" Geoffrey intoned, turning to give the Ekon an unamused look.
Jonathan snorted. "That's all I feel is safe to do at the moment considering their chests are still bruised from the buck to the chest you gave them." He got to his hooves, slowly walking over, "Besides, Mr. Bonner is excused from rough treatment at the moment due to how his illness could compound the blood pooling in the bruise."
Neither Priwen captain chose to stick around as the ponies bickered, and quickly made a break out the door.