Moonstone - Chapter 13
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Duncan tried to steady his nerves.  It wasn't easy - he had accidentally turned himself into a 6 foot tall plush bunny thanks to inattention and poor planning when communing with the Moon.  Still, the worst of the blind panic was over - now that he was sheltered from the eyes of others, he recognized it as the magic censorship principle.  He wouldn't be able to go outside like this, or even venture into substantial areas of the house without the blinds drawn.

Sidney called out to him, wondering why he'd slammed the door, and worried when he didn't answer.  She found Duncan in the hallway, clutching the Moonstone's box to him like a talisman.
"Is that you, Duncan?"

Duncan the rabbit nodded, a contrite expression on his face.

"Are you OK?" she asked, concernedly.

Duncan shrugged.  The stress of not being able to breathe had passed, he knew the magic would sustain him.  Being made of plush actually was kind of comfortable.  His foot had been aching for the past week thanks to a toy he'd kicked one night in the dark, but that was gone now.

"Um, can you talk?"

Duncan shook his head, and opened his mouth wide to show why.  Sidney looked into the felt lining of Duncan's pink-furred mouth.  "Ah.  So how did you get into this predicament, anyway?"

Duncan really wished he could talk, because he wasn't sure how well he'd be able to write with the formless paws his current form possessed.  And just like that, he felt his mouth reshape.  He glanced down at the Moonstone box in his hands, and snapped it closed.

"Did you turn yourself into the kids' bunny puppet?  You look just like it, you've even got its vest."

Duncan looked down at his body.  He was wearing a knitted purple vest, just like the puppet had been.  Thankfully this one wasn't sewn to his body.  He took it off and looked at it.  "Huh.  Did my clothes change into this, or are they piled out on the deck with the puppet?"

Sidney waited for Duncan to go out and check, then looked him over again. "You can't go outside, can you?"

Duncan shook his head.

"Fine.  Let's see what's outside..."

She came back with a bunny puppet in her hand, one that looked very much like Duncan except at 1/8 scale.

"No clothes?"

"Nope.  Looks like they changed with you."

"Huh.  It's never done that before... but it could come in handy."

Sidney shook her head.  "Can you just change back already?  Talking to a giant bunny makes me think I'm stuck in a weird remake of Harvey."

"Um..."

Sidney sighed.  "You can change back, right?"

Duncan nodded.  "Should be able to, since the puppet's not merged with me any more."

Sidney raised a curious eyebrow at the last two words, but let them slide.  "So why don't you want to change back?"

"Well... I kind of wanted to see what the kids thought of all this," he gestured with fuzzy paws at his plush body, from fluffy pink feet to the tip of his floppy ears.  "It's the weekend, it's not like I'll be able to apply for any jobs for a couple days anyway.  Please?"

Sidney smiled.  "I guess they might have fun with a giant plush rabbit.  And if you don't snore like this, maybe you can stay for longer."

For the next three days, Duncan played happily with his kids.  They loved having a giant talking rabbit to play with.  They were perfectly happy to accept that their father just happened to be a rabbit right now.  Even so, Courtney decided to rename him 'big rabbit'.  By Monday, Duncan was thinking of himself that way, as well.

"Duncan, it's time for bed.  Duncan?"  Sidney sighed.  "Big rabbit?"

The giant plush turned and looked at her.  "Yes?"

"Don't you remember your name?  I was just calling you by it."

"Yeah, you called me big rabbit."  Still, the rabbit's ears drooped - it knew something was wrong, but wasn't quite sure what.

"OK, it's time to go back to being Duncan.  You've gotten *way* too caught up in this role."

Duncan sighed softly, and nodded his fuzzy head.  "Sorry, yeah."  He smiled at her lopsidedly.  "It was fun while it lasted, though."

A little while later a familiar male form emerged from the bedroom, wearing only a shirt.

Sidney giggled softly.  "You're going to have to wear more than that tomorrow."

Duncan grinned back. "I know.  But I know what you've been missing these past three days, too."  He turned around and waggled his rump at her before heading back to the bedroom.

* * *

The next week was more of the same.  Duncan sent out a few job applications, and actually heard back from one.  The email was quite polite, but also very much a 'no'.

The routine was broken up by an afternoon spent gathering blackberries.  Courtney had fun tagging along, though she managed to take a tumble into the berry bucket and squish quite a few.  No real harm done, the goal was to make blackberry jam that evening anyway.

Duncan spent more than a few moments that afternoon wishing he still had scales.

The next week, as the new Moon approached, Duncan felt his body start to drift away from human again.  He used the Moonstone to resist it for as long as he could, but by two days before the new Moon, it was pretty clear he was going to spend another weekend and more as a bunny.  And this time, he wouldn't be able to speak.

Sidney tried to talk him out of it, of course.  But the only solution she could come up with was using a silver ring to prevent the change.  Duncan refused outright - he hated how silver made him feel 'normal'.  Normal as in no fantasies about shapeshifting...

Duncan promised to spend more time with the kids in human form once he was back to normal, to make up for the extra effort Sidney needed to put in while he was indisposed.  Fuzzy rabbit paws can't change diapers, and got rather sodden if he tried to bathe them...

Once again, Duncan let his mind slip into the big rabbit persona.  It wasn't quite as easy as the first time, he'd managed to make some sort of mental 'click' happen when Courtney first named him.  Still, it was fun to just sort of let go of 'Duncan' for a while...  The kids had a lot of fun, too.

Still, once he was human again, Duncan couldn't help but worry about the landmark.  Two months down, one month of money left.  He'd dealt with the unemployment insurance paperwork, which had been quite a bit less painful than he'd expected.  As a result, he knew exactly how much he'd be getting, and it was just barely enough to cover the mortgage, never mind all their other expenses.  Money was going to be a serious problem very soon.

The days to the full Moon ticked by very slowly.  He rewrote his resume a few more times based on advice from a job-hunt consultant.  There was another response, not quite as negative as the past one but it did note his lack of e-commerce experience...  That drove home how small a chunk of the open tech jobs really were accessible to his skill-set and experience, and got Duncan back into his basement office and working on studying a new computer language.

He did still get distracted from time to time, and the Moonstone was right *there*.  One night, shortly before the full Moon, Sidney came down to tell Duncan dinner was ready.  She looked over 'his' form, and just sighed.  "Oh, Duncan."  What was left of Duncan's body flushed with embarrassment, and he spent the remainder of the month as a perfectly normal (and male) human.

When the full Moon finally rose, Duncan was ready for it.  "Another month down the tubes... but another month to see what the Moon has in store for me," he murmured to himself.  The big rabbit's woolen vest had stayed stubbornly a vest.  The loss of an old T-shirt and pair of shorts was no big deal, as both of them had squirreled away quite a few sets of older, ill-fitting clothes.  Duncan was wearing one set of such right now.  He had been quite careful to make sure there was nothing in the pockets that he'd miss, too.  He was still a bit annoyed about the loss of his spare car key.

Duncan emerged from his Moon-trance much better dressed.  The ratty old pair of jeans that he'd torn to bits blackberrying were now an immaculately tailored pair of suit pants.  The shirt had become not just a white collared shirt, but the matching suit jacket as well.  This would help a lot when dropping off resumes, he figured.  His old suit was looking a little threadbare, and it's not like there was money for a new one.

Sidney was quite complimentary about Duncan's design sense when he showed off the outfit.  Well, at least the things she said out loud were complimentary...  The style was a bit out of date, but it was still a nice suit.

In the bedroom Duncan put the Moonstone on his dresser.  With luck, it would be a few days before Sidney noticed it and demanded it go back downstairs.  Then he carefully put his new suit away.

Then, standing in front of the mirror, he tried to will his new chromatophores into doing their thing and giving him tiger stripes.  At first, it seemed to work.  Then the fur came in.  "I think I *might* have overdone it," Duncan sighed, as his body kept changing.  "Bother."

Sidney stared at the tiger that prowled out of the bedroom.  "I really, *really* hope that's you, Duncan."

The big cat nodded at her, and she relaxed a little.  Then she started sneezing.

"Duncan!  You *know* I'm allergic to cats..."

Duncan put his paws over his muzzle meekly.  Sidney had to giggle through the sneezes.  "Let me guess. You need help changing back."

Duncan nodded.

Sidney sighed, and headed toward the bedroom.  "Oh, Duncan."