Ishtan

Name	Ishtan Ixki (ISH-taan ICKS-key)
Gender	Hermaphrodite / Human
Homeworld	Mutated Earth/Iceage era; currently lives near campus in the expensive housing for exchange students.
Class	Sophomore 25kk
Nut	Not
Totem	Jackalope, the 'mythological roadkill' totem, fast and probably faking it. +1 S/GM, +3 Bod, -1 RWP, +2 Luck, -1 Drive, -1 Bonk, +5 extra KK's.
Smarts	8
Bod/Feet	6
RWP	1
Luck	8
Drive	1
Looks	5
Cool	3
Bonk	5
Powers	Telemove - allows you to move things without touching them Genrehopping - the character can move from one dimension or universe into another, even fictional universes Linguist - any Human language can be learned by you in less than a year fluently, +3 Knack: Understand Any Basic Human Language (not complicated speech but the essences) Run Like Heck - movement speed double when needed badly Reality Shifting - character can transform into an appropriate being in addition to moving to another universe or dimension (they do not have to shapeshift, they can just travel too)
Clusters	Genrehop/Shift With Confidence +2
Skills	Angles and Lines +2 Code Is Simple, Look! +2 Ride Big Animals +2 Looks Before Leaping +2
Knacks	Understand any basic Human language +3 Blend In With Any Culture For A While +4 Surprise! +4
1	RealTime Geometry with Rex 903
2	Current Affairs with Talshoy
3	Living Mythology with El'bis
4	Fur-Side Studies with Peacemongrel
5	Security Assistance
6	Public Relations with Qeats
7	Teleport Practice with Retail Retali8r
8	Make Your Own Planet with Ninhursag
Dragon	Thicksnow
From	Hybridizing Center
Pets

image: ssjvash

Shhee was much smarter than hir parents. Though there were others like hir in ways, very smart, or who could do amazing, godlike things with their bodies or minds or powers that sprang from their eyes or fingers, shhee seemed to be the only one who could ... well, do them all.

The big cave where they set up every winter was always a bit cold, not as cold as the year that took hir little sister away - though there would always be more babies. Shhee often wondered about hirself, shhee had .... well, both 'parts'. Could shhee bear children? Sire them? Both? There was only one way of knowing, and that was to experiment.

Fortunately, Ishtan was pretty like a girl. Not very plump, not very busty - but then shhee was only around fourteen years old, and unlike many worlds similar to this one, the lifespan of these 'primative' people was already well into the seventies. Blossoming later in life was common, especially when there was not much mammoth fat to go around.

The problem was, once her newfound seduced partner learned that she wasn't quite all 'she' and instead had a package (that usually rivaled the clan leader's) that would be the end of that little experiment. Ishtan pouted, and was eventually shunned by many in the clan. Especially over that one long summer, when shhee insisted upon wearing the clothing of a girl, but everyone just knew shhee wasn't.

So there Ishtan sat, on the edge of a rocky outcropping covered with summer snow (there was always snow, just sometimes there was more light than other times of the year) watching her people walk south. Without hir.

Over the summer shhee'd learned to run quite fast, away from those males that shhee offended or from their parents. Shhee did have one or two friends, but they weren't old or tough enough to stand up for hir, and thus they walked down away into the wide glacier-carved valley without hir.

Ishtan's eyes swam with tears. But, shhee stood and turned around, walking back to the big winter cave and seating hirself in the big throne where the Clan Chief sat. He was a burly, scary male, one which had hardly blinked at hir advances and even less so at hir ... package. In fact, he might have enjoyed it all the more because of that. Raping hir, painfully, and then depositing hir by the shame wall where bad hunters or women who had stillborrn children sat. But no one knew quite why - they assumed it was that shhee had propositioned him - but it wasn't, it was just that he was done with hir and wanted nothing more to do with the bigendered teen.

Shhee grunted, something to the order of 'well I'll show them, meanies'.

Shhee could not call lightning down from the skies, like the Shaman could. Shhee could not blow fire from her mouth like the Hunter. But... shhee knew there was more to hir than met the eye.

For the first time in hir life, at fourteen and just two moons short of fifteen, during the summer solstice, dreamed of being somewhere else.

And went there.

***

Hir eyes bulging and gasping for breath in the muggy, stiflingly hot weather, shhee stood up suddenly and looked around in a panic. Had shhee done it? Where was this place?

The people around her were strange - and plentiful. More people than shhee had ever seen, even on trips to the gigantic mate-gathers in the fall. There was a gigantic bonfire, one the likes of which rivaled the forest fire that the Hunter had caused when he learned he could breathe fire...

Shhee said something oddly, "where? who?" And was greeted with not yells and shouts of anger, but with cheering and laughter, open arms and big smiles.

Ishtan cried now, but with glee. Shhee saw creatures that were also clearly people, clothing that defied description, and objects that shhee would just have to learn about to understand. It was noisy, here, there was music coming from people and objects nearby. Shhee recognized drums and hand-tambourines and gourds but there were bigger objects, making very strange, very interesting noises too. Shhee could never have conceived of a guitar let alone an electric one, or a keyboard that hovered off the ground, or light-harps.

But there they were, in all their glory. And shhee enjoyed this moment, even though shhee couldn't quite understand what they were all saying, but it was clear that nothing was out of the ordinary tonight.

It was the solstice after all, when the light danced on the earth longer than any other day. That was apparently a day to celebrate, no matter what culture you were from!

Well through the day, into late afternoon, Ishtan wandered around this huge celebration. It was taking place atop a wide, flat plateau that overlooked.... something. They weren't mountains, but how could they be shelters? They were squared, perfect shaped, with holes in them at regular angles. Shhee could see how someone who could fly (like the Scout who kept the clan appraised of enemies or prey movement at home) would have fun landing here or there and using a surface to leap from.

There were also other celebrations, shhee could see them in the distance with hir keen eyesight. There was a beach, this mountain and ... city - that was a word shhee heard and understood now - sat right on the edge of a bay. Shhee had never seen such a place, but Scout had told stories of a wide, huge lake that was bigger than the biggest thing he could describe. This was such a place, perhaps.

"So, we didn't have to find another one, that's good. I'm glad you made it." Said a male's voice, behind hir. Shhee wasn't startled, shhee knew someone was there, but ... the sound of his voice was so strangely familar. Shhee turned, and saw - hirself - standing there. He had long, straight black hair, bright blue eyes and tanned skin - though hirs was darker. He had a tunic on, and leather pants, and a smile that said something much deeper was going on.

Because of course, Ishtan understood him. Among all the chatter and voices, calling out or singing that day, shhee grasped a few words early on - food, drum, fire, city. But this was a whole sentence and shhee heard it without even flinching.

"Do you understand me? I thought I would be speaking correctly." Crazy Doc Sanger said, tilting his head. "You," he indicated Ishtan, "speak this language?"

"I do!" Ishtan said, eyes going wide. "I do, you speak it? Are you from my ... world!?"

"No, no," he shook his head, and confused hir even more. "No, but you must see we're the same person, right? You and I?"

"You look like me," shhee said, and then rapidly corrected hirself, "I look like you, you're older than me."

Crazy Doc rolled his eyes and head, laughing. "Yes, yes, I'm ancient. Positively doddering." Shhee didn't quite understand that bit, but got the gist. "Come on, I want you to meet some of my friends, I'll help you learn. If you're at all like me, you will learn, quickly too."

They walked down into the 'school', the buildings were indeed made by hands and not by the gods. Though the plateau they all partied upon had been made by a goddess! Apparently they had real gods and goddesses and demons and angels and all manner of people living here, together. No one being run off.

There were smaller and more private, and quieter celebrations going on below, they wound around grassy areas that had flat stone-like walkways carved into them. Shhee pointed at it, and asked what it was. Sidewalk, another word learned. But why was it called that? Street, car, travel, stoplight. Buildings - bank, kiosk, all these things tumbled into Ishtan's head and stayed there.

Doc Sanger took hir to see one of the mages, who had their own bonfire going in their own mini-universe. When they entered the Magic Studies building, Ishtan almost fell on hir face - the travel between one universe and another was all right under hir own power, but being suddenly moved to another without even knowing?

"Oh sorry, sorry," Sanger said, helping hir back up. "I should have known, you're very magical, aren't you. That barrier keeps others out, but you felt it didn't you."

"I did, it felt like I was falling sideways."

"Well, get used to it. From what I heard, you just popped into the air - and even I can tell you're more than just a teleporter. I've never seen you, so... ah, here, Piers?"

A yellow haired man wearing clothing that must have been quite stylish approached. He looked appraisingly up and down at Ishtan, who blushed. "Who is this? Ah - wait," he muttered a spell, which suddenly Ishtan was half inclined to memorize. "A 'hopper? You've found a genrehopper?"

"Apparently, but I want you to check her out."

"I am not a she," Ishtan said, darkly but with a little fear. "At least... not ..."

Both men looked a little closer, realized that bump in the skirt was there for a reason, and both nodded.

"That's fine, we've got pronouns for that," Piers said, though Ishtan didn't quite understand what he meant there. "You're also far more than just a genrehopper!" Piers stated once he'd finished incanting and waving his long fingers at hir. "Sanger, shhee's amazing! Shhee can reality shift as well!" (He pronounced it 'shuh-hee', by the way.)

".... I thought that was the same thing." Sanger said flatly.

"It's not, reality shifters can take the shapes of the locals, to fit in with the reality level. Genrehoppers can move sideways through time and dimensions to different probabilities, which is a facet of reality shifting. But unless they have a specific ability to do so, the Shifters can always adjust themselves to suit the environment. And," he added looking at hir again, "they can also keep that shape when they come back to another reality level."

"I do not think I understood half of what you just said," Ishtan said with a chuckle. "But I think you just said, I can go places, and be things. Well I am not from here, this place must be very far from my home."

"Shhee's quick," Piers said. "You teach hir that?"

"Shhee's a Sanger, of course." Crazy Doc said, smiling. He turned to Ishtan, "We'll talk about it later. For now, you probably are going to need a place to stay, and a class schedule for this year."

Shhee tilted hir head, wondering what that could be.

***

By the time September rolled around, Ishtan had been enrolled in a brief Summer session to bring hir up to speed on English and culture locally. What shhee really enjoyed, though, was hanging out with others hir age who didn't run away from hir, who didn't mock hir, who actually in one or two cases had the same gender. Shhee had been warned though, it would not be wise to continue the life cycle as presented in hir homeworld. There were plenty of reasons to wait to have kids, and being a student meant that shhee didn't need that extra added responsibility, even though everyone knew shhee could handle it.

Shhee enjoyed afternoons out with the Sanger Twins - there weren't just two, there were eight, and they were all from other worlds, like shhee was. They got hir clothing, stuff to keep it in, and a place to stay with them in the Alabaster apartment complex where they lived. Though they were all Seniors by now, and because of the disparity in cultures, even though shhee was old enough to be a Junior, Ishtan had been enrolled as a second-year Sophomore to give hir a bit of a chance to catch up.

Of course, shhee was a Sanger, so catching up was quick. Shhee enjoyed learning about abstractions like math and geometry - always easy for one like hir. And languages? Just English? Fah, English was hard compared to some that they taught here. Shhee learned about the relationships between worlds: that this was a planet, but it was on a plane, or Reality Level that also contained other planets. There were also different time periods where people came from, future and past, and sideways places. Shhee learned that hir own world was in the past, but slightly askew (shhee liked that word, askew) because in most Earth's pasts, the ice age did not contain superpowered people.

Ninhursag, the goddess that had created the solstice plateau, took an interest when she learned that Ishtan was a Reality shifter. In a way, the magic and power that she used to make mountains or curse people was similar to that which shifters used. The beautiful woman taught hir a little about how to maintain a shape in a foreign Plane, or to continue using a 'shifted' shape from a world which was incompatable with this one. (There were other people who could do this better, she explained, but you wouldn't want to go to Bugtown to meet them, they're quite nasty people.)

It was such a relief to be accepted by people around hir, Ishtan didn't really want to leave all that often. But for the sake of learning how to use hir powers, shhee managed to go from one world to another, and then back, safely. Shhee also got a job, tending the animals at one of the kiosks that specialized in selling things to folks who needed live prey or a sacrificial creature for a class. Some folks didn't like handling animals they just knew were going to be slaughtered, in fact there had been a picket line a couple times that year. But shhee handled it in style. After all, animals weren't people - the ones standing on two legs or the ones who spoke with their minds? Yah, they were people. But the ones that were sold to students (vampiric or otherwise)? They were just food like any other to hir.

Thus hir first full year went by, hardly a day without an adventure. Shhee found hirself at the end of the school year, and another solstice!

The celebration was even bigger than last year's, and this time shhee went to the ones at the beach - just to see the ocean was an amazing thing. Shhee didn't really swim, like most Sangers, but had at least conquered hir fear of it. Splashing around, enjoying the bright summer sun, Ishtan then helped build the big bonfire that would start burning in the afternoon.

Now sixteen, or ... months short of it, Ishtan wondered - what would happen... What would happen if shhee genrehopped to another world? At random? Shhee knew shhee could get back here, hir training was well learned. So... Where?

Shhee closed hir eyes, and dreamed of what place might be needing hir, from the warmth of the fire and the remnants of the baking sun on the now-dark beach...

It wasn't as warm, where shhee arrived. It wasn't cold either, there was a sort of physical glow coming from one area nearby.

Very physical, and very glowy! Entwined around itself was a furry creature with ... "You glow, like the moon on fresh snowfall," Ishtan breathed, and the creature turned to look at hir.

"I do, thank you very much." He tilted his head, and rose quickly to all fours. His long tail whipped around carefully, mindful that there were natural adornments on its end. Glowing ones. "Would you ... like to be my friend? I'm waiting for one and here you are."

"I would!" Ishtan clapped hir hands together, "my friends will love to meet you!"

"I am Thicksnow," he said, butting his warm head into hir hand. "I would be pleased to meet them too."

Almost immediately, then, Ishtan set about snuggling the gloriously fluffy and soft hybrid to hir side. "Stay close, I am going to bring us back to the party!"

"Oh a party? Excellent timing!"

The pair slid back through the dimensions and onto the beach, which was bright with people and bonfires, ravers with glowsticks and dancers with poi swirling around and making everyone else duck and applaud.

"Now this is my idea of fun!" Thicksnow said, and with Ishtan in tow he joined the dancing!