Welcome to Gaia! ::

‘Hide!' That was Tomlin’s first thought.

His second was ‘what have they broken at the HQ this time?’. But he couldn’t check, because when he’d lurched his unexpected new form to the Mauvian Headquarters, he’d found that without his star he had no way to get in. Which had returned him to his third thought, which, repetitively, was ‘Hide’.

He’d been stretching in the twilight after a blissful afternoon nap, getting ready to spend a pleasant Saturday evening sniffing out small youma, and checking in on any senshi who’s energy signature crossed his path. And then, the strange electric tang in the air, an unseen wave of… something. And he’d changed. Not by choice, and certainly not by common sense. A human form, Tomlin knew, came with a significant jump in energy signature, a danger the ginger tabby had never found to outweigh the advantage of opposable thumbs – though he had benefited from being around other Mauvians who had mastered the form. He’d known he could, he just never had. And now he couldn’t change back.

And it wasn’t *right*. His star was missing. His ears – all wrong! Without whiskers, without tail, all senses diminished. And his paws – feet – on the asphalt, were so cold! All the long strange Saturday night, he’d wandered the streets, but he’d felt not a single Order aura to track down help. By the time the sun came up, he’d retreated to his familiar alleyways, away from the humans who looked at him strangely as he passed, but none of his bolt-holes were big enough. He liked small, safe places. He hadn’t planned for this. Tired, hungry and alone, Tomlin was beginning to doubt his life choice as a professional stray.

Afternoon sun warmed the wall he’d propped himself up against when a sound finally caught his dulled senses. A footstep? But still no aura. He scrambled to his knees, feeling gangly as a half-grown kitten. The need to get out of sight was immense.

So when the newcomer entered the alley, what they would see was this: a scrawny, wild-eyed young man in tattered clothes, half-tangled in an immense ginger braid of his own hair, attempting to fold roughly six feet of long limbs into a damp, cat-sized cardboard box.

Tomlin froze at the sound of metal hitting metal. Was that a Negaverse weapon? He twisted more frantically in the box – on the box, really. Not only was it too small, it was starting to tear under his efforts to take cover. He could try to dig it bigger – but oh, no claws either! His frustrated hiss came out as a mere sigh around unfamiliar teeth.

And then someone called his name. No, not someone – that was Oort! A rush of relief filled him as he recognised the friendly voice, and some of the tension left his body. It didn’t help him fit in the box, but that hardly mattered now. Help was at hand.

“Here!” he called back, and at least his low voice sounded the same to him.

He turned his head awkwardly to fix copper-yellow eyes on his young friend. Oort, at least, didn’t appear affected by… whatever this was. The chibi senshi was still himself, standing tall and strong and… and Tomlin couldn’t sense him.

A note of concern crept into his voice. “I can’t feel your aura.”

Oort’s stare was worrying him. Tomlin turned his head away, thinking hard. Obviously he could trust Oort, but was it fair to dump what was clearly a mauvian issue in his lap?

He twisted on the box, and finally the cardboard gave up on him, spilling him out onto the concrete. Normally, he’d give himself a quick ‘I-meant-to-do-that’ wash, but in his altered state he settled for flicking cardboard dust of his pants with his fingers, before he stood up and found himself more or less eye-to-eye with his young friend. That was novel.

“A senshi?” he repeated.

Was he, now? He’d seen a couple of other Mauvians take a senshi-like form, complete with an attack. He’d thought it was a useful trick, but he hadn’t made the effort to ask how it was done. He spun on the spot, looking down at the outfit that had come with the transformation. The blue jacket fanned out around him, and the long braid followed – almost like a tail but utterly useless. The Sailor Mauvians had kept their tails, hadn’t they? Facing Oort again, he shook his head. There was no magic available to him at all. He was just human.

Finally, realisation struck – Oort didn’t recognise him! How could he, when he barely recognised himself. Did the young senshi even know that cats could take a humanoid form? He couldn’t remember if his friend had met any of the other guardians, let alone what shape they’d been in. This was a more difficult situation than he anticipated.

“Lot of weird going on today,” he hedged, trying to think of the best way to phrase what he needed to say next. But he really was tired, and Oort was a sensible, straight-forward kid.

“I’m Tomlin,” he said.

Thank the stars for sensible senshi! Tomlin breathed out, and felt his own shoulders untense, in a way that felt very strange and un-feline. This form was full of knots and angles, not quite bending where he wanted it to.

“Not sure yet,” he said, trying to ignore the weird and just accept the *tall*. “Sensed a kind of… energy, I guess? Last night. And then I transformed into this. Don’t seem to be able to change back.” The last was admitted with a rather tired shrug.

Any further explanation was derailed as the not-cat’s eyes fixed on the offering in Oort’s hand. He couldn’t smell it, but the squished sandwich was clearly oozing tuna.

“You are a true hero!” he said, grabbing the bag, and without thought for the hands doing the grabbing, attempted to get into it with his teeth.