A general note!
So! This is rather (read: extremely) belated, but now is better than never. This is a general note to anyone threading with the animals of the Pet Shop! The information here has mostly been implied, but never outright stated, so the cast is fixing that. (read as: I like to type a lot) Part of this is me speculating, so feel free to leave questions or comments.
Anyone who's threaded with the PSoH cast in camp may have noticed that the animals have multiple forms that they appear in. First, each one has their original form, ie their animal form. For Ten-chan (canbedeceiving), it's that of a nine-tailed fox. For Tetsu (cuisinealavore), it's a totetsu, which is a mythological goat-thing that eats people. And for Honlon (beastriality), it's a gigantic three-headed dragon. Second, each one has an anthropomorphic form. Each of these forms is not quite enough to pass for a human -- but they are pretty close. Tetsu and Ten-chan both roughly appear as teenagers, and Honlon looks like a little girl, about five or six. The things that would tip someone off as to them being not human would be things like Ten-chan's pointy ears, or Tetsu's horns, or Honlon's big black eyes of deathly cuteness.
Now, in the manga, whenever a customer first meets a potential pet, virtually every single time, the customer meets them in their anthropomorphic form. This is why Count D gets accused of slave trading sometimes, because the animals look so close to human that the average person can't imagine they'd be anything else, and the Count is offering these "people" as pets. Now, the reason why they're able to appear like this to humans is because Count D has a special incense that is lit in the shop. From what we're able to gather, this incense is able to blur the senses of humans who inhale it, so that they're more susceptible to seeing illusions. Eventually, this wears off as the customer takes the pet with them to the outside world. The point when the pets returns from their anthropomorphic form to their animal form is very frequently near the end of a chapter/segment, when the moral of the story begins to unfold. (Pet Shop of Horrors, is, at it's core, a series of morality tales) This is not to say that their anthropomorphic forms are illusions, but that they're not the kind of form frequently seen by human-kind.
Note that the incense works very badly on Leon Orcot, because Leon is a special snowflake. :|b
ANYWAY. Despite Count D's pet shop and his incense not being in camp, the pets are able to move between their forms. Why? Partially because of the amount of magic present, which works as a makeshift incense. Tetsu and Honlon are two of the more powerful animals that Count D possesses, so it's very likely that they have magic imbued into the very core of their being. I speculate that Ten-chan is slightly more powerful than the average animal as well, but since his ability is centered entirely ON illusion, it makes sense that he'd be able to switch back and forth between forms at will. But the magic in camp is not entirely stable, and as a result, the animals of the Pet Shop occasionally switch forms. Sometimes they will do it at will, and sometimes it is random. This is why we will switch from anthropomorphic icons to animal icons in a thread (for multiple expressions and the like) without making note of a transformation -- their appearance has "shifted" to another form, so to speak.
Depending on the characters' perception and awareness, they may not notice these subtle changes. Sometimes it'll be blatantly obvious that the animal has changed shape, and sometimes it'll only happen in the blink of an eye. I tend to think that it happens like bad television reception, where images will flicker back and forth. It could happen so fast that the character won't know what just happened. Or they might not be looking at all. It's up to y'all whether you want your character(s) to notice these things. The pets are aware it happens, but at this point, I think they don't pay much attention to it. Ten-chan differs slightly because he is a shapeshifter, but any form OTHER than his first two -- the punk teen and the fox -- will be mentioned as a physical change.
AM I MISSING ANYTHING GUYS? DOES THIS MAKE SENSE? o_oa
Anyone who's threaded with the PSoH cast in camp may have noticed that the animals have multiple forms that they appear in. First, each one has their original form, ie their animal form. For Ten-chan (canbedeceiving), it's that of a nine-tailed fox. For Tetsu (cuisinealavore), it's a totetsu, which is a mythological goat-thing that eats people. And for Honlon (beastriality), it's a gigantic three-headed dragon. Second, each one has an anthropomorphic form. Each of these forms is not quite enough to pass for a human -- but they are pretty close. Tetsu and Ten-chan both roughly appear as teenagers, and Honlon looks like a little girl, about five or six. The things that would tip someone off as to them being not human would be things like Ten-chan's pointy ears, or Tetsu's horns, or Honlon's big black eyes of deathly cuteness.
Now, in the manga, whenever a customer first meets a potential pet, virtually every single time, the customer meets them in their anthropomorphic form. This is why Count D gets accused of slave trading sometimes, because the animals look so close to human that the average person can't imagine they'd be anything else, and the Count is offering these "people" as pets. Now, the reason why they're able to appear like this to humans is because Count D has a special incense that is lit in the shop. From what we're able to gather, this incense is able to blur the senses of humans who inhale it, so that they're more susceptible to seeing illusions. Eventually, this wears off as the customer takes the pet with them to the outside world. The point when the pets returns from their anthropomorphic form to their animal form is very frequently near the end of a chapter/segment, when the moral of the story begins to unfold. (Pet Shop of Horrors, is, at it's core, a series of morality tales) This is not to say that their anthropomorphic forms are illusions, but that they're not the kind of form frequently seen by human-kind.
Note that the incense works very badly on Leon Orcot, because Leon is a special snowflake. :|b
ANYWAY. Despite Count D's pet shop and his incense not being in camp, the pets are able to move between their forms. Why? Partially because of the amount of magic present, which works as a makeshift incense. Tetsu and Honlon are two of the more powerful animals that Count D possesses, so it's very likely that they have magic imbued into the very core of their being. I speculate that Ten-chan is slightly more powerful than the average animal as well, but since his ability is centered entirely ON illusion, it makes sense that he'd be able to switch back and forth between forms at will. But the magic in camp is not entirely stable, and as a result, the animals of the Pet Shop occasionally switch forms. Sometimes they will do it at will, and sometimes it is random. This is why we will switch from anthropomorphic icons to animal icons in a thread (for multiple expressions and the like) without making note of a transformation -- their appearance has "shifted" to another form, so to speak.
Depending on the characters' perception and awareness, they may not notice these subtle changes. Sometimes it'll be blatantly obvious that the animal has changed shape, and sometimes it'll only happen in the blink of an eye. I tend to think that it happens like bad television reception, where images will flicker back and forth. It could happen so fast that the character won't know what just happened. Or they might not be looking at all. It's up to y'all whether you want your character(s) to notice these things. The pets are aware it happens, but at this point, I think they don't pay much attention to it. Ten-chan differs slightly because he is a shapeshifter, but any form OTHER than his first two -- the punk teen and the fox -- will be mentioned as a physical change.
AM I MISSING ANYTHING GUYS? DOES THIS MAKE SENSE? o_oa