New WIP, and Status Report

It's been a trying few weeks, between illness in the house (a tenacious upper-respiratory bug that felled both me and Amy, in turn) and unexpected, apparently successful abdominal surgery for one of the family dogs (oy).

But writing must continue, and so I'm back on the horse as of tonight. Here's some WIP:

He slumped in the chair, suddenly paralyzed, as the sensorial handoff started. He was never quite able to suppress the wave of atavistic panic that resulted, but it was over quickly this time as Tiger Ape’s senses overlaid his.

He opened Tiger Ape’s eyelids. The vinyl-and-steel scents of the exercise room came to him as they always did.

This time, though, he couldn’t rely on the precoded reflex bundles they’d programmed into Tiger Ape in the past—walk, run, leap, grab, swing. He simply rolled over from the fetal position and stood up—just like getting out of bed in the morning—

—And promptly toppled over onto his face: unaccustomed to Tiger Ape’s feline leg jointing, its shoulder articulation, the different weight distribution, Ambrose’s bodily reflexes no longer served him. He shakily got Tiger Ape onto all fours, and held a hand/paw before his face.

He stared at the clawed, contact-padded thing—just five fingers and a thumb, after all—for several minutes, flexing and testing.

-Rich