A short car trip later, Dan was sinking slowly to the bottom of a large display tank at the Crustacean Institute's main building. He and his fellow lobsters - he still wasn't sure how keen he was on describing them that way but he was finding it harder and harder not to - having been gently placed one by one into their new home by the researchers after being weighed, measured, and otherwise examined for illness.
If Dan had still had a human throat he would have gulped quite loudly at being weighed and measured again, especially when the researcher commented on his size.
"Oooh, you're a big boy, aren't ya? Good thing we got you instead of a restaurant, you'd be ordered fast!"
"Um..."
Hours later, the researchers had gone home, the lights were low, and the only humans left around, Dan realized, were probably the security guards.
He flailed his claws in frustration.
"Darn it, I did it again, *I'm* human! On the inside, anyway..."
...He hoped.
Truth to tell, this whole adventure was getting well out of hand as far as Dan was concerned. The kinky feeling of being displayed and even eaten was very much still there, but there was a building existential dread along with it. What WAS he, really? Sure, he was a shapeshifter, but what was his true form, now? When he turned back into a human, was he going back to his true form...or just disguising himself, when really he was a lobster at heart? The thought was both frightening and arousing in equal measure.
His thoughts were interrupted by music; at first he thought it was playing in the building, but from the lack of distortion from tank and water, he eventually realized it was coming through his telepathic bond.
Dum, da dum, da dum da dum da dum da dum da daaaaaaaa, da da dum...
Dan would have frowned in thought if he had lips. He'd heard that before, but where...?
He couldn't see anyone, and the tank lid seemed to come open on its own. Something displaced the water though, in the shape of a hand, which gently grabbed him and lifted him out. Finally, he placed the music.
"...Pink Panther? Seriously, Kat?" he sent along the bond.
"Shh! It helps me concentrate on the invisibility spell, which is really difficult! Now zip it til we get to the car, if I get this wrong you're gonna look like a flying lobster on the security cameras..."
Light seemed to blur - more than it already did - around Dan, and he assumed he was now as invisible as his sister, the latter of whom now appeared holding him, and subject only to the distortion that came from his lobster eyestalks.
Kat then slipped back through the side door she must have entered through, tiptoeing past the security guard, opening the exterior door with excruciating slowness and slipping out. Then she rushed across the parking lot, divining into her car and chucking Dan into a bucket of water buckled into the passenger seat. Quickly turning on the car she sped out of the Institute parking lot, driving a mile before reaching a beach parking lot. She pulled in, turned the car off, and took several deep breaths as the adrenaline high faded.
Dan, who had been experiencing a similar high despite lobsters not having the same biochemical make up, floated up and eyed his sister. She looked back at him.
"Did...did that just work?" Dan asked, tentatively.
Kat looked in the mirror.
"Don't see any flashing blues and reds so...yeah? We pulled it off."
They stared at each other a moment, before bursting into grins. Metaphorical in Dan's case of course.
"WE PULLED IT OFF!" they shouted in unison.
After that bit of sibling bonding was done, Kat started the car again and began driving home at a more sedate pace.
"Ok, so you've got another 24 hours, more or less, before the spell wears off. You good with a fish tank when we get home, or do you want us to fill up a bathtub, or what?"
Dan felt awkward, but since he and Kat seemed to be getting along better, he figured he might as well talk to her about it as anyone else.
"I...I dunno. I've been worrying the last day...I'm a shapeshifter, apparently, but who *am* I? Am I Dan the human, who can shapeshift into a lobster? Or...or am I Dan the lobster, who can shapeshift into a human? If you get a fish tank for me, and stuff like that, it feels like I'm giving in to being, at least, a pet lobster - but it does sound so much more comfortable than the tub..."
Uncharacteristically, Kat said nothing for a bit. Finally:
"I don't know either. I know from what Mom said that this is a thing that most shapeshifters go through. Some...really do decide they're more their totem animal than their human self, and spend enough time in that shape that it's their default form. They just...feel like their lives make more sense as an animal than it did as a human."
Her next words were chilling, but she didn't say them in any sort of teasing fashion.
"You might really be more of a lobster than a person."
Kat glanced at him, not unkindly.
"If you are, that's fine. You're still family. You're just...lobster family. I don't think you can know so soon for sure, but, you can try out which way feels right, and experiment a bit. Fish tank if you want to try out being a pet lobster, tub if you want to try seeing if this is a passing moment, sort of thing? Mom and I will keep you safe either way, ok?"
Dan gulped, then gave it some thought.
"I-in that case..."