This is set in the "Tales from the Blind Pig" universe.
What are you, you ask. I will cheerfully admit that this form has probably never walked this world, as it is a product of my own twisted imagination, brought to this flesh and blood rendering by the Martian Flu. SCABS, they call us. When I first caught the Flu, the virus rendered my flabby overweight adult human body into a heavyweight, well muscled, full grown adult Siberian Tiger. I gained weight, going from --- (too much as a human) to almost 600 pounds of muscle. I was a big guy to begin with, but now I was a big cat. I was most fortuante to not suffer from "morphlock", a condition either mental or phyiscal which locks the victim into one form.
I could shift my body to something approaching human, but only for short periods of time, with a penultimate time limit of 4 hours. If I were to only shift certain portions, like, say, my throat, I could speak for a max of 5 hours at a strech. and I would still be stuck with using a voder for three hours afterwards. (A voder is a device that translates noises made by a syrinx (or other non-human vocal chords) into something resembling human speech. It is a bitch to train to and use, but the results can be well worth it.) After about a year, I was experimenting with shifting my body into non-traditional forms, and found that I could form what is commonly known as a "taur" form, which is simular to a centaur, but without hoofs. I could keep this form for up to 12 hours, with the only penalty being that I had to spend an equal amount of time in my "default" fullmorph form.
I stayed that way for a long time, nearly five years. I changed jobs and moved across country, which is an experience I do not want to repeat. Two more years passed. Then came the incident, which threw me for a huge loop. I had been kidnapped and was probably going to be killed and skinned. During that time, I not only far exceeded my time limit in my "morphic" form (The full term is Anthromorphic, or "furry" as we occasionally say), but had gone feral. My feral self turned out to be as intelligent as me, and in total control of the abilities I have. It forced the flu virus out of it's dormant state and forced it to re-shape my body to this one which you now see. It's somewhat frightening, is it not? Although I had shifted into a very simular form a year or two before the incident, that form was nothing like what you see now.
I vaguely resemble a human wearing the old bulky first generation bulletproof vest underneath a photo-realistic fursuit. However, I stand much taller, almost two and a half meters tall, nearly 8 feet. My head is that of a normal tiger, except for the eyes which are a grey blue. My hands are somewhat human, with pads and 4 inch claws. The claws are layered out of a the same material and density as my armor, and can punch through 1/4 inch steel plate like it was not there. The reason that I appear so bulked up is the armor plates. My body has a layer of ultra dense bone armor, above which sits about an inch or so of flesh and skin and fur. However, there are gaps in the armor, mostly at joints and at plate junctions which allow my body to bend and for things to pass through to the surface (like blood vessels and the like). The armor is dense enough to stop a 12 gauge slug at point blank range, and could probably stop a 2 cm projectile at a reasonable distance. Combined with heightened senses beyond a stock tiger and a healing ability simular to the X-men's Wolverine and you have me. This form is a near perfect killing machine. It is extremely hard to damage to the point of dysfunction, and can wade through a line of well armed people like nothing. I am very dangerous if I am forced to the point of being feral. Fortunately for the rest of the world, both my self and the entity in control when I am feral are very big on doing things the peaceful way, and only resorting to violence as an absolute last resort, even if it means letting someone hit me or shoot me.
Ah. The 'Feral' personality wants to talk. I know you are nervous, I can smell your emotions. Let me assure you, he is quite harmless. I see. Very well, I can still chare control of the body. I will let hime talk, but I will still control the rest of the body if that will calm you. Here he is. ::cough:: I know that I'm called feral, but let me assure you that I'm not. Feral is defined as 'not domesticated or cultivated', according to the Meriam Webster dictionary. I'm not domesticated, but I am cultivated. You'll notice that my speech is a bit different. I use contraction, whereas my other half does not. My eye color is a brillent jade green instead of the blue grey. It's normall yelow when I'm fully in charge. I also have abilities that my other half either does not have access to, or ones that he can't control without my help. The incident which he refers to was one such time. I have an ability to force the Flu virus to become active and to take a specific set of charecteristcs. I can, in theory, cure it, or un-lock morphlocked SCABS by tinkering with how the Flu has affected their bodies. To date, though, only one person has taken me up on the offer. No, I'm afraid that I can't tell you, and my other half can't either as he simply does not know. I have a seperate set of memories that I can keep private, as does he. We also have shared memories, and shared abilities. How dangerous am I? Very. I am the wild card you want on your side, the 'ace in the hole' as it were. My other abilities I am forbidden to reveal to anyone. Sure, I can take control of the body. Let me discuss it with the other half.
We get up and stretch a bit, and as we sit back down full control is turned over to the Beast. Ah, that stretch felt good. Yes, you noticed that my eye color changed to the normal yellow that a tiger wears. He's still listening, but he's mearly watching, like you'd watch a TV program. I'm in that position most of the time. You'll also notice that the way I'm sitting in the chair is a bit more relaxed, a bit different. It's a bit spooky, isn't it, compared to how the other one sits. I'm not sure he's entirely used to this form. I honestly think he perfers the full morph form.
Ah. I see that your time is up. Well, thank you for the interview. It has been a pleasure talking to you. By the way, how did you find me? Oh, the Pig? Very nice. We ought to have drinks over lunch some day. Have a good one.