Lowkey one of the most scary things about having shapeshifting as a superpower.
After your first time shifting into a dragon and back, are you really the same person? Did you have a strong enough mental image of your appearance beforehand? Did you make yourself more attractive, and if so, was that the right thing to do?
Instructions not clear why would you switch back from being a dragon.
I would guess that if you can shapeshift you'd largely have to let go of the concept of an "original form". If you're trying to keep it a secret you'll probably give everyone an uncanny valley effect when your nose is a slightly different shape every time they see you.
If you have shapeshifting powers it would be weird if you didnt choose to make yourself more attractive.
Your "true form" may as well not exist anymore in favor of being whatever you want at any given moment. Your actions, rather than your appearance should define who you are.
Would this depend on the nature of the shapeshifting? Do you have full manipulation and have to reset yourself manually, or do you simply disable it?
I would say yeah it depends on the specific implementation of shapeshifting. Since all the shapeshifters that live among us have not been caught yet we don't know what variants of shapeshifting are real and which are simply fantasy.
I like how the Discworld novels handled this sort of thing. Many witches are able to "borrow" another animal's mind for a short time. Snag a passing owl and fly around for example.
But it was considered wildly dangerous as you could very quickly forget who you really were and get lost forever. Only Granny Weatherwax was powerful enough to make an evening of it.
"I Ate'nt Dead"
If you know, you know. :)
I should add: I didn't start Discworld until a few months back, at 52-yo. My god, to think I'd been missing all that for decades. Plowed all 41 novels in just a couple of months. It's that good.
Reminds me that I need to continue reading the Discworld books! Next one on my list is The Night Watch. As for the Witches books, I've only read Equal Rites, but I've heard they're all excellent.
Literally how I'm bout to make my sona lmao
