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the yellow legal pad, putting together the notes collected
from Shadow.  Notes and potential articles written by Wire, Sinclair, Ezekiel
and Tolstoy.  Gilgamesh missed the camaraderie of the time he had spent in
Philadelphia.  No Crows lived in Chicago with him.  He missed them so much,
especially Wire and Tolstoy, because they were dead and gone, never to speak to
him again.  Killed by a pair of Beast Men named Enkidu and Grendel.
    After letting his project sit for weeks, he had started
to type.  His project was a synthesis of everything his Crow friends, living
and dead, had produced on the subject of Transforms.  Many weeks of typing
later, he finished.
    He wasn’t impressed with his writing.
    When Sinclair wrote, his work was lyrical and engaging.  He
wrote stories and short vignettes, allowing you to feel the lives of those
Focuses and normal men and women with Transform Sickness.  He could even make a
reader see into the heart of an Arm.  Ezekiel wrote philosophy.  Thought
provoking, insightful, at times inspiring.  Gilgamesh had incorporated as much
of their styles as he had the talent to copy into his work.
    Tolstoy had been able to pick a single question and
delve into it until the question answered itself.  Tolstoy had been the one
responsible for the terminology to describe what the Crows saw with their metasense. 
Wire had critiqued.  He had been able to look at the work everyone else did and
spot the holes and rough spots.  Then he would either add to their work, or
make constructive suggestions that led the writer to new insights and
understanding.  Gilgamesh thought that might be the best skill of all. 
Gilgamesh tried to incorporate both Tolstoy’s technical fireworks and Wire’s
critiques into his magnum opus.  He failed.  He wasn’t good enough.  Everything
Gilgamesh touched of theirs turned into Gilgamesh’s own style, the engineering
manual .  Not at all the glorious artistry of the other Crows.  Dry,
cerebral, and far too practical.
    Gilgamesh dedicated his book, ‘On Transforms’, to
Tolstoy and Wire.  He looked it over again, and sighed.  Too long.  Meandering. 
Too dry.  Too real world .  On the other hand, he had produced what he
had wished for when he just started out as a Crow – an engineering manual on
how to live as a Transform.
    To ease the pain of his long daunting book, Gilgamesh
had produced a summary précis.  He looked it over, and smiled.
     
    On Transforms
    1.0            Gender-based
differentiation of Major Transforms
    Metacampus
functionality falls along gender lines.
    Male - Crows, Beast
Men
    Absorb dross and
convert it to juice internally.  Beast Men may be able to absorb juice
directly, as well.
    Range – both Crows and
Beast Men can sense juice to a distance of 5 miles
    Sensitivity – male Major
Transforms are able to sense both juice and dross, as well as the details of
juice allocation (fundamental and supplemental juice), and Focus tagging. 
Cannot sense others of their own kind very well.
    Speed – slow
manipulation of juice and dross.
    Manipulation – Crows
can physically manipulate dross, a byproduct of their absorption capabilities. 
This manipulation has several uses, including the creation of artwork.  Beast
Men manipulate juice internally, powering their slow changes of shape.  Whether
this is under their conscious control or not is an open question.
    Female - Focuses, Arms
    Absorb juice
directly.  Focuses create supplemental juice (as do woman Transforms) in small
quantities.
    Range – a quarter mile
for Arms and three hundred feet for Focuses
    Sensitivity – unable
to sense Major Transforms save at very short range.  Unable to sense some
details of juice allocation.  Unable to sense dross.
    Speed – much faster
juice manipulation than either Crows or Beast Men.  Arms and the best Focuses
are able to transfer juice in an instant.
    Manipulation – the
Focus is capable of extensive manipulation of juice, a