I think it'd be cool to have one of my characters discover a skinwalker's jacket (modernized from the old Native American legends) but I'm unsure of how to go about it. In my head, the jacket let's him turn into any animal he wants. From what I understand about the legends, though, skinwalkers had to put on the skin of the specific animal they wanted to turn into. I'm not overly concerned with political correctness, but I don't go out of my way to offend people either. So, what do you think? Would putting my own spin on a real culture's myths and legends make people mad?
Is the jacket perhaps made of an animal skin, or lined with one? Did the former wearer of the jacket have the same ability? How did the former owner impart the power to the jacket? What problems does your character run into because of all the animals he can change into?
This is a decision I made to improve a book that's already finished, so I'm still working out how to make this happen without drastically altering the story. My best idea right now is that the boy who finds it is being taken in by a family of supernatural creatures, and is given the empty bedroom that one of their sons moved out of. This son had a "condition" that could only be cured by turning him into something else entirely (it's complicated) and they had to go through several different treatments before they found one that worked. The jacket was one of those failed treatments, and it just sat in his closet forgotten until the new guy happened to find it. One of the complications he faces is figuring out how to make the jacket work. The family he's moved in with is a race of creatures that feed on laughter, so humor is tied into almost everything they do. Because of this, the jacket is enchanted to react to animal puns. Whatever animal he makes a pun about, he turns into. He discovers this when he calls another member of the family a little shit while she's touching the jacket, accidentally turning her into a shih tzu. This is a side character, by the way. A prominent side character, but still just a close companion to the main character.
No, people won't be offended. I've read several books/series with skinwalkers and all of them did it differently. One had them just need a piece from a dead animal (tooth for example), one had a "dirty" fur coat they always wore over their shoulders, one could only change into one animal (think werecoyote), one made it so the skinwalkers had to murder and consume to gain the shape.
