Ok before I hit the hay. You can turn into an animal at will. Your clothes and such won't turn with you but mass is not conserved so you can turn into something much bigger or smaller. It has to be a real creature that does or has existed and I guess if you want a plant that would be fair game. For me its an albatross. could travel around the world. might even manage to carry something that is not to large if packaged right. I am a bit torn though as the ocean is large so maybe a sea creature would be better. like a killer whale. of course then its not great for getting somewhere inland.

Well you didn't add any caveats to the transformation and you said it's at will so...
If mass is not conserved then I'd just turn into something heavy yet compact like a rhino and harvest infinite energy from the toggling. If I get support from a State I might even choose a whale so we can extract the most energy per toggle.
You can basically build an engine from it, and since whales are like 200 tons and I'm 70kg, the conversion ratio would be pretty damn good. Though it would require a dedicated facility, which is why I'd rather go with a rhino or something, which is however about 100 times less efficient so it would require 100 times as much toggling. You get the picture.

House cat seems chill.

3 toed sloth is about my speed

Others: I like this animal for reasons.

You: I'll be a power plant.

Bear

I wouldn't want to spend my life stuck in a power plant.

That sounds like slavery with extra magic.

First thought is a very small insect, especially a small flying bug, so I could effectively vanish instantly and escape from most any situation.

Of course this comes with some assumptions, such as magically keeping my intelligence. And not aging at hyper speed while transformed, etc.

Hey OP, have you read the Animorphs book series? They're a YA series, but it actually gets into some heavier shit surprisingly (child soldiers, PTSD, etc) and are not half bad. I bring this up because the premise is some teens are given powers to morph into any animal they "acquire" DNA from by touching. Really gets into the mindset of each animal, what it feels like, how awesome (or terrifying) it is being each animal, etc. Give them a read if you haven't already.

I remember reading something (might have been xkcd) that said Superman could do the objectively most "good" by simply powering a massive generator and providing free energy to the world. It would benefit the most people at one time, and provide a larger affect than simply beating up bad guys. So, in the same vein, your sacrifice will be remembered.

Edit: it was SMBC, not xkcd.

A tiny bird. Maybe a sparrow. Or an elephant, so that Iive in a forest and have a thick skin.

Human

Beats being stuck at a desk.

Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant

Then I would go around abolishing the state.

Lobster.

I'd continue to live my normal life during the day, but transform every night to sleep, and don't age during that time. Hell, any time I'm not doing something that requires a human body, just push pause on the aging process for a few hours. Careful application could get me an extra ~40-50% lifespan for free.

The lobster's biggest problem is always having to grow new shells. If every transformation puts me back exactly where I left off, that could be an issue, but with a part-time human to stock my own tank/pool, getting enough to eat as a lobster to get the energy to do that shouldn't be an insurmountable hurdle.

A gorilla so I could still use human technology, but I'd be 200 kgs of muscle.

YFW power plant desk

I think a cheetah would be my go. Mostly chill, very cute, excellent at sunbathing, could still play with my dog, and very fucking fast sometimes.

Like those cats with buttered toast strapped to their backs.

https://youtu.be/Z8yW5cyXXRc

Beaver. Any day. Favorite animal period. No doubts or worries at all.

Tapeworm. Just hanging out in a warm cosy intestine, protected from the outside world and food dropping on to me so I don't even have to move.

Nobody said cats? I'm very disappointed. I'm going to comb my hair, look at you reproachfully, then go to sleep.

https://lemmy.world/comment/26476522

An arctic tern.

Now you just need to find a way to boil some water and… I feel like I’ve heard this one before.

European Lion or some other interesting extingt animal to push sience in that specific field.
Or an authentic "Auerochs" to boost efforts of renaturation in Europe with my genes.
Also lots of sex for the good for a while. The beastiality could become a problem tho since im not into animals.

I'm thinking either hawk, raven or seagull. Definitely something that can fly and is big enough to not be a target for too many other animals (I don't wanna get randomly murked by a cat). Also something that can swoop down on people and steal shit.

Tabby cat

Funny you assume this would not lead to almost immediate enslavement.

A raven doesn't sound too bad. Can fly, smart, doesn't really have a predator so I can explore the world at ease

This came to my mind aswell. Made me also think about why we age and if sleeping in an area without background radiation could have a similar effect. Like sleeping in a lead coffin or underground bunker. But i guess these would still inherit the background radiation from the body itself.

Bird. Daily commute will be fun.

Wolf/husky.

Dönertier

Outclassed by rejuvenating jellyfish.

Yes, we're making tier lists about hypothetical animal transformations now.

A dead one.

A small and cute goat in a petting zoo.
You get fed and you can headbutt people and kids to oblivion while everyone thinks it’s cute.

Balls are overrated anyway.

I guess if you want a plant that would be fair game.

In that case, I would choose a quaking aspen based on the specimen named Pando. I would have a vast array of sizes at my disposal, from as small as a single seed to as large as the 106 acres that Pando covers.

I want to escape from somewhere? Turn into a seed. I want to destroy an environment? Turn into a giant network of trees.

See username. I could probably name a better bird for what I want, but hawk is literally right there. Not actually what it means in my username, but hey, if the shoe fits...

...as to why, it's basically just flight.

what would you do to cross oceans, plop down on a ship and travel along?

it's Saturday morning breakfast cereal but my 5 minutes ddg couldn't find the source. there's a (urgh) reddit post about it that added some repeating flashes for the powerplant superman had to operate.

needs a tierzoo video on this

This dove:

I wanna fly away.

Be careful what you wish for

::: spoiler Collapsed comic because it's kinda long: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Zach Weinersmith

:::

@majormajormajormajor@lemmy.ca Posted this before I read your comment lol

Raccoon. Still got haaaaaands biiiitches

A Rottnest Island Quokka. Highly promiscuous, well fed, no predators and beloved and protected by humans.

no although the belgariad gets into that a bit although its magic. a wizard does not like the instincts he gets from flying forms so prefers to run as a wolf.

yeah I thought about doing a smaller bird that can fly far like a tern but I figured maybe I could manage to have a bundle with shorts and a tshirt with the albatross.