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Post by Joey Carter on Oct 28, 2011 15:04:49 GMT -5
Joey woke up covered in sweat with this terrified look on his face that came from the images of the dream, which was actually a nightmare. He was sitting in his bed with this scared look on his face as the memories of past battles were getting to him, but it was the price one paid for fighting for what was right. Maybe a walk around the place will clear my head enough so that I can get some sleep.
With that thought in mind, Joey got up and exited his sleeping quarters in search of something to take his mind off of bad memories. It was unlikely that there would not be someone else moving around at this time of day, so Joey figured that he would find someone that he could eventually hang with. With no clear destination in mind, Joey sort of got turned about until he found himself in the War Room where everyone practiced new morphs or strategies.
“I guess this is a sign that I need some practice.” Of course, what morph he would practice in here was undecided as of yet since he could use some more practice with some than others. He sat down on the floor for a minute to decide which animal required the most work to control so that he would be able to get a sufficient hold on its mind when it really counted.
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Oct 29, 2011 18:01:14 GMT -5
Sleep? What's that? Oh that thing I'm expected to do. Right. New Recruit --
This wasn't what Elijah had in mind when he decided to go to Seattle. He originally decided that he wanted to find out more about the Animorph resistance and see more of what the Yeerks were doing. In his mind, that looked like a jump over to Seattle, finding the Animorphs, talking to them for a bit about what was going on, and then leaving again in a day or two. Instead, he found himself captured by the Yeerks, freed by the Animorphs, and then recruited by them. He didn't even expect that to come up at all, and he couldn't turn down the offer. It was too fantastic of an offer to turn down.
It of course put him at a much higher risk of being killed by the Yeerks, but that became part of life when they invaded years ago. Besides that, it gave him a much better way to fight the Yeerks back if he decided to go back to England. No, when he did. He was going back someday, as soon as he had a good handle on morphing. Hopefully, England would still be fighting by then.
He ignored those thoughts as he finished writing down the other ones from today down in his blue journal. He really did try to chronicle everything that happened, or at least the important things. This journal, with its rather messy script writing and worn out binding, contained at least a fifth of his life. Most of it was writing, but there were also a lot of pictures of what he saw, physics equations, or just random doodles. He had a random doodle on the outside of this entry, a raccoon. That was one of the morphs he obtained today.
Entry finished. Elijah set his pen and journal aside as he stood up from his bed. It was quite nice that he got his own room-- really, it was. It was a very interesting ship too, but of course there was no time to go exploring and find out everything about it. Today had been far too crazy for that. Maybe he could now though. Wait, was anyone even awake? Oh goodness, look at the time! He got carried away again, as usual. It was probably time he got some sleep, rest up for the day ahead. Nah, why do that? He had too much energy to sleep, too much to think about. Exploring time then! Yes!
Still in morphing clothes from earlier, and with a tee-shirt and jeans, Elijah wandered out of his room. He sort of knew where he was going, but not really. It was this way to the docking bay, right? No no no, that wasn't right? Maybe he should have gone in the other direction. Oh well, more of an adventure this way. He just needed to make sure he was able to find his own room again once he was done acting like a child playing hide and seek. Ah, was that-- that was called the War Room. Right. Got it. Someone in there?
Guess so. It was someone he didn't quite recognize yet. So many new faces, so little time to memorize every single one with names attached. "All right then?" he asked. No, not at all that two people were out of bed this late at night. Not at all. [/font]
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Post by Joey Carter on Nov 2, 2011 14:24:26 GMT -5
His mind was going through the list of morphs that he could possibly use in this setting, and soon Joey was mentally eliminating the ones that would prove futile in this environment. One, his bottlenose dolphin morph was not something that he could practice since it required lots of water, and there wasn’t any in this part of the ship. Obviously they had a water source as to keep themselves from dehydrating while fighting the Yeerks, but Joey assumed that someone might get mad if a dolphin taste was included with that of their cup of coffee in the morning. Of course, the dolphin’s mind was so easy to get along with that using it wasn’t going to be that difficult when the time came anyway.
Two, the monarch butterfly morph would go unused unless he was given a direct order to use it. Even in the confines of the ship, Joey still got images of being eaten by something while in insect morph, which was funny as people usually were afraid of being squashed. He shuddered at the thought of it, so he quickly moved on to the next thing in his repertoire, which wasn’t the quietest of things in the world. Three, the mallard was plausible but unnecessary at this point as Joey had already used in on several occasions to get to and from battle situations. When one need to make a long trek, it was always best to use creatures that were literally built to perform such a task.
Four, the mountain lion was his favorite morph and had the most hours logged for use, so Joey decided against trying to roam around the room as a powerful cat. It would have gotten worse if a new recruit walked in and found a dangerous animal in the practice room. This reminded Joey of the fact that a lot of new people had been taken aboard the ship after Kyle’s rescue, which he had unfortunately missed out on. Typically, he would have taken the time to introduce himself to them, but he had been busy with a project that took precedence over being polite.
"All right then?"
He looked over to see that one of the new recruits had walked in on his training session, which brought him back to his list of morphs. Five, the marsh rabbit was something that he had morphed a few times, but its fear instinct still proved to be a difficult thing to manage. Now that the selection had been made, Joey got to his feet and approached the recruit with an outstretched hand. “Corporal Joseph Nathan Carter. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance…”
That was as far as his sentence got as he would let the man fill in his own name at that point. Once they were officially introduced, Joey would inquire as to what the young man was doing out of bed at such an hour.
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Nov 4, 2011 17:53:34 GMT -5
Still getting used to American time... all right that one's a lie. --
"Elijah Townsend, new recruit," Elijah replied, taking the other's hand and shaking it eagerly, "Great pleasure." Oh yes, much better circumstances to meet someone under. Not getting captured, nearly killed, or any of those sorts of things. No, the both of them were safe in this amazing piece of technology called The Sanctuary. The Yeerks weren't going to capture them here, couldn't in fact. They undoubtedly had to know it existed though, right? After all, the Animorphs were pretty famous in these parts. Their mode of escape had to be too. In fact, had the Yeerks ever try to get rid of this ship before? If they did, the Animorphs would be at a serious disadvantage.
Right. There was another person in the room. Good thing he hadn't babbled all of that out lout like he usually did. Corporal Joseph-- nice title, but where'd he get it? Maybe the Animorphs gave each other titles once they had been an Animorh for a certain amount of time? Maybe? Nah, that didn't make sense. More importantly, why was he awake when no one else on the ship was? Or, at least that was how it seemed. Someone else could be awake and neither of them knew about it. "We the only ones awake? Kind of just wandering about myself. I didn't even realize it was this late." [/font]
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Post by Joey Carter on Nov 7, 2011 10:03:10 GMT -5
As soon as the man said his name, Joey made a note to cement the name ‘Elijah Townsend’ to the image of the person that was before him. Obviously, this was one of those weird instances where only two types of people were awake, which were having nightmares or the internal clock was off. From the man’s accents, Joey was going to with the second option since he did sound like someone who came from England. “I’m sure that we aren’t the only ones that are awake. There is always someone monitoring things just in case something happens that requires our attention.”
Of course, this wasn’t the reason why he was awake, but Joey didn’t feel like unloading onto someone who was so new to the scene of being an Animorph. “Personally, I don’t need as much sleep thanks to my military training. My body and mind can function on the same level as everyone else with only a few hours of sleep.” It was a true statement that he was making, but Joey knew that it was one of those half-truths that would only satisfy someone who wasn’t extremely curious about things like deeper intentions or hidden agendas. It would just be his luck that Elijah would be someone that had an inquisitive soul, so he was going to have to keep the focus on something other than him.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how exactly did the Yeerks get you? I’m just curious as to their specific methods for grabbing people in case we need to stage something in the future.”
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Nov 7, 2011 22:24:42 GMT -5
I suppose we're both a bit curious, aren't we? --
Someone was awake monitoring things at this hour? That didn't sound like a fun job at all. Which one of the Animorphs did that? Or maybe, they took turns on doing that so one person wouldn't have to. No, that would be awful! Then everyone's sleep hours would be inconsistent and it would be a horrible mess of things. From what he gathered so far about the Animorphs, they didn't really like to make a mess of things. It was likely one person just keeping a watch over things on the ship. That was all.
That couldn't be why Corporal was awake though, right? It didn't seem like it, but that could just be a cover for something. Whoever knew? If he wasn't awake to keep a watch over things, why was he awake? He didn't have the same excuse that Elijah did with getting used to different time zones, though Elijah could hardly use that excuse anymore because of how much he traveled. In fact, he would be sleeping by now ordinarily. Maybe? Goodness, he didn't know what time it was now, much less what time it was anywhere else in the world. He was awake because he didn't feel like sleeping, because he wanted to know the ins and outs of this ship.
But Corporal didn't need to know that. Should he call him Corporal, or should he call him Joseph? Mr. Carter? Joey? Corporal was probably better.
Before he could ask any questions, or go off on yet another tangent, Corporal asked him a question. Ahh, how the Yeerks got him. That was... he probably could have avoided that entire thing, couldn't he? Perhaps. They might have still gotten him anyway if he had started running, but he couldn't know that now. Should he say the truth then? It wasn't as if he had told his fellow prisoners about how he got in that van. Everything just sort of happened after they came in. And Kyle didn't know either. He could flat out lie right now if he wanted to.
Eh, what'd be the point in that? He might as well just say it. "Don't know if they had a very specific method to this one. They sort of just found me I suppose," he said, "Was walking around town, trying to find out what was going on --looking for a map actually-- and there they were. Snatched me up, threw me in the van, and off I went!" Oops, he added a bit of excitement at the end of that sentence. It was sort of exhilarating to get captured by the Yeerks, especially knowing the possibility that he could find out what they were doing with all of these people if he tagged along. It was only fun until other people were involved, and then people nearly died and all that. Then, it wasn't fun.
He didn't say the whole truth, of course. He didn't say that he was almost looking for the Yeerks. That... would probably not go over well. Subject change then! "What about you?" he asked, "How did a Corporal end up on an Animorph's ship? And why is he still awake at this hour? Doesn't make sense. No one else is." Why avoid that question any longer? Who knows? Maybe he would get an answer. Though, what would he do if the Corporal asked the question right back. It was fair play after all. Darn it, he just had to be curious. [/font]
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Post by Joey Carter on Nov 9, 2011 15:45:16 GMT -5
As Joey waited for the response from Elijah, he finally thought on how the conversation was going, and he realized that even a year as an Animorph had not prevented him from connecting himself to the United States Military. Even if it was just using his previous title, Joey was trying to cut back on it to show that he felt that he was a member of the team instead of some soldier that was endlessly looking for some battle to fight since had had missed out on the real war that he had wanted.
Once he had heard how Elijah was caught, it took all he had to keep himself from laughing at what he assumed was just a capture by chance, which was the most pathetic kind. There was no strategy to who was being taken by the Yeerks, and that meant that whoever was in charge was a real idiot. In order to win any confrontation, any good leader would not put all his or her hope into overwhelming an enemy and put more of it towards picking good men and women that had skills that would allow for the best possible outcome. Of course, the being known as the One wasn’t a creature that had to worry about the well-being of his subordinates.
“I guess setting a trap for them wouldn’t be as hard as I originally thought. Might be worth investing some manpower into,” Joey muttered as his mind was trying to think of a useful plan to end the One’s reign in Washington. The only way to really eliminate the threat was to start with one state and work their way from there, but that was just his personal opinion on how things should be done. It seemed that the excitement in Elijah’s voice was going to go unnoticed by Joey as his mind was already on other things that were more relevant to the fight that they were both in, but his mind might drift back to later on during a time when he was asked to judge the new recruit’s character.
His original question seemed to have sparked one from the other man on Joey’s origins, which had been the main reason for why he had been up in the first place. Well, he couldn’t leave it unanswered, and lying about seemed like one of the more pathetic things that he could at a moment like this. Of course, how to explain how he had gotten to this point in his life was not going to be the easiest thing for him, and he couldn’t just started by talking about how he had met Kyle, Ashley and Jack. “In order for you to understand how I got here, I have to start by telling you two things. One, I was born in Salem, Oregon, and two, I could morph before I joined this group.”
“With those two things in mine, it’ll make more sense that a year into the One’s attack that I was doing my best to keep the enemy’s forces from running wild in Oregon. I had some help with the National Guard, various police agencies and some hicks who were too stubborn to leave. It wasn’t going too well as you might imagine, but we were surviving. Unfortunately, one of the leaders of the group got infested with a Yeerk during an espionage mission, and the following week our base was overcome during a sneak attack. Once everything looked hopeless, the decision was made for a full retreat, so I naturally went aerial to guide them out safely.”
Joey stopped for a moment to catch his breath and to control himself as this wasn’t the easiest thing to talk about as it didn’t have a happy ending. “Our retreat was cutoff, and most of them were taken by the enemy. The rest didn’t make it. After that, I kept on flying until a town came up where a fight was going on, and that was when I noticed the animals. I touched down on a rooftop, demorphed, remorphed and jumped into the fray, and after that I started running with the Animorphs.”
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Nov 10, 2011 0:02:33 GMT -5
Maybe if I sleep, I'll stop thinking in tangents. Nah. --
Salem, Oregon. How many Salems were there in the United States? Really, they had a Salem in Massachusetts and a Salem in New Hampshire? Now there was one in Oregon, wherever that was. Elijah didn't have a complete United States geography in his head. Oh, right. That was one of the states he drove through. He didn't drive through Salem though. He didn't really remember what he drove through to be honest, though that was neither here nor there. The point was that the United States was extremely unoriginal when coming up with town or city names. First they stole a bunch from England, then they decided to use the same names in different states. Never mind how many they stole from other countries as well.
Not the point. He was actually listening to what the Corporal said, more than enough to know that his point was far away from United States geography. He was fighting off the One, who Elijah had heard about in passing but knew next to nothing about for the moment, since before he joined the Animorphs. He had help, but the most they were doing was surviving. The world was in chaos, and that was all anyone could be asked to do if they weren't having a Yeerk put in their heads; it was a truly sad state of events.
Then, things got worse for him. One of his leaders got invested. At that point, Elijah had an idea of what was going to happen next. Without a leader, groups tended to fall apart-- especially in that instance where the leader got infested. That just ruined everything. Hopefully that wouldn't happen here with any of their leaders, or with any of them for the matter. That was one thing Elijah couldn't say he was curious about-- okay maybe he was, but not curious and stupid enough to go find out what being infested was like.
Corporal made the right decision in the end. He retreated, and he ended up here. It was probably the best thing that could have happened, given the circumstances. Too many people lost, that's what Elijah thought. People that once had families, friends, parents, brothers, sisters, annoying aunts and uncles, et cetera. All of those people were gone to the Yeerks now, or dead. And they weren't the only casualties, and Corporal probably knew that very well.
"So sorry to hear that," he said, actually meaning it. His apologies were always sincere, which was at least something. "Not the best circumstances to find the Animorphs under, I suppose. And you've been with them a while then, I take it. They seem like a good lot, know what they're doing and all that. I owe them quite a bit for making sure I didn't get infested." Maybe he'd stick around for that reason then. He owed the Animorphs a lot for saving his life. Not only that, it wasn't as if he could simply grab the ability to morph and run all the way back to England. Things didn't work that way. He needed to learn how to use that ability to morph before he tried to win England back on his own.
Anyway, he was off track again. "So what kind of things do you do once you become an Animorph?" he asked, "Can't be as simple as just seeing a Yeerk on the street doing something they shouldn't be and stopping it. There has to be more than that." Knowing the Animorphs, there was. However, the answer might be problematic. The Animorphs were fighters, and he wasn't. Sure, he'd fight if his life depended on it, and the lives of others. But, if he could find an alternate route to fighting, he would.
Though, how many alternatives were there in this situation? [/font]
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Post by Joey Carter on Nov 17, 2011 15:58:18 GMT -5
Joey didn’t think that that there were any good circumstances to meet the Animorphs under during days like these since they weren’t really a public group, so meeting them would either mean that you were being chased by the Yeerks or were just released from the group. Either way, he saw it as a very bad way to meet the group as opposed to seeing them on television like they had been just a few years ago, or in his case meeting one in person and being trained by them in the art of morphing. “Cassie did find a good bunch of kids to take over the fight for her. Don’t think that anyone else would be able to handle the pressure like them.”
It had also been smart to split the responsibility of leading the Animorphs between three people that way they didn’t become overwhelmed with all the decisions that they had to make. Of course, it would have probably been better if the mantle of leading the group was placed on the shoulders of people with a little more experience in the military, but overall Jack, Kyle and Ashley were doing an excellent job of keeping the world safe from those who would seek to destroy it. Joey could safely say that they were doing a lot better than he would have if the roles were reversed.
“There is definitely more to it than just spotting a Yeerk being bad and fixing it,” Joey responded to Elijah question. Naturally, they could get lucky and spot such an occurrence, but there luck was never that good. “Of course, there are some things that you have to be able to do before you can even think about doing something critical against the Yeerks. Such as being able to successfully morph into an animal and gain control over its instincts during a critical situation.” Obviously, a situation like that would be executed in the confines of the very room that they were in, but he assumed that Elijah would know that. It wasn’t like they were going to send a bunch of recruits into the field without some proper training.
“After you are able to do that, then the types of missions that you go on can range from attacking known Yeerk infestation areas to infiltrating places where the Yeerks keep their most secret information and technology.” Joey preferred the first type of mission that he mentioned as it directly saved the lives of those that had been captured by the Yeerks, but the infiltration jobs were a lot easier to deal with since there was a smaller chance of civilians getting hurt. “At least you won’t have to worry about coming up with the plan for how to successfully carry out the mission.”
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Nov 23, 2011 20:40:01 GMT -5
Insert foot in mouth. --
Ahh, of course. Before they even went near the Yeerks, the Animorphs had to be prepared. It'd be suicidal for new recruits to be sent out to do some big, important mission that involved going head to head with Yeerks. What did Yeerks even look like anyway outside of their hosts? From what he learned, they looked like slugs of some sort, alien slugs. They couldn't be that threatening on their own then, but getting the slugs out of a person's head was probably not easy. How did they even get in there in the first place? That was one thing he didn't know, though he wasn't eager to find out.
Elijah would need to do a lot of training then, a lot of it, to be prepared. Although, when Corporal explained what sort of missions they were to go on, he knew he wouldn't be practicing as much with his wolf. That was just a given. He had picked the morph based on the fact it wasn't quite as dangerous as the jaguar that could puncture a skull with its jaw or the elephant that could trample over just about anything in its path. It was still dangerous, but he felt more comfortable approaching that animal than any of the others.
Maybe he could specify what missions he went on with the leaders. That might come off as cowardly though, or incredibly picky. Elijah didn't want to come off as either to be honest, and he did have to think of the long term. If he didn't train himself on how to fight, then how in the world was he going to help England get back at the Yeerks?
Aww, no planning? But that was where all the fun was at! Though, maybe not really. His past planning experience didn't exactly involve lives being in danger except his own. If he were to even try and come up with a plan right now, it had the possibility of ending catastrophically. "Nah, that's the job of the leaders," he said, "Wouldn't want me planning. That could go horribly wrong... well, possibly. It could go well... perhaps." He did like to give himself at least a little credit on his thinking ability. Of course, he could never seem to do it with humility.
No coming up with plans now. He could turn this conversation around though. "Though you, you could possibly come up with some brilliant ideas. I bet you could. Leaders shouldn't just look to themselves for answers anyway, though I doubt the Animorphs do..." Goodness, he didn't mean to say it like that. Yes, perhaps he should just stop talking for right now and just do something else. Practice maybe? [/font]
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Post by Joey Carter on Dec 12, 2011 22:38:03 GMT -5
“You may find out what you are capable when you are charged with running a mission once you have a little more experience under your belt,” Joey said in response to the statement that Elijah had made about him planning a mission. Everyone deserved a shot at having some control during these chaotic times just to make sure that life was semi-normal, and it gave him the idea of making it a test for new recruits to see how they handled the pressure of having to make tough decisions. He would have to bring it up with Kyle, Ashley or Jack the next time that he saw them on the ship.
Then the statement about him coming up with ideas made him remember all of his mistakes, and he realized that if faced with doing them again he probably would have let someone else give the orders during the situation. “Need more than good ideas when you are in charge. You’ve got to have nerves of steel to keep your sanity and a quick mind in order to keep those that you lead alive. There are more qualities that I could say that a leader needs, but I find those two to be the most relevant to the conversation that we are having.”
Having people who could handle the pressures of being a leader was why they had leaders to begin with, so that someone who couldn’t handle the thought of sending someone to their death wouldn’t have to. Of course, having three leaders divided that burden, which theoretically meant that it would be easier for them but the nightmares were never easy to deal with. Joey knew this from experience.
Realizing that this current conversation was one that brought up bad memories, Joey decided to go back to when he mentioned required training of an Animorph, which really meant that he was going to attempt to put this recruit ahead of the rest of the group that had been brought back from the ‘Save Kyle’ party. “Well let’s get to work on having you mission ready, so how about you tell me what you acquired today.” Knowing what the guy had and what he didn’t have would make training the guy a lot easier as well as let him know ahead of time how he could be utilize during a mission.
Joey then thought of the possibility that maybe Eli didn’t want to begin practicing his morphs at such an hour. He just figured that the guy didn’t have anything better to do then get a few hours logged with a morph or two, while having someone with experience there to oversee that things didn’t get out of control. “Unless you would rather get acquainted with the ship.”
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Jan 19, 2012 22:49:02 GMT -5
I'll lead the tea mission. Very important mission. Absolutely vital to the livelihood of Britons and tea drinkers everywhere. --
Indeed, it took more than good ideas to run a show and be a leader. It took the ability to handle stressful situations well, a quick mind to assess them and decide what needed to be done, and a certain amount of intellect, or so Elijah thought anyway. From what he saw of the three, they seemed to have those qualities. It wasn't as if he got to sit down and have a nice chat with them over tea though, which would be nice but unlikely. It was busy in this ship, people always bustling about doing something, saving people, fighting the Yeerks, and in general doing what needed to be done. He didn't even know anyone's names besides the leaders and Corporal here.
And Corporal seemed to want to do something else other than chat, which was more than perfectly fine. Conversations in the middle of the night were often weird and hardly ever made sense in the morning after they happened. Well, if the conversations were even remembered. Corporal asked about what he had acquired today, which meant the two of them were likely going to do something with them. It was either that or get more acquainted with the ship, or go to sleep. While the ship did make him curious, Elijah could honestly say he found the idea of training with the new morphs a better use of his time. Sleep and exploration could happen later. He didn't like sleep anyway.
"Nah, won't do that-- can't see much of it in the dark anyway," he replied, "What did I acquire today... ah, yes. A jackdaw was the first-- pecked me on sight. It must've not recognized me or something. Then it was a firefly. Now that was a hard one to acquire-- couldn't see it and I didn't want to squash it. Thirdly, there was the otter. I think I'm going to like that one, almost as much as the raccoon. That was the other one I acquired-- don't see too many of them at home." Though, he honestly wasn't looking outside at the animals when he lived in England-- far too busy for that. He didn't think that it was possible to morph into them at the time.
Right, there was one last morph, the one Elijah hoped he would never have to use. "Last one is a wolf." He didn't have any commentary for that one to add except for a slight grimace. He didn't want to pick a battle morph, but the man helping him pick the morphs--Javier was it?-- told him it was necessary. Animorphs needed morphs that they could fight with, and for good reason too. He could fight with a wolf if he needed to. They were fast creatures, and quite dangerous. After all, who wasn't scared of the big bad wolf?
Back to business then. He put his smile back on, looking back to Corporal. "So then, what should we start with? Tell me what to do." [/font]
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Post by Joey Carter on Feb 19, 2012 3:54:15 GMT -5
As Elijah listed off all of the things that he had acquired today, Joey went through and tried to figure out what the best sort of training was for the morph. Jackdaw was probably a small bird, which meant that it would be best to practice maneuvering through and around objects. Then they could proceed to evasive maneuvers when one was being chased, which would be the real test of how good someone was with a bird morph. Of course there were some more advance things that Joey could have implemented for bird morphs, but those things were not needed as most of the time those situations never came up and the likelihood that Elijah would come across such a situation was slim to none.
Firefly. Yeah, Joey had nothing for such a morph as insects were not something that one could train to do something. There might be some merit in having Elijah travel from one point to another, but he wasn’t aware of the actual speed of a firefly or what its sight capabilities were so that might be dangerous to attempt on the first day. Next morph that Elijah listed was an otter, which was primarily a water creature so nothing that they could do here. Later, they could do an aquatic exercise of sorts when they visited the Animal Reserve, which was also a place that Elijah could observe the very animal that he was morphing into and thereby learn how to use the body properly.
The next morph that was mention was the raccoon, which was the most likely morph that they would practice in this environment beside the bird. Raccoons were excellent for reconnaissance as well as the quick attack on a larger opponent, and quite honestly they were capable of doing things that surprised Joey. Movement exercises, tracking exercises, find a certain object and so many other ideas popped into his head for what Elijah could use to practice the morph, but they should probably stick to the basics until the recruit got a hold of the whole animal mind situation. The final morph that Elijah mentioned was a wolf, which was the man’s battle morph, which would be the last thing that they worked with because of what it was.
“Definitely an interesting arsenal of morphs you have there,” Joey commented when Elijah had finished speaking. Now was the time to figure out what they were going to work with today. Since he had already decided on having the guy get used to the animal mind, then the simple thing was to go with one animal that wasn’t likely to attack him, which was the jackdaw. “We will start with your bird morph. It is probably the one that you will be using the most as you start out, and it should be the easiest to get control of after the morph is complete.” He gave Elijah a few minutes to think it over since it would be him doing the serious work.
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Feb 22, 2012 21:56:30 GMT -5
I could have done without the noise of bones cracking. --
Interesting was one way to put. Odd was another. Elijah had to admit that part of him was quite excited to be able to practice at least one of his morphs. It was something different, something that he had never dreamed to be possible. Then, there was the other side that wondered all of the possible things that could go wrong with morphing. He didn't remember asking Javier that when he was acquiring the morphs, and the only thing he remembered was staying in a morph too long resulted in one permanently staying in that morph. But what about the process of morphing itself? It didn't sound too dangerous. He didn't need to be skeptical about it, did he?
Corporal decided to start practice with the bird morph. "Sounds fine to me," he replied with a bit of a smile. There were some kids in the world that had dreams about flying, and Elijah wouldn't hide the fact that he wanted to know what it was like. Sure, he had flown over the ocean in an airplane and whatnot, but that wasn't the same. It would actually be him flying! Wait a second, how did one even morph? Javier explained it to him when he was acquiring the morphs. "Think about the morph you want to morph into, and focus on it..." he muttered to himself. "Right, got it."
Focus on the jackdaw-- that was all he had to do. They were rather small birds, and loved stealing things-- like magpies and crows. No, that wasn't focusing! Jackdaw. Small black little bird. Focus and concentrate. One of Elijah's weaknesses was doing exactly this, making this take probably a little longer than it would another Animorph. However, after a couple of minutes, he felt the process start to begin. He started shrinking dramatically, long legs becoming short and skinny. His head shrunk, and a beak grew where his mouth once was. Feathers replaced pink skin, and wings replaced his arms. In about three minutes time, give or take a few seconds, he was a small black bird on the floor of the War Room.
And the instincts came as well. The jackdaw didn't like where it was, and immediately wanted to leave. It was in a confined area with a person it didn't know. So, this was what it was like then. Elijah silently fought with those instincts, not wanting to fly just yet. <<All right, managed that>> he told Corporal. <<What next?>> [/font]
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