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Post by Javier Delgado on Nov 1, 2011 14:41:48 GMT -5
"How come we never have any of the good kinds?" Javier mumbled to himself as he rummaged through the open cereal boxes. "Corn flakes, boring. Rice Crispies, meh. Cheerios, blah. Hold on a second. What do we have here?" Javier pulled out a box of Cocoa Puffs that was hiding behind the other kinds. "Jackpot! At last, something with some flavor!"
Javier brought the box over to the main eating area where he had a bowl waiting. He dumped in some cereal, followed by some milk. When he took the first chocolaty sweet bite, Javier felt like he was in heaven. He hadn't had a sugary cereal in what seemed like forever.
After taking a couple more bites, he finally took a moment to look around and see who else was in the eating area of the blade ship. One of the leaders and a couple of tech guys seemed to be about it. Nobody he made a habit of hanging out with, so he stayed sitting where he was and occupied himself by looking at the art on his cereal box.
"Good old Sonny. Even the yeerks can't keep you from going cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. If only we could acquire you, they wouldn't stand a chance."
Just then a memory clicked on in Javier's brain. Something from a few days ago, when he was helping Rue get her first morphs. With all that had gone on between then and now, Javier had completely forgotten that Ashley had asked him to help her get a new bird morph. An owl morph, actually.
After only a moment's thought, Javier picked up his bowl and went to sit by the leader of the animorphs. "You got some free time so we can go get that owl morph?"
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Nov 5, 2011 13:13:29 GMT -5
It was time for breakfast, the supposed most important meal of the day. Ashley didn’t doubt that not having it could throw your whole day off. Having eaten nothing in the morning was kind of like running a car on fumes. The major difference being that the car would quit working a lot sooner than the person would. A person probably could go a whole day without having any or much food, but that definitely didn’t say it was good for them to do so.
As she’d gone through the line of cereal boxes, she’d made a mental note to ask Jack and Kyle about who generally did the shopping. Having healthy options wasn’t bad, but the majority of their team was teenagers and young adults. The health of their breakfast cereal probably wasn’t the first thing on their mind, or it wasn’t the first thing on Ashley’s mind. Her literal thought as she’d poured herself some Crispix was, Right about now I could kill for some Cap’n Crunch. They needed a few more sweet options. Or maybe the problem was simply that the sweet options got eaten faster than the healthy ones. The concept was annoying, but entirely possible.
She was sitting by herself eating when Javier came over. Her first clue to another presence was when he spoke. ”You got some free time so we can go get that owl morph?” She looked up at him, and then held up a finger. She was still chewing on some cereal at that point. As soon as she finished that bite she answered him, nodding and saying, “I’ve got time now. But you can finish eating first. I'm not going to starve you over an owl morph." She definitely didn't want to waste their supplies or want to have to eat soggy cereal after having gotten the morph. Eating wouldn't take so long that they'd miss their chance.
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Post by Javier Delgado on Nov 5, 2011 13:47:24 GMT -5
A wide grin spread across Javier's face. "After breakfast is is then." He situated himself properly in his new seat and worked at finishing of the last of his bowl of cereal. "So," he asked between bites, "do you have any idea what kind of owl you would like to morph? There are several different kinds. Anything from a pygmy owl to a great horned owl. The varieties are more varied than you would expect."
He was done with his cereal now and the only thing left was the white milk that had turned chocolaty. He held up a finger just as Ashley had as he tipped back the bowl and consumed its contents. After wiping his mouth off on his sleeve he continued his question.
"There are even a few types that are a bit more... interesting, if you are up for that sort of thing." Javier knew that a lot of people thought his ideas for interesting types of morphs were more weird or ugly or impractical than interesting, but it never hurt to ask. And who knew? Maybe their ideas for "interesting" would overlap this time. "Of course the final decision will be up to you. It will be your morph, after all. And you are the leader here..."
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Nov 10, 2011 1:36:18 GMT -5
Ashley smirked, chuckling a little when Javier said that there were owl morphs that were more interesting. The thing was, she knew that Javier’s opinions on morphs could often be strange or odd. Morphs he found interesting could be extremely bizarre and tended to not be the first animal people thought of. Still, that was kind of why Ashley was asking his opinion. She wanted to know what the morphs people didn’t often think about using were. She could always say no if she didn’t like something he suggested. Why not see what his ideas were, though?
“I was actually wondering what the ones you might think were interesting were. It’s why I asked for your help,” she said with a smile. “I realize it’s my decision in the end, I can still go with a common morph if I want to. However, it’s not like the morphs you pick are useless. They just tend to be the ones people don’t immediately think to use.” She paused, taking a final bite of cereal. “I was hoping to at least see what those ideas were before I want with one of the typical choices. I mean, I could easily say I want a barn owl or something like that, but why not give the interesting morphs a chance?”
She tipped back the bowl and drank down the milk in the bottom. She set it down again before she asked, “So, what are your suggestions? What are the interesting owl morphs?” She'd wanted his opinion. True she was a leader - decisions ultimately came down to her, Kyle, and Jack - but it wasn't as if they didn't try to get opinions from the others. And when it came to morphs... well, she was interested to see what Javier could come up with for her. She could just pick the typical morphs, but interesting could be... for lack of a better word, interesting.
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Post by Javier Delgado on Nov 10, 2011 14:27:03 GMT -5
"That's what I like to hear," Javier said enthusiastically, standing up. "It's about time someone else is willing to look at how much more the animal kingdom has to offer. I like the idea of turning into puppies and kittens just as much as the next guy, but there are a lot more options out there, and we would be fools not to consider them." Javier realized he was on the verge of going into a rant and smiled sheepishly at Ashley. "At any rate, if you really want to see the owls, we should probably, you know, go look at them." Javier prepared to walk with Ashley to the docking bay. "Now, as far as owls go, most of them have the same basic shape and are camouflaged to mimic their environment. So the main differences will be in size, feather arrangements, and coloration. Elf Owls are the smallest, and the Great Grey Owl is the largest. If you want a bird with some cooky feathers, then a Blakiston's Fish Owl or a Pernambuco Pygmy Owl might be a good choice. As for coloration, most owls are brown or grey, but then there are some like the Snowy Owl which are white with black spots, or the Philippine Eagle-Owl, which is brown, but it's head looks a lot more reddish than the rest of its body. It kind of looks like a muppet to be honest."
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Nov 11, 2011 23:28:38 GMT -5
Ashley nodded as she listened to Javier, getting up from her seat. "I used to take morphs for granted, figuring common ones would work better. Though, there are benefits such as blending in more with a common morph. At the same time, bizarre or strange morphs sometimes can do thing we might not have expected. They can fill several roles at once." True, there were benefits to camouflage - to blending in - but even Kyle's dog morph was suspected of being a fake these days. A stray dog was actually a pretty common occurrence, especially when the owners became controllers and saw the pet as useless, so camouflage wasn't always all it was cracked up to be. Besides, how much would people really see her owl morph? She'd be using the thing at night after all.
"Right. I can't be sure how I feel about the interesting things they have to offer without actually seeing the morph. There isn't much to a name." Which meant a trip to the reserve. "Shall we?" She motioned towards the door, because no matter how they were going to get there they had to go through the docking bay.
Obviously some of the morphs he listed as they started toward the docking bay were ones Ashley recognized. It was hard to not have someone mention a snowy owl and not know what they were talking about. That didn't mean she wouldn't give some of the others a chance, though the snowy owl did appeal. It was a beautiful bird, and it did work for what she wanted. Snowy owls wouldn't really blend in if she went to Seattle, but... well, as she'd questioned before, how much were people really going to see the owl morph?
"I think interesting color is more my style." A subtle hint that she was considering the snowy owl. "But we can give the others a chance too. I'm not sure what a lot of those look like. Might as well see before I make the final choice." She paused, having a second thought. "Any owl morphs that have unique abilities? Something another morph might not be able to do?"
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Post by Javier Delgado on Nov 14, 2011 0:14:29 GMT -5
"I'm not so sure I know a type of owl that has any one ability you couldn't find in another morph. However, most owls in general have a specific combination of abilities that makes them pretty remarkable. It's their combination of abilities that makes an owl so distinctive."
Javier figured Ashley might like some examples, so he decided to give her the basics. Or at least what he personally felt were the basics. "For instance, owls have wing feathers that make their flight almost completely silent. Which is a good thing, because owls are known for their amazing night vision, but they also use their sense of hearing a lot for hunting. The characteristic double dish-shaped owl face is actually an adaptation that sort of funnels sound to their ears. Which are not symmetrical, by the way. Asymmetrical ears also helps them to pinpoint their prey by sound. And once they know which direction to look, they can turn their head more than 250 degrees in either direction to look at it. Which is useful since an owl's eyes can't turn in their sockets like ours, being that they are more oblong oval shapes than spheres. The eye shape..."
Javier's voice trailed off as he realized he was probably dumping way too much information on Ashley all at once. "Heh. I thiiink I may be going a little overboard with the owl info... I was probably about to start telling you the joys of regurgitating owl pellets or something."
Javier plastered an apologetic grin on his face as he stepped into the docking bay and opened a cupboard near the door. It was where he kept an extra morphing suit for convenience sake. He knew a couple other people kept morphing suits in the docking bay too, but wasn't sure if Ashley was one of them. Actually, to be honest he wasn't even sure they would need morphing suits for this. It depended on what mode of decent they were going to use, and if Ashley wanted to test out her morph after she acquired it. He personally didn't want to fly a bug fighter, since high-tech technology was never one of his strong suits, but he decided to just follow Ashley's lead instead of asking outright.
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Dec 8, 2011 13:02:57 GMT -5
Ashley smiled and laughed a little when Javier apologized. "I definitely don't mind the information. Admittedly getting into regurgitating owl pellets is a little beyond what I want to know, but..." she paused for a moment, trying to word what she wanted to say. "I like knowing as much as I can about my morphs. I'm not going to lie that some of my spare time is spent researching the ones I already have, because unlike the owl I didn't always put a lot of consideration into the first morphs I got. It's something I've regretted, but I guess that was just one of the less-informed decisions I made as a rookie Animorph." Not that she considered herself to be an expert now by any means. Cassie, were she still alive, might have been. Joey wasn't, but was probably still more informed than Ashley. From what she gathered he had spent more time training with Jake than she and the other leaders learning from Cassie. Not that it had been entirely a choice on either of their parts, but it was still an advantage in her eyes.
"It's nice to know the unique aspects of the morph, and to know that I'm getting basically the same morph no matter what species," she said. She reached into one of the cupboards in the docking bay and pulled out a spare morphing suit of her own. "I figure we can fly down. Easier than a bug fighter. Plus I think my driving sucks." There was a reason she tended to refuse piloting those things.
She glanced around before saying, "Unless you want to duck into a bug fighter to change, I won't look if you won't." She probably could have tried morphing regular clothes. Kyle had been pointing out of late that Cassie had been able to, so shouldn't it be a skill the three of them should work to obtain? To be honest, though, Ashley would probably always use a morphing suit unless a mission required her to blend in more. For now, Ashley didn't know if she could morph regular clothes and wasn't willing to risk the embarrassment that came with a failure.
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Post by Javier Delgado on Dec 8, 2011 13:53:28 GMT -5
Javier was relived to hear that Ashley didn't mind the info dump, and even more relieved to hear that she wasn't too keen on flying down in a bug fighter either. It seemed morphing was both of their preferred methods of transportation. Which just left the morphing suit issue.
"I'm not shy," he informed Ashley when she gave him the option of changing inside a bug fighter. "I once morphed in front of Sam in nothing but my underwear, but that was because I didn't have a morphing suit with me at the time. Probably not the best choice, but after a morph is finished, you're naked anyway." Javier shrugged as he suppressed a smile, then began to change into his morphing suit. "At any rate, you don't have to worry about me peeking. Half-naked girls don't really interest me anyway."
After his morphing suit was situated, Javier began concentration on one of his bird forms. He had a puffin and a condor to choose from. He chose the condor. The bird's huge wings, bald head, and dark plumage were soon his own and he was ready for flight. <<Ready when you are, Captain.>>
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Dec 9, 2011 18:59:40 GMT -5
Ok. She wasn't sure how to take the news that Javier had once stripped down - she assumed - to his underwear to morph or the comment about half-naked girls not interesting him. The thought that crossed her mind regarding the former was just that he wasn't really self-conscious, which wan't a bad thing. As far as the latter... it made her wonder about his sexual preference, but maybe she was taking that statement a little further than it was meant to be taken.
"Well, I figured I'd check. Some guys would get a rise of seeing a girl in her underwear." Of course, were it her brother she wouldn't have even bothered to ask. She didn't much care if Kyle saw her half-naked. Unlike other guys - some other guys - it wasn't really likely to mean much to him. "I didn't figure you were like that, but I've made mistaken judgements of character before."
All these comments and thoughts passed while Ashley changed her clothes for her morphing suit. The last thing she did after changing was pull her hair back in a ponytail. It wasn't necessary, but she preferred it being out of her face when she morphed. Of course, that was more for when she went into a fight than normal morphing, but it had become something of a habit.
She opened the doors of the docking bay, so they'd be able to get out once they were ready to. After that she focused on her raven morph, watching the familiar patters of the black feathers spreading across her arms. Javier finished morphing before her, letting her know that he was ready when she was. As soon as she was done she said, <<I'm ready too.>>
The raven took off, flying for the opening of the docking bay. <<Onward and downward...>>
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Post by Javier Delgado on Dec 10, 2011 0:25:18 GMT -5
Javier followed Ashley out into the open air below the blade ship. <<Yeeeehaaaa!>> Even after all the times he had done it, Javier still got a rush from stepping out into empty space and trusting the air to break his fall. It was like skydiving without a parachute, minus the danger.
Javier spread his wings to maximum length and instantly his decent slowed, then practically stopped. An andean condor's wings were made for soaring, which meant he could sit up here all day long without hardly flapping a wing.
But that wasn't what he and Ashley were here for. Javier let more air pour out from under his wings and his falling speed increased. He could see the landscape below getting bigger. The trees and rocks and water below were beautiful as he gazed upon them, but it was the part that was hardest to see that interested him most. If he didn't know the animal reserve was below him, his eyes would have glanced right over it. He still couldn't comprehend just how the trick worked, but he was sure glad it did.
<<You said you were thinking of getting an owl morph with interesting coloring, right?>> Javier angled his body in the direction they would be. The owls would probably be asleep at this time of day, so they would be able to land pretty close to their enclosures without agitating them. <<Those should be this way.>>
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Dec 10, 2011 21:06:13 GMT -5
There was something amazing about flight. Ashley had never really stopped being amazed and thrilled by the experience. It was something most people only ever dreamed of doing, flying of their own will like some kind of superhero. Sure, she was in a bird body, but the experience was her own. This wasn't a dream, it wasn't fantasy. She could stay up here for hours, but today she had a purpose for flying out of the ship.
The air poured out of Ashley's wings as she dove, following Javier's lead. The animal reserve lay below them, but if she hadn't known it was there she'd have never seen it. Whatever trick had been used to hide it, it was as if you couldn't look directly at the place. Your eyes always wanted to slide around it. That was if you didn't know it was there. If you did, you just kept looking and eventually the spell broke and you saw your destination.
<<Right. Lead the way, Javier.>> She turned, following him. She hadn't been down here enough to memorize where things were. She often needed to search. The fact that Javier had something of a mental map of the reserve indicated just how much time he spent there. <<You know. I might talk to Kyle and Jack about recommending that people be sent to you for help with their first morphs. I don't know about either of them, but I definitely don't know my way around the reserve as well as you seem to.>> She paused and added. <<If that's ok with you. I wouldn't want to push you out of your comfort zone. You just know so much about the animals and this place.>>
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Post by Javier Delgado on Dec 12, 2011 2:11:42 GMT -5
<<You want me to help the newbies?>> Javier already did help out with the new recruits to some extent, but the offer still surprised him a little. However, it didn't take him long to realize what his answer was. <<If you want me to help train people in, I guess I don't have any objections. At the very least, I can help them acquire their morphs safely. Even the cuddly animals can be dangerous if you don't know how to act around them.>> Javier leveled out his flight path now that they were near to the ground. He could see animals in some of the enclosures below. <<Take those kangaroos down there for example. Sure they look like fuzzy llama-rabbits, and aren't exactly shy around people anymore, but provoke one badly enough and it could go so far as to disembowel you. Which would not be a great way to get people excited about being an animorph.>> Javier let that thought sink in as they reached their destination and he glided down onto an open pathway. He was reminded of how nervous he had been to approach a komodo dragon to acquire his own battle morph. <<Lets just hope none of these owls manage anything like that,>> Javier joked as he began demorphing.
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Dec 20, 2011 15:15:50 GMT -5
<<See. That's the reason I want you to help. There need to be people around who know how to deal with new members and who know that sort of thing. Who know how to safely acquire morphs and what morphs are capable of. Because you're entirely right, getting disemboweled is not a way to go making someone think they made the right choice in joining us.>> She had her reasons for this, and she supposed she should tell him it. She could keep this a hidden ulterior motive, but it was more in her nature - her real nature - to be honest with people. <<It's something that has been on my mind since the early days when it was just Kyle, Jack, and myself who made up the tame, but it really became important recently after what happened in recruiting Rue. After Kyle getting kidnapped and all of that.>>
What she was saying was not something anyone would really want to face the idea of, but truth be told it was a valid issue. <<Jack, Kyle, and I are here now, yes, but Cassie was an Animorph for far longer and she died before she had the chance to finish training us. We're all just humans. There might come a time when one or all three of us are no longer around, and we'll need people who know the important things to tell a new person. Not that I plan on getting myself killed any time soon, but... you always have to be ready for the worst to happen.>> That was kind of a sobering bit of information from her. Sobering for both of them - because it required her to face her own mortality - but hidden in there was the fact that she considered Javier to be one of those people who could take over things if - or when - they needed someone to. Even if he really did nothing but help the new people in getting their morphs, it was still something that up until now had fallen to one of the three leaders. It was something someone would always be needed to do. They were in a war. The only thing that was certain was they would keep fighting it and that they were still able to fight it today, right now.
They flew the rest of the way in silence, which wasn't really far, and came to a stop on an open pathway. After landing Ashley started to demorph. <<I don't know about disemboweling, but they could possibly peck someone's eyes out.>> The comment was a bit of a morbid joke that she made before her thought speak vanished.
Once she was human again she turned to the cage, this one containing the white snowy owls that Javier had mentioned before. "They certainly are beautiful," she commented. "Of course, beauty isn't a reason to acquire a morph. I'm sure some pretty strange looking creatures have pretty useful features." She approached the cage, pausing and looking, trying to assess the situation before she got herself into it. "They're asleep now it seems... though that could be a good thing."
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Post by Javier Delgado on Dec 21, 2011 0:54:41 GMT -5
Ashley's reasoning for asking for his help was sound, even if the topic was less than cheerful. One of the great facts of life has always been that nothing lives forever. No exceptions. And with the risky lives the animorphs lead, their lives could very well end up being shorter than most.
Javier felt almost as if Ashley were a friend asking if it would be alright to list him in her will as the caregiver of her child, should some horrible fate befall her. It was a grim honor that required you to be certain you could accept, should the need arise. It turned out that Ashley's request held more gravity than he had first assumed, but his earlier answer still applied, so he agreed with a somber <<Mhmm,>> and left it at that.
Ashley's comeback to Javier's dangerous owl joke received a quick chuckle, but the demorphing process was otherwise quiet and uneventful. When he finished becoming human again, Javier got to his shoeless feet and stood next to Ashley in front of the owl enclosure. "They certainly are beautiful," Ashley said. "Of course, beauty isn't a reason to acquire a morph. I'm sure some pretty strange looking creatures have pretty useful features. They're asleep now it seems... though that could be a good thing."
"Beauty is a perfectly good reason to acquire a morph," Javier argued, completely serious. He found it hard to find a way to put his thoughts on the matter into words, but he felt compelled to at least try. "This... Our morphing abilities were given to us for a very specific reason. No doubt about it. And we should use them to protect our planet. No doubt about that either. But I think we would be fools not to look beyond that one reason. Look for more possibilities."
He was afraid his point might be getting lost in his own explanation, so he tried to come up with an example from history. "Take gunpowder for example. It used to only be used for making fireworks, a thing of beauty. But that beauty evolved into guns and explosives and stuff like that." Javier opened the door to the owl enclosure and lead the way to the dozing snowy owls for Ashley to acquire. "So I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if you morph a clown fish just because it's beautiful, it just might end up being your tool of war."
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