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Post by Ashley Bennett on Dec 22, 2011 18:23:44 GMT -5
Ashley listened to Javier's argument, and found in it a truth she'd never before realized. There were so many reasons one could choose a morph, and her original ones had never taken all of those reasons into consideration. When she'd picked the tiger morph, for example, she'd been thinking of its strength and its claws. However, it also was beautiful, graceful, and surprisingly a calm creature - not at all as aggressive as she had thought the animal's mind would be.
“I suppose your right. My tiger is sort of a reverse gunpowder morph. It’s beautiful, but I’ve only recently taken much notice of that fact. I had acquired it only its battle purposes and never taken other things into account,” she spoke these words as she followed him into the cage and approached one of the sleeping owls. The beautiful white birds didn’t stir yet, but to be honest she was glad for that. If they did, it might get interesting trying to acquire one of them.
What was that old saying about never say when something could get worse or how it could get worse? Because she really needed to remember it. The owl nearest her opened its eyes and screeched. “Shhhh….,” she said, slowly reaching her hand out to it. The bird apparently didn’t like this, as it lunged forward and snapped at her hand, which caused Ashley to pull back quickly to avoid being bitten. That would have been a bit, even with a beak, right?
“Don’t be like that. I’m not going to hurt you.” She reached forward again, and the owl eyed her warily. “That’s it. It’s ok.” Her calming words didn’t indicate at all what she was about to do. Her hand shot forward onto the bird’s side. It might have reacted badly if it weren’t for the acquiring trance it went into. “That wasn’t so bad,” Ashley said as she acquired the bird.
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Post by Javier Delgado on Dec 24, 2011 0:16:35 GMT -5
"A reverse gunpowder morph. I like that. I'll have to remember it." Javier figured it would be wise to remember that his argument worked both ways, as Ashley had made clear. And other qualities such as ugliness and apparent uselessness, could be just as valid of reasons for acquiring animals as beauty or usefulness. Maybe he would try acquiring a "useless" morph in the near future in order to test his theory. Already his mind was sifting through some options.
These thoughts had Javier distracted as Ashley attempted to touch a snowy owl. He thought she would have backed down when the bird made a fuss. However, he wasn't prepared for the fact that Ashley had made her decision to acquire the snowy owls instead of another type, and so underestimated her desire to touch the semi-wild animal.
He probably should have felt bad that he hadn't helped her acquire the owl calmly, but he was too busy laughing to manage it. Javier doubled over at the site of Ashley manhandling the pale bird of prey. "I guess that's one way to do it," he managed to say between laughs. Eventually he managed to settle down and stand up straight again, a little chuckle still escaping here and there. "Sorry, but that was hilarious. I could have helped you if I knew you were planning to acquire it. Results are results though, I suppose. Just hope you didn't give ol' Ichabod there too big of a fright."
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Dec 31, 2011 13:17:02 GMT -5
Javier’s laughter made Ashley blush a little, realizing there had probably been better options for obtaining the owl morph. Also, it wasn’t as though she’d asked for his help or even remotely indicated that she had settled on the snowy owl as her morph. To be honest, she wasn’t sure when the moment came that she settled on it, only that she had somewhere between landing and acquiring the morph decided that it was the one she wanted.
Ichabod seemed no worse for the wear after she had acquired him, though he may not have come out of his trance yet. Meanwhile, Ashley looked down at her feet, but she chuckled a little as she spoke. “Well… I suppose there were better ways to go about doing that.”
Realizing Ichabod might not be too happy with her once he was alert again, she stepped away from the tree. In fact, she might want to get out of the enclosure, but she kind of hoped that backing off would be enough to quell any thoughts of attacking her. “So, I guess we got what we came here for. Of course, I should test it out too, while we’re here, so we won’t have to worry about people seeing an owl flying around during the day and wondering if they’ve lost their minds.” Or if the magical world of the Harry Potter books had somehow leaped off the pages and come to life, I silent afterthought that she added. Either way, the morph wasn’t one that would look normal flying around outside of the reserve at the current hour.
((Any ideas as to how we add in getting the kangaroo morph?))
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Post by Javier Delgado on Jan 1, 2012 1:51:12 GMT -5
"Yeah, testing out morphs is definitely a good idea. Especially if the animal isn't similar to any other morphs you have. Or so I would assume." Javier looked over at the owl Ashley acquired. Ichabod had come out of his trance and looked a little ticked off, but otherwise settled back into his roost and closed his eyes. Satisfied that the owl would be just fine, Javier went and opened the door to the enclosure so they could leave.
"If you want to practice right now, I could fly with you. While we are at it we can see if there is anything else you want my help acquiring. I come to the reserve almost every day, and work with the animals, so getting a new morph isn't so hard for me. But with your busy and unpredictable schedule, I would imagine efficiency is an issue."
Once again Javier was grateful that he didn't have all the responsibilities that Ashley had. Sure, a lot of animals depended on Javier for their health and survival, but a lot of people depended on Ashley. How she could even stay sane, let alone how she could always seem so generally happy, was beyond his comprehension. Whatever her trick was, he hoped it kept working.
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Jan 5, 2012 21:45:21 GMT -5
Ashley might have some days wondered the same things Javier was wondering. Some days she wondered how she could deal with the life she currently had. For two years she’d been leading a war against an alien invasion. How she stayed sane, how she stayed so happy, was a mystery. Somehow this hadn’t too drastically effected either her, or Jack, or Kyle. They’d all changed for the better if anything. She had figured out who she really was, Kyle had found a bolder person within himself…. Sure it was a lot of pressure, but someone needed to shoulder the burden. Someone needed to do it, because the world needed them to defeat the yeerks again.
She followed Javier out of the cage, and turned back to look at the owl who seemed fine if a little ticked off at her. If she ever stepped into that cage again, she figured Ichabod would have a thing or two to tell her. Or, rather, he’d show his displeasure with her actions in a much more violent method. Note to self, Ichabod the owl is very pissed off with me.
“Yeah, I think we go with testing the morph now if that’s fine with you. And as we fly over the reserve I’ll see if there’s anything else I’d like to get in a morph. I don’t get much chance to browse for my own morphs. I’m usually down here getting morphs for other people, rather than getting them for myself.” If she wanted to get a new morph, then she usually had to do it with a new recruit down here with her.
With that she focused on the DNA she had acquired from Ichabod, watching the pattern of white and black feathers etching themselves on her skin. She shrank down to the owl’s size, and her eyes started to change. The owl’s vision was amazing. That was one of the major things she noticed during the transition. Much of the rest was fairly similar to the raven, but the owl could rotate it’s head and the talons were much more wicked, deadly, than the raven’s. <<This is definitely different.>>
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Post by Javier Delgado on Jan 6, 2012 19:05:10 GMT -5
Javier simply nodded his agreement to her decision and concentrated on his own bird morph. This time he decided not to use his condor morph. It was big and bulky and difficult to get up in the air, especially if there wasn't a lot of space for maneuvering. Instead he concentrated on his Atlantic Puffin morph, which was another type of bird designed for colder climates. Snowy Owls and Atlantic Puffins even had overlapping ranges in the wild, if he recalled correctly.
The first change to take place as he began to morph was shrinking. Everything around him seemed to get larger as the ground came rushing up at his face. It was a slightly dizzying feeling, but one Javier was used to and expecting. Next came the feathers. Black and white plumage sprouted in erratic patches all over his body, even as his limbs were reforming into webbed feet and wings. His mouth and nose fused together to form the puffin's signature, yet seasonal, brightly colored beak. When the sounds of shifting organs and grinding bones finally stopped, Javier knew his morph was complete.
Javier suppressed the familiar instincts of the puffin as they rose up in the back of his mind, then spoke to Ashley. <<We can take off whenever you are ready. Puffins may or may not be on the snowy owl's long list of potential prey, so... make sure you resist the urge to eat me, alright?>> Javier prepared to take to the air, whether it be to follow Ashley or flee her.
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Feb 14, 2012 21:38:13 GMT -5
<<Right… mental note to not attempt to eat you.>> That should be easy enough. Then again, she didn’t know how hard the owl’s mind would be to control. She had seen some of her morphs get way out of her control before. It was just really hard sometimes to learn where the balance was between not being able to use the morph and losing your humanity to the animal’s instincts.
<<Let’s go.>> She took off. So far so good. The owl was, in some respects, similar to using her raven morph. The mind fought a little more than the mind of the raven, but that may have been because the morph was new. Newer morphs were unfamiliar, and you didn’t know the instincts and the mind as well. Controlling a familiar morph was easier because you knew the mind.
<<This isn’t so bad. I really like it. It’s kind of bright for using the morph, and I’ll need to be careful or I’ll look like I flew off the pages of a Harry Potter novel, but I think I made a decent choice with this morph.>> There was a slight tone of excitement in her voice, because flying like this was amazing. It was a different experience, being able to see the things below her with the owl’s vision. It was so much better than that of her raven morph. <<Thank you for the help, Javier. I really appreciate it.>>
((OOC: Ok. Maybe we should call this good so I don't drag it out anymore on you. We can just go with her getting the kangaroo, but not really RP it out.))
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