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Post by Ashley Bennett on Oct 24, 2011 22:32:20 GMT -5
Ashley hoped she hadn’t sounded all doom and gloom to Rue when she’d explained about the history of the Animorphs. She knew it seemed that way, at least when you looked at the two wars together. Still, the yeerks had been defeated one time. That was the part Ashley always focused on, the part she always reminded herself of when things seemed tough. There was hope, because it had been done before. Maybe she had a bit of an optimistic view of it, though. In general, it did seem like a lot of people who fought as Animorphs had died, but the same was true of soldiers who fought using weapons instead of morphs. Fighting did have its risks.
She didn’t have much time to worry about it, and maybe that was for the best. Javier opened his door, and Ashley couldn’t help but smirk a little. He was so neat and organized when it came to animals, that one wouldn’t guess his room would be such a mess. Then again, no one was perfect. They all had their flaws. Ashley was also very grateful for the asset that Javier had become in getting morphs. The next time she picked one out, she was thinking she might get his opinion on what to pick. And hence her decision to ask his help in picking morphs for Rue. He was a much better person for the job than Ashley was, so why not take advantage of the skills and strengths of her team members?
She gave Javier a smile now, “Thanks, Javier. This is Rue, and I’m sure she’ll appreciate having someone with your expertise helping.” And since it seemed like the others were ready to move on, she added. “So, let’s get going then.” As an afterthought she added, “For now we’re getting her a bird morph and a battle morph.” She started on the way to the docking bay. From there they’d take one of the bug fighters to the ground. They weren’t too far, and if they’d all had bird morphs she’d have just had them fly, but that wasn’t an option for Rue right now. “I know we’d usually do a few more morphs, but Kyle got a little… detained on our last trip to Earth. As soon as we have a signal from his earpiece we’re going to be performing a rescue.” She would get more eventually, but for now they’d get her the ones she’d possibly need on the rescue. Get the necessities taken care of first. Maybe get others if they had time, because it wasn’t like she had to follow Jack’s orders. She was his equal, and could certainly make such executive decisions if time allowed.
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Post by Javier Delgado on Oct 24, 2011 23:12:46 GMT -5
"Bird morph and battle morph. Bird morph and battle morph. Hmm." Javier tapped a finger against the side of his head in thought as they walked. Usually they didn't give out battle morphs until the new animorph got some practice in, but it sounded like these were special circumstances. If Kyle was in trouble, you wanted the rescue party to be prepared if at all possible.
"Actually... Yeah, that should work," Javier said, letting his thoughts slip out through his mouth. "You know, as luck would have it, we don't even need to leave the ship to get a bird morph right now. Your options are pretty limited, but if we're under a time crunch... Besides, Rue was it? You can always acquire a different bird later." Without further explanation, Javier led them to a small room near the docking bay where they were already headed. He opened the door and stood next to it, allowing the ladies the option of entering first.
Inside the room there was a table. On the table were several cages, two of which had occupants. One was a box turtle that ate something it shouldn't have, and in the other there was a sick magpie. "We sometimes keep a few smaller animals in here if they need to be monitored closely. Feathers here has a touch of the bird flue, so to speak. But don't worry, acquiring an animal doesn't pass their illnesses on to you." Javier shrugged. "It's an option anyway. If you still want to browse your selection, the docking bay is right across the hall."
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Post by Rue Fraser on Oct 26, 2011 17:17:08 GMT -5
One for sorrow, two for joy. --
Oh, she was getting a battle morph now too? Those were harder to control though, and she was a newbie at all of this. Wasn't she only supposed to get a bird morph first? Oh well. Kyle was in danger, and they probably needed as many people to help out with that as possible. She was just going to have to deal with and hopefully not kill anyone. Yeah, killing people was bad. Maybe she could ask Javier to make sure it was a morph that wouldn't get too out of her control. He would know, right?
She and Ashley followed him to this room near the docking bay, several cages in the room. There was a turtle in one of them, and a magpie in the other one. According to Javier, the poor thing had bird flu. Rue drew her hand back that was about to go and touch it, then relaxed once he said that she wouldn't get bird flu too. She had never even seen a magpie before, and it looked beautiful. It wasn't even that big either. There were other birds too, probably ones she hadn't seen before. But they had a time constraint, for one. Two, this bird was adorable.
That was probably a bad reason for picking a morph, but didn't stop her from turning to Javier and saying, "I'll have a magpie morph. So do I just touch him and I get the morph, or is there some secret to this or something?" [/font]
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Oct 27, 2011 15:40:02 GMT -5
See, this was why Ashley had wanted to bring Javier along. He always knew the morphs they had available on the ship. True, he did have some interesting preferences sometimes, but the morphs he picked often were overlooked yet useful ones. True, the magpie that was being kept on the ship wasn't anything spectacular, but was Ashley's own Raven morph really that much more amazing? It would do the job to start out, and a new bird morph could always be gotten at a later date. Actually, chances were that Ashley herself would want to get a bit better bird morph sometime in the near future. Maybe not a different daytime bird, though. It was true that the raven couldn’t do much damage, but it was good for now. One thing she was lacking was a really good nocturnal morph, so maybe she should get something like an owl.
She brought her attention back to the present and to Rue’s morphs when she was asked if there was any sort of secret to acquiring it. “No, that’s basically it. There’s no real huge secret. You do want to kind of focus on the animal as you’re acquiring it. You’ll be able to tell if it’s working, because the animal will seem to kind of go into a calm, trance-like state.” That feature was really nice when acquiring something big and dangerous, because then the hardest part was approaching the animal and touching it. Once you’d done that, you were pretty much good to go. Just make sure you get out before the trance wears off.
“So, you can get that morph, and then we’ll give it a good test out here, on the ship, before we head to the reserve. I figure we can fly there, but… I don’t want to have you morphing and jumping out of the ship and then not knowing how to fly. I realize we kind of have to learn from experience with morphs, but… not that kind of experience.” Trying to scare her into sharing her mind with the animal might end up with a feathery form crashing to the ground, and that wouldn’t be pretty.
She turned to Javier now. “I have a quick question. When we’re getting Rue that battle morph, how hard would it be to track down an owl of some sort? I’ve been thinking it would be a good idea to get a nocturnal morph. I realize owls are kind of plain, but I want one that can fly and I’m not about to become Batgirl.” The only problem with morphing into a bat, was she actually had to touch one to acquire it. They probably weren’t that gross, but they did kind of set Ashley on edge. If she did get a morph of one, it would be in a situation where she had no other choice but to do so.
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Post by Javier Delgado on Oct 27, 2011 22:09:04 GMT -5
"Yeah, just touch it and concentrate on absorbing its genetic code," Javier said, agreeing with Ashley. "Go ahead and touch her. She's a clever little bird, but not a mean one." A black and white magpie wasn't exactly the type of bird Javier would have chosen, but there were certainly duller birds to morph. But it was here and would be good for practice. "Then to morph just concentrate on becoming the bird. You may want to freak out when the changes start happening, but if you can get through it you will be in for an awesome experience. Nothing beats flying."
Javier turned to Ashley then, and let Rue do her own thing at her own pace. "You want an owl morph?" Javier asked her. "Now?" He thought for a moment about the layout of the animal reserve. If they were in a rush they would want to get her a battle morph that was near one of their owls. There weren't any if they also wanted to acquire one near where a bug fighter could land. But if they didn't take a bug fighter...
"If we go down by wing, then yeah, I think there are a couple owls in an enclosure near some of the big cats. If we enter their enclosures through the access doors, which would be safest, then I think it will work out just fine."
Then, turning back to Rue he asked, "Everything going alright over there?"
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Post by Rue Fraser on Oct 28, 2011 12:20:06 GMT -5
Vain redhead does not want to change into a bird right now. --
No big secret, okay. Rue could do this. She reached out her hand, telling herself that she wasn't going to get bird flu from touching Feathers, and put it gently on the bird. Now, she just had to focus on the magpie, right? She kept her eyes on it, trying to only think about getting the morph and not everything else that was going on. That proved to be a little difficult since there was so much going on in her head right now. Today, she woke up, went to work, nearly got captured by a Yeerk, became an Animorph, and was getting her first morph right now as she left her life behind. Oh, and one of the Animorphs had been captured too, and she learned the depressing history that the Animorphs had here on Earth.
Right, focus on the magpie. Focus on the bird and not everything else. Focus on selfish thoughts later after you got the morph, Rue. Inhale, exhale. She could do that-- simple breathing techniques she learned from performing. The bird didn't move really, nor react much for a minute before it entered that trance like state Ashley and Javier had talked about. It looked so calm when it did that. That meant that this worked. She got the morph. She could morph into a magpie right now if she wanted to.
Javier said something, making her move her hand and look back at him. "Oh, yeah. Everything's good," she replied, "He went into a trance state, just like you said." For right now, she was good with just getting the magpie morph. Doing the whole morphing thing itself wasn't something she really wanted to try at the moment, even though she probably had to so they could go rescue Kyle. Even then, could she just stay human for that? "What's next?" [/font]
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Post by Ashley Bennett on Oct 28, 2011 12:51:18 GMT -5
Javier’s reaction did prove an important point to her, she wasn’t really thinking right now. The owls wouldn’t be out and about yet. It was still too early. Finding one wouldn’t be impossible, but it would make things a little more difficult for them, and she didn’t want to do that if she could avoid it. If she had to forgo the morph to save her brother… well, it was kind of clear which one was more important to her. “I’m not going to be picky about needing to get it now. If it would work better to wait, then that’s fine with me.”
Javier asked Rue if she was okay, and Ashley returned her attention to the other woman. It seemed things were fine. She said she’d acquired the morph, and Ashley didn’t doubt that because she had seen Rue touch the magpie. She was going to tell Rue that she should try out the morph now. A bird morph would probably make an interesting first morph. Ashley did have to agree with Javier’s assessment that flying was an amazing experience, something totally different about being in morphs that you’d never experience as human. There wasn’t a lot of chance for her to say anything, though.
Ash, Eric’s voice came in over hear earpiece, we’ve got a signal from Kyle. Jack knows, and Sam was with him. They’re already on their way. Her reaction to the message was probably clear on her face. The others couldn’t hear it, but they would be able to tell something was up. She touched her earpiece, hoping the others would understand that she was talking to Eric and not them. “Thanks for letting me know. Just tell me where he is and I’ll head that way as soon as possible.”
Then she returned her attention to Rue and Javier. “We’re kind of out of time, because we just got a signal from Kyle.” She paused for a moment, considering what to do. “Rue, you might just want to sit this one out. I’m sure you’ve probably had enough excitement for one day, and we generally don’t have people go out on a mission using an untested morph if we can help it. Jaiver, it’s kind of up to you what you want to do. If you want to stay here, that’s fine. If you want to come with that would work too.” To be honest, she also wouldn’t be opposed to him helping Rue get a few more morphs to start out with, but she wasn’t going to force him to do that. Whatever they did, she knew what she was going to do. She had to go help save her brother.
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Post by Javier Delgado on Oct 29, 2011 16:07:33 GMT -5
Javier was about to answer Rue's "what's next" question when Ashley got a strange look on her face, like she was listening to someone else. Then she started talking to herself, but Javier knew what it meant. Kyle had been located.
Ashley soon confirmed this and suggested that Rue stay behind. She also gave Javier the option to stay or go. It was a difficult question, but Javier already knew the answer he felt was best. To Ashley he said, "You, go, get out of here. Save your brother. I'll take care of things here." Javier did want to make sure that Kyle got home safely, but if Ashley gave him the option to stay it meant they weren't desperate for his help. And with someone brand new to the world of the animorphs aboard their spacecraft, he didn't really feel right leaving her here to wander around with no real direction.
Trying to remain casual, Javier turned to Rue and said, "We'll get you all situated and practiced up while they are out saving the world. We'll have our chance to do the same soon enough. But first..." Javier looked Rue up and down, trying to figure out which other animorph she might share a clothing size with. "We'll need to find you a morphing suit."
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