Morph #1: The Awakening [action]

[xenamorph]

[Action/The Barracks]

[Rachel awakens to find herself in a large building, wearing a rather hideous sundress and nothing else. More distressingly, she discovers that she has wings. Eagle wings. For a moment, she's afraid she's been trapped partway in morph, but a moment of experimentation shows that she's still able to at least begin morphing.

And then after another moment, she remembers that she's dead. Is this heaven? I mean, wings and a white dress seems like heaven, but some grungy building sure doesn't. Where is she? What the heck is going on? She can't morph in this dress, and she can't walk around as a human with eagle wings- what if a Controller sees her?

So she casts a look around to make sure nobody's nearby, and then she shucks off the dress and slowly begins morphing into the shape of a bald eagle. It's a long, slow process, and she's still woozy and disoriented. She just hopes she isn't interrupted.]

[Action/The Plaza and the Clothing Store.]

[An eagle with a second set of wings tucked behind the first is soaring around the plaza, looking through windows, a white New Feather dress clutched in her claws. As soon as she locates the clothing store, she'll fly inside and begin browsing. Just a bird out shopping. Nothing to see here.]

[Action/Town]

[Once she's stolen obtained some new clothing and morphed into a human again, a strange girl will be walking around town, staring at everything with a mixture of confusion and dismay. Heaven, so far, sucks. A lot. Especially since everything seems to be half-pilfered from the middle ages, and half the people walking around are weird. It's almost like somebody crossed a ren faire and one of those nerd conventions. She could swear she saw a guy dressed like Spock running around.]

((OOC Note: In-morph replies will come from xenamorphs ))
 

Comments

[wildbluevagner]

It'll probably be a lot more helpful than me. And if you lost it, don't worry. Those things have a way of getting back to you.

[xenamorph]

"That's a relief."

[Because she wasn't even sure she remembered where she had been.]

"Alright. I won't play twenty questions with you or anything, but, um... are we safe here?"

[wildbluevagner]

Safe? Yeah, you could say that - at least most of the time. Some of the people here aren't exactly heroes, but there's not so much trouble being caused. There are the experiments the Malnosso like to run on the village every now and then, but most of the time those are more weird than dangerous. The only real danger I've heard of... well, it's that sometimes the Malnosso will draft us to fight their battles.

[xenamorph]

"Battles? Against who?"

[... She didn't mean to sound quite so excited about the prospect. Honest.]

[wildbluevagner]

[Any eagerness does take Kurt by surprise somewhat, but he carries on.]

Well... I don't know that much about them beyond what I've read in the Guide. But they call themselves the Third Party, and they're kind of extremists who want everyone to die. Plus they've apparently got technology to oppose the Malnosso's. [Sarcastically.] Sounds like a real friendly bunch, right?

[xenamorph]

"So a bunch of mad scientists have captured us and do experiments on us, and use us to fight these crazy terrorists. And we're stuck in the middle."

[Well, that sounded like an impossible situation.]

"Right. Real party we've got going on here."

[wildbluevagner]

Yeah, you've got it down quick. The main consolation is that the war doesn't effect us directly too often. I think the last battle that people were called to was just before I got here a few months back. But the experiments? They happen almost every month. So you should be careful for that.

[xenamorph]

"Noted."

[She grabs another outfit, tucks it under her arm just in case.]

"Hey, uh. Thanks."

[wildbluevagner]

You're welcome. This was my first time giving the newbie talk, so I hope it wasn't too bad. My name's Kurt, by the way. Kurt Wagner.

[xenamorph]

"Um. Rachel. Rachel Berenson. Nice to meet you. Sorry if the whole, uh, bird thing weirded you out."

[wildbluevagner]

Nice to meet you too, Rachel. And it's no problem - just another day in Luceti. [He wonders if she's a mutant, too, but he's uncertain about asking outright.]

[xenamorph]

"You get a lot of superpowers around here?"

[wildbluevagner]

A whole lot - here and back home. And lots are attached to superheroes - you know, the real deal! Or maybe you know that kind of thing already. Should we be calling you Eagle Girl - or Eagal for short?

[xenamorph]

[She actually laughs at that. This guy would get along with Marco.]

"I can do more than just eagles, trust me. Besides, we've already got a dorky team name."

[wildbluevagner]

I'll be the judge of what is and isn't dorky here. [The poorest judge of all.] Do I win anything if I guess "the X-Men"?

[xenamorph]

[X-Men? This guy really would get along with Marco.]

"Just as bad. There's five of us back home, kids like me who can turn into animals, so we called ourselves Animorphs."

[wildbluevagner]

Ani- [Blink.] Ani...

[Kurt can't finish the name; he just bursts into laughter.]

[xenamorph]

"Told you."

[She's not indignant. Nope.

... Hey, you fight for your life and your freedom under a name for three years, you get kind of invested. Even if it's a stupid name.]

[wildbluevagner]

[Good thing the X-Men are different because it actually sounds cool. ...At least in the mind of Kurt.

But he eventually stifles his last bits of laughter while waving a hand apologetically.]

Sorry... That just sounds like the name a toy company would come with.

[xenamorph]

[Oh man if she ever finds out you call yourself 'Nightcrawler' you are so in for it, buddy.]

"Well, it doesn't hurt that nobody knew our name for the longest time. We were kind of hiding our identities."

[wildbluevagner]

[Well Kurt's smile fades as she says that.]

I think I know how that feels. Let me guess: people have trouble accepting those who are different from them in fantastic ways.

[xenamorph]

"Not as much. No, in this case it was more 'Anybody we told either wouldn't believe us or might be one of our enemies and could track us down and infest us.' We only recently managed to get the word out, and only after they found out who we were anyway."

[wildbluevagner]

I see. That's a bit different than my experience. It still sounds rough in its own way.

Sorry for the delay, this weekend kicked my ass.

[xenamorph]

[For a moment she feels a surge of anger at that comment. He had no idea. No idea the kind of hell their lives had been for the past three years. How dare he? Who did he think he was? Who did he think she was?

Rachel. Get a grip.]

"Yeah, it was pretty frustrating sometimes, but we got through it."