the animorphs

[instar]

Renée is gone in the morning, a pot of maple oatmeal for the girls and Trouble cooling on the stove and a note on the fridge, she's going to be gone all day on a day trip to Tucson with her friends.

Andi wakes up first. Bella's not far behind.

Comments

[instar]

"She's not going to do it in front of you. Andi, you think you can take notes by yourself while I watch these guys?"

[pandion]

"Yeah, no problem."

[palmofyourhand]

"I do love an audience," says Ethan.

[instar]

"I'm sure."

She heads for the basement, while her sister goes up the stairs.

[palmofyourhand]

Basement!

"So," says Ethan, "are we going to stick to some kind of experimental structure or should I just keep breaking things until something sticks?"

[aeskhyne]

Trouble bounces gleefully.

[instar]

"No fatal wounds, nothing we cannot possibly explain as 'Trouble fell off the roof' or something if he winds up unable to morph like Elfangor - you're morphing Robin, Trouble, not one of the Andalites?"

[aeskhyne]

"Yeah," he says, "otherwise I'd bust my clothes - I guess if I figure out Andi's trick that won't be as big of a problem, but one thing at a time, and this thing's more fun."

[instar]

"Because one of the questions I have is whether anything peculiar happens if you lose a part you don't normally have."

[aeskhyne]

"...Ooh," says Trouble. "Yeah, I'm game for that. Should I go hide behind a box?"

[instar]

"Does this not actually matter to you? I can be, you know, experimentally detached if you don't care and neither of you are going to be juvenile about it."

[aeskhyne]

"I'm perpetually juvenile," says Trouble. "And I'm gonna be perpetually something else if Ethan's gonna be mauling me for hours. It doesn't bother me, but it'd bother me to bother you, you know?"

[palmofyourhand]

"I don't give a damn at all," Ethan contributes.

[instar]

"I'd rather skip the juvenile part, so until we're checking something less objective, I guess you go behind a box, and I suppose at some point when you are sufficiently 'something else' I leave you two alone and hope you have the presence of mind to write anything down."

[aeskhyne]

"Okay."

Trouble goes behind a box.

[palmofyourhand]

Ethan follows him.

One or both of them proceeds to take Trouble's pants off.

[aeskhyne]

Trouble morphs. It takes a few minutes.

[palmofyourhand]

"Which part, I wonder..." murmurs Ethan.

If Trouble makes a suggestion, Ethan is the only one who hears it. He laughs. A few moments later, he comes back around the boxes, holding a knife and a severed stalk eye, both objects dripping blue-black fluid.

"What are we going to do with this, do you suppose?"

[instar]

"If it doesn't disappear when he demorphs? We have a little campfire and when Renée gets home 'we decided to roast marshmallows'."

[palmofyourhand]

"Tasty," snorts Ethan. "Well, he's demorphing, and it doesn't seem inclined to disappear."

[instar]

"It does not." Bella gets a box, lines the bottom with bubble wrap to contain the spread of ichor, and offers it.

[palmofyourhand]

Ethan puts the severed eye into the box.

"Should've brought a towel," he remarks, looking at his blood-smeared hands. "Several towels."

[instar]

"I'll get you a roll of paper ones."

Bella goes up, and comes down with a roll of paper towels.

[palmofyourhand]

Ethan wipes his hands and the knife. Then he makes the knife disappear.

[aeskhyne]

"I'm all demorphed," says Trouble, from behind his box. "No missing pieces. Should I try morphing back to see what happens?"