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

[aeskhyne]

<Got my eye back,> says Trouble, poking his indeed pristine Elfangor-shaped head up over the boxes. <Should we cut something else off before I turn back? Maybe better not, the fewer Andalite parts we have to dispose of the better, right?>

[instar]

"Yeah, I don't even know how well it'll burn. And we're going to have to get all the blood off the floor, too, but -" She dabs a paper towel on the end of the eye. "It should come up okay."

[aeskhyne]

<There's not that much blood,> Trouble says cheerfully. <But yeah, you're right. Okay, back to human me.>

He slumps back out of sight and emits some more unattractive sounds.

[instar]

"Still better to have relatively less, so if you have methods of injury available other than the knife, probably best for further tests. You holding up okay back there?"

[aeskhyne]

No answer.

[instar]

Bella waits for the morphing noises to stop, then repeats the question.

[aeskhyne]

"Kinda tired," he admits. "I could maybe use a break and something to drink."

[instar]

"We have water. Or iced tea, or milk. Morphing is kind of tiring."

[aeskhyne]

"Ooh, iced tea," says Trouble, appearing from behind the boxes. "I would love an iced tea."

[instar]

"I'll go get you one, then. Ethan, anything for you?"

[palmofyourhand]

"No thanks," he chirps.

[instar]

"Okay."

Bella climbs the stairs.

She comes down a minute later, glass of iced tea in hand.

[palmofyourhand]

At which time, Ethan and Trouble are kissing.

[aeskhyne]

Trouble detaches.

"Thanks, Bella," he says, reaching for the glass.

[instar]

"You're welcome. Should I leave you be?"

[aeskhyne]

He shrugs. "Nah, if you do we'll probably just start making out again; stick around while I finish this and then we can do some more science."

[instar]

"Okay. One thing I was trying to figure out is how morphing interacts with breathing. Me and Andi noted that we continue breathing while morphing, occasionally with a moment of changeover between systems - we didn't have enough trials to see if we can reliably demorph with our lungs full of air, which would be really handy if we could do it every time, for underwater if we ever need to do things underwater. If you could keep an eye on that that would be useful, although it's the kind of observation you can make any time you morph so it's not worth dividing your attention if the experiments you're actually here to do are distracting."

[aeskhyne]

"Ooh," says Trouble. "Yeah. I'll try it some other time."

[instar]

Bella nods, and sits down, and goes and annotates her notes so far.

[aeskhyne]

Trouble drinks his iced tea.

[palmofyourhand]

Ethan eyes him speculatively.

[instar]

"Penny for your thoughts."

[palmofyourhand]

"Who, me? Just wondering what to break first."

[instar]

"It's really very convenient that we have someone willing to perform the experiment."

[palmofyourhand]

"Isn't it?" he agrees.