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]

"Yep. Hug?"

[instar]

"Sure."

Hug.

[aeskhyne]

Very hug.

"See you," he says, and he's off.

[instar]

The twins play with the butterfly until he comes back.

[aeskhyne]

He returns about an hour later, accompanied by Ethan and a map. A really good map.

[instar]

"Hi, guys. It turns out Andi is some kind of morphing prodigy. She can include clothes, and control order of operations, and she's six times faster than me at the butterfly. She also figured out how to stop in the middle, but I can do that too, now."

[palmofyourhand]

"How about clothes, can you do those?"

[instar]

"Working on it."

[pandion]

"I can't do just any clothes, they have to be pretty snug," says Andi, who is in fact wearing a tube top and leggings. "But they just sort of come along, if I want them to - not when I'm turning into Bella, though, then I want them to stay where they are."

[palmofyourhand]

"Fascinating," says Ethan. "Could you attach one outfit to each shape, I wonder?"

[pandion]

"We were about to try that when you showed up, actually."

[palmofyourhand]

"Well, don't let me stop you," he laughs.

[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.