the circle

[instar]

Trouble and Charlie fly to Las Vegas to get their collections of drunks. Ax, newly empigeoned, and Ethan loosely follow Renée's car back to Phoenix, so that Ax will not be stranded in an unfamiliar city obliged to demorph into Andalite form with no garage to hide in.

Renée makes a very large grocery trip. Ax deems alfalfa hay intended for consumption by guinea pigs and rabbits to be the hoof-eating equivalent of palatable; it also turns out he can eat a few other things, like carrot tops and turnip greens. He still doesn't like living in the garage, even though it's a different one. Andi finds him a little planetarium gadget that throws star-patterns onto the ceiling.

Renée installs a cot in the basement for Charlie. (His generic human morph is a man about ten years younger than him, plausibly Latino but just as plausibly not, plain and unremarkable. He also picks up a Renée morph. He will be able to drive the girls places, publicly know their names. They can tell he appreciates the opportunity, however weird it is.) Trouble is allowed to sleep on the couch, when Renée learns that he would prefer not to share the basement with Charlie.

Bella sews weights onto all the curtain hems so they won't be easily nudged aside.

The twins also collect generic-human-morphs. Both of theirs are college-age women, samples collected from going on premature college tours and shaking a lot of hands - Bella's looks maybe half Asian when she's done tweaking it, Andi winds up with a complexion much like her usual one but a surprisingly Hawaiian set of features.

Renée never asks to be enabled to morph. Bella eventually offers, "for emergencies", and Renée aggregates a number of her co-workers into the most stereotypical teacher-lady it is possible to Frolis into without requiring vision correction.

Renée makes the arrangements well in advance to homeschool the twins.

Bella quizzes Ax about all sorts of things, for large parts of each day.

Comments

[aeskhyne]

"Yeah!"

He leans over and kisses her.

[megale]

Mmmkiss!

[aeskhyne]

Mmmmm.

Well, he thinks it's fun. Does Rhea?

[megale]

She's grinning, is that a hint?

[aeskhyne]

Yes. Yes it is.

Kisses! They are just as much fun as tummy rubs. But a different kind.

[megale]

Kisses!

"You are totally in your underwear," she observes after a few of them have gone by. "Is that a pooka thing?"

[aeskhyne]

"I am totally in my underwear! It's really hard to shapeshift clothes, but kind of awkward to be running around naked as a human, so: underwear," he explains.

[megale]

"Makes sense."

Kisses? Snuggly ones?

[aeskhyne]

Snuggly kisses are one of the best kinds. Pooka is totally on board for this.

...He is also, as she observed, totally in his underwear.

This may become relevant to snuggles.

[megale]

A little bit. She sort of winds up big-spooning him and propping her head up on her elbow so she can still kiss him. There, no awkwards.

[aeskhyne]

It's very snuggly! He approves. Mmm snuggly kisses.

[megale]

Yay!

[aeskhyne]

Snugglyyyyyyyyyyy.

[megale]

"I'm making out with a pooka who left cat hair on my bed," she giggles.

[aeskhyne]

"Yes you are!" says the pooka who left cat hair on her bed. "And it's awesome!"

[megale]

"It kinda is! So I guess all those talking pigeon girls and boys you flatter constantly have left you a free agent for some reason?"

[aeskhyne]

"Yep. Free agent, that's me."

[megale]

"Cool." Kiss.

[aeskhyne]

Kiss! Snuggly kiss.

[megale]

Quite snuggly indeed.

[aeskhyne]

So snuggly. Happy and snuggly.

[megale]

After a while - rather a long while - Rhea looks at her clock, and says, "My mom will be home in like twenty minutes and I can explain a kitty but I can't explain you."

[aeskhyne]

"I should probably head back to my secret pooka nest at some point anyway." He kisses her again. "So how about I turn into a soft cuddly owl and you cuddle me and I fly out the window and come see you again sometime?"

[megale]

"Sure!"

[aeskhyne]

"Awesome."

He turns into a soft cuddly owl, which for some reason involves his hair merging into giant feathers before anything else happens, and then the usual minute or two of other changes in apparently random order. But then he is a very sleek pretty barn owl, standing on her bed and looking huggable.