Morphing 101 (Closed)

[Jullian]

Jullian looked at the new students, a friendly smile on his face as they filed into the room he'd claimed for his classroom. When they'd gotten here this room had been filled with small weaponry. Dracon beams, dracon grenades, grenade launchers that they all agreed had been based on the human design of all things. They had cleared the room out and shipped the weaponry to various affiliated resistance groups all over the world. After they were done Jullian decided to claim the room for himself. He liked they idea of turning a room used to store weapons into a place of learning.

He'd raided the rooms full of extra human uniforms and had used the fabric to create rugs. They weren't pretty rugs by any stretch of the imagination and their clashing colors had used to set the teeth of Jullian's fashion sense gnashing against each other. But they were better than the dull metallic black of the Bladeship's hull. And they would protect bare feet and hands from the cold touch of the metal.

He waited until they were all inside, having made them take their shoes off at the door, before beginning. "Welcome to morphing 101," Jules said brightly. "This is where you are going to use the power that makes us different from every other resistance group out there. I know you are all eager to get to morphing but who does anyone know what morphing actually is? I know a few of you may have seen it," Jullian said looking at Gabriel, "but who can tell me what it is? And sit down," Jullian said, shooing them. "We will be here for a while." He took his own advice and sat cross legged on the rug covered floor.

[xander]

Xander collapsed down onto the floor with his legs out in front of him. He let out a bored sigh and eyed Jullian. His encounters with the boy had been limited and he’d usually been with the other teachers which Xander assumed where his friends. While he had figured Jullian as a nice bloke he was suspicious of any class he had to come to in just his pants.

The morphing suit was much tighter than anything he would have willingly worn but apparently he needed it to morph. Still he felt uncomfortable and wondered how anyone could walk around in just their underwear. Sure they had powers but that didn’t mean they got around the “Only Superman can wear spandex” clause.

“What bit you this morning and made you all chipper?” He tilted his head and continued looking around the room. The floor looked like a fabric factory had exploded or thrown up. Another strange thing for a day they were supposed to turn into animals.

As for Jullian, most of the teachers even when
they were trying to be informal had an air of authority, Jullian didn’t seem to. He was much bouncy-er and happy. Xander didn’t get the feeling the boy was trying to lure them into a false sense of security and allowed himself to relax more. He knew nothing about morphing, only that it could be done.

[liz]

Liz was the second person in the room. She just stood, staring at her surroundings until a younger boy told them to sit. She assumed that he was the teacher, something that made her smile. A boy at least four years younger than she was going to teach her and a class of people at least her age? In fact, she did smile as she fluidly sat down and pulled her knees up to her chin.

Elizabeth let her eyes wander around the room as the boy asked questions. She did not know any of the answers except what morphing was. She knew that it allowed people to turn into animals. Her knowledge stopped there. But she wasn't even going to say that. She wasn't going to say anything, actually, just nod her head or shake it. Sometimes she'd shrug or just smile.

She kept an ear out to listen to what others might say. Meanwhile, she stared in near-horror at the coloration of the room. She was sitting on a mostly tan rug with a bit of navy on it. Other rugs were similar, but they had various streaks of red, black, white, grey, and varying shades all through them. It was like someone had sewn up all the bolts of fabric in a fabric store and cut random circles out with a cookie cutter. And against the dull shades of grey and black on the floor and walls, the room almost gave her a migraine.

Over it all, she put a wide smile on her face and hoped that she appeared calm and cooly collected.

[raccoonboy]

Joel entered the room, though he felt kind of out of place. For one he knew Jullian had been a member of Matt's faction in L.A. The very fact that Jullian looked up to Matt made Joel wonder if he'd be harder on Joel, expecting him to somehow be like Matt. That and Jullian was at least Joel's age if not younger, it felt odd to realize how young the teachers looked compared to many of the recruits and yet see them still hold spots of authority. I don't know, I wanted to find Matt and Sara.... and yet this wasn't what I'd expected.

He sat down on the floor, feeling awkward in the tight clothes that were required for morphing. The room itself.... well the carpeting was nice no matter how badly the colors clashed. The metal floor tended to be cooler than the rest of the ship, though not quite as cold as outside, and shoes didn't morph so Joel was currently barefoot. That and morphing suits weren't exactly great for holding in body heat when they didn't cover much. Joels consisted of a pair of shorts that he swore should have been underwear, minus there was no fly-hole, and a white wife-beater that was probably a few sizes smaller than anything Joel would have worn under normal circumstances.

He glanced around at the other recruits. How many of them had met Matt? How many would realize who Joel was, and if they did would that be good or bad? Why do I have to go through this? The answer was because he'd chosen not to run from the fight, to stand and fight like his siblings had. Matt and Sara didn't have to do this though... Then again, maybe that hadn't been a good thing.

The question that had been asked wasn't answered yet, and Joel debated if he should or not. Also, in this Academy did you raise your hand or just shout out the answer? Maybe it would be best to let someone else as to what morphing was, even though the answer seemed obvious to Joel.

[jonathan]

Jon followed everyone else into the room, tugging uncomfortably at his way-too-tight morphing suit. A kid was standing in the room, along with three other people. Jon recognized one of them to be Joel, and gave him a small nod in acknowledgment. Then the teacher asked them to sit--Jon blinked a little, realizing how young he looked comparatively--and Jon, completely oblivious to the clashing rug colors, took his seat on the floor. Sitting made him become awkwardly aware of the morphing suit he was wearing--something more like a leotard than anything, sleeveless and way too short in the leg region.

Ignoring the sensation of elastic riding up, Jon listened to the instructor intently as he spoke. The kid seemed nice enough, all smiles and peppiness. He asked the group a simple and obvious enough question, but a short silence still fell over the room. Jon glanced around, getting that same feeling you get when the teacher asks a question and everyone's eyes start darting around, pretending no one had asked anything. Clearing his throat, he spoke up quietly, "Changing shape into something else?"

[Jullian]

"Yes," Jullian said, a hint of relief in his voice. Until silence had fallen in the room he hadn't realized how intimidating it was. He really wished everyone here wasn't older than him but if wishes were fishes...He was reminded of the song from Holes and he mentally sung it to himself. 'If only, if only,' the woodpecker sighs, 'the bark on the tress was as soft as the skies.' It always helped him remember that, despite what one wanted, you had to make the best of the situation. His students were always going to be older than him until he grew up. He still had to teach them anyway.

"Morphing is when you turn into something else, specifically animals. There is a lot to know about that so I'm going to tell you the basics and then you're going to get the morphing power. You've all been here long enough to have proven you deserve it so, yeah, today you get it." Jullian said smiling.

He pulled out the morphing cube since he figured nothing worked better to hold everyone's attention than a prop. "So this is called an Escafil device but mostly we call it the morphing cube or the blue cube." The cube was glowing a soft, soothing blue so he felt no need to explain the last name. "When you touch it you are going to feel a bit of a tingle like your fingers have fallen asleep. Then that's it, you're done. Now, has anyone seen someone morph before?" Jullian didn't know how other teachers were going about their classes but he'd opted for the question method. He figured it was the best way to get a sense of what exactly people already knew since all of the recruits would be coming in with different levels of knowledge about morphing. It was also a way to keep them involved and to get them to teach each other. He wanted them to learn to work together more than anything.

[gabriel]

Gabriel raised his hand but it was the only heed he payed to classroom decorum. He didn't wait to be acknowledged before turning to the rest of the class and beginning to talk. "I have. I saw this kid here," he said motioning to Jullian, "Check it, this kid fell off a chandelier in Union and turned into a freakin' seagull on the way down."

Gabriel, like everyone else in the room, was in nothing but a bit of spandex. It clashed horribly with his sense of style and he felt a bit uncomfortable out of his usual baggy clothes. He just couldn't help wondering how he could break dance in stuff like this. Sure, it allowed for a lot of movement but not much privacy, he thought as he unconsciously pulled at his shorts.

"It looked pretty cool actually," he said turning back to look at Jules for a minute, "it also looked pretty dumb though. I mean, why would you jump off a chandelier?"

(Jules isn't going to react to the question right away so other people can post before me.)

[raccoonboy]

Joel listened as Jon, probably the one person he already knew, answered the question about morphing. After that Jullian explained more about it and then showed them the escafil devise. Joel had to wonder for a moment how Matt had explained that object to recruits. Was Jullian taking this from something Matt had once used explaining the device to him, back when Jullian had first been recruited to L.A. faction?

Next they were asked whether they'd ever seen someone morph. One of the boys had apparently seen Jullian morph before, Joel knew the scene he was speaking of. Matt had told him about the day they'd found Union. Actually, Joel had been learning a lot about what his brother had been doing since being recruited since getting here. It was almost comforting to know his brother had been so busy, because it explained why Matt hadn't come to rescue Joel and made him feel less like he'd been forgotten.

"I.... I saw my brother morph. He's shown me a few of his morphs, including his Siberian tiger." Joel remembered when Matt had morphed that. It had taken a little bit to overcome his natural instinct to be afraid of the morph, even knowing Matt was in control of the form.

"As far as Jullian and the chandelier, you said yourself he fell. Matt told me about that day. He'd morphed monkey along with another Animorph and had been tossed up onto the chandelier. He had to demorph from the monkey to shoot a spybot that would have discovered Union, mostly because the monkey morphs were too small to manipulate the dracon beam. The bot shot him too though, in the hand, and he ended up falling off." Joel felt..... odd. It felt like he was bragging about his brother being the morph instructor when really he didn't want to be judged at all based on that. He wanted people to see him for who he was on his own, not for being the brother of a well known Animorph. I guess that's what happens when I open my big mouth.

[liz]

The blue cube? That wasn't a very original name. But at least Liz could see how it got it's name. It was blue, but it was also softly glowing. It would've gone great in her old room with the dark red carpet and navy walls. At least, she thought it would. It just clashed in this room.

The boy spoke about what the morphing power was, mostly saying what another guy had said. It was then that Jullian asked if any of them had seen morphing. She nodded her head as she remembered the recruiters who had come to her boat. They had appeared as a pair of albatrosses, but she had only seen them leave. So she had seen morphing exactly once.

Then came the amuzing anecdote. She started laughing silently. Their teacher had jumped off a chandelier? Liz found that very humorous. Her smile lessened when another boy explained what had happened. It wasn't nearly as funny when he put it that way, but it was still interesting. It also made her realize more of the possible opportunities to help people that she would get.

[xander]

Xander listened as the others spoke about their experiences morphing. Though thoroughly tempted to call Joel “Teacher’s Pet” he found himself unable to make the comment and tie in the fact they were supposed to be turning into animals. For now the kid was safe, later however, Xander made no promises. As the others spoke, or nodded in quiet girl’s case, Xander frowned slightly.

“It seems I’m the only who’s missed the show,” He dramatically sighed before rolling his eyes. Of course Jon could have been in the same boat as him but he didn’t really care.

Xander may not have had the super secret insight but he figured shortly it would no longer matter shortly. Sure they’d seen people morph, soon they all were going to morph. Experience beat observation hands down, really.

[jonathan]

The instructor pulled out a blue cube, and Jon's eyes caught on it. Touching that cube would be a step closer to being an Animorph, practically like signing a contract. Even with that thought, he felt drawn to it. It was amazing that something that small and unassuming could give someone the power to turn into anything they touched.

He turned his gaze to Gabriel once the guy started speaking, talking about how he'd seen their instructor morph before. Then Joel spoke up, and Jon started feeling left out. Other people had experiences with Animorphs before becoming one, but Jon had only come into contact with them once he had been captured. Until then they had been only rumors, but nothing tangible.

Glancing once at Xander, then at the girl who said nothing, Jon murmured a quiet, "No." While the Animorphs had saved Jon, he hadn't directly seen them demorph and morph. In the harsh three days leading up to Tsei's death, he'd been a hazard. Nobody had wanted to show their face to him, much less morph in front of them. Then after that, they'd been flying in the bug fighter to get here. Shifting his gaze back to Jullian, he waited for him to continue.

[Jullian]

Jullian waited for everyone to answer and frowned a little when one of the girls in the room chose to only nod instead. "We, um, Joel's right, it was about a spy bot and we shot it and then I fell. That's a good place to start actually." Jullian put down the morphing cube and then stood up. He made a motion so that everyone else wouldn't follow him.

"So, morphing, when you first start takes about three minutes. But I didn't have that much time when I fell so how did I morph so fast?" He thought a second and wondered if anyone would be able to actually answer that question and then decided they'd move faster if he answered it himself. "It's because its our minds that control the morphing power," he said tapping his head. "I hate to get all martial arts spiritual on you but its true. If you can see it clearly enough then you can do it. All it takes is concentration and practice. So, for those of you who haven't seen morphing I'm going to give a bit of a demonstration. By the time you leave here you should all be able to do what I'm about to do, or at least be on your way."

Jullian closed his eyes but he kept on talking. "There are going to come times when you fall. And I mean really fall. You are going to be flying around so that is only to be expected right? Well in that situation the first thing you are going to want are wings. Bird wings, even human sized ones, can't hold you up. But they can slow your fall down so that you can finish the rest of the morph. So I'm going to concentrate on this technique in this class."

The whole time Jullian had been concentrating on a picture of himself with large white wings instead of arms. However, until he stopped talking nothing happened. As he had told the recruits, morphing took a lot of concentration. And he hadn't been able to talk and concentrate at the same time.

Now he felt the bones in his arms start to elongate and hollow out and he felt a prickling sensation as feather patterns traced their way down his arms. His skin stretched to cover the new wings that were growing and the feather pattern popped out and became 3-D and the flesh colored feathers started to brighten into white. He was grateful because the wings had started to look a little gross the way they were.

He felt his feet start to grow scales and tried to change shape and he told them to stay as they were. It didn't work completely but the morphing slowed down while his arms kept going at the same rate.

About a minute later Jullian opened his eyes and shifted his shoulders, giving the large, white wings that were now his arms a bit of a shake. The couldn't fly with them, he could hardly move them. The muscles in his chest and shoulders were not developed enough to move human sized wings and even holding them up was difficult. They were frightfully heavy. But they were wings and, in an emergency, if he was falling he could manage to hold them open and slow his fall.

He turned to the class and struggled to form words. His lips had started to harden into a beak though they were still mostly lip shaped and his tongue had started to shrink.

"Mmm partly morpht ath a seagule. Wanth ta shee the resh?"

[xander]

Xander watched as Jullian morphed and for the first time in a long time was truly speechless. It’s one thing to think about but seeing a human with wings instead of arms did wonders to jar his understanding of the world.

“Alright,” he licked his lips and continued with a hollow voice, “That was impressive.”

It looked like it hurt the kid. Pain he could deal with but he would have liked to know beforehand so he could at least have pretended to prepare himself. If it did hurt, how bad would it be? Xander wondered if it would be like the time he broke his collar bone in a fall. Then a thought crossed through his head, with the morphing power it didn’t matter if it hurt he could morph and heal. As much as he disliked it he could work through it. It was the time after injuries that tweaked his world, weeks of sitting around waiting to get better.

“What,” he came back to himself when Jullian spoke, “Yeah, sure dude. Carry one.”

[jonathan]

Both of Jon's eyebrows lifted up as the instructor began to shift, amazement reflected on his face. Sure, everyone heard about morphing the moment the word 'Animorph' was mentioned, but seeing the guy's flesh melt, bones twist at odd angles, was beyond anything. It looked painful, and he was surprised Jullian wasn't screaming out in horror and agony.

The instructor turned back to the class, looking nearly like a male-version of a harpy. He said something garbled, and it took a moment for Jon to realize what Jullian had actually said. Xander spoke up for him to go on, and Jon nodded his head slightly in agreement. Even if morphing had a slight grossness factor to it, just watching it was intriguing.

[raccoonboy]

Joel had known he was right, but it only made him feel worse about what he'd said when Jullian pointed it out. He was fairly relieved that the topic was stayed on long, instead they moved to discussing morphing itself. Joel was both surprised and yet had expected the fact that they'd get the morphing power by the end of this class. It didn't make sense to train Animorphs without letting them morph. Besides, the teachers here, most of them, had fought and had learned to morph in the field. The students, it would seem, should be given the advantage of learning in a safer environment.

When Jullian started morphing, Joel was a little grossed out but not much. He'd seen Matt turn into a tiger, butterfly, ferret, and several other animals. It was all the same general thing, just different for every animal. And even then there were similarities between similar animals.

Jullian paused part way, and all Joel could do was nod for him to continue. It wasn't like he was speechless or bored, he was just intent on watching the changes so he'd have some idea of what to expect when he himself morphed.... though morphing yourself was probably a completely different thing than watching.