Obstacles of Morphing

[Dustin]

Dustin walked down the hallway toward his Morphing 101 class wearing his usual wetsuit and flip-flops uniform. So far he had acquired two morphs, a flamingo and a garden snake. They were both... unique, experiences to say the least. He hoped to get a morph that was a little more familiar soon.

When he opened the door to the classroom, he took one step inside and stopped. Laying out in front of him was a bizarre collection of items (example). It looked like a third grader's diorama, only bigger and it didn't make any sense. At least not to Dustin. "What is that? You get an urge to make some crafts or something?" Hopefully an explanation from Jullian might shed some light on the subject.

[Jullian]

((I spent a long time watching mouse vids on youtube thanks to this post))

Jullian looked up from where he was putting the finishing touches on the obstacle course with an excited smile on his face. This was one of his newest projects and one he'd actually convinced Seiya to let him pursue, mostly because it didn't really use up that many resources. He'd assembled his little obstacle course from bits and scraps of garbage and the only thing that had really taken a hit was their supply of honey. He hadn't been able to find glue but honey had worked well enough to hold things together as long as it was cold inside the room. Which was why Jullian was wearing the rare sweater. He'd turned down the temp until it was a chilly 4º C in the room. It wasn't freezing but it wasn't pleasant.

"Hi Dustin," Jullian said as he stood up. "This is a bug maze," Jullian said, motioning around the room. "You're gonna get an insect morph today." Most of the time he let the recruits choose their own morphs but, after discussing the issue with Seiya, Cassie and a few of the faction leaders, it had been decided that all of the recruits should have insect morphs before leaving the Academy.

[Dustin]

"A bug morph?" Dustin asked, partly sticking out his tongue. He seemed to remember hearing something about bug morphs before, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. Still, Dustin didn't relish thought of turning into something that didn't have bones.

"So I get to turn into a bug today, great. And I'll be crawling through a maze?" He raised an eyebrow as he leaned over Jullian's setup and examined it. "Well, I admit that I enjoy a good maze at least."

"So what kind of bug will I be? A tarantula? A dragonfly? Oh, maybe one of those huge beetles. What are they called? Hercules beetles? Either that or goliath beetles. I don't remember which one is bigger." Dustin just hoped it wasn't something totally gross like lice or a maggot.

[Jullian]

"Well no," Jullian said slowly as he carefully picked his way through his own maze to get to where Dustin was standing. "I brought some choices for you but since the maze is on the ground they are are ground morphs and relatively small ones at that. The point of having a bug morph is to have something to spy with so you have to be inconspicuous."

Jullian opened the now familiar briefcase but instead of vials of blood inside there were actual bugs, at least in some of the containers. Unlike with some of the larger animals, bugs were pretty easy to get a hold of and to hold on to. In some cases they stored some of the bug's genetic material, in some cases they stored the bug. Inside the case he had a clear little case that had a cockroach and another that had a fly. In the last was a small sample of something green. It was labeled Grasshopper.

"Which one do you want?"

[Dustin]

Dustin was a bit bummed out that he wouldn't be able to morph a 'cool' bug, but wasn't surprised in the least. So instead of getting all mopey, he inspected his choices in the briefcase instead. A cockroach, a fly, and something labeled grasshopper were his choices.

"Tough choice," he commented. It wasn't tough because he wanted to morph all three, it was because none of them seemed very appealing. He associated flies too closely with dog poo and rotting meat, so that one was probably not going to be his choice. Cockroaches kind of cheeped him out, especially when he wasn't expecting to see one, so turning into one wasn't very appealing to him either.

"I think I'm going to be adventurous and choose door number three. The green stuff." Without waiting for permission, Dustin reached in and pulled out the container. "So is there anything specific I should know about being a bug?" he asked as he acquired the grasshopper DNA.

[Jullian]

"Well it's not like being anything else," Jullian said. He'd decided to try out bug morphs with Dustin first since Dustin already had some pretty odd morphs up his sleeve. If there were anyone that he could "test" out bug morphs on it would be Dustin and then have Dustin explain to everyone else what to expect.

"Your senses are completely different. You don't have many instincts since there isn't much of a mind, but what instincts you do have are simple and extremely powerful so be on your guard. It may be the smallest morph you'll get but it's the most challenging. Are you ready?"

[Dustin]

"Sounds fun," Dustin replied sarcastically. He wasn't really looking forward to this morph. Especially the instincts. He wasn't the best at handling those yet.

"Lets see how I do, I guess." Dustin closed his eyes and began concentrating. That was his secret to not being grossed out by morphing, closing his eyes. The sounds and feelings were bad enough. Even now he could hear and feel his intestines shortening. But the sights are what would really freak you out.

So it was very unfortunate that his eyelids disappeared early on in his morph.

His skin was getting all green and hard in some spots. In other places his joints were pinching tighter. Very uncomfortably too. Perhaps the worst part was when two extra limbs erupted from his chest like a pair of alien babies.

Dustin's entire body was shrinking, but his legs were extending. Just when he thought his legs couldn't get any longer, they bent in half and he flew forward onto his stomach. <<Uff.>> Finally his eyes became compound eyes and he was spared from the last couple of changes.

And then the instincts kicked in. But they were not what he was expecting. There was fear, but a paralyzing fear. The type of fear that makes you sit still and wait for danger. He wanted to be in the grasses, but there wasn't any in sight. He wanted to move, but he didn't know which way. But most importantly, there was a large figure looming over him and he didn't know if it saw him. If he moved it would. If he stayed still, maybe not. If the figure started to move toward him, he would be ready to leap.

[Jullian]

Jullian watched Dustin become the grasshopper. Watching insect morphs was still slightly disturbing to him. By now he was used to the general weirdness of morphing and a body twisting into a new shape almost never looked very pretty no matter what you were becoming so he'd learned to stomach that. But bug morphs had always freaked him out and he hadn't gotten one until Seiya had made it clear he'd have to be teaching them. Even now, his bug morph was not one of his most practiced.

When there was a small grasshopper sitting on his floor Jullian just stared at it. If Dustin didn't contact him within the next hour Jullian would morph something and try to reach him via mindspeak. Otherwise, Jullian was content to wait. He knew that the bug's senses were different. Understanding human speech wouldn't be easy in that morph so he couldn't just call out to it. The most he allowed himself was to lean back against his desk while he watched the small green bug on his floor.

[Dustin]

Movement! Leap!

Dustin was in the air before he could think another thought. It was as if a catapult had been fired under his but and he was sailing over the castle walls. Except he wasn't afraid of getting splattered against the ground upon landing.

<<Woohoo!>> he broadcast to everyone. It was exhilarating. As his bug mind sensed that he was going to start loosing some height, it did something Dustin was not expecting. He spread his wings and flew.

Actually, it was probably more accurately described as slowing his fall. Sure he could go up and down, but always more down than up. Before he knew it, he hit the far wall and stuck to it. Stuck to it! He was actually standing on the wall! Not that it was very easy to tell with bug vision.

<<This is so cool,>> he said to Jullian. Apparently the sheer awesomeness had brought him back to his senses. <<I could do without the gross morphing part, but once you actually get into the morph, it's like being... I don't know. A half-blindfolded rocket-powered skydiving daredevil with suction-cup hands.>>

[Jullian]

Jullian chuckled at Dustin's description. No one was quite as good at finding ways to describe what it was like to be in morph as Dustin was. It was why Jullian felt like he'd be able to teach the rest of the class. Dustin didn't necessarily morph any faster or smoother than any of the other recruits, at least not yet, but Jullian felt like he was the best morphing student of the current group. He wondered what Dustin would be like as he got more experience and more morphs.

"Ok," Jullian said, knowing that it would take Dustin a minute to work out how to hear and understand human speech as a bug. Jullian wondered how the morphing technology had worked out that one. Most animal brains were not equipped to understand language, they just didn't have the hardware for it. And yet animorphs could understand language through their morphs. He supposed it backed up the theory that held the brain was still intact somewhere in z-space while in morph.

"Rockabye baby on the tree top, when the wind blows the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks the cradle will fall and down will come baby, cradle and all," Jullian said, using the first nursery rhyme that came to mind just to help Dustin catch on to speech.

[Dustin]

Dustin was expecting Jullian to say something after he described what it was like to be a grasshopper, but all he heard was a weird sound. Soon after it was followed by more weird sounds. <<What...>> He was about to ask what it was, then he figured it out. Just like his eyes didn't work like human eyes, his ears didn't work like human ears.

Dusting made his way toward the weird sounds using short hops and no wings. As he got closer he could start to make out some familiar sounds, but still didn't know what was being said. It was all echoey and distorted.

"...en don ell come aybee, cradle and all."

<<Nice, Jullian. I figure out how to understand your words, but I still don't know what you are saying. Was that a lullaby?>>

[Jullian]

"Yes it was," Jullian said as his eyes tracked the small green bug across the floor on its journey towards him. "And here is another." Except when he said that he realized he didn't know another. Lullabys had never really come into his life at an age where he could remember them. His mind searched through it's own databanks looking for anything he could say or talk about to ensure that Dustin got the hang of understanding human speech.

"Uh, Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers how many peppers did Peter Piper pick?" Jullian said, looking down. He had never known the answer to the old riddle since who knew what a peck was? He wasn't even sure if that was the exact wording, not that it mattered much. "Did you understand me?" Jullian asked.

[Dustin]

<<Yeah, I understand you. Mostly. I think.>> Dustin re situated himself so that he was more directly facing the location all the sounds were coming from. <<And speaking of "I think." I think that was a tongue twister, not a lullaby. Not that I'm keeping track or anything...>>>

<<So what is with the obstacle course? And where is it, for that matter? Am I supposed to just navigate it, or will I be timed?>> Dustin turned around in a circle, which is easier said than done with six legs, but he couldn't tell exactly where the start of the course should be. <<Can you put me at the start or something? Just don't crush me.>>

[Jullian]

Jullian grimaced. He was glad Dustin was a bug and couldn't see it because it was a very unprofessional thing for a morph instructor to do. But he didn't like bugs, even when he could become them. "Yeah," Jullian said, edging towards the small green creature on the floor.

He suddenly wished he were wearing shoes. There was absolutely no chance that Dustin would hurt him. Dustin couldn't hurt him even if he were a real grasshopper and he wouldn't hurt him as a student. He wouldn't even jump away and maybe end up a Jullian's arm...Probably not anyway. But the thought of picking him up still made Jullian's skin crawl.

He reached down and used his index finger and thumb to pick up the small bug. He was holding Dustin as far away from his body as possible with the least amount of contact between his fingers and the bug as he could manage. He swung Dustin toward the course faster than was probably comfortable for the Animorph trainee and dropped him at the beginning, assuming that he'd be fine.

"Ok, go," Jullian said, stepping back quickly.

[Dustin]

It was everything Dustin could do to restrain himself from jumping away from Jullian's hand as it reached down toward him. Even so, he still wiggled a little when the fingers closed around him. You never really realize just how strong human hands are until you are in a position where they could crush you like... well, like a bug.

But before he knew it, Dustin was on the ground again. He landed a bit roughly, but when you are lighter than a walnut, you can afford to have a rough landing here and there.

"Ok, go," he heard Jullian say.

<<Wait, what?>> Dustin leapt toward the first obstacle that he saw with his buggy vision and started climbing. <<Could I get a little instruction here? What exactly am I supposed to be doing on this course?>>