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Post by Jullian on Sept 8, 2010 15:10:26 GMT -5
"I doubt it," Jullian said, looking up at the platforms. Seiya wasn't %100 aware of the fact that they planned on dropping recruits out of a plane. It wasn't that he was an advocate for going soft on them. It was more of a matter of control and predictability. They couldn't really control for all the dangers inherent in that exercise so Jullian had glossed over the more unpleasant aspects of their plan and had made it seem like they were going to throw recruits already in bird morph out of airlocks.
So he doubted Seiya had requested platforms specifically for the purpose of throwing recruits off them. Jullian wasn't sure what they were for. Maybe for repairing the central hole where the water was cascading in from or something else. He wasn't an engineer.
"But that's what we could use them for," he said, looking up and imagining forcing someone to complete a water morph while they were falling. Would probably be terrifying the first few times but they'd figure it out. "We should test it though," he said, pointing to the platform over the freshwater pool. "Come on, they're done with that pool. What do you think? I'll be the recruit and you push me?"
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Post by Nineteen on Sept 9, 2010 16:38:29 GMT -5
"Sure. But I don't think anyone's gonna be finished morphing before they hit that water." Which was a moot point -- out of a plane or a Bug Fighter, Nineteen knew it could be done. But the distance between the platforms on the catwalks and the pool was hardly comparable. All the same, hitting water mid-morph wouldn't be a bad thing to practice.
"Even jumping out as a human would be a good exercise," Nineteen thought aloud. Rather than morphing to get up there, however, Nineteen looked around. Morphing was nice and all, but she still trusted her own body to do the things it could do, and climbing a ladder was definitely one of them. She spotted one against a far wall, and jogged towards it. It wasn't too long before she made it to the landing of the catwalks.
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Post by Jullian on Sept 12, 2010 0:52:20 GMT -5
Jullian had grown more comfortable with morphing than most other people. If, in some far off future, they found a way to reverse the morphing technology and it was taken from him, he may find he was unpleasantly dependent on it. But right now there was nothing unpleasant about it.
He shrunk into his hummingbird morph, a bird morph almost perfectly suited for the halls of the Bladeship since it didn't require much air movement to get around. He fluttered up to the pier in question and landed on one of the railings. He hopped down to the catwalk itself after making sure he wouldn't fall through the grid when he tried to demorph and then began to demorph until he was standing there as a human once again. He only hoped he was not seen by the engineers. What they were about to try probably flew in the face of the directions he'd been given when he was allowed in.
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Post by Nineteen on Sept 12, 2010 19:42:32 GMT -5
Nineteen walked over to Jullian, and then looked over the catwalk. It was positioned where the pool dropped to 25 feet, which was deeper than an Olympic diving pool and still wasn't the deepest area. She looked back to Jullian. This wasn't a great idea, but it seemed fun. And it wasn't like he was doing to hit the bottom of the water. And she had no problem jumping in after him if things looked bad.
If anything, it reminded Nineteen of the time when she'd been a recruit: doing something against the rules and a little dangerous. She grinned at him. "So should I countdown from five or what? Do we need some kind of code-word for if things go wrong?"
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Post by Jullian on Sept 12, 2010 20:30:29 GMT -5
"Bad idea, except with a more girly shrill would probably work well enough," Jullian said as he carefully leaned over the catwalk and looked at the water below. He didn't mind heights when he was a bird or a monkey but as a human they were naturally unsettling. What he was about to do reminded him much too strongly of falling off that chandelier in Union. He didn't know how he'd gotten into morph in time for that one but it probably had something to do with panic. Now, he wasn't panicked, he was doing this on purpose and things could turn out much worse.
Well, no way to know until he did. He stood up and looked over at Nineteen. "Alright, just let's take it easy the first time. Push me when I'm half morphed." Jullian gave one last look at the water before beginning to concentrate on his dolphin morph. The first thing he wanted was the thick grey skin. Dolphin skin was almost ten times as thick as human skin and if he was going to hit the water he didn't want the worst belly flop bruise imagined. He also concentrated on changing his head to the dolphin's larger and thicker skull. He didn't want to hit the water and pass out. That could be fatal unlike most injuries.
His arms shrunk and pulled back into his body as they began to become fins and his nose jutted out, dragging his jaw and his teeth with it. For a second he had to hold his breath as his nostrils closed and his lungs reconfigured to breath out of a hole in the back of his head. When the hole appeared the rest of the morph continued.
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Post by Nineteen on Sept 12, 2010 20:40:23 GMT -5
"Gross," Nineteen commented as Jullian's skin went zombie-grey, and then an airhole opened at the back of his head. Luckily he still had legs, at least, even as his arms disappeared. "Way gross."
When he seemed to be halfway done, Nineteen stepped forward. "Okay, I'm going to push you now." As she said it, she saw Jullian's legs wobble and transform. Taking that as a cue that he'd heard her, Nineteen shoved him hard enough that he'd fall over the edge of the catwalk.
Nineteen quickly rushed to the railing, looking over to the water below. There was a definite Splash!, but she couldn't make out much through the fragmented waves.
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Post by Jullian on Sept 12, 2010 22:05:56 GMT -5
As Jullian fell through the air his stomach tried to flip but it was being morphed and rearranged into a dolphin stomach, leaving his body with no physical way to express his panic. He was not prepared for what it felt like to fall like this. People often fell but at some point during the fall he realized he expected to have hit the ground already and yet he was still falling. It almost felt like he was hanging in the air and then-
He hit the water and his nose and his sleek body cut right through it, plunging him deeper than he'd expected. For a moment he panicked but then he couldn't imagine anything more FUN! His tail flipped him horizontal and he plunged through the water, firing off clicks of sonar as he went. He was given a view of the surrounding pool but he hardly cared. He moved through the water like an acrobat and arched back up towards the surface, racing towards the shining barrier and breaking through with a squeal of exhilaration.
<<This is awesome!>> Jullian screamed as he easily angled back towards the water and reentered it smoothly.
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Post by Nineteen on Sept 12, 2010 22:25:19 GMT -5
Nineteen cringed, putting both hands over her ears as Jullian yelled joyfully into her head. It didn't help of course, and she watched as the dolphin leaped through the water. It was much cooler than her betta fish, that was for sure. In fact, the only benefit of that tiny fish was that it could actually breath water. She couldn't help but be jealous as she watched the dolphin.
"Okay, okay move over!" When Jullian raced to the other end of the pool, Nineteen braced herself. Crossing her arms over her chest (and holding her nose), Nineteen hopped off of the platform. Her feet pointed straight below her, she plummeted down. When she hit the water she plunged through, her hair pulling up behind her. The fall wasn't too scary for her, and she definitely didn't hit the bottom of the pool.
It took a moment to orient herself, and then she kicked up towards the surface. When she broke it, she immediately rubbed water out of her eyes. The taste of the water was definitely salty; the other pool must have been the fresh water one. She looked over at the fin of the dolphin that was circling back around towards her.
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Post by Jullian on Sept 13, 2010 4:36:44 GMT -5
Jullian felt like he was flying. He'd forgotten what it was like to be a dolphin in the water. It wasn't like much else. It was actually better than flying. Even when he was flying he didn't have as much control as he had now. The water was a much more solid substance to push against than air and he felt like he could change direction with a thought. He could go up, down, right, left, forward, backward. He was truly in a three dimensional world in the water. He flipped on his side so that his eye was pointed out of the water and watched Nineteen fall. His vision wasn't adapted for the air but he could see well enough. Maybe not as well as he would have with human eyes and he couldn't really tell how far she'd fallen since he had no depth perception this way but it didn't matter all that much. When she hit the water he immediately swam in her direction just to make sure she was ok. His echolocation painted the struggling human form, so out of place and clumsy in the water his dolphin noticed, easily. He circled her as she kicked to the surface, ready to jump in if it seemed like she needed help but she didn't. <<How was your trip?>> he said, circling her and chuckling his dolphin chuckle. If dogs were the happiest animals on earth dolphins were the coolest. Being a dolphin was like getting high without the concurrent dullness of the mind, or the munchies. Dolphins were the true origins and essence of Bob Marley's "No worries" philosophy and all Jullian wanted to do was chill and explore this odd underwater playground he'd been given. <<Want to go for a ride?>> he asked swimming closer to Nineteen. <<As long as you can hold your breath we can really check this pool out.>> |
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Post by Nineteen on Sept 17, 2010 19:55:54 GMT -5
"The falling was fine, but the landing s-s-sucked." Nineteen replied, teeth chattering. "It's fucking freezing," she growled, treading water. Still, her spirit wasn't broken. "Let's explore the o-other side. I'm not going t-to be able to keep my eyes open in t-this saltwater."
She kicked over to him, arms and legs almost unwilling to move in the frigid temperature. She didn't doubt that it'd get better over time: maybe it was a good idea to train in cold water because it'd another obstacle. But as far as she knew, most Animorph factions were in moderate climates, if only because that's were most people lived.
Reaching out to him, Nineteen took a firm hold of his fin. The dolphin felt rubbery and slick, but not unpleasant. "If you really want to show off, jump us over that divider into the freshwater p-pool. Hope-f-fully it's w-w-warmer."
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Post by Jullian on Sept 18, 2010 3:00:30 GMT -5
Jullian swam around Nineteen in circles as she talked and chattered. He had noticed how cold it was as well and his dolphin thought it was pretty uncool, no reverse pun intended since that concept was a little beyond it, but it hadn't seeped in yet. The dolphin's skin was like a thick coat so that even if he were aware that it was cold outside, it did't affect him so much.
He turned a bit, making it a little easier for Nineteen to grab his fin. <<Uh,>> he said, wondering if what she were suggestion were possible. Outside of girly folders sold in grocery stores Jullian had never seen anyone ride a dolphin through the air in real life. He wasn't sure he could actually get the air to do that. He wasn't even sure if he could jump with someone holding on to him. <<I can try.>>
He turned towards the wall. It wasn't that high, hardly a head height above the water but it suddenly looked ten feet tall. He swam towards it slowly until he was swimming back and forth in front of it. "I'm going to have to dive pretty deep to try to build up the strength to jump. Can you handle it?>>
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Post by Nineteen on Sept 18, 2010 17:08:24 GMT -5
"Y-yeah sure." Nineteen said. "W-what's the worst that could happen?" Well, she could be slammed into the concrete divider head first. But really, what were the chances of that? Pretty much anything short of that was fixable by morphing anyway. Nineteen too a few deep breaths to ready her lungs.
"All right, whenever you're r-ready." She took a last deep breath, and squinted her eyes nearly shut in preparation. Mentally, she reminded herself to let go if it seemed like it wasn't going to work out. Not that Nineteen knew how she'd recognize that, but letting go was the safest bet. She'd just swim back to the surface.
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Post by Jullian on Sept 25, 2010 14:54:24 GMT -5
"And the next time you two decide to explore facilities that have not been cleared could you at least do so in a manner that would not get back to the recruits?"
Jullian sat in a chair on the edge of the pool dripping while Seiya paced back and forth in front of them. It had been their bad luck that he'd been scheduled to take a tour of the almost completed pool just as he and Nineteen were trying their Free Willy stunt, which hadn't ended so well.
Jullian looked around when Seiya finished his mini-lecture. "But how would the recruits-" he began to ask, only to stop when he actually looked back up at Seiya. It was obvious they weren't in that much trouble but Seiya currently reminded him of his mother. Jullian could tell he would escape with this little warning as long as he kept his mouth shut but if he spoke up Seiya would probably give him some unpleasant task to do for the next week so he just sat back in his chair even if this all felt a bit heavy handed.
Ok, diving into a mostly completed, freezing pool of water was probably not the safest idea, nor was trying to jump over a wall as a dolphin with a human holding onto his back. But they were teachers. Wasn't that supposed to have a bit more freedom to experiment? How were they supposed to find out new things without a bit of experimentation. It was not as if neither of them were fresh off the boat at the Academy, they had experience and knew how to get themselves out of trouble if they got into it. But Seiya didn't seem to be taking any of that into account.
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