Playful as a Foxy (Open)

[ebonyfox]

Xylia sighed as she walked up the stairs in opened the door to her little home above it all. Being an exterminator or, as she liked to say,Wildlife Remover could be pleasantly disgusting sometimes. Especially when a person was asking for the removal of several dozen rats.She didn't really mind the job for the most part. Her mentor was a kind man who was wonderful to work with, and the pay wasn't as bad as one would think. Even so, "I didn't expect so many rats Toby." Xylia sighed as she walked in side. Her little pet fox blinked up at her before sitting down. Xylia smiled and pet the fox before watching the animal relaxed.

She had already acquired her fox's dna, or she thought she did, when she first took the animal. Xylia sat on the bed in thought, "So...I'm an animorph, just like Tobias and Marco...I wonder when they decided to try their morphs for the first time...and how it felt..." she muses while looking out at the apartment door she left open.


ooc:// I wasn't sure if this is where I posted so if I did something wrong please tell me!

[Leroy]

Leroy glided down toward the apartment building as it came into view. He was flying as a crowned hornbill on his way home from work. It was kind of a hastle finding a way to hide his work clothes and stashing them somewhere safe before he morphed, but it still beat having to take the bus.

Technically Leroy probably shouldn't have been using his morphing abilities for personal reasons, especially when he used a morph that was so out of place in Texas, but Leroy was just sort of ignoring that fact at the moment. He figured that if someone saw him then they would just think he was an escaped pet or something. Besides, as far as he knew nobody was looking for him.

He landed on the railing of the fire escape to check and see if anyone was home to open the window for him, but almost flew away as soon as he landed. There was someone in there that he didn't recognize.

After the initial surprise and confusion wore off, Leroy figured it was probably their newest member. Xylo, or something like that. He hadn't gotten a chance to meet her yet due to work and other schedule conflictions. But now was his chance.

Leroy flitted over to the windowsill and tapped it with his beak. If by chance she wasn't the new animorph she would probably just think he was, well, an escaped pet. But if his hunch was right, there was a good chance she would figure out what he was.

[ebonyfox]

Xylia glanced towards the window when she heard a light tapping. Standing up she blinked the sight of the odd bird. Xylia wasn't a native to Texas, of course, but she was pretty sure this bird wasn't supposed to be casually riding the hot Texan winds.

An animorph? She thought next. She had been told that a few others were already living there as well, but after settling in after a few days and not seeing evidence of these housemates besides the occasional chip out of place she had sort of forgotten.

Toby was starting to pace impatiently so Xylia sighed. No use dwelling on the strangeness of a weird bird asking to be let inside. Something told her that this was just the icing on the top of the cake to wacky world. Finding the lock on the window, Xylia unlocked the door and stepped a few steps back cautiously and on guard.
"Alright strange mutated crow, the windows open." she spoke defensively.

[Leroy]

<<Thanks,>> was all Leroy said. She seemed to be who he thought she was. A bit of unexpected relief washed over the bird-man.

He fluttered into the room and landed on a shelf. He had planned to land on the floor instead, but when he noticed the fox he decided against that idea. <<Is that... a fox? Not some sort of weird breed of chihuahua or something, right? Whatever it is, don't let it eat me, okay.>>

Suddenly Leroy realized he hadn't actually introduced himself. All of the excitement and confusion and minor fear had gotten the better of him. <<By the way, I'm Leroy. And you are... Xylo?>> He could only imagine what all must be going through the poor girl's head right now.

[ebonyfox]

Xylia thought she was pretty much prepared for anything at this point, but when she heard his voice inside of her head Xylia placed a hand to hear head just to make sure she wasn't getting sick.

She had heard of thought-speech, of course anyone these days had heard of it, but hearing of it and experiencing it were completely different. As the girl got her bearings straight the voice sounded again.

"Oh Toby. Yea, I caught him at work." Nodding towards his fear she picks up the fox who was a bit too focused on the appealing bird who had flown inside. Walking to a nearby crate she promptly sets him inside while 'listening' or maybe thinking of what the bird said next.

"Xylia. Nice to meet you Leroy." She corrects him habitually. She was very used to people messing up her name. As she spoke the girl chuckled at herself, was she already so used to talking to a bird? Xylia shook her head, she was going nuts.

Standing up the girl shuts the window back before looking down at Leroy again. She was desperately trying to get her head around this new situation, but her mind didn't want to get around it. Her mind just wanted to scream.
"Well, I think everything that has happened in the past week has finally started to sink in after meeting you." She spoke before looking back at him, "You really are an Animorph...and so am I now. So instead of dealing with drunk guys after happy hour. I fight aliens trying to enslave all of Earth...yea life is great." she said sitting on the bed in sarcasm.

"So, is that your only morph?" She asks him after taking a deep breath. While she wanted to have a mental breakdown, she refused to show such a weakness. She was just going to play this cool, even if she was seriously questioning her own sanity.

[Leroy]

Once the fox was put somewhere where it wouldn't hurt him, Leroy glided gracefully down to the floor. <<No no, this isn't my only morph. I have... >> he counted them up in his head, <<six others.>>

Leroy took this opportunity to start demorphing. <<Have you acquired or morphed anything yet? Oh, and just to warn you, this might look pretty gross.>>

All the feathers on Leroy's body melted together and turned into human flesh. Then his upper beak started shrinking into his skull to form his nose and upper lip. All the while he was steadily getting bigger.

His legs thickened and lengthened, but his knees were still backwards. His ears sprouted out of the sides of his head, hair sprouted from the top, and he felt his bones go from being hollow to filled in. Next his arms grew out from his shoulders, but wing-like protrusions remained on the ends of his hands.

Leroy's spine grinded into the correct position, his knees popped over to the correct side, His hands became human, and his lower beak became a lower lip. He was now human once more, standing there barefoot with nothing on but bicycle shorts and a tight fitting t-shirt. He shot a smile in Xylia's direction.

[ebonyfox]

Xylia watched him flutter to the floor. Six morphs? She mused to herself, I have some serious catching up to do.... The young woman looked at him in interest as he started to demorph and warned her.

She remembered watching an interview with Marco. When asked about morphing he said it was one of the most disgusting things you'll ever see. She had thought he was exaggerating at the time, but now she knew he was right.

She watched in a disgusted sort of fascination as Leroy's legs shifted and his face melted. Despite the strong urge to tear her eyes away Xylia couldn't stop staring. If watching it wasn't bad, hearing it was worse. Xylia swallowed hard and tried to block out the cracking and swooshing sounds as bones and organs found their proper place or evaporated. When Leroy finally stood before her and smiled she gave a weak smile back.

"Pretty sick." She admits. Xylia was shaken out of her shock when she heard Toby biting at the crate. Somehow finding the strength to rip her eyes away she approached the crate and opened it, "I think I acquired this guy, but I haven't tried it out yet."

[Leroy]

Leroy was impressed with how well Xylia had handled his demorphing. He half expected her to faint, or throw up, or something. He wasn't sure why, especially since he himself hadn't done either of those things the first time. Maybe he just wasn't giving her enough credit.

"If you aren't sure you acquired it, then there is one way to find out. I can supervise you if you want to test out your 'powers.' Or I can give you some privacy. Either way. But I know I couldn't wait to try morphing when I first arrived."

Leroy thought back to when he tried out his first morph, the green weevil. It was not a good first pick. "Just remember to wear something skin-tight, otherwise you'll morph right out of your clothes."

[ebonyfox]

Try it out? Xylia hesitated. She had to admit, when she received the news that she was going to be an animorph she had been a little bit excited about the thought of turning into an animal, but now after seeing the show of bird turn to boy she wasn't too sure.

The supervision offer did make her feel a bit better. That way at least if she messed up and ended up stuck as some strange half-mutated monster in pain she had someone able to get her an ambulance.

"Thanks, I think I"ll take you up on that offer. I'm going to go and change into something skin tight then." She agrees before grabbing her bag. She was scared, but she wasn't chicken. If Leroy and a dozen others could master this without passing out she wouldn't be the first punk out no matter how light headed she felt. The men from Specter had allowed her enough time to grab some of her belongings before faking her death. She pulled out her favorite orange body suit and slipped on black capri that she tightened.

Xylia returned after a while. She still wore her hat backwards, on her head figuring it would be her little experiment to see if it would morph or not. Xylia flipped the hair of her hair that had been braided over her back, "Alright, so how do I pull this off?" she asks. The Specter guys hadn't exactly told her how to morph. She was lucky she watched so much news on the original animorphs that she knew how to acquire.

[Leroy]

Leroy tried to act mature when Xylia came back with her skin-tight morphing outfit on, but it was always a bit difficult. Mostly because it was hard not to look ridiculous in such tight fitting clothing. After fighting back a smirk Leroy got back to business.

"Morphing isn't too difficult," Leroy reassured her. "Well, the instructions are simple anyway. The actual application of the instructions are a little more tricky. But don't worry. If I can do it, I'm sure you can too."

"Since you said you already acquired Toby, probably, all you have to do is focus on turning into him. For me the first time is usually the hardest. It is a lot easier to imagine turning into an animal if you have already been that animal."

"So I guess a good place to start would be to visualize Toby as clearly as possible. Maybe even look at him. Her? Him, right? Whatever. When you got a clear picture of the fox in your mind, just imagine becoming the fox. Go ahead and give it a try."

Leroy wasn't entirely sure his instructions made sense, but he wasn't a professional morphing tutor either. All in all he figured he had given some pretty solid advice. That's if morphing worked for Xylia the same way it worked for himself. He would find out soon enough.

[ebonyfox]

The directions sort of made sense and sort of didn't. Picture the fox? Xylia looked down at Toby. The little gray fox had grown bored of watching them talk and pace the house and settled down to play with a dog toy nearby. Xylia gave a small sigh, "Well, then here goes..."

"Toby is a female." Xylia smiled to him before taking his advice, she focused all of her attention on the little fox. The first thing to happen was her skin slowly yellowing and becoming darker along the front. Her back was sprouting millions of gray and black dots before growing out like grass to become course fur. Xylia watched as her once smooth arms spiked out and she took on the appearance of a gray abominable snowman. Quickly after, she heard rather than felt as her spine stretched out of her back until it protruded the skin leaning only a long bone.

The sight of her spine doing such a thing made the girl want to scream, but as she opened her mouth to yell her nose extended and formed with her upper lip to become a snout. Xylia opened her mouth as it reformed just in time for the teeth to sharpen and rearrange themselves. As her spine finished to become a tail she was forced onto all fours with the cracking and twisting of her arms.

The rest of the morph sped up with her arms becoming backs, eyes dulling, and lastly her ears shooting to the top of her head and growing. Her hat got knocked to the floor. When it was finished, Xylia found herself staring at the world from no more than two inches above the ground.

Wow...this is amazing... She thought. She could smell and hear everything! Every little drip, scuffle, and drop. Could sense everything around her, but even so that wasn't quite enough. What was everything around her?

She raised her ears higher and they frantically scanned the area. She wasn't afraid, no if push came to shove she was clever enough to make even the deadliest foe scamper in confusion while she ran circles. No, it wasn't fear, it was just plain curiosity and the thrill of finding something new.

Something moved to her side and she turned around in one agile turn to find herself face to face with another fox. The fox was sniffing around her curiously asking who are you? Xylia ran forward and did the same. The other fox didn't seem threatening, actually it seemed very friendly. After a moment, Xylia turned her attention away from it. She could play later, right now she wanted to explore a bit and find out about this new place.

[Leroy]

Leroy had to admit that Xylia's first morph had gone rather well. Not exactly pretty, but it went smoothly enough. And now he watched as she seemed to be getting adjusted to her new form.

Then he remembered a piece of advice he had forgotten to mention. "Xylia, I should have told you this sooner. The animal's instincts may kind of difficult to keep under control. So I guess just try not to let the fox's mind get the better of you?" As of now Leroy still couldn't tell if Xylia had the morph under control or not, but the new animorph wasn't going anywhere so it wasn't overly important.

"Have you figured out the thought speech yet?" Leroy asked curiously.

[ebonyfox]

Ears turned to this new voice and the fox crouched down wearily. It was a human, and humans were never good to get too close to, her mind supplied. Xylia was immediately bombarded with well over a dozen different escape routes and plans she could use to escape. She still wasn't afraid, she could probably take this human, but her caution prevented her from just jumping in and causing a scuffle. Not when it could be avoided at least.

This human was behaving rather strangely though. Not attacking or retreating but making strange noises. To her mild surprise she found she could understand him too. The fox contemplated his words curiously, Morphing? Fox mind? though speech? She had heard these words before but she couldn't remember where.

Suddenly the answer came like a ton of bricks. Xylia looked down at herself in shock, she had completely forgotten she was a human! Xylia pushed the mind of the fox to the side and was pleasantly surprised when it let her without a struggle. It was a calm mind, one that she actually agreed with pretty well, but as tempting as it was to follow the fox's lead she needed to focus. Well... not focus that much. She decided when the fox suggested a game. All work, and no play makes Xy a dull fox.

<<Alright, the disgusting morphing part was really worth it to be like this.>> Xylia spoke after about three attempts. Walking towards Toby she batted at her tail and engaged her into a play tussle, <<All I want to do is explore and play. I could stay like this forever.>> she laughs in her mind as Toby pounced on her back.

[belnoah]

Jeremy was decidedly unhappy. In fact, unhappy didn't do his feelings justice. But he wasn't sure what one word to use. He had information on his family's killers. He finally had a lead. And all that had happened since then was he'd let them take another person who was close to him. No more, he thought to himself, as he walked into the apartment. [/i]Never agai-[/i]

Who was morphed into a fox? He couldn't think of anyone who had a fox morph. And there were two foxes! Two new people? Maybe? He spotted Leroy next. "Who're the new people?" he asked.

[Leroy]

Leroy could understand Xylia's desire to stay as a fox forever. Some animals were really fun to be. Like a bird, for instance. But if she wasn't careful, she would get her wish. "I'm sure being a fox is fun and all, but just make sure you turn back into yourself every two hours or so." He tried not to make the warning sound too serious.

Then Leroy almost jumped out of his skin when he heard Jeremy's voice behind him. He hadn't heard the guy come in. Leroy turned to face him and answer the guy's question. "New person. Only one. The other one is an actual fox. Jeremy, meet Xylia and Toby. Toby and Xylia, meet Jeremy. I'll let you guess who is who." Leroy would have pointed out which one was Xylia, but the moment he had looked away from them, he lost track. Although he could have been nice and told Jeremy which one was the human's name...