[Don't take it personally that she looks mildly disappointed by them shapeshifting to a fairly-person-shaped thing. It's just that it would be super cool to meet a bird who could turn into a human! At least it means she doesn't blink at their less-than-conventionally-human form as she moves past them to offer the chocobo her veggies, clucking her tongue lightly at the (actual) bird to get its attention.]
I guess that's cool, though! [she adds after a moment, tossing a smile back over her shoulder.] Can you turn into other stuff, too?
[They put their hands on their hips, regarding her bemusedly. It was great that she didn't go running away screaming, but such a blah reaction wasn't what Morph had been expecting. Teenagers were a tough crowd, huh?]
Anything I've seen before. Animals, people, you name it. I do a great Dazzler impression, in fact.
[She has no idea who, or what, Dazzler is, but it sounds like it might make this person happy to show her. That's way more important than just asking! Seeing is believing, or so they say!
All the while, she's feeding veggies to this chocobo, as if somebody being able to transform right in front of her is just another normal event. It's not like she's ever seen anything like it! It's just, things are always kind of weird, so might as well.]
[With that, they quickly shapeshift again, taking the form of a redheaded woman with cropped hair, wearing tight jeans and an open, cropped jacket with a distinctive starburst pattern on the front. When Morph opens their mouth, the voice is feminine with a slight huskiness to it.]
This form means I can hold a tune. So what do you want to hear first? Body Heat? Or Hands on Me? I'd offer to do a memorial concert, but... it might be a little too soon.
[Some of the cheer evaporates from their voice at the reminder. Being semi-famous meant that Dazzler had been a little more prominently featured in the news as one of Genosha's dead. Just one among many, at that point.]
[Wow, so they can even change their voice?? Think of all the pranks that could be pulled... it's probably a good thing Kotone herself doesn't have that power, because the potential for lighthearted mischief seems endless.
Kotone gives the last of her veggies to the chocobo and claps her hands, though there's a curious tilt to her head when Morph continues that it would be a memorial concert. Oh... they can even look like dead people, huh? There's a lot that could be done with that, and not all of it good. Even still-]
Does everybody where you're from do that? Or are you special?
[Morph hums a few bars of a song, getting their newly-shifted vocal instrument tuned up. The question makes them pause, though... they had kind of assumed that showing off their powers at all would've made it obvious. But this was a pretty strange place overall, so maybe not.]
I'm a mutant, so it's more the second one. There aren't a lot of shapeshifters that can do more than one form. I only know of one other person that can match me, in fact.
[She absolutely is, though she doesn't think about that too much herself. There's a spark of recognition in her eyes at the term "mutant," though, and any ideas about requesting a concert are put on hold as she claps her hands together again.]
Oh! My boyfriend's a mutant. He'll be really happy to meet another one.
[Probably, anyway. This person seems nicer than Quentin, and even if they're not Scott's friend like Kurt is, it's still probably good to have more mutants around, right?]
Have you met him yet? Scott Summers. [And while she's not anywhere close to as gooey as Scott tends to be, there's still a definite affection to her smile when she says his name.]
[Morph shifts back to their regular form in a matter of seconds, regarding her with an almost dumbfounded expression. That was... they didn't know how they felt about that one.]
So the little Scott is still into redheads, huh? I met him not too long ago. He was pretty cool, even though he had no idea who I was. Where I'm from, he's... a lot older than he is here.
[And there had been a lot of heavy stuff happening in their own timeline, which so far Morph had successfully kept their mouth shut about. It hadn't seemed fair to dump that on a kid with no frame of reference for any of it.]
[She can't help but blink a little at the rapid transformation and apparent surprise, tilting her head a little. Is it that strange...? Sure, she's not the type to go running around telling people Scott's her boyfriend (Scott makes it obvious enough all by himself), but she'd thought it would be nice to make a connection with another mutant like that.
...Oh.]
"Still?" [she echoes, and there's a moment where her face goes curiously blank in the way it does when she doesn't know what the correct expression to make is. So there's some other girl, huh? Someone else with red hair, which is a little funny considering it's the only color he can see. And they're close enough that Morph is surprised there's anybody else -- well, okay, probably anybody who only knows them from Aldrip would think the same thing about the two of them.
Eventually, her expression settles into something of a smile, soft and resigned as she nods and shrugs with a cheer she doesn't quite feel. Whether Morph's Scott is "her" Scott, it's good to know that if he is, he'll move on. He probably won't remember her at all once he goes back, right? So it's for the best that he does have someone else in the real world.]
Yeah, it's... I think 1983 for him? We've both been here for a little over a year now, but time doesn't work like you expect it to.
Tell me about it. I'm from 1997, so uh, I'm not sure it's worth getting into the details. The Cyclops I know is like twice as old as yours is.
[Not to mention that with Morph's own personal problems being what they are - well, inserting themselves into the fringes of a love triangle meant that they have a strange vested interest in their Scott having a happy marriage. Scott and Jean breaking up would be bad for Morph for reasons that were Morph's own goddamn fault, really.
But these were kids they were dealing with. The Scott here probably wasn't even from the same timeline. Morph is enough of a responsible adult to not want their own stupid feelings to get in the way here.]
But hey, mutants still oughta stick together. If either of you ever need help, look me up. I'm particularly good at celebrity impersonations and beating up bad guys.
[Twice as old... that means he could be her Scott? She wants to ask if Charles Xavier is alive, but that definitely sounds like a can of worms that Scott can open at his own discretion, and probably not something Kotone herself should stick her nose into.
She laughs a little and nods in response to the offer, and while she could tell Morph that she has her own powers and isn't bad at fighting herself, she simply doesn't. There's no real need to hide it, but no real need to talk about it, either. There's still something nagging at her, though, and after a moment, she finally decides to voice it.]
[How could they even begin to explain what the adult Scott has been going through the last few months? Even as an outsider, and as someone who usually made fun of the guy behind his back, Morph felt pretty sorry for him. Cyclops had a tough job, and add to that complete disasters and villains meddling in his personal life... well, Morph had come a long way from assuming that he was in the middle of building a perfect domestic life for himself.]
I think he is overall, yeah, but he's had some pretty drastic ups and downs lately. There's been a lot going on. But - and I know how cheesy it sounds - the X-Men are family. When things get tough, we're there for each other.
[She just nods, her smile fading a bit at the corners into something a little more thoughtful. There's no way things would be easy for him, huh? Not when he has powers to contend with, and that group of mutants, "The X-Men" or whatever, to lead in the future. Neither of them could be lucky enough to live a normal life. She can't even imagine it for either of them.
So if he's "overall" happy, that has to be good enough. And maybe it is a little cheesy, but it genuinely brightens her smile back up to know that Scott does have the X-Men to help him out, and he isn't alone.]
Thanks, Morph-san. That really means a lot. [Oh right-] And if there's anything I can do to help you, just let me know, too, okay? Like I said, I've been here for a while, so...
Any time. I have to figure it's not messing up time and space to talk about what different versions of the same people have been doing. Right?
[Right??? Morph's not used to time travel or this interdimensional stuff, so they're just going to have to play it all by ear. It was really making them wish Bishop or Cable were around to give some pointers, though. It was hard enough just trying to understand what was going on.]
Wellll, there is one thing I've been wondering about. Scott said this place is dangerous, but he didn't go into details. Could you tell me what I should be looking out for?
You'll forget anything you learn here if you go back, anyway.
[And maybe that's something she should elaborate on, but she just... doesn't, once again choosing to answer the question asked and not adding too much on her own. There's a reason it's usually Mitsuru, or Akihiko, or even Scott now giving exposition. She'd simply rather not most of the time.
Humming uncertainly, she rests her hands on her hips as she thinks about it and scrunches her face up a bit. Speaking of usually passing exposition on to Scott... how the turns have tabled.]
I mean, I guess keep an eye out for the glitches? They've been all over the city messing stuff up. There's different criminal gangs running around now that the city's gotten bigger, too, but if you're an X-Man, you've probably got nothing to worry about. Aaaaand then there's the Council. You got a little piece of paper with some dumb "crime" written on it, right? Sometimes they put us through trials like mazes or puzzles, or mess with your mind. It sucks!
[Though she still sounds weirdly cheerful as she lays that out!]
[Morph has no idea if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it seems strange to have your memories wiped if the whole point of being here was... what, some sort of sentence for your crimes? What did that matter if you don't remember making up for it? Either way, if there's possibly a telepath involved somehow it seemed like it was worth looking into.]
I'm not sure I like the 'messing with our minds' part, but mazes and puzzles sounds more annoying than bad. I did get one of those papers, yeah. You know what my crime is? Impersonation! Like that isn't literally my mutant power!
[There might've been more to that one, but Morph is more incredulous than anything. If it weren't for the fact that they wanted to get home so badly, this place didn't seem half bad for taking an extended vacation.]
[Just a simple shrug and agreement as she clasps her hands behind her back and shrugs again. It doesn't make any sense at all, but she's known a few people who've vanished from Aldrip, only to return a week later with new memories of home, but not remembering any of what they'd experienced here until they'd come back. Worse is when people are gone for longer than that and show up again without any memories of their time here in Aldrip at all, but... well. No point getting into all that.
Morph's incredulity is a little funny, though, leaving Kotone laughing a little and nodding in sympathy.]
Yeah, it's really weird! I don't really get it, but people a lot smarter than me have been trying to figure it out for a while.
[Honestly, it's not even that they're actually smarter than she is -- she was top of her class, after all! Maxed her Academics skill!! -- but it's that they're actually willing to put work into solving it, while she's much more the type to just do what her hard-working friends ask her to do.]
Anyway, none of the so-called "Chosen, [air-quotes around that, and a roll of her eyes for good measure,] are gonna judge you for your crime. It's only the Council who cares about that kind of stuff, I think.
[It didn't bode well for their chances of getting home. Morph has already talked to Rogue and agreed that the two of them needed to work on getting back to their own world as soon as possible, but the more Morph is learning the less likely it seems that it'll happen, not anytime soon.]
That's good to know. Thanks, Kotone. That should be all I need to get started in this place.
[And a shrug. It be like that sometimes. If Morph is looking for someone to dig deep into the mystery and have all the answers, Kotone is not the right person to talk to! Hopefully she makes up for that with her smile as she just shrugs and finally returns her attention to the neglected chocobo, giving it a gentle pat on the head before stepping back.]
Great! I'll leave you to your new friend, then. If you wanna give them veggies, I think they like those best.
[Morph is satisfied enough with the answers they've gotten, already well aware that no one would be stuck here if they had enough information to get home. Honestly neither them or Rogue are brainiacs in the first place, so getting bits and pieces of info here and there seems to be the way to go.]
Does that mean they don't eat people? Or are people a 'sometimes' food?
[They don't direct their question at Kotone, but more at the chocobo, who tilts its head at Morph in birdlike confusion. Then, it leans forward to nudge insistently at their shoulder, politely using the upper curve of their beak.]
Okay buddy, I get the message! Time for more treats.
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expiationlogs2024-06-10 07:58 am
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[Don't take it personally that she looks mildly disappointed by them shapeshifting to a fairly-person-shaped thing. It's just that it would be super cool to meet a bird who could turn into a human! At least it means she doesn't blink at their less-than-conventionally-human form as she moves past them to offer the chocobo her veggies, clucking her tongue lightly at the (actual) bird to get its attention.]
I guess that's cool, though! [she adds after a moment, tossing a smile back over her shoulder.] Can you turn into other stuff, too?
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[They put their hands on their hips, regarding her bemusedly. It was great that she didn't go running away screaming, but such a blah reaction wasn't what Morph had been expecting. Teenagers were a tough crowd, huh?]
Anything I've seen before. Animals, people, you name it. I do a great Dazzler impression, in fact.
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[She has no idea who, or what, Dazzler is, but it sounds like it might make this person happy to show her. That's way more important than just asking! Seeing is believing, or so they say!
All the while, she's feeding veggies to this chocobo, as if somebody being able to transform right in front of her is just another normal event. It's not like she's ever seen anything like it! It's just, things are always kind of weird, so might as well.]
Oh, I'm Kotone, by the way. Kotone Shiomi.
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[With that, they quickly shapeshift again, taking the form of a redheaded woman with cropped hair, wearing tight jeans and an open, cropped jacket with a distinctive starburst pattern on the front. When Morph opens their mouth, the voice is feminine with a slight huskiness to it.]
This form means I can hold a tune. So what do you want to hear first? Body Heat? Or Hands on Me? I'd offer to do a memorial concert, but... it might be a little too soon.
[Some of the cheer evaporates from their voice at the reminder. Being semi-famous meant that Dazzler had been a little more prominently featured in the news as one of Genosha's dead. Just one among many, at that point.]
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[Wow, so they can even change their voice?? Think of all the pranks that could be pulled... it's probably a good thing Kotone herself doesn't have that power, because the potential for lighthearted mischief seems endless.
Kotone gives the last of her veggies to the chocobo and claps her hands, though there's a curious tilt to her head when Morph continues that it would be a memorial concert. Oh... they can even look like dead people, huh? There's a lot that could be done with that, and not all of it good. Even still-]
Does everybody where you're from do that? Or are you special?
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[Morph hums a few bars of a song, getting their newly-shifted vocal instrument tuned up. The question makes them pause, though... they had kind of assumed that showing off their powers at all would've made it obvious. But this was a pretty strange place overall, so maybe not.]
I'm a mutant, so it's more the second one. There aren't a lot of shapeshifters that can do more than one form. I only know of one other person that can match me, in fact.
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[She absolutely is, though she doesn't think about that too much herself. There's a spark of recognition in her eyes at the term "mutant," though, and any ideas about requesting a concert are put on hold as she claps her hands together again.]
Oh! My boyfriend's a mutant. He'll be really happy to meet another one.
[Probably, anyway. This person seems nicer than Quentin, and even if they're not Scott's friend like Kurt is, it's still probably good to have more mutants around, right?]
Have you met him yet? Scott Summers. [And while she's not anywhere close to as gooey as Scott tends to be, there's still a definite affection to her smile when she says his name.]
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[Morph shifts back to their regular form in a matter of seconds, regarding her with an almost dumbfounded expression. That was... they didn't know how they felt about that one.]
So the little Scott is still into redheads, huh? I met him not too long ago. He was pretty cool, even though he had no idea who I was. Where I'm from, he's... a lot older than he is here.
[And there had been a lot of heavy stuff happening in their own timeline, which so far Morph had successfully kept their mouth shut about. It hadn't seemed fair to dump that on a kid with no frame of reference for any of it.]
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...Oh.]
"Still?" [she echoes, and there's a moment where her face goes curiously blank in the way it does when she doesn't know what the correct expression to make is. So there's some other girl, huh? Someone else with red hair, which is a little funny considering it's the only color he can see. And they're close enough that Morph is surprised there's anybody else -- well, okay, probably anybody who only knows them from Aldrip would think the same thing about the two of them.
Eventually, her expression settles into something of a smile, soft and resigned as she nods and shrugs with a cheer she doesn't quite feel. Whether Morph's Scott is "her" Scott, it's good to know that if he is, he'll move on. He probably won't remember her at all once he goes back, right? So it's for the best that he does have someone else in the real world.]
Yeah, it's... I think 1983 for him? We've both been here for a little over a year now, but time doesn't work like you expect it to.
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[Not to mention that with Morph's own personal problems being what they are - well, inserting themselves into the fringes of a love triangle meant that they have a strange vested interest in their Scott having a happy marriage. Scott and Jean breaking up would be bad for Morph for reasons that were Morph's own goddamn fault, really.
But these were kids they were dealing with. The Scott here probably wasn't even from the same timeline. Morph is enough of a responsible adult to not want their own stupid feelings to get in the way here.]
But hey, mutants still oughta stick together. If either of you ever need help, look me up. I'm particularly good at celebrity impersonations and beating up bad guys.
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She laughs a little and nods in response to the offer, and while she could tell Morph that she has her own powers and isn't bad at fighting herself, she simply doesn't. There's no real need to hide it, but no real need to talk about it, either. There's still something nagging at her, though, and after a moment, she finally decides to voice it.]
Is he happy? The Scott you know, I mean.
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[How could they even begin to explain what the adult Scott has been going through the last few months? Even as an outsider, and as someone who usually made fun of the guy behind his back, Morph felt pretty sorry for him. Cyclops had a tough job, and add to that complete disasters and villains meddling in his personal life... well, Morph had come a long way from assuming that he was in the middle of building a perfect domestic life for himself.]
I think he is overall, yeah, but he's had some pretty drastic ups and downs lately. There's been a lot going on. But - and I know how cheesy it sounds - the X-Men are family. When things get tough, we're there for each other.
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So if he's "overall" happy, that has to be good enough. And maybe it is a little cheesy, but it genuinely brightens her smile back up to know that Scott does have the X-Men to help him out, and he isn't alone.]
Thanks, Morph-san. That really means a lot. [Oh right-] And if there's anything I can do to help you, just let me know, too, okay? Like I said, I've been here for a while, so...
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[Right??? Morph's not used to time travel or this interdimensional stuff, so they're just going to have to play it all by ear. It was really making them wish Bishop or Cable were around to give some pointers, though. It was hard enough just trying to understand what was going on.]
Wellll, there is one thing I've been wondering about. Scott said this place is dangerous, but he didn't go into details. Could you tell me what I should be looking out for?
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[And maybe that's something she should elaborate on, but she just... doesn't, once again choosing to answer the question asked and not adding too much on her own. There's a reason it's usually Mitsuru, or Akihiko, or even Scott now giving exposition. She'd simply rather not most of the time.
Humming uncertainly, she rests her hands on her hips as she thinks about it and scrunches her face up a bit. Speaking of usually passing exposition on to Scott... how the turns have tabled.]
I mean, I guess keep an eye out for the glitches? They've been all over the city messing stuff up. There's different criminal gangs running around now that the city's gotten bigger, too, but if you're an X-Man, you've probably got nothing to worry about. Aaaaand then there's the Council. You got a little piece of paper with some dumb "crime" written on it, right? Sometimes they put us through trials like mazes or puzzles, or mess with your mind. It sucks!
[Though she still sounds weirdly cheerful as she lays that out!]
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[Morph has no idea if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it seems strange to have your memories wiped if the whole point of being here was... what, some sort of sentence for your crimes? What did that matter if you don't remember making up for it? Either way, if there's possibly a telepath involved somehow it seemed like it was worth looking into.]
I'm not sure I like the 'messing with our minds' part, but mazes and puzzles sounds more annoying than bad. I did get one of those papers, yeah. You know what my crime is? Impersonation! Like that isn't literally my mutant power!
[There might've been more to that one, but Morph is more incredulous than anything. If it weren't for the fact that they wanted to get home so badly, this place didn't seem half bad for taking an extended vacation.]
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[Just a simple shrug and agreement as she clasps her hands behind her back and shrugs again. It doesn't make any sense at all, but she's known a few people who've vanished from Aldrip, only to return a week later with new memories of home, but not remembering any of what they'd experienced here until they'd come back. Worse is when people are gone for longer than that and show up again without any memories of their time here in Aldrip at all, but... well. No point getting into all that.
Morph's incredulity is a little funny, though, leaving Kotone laughing a little and nodding in sympathy.]
Yeah, it's really weird! I don't really get it, but people a lot smarter than me have been trying to figure it out for a while.
[Honestly, it's not even that they're actually smarter than she is -- she was top of her class, after all! Maxed her Academics skill!! -- but it's that they're actually willing to put work into solving it, while she's much more the type to just do what her hard-working friends ask her to do.]
Anyway, none of the so-called "Chosen, [air-quotes around that, and a roll of her eyes for good measure,] are gonna judge you for your crime. It's only the Council who cares about that kind of stuff, I think.
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[It didn't bode well for their chances of getting home. Morph has already talked to Rogue and agreed that the two of them needed to work on getting back to their own world as soon as possible, but the more Morph is learning the less likely it seems that it'll happen, not anytime soon.]
That's good to know. Thanks, Kotone. That should be all I need to get started in this place.
no subject
[And a shrug. It be like that sometimes. If Morph is looking for someone to dig deep into the mystery and have all the answers, Kotone is not the right person to talk to! Hopefully she makes up for that with her smile as she just shrugs and finally returns her attention to the neglected chocobo, giving it a gentle pat on the head before stepping back.]
Great! I'll leave you to your new friend, then. If you wanna give them veggies, I think they like those best.
wrapping this up :)
Does that mean they don't eat people? Or are people a 'sometimes' food?
[They don't direct their question at Kotone, but more at the chocobo, who tilts its head at Morph in birdlike confusion. Then, it leans forward to nudge insistently at their shoulder, politely using the upper curve of their beak.]
Okay buddy, I get the message! Time for more treats.