[CLOSED] got a colony of ants underneath my skin

[mightymorphin]

Who: Morph and Douman, Marco, Scott, Kotone
Where: Around Aldrip
What: Closed event starters for gnosia!Morph being a menace.
Warnings: Violence, potential body horror. Further warnings will be marked.

(Stated days optional, if any of these need to be rearranged let me know! If you'd like to encounter Morph during the event please contact me at evilbo or on Discord.)

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Marco - Days 3-5

[mightymorphin]

[Overhead, there's a flash of metallic wings.

Morph has been searching from the air, and coming up frustrated. There are people they need to find, a drive fueled by fear and malice twisted into something that almost makes them feel nauseous. They had evolved into something else, and they knew all too well the inherent danger in being something other than human. More than mutant. There were other mutants here that would hurt them, knew how to hurt them, and Morph knew they couldn't trust their friends anymore. Not if they wanted to make sure that nothing could ever hurt them ever again.

It's near dusk and getting darker, and while this form has great eyesight they couldn't keep wearing it forever. Morph lands near the edge of a park, the form they're wearing more obvious now - it's a blue-skinned, blonde man with avian-shaped wings that look dangerously sharp - but in short order they shift back to their natural form, rubbing a hand over their face.]

I hate this, [they mutter to no one in particular.]

[apeshift]

[ There's more than one set of wings in the sky tonight as Marco's circling the town as well, this time with the sharp glare of an osprey as he keeps his eyes out for any signs of suspicious behavior.

He knew the supposed lack of Yeerks here was too good to be true. Gnosia, slugs, what difference did it make when the end result was all the same? And yeah, maybe he has some sort of 'cure' now that they sure as hell could have used back home, but it's not like he wants the responsibility especially when he can't even tell who's been infected - as far as he's concerned, it'd be better if he'd gotten no role at all so he'd have an excuse to stay hidden and let everyone else sort this mess out. Instead, he's forced to listen to that annoying voice in his head nagging that he should be doing more and helping out with this power he never asked for.

Ugh. Morals. Cassie's been too much of a terrible influence on him.

The osprey's eyesight begins declining as the sun sets and dusk settles in, and he's nearing the two-hour limit anyway, so he lands on a park bench in order to start demorphing. Before he does though, he spots a familiar pale form nearby and hesitates. He knows it's stupid to trust anyone in this situation, but he can't help feeling a pang of empathy...morphers gotta show solidarity, right? ]

< You and me both. How are you holding up? >

[mightymorphin]

[Morph is visibly surprised to hear the telepathy, and looks around for a moment before their gaze lands on the osprey. Okay yeah, that's a really unusual animal to see in the middle of a city. They were still used to looking for a person first, but this meant it could only be...]

Hey, it's the TV-watching owl! Felt like wearing something different today?

[They stroll on over to the park bench, their demeanor as casual as could be, but they're eying the osprey a little too closely. Morph knows it's a person in disguise, but even if it wasn't, they're also immediately aware that their animal buddy isn't infected. And that could be a real problem.

Were they being hunted, or were they the one doing the hunting? The difference was awfully slim. It didn't matter - just like at home, Morph had suddenly become an endangered species, and despite their on-and-off years in the X-Men this is the most pursued they've ever felt. Blending in had become a necessity for survival, instead of the usual every day, slowly soul-crushing experience. And that meant having to be nice.]

I'm still alive, so y'know, it could be a lot worse. Are you doing alright?

[apeshift]

< Aw, you remember me? I'm touched. >

[ His feathers ruffle automatically as Morph approaches - the osprey's instincts do not enjoy being watched by a larger creature that closely, and it's not exactly helping his own paranoia. Smartest thing to do right now would be to fly off before the predator closing in can lunge for him, especially with the clock ticking down...but he's not actually an animal, not quite, and he can't bring himself to flee just yet when there's still so much uncertainty left in the air.

Selflessly, he wants to use this power random chance has given him to help in a way he never could back home. Selfishly, he misses being part of a team and having other morphers at his back, and he can't bring himself to give up hope just yet. Either way, he shuffles his talons awkwardly but stays where he is for now. ]

< I'd say the same, but there's fates worse than death out there. > [ Mind control is truly the worst. And look, Marco can bullshit with the best of them, but he's not the kind of liar that can manipulate answers out of people, so...screw it. ] < Speaking of which, you have any weird feelings recently? Any sudden urge for fried chicken when looking at me? >

[mightymorphin]

It's pretty hard to forget about a telepathic bird.

[This is going to be a problem, isn't it? Bird-kid had the same tricks up his sleeve, and Morph knew just how dangerous that could be. It wasn't all about raw power when you could also get really small, sneak around and hide, attack when someone least expected it... that was just ridiculously useful in an urban setting while everyone else was distracted with trying to kill each other. It made Marco a threat, both to them and to other gnosia.]

Nah, not hungry, but - worse than death, huh? I know what you mean. And I think I could help you with that.

[And then, Morph rapidly shifts into a different person, a man in a blue-and-white costume with a shock of white hair. Only a second later, they whip a hand towards Marco, almost faster than a human could see, aiming to wrap a hand around the bird's throat. Borrowing Quicksilver's form didn't make them as fast as the original, but it's still a burst of super speed that they're pitting against the other shapeshifter's reaction time.]

[apeshift]

Shit!

[ Marco's reaction time is probably slightly above average from a normal teenage boy thanks to videogames and years of constant paranoia, but it's certainly not enough to match super speed. His only saving grace is that an osprey's reflexes are vastly superior to a human's and that he's well-trained enough to immediately know when to let the animal instincts take over, the bird body already exploding into motion as Morph shifts before his human mind can even register what's happening.

Even then, he's still too slow to avoid Morph's attack entirely, only managing to dodge enough to get his feet caught rather than his neck. He frantically tries to gouge and rake his talons into Morph's hands to get him to loosen his grip, knowing full well already that in a one to one fight this close up, he's hopelessly outclassed. He can't morph nearly as quickly as the other and he has to return to his original body first; escape is really the only option here, or barring that, at the very least a little time and distance. ]

< Not cool! That is absolutely so not what I meant! >

[mightymorphin]

[Though catching him at all feels like a little victory, it's awfully short-lived. Morph had wanted to end the threat quickly, to snap the bird's neck and be done with it, but they definitely caught the wrong end of the osprey.]

Gah-!

[Quicksilver was built for speed and not much else, and the form left Morph's hands completely unprotected. At first when the talons dig in through the shifted gloves they're wearing, there's a brief splash of red blood, but as the damage gets worse it's all white, like runny silly putty. Morph is forced to let go of Marco, backing up a step and gripping their wrist - but the white goo that makes up their body flows back into the scratches and punctures, reforming their hand as though the damage had never been done. There's not even any stray drops left on the ground, though the pain lingered like it was still fresh.]

Don't make this harder than it has to be!

[apeshift]

[ The white goo is surprising; the healing is not. Morph's powers clearly work similarly to his own except better in every way, so why wouldn't they come with the instant recovery too?

He can't spare the time to seethe in resentment though, immediately taking flight the moment he's released to put as much distance between them as he can. Which unfortunately isn't very far; short-lived though it may have been, Morph's grip had been enough to snap one of the delicate hollow bones in his feet. And though he's flown with worse injuries before, he's also pushed the two-hour time limit as far as he's willing to go.

Worse fates than death. Mind control's one of them. Getting trapped in a body that's not his own is another. Feathers recede into flesh that bulges and reforms until it's a short slim teenage boy standing in the park now, staring at Morph with wary eyes. ]

Just a total shot in the dark here, but if I say something like 'you're gonna regret this in the future' and 'this isn't you' and 'believe in the power of the heart of the cards', is that gonna snap you outta this?

[ He already knows full well it won't; he's dealt with mind control and possession long enough back home to have absolutely zero faith in words or emotions making the slightest difference whatsoever. But also he will die before he ever stops running his mouth, and at this point the banter's just autopilot while he frantically rifles through the list of morphs in his head for options. Stupid to try another bird again, bugs would be too easily caught by another morpher, most prey animals would sacrifice too much strength for speed. There's not much out there that can match the sheer power of a gorilla or polar bear, but they're not exactly ideal for making a quick escape and he's also not used to fighting superhumans.

That leaves him with the least worst option. Even as he's still talking, Marco's eyes go from brown to golden, and his skin suddenly ripples with scales. ]

[mightymorphin]

[Damn. The other shapeshifter is a kid.

Morph had their suspicions, but the confirmation of it is uncomfortable, at odds with the urge to kill that told them he was dangerous. Anyone that could fight back against the gnosia was a threat, and leaving any of them alone would only mean dying at their hands later. It's an almost helpless anger that bubbles up in Morph now, because they hadn't asked to be infected, to be responsible for this power or for the survival of the gnosia. They had never asked to be a mutant, either. This time, stepping up meant getting their hands dirty.

Morph shifts back to their natural form as they watch Marco, their expression downright somber.]

Am I going to regret this more than our extinction? ... Sorry, kid. I don't know why you weren't chosen, but I can't leave you running around out here.

[They can't tell what he's changing into, but they keep their eyes on him, circling around the park bench to keep it between the two of them. Morph is a lot less informed about what Marco can do, aside from the whole 'it came from aliens' thing. It made them more inclined to be cautious.]