[Action/Telepathy ... Later Written]
[Action]
[Mulder woke up today in the blue, alien form of an Andalite At the moment, he's heading away from his building. It's too confining in there all of a sudden. As he runs along on his centaur-like body, his thought-speech is telepathically transmitted and can be 'heard' by anyone who happens to be in the area. His bladed tail whips around a ( Read more... )
[Mulder woke up today in the blue, alien form of an Andalite At the moment, he's heading away from his building. It's too confining in there all of a sudden. As he runs along on his centaur-like body, his thought-speech is telepathically transmitted and can be 'heard' by anyone who happens to be in the area. His bladed tail whips around a ( Read more... )
Turtle Robert is just... walking around the village now, probably heading back to his Community Building, or maybe out doing some mundane task as his turtle self. He's mostly gotten used to being a turtle. Mostly. Hopefully he isn't breaking chronology doing this.
But when he sees Mulder's new body, galloping through the streets towards the forest, and hears the voice in his head - like with Winry Rockbell's form - he stops, dead, and turns to look. What...?
Blue? His colour spectrum vision is off, to be sure, but blue?]
... My word...
What an amazing non-human sapient. [Don't mind the giant anthropomorphic mutant red-eared slider staring at you, Mulder-as-Andalite.]
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[Since he's not very that used to this form, he's not fully accustomed to the fact that he's still communicating by telepathy.]
< Another turtle, like the one I talked to the other day? Or given this experiment, he could be anyone... >
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... Ah, the species you are currently is also a telepathic one. Most fascinating...
I am only temporarily a turtle... Normally I am a homo sapiens sapiens, but the Malnosso apparently have a sense of irony. [Robert smiles weakly.] But I do know the other turtles in Luceti... quite well, in fact. [And that little smile gets a bit more shy. One of the aforementioned turtles, the purple-mask-wearing one? That's his boyfriend.]
I take it that this is not a species from your world?
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[Mulder is now trying to get himself used to communicating like this for the time being. It's not so bad, since in this form it's just... natural to him.]
< Oh, so you're familiar with the turtles? I had an interesting chat with one of them when I was settling in here. As for whatever I am... We don't have anything like this where I'm from. Although I have seen some pretty weird stuff in my line of work, this is pretty out there, even for me. I'm normally as human as they come, myself. >
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Oh? Do you happen to recall which turtle it was?
And the species you are looks... incredible. [Robert studies the Andalite form with intense interest.] Blue pigmented fur, if my colour spectrum vision does not fail me... and a hexapodal state, though you are only quadrupedal... Ah, and those eyestalks! All so fascinating. Your shape would suggest some kind of ungulate, at least by Terran planetary standards. Of course, those standards hardly apply to other planets, much less other multiversions...
And that tail seems to suggest some aggression. [This is said with no small amount of discomfort.] But... yes, I do not recognize this sort of species, despite my studies in astrobiology.
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[There were already a lot of fascinating species here to begin with, but this week seems to have brought out the weird stuff.]
< I didn't think I'd get any easy answers about what I'm supposed to be... and that tail is definitely not something you'd want to mess around with. Either an attacking or defense mechanism, of some kind. I'm still baffled what I'm supposed to do for nourishment... >
[Mulder glances at the tail, which he finds that he can bring all the way to his front. He takes a step back so as not to accidentally stab Robert with it.]
< So you're an astrobiologist? Now THAT sounds fascinating. You would have fit in well with the department I work in back home. >
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Have you tried checking your other extremities? Some organisms ingest food in unorthodox ways. [Robert glances over the centaur-like (not that he'd know what a centaur is) body, searching for anything that resembles some kind of intake system.]
Oh... Yes, I am an astrobiologist. Certified for the Randi Institute of Terra. [Robert nods a bit, smiling.]
... Is that so? What sort of department do you work in, if I may ask? [Robert continues studying the Andalite as he speaks.]
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< I'm an FBI agent, and the department I work for is called the X-Files. I investigate crimes that have a supernatural angle to them. I've come across a lot of unusual lifeforms in my time... but nothing exactly like this. Hm... I wonder if in that case... >
[He holds out his hands to look at them a moment, but other than the new fingers, nothing looks out of the ordinary. The next thing are his hooves, but he can't quite see the bottom of them that easily. But still, now that he gives it some more thought, something is strange about the feel of them.]
< I wonder if it's possible I'm absorbing nutrients from the ground somehow? >
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Ah, well, astrobiology is not considered supernatural on Terra... it is a reputable scientific field. Many discoveries have been made since the initial results found by the probe Quark and its companion dropship Lepton. [Robert's gaze drops to the limbs of the form in front of him.]
Hrm... That is actually completely plausible. Would you mind if I perhaps lifted one of your legs and checked the bottom of your hoof? There might very well be some sort of visible intake system. After all, those hooves are somewhat different than what I would expect on a Terran ungulate... and this body looks adapted to relatively quick quadrupedal motion, so perhaps the species is some kind of herd animal. The only question is how the food is actually drawn into the stomach from the limbs... many species have some equivalent of an esophagus, but fighting gravity all the time would be inefficient...
Ah, so much opportunity for unique insights. [Robert is ( ... )
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[Mulder moves a little closer, he's more comfortable getting close now that he's at least got that tail of his under control.]
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[Robert kneels carefully near Mulder, lifting one hoof with a relatively-practised hand. He gently inspects the digit, studying the odd sole.] Ah, well, the structure here certainly seems atypical. There appears to be a series of pores that perhaps absorb nutrients... with the lack of any kind of PET scan, though, I cannot say for sure.
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[Mulder glances at him and thinks about that.]
< Something does seem significant about them. Nothing is exactly happening right now standing here, but maybe I have to stomp down harder to make them work. Or maybe it's not just regular ground that works, I might need some sort of vegetation? >
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And... I would suppose vegetation would make more sense. Perhaps this species tramples vegetation as a form of mastication, and then consumes the remains? It's worth a shot, at the very least... otherwise some other method of getting food will have to be devised.
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[More and more, despite how utterly bizarre this is, Mulder is sounding like he enjoys what he's going through.]
< This is pretty wild for a first time experiment. >
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Indeed it is... At least it is one of the relatively harmless experiments, assuming the form change can be harmless... The first experiment I witnessed involved changing the forms of villagers as well, but that was restricted to something more prosaic - something that the person loved, cherished, desired or wanted. At least as far as I could tell from the limited information I recieved.
[He beams.] That was how I met Donatello, actually.
[Then Robert sobers slightly.]
... But yes... some of the experiments seem far more unpleasant and dangerous than this. I only hope you never have to experience them, but that seems a foolish thought here.
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