exsilium | video

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[Nothing like a rude awakening at 2:30 in the morning, right? Well, you're in for a treat fellow refugees. It seems like one just flew over the cuckoos nest. Not that you can tell initially. At first this just looks like some inconsiderate kid with rings under his eyes and messy hair, breathing down the camera lens a little too up close and personal.]

Yo. If we haven't met yet, hello. I'm Yosuke. But...but if you're new, you should count to three and then stop listening. Okay? One, two...three. Alright, go away. It's for your own good.

[For emphasis, he clicks the lamp beside him off, and the video goes dark. Nothing to see here, apparently.]

Listen. Guys. I'm curious what people do here for fun. Because uh-look. I've tried sleeping, and training, and then I tried going outside. And talking to the people in the market, and you know. Looking for animals. And I found some, but they were really creepy and mutated. You know? So it's impossible to forget this place is so...

[The light comes back on with a soft click. The phone-roll-up is on the bed table now. Yosuke smiles down at it tightly, and shrugs. Then something thumps in the other room and he jumps at least a foot, gesturing wildly and knocking the device off the table. Someone get the kid some decaf.

He hangs over the side of the bed and gazes at the mobile, his image now fractured like a kaleidoscope, and gives a rather put-upon sigh for a guy who was just trying so hard to be personable.]

Damn it. I'm cracked...

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... I turn into an eagle. You know, a bird?

...What?

[Noooope still not grasping this.]

Oh my gosh Yosuke, where are you right now?

On the floor.

Get your butt up to my apartment A.S.A.P., okay?

[That gets a grunt in reply, but boredom wins out over laziness easily enough. It's only a few minutes until Yosuke shows up- just long enough to change to a less wrinkled shirt, splash some water on his face and run a comb through his hair first.

This time instead of knocking, he opens the front door and peeks in, waiting for permission to enter. People don't seem to like him knocking at 2 in the morning, and it's probably a pain for Collette to answer the door anyway.]

Hello? It's Yosuke.

Down here!

( She was in bed (for once), so calling him down toward her room in the otherwise silent apartment was easier than getting up into her chair just to go through with this demonstration. She started pulling her night shirt up and over her head, leaving the tanktop she kept underneath on.

No bra, since, well, it was that time of night, but it's not like that really mattered. )

[Yosuke follows the sound of Collette's voice to the bedroom and pokes his head through the doorway, only to realize that she's in the midst of undressing. For a moment he freezes up, staring helplessly until something snaps in his brain a moment later.]

Sorry! Shit, sorry!

[He yelps, bolting back out and closing the door behind himself.]

Collette realized after the fact she probably should have warned him that it was okay, but by the time she was halfway to saying any sort of spoken reassurance he'd slammed the door shut behind himself.

"Oh come on," she said, shaking her head and laughing. She knew it was probably better that everyone respected boundaries like this, and in fact, did appreciate the lack of personal space invasion to some degree. But if she started driving all the boys away when they see her in acceptable-ish amounts of attire, how the heck was she ever going to get a date? Or at least a second one? Wait for the next teenager in spandex who was single, male, and with a decent sense of humor to show up?

Man, that might be forever! "Yosuke, get back in here, it's fine! I'm not naked, okay? I promise!"

"Right! Sorry...I-"

Have no idea why he's there, frankly. And anything involving a naked girl had for once not crossed his mind. But he pops back in the door, sheepishly. "Am I supposed to be getting you a sweater or something? 'Cause all you had to do was ask, you know."

"Nawh, it works better when I'm like this. You can leave the door open if you want, it's not like anyone else is coming over here." She waved him in, then twitched the blankets completely off her legs. She was wearing leggings, something she did for warmth since winter started. Also a marked contrast to the tank-top. She didn't seem to mind.

"You didn't get what I mean by flying as an eagle, so I'm showing you. Well, showing you without you getting totally freaked out, but that part is up to the person watching. You ready for that kind of action?"

There's a girl in scandalously tight pants and a sleeveless shirt-and oh god, no bra? No bra! And she's in her bed, which he's standing a stone's throw from, asking if he's ready for action?

Boy, is he close. Except that's definitely not what she means. No way is that what she means. Still...holy shit.

Wait, what is she saying? Something about an eagle? It sounds almost familiar, but he can't really place why. His ears are ringing a little, and there's a hitch in his breath. Ow. Aw crap, oxygen. Right. Just breathe dude. In...out...okay. Cool. Oxygen. But, seriously, what?

He's better just nod. No way he can ask her to say it again. He can't make the words right now.

Blissfully unaware of the thought process going through Yosuke's head, or the fact he was not actually listening to a word she was currently saying, Collette flashed him another smile along with her last bit of helpful advice.

"If you're going to vomit, please aim for the floor. It's easier to clean up off the wood!"

With that, she drew the image of the eagle into her mind. Morphing was never smooth, and never ran in the same progression twice. This time, her nose elognated, her lips drawing back and up and hardening as they cracked, turning a sickly, jaundiced yellow that deepened as the beak took form.

Her hair clumped together as her eyes bulged and shifted from the front of her face more toward the sides, dark brown catching flecks of gold before being washed with the amber, focused stare of an eagle. She seemed to go spontaneously white haired as the pigment changed, hair pulling back into the skull until it stuck out in clumps and tufts that were sporadically changing into feathers.

At the same time, Collette's legs bent, feet spitting into long toes and curved talons that traveled up as her legs shortened. Black leggings pulled in to reveal yellowed, scaled skin, and her chest bulged and reformed as feathers pushed up like daisies through the while fabric of her shirt.

So much for breasts. Now all she had was eagle breast!

The rest of her feathers came on in a wave of pimpling multi-colored heads, pushing out and sticking up at odd angles until she could control them, settling them down against her in a smooth, sleek formation that came together with the rest of her until where there had been Collette, there now rested a bald eagle.

The few.

The proud.

The animarines.

Yosuke didn't quite catch that comment about vomiting, and certainly had no reason to believe he was in for any, talking to a cute, scantily clad girl.

But the blissful view only lasted a moment before something began to terribly, horribly, incomprehensibly wrong. Yosuke's eyes widened as Colette's face began to do something...strange. He gasped loudly, taking a fearful step backward and then countering it with a purposeful step forward, arm stretched out as if somehow he could help.

Except that just then her legs did something and her bones made this snapping sound while her body...what the hell?! Oh, god. What the hell?

He didn't even feel the involuntary lurch his body made, and with his eyes squeezed tightly shut he didn't see either, but something hit and wet hit his feet. Oh, god...

Dazed, he reached out and touched the wall for balance, unable to help the second heave his stomach gave as the ugly sounds kept coming and he tried unsuccessfully to swallow down the bitter taste in his mouth.

It was worse than the first time he'd fought shadows, because then he'd been too terrified and exhilarated to mind the stench and the gore. Worse than the zombies, because everyone knew zombies were decayed. He'd expected that. But this? This came out of nowhere. One second he'd been trying not to be too obvious about eyeing Colette up, the next, hunched over desperately and gasping sickly, staring up at her in see and horror.

"Wh-" Yosuke swallowed, and covered his mouth. Oh, god. Ugh. Through his fingers, he tried again. "What the hell? Are you-? U-urk. Oh, god. You meant a real...holy shit."

He'd at least aimed for the floor. The floor his feet was on, yes, but the floor nonetheless. Collette pulled her head back, fluffing feathers out in an involuntary reaction to the sound of him retching the second time.

Man, she always hated vomiting. With her current senses, it didn't look or smell quite so bad as usual.

She craned her head to the side to lock one golden eye on Yosuke.

< Yeah, I meant it literally the whole time! What did you think I meant? Also, dude, you probably should get water or something to wash your mouth out, we've... I've got glasses right next to the kitchen sink. >

She wondered if she should feel bad about this. Part of her did, but more was smugly noting that yet again, she'd pointed out the potential reaction and been rewarded by being right. Too bad being right had a tendency to suck a whole bunch.

At the sudden voice in his head, Yosuke squawked, and jumped. Nevermind that he knew the voice, Nevermind that he'd just seen...whatever the hell he'd just seen. Hearing a fucking bird talking inside his head was a bit much.

He slumped down against the wall, ears ringing loudly and vision wavering. Aw, shit. Was he going to pass out? Not again...

< This is so the last time you're not going to believe me when I tell you something wild! > Waddling awkwardly to the edge of the bed, Collette threw herself off the edge and flapped her wings to correct her balance and catch herself on the floor. She stepped carefully toward Yosuke, stopping outside of what she gauged to be his reach.

< Are you breathing okay? Put your head between your knees and focus on taking deep breaths! >

What....I don't....what the hell?

[Yosuke glances up, incredulously, but immidiately regrets it when the room spins again. He puts his head back down with a groan and tries to focus on breathing.]

I think I need a minute...

< I can give you about one hundred and eleven more, so feel free to take more than just one! >

Edict delivered, Collette settled back and watched him with one golden eye.

"What?"

He's really not in the right mental place to try and solve the puzzle she just delivered. Instead, he groans quietly from where he's slumped between his own knees -surprisingly flexible for a guy- and counts a half full beat between every inhale and exhale.

Slowly, the fog begins to clear. And he notices the acrid smell in the air. Yosuke groans, loudly this time.

"Oh man. The first time a girl invites me into her bedroom and I threw up on her floor."

< Don't worry about it! Okay, clean it up first, but other than that, don't worry about it. I'm sure next time you'll be fine! >

He couldn't possibly vomit every time, could he? She took two steps forward, talons clicking on the floor. < I can tell you where the extra towels are? >

"Uh...yeah. Good idea. Both of them. Just...warn a guy next time you're going to-urk. Do that. Alright?"

Slowly, he sits up and tugs his dirty socks off, gagging quietly at the way they squish. Okay, socks may be a luxury here but these ones are still going in the trash. "Oh my god."

She snorts, beak opening as some of her laughter echoes across to his mind. < I did warn you. It's not my fault you didn't listen! What were you nodding along to, if you weren't listening to what I was saying, huh? >

She finds it silly to agree to things without a thought and then to blame the situations that arise on the person thoughtful enough to do the asking in the first place. Sure, not understanding what it really meant was one thing, but she felt like she'd been pretty clear!

Well he's definitely not going to explain that, though his cheeks go a bit pink again at the memory. There was a second that was really nice in there. And then...

Yosuke closes his eyes and swallows, shuddering. "No way. You never said anything about-" he winces, remembering that hideous bone sound, and the dismorphic horror that-ugh. No, ugh. Time to think about something else. This is going to haunt his nightmares for days anyway, he can already tell.

"It just...looked like it hurt. Are you okay?"

< Yosuke, > she said in surprise. < Were you checking me out? >

Collette dropped her head down lower, turning it to almost be upside down as she continued to regard Yosuke. Her mental tone was infused with amusement.

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