[Ax is absolutely one of the stubborn few who is attempting to find a way out of the tunnels as soon as possible. And he's got a sizable advantage over the rest, in that he can literally turn into a mole.
The downside is usually this kind of reconnaissance was done as a team. It is much more difficult to be successfully discreet when on your own, but Ax does his best. He slips off toward a section of tunnel that seems to be unpopulated, and clumsily strips and shoves his uniform into an alcove (just in case someone does happen by). And he morphs, and he digs.
If it had been any of his human teammates on their own, they wouldn't be able to attempt this. But thanks to Ax's own natural sense of direction and the passage of time, it is not difficult at all to return to his starting point two hours later, having discovered nothing of value.
This was the tricky part: moles are acutely sensitive to vibrations, but living most of their lives in the dark, have no need for good eyesight. And so, the best Ax can tell of his surroundings is that there is nothing moving nearby.
He will have to hope that is enough.
Returning to human--and he thinks he will never get over how surreal and wrong that is, to transition directly to human rather than his true Andalite form--only takes a few minutes, and is just as grotesque as always. Joints snap into place, fur shrivels away, and he becomes a shifting, amorphous mass of flesh and bone that slowly shapes itself into something recognizable as humanoid.
Regrettably, his eyesight is the last thing to transition. And fuck his life, someone is there.]
[A few choices here: come closer and linger near the surface where the aberrant mist choked out his innate magic capabilities and threaten both of his contracts, old and new. Sit where Mordred had left him as the soldiers he was with started to move on. Go with them. Or find someplace quiet and off the beaten path to curl up into and catch his breath without the fear that someone was going to try and figure out what was wrong with him. Settling in with that final option, he picked his body up and headed off down a winding path.
He had seen these tunnels in the Metaverse, which twisted more and happened to be laid out to go on for what seemed forever, maybe into even the earth's core if he had it into him to look, but even in there, the fog had crept its way in, making the shadows stronger and more violent than he had ever seen before. He had a general layout of sorts to work with out here in the real world, so when he heads off, a hand up against the muddy wall to guide him, he feels like he's going to collapse at any given moment.
There was a time once, where he summoned his persona without enough magic to maintain it or conjure the powers that sprung forth from his pact, and he had been left in a dulled state of mind until he could get out and get some rest. It was just like this now, as he groans to himself, every inch of his body feeling lame and useless, just to try and keep up with the needs of his Servant. And as Ryuji slams against the corner of a tunnel wall, he lets his body hit dirt too easily, his head pounding like something had been screaming into it ever since he lost an absurdly large amount of his mana all in one shot.
It's honestly the first time that Ryuji had been alone since he came to Gallipoli. Before this, he had endeavored to keep himself around people, to make himself keep going, because if he didn't, he's not sure he would've been able to get himself back up again. So if it was just... talking to recruits, helping the wounded, bearing stretchers, offering comradeship or whatever was needed, it was worth it not to think about everything else. About Akira's disappearance, Hei's shell shock, the worry that Noctis was completely on the other side of the trenches at this point. He looks down next to him, seeing 3 long trenches' knives, picks one up by the handle and closes his eyes for a few winks.
And it's an hour before he realizes there's movement, cognition coming back to him like he had just stepped out of the 'Verse, for him to see something that he... didn't quite comprehend at all. Ryuji panics for a moment, checks the BCE to make sure that he didn't fall asleep in the under dimension, because that? That was something that he was sure could only ever take place there, as shadows morphed and shaped into horrible things, different things---
Phillip?
And like this were a dream gone horribly wrong, there's a naked soldier in eyesight of him just a few meters away, where there was was this changing matter of grotesqueness that didn't seem comfortable in its shape in any of the amorphous form it had started to reform into. Especially weird now, because he never thought Phillip looked that comfortable in his own skin to begin with when he had met him the first time. Well, that explains it.
[For a moment Ax's thoughts are nothing but expletives. How could he have been so careless? This could have been a fatal mistake if it had been anyone other than Ryuji. It would have been, back on Earth during the war. He's better than this. What was he thinking?
But he can worry about all those things later; now is the time for damage control. But unfortunately, he has no idea how to explain this.
[Ryuji's jaw hangs agape in a way that's not attractive in the slightest, and just narrows his eyes at Ax. Is he really trying to Z-files this shit on him? Mully and Skulder would be aghast right now. And as Ryuji tries to push his back up against the wall in the most embarrassingly slow way possible, he feels his center of gravity pull him back to the ground. This shit is a struggle.
And he's.
Yeah, he's butt naked in the middle of the Great War. This isn't exactly how Ryuji thought his day would go. Not in the slightest.]
Yeah, if regular people were like body snatchers or somethin'
[Ryuji manages to take off his military issue jacket, a few steps toward Ax, his face turned away from his body so that he didn't have to
SEE HIM NAKED???
And holds it out to him. To say he's freaked out about the whole ordeal is rather obvious, but then again, what-the-fuck-ever. COST never ceases to put him out of his element when it comes to the recruits it chose.]
Yo... Cover up or it'll fall off.
[The "it" he refers to, well. Ax, you'll have to figure that out on your own.]
[Oh right. The artificial skin issue. Humans have such hangups.]
Thank you, but I already have one.
[And, deliberately passing over the proffered jacket, he instead pulls out his own uniform from where he'd stashed it into a trench crevice, and dresses as efficiently as possible.
It's not fantastic. He's gotten pretty good at remembering which bits go on which parts, but his shirt is untucked, his hat is on wrong, and his shoes are on the wrong feet, and overall he looks extremely rumpled.
He seems to be content with this, however.]
Thank you for your help. I should return to my duties.
Ryuji looks on, not trying to look on as much as wonder... what in the hell this guy had planned on doing. Shove his clothes into a hole, turn into a mole, and just dig around in the dirt or something? Was there even a reason or did he just like... burrowing in his spare time. There are so many questions Ryuji has. So. Many. Questions.
But first things first, and he sighs, putting his jacket back on (thank god, the winter's been brutal), and approaching.]
Alright dude, I come in peace.
[Puts both his hands up in the air, tired expression and eyebags thick under his sockets.]
Let me help you. You're gonna stick out like this.
[Maybe surprisingly, Ax doesn't pull away when Ryuji moves in to adjust him. He's used to fussing from Rachel and Marco, and there's an almost painful pang of familiarity at the same situation being repeated here.
Funny. That used to be what made him homesick, and now it's what he's homesick for. Maybe that's what makes him crack. Just a little bit.]
I apologize. This kind of thing isn't what I'm used to.
[Really, he doesn't mind. If it's going to the demarcation between Ax getting counted as suspicious and him sliding by the fact that he didn't totally just gruesomely turn back into a human in front of him... well, whatever.
He starts with the basics- scratching the back of his head before he goes for it; helping him tuck his shirt back in properly so it didn't look like he just walked off the set of a steamy makeout scene.]
So you, uh... [Don't mention the nakedness
Don't mention the nakedness.] You always got a thing for poppin' outta tunnels butt naked or somethin'?
[Fucking hell.
But, Ryuji notices that he probably doesn't want to talk about the morphing part, so he might as well be embarrassing enough for the both of them to distract from the obvious thing on Ryuji's mind....
heaves a sigh, because of course he couldn't get away with simply pretending like it didn't happen and that being convincing enough. It was a thought, at least.]
You are taking this remarkably well. In my experience [humans] people react with fear to things they don't understand.
[As he steps back a bit, he narrows his field of vision to make sure that Ax has the Right Look, and shrugs. Good enough. In high school, he never actually wore his uniform, but hell, at least he knows how to make it look right. He was a good, law abiding boy.
Once....]
I've seen some shit. [Until you've seen the likes of Mara, nothing should surprise you that much.] 'Sides. Even if you had an explanation, I'm not sure I'd understand it. And the stuff I don't understand isn't the shit that scares me.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wartime archaeology
[Ax is absolutely one of the stubborn few who is attempting to find a way out of the tunnels as soon as possible. And he's got a sizable advantage over the rest, in that he can literally turn into a mole.
The downside is usually this kind of reconnaissance was done as a team. It is much more difficult to be successfully discreet when on your own, but Ax does his best. He slips off toward a section of tunnel that seems to be unpopulated, and clumsily strips and shoves his uniform into an alcove (just in case someone does happen by). And he morphs, and he digs.
If it had been any of his human teammates on their own, they wouldn't be able to attempt this. But thanks to Ax's own natural sense of direction and the passage of time, it is not difficult at all to return to his starting point two hours later, having discovered nothing of value.
This was the tricky part: moles are acutely sensitive to vibrations, but living most of their lives in the dark, have no need for good eyesight. And so, the best Ax can tell of his surroundings is that there is nothing moving nearby.
He will have to hope that is enough.
Returning to human--and he thinks he will never get over how surreal and wrong that is, to transition directly to human rather than his true Andalite form--only takes a few minutes, and is just as grotesque as always. Joints snap into place, fur shrivels away, and he becomes a shifting, amorphous mass of flesh and bone that slowly shapes itself into something recognizable as humanoid.
Regrettably, his eyesight is the last thing to transition. And fuck his life, someone is there.]
no subject
He had seen these tunnels in the Metaverse, which twisted more and happened to be laid out to go on for what seemed forever, maybe into even the earth's core if he had it into him to look, but even in there, the fog had crept its way in, making the shadows stronger and more violent than he had ever seen before. He had a general layout of sorts to work with out here in the real world, so when he heads off, a hand up against the muddy wall to guide him, he feels like he's going to collapse at any given moment.
There was a time once, where he summoned his persona without enough magic to maintain it or conjure the powers that sprung forth from his pact, and he had been left in a dulled state of mind until he could get out and get some rest. It was just like this now, as he groans to himself, every inch of his body feeling lame and useless, just to try and keep up with the needs of his Servant. And as Ryuji slams against the corner of a tunnel wall, he lets his body hit dirt too easily, his head pounding like something had been screaming into it ever since he lost an absurdly large amount of his mana all in one shot.
It's honestly the first time that Ryuji had been alone since he came to Gallipoli. Before this, he had endeavored to keep himself around people, to make himself keep going, because if he didn't, he's not sure he would've been able to get himself back up again. So if it was just... talking to recruits, helping the wounded, bearing stretchers, offering comradeship or whatever was needed, it was worth it not to think about everything else. About Akira's disappearance, Hei's shell shock, the worry that Noctis was completely on the other side of the trenches at this point. He looks down next to him, seeing 3 long trenches' knives, picks one up by the handle and closes his eyes for a few winks.
And it's an hour before he realizes there's movement, cognition coming back to him like he had just stepped out of the 'Verse, for him to see something that he... didn't quite comprehend at all. Ryuji panics for a moment, checks the BCE to make sure that he didn't fall asleep in the under dimension, because that? That was something that he was sure could only ever take place there, as shadows morphed and shaped into horrible things, different things---
Phillip?
And like this were a dream gone horribly wrong, there's a naked soldier in eyesight of him just a few meters away, where there was was this changing matter of grotesqueness that didn't seem comfortable in its shape in any of the amorphous form it had started to reform into. Especially weird now, because he never thought Phillip looked that comfortable in his own skin to begin with when he had met him the first time. Well, that explains it.
Holy shit.]
...Holy shit you're a mole person.
no subject
But he can worry about all those things later; now is the time for damage control. But unfortunately, he has no idea how to explain this.
So he decides not to bother.]
You are mistaken. I am a regular person.
[NAILED IT.]
no subject
And he's.
Yeah, he's butt naked in the middle of the Great War. This isn't exactly how Ryuji thought his day would go. Not in the slightest.]
Yeah, if regular people were like body snatchers or somethin'
[Ryuji manages to take off his military issue jacket, a few steps toward Ax, his face turned away from his body so that he didn't have to
SEE HIM NAKED???
And holds it out to him. To say he's freaked out about the whole ordeal is rather obvious, but then again, what-the-fuck-ever. COST never ceases to put him out of his element when it comes to the recruits it chose.]
Yo... Cover up or it'll fall off.
[The "it" he refers to, well. Ax, you'll have to figure that out on your own.]
no subject
Thank you, but I already have one.
[And, deliberately passing over the proffered jacket, he instead pulls out his own uniform from where he'd stashed it into a trench crevice, and dresses as efficiently as possible.
It's not fantastic. He's gotten pretty good at remembering which bits go on which parts, but his shirt is untucked, his hat is on wrong, and his shoes are on the wrong feet, and overall he looks extremely rumpled.
He seems to be content with this, however.]
Thank you for your help. I should return to my duties.
no subject
You're a sketchy guy.
Ryuji looks on, not trying to look on as much as wonder... what in the hell this guy had planned on doing. Shove his clothes into a hole, turn into a mole, and just dig around in the dirt or something? Was there even a reason or did he just like... burrowing in his spare time. There are so many questions Ryuji has. So. Many. Questions.
But first things first, and he sighs, putting his jacket back on (thank god, the winter's been brutal), and approaching.]
Alright dude, I come in peace.
[Puts both his hands up in the air, tired expression and eyebags thick under his sockets.]
Let me help you. You're gonna stick out like this.
no subject
Funny. That used to be what made him homesick, and now it's what he's homesick for. Maybe that's what makes him crack. Just a little bit.]
I apologize. This kind of thing isn't what I'm used to.
no subject
[Really, he doesn't mind. If it's going to the demarcation between Ax getting counted as suspicious and him sliding by the fact that he didn't totally just gruesomely turn back into a human in front of him... well, whatever.
He starts with the basics- scratching the back of his head before he goes for it; helping him tuck his shirt back in properly so it didn't look like he just walked off the set of a steamy makeout scene.]
So you, uh... [Don't mention the nakedness
Don't mention the nakedness.] You always got a thing for poppin' outta tunnels butt naked or somethin'?
[Fucking hell.
But, Ryuji notices that he probably doesn't want to talk about the morphing part, so he might as well be embarrassing enough for the both of them to distract from the obvious thing on Ryuji's mind....
HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?]
no subject
heaves a sigh, because of course he couldn't get away with simply pretending like it didn't happen and that being convincing enough. It was a thought, at least.]
You are taking this remarkably well. In my experience [humans] people react with fear to things they don't understand.
no subject
Once....]
I've seen some shit. [Until you've seen the likes of Mara, nothing should surprise you that much.] 'Sides. Even if you had an explanation, I'm not sure I'd understand it. And the stuff I don't understand isn't the shit that scares me.
[Looks down.]
Your shoes are on backwards, bro.