wing_attack | |5.5| [Action]

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|5.5| [Action]

[Today is a good day. Not because of the weather, but because when Tobias wakes up, he's back in his old body. Not the human one, but the one that's become incredibly comfortable for him over the past few years.]

[You might catch him flying high above people, but he's more content to perch in a tree and watch as people go past. The local birds seem uncomfortable with him, but that's okay. He can't exactly use a Pokeball while like this anyway.]

[Eventually though he calms down and morphs to human (and puts on clothes) long enough to make a post.]

[Video]

[Tobias' cheeks are flushed with excitement, and he's grinning from ear to ear.]

They're back! I mean I'm back. I mean I can do it again. Is anyone else getting... uh... 'abilities' back? I'm kind of curious...

[Regal butts his head into the shot and Tobias jerks his head away to avoid getting a feathery mouthful.]

Sorry, Regal. I can't exactly ride you like that...

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[Oh geez. Tobias doesn't have his bag with him, because he doesn't have hands to work the Pokeballs with and he's not sure if his team will recognize him like this. But he does have the power of shouting.]

<Hey! You! Back off! Stop chasing him!>

[The Ursaring stares at him in confusion, and Tobias steadies himself internally. Can he control the morphing process enough? Only one way to find out. His wing melts into an arm, blades forming on it. He doesn't break eye contact with the Ursaring, though it backs up.]

<Yeah. That's what I thought. There's food over that way. Leave him alone.>

_{[.... An ARM just came out of that BIRD.]

[That is... that is some wild alchemy that even Wrath hadn't quite been prepared for, and he's the one who can phase his own body straight into the materials around him.]

[He stops, clinging to the bark like a squirrel, and just sort of STARES.]

[The Ursaring, meanwhile, is REALLY NOT SURE WHAT TO MAKE OF A BIRD SPROUTING AN ARM EITHER. That is some bullshit, you flying type. That is SOME BULLSHIT.]

[Slowly, it starts to make its way backwards down the tree. Okay, bird, if you want that kid, you can have him. :I]}

[Once the Ursaring retreats, he demorphs his wing. Much better.]

<You okay?>

[Gotta check on the kid. Morphing doesn't usually go over well.]

_{[Fortunately, THIS KID'S SEEN SOME CRAZY SHIT IN HIS TIME.]

[The arm thing is WEIRD, but not 'I'm gonna start screaming and call the police' weird, which is probably the reaction Tobias is more used to getting.]

[So rather than FREAK OUT, Wrath clambers onto a branch and crouches there like a gargoyle, head tilted to one side.]}

Are you a chimera?

_{[His head turns to tilt the OTHER way. This is so strange!]}

Oh.

Are you a Homunculus?

_{[Every Homunculus could do something different, after all. Envy could turn into different people, so why couldn't there be a Homunculus who turned into different animals? Made sense to Wrath!]}

<I don't know what that is either.>

[Sorry, Wrath.]

_{[THAT'S OKAY TOBIAS.]

[If anything, his reply has Wrath looking more interested. Maybe this is a NEW one, just like him! Maybe he can bring it to Master just like the others brought him.]}

I'm a Homunculus and I didn't know at first, either!

Look, I can do this!

_{[And then he just straight up plunges his arm INTO THE TREETRUNK and yanks the bark up his arm like a sleeve.]}

See?

<Wow. That's pretty cool. I can just turn into whatever animal I touch.>

[No... tree bark sleeves. Though he's kind of curious how he did that.]

And I can turn into any material I touch!

_{[WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?]

[Now wearing a bright smile that displayed his sharky teeth, Wrath leaned closer.]}

So how long have you existed?

_{[HE TOTALLY THINKS YOU'RE A HOMUNCULUS, TOBIAS.]}

<I'm sixteen. I've only been able to do this for two years or so, though.>

[Sorry, Wrath. Different kind of magic-science.]

Oh.

Ohhh! Okay, so you were--

_{[He pauses to count internally.]}

--Fourteen when you died!

Wow!

I was a baby. I died pretty much right away.

But now we can do all this neat stuff!

_{[He grins hugely at Tobias.]}

[Um.]

<I didn't die, though. I mean, I've almost died, but I've never actually died.>

_{[... SQUINT.]}

... But if you didn't die... how can you change your body like that?

Nobody can do that.

'Cept Homunculi.

<In my world, you can. If you've been given the right technology, at least.>

[Does this kid understand different worlds? Uh... man. He's not the best with kids.]

Your world?

_{[He doesn't, really. Unless the inside of the Gate counted as another world, which god, it should. If the world he'd crawled out into was what life was like, then the Gate was surely Hell.]

[But there's no 'technology' in there to be given. Only occasional glimpses of light to be snatched at and coveted, since the rest of the time there was nothing but darkness and torment.]

[Now looking a little unsure, Wrath draws back. THIS IS NEW AND ALARMING.]}

<It's like... imagine if there was a place like where you're from, but something was different. Like instead of a war happening, there was peace. Or the other way around.>

[War isn't the best topic to bring up, but it's the main one he can think of quickly when trying to come up with alternate histories.]

_{[LITTLE DOES HE KNOW HOW APPLICABLE THIS ACTUALLY IS TO HIS SITUATION but he hasn't yet learned about the world on the other side of the Gate.]

[So he's sort of looking at Tobias like there are lobsters crawling out of his feathery hidden ears.]}

<Things might go differently in different places if things didn't happen just like they did.>

[He doesn't know how to explain it more...]

_{[He's quiet for quite some time, so long that Tobias might end up thinking he's giving him the silent treatment.]

[But then, at last--]}

... Is where you're from better?

_{[... Wrath honey he has no idea where you're from HOW CAN HE KNOW WHETHER OR NOT IT'S BETTER.]}

<... I don't know where you're from. So maybe not. I'm involved in fighting a war right now though so... it's hard to say.>

[Why the complicated questions...]

Oh.

Well.

We're at war too.

_{[Sort of. It's a small, semi-secret war, but still a war. There's still fighting. It counts.]}

<Yeah?>

[Even though they were young when they started fighting, this kid looks even younger.]

<... Sorry. No one should have to fight. Sometimes you have to, though.>

Oh, it's okay.

I like the fighting part.

I'm good at it.

<Oh...>

[Well then.]

<I wish I didn't have to fight.>

[But then he'd be stuck with his aunt and uncle, and... yeah.]

|5.5| [Action]

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