Truth Seeker's diaphragm made a deflating sound. He was slightly disappointed, but not really surprised, that Jeffrey indeed thought he was crazy after all. <As I said, they are not physical beings that we can directly perceive,> he said simply. He was still looking down at his device, although now his redirected eye-contact seemed evasive. Tempting though it was, he had learned not to argue with aliens who had such different views of the world than his own. It never worked, and in any case, respect had to be given, before being earned.
The Cons-fi Reader was still steadily growing brighter. It was already bright enough that the additional light obscured the glowing figures near the bookshelf that Truth Seeker had seen earlier. The indigo light, as seen through the screen on the Iskoort's device, seemed to be coming from the walls of the Bar itself. As though every visible surface was covered in the 'consciousness' energy that the Cons-fi Reader was designed to detect.
Truth Seeker looked up again, listening with interest as Jeffrey explained that the powers were a genetic quirk of his species. As an Iskoort, he simply couldn't help but be interested in genetics. Truth Seeker's own physical body was genetically engineered, after all. <A genetic trait that is expressed differently among individuals? That is incredible! How much research has been done on the molecular genetic structures that would make that possible?>
At Jeffrey's words, a wave of familiarity swept over Truth Seeker, as though he was talking to an old and trusted friend. Yes, of course, he had known Jeffrey for a very long time, hadn't he? Long enough to know without doubt that Jeffrey would never, ever, lie to him. Truth Seeker could relax in the knowledge that everything Jeffrey had told him was true. Hmm. So, if Jeffrey had expressed reason to be scornful of Truth Seeker's belief in the spirits of fictional creatures? Well, then, that pragmatic viewpoint must also be taken to heart.
He looked down at his device again, which was now glowing bright enough to light up the Iskoort's features from below with an eerie indigo glow. He frowned. Why, exactly, did he care? It wasn't like the glow necessarily meant anything. Just a meaningless signal, perhaps an electromagnetic phenomenon.
The glass orbs on either side of the Reader started to glow, too, that same soothing indigo aura. Brighter . . . and brighter . . . until it was painful to even look directly at the screen. The orbs were becoming steadily warmer and warmer in his hands until they were uncomfortably hot, but he didn't let go. Nothing could now be seen from the viewfinder, except for that searing bright indigo light.
Then, quite suddenly, with an audible snapping sound, the device went completely dark.
Truth Seeker didn't seem to care.
Truth Seeker looked up from his now-defunct device, only just now noticing the two new creatures that had entered the Bar. Another new species of alien, and this one was dimorphic, it seemed. Yes, they almost had to be the same species. They had entered together, they were similarly colored, and their facial structure seemed almost the same, with one merely having a longer and narrower muzzle than the other. The shorter-muzzled one also had horns, but such decorations were common in dimorphic species.
<Excuse me,> the Iskoort said questioningly to Morgan and Julian. He was still unfamiliar with gender roles in other species, since the Iskoort had only one sex. His gaze lingered on Julian. <I hope I am not being rude, but can you tell me which of you is the female of your species?>
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Dino sniffed the air again, as she drew closer to the scents she had picked up earlier. She hadn't noticed at first, because she wasn't terribly familiar with Andalite smells, but one of the Andalites seemed to be injured. Yeah, that was the smell of Andalite blood, alright. There was a smell of Hork-bajir blood, as well, and although the scent was somewhat faded she could still tell that there had been a lot of blood from that one. Hork-bajir blood, unlike that of an Andalite, was a smell she was unfortunately very familiar with.
She was getting close enough now that there was a very good chance she would be seen, even through the cover of the trees. So she began to 'morph.' Her friend, Kiphos (who had been born in space courtesy of the Skrit Na, and was thus quite gifted with alien technology) had managed to augment an Escafil device in just such a way that she was able to regain morphing powers, even as a nothlit. Well, sort of. She was still not able to change shape, but she was now at least able to change size.
Which is what she did now, focusing on the human DNA inside her and shrinking down to a much less intimidating stature. Within a couple of minutes, she was a dinosaur the size of a person. It made her nervous, intentionally becoming smaller and weaker, but she hoped it would cause her to be seen as less of a threat, and thus less likely to be attacked in the first place. She hoped.
She wished she had a watch, but she hoped she would be able to judge two hours easily enough. This ability of hers was a variant of the morphing technology, so there was no reason to think that the same rules wouldn't apply.
She took a deep breath, blowing the air through her nostrils with a sound like a sigh. She moved through the trees to where she could actually see people. Which meant that they would be able to see her, if they were looking in her direction, although there was still a few sparse trees between her and them. She saw humans and Andalites, gathered around a ship, and it was from this ship that most of the Hork-bajir smell was coming, although she didn't see the Hork-bajir in question.
<Hey,> she said tentatively in public thought-speak, just loud enough to get their attention while hopefully being as non-threatening as possible. <I, uh, hope I'm not interrupting anything, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me where I am?>