Torrence slipped her arm under Eddie's armpit, hefting him up a bit.
"Yeah. In and out. Quick as we can. You guys ready?"
She looked over to Kasey and Eddie.
"We can do this."
I shrugged my shoulders to indicate I could not tell from this distance. "Probably best to stay hidden and not let whoever-it-is notice US until we're sure it's not a guard..." I added, for good measure.
"We're on a dirt road." Christina pointed out. "Surrounded by fences leading to dangerous animals. Where can we hide?"
Reece: "Here, I'll morph the guard I got hold of earlier in case we get caught," Reece suggested. He began to picture the guard's face- middle aged, Grey, slightly portly. He shrunk down a few inches and his gut sagged outward. His skin paled from deep brown to pasty white, and he felt his shoes grow slightly too large and his shorts slightly too tight.
Alice: "See if you can find one of those staff-only service entrances nearby... They usually hide them quite well, but they give access for the staff to feed the animals." I suggested.
Reece closes his now-Grey eyes for a few moments, and then opens them, looking unamused. "I guess park directions don't count as 'instincts,'" he grumbles in his now-reedy voice. He makes a displeased face. "I sound so weird..."
"You also look weird." Christina offered helpfully. "But, we'll act suitably in awe of your authority." For her part, she stepped behind the guard.
Guard-Reece smirked. "Thanks," he says, before rolling his eyes. He stands up straight, trying to make athletic clothes look as adult as possible. He puts a stern look on his face and begins to make his way towards the figure up ahead.
Alice: I winked at Reece and Christina as I 'morphed' into one of the female guards, keeping the same clothes I was already wearing. This was by no means my first visit to The Gardens, so I'd met most of the staff already.
GM: The other person quickly revealed himself to be another guard, carrying a flash light. He approached Reece with confidence, indicating Christina and Alice with his flash light.
"What's going on there, Miller?"
Reece grabs Christina by the arm. "Found this one monkeying around near the Africa exhibit after hours. She nearly woke a rhino. By the time I got her out of there, she was so nervous she threw up on me." Reece makes a disgusted face. "Had to pull some old clothes from my locker."
GM: The guard frowned, lifting the flash light to shine at Alice's face. "I could have sworn that you..."
He trailed off, frowning.
"Threw up on you?" The guard redirected, frowning at Christina.
"Goddamn kids, can't keep hold of their lunches these days," Reece said, shaking his head. "Kid'll go rampage all about a bunch of elephants like it's nothing, but the moment she sees an authority figure it's spew city."
Alice: I wondered what the guard had intended to say about my doppleganger I was pretending to be... I smiled politely at him and shrugged, saying nothing yet.
Christina scowled and shot a glare at the guard, but made a show of wiping her face with her billowing sleeves, much of them were raggedly torn.
GM: "Alright. Well, I better get back to the rounds, you know what a bastard Marder is these days." The guard snorted. "I mean really, only stupid kids want to get into see the animals. Which is dangerous, young lady-" He shined the light at Christina, who shielded her face.
The guard blustered on with inflated importance, lecturing about the dangers she narrowly avoided, thanks to Miller. The guard wound down after a minute and started to walk off, signaling to 'Miller'.
'Miller' signals back, and waits for the guard to get well out of earshot before bursting out in a tiny fit of chuckles.
Alice: I waved after the guy as he left in a gesture of farewell.
"Spew city?" Christina repeats with a snort that could be laughter or derision, looking after the guard.
"Sister-city to vomit-town, population: you," Reece grins as he begins to demorph. He flexes his arms as the guard's flab solidifies back into swimmer's muscle. He lets out a contented sigh. "And hey!" he says, "it looks like my arm's healed!"
Alice: I smile at the banter between Reece and Christina. "Well, that seemed to go ok, eh?"
Christina scowled at her own torn sleeves and scraped arms, but darkly decides "Morphing a cheetah to heal these scratches probably isn't a good idea. Hey, whats that?"
She indicated the bag Alice was carrying.
Alice: "Hmm? Oh, this thing?" I glanced over my shoulder at the backpack I had on, shrugging. "Survival-bag. I rarely go anywhere without it: It contains everything a girl needs to stay alive and un-yeerked. Please don't ask me to show you everything in it though, it'd take too much time that'd be better-spent acquiring morphs." I answered, semi-evasively. Some of the stuff I'd pull from the backpack only existed as a hologram, after-all.
"Hey! Clever!" Reece says. "Speaking of supplies, when we're wrapped up here, I'd rather if we could discuss the matter of morphing clothes. When Sandra's de-yeerked and the day is saved, I don't want to have to explain to her all the time I spent running around in the nude with strange women."
Christina snorted with laughter. "On top of all of the odd things you'll have to explain, she'll be jealous of the other girls of our.. uh... our thing here. Which has yet to be named.
Speaking of time better spent getting morphs.." Christina glanced back towards the zoo.
"I agree- what else are we after?" Reece asks. "Do you still want to nab some Chimp DNA?"
Alice: While we were chatting, I quietly 'demorphed' and 'morphed' my 20-something alterego again.
"Oh yeah," Christina nodded. "- big time. And no, before you ask- not just so I can swing through the trees reenacting Tarzan. Come on."
She started heading back into the zoo proper.
Reece follows. "If you're not going to reenact Tarzan, I don't much see the point."
Alice: I let loose a polite-sounding giggle at Reece's humor.
"Well, there may be some screeching." Christina relented, smiling as she continued. She slowed as they neared the bear and primate area.
"Here we go. Chimpanzee. Please don't bite my finger off."
Christina murmered, moving in closer to the Chimpanzee exhibit.
