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[piecewise]

We should return to the Network with the information we gathered

+1

You somewhat reluctantly agree to return to the city with the information you've gathered; it seems a waste to leave when you're so close...but she makes a good point. You're not strong enough to get in there at the moment and risk the retribution it would bring upon you and your allies. You help Esme pack up the gear, deanimate the bird, and head back.

When you finally get on the train back to the city is somewhere in the very early morning, maybe around 2, and everything is utterly dark and quiet. As soon as you and Esme tip toe to your sleeping car she crawls into bed and passes out. You, after touching the bundle of papers tucked into your coat just to make sure its still there, settle in as well. You cross your arms over your chest, holding the papers tightly, and then tell yourself to sleep for a few hours. Everything goes black and...then you open your eyes. You feel like only seconds have passed and its still totally dark and quiet. You try to move and find yourself somewhat constrained. Something feels odd. Your arms are too long, legs too short. You struggle and burst free from whatever is restraining you; darkness giving way to the dim lights of the railroad carriage. You blink. The carriage is too large. Far too large. It must be...3 or 4 times the size it used to be....But no...Esme is there as well and she's as large as everything else. You whip your head around- further than you think you should be able to- and look for yourself.  There you are, sitting as you left yourself, apparently asleep.

You look down and bring your hands out from your sides to look at them. Feathers. You focus your eyes forward and a beak- blurry from proximity- comes partially into view.  The hawk. It was stuffed into the luggage next to you.  How are you here? Why are you here? You can't make sense of any of this. That hawk was deanimated, it shouldn't be even be able to move.

[Eschar]

Looks like we can possess creatures?

A less likely possibility is that we were noticed at the prison, a necro was there, and we've been moved into a hawk body to weaken us and get us off guard - or so the government can retrieve our body, Kelley's... experiment.


Also that first bit was terrifying. I thought we had been captured and transferred to some replica of the car so we wouldn't immediately know we were captured.

Look at the Anima to see if we notice any clues as to what's happening. Watch the strands from hawk-us and our normal body.

[Egan_BW]

Look for an opening to leave the car before someone notices.

[Eschar]

Look for an opening to leave the car before someone notices.

-1

And leave our main body defenseless while weird(-er than usual) stuff is happening? If anyone notices a hawk flying out of our bag then Kelley!Kelley is still going to attract a lot of attention.

[Superdorf]

Look at the Anima to see if we notice any clues as to what's happening. Watch the strands from hawk-us and our normal body.

+1

Also also, see if we can still order our human body to do things.

[Naturegirl1999]

Look at the Anima to see if we notice any clues as to what's happening. Watch the strands from hawk-us and our normal body.

+1

Also also, see if we can still order our human body to do things.

if we do this, make it subtle, like a small nod. Hawks have good vision, a human might not notice it, p,us our human body is supposed to be asleep

[Superdorf]

Nod is fine.

[King Zultan]

Look at the Anima to see if we notice any clues as to what's happening. Watch the strands from hawk-us and our normal body.

+1

Also also, see if we can still order our human body to do things.

if we do this, make it subtle, like a small nod. Hawks have good vision, a human might not notice it, p,us our human body is supposed to be asleep

+1

[Naturegirl1999]

(The comma was supposed to be an l, it was supposed to be plus)

[piecewise]

Look at the Anima to see if we notice any clues as to what's happening. Watch the strands from hawk-us and our normal body.

+1

Also also, see if we can still order our human body to do things.

if we do this, make it subtle, like a small nod. Hawks have good vision, a human might not notice it, p,us our human body is supposed to be asleep

+1

You look from yourself to the body that you consider your own. There is no tether back to it. You attempt to make it move, but it stays perfectly still. You try commanding it like you would a puppet and it doesn't move. You try commanding it like a servant and it doesn't move. You try moving your arm and move only your wing. You get closer and further away, and nothing happens. Several minutes have passed and no one has stormed into the room or otherwise taken action...so maybe this isn't an attack? Maybe its something else. You try to remember if you've ever gone to sleep next to a body you had previously controlled. You don't think so. Maybe its something to do with that? You look up and the connection to the anima that your human body once held is gone, but there is an anima connection to this hawk body. Hmm.

[Eschar]

That is... not good news.

Go to sleep again. See whose body we wake in.

[Naturegirl1999]

That is... not good news.

Go to sleep again. See whose body we wake in.

+1 Perch on the shoulder of our human body
Maybe proximity will help us switch back?

[King Zultan]

That is... not good news.

Go to sleep again. See whose body we wake in.

+1 Perch on the shoulder of our human body
Maybe proximity will help us switch back?

+1

[piecewise]

That is... not good news.

Go to sleep again. See whose body we wake in.

+1 Perch on the shoulder of our human body
Maybe proximity will help us switch back?

+1

You climb up onto your own shoulder after several awkward and ultimately failed attempts to fly. Once there you order your body to do two things: first to sleep and second to "Go back to your human body". You close your eyes and moments later reopen them. You look at your hands. Human. You reach over and pull the hawk off your shoulder. Its stiff as a board, as though in rigor mortis.  As a test, you set the bird body on the floor and once again sleep, this time ordering yourself to move into the bird.  You open your eyes and again are looking up at your human body. You transfer back and forth a half dozen times, quickly coming to the conclusion that distance doesn't seem to matter. At least as far as you can tell, the furthest you can try it is about 10 feet with the bird corpse all the way in one corner of the room and you in the other.

You scratch your chin. If distance doesn't matter, was the initial transfer just a fluke? Cause by proximity? You have to try something different. You think about the other bodies you have animated. Piecewise is still animated as a puppet and a quick test with the bird shows you can't hop into animated bodies. That rules out the other skeletons, who are still spirit animated. The rats back at the lab? You scattered them to the woods and told them to self destruct. They might still be out there.

You stuff the bird back in your luggage and close your eyes, focusing on your memories of one particular rat. That first attempt ends in failure, as you just wake up a moment later. You try again, with another rat in mind and this time you awaken somewhere else. You don't open your eyes, you don't think you have eyelids anymore. Or eyes. Your vision is odd, hazy, colorless. It must be how the creatures without eyes see the world. You see mostly outlines, dull blue outlines in black space. You can make out the shapes of trees, but the texture is so subtle you can hardly see it. Individual leaves stand out, but collections of them are just a blur. You try to move. You have no rear legs. You look down. The remaining body is mostly bones now, still being picked over by ants it seems. The lower half is gone. You can still move despite it all. You transfer back with a thought and reawaken in the passenger compartment. Esme is still sleeping. You feel...a little tired yourself and check your ring. The red glow is about half full.

This presents opportunities.

[Eschar]

Dang it, could someone remind me of the ring's purpose again? It makes us into a hyperlinguist invisible Dark Lord keeps track of our mana, right?