LOG: (Marius, Rahne) Training

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Obedience school Training with Rahne proves productive . . . er, for the most part.





"Can't believe I actually get to do something powers-related without Moira standin' next to me with a clipboard an' something to poke me with," Marius said, propping his waterbottle against a tree. He and Rahne stood at the end of one of the many trails cutting across school property -- not so far from the main building that there would be problems getting back if they had to cut the session short, but far enough that they probably wouldn't be disturbed. This was fine with Marius, since he suspected what they intended to do would be hard enough without any interruptions.

Rahne stretched, a light coating of fur rippling on her skin and fading as she shook off the lethargy from being fed on. It was less than the first and more violent occasion, but still there. "Well, having her chase us would be a wee bit tricky."

"True. Moira's built more for short, devastatin' bursts of speed. And though I can probably best her if we're goin' for distance an' I don't have to worry about a psychotic cat clinging to my scalp, I'd rather not repeat the experience." Marius began doing runner's stretches, limbering up. He wasn't sure they would do any good, but he was lightly dressed on the off-chance this worked, and it was cold enough to see his breath. In spite of the fact that his body had taken it upon itself to grow a decent pelt the minute he'd stepped outside, his muscles were still stiff. He glanced at Rahne, an eyebrow arched in inquiry. "Sure she'll be right for this? If you need a bit more time, just say."

"Ye can put on some impressive bursts of speed yuirself," Rahne observed. "I'll be fine. Less tired than before, and besides, 'tis no real problem if ye catch me."

"The shape I'm in, I doubt I'd be able to even if you were bipedal -- but there's no tellin' until we try, right?" He shook out his muscles, then dropped into a sprinter's crouch, one foot back and both hands on the cold, hard ground. He nodded at her. "Ready when you are."

It wasn't a complicated plan, but it had been based upon the few things he and Moira had been able to determine about what triggered his borrowed powers. While Rahne had been given a few hours to rest and eat after donating, Marius and Moira had been reviewing the security tapes of his encounters with Nathan and Rahne -- tapes which Marius had been shown before, but hadn't really analyzed. Once he got past the initial weirdness of watching his involvement in incidents he couldn't remember, he began to notice the same pattern Moira had found.

Every use of borrowed power had been reactive. Nathan's telekinesis had been triggered by Moira's efforts to separate the two of them, and Rahne's lycanthropy had been employed as a response to Haroun's attack. Additionally, whatever he had done to Dani had been provoked by her involuntary use of her powers on him. With this evidence taken into account, Moira theorized -- and Marius had to agree -- that whatever powers he had manifested in response to some form of stimuli.

The theory was relatively simple. The real challenge had been figuring out how to provide the proper stimulus without anything so dramatic as outright assault. Furthermore, his preformance a few weeks ago indicated Marius seemed to lack Rahne's instinct for uniform shapechange, which might have been a mitigating factor in his difficulty changing back -- the physical alterations had been so varied he'd been too disoriented to attempt what even in the best of circumstances wasn't an easy thing to master. Thus, their task became finding a way to provoke a change in Marius that was 1) not come to by means of violence, and 2) as uniform as possible.

Ultimately, it had been Rahne who'd proposed a solution. After some discussion, she had pointed out that she was fastest when running as full-wolf. If Marius' body needed incentive to initiate a shift, then perhaps a race would be the simplest, least dangerous way to provide just that.

So now here they were, miraculously by Moira's own consent, about to attempt a footrace that would ideally result in double the amount of pairs of legs to number of participants. It was a little bizarre, but at least Marius could console himself with the fact that he was ensured a work-out today.

"You'll have to say 'go,'" Rahne told him cheerfully, shifting to her transitional form. "I'll not be able to talk in a second." And she shifted all the way to wolf and dropped to all fours, grinning over at him.

Marius grinned. "Well, I was going to be a gentleman and let the lady decide, but since you insis-GO!"

His initial burst had already taken him several yards ahead by the time Rahne could sound an indignant bark. Not that the headstart was much help -- an instant later a rust-colored blur flashed past him, long and low to the ground. Grin widening with the manic gleam of competition, Marius pounded after her.

Since the idea was to focus on speed rather than endurance, they had agreed upon a distance of a hundred yards. It was a distance Marius could handle easily, but by the time he reached the end he was still trailing Rahne and still stubbornly bipedal. He glanced down, surveying the fur that coated his quite human legs accusingly.

"My powers are doin' this on purpose, aren't they," he grumbled.

Rahne shifted back to her transitional form. "Well, ye grow fur well...."

"Yeah, but that I could do when Moira turned down the heat in Medlab. It'd be nice to manage something I'm actually trying to do for once, y'know?" Marius scratched his head, contemplating the path. "Maybe this is too easy. Think we should try going off path? That's got to be more difficult on two legs than four, right?"

"I'd say considerably." Rahne looked around for a moment, then shifted and dived straight off into the trees, moving at an easy lope until she was sure Marius was following her, and then staying just ahead and accelerating gradually.

His suspicions were now confirmed -- running through the woods as a human sucked. Marius couldn't decide whether he should be grateful that the undergrowth was almost nonexistant, or to curse the fact that what remained was now unencumbered by any form of botanical padding. He was spending as much time concentrating on where his feet were going as watching for the russet blotch of fur ahead of him, bounding easily through the skeleton trees and treacherous drifts of rotting leaves.

And as the minutes passed he still wasn't feeling anything but mounting irritation and an equally increasing number of scratches. Once he saw Rahne slow, looking askance over her shoulder, but he shook his head and shouted for her to continue. He was going to figure this out if it killed him -- or, more likely, flayed him.

Damn. He had really been hoping this would work. He wasn't afraid of pain, but after sampling the fruits of Haroun's rehabilitation he was also quite sure he wasn't an idiot. Besides, there had to be a way to trigger a reaction without taking a kick to the face.

What had been the common thread to the manifestations? Violence, obviously, but what exactly did that imply? Danger. A threat to his person. Clearly this classification did not include a run through the woods, regardless of how spiky the terrain.

So the question remained: how did one endanger oneself without the benefit of violence?

Even as the idea occurred to him, Marius realized it was probably wasn't a good one. He was certain it wasn't a smart one. But then, neither of these possibilities had ever been a particularly effective deterrent.

Oh well. He knew from experience that Rahne's powers assisted healing somewhat, so really, in the long run the worst he would have to endure was explaining his injuries.

Decision made, Marius wasted no more time on thought. Ignoring the tightness in his chest that reminded him his stamina was still less than impressive, Marius changed his stride. A short burst of speed, one-two-three, and with the last step he launched himself forward at a trajectory that ensured the only thing likely to break his fall was his own chin.

Rahne had checked that her forward path was clear and turned her head back to glance at Marius again just in time to see his stride go fast and choppy as if he meant to jump -- only the jump looked more like it was going to be a belly flop. She yelped and twisted the rest of the way around, intending to try to soften the landing.

With the ground rushing up to meet him, he changed.

The arms involuntarily going down in what should have been a futile attempt to break his fall went grey and slender, the fingers drawing shorter; several joints changed direction and his weight distribution rearranged itself. His nose and mouth drew out into a muzzle, the back of his shorts bunched out with what was certainly a tail....

The dark-grey wolf landed with his forelegs first, which was all right, and then stumbled and rolled right over one shoulder because he'd planted his front feet and the hind ones had still been in shoes. Rahne ducked aside as one flew past her and trotted up to peer down at Marius.

As getting to his feet had been complicated by the abruptly ill-fitted clothing and an increase in the expected number of legs, Marius settled for lifting his head to look at her. It was a little disorienting; for a start, his peripheral vision now encompassed nearly 180 degrees, and not only had his ability to process color remained, it seemed to have picked up several new shades as well. His surprise wasn't helped by the fact that his plan appeared to have worked, although it failed to overshadow the relief that he wouldn't be explaining any suspicious fractures to Moira this evening.

Then the realization of success sunk in, and his mouth split in a huge, canine grin. He pushed himself to all fours and shook himself so hard the one paw that could still lay claim to a shoe slipped and dropped him right back into a sitting position. Oh yeah, clothing. Suddenly not quite so useful anymore.

Rahne looked up at him and then along him. Marius made a very large wolf, though even more conspicuously scrawny than he had been as a human. That might have had something to do with the fact that she'd gotten mostly used to his human appearance by now, though.

Reflecting resignedly that she should have thought to make sure he got shapeshifting clothing himself, Rahne shifted back to a transitional form and crouched. "Well... let's get ye out of that, then... unless ye think ye might change back in short order?"

"Mmrrrm," Marius responded, the reply as doubtful as he could manage. He was still buzzing from the initial change -- he didn't really feel capable of (or inclined to) shifting back just yet. For the moment, he contented himself to letting Rahne assist in the removal of his clothing, using the opportunity to adjust to the new muscles and altered center of gravity. It was surprisingly easy; there was none of the conflict he'd felt when he'd woken up to find various parts of his body in varying degrees of transition. Moira had been right -- shapeshifting was definitely easier to handle when everything matched.

She was undressing a boy in the middle of the woods. Whatever would Reverend Craig think? Then again, Rahne reflected, if one looked at it as undressing a large dog she'd found who had had the misfortune of being put into clothing, Reverend Craig would surely approve of the rescue. At least she was pretty well guaranteed he didn't have fleas.

Rahne prized off his shoe, completing what was probably the least erotic instance of assisted undressing in his past five years of life, and Marius stepped back to shake himself out again. He didn't feel particularly undressed, at least; the weight of fur on his skin was an effective substitute, and definitely provided better insulation.

Now appropriately unencumbered, Marius took the opportunity to take stock of the situation. The first thing he noticed was that he was big. Bigger than Rahne in her transitional state, at least while she was crouching down, and for some reason this pleased him enormously. His pleasure translated into a startling movement in his hindquarters, which a glance over his shoulder revealed was a wagging tail. His amusement at this discovery caused the wagging to intensify, and in a fit of silliness he whirled around to snap at it. The action took it out of his range, so he twirled faster to continue his pursuit, and in moments he was back on the ground, dizzy but exhilirated, and holding a triumphant mouthful of tail.

Rahne sat down laughing. Not that she hadn't done it herself -- she'd even gotten Jamie in on it (in a tailless spinning-around version) a couple of weeks ago, as a less futile and more pleasing pursuit than arguing on the journals. As Marius looked over at her, she shifted quickly and bounded around him, fairly capering and her own tail waving.

Really big for a wolf. Possibly taller than Hrimhari, if only by a shade, though she doubted if Hrimhari had ever been that thin unless the pack had had a bad year sometime when he was half grown.

Marius grinned at her, scrambling to his feet to join the whirling. She smelled like warmth and fur and a faint undertone of raspberry shampoo, and he was fascinated by how her passage seemed to leave each scent hanging in the air around her. Her warm, living scent stood out like a beacon in the cold of the woods.

The woods . . . oh yes, they were still in the woods. Well, as long as they were here, he might as well find out just how much easier they were to run as a wolf. Marius stopped bounding and turned to face deeper into the woods, glancing over his shoulder at Rahne. He barked and jerked his head towards the trees, muscles bunched in a manner not unlike the runner's crouch he'd assumed back on the trail.

Rahne came up beside him and tensed as well, tail still waving slightly, ears pricked forward. He had the definite stride advantage now, but that was no reason not to play.

They managed to take off at roughly the same time, streaking under branches and shrugging aside the lowest ones, weaving through or around narrow places. Rahne ran stretched low to the ground, long fast strides trying to match his longer legs.

Marius grinned to hear her straining to keep even with him but kept his eyes on the ground ahead, memorizing the feel of every bow of spine and bounce of tail. Running like this was the most natural thing in the world, but ten minutes ago he wouldn't have been able to imagine anything remotely like it. Now it was so easy . . .

But he wasn't up to maintaining this pace for long. He began to lose ground, panting, while Rahne swept past him as fast and steady as ever. Finally, he had to admit he was spent. He slowed to a walk, then stopped, gulping for air and feeling strange twinges in muscles unaccustomed to working in this way -- or, in some cases, hadn't even existed until a few minutes ago. He looked up at Rahne, chest heaving, and gave her a weary tail-wag of surrender.

Rahne nosed his shoulder in a friendly way -- when he hadn't been recently half starved he'd probably be able to win -- and flopped down, leaving them both some time to rest before tilting her head in the direction of the school. Marius looked rather reluctant, so she thumped her tail and put her head back down on her paws, relaxing.

The second time, however, they both set off at a comfortable lazy amble. Even if they hadn't been hunting, there was a definite success to show off.

They stopped off to collect his clothing, though the shoes proved a bit problematic when Marius insisted on carrying everything himself; Rahne solved this by shifting to her transitional form and tying the laces together so Marius could sling them around his neck while he carried the rest in his mouth. His feeling of accomplishment continued all the way through the requisite interview with Moira. In fact, the complication only arose as he and Rahne were preparing to leave the Medlab.

This was the point at which Rahne paused and looked from Marius to the nearest changing room. "Ye might want to try changing back in private," she said. "I didna think about making sure we'd asked Forge about a set of shapeshifting clothes in yuir size." Though Catseye's might fit him. Sort of. Aside from the tail, oh dear. "And ye might have less trouble with it, but I had a verra hard time stopping in the middle at first."

Marius nodded, trotting inside the room and not at all smug that the smell of the place wasn't nauseating him, even with enhanced senses. With this afternoon's success it looked like he really had been over-reacting -- he was all over this mastering-his-powers thing.

He dropped his clothes, slipped the shoes from around his neck, and concentrated.

And concentrated.

And kept concentrating.

He glared at his front paws. The were still firmly canine, and after they had continued to remain so for the next ten minutes Marius gave up.

Well, he thought as he moved to nose open the door, at least it'll be a while before I have to worry about shapeshifting clothes . . .