Not what you expect on the first day of work{Esme}

[Trapper Petano]

Is was rather embarrassing that she broke down right in front of her best friend here at Hammel yet in a way it was a good release of all those bottled up emotions, at least she didn’t do something that she would have regretted but she wasn’t that type of person anyway.

Today was a new day with lots of promise ahead and Trapper hoped it would also help her with her ahhh well . . . Ability. Just her trainers and mentors thinking. So with hope and a spring in her step she went off to find the research department where she was to help with cleaning cages, feeding, monitoring, filing and other mundane things that interns do.

Trapper held out the map and looked at the paper she had been given, she was heading in the right direction. She glanced at her watch and quickened her step, she didn’t want to be late, in fact she was excited and wanted to be plenty early for her first day, you know impress the boss.

Once she got to the area and found the room stated on her paper, the lights were on but when she walked in she didn’t find anyone, but of course she was early, ok really early by more then a half an hour.

She put her bag, that contained her lunch, a hairbrush and a sweater as well as a book, notebooks and her pencil case on a chair and being inquisitive started to look around the place and from the looks of it it look like someone had been there with a coffee still piping hot in an insulated mug. Upon future investigation she would come across some clothes that were on the floor, wait, on the floor? Why would there be clothes on the floor? “Odd” she thought as she picked up the stay clothing from the floor and placed them on the chair before going back to looking at things in the massive department.

There were cages of all sorts of small animals and some cats and dogs that seemed confused as to way they were there. She went back to the office area to escape the animals voices that flooded her head. As she sat in a chair she noticed a side room and got up, went inside and found a large plexi-glass pool with some kind of creature inside of it., no it could be, but it sure looked like it, stepping closer carefully “OMG it is an octopus!” she said with some excitement in her voice, but then wondered why they would have an octopus here. Her hands went to the cool, smooth glass her eyes following the creature.

“What are you looking at?” came inside her head. Trapper stepped back away from the tank, her eyes widened. “It talks!” she almost yelled out loud but stopped her self.

[Esme Bakus]

Esme wasn’t too sure about working with an intern who was still a student at the school. She had a hard enough time with the other interns, let alone ones still young enough to be in high school. Mostly on a social level. But that was another story. Trapper looked to be a promising candidate. She had a power that was relevant, and good recommendations from her teachers.
Hopefully she’d be on time as well.

Well, it would have been nice for Trapper to be on time is Esme was in any way paying any attention to the time. She’d slipped into the tank approximately twenty minutes prior, thinking of just taking some quick observations before having to show Trapper around the labs. Some quick observation had quickly devolved into some not-so-studious tasks.

There was a mirror in the tank, and Esme had spent ten of the last twenty minutes in front of it, waving her spindly tentacles about in as many fashions as she could manage. And in the form of a mimic Octopus, those fashions were many. “Yeah you’re big. What are you looking at?” She said – well, thought—to her reflection in the mirror. She zipped behind the looking glass when a muffled response in English came from outside the tank.

“God, who is that?” She thought, swimming to the glass. Her cephalopodan eyes could make out the blonde girl behind the glass, but only barely. Using her tentacles she suctioned herself to the glass to get a better look. Inner dread filled Esme. “Oh. My. God. Trapper? Is that you? Can you hear me, Trapper?” She thought as hard as she could, wondering if the girl could understand her.

[Trapper Petano]

Her heart was beating fast, Trapper never thought that she could hear fish, much less an octopus! She had taken a few steps back, she wanted to run just like she had done so many times before whenever the voices of animals got to her as before in the animal section of the department but before she turned to leave she thought she heard something again.

“Oh. My. God. Trapper? Is that you? Can you hear me, Trapper?” was inside her head, she turned to it shocked, truly shocked.

Trapper looked like she had seen a ghost, she felt faint as she froze, her eyes glued on the creature in the tank before her ‘it knows my name?’ she thought to herself ‘no this couldn’t be?’ there can’t be animals with auhhh, no this was not right.


Cocking her head she noticed it almost looked like it was pressing itself up on the glass, like if it was looking at her.

Somehow she found courage to face this creature, maybe it was Cath talk with her yesterday and whatever it was she was for the first time not running away from what was clearly scaring the living day lights out of her.

Take a few really bold steps up to the tank she place her hands on it, looking over the creature before “HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?” she demanded of the octopus before her, her eyes glued to the creatures eyes.

[Esme Bakus]

Esme’s tentacles recoiled from the glass, folding in on her malleable body as Trapper’s oppressive thoughts pushed through he mind. It didn’t hurt, but it was certainly uncomfortable. And she couldn’t bring herself to look away from her intern’s eyes.

“My name is Esme Bakus. Trapper…I’m the researcher you’re looking for. You’ve just caught me at a very strange time.” Truth be told, Esme was positively giddy that Trapper could hear her at all, and understand her. This was a totally unprecedented level of understand regarding shape shifting meta-humans. Though their human consciousness and understanding remained, their mental communication capacity was close enough to animals that animal communicators could understand!

Oh…right. Intern. Freaking out.

“I’m a shapeshifter, Trapper. If you don’t mind…Sweety could you turn around and stand a little ways off? If you want I can change to my usual form and we can talk just us two girls.” Esme’s tentacles unfolded again, pressing against the glass gracefully. “though if you ask me, you’re doing a bang up job this way!”

[Trapper Petano]

“My name is Esme Bakus. Trapper…I’m the researcher you’re looking for. You’ve just caught me at a very strange time.” Trapper would hear in her head wich made a cold chill run down her spine, goosebumps formed on her arms, she was scared frozen at this point, then she heard more of the voice in her head.

“I’m a shapeshifter, Trapper. If you don’t mind…Sweety could you turn around and stand a little ways off? If you want I can change to my usual form and we can talk just us two girls.” Trapper turned around with thinking, then turned back to the tank, she took one step closer, she put her hand on the tank but when the creature moved she took a step back as the creature talked again to her.

“though if you ask me, you’re doing a bang up job this way!” It was true she wanted to run, but she was frozen stiff, well more like scared stiff. Yet when your scared you stay to watch like the horror movies, you don’t really want to see the blood and guts and yet you watch because there is that small part of you that does enjoy it and here too there was something that Trapper found interesting, why else would she stay even though she was scared too stiff to move.

[Esme Bakus]

Well now there was a predicament. She certainly wasn’t going to shift right smack in front of her intern. No use flashing her nudity to the new help. But Trapper wasn’t responding to anything Esme was trying to tell her. She wasn’t sure if it was side effects or simple fear that was making Trapper do absolutely nothing. But there really wasn’t anything Esme could do as an octopus.

Short of continuing to talk to Trapper, but that didn’t seem to do her any good. Even her gentle encouragement had stunned the girl into silence. Without any wiggle room in her decision making, Esme just waited for Trapper to calm down and make a move.



[OoC:: extra short! Sorry love.]

[Trapper Petano]

After what seemed like a long while Trapper had a thought ‘maybe that’s why those clothes were on the floor?’ and with that Trapper turned and gathered up the clothes she found on the floor earlier that she had draped over the chair in the office, she returned to the tank and carefully placed the clothes on the edge of the pool. She couldn’t help but stare at the creature, she could have never imagined that “that” creature was also a human, something she would have to talk about with Esme … later.

Trapper placed both hands on the tank looking at the octopus before her “I put your clothes here ok?” she would say before turning on her heels and quickly leaving the room where the tank was.
She returned to the office where she took out her hairbrush and nervously brushed her hair until it ran thru the long silky locks with ease as she waited for Esme with baited breath as they say, my did she have so many questions she wanted to ask of her!.

[Esme Bakus]

There were a lot of expressions that humans could make that just weren’t suited to octopods. For example, sighing with relief. Had Esme been human, she would have sighed with relief when Trapper finally snapped out of things and decided to leave the room. Additionally, nodding wasn’t really an option when your arms were attached directly to your face. Instead, she had to give Trapper some verbal encouragement. “Thank you, sweetie. I’ll be right with you.”

When the blonde girl was safely out of the room, Esme began to clamber out of the tank. Octopi were surprisingly dexterous, so it was no effort at all to free herself from the open top. The challenge came in shifting as she did so. When she splattered to the floor, she was still halfway between octopus and human. As soon as she had legs, she groped around for her towel, the blindness an immediate side effect of the change.

Having dried and with her sight returning, Esme quickly pulled on her clothes and wrapped her head up in the towel to keep her hair contained. She scurried out to where Trapper was and stuck her head out of the door. “OH god, Honey I’m so so sorry. Come in, come in.” She waved frantically for Trapper to return to the lab, looking as if she’d just kicked a puppy. “So like I said, my name is Esme Bakus.”

[Trapper Petano]

Trapper was already heading out of the tank area when Esme thought spoke to her “Thank you, sweetie. I’ll be right with you.” but she didn’t hear it as her head was full of questions for Esme as it was the first time she would meet someone that could also be an animal!

Yet when Esme came back to talk with her Trapper was speechless “How?” , “YOU?” , “NO!?!” softly escaped her lips as her brain would attempt to wrap around the idea that the person before could be an animal too. Suddenly she had a scary thought ‘what if the animals she was hearing were really people trapped in animal form'? Trapper shook her head in a slight panic from the thought she just had.

“How …. Can … you ….do … that?” she asked as she slowly walked around her wondering about that very question, her eyes scanning Esme her mind still wheeling with questions yet couldn’t get them out.

[Esme Bakus]

Esme held up her hands in alarm as Trapper accosted her with a barrage of disbelief. “Woah, Trapper. Calm down. I’m a shapeshifter. That’s my meta-ability.” She explained slowly as Trapper circled her like a hungry wolf. “Don’t they like, teach you about that in this school or something?” She asked, giggling nervously.

She planted her hands on her hips. “And, if I’m not mistaken, your meta-ability is animal communication.” She grinned at Trapper, hoping to get the girl to relax. “Bet ya didn’t think you could talk to cephalopods, huh?” Esme chirped.

[Trapper Petano]

“Woah, Trapper. Calm down. I’m a shapeshifter. That’s my meta-ability.” She explained “Don’t they like, teach you about that in this school or something?”
She planted her hands on her hips. “And, if I’m not mistaken, your meta-ability is animal communication.” Esme continued “Bet ya didn’t think you could talk to cephalopods, huh?” Esme chirped.

‘a shape shifter?” an unexpected chill ran down the length of her body making her notability shiver, the concept was a bit to much for Trapper to fully understand the dynamics of someone who could shape shift.

Her head slightly cocked to one side a vain attempt to grasp the situation at hand, with a long drawn of breath Trapper tried to relax which was difficult since she was excited and now wondering about all this shape shifting business.

She nodded positive to Emse questions about her ability and about talking to octopi, maybe it was the new shock of learning that a human being could shape shift into an animal that would leave her speechless only replying to Esme’s questions is a whisper voice.

“Does it umm, you know” she looked away almost like she was planning an escape route to the nearest door “hurt?” she rubbed her wrists together excited and yet scared at the same time.

[Esme Bakus]

Clearly they weren’t teaching meta-human diversity at Hammel. Maybe Esme ought to talk to the school head about that…it was just as dangerous to have meta-humans who weren’t knowledgable about each other as it was to have non-powered humans who didn’t understand.

Esme shrugged nonchalantly. “Oh, sometimes it does .Really bad. I’ve been doing it for so long I don’t think I feel it anymore.” She mused, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “But the blindness is definitely the worst side effect.” Esme crossed her eyes playfully and giggled. “You’d think with all the crazy differences my biology was shifting through, the eyes would be the least of my problems but…you know how side effects are. Just…willy nilly!”

[Trapper Petano]

Trappers eyes crossed as Esme crossed hers as Esme spoke about shifting and its effect on her body. She forced a smile but her mind still seemed stuck on the whole shifting from animal to human and back again, there was still the gnawing question she had to ask “Are all animals human shifters like you? Is that why I can hear them?”

It may have seemed like a silly question to a common person who didn’t know about metas, but for Trapper her question laid a deeper meaning, maybe just maybe that she was telepathic and she could hear humans even in there animal form, not just someone who could hear animals talking to her. Like how many people would really want to continually hear the thoughts of the animals around themselves? Sure at the beginning it was fun and exciting, but she didn’t know how to shut it off and now she struggled with it every waking moment.

[Esme Bakus]

Esme was starting to really think that Trapper was either insane, or that she really needed to discuss some schooling with the new head mistress. It seemed the young blonde really thought Esme was an octopus. She really didn’t understand the concept of a shapeshifter?

“No, Trapper. Animals are animals. Humans are humans.” She explained slowly. “Some meta-humans have the ability to briefly change their biology to match that of other animals.” Esme pointed out. It was really difficult to explain science without using science jargon, but she was going to do her best. “You can communicate with animals because of your meta-human DNA…not because they’re secretly humans.”

[Trapper Petano]

Trapper nodded as Esme talked and explained things to her, she felt like a little kid learning to walk, falling over and over again, yet one day that kid walks, and Trapper just wished that control would come sooner then later.

For some reason the incident with Psalms seeing eye dog was fresh in her mind, Trapper may have looked lost or if she was dissociated but it was just because she was very deep in thought. Once she snapped out of her ‘daydream’ she looked at Esme gave a small smile and asked what she would be doing and when she could start.

Trapper always so egger to please.