She then turns to Ollie, "Well, at first everything seemed fine onboard, the only thing amiss was an aditional chair, but it feltright. As I left" .oO(This'll sound kookie)Oo. "I hand the oddestthought, I had an image of a chair, and it didn't feel like mythought.".oO(Thinking about it, "youth" had almost the same feel to it....)Oo.

"Sounds like the misterous(sp?) Telepath that contated me earlyer tried to say 'hello' to you, and used pictures to try to talk to. You see the Pegasus, can't 'make' new seats, so I'm assumming that the Path is also a shapeshifter."

{Shapeshifter? Like, a blob of goo? That could make itself look like me? Don't like the sound of that!}

Uri excuses himself and goes off to have a wee chat with the family. Given his family is quite large this takes roughly 45 minutes.

"Great, so I might have sat on someone, and they've been in my head?" .oO(Hmmm, shapeshifter, the possibilities are endless.......)Oo.

"quite possible, shall we go meet our 'Courious' friend?" Oliver says toKei, jestering to the Pegasus.

"Why not, something to do while waiting for Uri..." With that Kei turns andstarts walking back to the Pegasus, Oliver following just behind her.

As they enter the cabin they see that there is indeed someone waiting for themonboard, or rather something. A featureless humanoid figure which looks likeit's made out of a golden liquid stands in the centre of the cabin. The overall

shape suggests female but is sufficiently androgynous you couldn't really say either way.

.oO(Is it female? It seems to have breasts, but no one's _that_ small afterpuberty...)Oo.

The breasts enlarge to the size of pillows, the waist shrinks till a guy couldput one hand around it.

.oO(...then again, that's even more ridiculous... I wonder why it changed?)Oo.

The 'morph's statistics shift to a more realistic but still exaggerated size.

.oO(Either the lights bad or that thing's face is non-existent. It looks likeit might have eyes...)Oo.

The eyes enlarge till they dominate the face. There is no colouration to theeyes, they are golden right across.

.oO(...funky...is that a nose, I guess so as that looks like a mouth justbelow...)Oo.

A beak forms where the nose should be then forms a muzzle with visible canines. Though it is tidy enough not to drool. Eventually it shifts to a more humanmouth under the emerging nose.

Kei blinks, a puzzled expression appears on her face, .oO(Is it just me or isthat thing reacting to my thoughts?)Oo.

The head raises, the neck just stretching straight up, then it nods slowly, animage of the chair appears in Kei's mind again. Kei thinks of a table.

The figure seems to melt, fluidly shifting it's shape into a table basedloosely on the design of the chairs. After a couple of seconds the table flowsback into the feminine form it was before

Kei's face switches to the grin of someone fiddling with a new and wondroustoy..oO(Well, that seems to answer that question. What else can you do? Skin tone,hmmm, perhaps a tad more tan... Good, now hair colour, lets try brown, slightlylighter...)Oo.

With each suggestion the appearance of the shape-shifter shifts as Kei instructs, Hair lengthens, skin and hair colouration shifting. With eachsuggestion the 'shifter' exaggerates something, Kei keeps re-suggesting tillit's more or less what she initially thought of.

After a couple of minutes or so, a thought occurs to Kei,.oO(I can do specifics, how about something more abstract... Me)Oo.

After a brief hesitation, scanning Kei's appearance it makes a perfectduplicate of Kei. The colouration is perfect, then perfected, as well.

Kei blinks as she looks at the person standing across from her, herself. 'She'blinks back. A cough come from slightly behind her. It's only then she realisesthat the new Kei is standing there naked. A full body blush begins at 'her'toes and climbs making some interesting changes to the colours of some parts...

Going ever so slightly red, Kei thinks of herself in the outfit she wore beforetraining yesterday. "Oops..." she says as her double morphs into the looselytied shirt and denim cut-offs. This probably makes those present mildlyuncomfortable as the clothes simply slide out of the skin, take shape and fade to the right colour.

.oO(Damn I look good....)Oo.The 'morph get a brief image of Kei running her hands over her doupleganger.Kei shakes her head breifly at the thought..oO(...woah, too wierd, get a grip girl... If that thing reads minds, I'd hateto think of anything too risque...yet....)Oo.

Grining at that last thought, Kei turnes towards Ollie and says, "I think youmight be right about the telepath being a shape-shifter."

A whistle begins outside human hearing and drops through the normal rangequickly. When it gets to the bottom it drops to a sensation rather than a noise.

'EEEEEyyyyyeeee... tttttt ttttt thhhiinnnnkkkk....'

[It clears its 'throat.'] "I think you might be right about the telepath beinga shape-shifter."

The voice changes range like a kid in puberty, stabilizing towards the endslowly. It also bears a lot of similarities to Kei's.

Oliver nods to Kei that tanking a stab in the dark say to the to theshape-shifting telepath in Russian{"Hello, I'm Oliver. What's your Name?"}

{"Hello, I'm Oliver. What's your Name?"} As it speaks it transforms to the shape of Oliver.

Oliver says agian in english, it aprrest not to know russian either, so itisn't local, hummm, you adentified it as the telepath, is it in mentalcontact with you Kei?"

"I think so... It seemed to be taking cues from my thoughts as to whatshape it assumed..."

.oO(Let's see, Bruce Campbell's cute....)Oo. A mental image of Bruce,as seen in 'Army of Darkness' forms in Kei's mind, .oO(Oops, betterlose the chainsaw...)Oo. She imagines a younger version of Bruce basedoff his appearance in 'Brisco County Junior'

Bruce Campbell forms out of Oliver in an 'unnatural' morph. Thefeatures that are required simply appear out of nowhere while the oldfeatures blend into the background. [In short, nothing at all like acomputer morph.]

The first attempt includes the chainsaw, until it is removed. Followedby the younger version.

"Kei, I wish you to think of your self in relation to your name, thn thinkspasifly of it, but try to do so, and a questioning way...Lets see who itis, and where it is from."

.oO(It would be an excelt adtion to the team, but would it want tojoin...)Oo.

"Nani!?! How I'm I supposed to do that???"
[For non-japanese speaking persons, Nani = what]

"Image yourself, and think abut your name 'kei' in refance to the image,then think an image of the shapeshifter, most probale think of it as animmage of it dure one of it shape changes, and think abut the consept ofjust what a question is,it's not sumuch a question of traing to explane afeeling, more just exprancing the question. Telepathy is simpluea than alangauge, for explaing the more 'basic' things."

"Ooohkay...." Kei imagines herself, then whilst holding that thought,thinks of her name. After a second or so, she imagines the shifter asit was changing between the two images of Bruce Campbell and tries tothink of the concept of a question.

.oO(Well, i've now got a headache, I wonder if that actuallyacomplished anything)Oo.

The shifter keeps its form of Bruce Campbell but the index fingerselongate into thin, though clearly visible, tenticles. These oozetowards Kei and Oliver wrapping gently around a hand of each.

The field of vision for both dims, and their other senses reduce also.Overlaid onto this is a star field, and you get the distinct impressionthat you are paying most attention to the small cluster of stars overyour right ear. [The field of vision is 360 degree 8-)]

With a slight jolt, the center of attention slides to approximate yournormal field of view.

In the center is a bright yellow star that is noticeably receeding from'you.' Around this a number of other stars are visible, none as brightand none display the same motion. An indecipherable thought nudges'you' into motion.

You become more aware of a hexagonal container with alien markings onit, behind you. You slide across the floor effortlessly and into thecan, a last glimpse at the portal shows a small pair of planetoidszipping past. Then the view from outside is cut off completely as thetop panel drops onto the container, sealing it with a hiss.

A couple of odd thoughts occur to you and a feeling of 'must_learn' and'sleep' covers you like a warm blanket.

There is a blip, a bit like an advert has been removed from a programmeon video tape.

There is a clank, a sharp motion and then complete silence with noapparent motion. Then there is a low sound which rises in intensity.The temperature increases to a mild warmth and there are sharp motions,best described as buffeting.

A horrendous crash spreads 'your' volume over the 'bottom' of thecontainer.

No sound, light or motion is experienced for sometime. You get thedistinct impression that this is on time lapse, with time markersappearing every so often.

At distinct intervals 'you' make every attempt to escape from this can,including, in desperation, corroding it with your touch.

Kei notices abstractly[?] that Oliver tears his hand away with amazingrapidity.

Kei maintains contact, not realising that contact is not required as she israther curious as to the rest of the story.

You are now floating in a container half full of acid. With plenty oftime marks having past. Ho hum, the acid level drops quickly over thenext few markers.

MOTION! The container moved!

[And for the remainder of this gripping installment, reread the postsabout Uri and the Blob.]

The lights come on and standing in front of you is the androgynoushumanoid shape that you first saw when you entered the plane.

Kei thinks .oO(That was way cool!)Oo.

Oliver's thoughts, out loud, "Interesting identity, the problem is whatare we going to _call_ you?"

Almost without thinking Kei sugests "Kata?"

"It is as good as any, if It likes it. So it wants to leran does it, wellif it sticks around it will do just that, and it just might come inhand." Oliver looks at his watch, "Uri, should be just about ready now..."and sits down and waits

Kei and the golden humanoid face each other and simply look at eachother. A brief play of facial expressions flow over Kei's face,followed shortly after by the golden humanoid changing shape.

Without any fooling around the shapeshifter slides seamlessly tothe form of a 25ish year old male, standing 6' tall. His longblack hair frames a clean shaven, thin face, placed atop a lean,athletically muscled body.

He is wearing a trenchcoat, jeans, and a shirt buttoned to justbelow the collar; a pair of black boots finishes the outfit.

All of the clothing is top of the line 'labeled' stuff.

In all respects of shape and colouration Kata is indistinquishablefrom a human being, save for the eyes, which remain the original golden.

[Note to all interested, they don't blink either.]

He has even begun to move in a more human manner, as opposed toremaining totally motionless as he had before.

Kata is presently wearing a pleasantly amused, cheerful expression.

He continues to look at Kei, this time there are signs of expressionsforming on his face.

Uri walks in at this point, dressed in rough clothing - tattered woollenjersey, jeans, boots and a fur hat of the traditional Russki variety. He carries a battered canvas duffel and has a well kept whip tucked into hisbelt.

He says hi...unfortunately those of you who don't speak Russian have a littlebit of difficulty. He has a second look at Kata's face andappears to be very curious. Mutters under his breath "hmmm...cat?" and sits.

Now Kata forms a new picture [in Kei's mind], it is of himself and Kei facing eachwith their mouths moving. There is a sense of lack and desire to bunderstood.

Kei is perplexed at this, and Kata can definitly sence lack ofcomprenhension on her part

"I think you might be right about the telepath being a shape-shifter,"Kata says while forming the impression of emptiness and need forunderstanding to Kei.

The voice is now a very good imitation of Kei's.

At the sound of her own voice Kei thinks .oO(The pich needs to belower)Oo."I think it... he want's to learn how to speek"

At the sound of this Kata forms a big grin and repeats it. This timehis voice starts a little lower than Kei's normal tones; droppingsteadily at each mental flinch that Kei, or Oliver, make.

Kata looks at Uri in a quietly calculating and meditative manner."Kei, thats just as well as the first thing on the curreculem is to getyou all speaking the same language.

Uri looks back{'Who's our friend here?'}

Kata steps towards Uri and in a faltering male voice though otherwiseperfect Russian says, {"Hi, I am Kata."} At the same time he extents hisright hand hesitantly.

The ramp closes, and the engens begin to warm up.

{"Uri, that there is Kata. Another 'student' at the school."} Olvier says.

Kata looks around looking vaguely puzzled, into Oliver's and Kei's mind heinserts the image of his being bathed in light after being released fromhis container. From Oliver he picks up the image of the reading lightsabove the seating. He inserts a brief sense of gratitude into theirminds, breaks the connections and seats himself in one of the seats andswitchs on the light.

It is obvious that he finds this very pleasant and is trying to get closeto the light. He is also remaining very interested in everything thatgoes on around him.