NOTEAgreed beforehand in chat.
Once Max finished his archery, which was mostly a success other than a single miss, he asked Erik what to do now. Although he had morphed his own face quite a few times, until now Erik had never attempted to copy someone else's face, something he knew acquired very good attention to detail, even if he could morph twice as fast, he couldn't morph twice as accurate, and had to be careful because of the fact. "Sit down over here." he asked Max, pointing at a tree stump. For this he'd need a completely still, willing target as he practiced until he had the model in memory. Erik spent a good 20-30 minutes simply watching Max, walking around him, observing every last detail. The bright blue shades of his eyes, his dark, dark black hair, the slight curve of his mouth when he smirked, every last detail had to be remembered or it wouldn't be a true copy. He noted the bone structure of his face, the prominent cheek bones narrowing into his chin in a swift, slight curve. Max had a very thin face, he noticed. He took in the ears, having to brush away Max's hair as he did so. "You should get a hair cut, Max." he said, almost to himself. Taking in the curve of the ear, and even going so far as to inspect Max's inner ear to get the anvil, hammer and stirrup bones correctly copied. "Almost done here, thanks for being patient. I'm almost finished and we can start our first morph attempt" he said, to make sure Max wasn't getting bored or about to give up. Taking in the neck and Max's adam's apple, he noticed the position of his adam's apple in relation to his neck and veins, making sure he could copy it so that if he were ever to have his form closely inspected, it would be, externally, the exact same thing. He took in Max's prominent, pointed noise, much unlike most noses he had seen before. He finished off by observing all small details, like birthmarks and scars, most of which were on or around the neck. "Now for the voice, Max" he said. "Please keep talking, I need to remember your voice under exact conditions. Sing the do re mi scale or whatever it's called until I ask you to stop.", he added. He took into account Max's voice in a high and low pitch, watching the neck as it contracted to create the sounds he was hearing. He knew the voice would be hard to reproduce, but had to try if he wanted to convince anyone. "Just a few more times!" Erik yelled. Minutes later, Erik was done, or so he hoped. He had the voice memorized to the best of his abilities, and thought he could replicate it to a very close degree of perfection. Although they had been friends since early adolescence, when they met in the forest at 13, Erik had never examined his friend so closely, and this was only his face! Although he could will an image of Max into his mind before, never could he do so with detail, and now he was surprised at how much he had overlooked before closely observing his friend. With all his thoughts in place, and all his details memorized, Erik was ready to begin.
"Max, I'm going to start morphing. If you're somewhat queasy about watching my skin stretch and pull, look away now." he said. He didn't think Max would do so either way, being the tough person he is, but it never hurts to ask he thought to himself. Erik became conscious of his breaths, getting into a slow, steady pattern to relax himself. He looked at the sigil on his palm, double checking it one last time to be sure it would work, and began to morph. He recalled every detail about Max, willing his flesh to push, pull, and twist until it had perfectly mimicked Max's face and neck. He had his flesh pull apart slightly to create the scars, and willed the birthmarks into place. He pulled and pushed his cheekbones until they were the proper height, and elongated his nose to imitate Max's. He remembered Max's voice, and morphed his Larynx, elongating the tubes ever so slightly so as to get Max's deeper, more serious voice. He finished with some overlooked details, growing and shrinking his hair, and changing his hair to a dark black color. He remembered all the details of the eye, getting the somewhat unique-to-everyone pattern inside the eye, and finished by making his eye color blue. He made his ears slightly larger, and changed the bones inside the ear curve to perfectly mimic Max's hammer, anvil, and stirrup bones. He finalized the morph with the mouth, although there wasn't much to change. "I'm finished!" he said, noticing with delight he had gotten Max's voice down perfectly, at least to the naked senses. He took in the mix of surprise and shock from Max as a compliment, realizing his friend would only have such a reaction if he had imitated him perfectly.
With the test good and done, Erik slowly morphed back to his normal self, confident in his new abilities. He knew the next few times would take much less effort by comparison. "Want to spar with those scary daggers of yours?" Erik said, in almost a mocking tone. When he heard that yes, he immediately began preparing his own defense. As he had no weapon to parry with while sending air blasts (Erik would never dream of sending a fireball to Max, because of the risks involved), Erik morphed an exoskeleton on to his fists and lower arms, remembering the ant he had observed the other day. After a few minutes of willing his flesh to be harder and pointed like an exoskeleton, while keeping in mind the laws of Elasticity, Erik was ready. He mentally cleared himself, and got into a sparring position. "Your move first." he added, ready to block Max's flurry of dagger movement that he was almost certain the eager rogue would try to open with.
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