Jess clearly was still in the experimenting mood, and Gina's recent comments had only made her more curious on what the exact limitations to her powers were. So, for the moment, she pushed aside her hopefully unfounded worries about the possibility of other morphers and instead thought back to how she was able to change Ellie Summers.
When she had changed the actress in the movie, she hadn't known the character's name, let alone the name of the actress playing her, and yet she was able to cause this life altering change to her solely based on her picture. Her tests with Gina further supported that the reason she was able to do that was because she had a direct line of sight on Ellie Summers.
But had Jess changed the character? Or just the actress portraying the character, which the studio decided to implement as part of the character? It was very much a chicken or the egg situation; a Schrödinger's cat that Jess had to determine the answer of.
And in that moment, it was decided in Jess's mind exactly what she had to do. She was going to have to find a picture of some sort of a fictional character and see if her powers worked on flesh-and-blood people, or the concept of a person.
Luckily, there was a bookstore not that far from food court, and much to Jess's delight, Gina was coming back from getting her food. She was carrying two trays worth of food, one some burgers and fries, the other some Chinese food, clearly preparing for when her other body was meeting up with them.
"So. Any hints you want to drop on this big news you have to share?" Gina raised her eyebrows in a playful manner as she took the seat immediately across from Jess.
"Not yet," Jess said, slightly distracted, "Hey... Would you mind watching the table? I need to go grab a book for class." Jess had already stood up, basically making all but clear that she was going to go off regardless of Gina's answer.
"O-Okay?" Gina said, a little surprised by Jess's sudden determination.
"Thanks!" Jess shouted over her shoulder as she made her way to the bookstore.
The bookstore was your average mall-chain bookstore. To the left of the entrance were multiple magazine racks (which Jess eyed for a moment. She spotted a magazine advertising an exclusive interview with Ellie Summers, prominently displaying the actress in her bikini outfit from the movie, her bulge prominently visible. While it would be a lot of fun to morph further celebrities and see the fallout, she had entered the store with a mission and was determined to complete it); in the center and to the right were large displays for toys, games, and movies; and waaaaaay in the back were bookshelves set up to sell the primary product of the store: books.
She walked past a variety of fiction books. Many were focused on romance or mystery, but unfortunately for Jess, all of them didn't really fit the criteria she was looking for. Almost all of them either featured stylized graphic design featuring the primary object of importance in the novel, or pictures of real people (which would one again defeat the whole purpose of the test she was performing. What if the cover model was found first and the book was written around it in the changed reality?).
She scoured a few more aisles, before eventually finding a product in the Young Adult's section with the exact specifications she was looking for.
It was a reprint of the old series of female mystery books, 'Darcy O'Toole'. The stories followed the high school senior Darcy as she solved various mysteries that either plagued her local community or, as the series continued and she aged up, in far off locations as a private detective.
The series had spawned a media empire over the nearly 9 decades she's existed, with multiple novels published, cross-overs with 'The Gordy Boys', some TV shows, movies, and even a long running series of successful mystery video games! And thankfully, because this was a reprint of one of her classic novels, they had a beautifully illustrated drawing of Darcy on the cover.
She was wearing her trademark aquamarine dress, with her hair styled like the traditional housewife of the time period. She was shining a spotlight on what looked like a skeleton tied up in a creepy looking dungeon. The title read 'The Body in the Basement'
'Alright Darcy... Let's hope this works!' Jess thought, as she began to force her power outwards, focusing on changing the fictional sleuth-solving beauty.
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