awashrpg | USER: #AA3333

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Okay, so, a couple of things.

First off, probably useful for people to know right now: there's silver in them there hills. Forest, I mean. There's silver in the woods and you really have to look for it because it's buried, but it's out there. I found a ring in a chest, and I have a feeling given this place it's not the only one out there.

Second off is magic. I keep seeing people on the forum offering to use their talents to help make things better for everybody around here, so I guess I figure I should throw my figurative hat into the ring on that one, too. I was telling a guy recently that my magic is kind of like clay, and the spells I can do are like molds for it. Just because I've got molds for hearts, stars, and horseshoes right now doesn't mean I can't someday figure out how to make clovers and blue moons, too. It's just...working out how to do it, the first time.

Example: I've overheard enough people complaining about there not being any hair gel around that I went and figured out how to simulate it with magic. I don't need it myself but hey, trade me a favor and I'll do your hair for you, if it means that much to you. I'm a helper.

But yeah, I figure if I can do that, then maybe I can do other stuff, too. Things people think the town needs — above and beyond just putting on music for the local prom, I mean. So I'm taking ideas, if you've got them. I can't make any promises, but...you know, I want to help. Even if it's just really random, stupid little conveniences. Like maybe I can enchant a bathtub to heat the water you put in it or something, I don't know. I'm good at tricks like that, it's kind of what I do.

Third thing, and this is kind of out there but I just wanted to see if anybody else has been having thoughts like this too. Does it ever seem as though this town is, like...some kind of entity in its own right? Like a thing with a will of its own?

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...

[The instant Prompto catches on is obvious, the way shock and realization plays over his face.]

Flor?!

[Welp. That's it, Moran, congratulations on orchestrating a big awkward disaster. Sic semper cute-icus: thus always comes to those who think they're cute and can get away with it.

She settles back down onto her four paws, huddling down with a cat's wariness, and after a few moments she shakes her head like a dog shaking off water, and taps her paws on the ground, and in a flash she's back in her human shape, sitting perched on all fours in the same position that the cat was a moment ago, cloak pooled around her like a blanket of shadows and hair rumpled and red as ever above the hood.]

...Um. So.

[There is no amount of fast talking that could ever get her out of this one.]

...Remember that one time, you said you wanted to rescue a cat...?

[Prompto stares for a couple heartbeats longer, than bursts out laughing, apparently neither offended nor upset. Jericho he brings up near his shoulder to hop on if he'd like. With his other hand, he bumps Summer's arm with a knuckle, a play-play punch.]

Flor! Why didn't you tell me you could do that?

[He rubs under his nose, grinning.]

Oh, man, I'm lucky you didn't catch me saying anything embarrassing about you while "we" waited for you to show up! It would've been like something straight out of a kid's cartoon.

I told you I could turn you into a dog! I didn't think me into a cat was that big of a stretch...

[Speaking of changing between animals and other things, maybe we can turn the big ol' elephant in the room into nothingness by just, like, not looking at it.]

...Hang on, do you usually say embarrassing things about me when I'm not around?

[What's an elephant?]

What? No, no! But we were talking about you. Or I mean, I was talking about you, to you. Which is honestly pretty much a one-way street to Awkwardville.

[A n y w a y. He looks at her, then up at the tree, then back down.]

Hey, do you think like a cat when you're a cat? Did you chase a bird up there or did you really just climb up so I could "rescue" you?

Nah, I climbed up to make your dreams come true. Being an animal would be kind of useless if all of a sudden the animal brain just overrode your own.

[Standby while we shove this much-beloved children's series about war and aliens and changing into animals RIGHT under the rug.]

I mean, some of the instincts are still there? You don't have to relearn how to walk or anything. But it's not like you suddenly get hit with the insatiable urge to chase laser pointers and knock important things off of counters, either.

[He chuckles and clasps his hands in his lap, stretching his legs out in front of him.]

That sounds like it would be fun, too, though. We gotta find some way to entertain ourselves around here, right?

I was kind of thinking people might use it like post-werewolf therapy, or something. Like addressing all that forced-transformation trauma with doing it willingly.

[She shifts and nudges at his legs with one of her own, then puts her feet on the other side of his knees, so that her legs are making an inverted V like a bridge over his.]

Psychologists say that's supposed to be good for you, I think. Confronting your fears or whatever.

[Oh. That's--new and not new at the same time. It's the kind of tangle he ends up in with Noct sometimes on the best, laziest kind of days, when there's nothing to do but complain and play video games. Really rare days, since the fall of Insomnia. Not quite so infrequent now, though. Minus the video games.

It's new because it's her.

It distracts him for a second from what she's saying, the closeness, but he looks up to meet her eyes again and--it's okay. He likes this. It's comfortable. So he blinks, catches up, and tilts his head a little, re-engaging in the conversation and so establishing the tangle as part of it, the dialogue between them.]

--Ah. Yeah?

[He looks up to the sky as he considers that, then nods and shrugs.]

Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. Like... having control over it the second time.

[He rubs at the underside of one jawbone with his knuckle, remembering the itch of fur there, the urge to bite.]

...Think you should maybe test it on someone first, make sure it really helps?

[Well, now. She definitely knows a "I kinda want to do a thing but I don't want it to sound like my idea" when she hears one.]

Yeah, probably. If I could find somebody who'd try it.

[She glances over at him, amused and sidelong.]

Probably not a lot of people would be willing to be the first one to give it a shot, though.

I'm adventurous! I'll do it. For the good of the town, you know?

[He nods, going for earnest. He's got earnestness coming out of his ears.]

What a champion.

[BECAUSE LITERALLY NO ONE COULD HAVE EXPECTED AN OUTCOME LIKE THIS. CLEARLY. NEVER. NO ONE.]

All right, so what do you want to try? Dog, cat, bird, uh...probably not fish, without getting near a water source...dragon? Gryphon? I do mythical, I do mundane, it's all the same.

Whaaaaat? Oh, man, it's like watching TV at Noct's place. Who needs all those channels? How do I choose?

[Prompto leans back on his hands for a second, then immediately comes back up, unable to sit still.]

What kind of birds can you do? All of them?

If I know it. I mean — wait, that wasn't a very good way of saying it. I mean like...it has to be a thing I've seen, that I'm familiar with. So by now I could probably turn you into a chocobo, because I've seen the ones you guys keep hanging around. But I couldn't do some random bird from your world I've never heard of before, just on a name.

[Birds, though. That's interesting, that he's immediately drawn to the birds. Birds have wings, have flight, have freedom. He doesn't want to be tethered, maybe. Wants to fly.]

[He thinks about it, then asks:]

What's the fastest flying bird in your world?

[Oh, good. This one she knows right away.]

It's a type of falcon — a smallish bird of prey. Its wings are narrow and streamlined so it's not really great for flying level or soaring aloft for long periods; they're made for diving.

[She thinks a minute, doing some quick mental math, and then offers up: ]

In a dive, it can travel a mile in fifteen seconds.

That one.

[His eyes are wide, his mouth half-open, a smile starting at the corners of his mouth. That one. Definitely that one.]

When can we try it?

Whenever you're ready. I've got enough juice to do it right now, if you want.

[A beat.]

Just make sure you get high enough, before you dive. If you send yourself headfirst straight into the dirt and die, I'm never going to forgive you.

Ohhhhh man! --It won't freak Jerry out? It won't scare him if I'm a hunting bird?

[He's so ready to go, but of course we gotta look out for our buddies, right?]

I'll keep him close to me. He'll be okay as long as he's not airborne while you are, too.

[Awfully nice of him, that. Looking out for Jerry — Jericho. Wanting to take into consideration that little piece of her soul.

Hmmm.

Regardless, she flips up her hood and extends her hand so that Jericho can hop over to perch on it, then moves it around to the back of her neck so that he can hide comfortably underneath its loose folds.]

There we go. Nice and cozy.

[That must be better, because Prompto smiles wide and warm, happy to see Jericho tucked in safe.]

Okay. Then I think we're ready to go!

[He'd jump up, but she's still got her legs across his, so he just sort of bounces in place a little. He's one part nervous to ninety-nine parts HELL YEAH!]

All right. Birds are kind of a weird change because it's hard to go from "comfortable as a person" to "comfortable as a bird", so just try to hold still after you change. I'll pick you up and get you to a perch, okay?

[Luckily, he won't be pinned for long, because she's shifting off of him and getting up, flicking her cloak back over her shoulders to bare her arms.]

Oh, and — if you need me to change you back in a hurry, before it wears off, make an L with your wings. Left wing out, right wing up. And I'll take care of it.

[And when he's ready to go, she'll reach out and touch him on the shoulder and presto-change-o, he's a falcon, baby.]

[Whoa!

--Is what he wants to say, but promptly--ayyyy--he's a bird. It's sudden enough to startle him, so despite her warning, he jumps a little, ruffles, and stumbles, as clumsy as a bird as he is as a boy. It takes some flapping to settle himself again, but as soon as he does, he turns--and oh, man, can he turn! Prompto takes full advantage of his neck's new flexibility as he checks out his new literal plumage, running his beak down his chest, under his wings, across his back.

He looks back up at her and makes a funny chirp-click sound, like the clicker of a car, and bobs his head. Hay, gurrrrl!]

Haha, it's pretty weird, right?

[Imagine if she'd turned him into an owl and he'd learned the magical world of turning your head around over a hundred and eighty degrees. Well, anyway. She crouches down a little, offering her hand out palm-up, and takes care not to reach for him too quickly, so that his little birdy instincts can follow what she's doing just as well as his human ones can.]

Okay. I'm gonna touch your feathers now, don't panic. Just gonna lift you up onto the porch railing. Okay?

[He turns to look at her with one falcon eye, then bobs another avian nod and waddles, awkwardly, up to her hand.

She looks different from down here. Different with a literal bird's eye view, too. The way she moves catches his attention more than the way she looks, the slow shift of her hair and hood, the gentle movements of her fingers.]

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