Adaine Abernant (anxietyelf) wrote in chances_rpg, @ 2024-02-29 22:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | fantasy high: adaine abernant, wednesday: enid sinclair |
Who: Adaine Abernant and Enid Sinclair
What: Yes, hello, I’ve been cursed, please help
When: Backdated to Sunday of the curses (because Viki blanked)
Where: Enid and Bucky’s apartment
She’d done everything she could think to avoid the flowers but when they came, it was almost like a compulsion. And Adaine had been under spells that led to compulsion before, so she was familiar with the feeling. At first, it seemed like there was nothing wrong. Maybe the curse didn’t work on elves? Maybe her curse was so minor that it didn’t really bother her day to day life?
But then she felt it. And she knew.
The werewolves of her world weren’t like many of the ones she’d read about. They didn’t require the full moon to turn. Jawbone lived in a mostly wolf form where Tracker simply shifted as needed. But they’d both been wolves for a very long time. Adaine knew instantly she didn’t have much control over this. She’d been so close to being turned before and she knew she’d merely gotten lucky.
Maybe her luck had finally run out.
She knew there were a few werewolves here in the building. The problem was, she didn’t know most of them. Kitty seemed very nice but she wasn’t exactly friends with her. But Enid…Enid she knew. Maybe not very well, but she did at least consider her a friend. And her wolf seemed closer to what Adaine was familiar with. So she quickly and quietly left the apartment. Maybe if Una were to decide she didn’t want her like this, she could sleep in Wednesday’s old room for a while. Surely this was just another of the temporary curses. She knocked on the door, hoping Enid would be the one to answer. Mr. Barnes was nice enough as a teacher, but he could be fairly intimidating, too.
Enid had, so far, avoided whatever this curse business was. Not that she was expecting she wouldn’t have her turn. But for now, she was just trying to be there for the people who had been affected. Even if it was only temporary, it had to be scary. Especially for someone like Reggie, who’d been invisible before. Even if that was for a different reason. She didn’t think he was a ghost this time, anyway.
When someone knocked on the door she pulled the airpods from her ears (a nod to the Roomie’s aversion to K pop, even if he wasn’t home) and bounced down the hall, opening the door.
“Adaine!” And it was Adaine, she could tell that easily enough. She’d recognise her by scent even if she couldn’t still recognise her. “Oh no, not you too.” Not hesitating, she reached out and took her by the arm, encouraging her inside before looking her over.
“I like your ears.”
Adaine’s cheeks, still somewhat human in appearance, turned pink. “I…thank you. Sorry, I just… I didn’t know who else to go to.”
She hadn’t checked a mirror since before the turning had begun, but she had felt her body shifting. Jawbone had described it once, as there was a discomfort involved in your body shifting to fit its new form. Her ears had lengthened - and she could hear painfully well. She could also smell better, though she thought maybe her nose was still mostly human shaped. Also the tail. That was…unexpected. She was grateful she’d been wearing a skirt today as at least she didn’t have to keep her new appendage smooshed into jeans.
“I don’t think it’s permanent?” she said hesitantly. “And it probably isn’t the same way you change. But it’s…odd.”
“This was the right place.” Adaine wasn’t anywhere near as big or quite as shifted as Enid was familiar with on a full moon, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t coming. She remembered how overwhelming it had been for her that first time. Her senses, already more adept than a humans, had become even sharper. Everything had become too much.
“It hasn’t been permanent for anyone else yet!” Enid soothed, in her optimistic way. She guided Adaine down the short hall, further into the apartment. “Bucky’s not here right now. We can just wait together for a bit.” Until she felt ready to face the world. And Enid would make sure she knew she didn’t have to hide if this did last longer than a day.
“I can’t go to school like this,” Adaine all but whined. “The kids are mean enough about my ears the way they are, they’ll absolutely go bananas if they see me covered in fur!” Being an elf in a mostly human world could be hard but at least she was mostly humanish. This…was not humanish. And in Solace, it wouldn’t have meant anything. She was friends with ghosts and tieflings and she was certainly not the only elf around. But here?
She closed her eyes and pictured her usual form, a tall blonde girl, slightly pointed ears, slim build, and most importantly, no fur or tail. She thought maybe something shifted, but when she opened her eyes, she actually had a bit more fur. “This is ridiculous. My guardian - my guardian at home, not Una here - he can do this shifting back and forth thing without a second thought.”
“Don’t listen to them. They don’t deserve your time. Besides, your ears are awesome, Adaine!” She thought her blonde counterpart was really cool. “You’d have fit right in at Nevermore. I really miss it sometimes. Anyway,” she shook off the thought. “You don’t have to go to school. This totally gets you a doctor's note.”
She watched more fur pop up where there hadn’t been any before, but kept the surprised reaction to herself. “I can only control these.” She held up a hand, extending her claws to demonstrate. “On the full moon I have no control at all. It’s different for everyone.” There was no right way to be a werewolf, no matter what her mom might have said about it.
Adaine had always admired Enid’s claws, especially how she made them so pretty. It was fascinating, how she embraced them. She gave a little laugh and shrugged. “This is why I came to you. I figured you might be able to talk me down.” Oh, no. What if her medications didn’t work in wolf form? It wasn’t like she could go to a regular doctor here to figure out a new prescription.
Or a veterinarian. That would be…odd.
“We just had a full moon, right? So hopefully this will all be over before we have another one.” She did feel a bit guilty, talking about how temporary this was for her when Enid had to live with it at all times. She moved to take a seat at the edge of the couch, resisting the urge to ‘sit’, as a dog might. No, that wouldn’t work, her legs weren’t to that point. Yet.
“The next full moon isn’t until the twenty-forth.” She knew that without having to check. That was one thing Adaine didn’t need to worry about. Or her. She could hardly look after the other girl when she was shifting. “So we’re good!”
She followed suit, sitting beside her on the couch. The comment about talking her down had set her to thinking. “I wonder if stress does make it happen more quickly…what we need is to get you thinking calm thoughts. What’s your go to for that?”
“Usually I would take my medicine and hold Boggy, but I didn’t want to scare him. He’s pretty unflappable but big friend turns into big dog would probably be a bit upsetting.” Maybe she should have given Boggy a bit more credit. Now he was just going to wonder where she was. And that was enough to make her panic just a bit more. She had to get it together or she’d be in the middle of a full blown panic attack.
Thinking calm thoughts. What kept her calm? Her friends. The ones home and the ones here. Jawbone, saying he wanted to adopt her and giving her gifts for all the birthdays she hadn’t been with him for. Aelwyn telling her she was the only one clever enough to break her code. She was breathing a bit easier, but her chest definitely still hurt.
Enid frowned, watching her with concerned eyes. It upset her to see someone suffering and not knowing what to do about it. “What music do you like to listen to? Music always helps me relax. Oh!” She bounced to her feet, dashing off to her room and coming back just as quickly, something in her hands this time.
“This is my bear. He doesn’t have a name, but maybe he’ll help?” She held out the pretty standard looking but well worn bear with his light fur to her. “He’s really good when you just need to give something a big hug.”
Adaine’s face went from confusion to an emotional smile as Enid came back with the bear in her arms. “Oh! That’s so sweet. I’d love to visit with him.” She and Aelwyn hadn’t been allowed plush toys. They were ‘immature’ and ‘silly’.
Reaching out, she took the small toy and pulled him in for a hug. It really did seem calming, but whether that was from the bear or from the gesture of a friend being so willing to help, she couldn’t say. “Why doesn’t he have a name? Did you just never think of one?”
Enid tilted her head as she watched Adaine clutching the bear. She was glad she’d brought him out. “I don’t know. Nothing ever really suited him I guess.” She had a small collection of plush toys, and most of them did have names. “But he’s a great listener.” One thing about Enid, she’d long ago given up caring what other people thought. She liked the toys, so she didn’t care if she was considered too old for them. Really, the only person whose opinion ever hurt her any more was her mothers.
“Well, Mr. Bear, for right now you’ll just be Mr. Bear. Until you tell us your real name, anyway.” She should probably watch that. Around here, the bear might just start actually talking. “Back home, my friend Kristen has a bear we stole from an arcade. He helps her concentrate when she’s casting spells.” Holding up her slightly furry wrist, she motioned to the snap bracelet she wore. “I got this. Fig got a skateboard. It was a wild day.”
Enid admired the bracelet as Adaine spoke. “I love snap bracelets. We have a couple of witches at Nevermore, but I’m not sure they use items to focus.” And she was pretty confident she would know. Enid made a point of knowing everything about everyone at that school. Separately, she noted that Adaine seemed to have calmed down a whole lot, and silently cheered herself for the victory.
Adaine definitely had calmed down. Maybe she’d just needed to talk it out. In theory, she could have just done that with Fig. But she still thought maybe it more helped that Enid had been there, so to speak. “In my world, some spells require extended concentration. The bear makes it so Kristen can concentrate on more than one at a time. The bracelet just makes me a bit stronger.” Nevermore sounded fun, though. “What else do you have there? Werewolves and witches and…? It reminds me of Aguefort, honestly.”
“...and Sirens, oh my,” Enid finished the other girls words with a smile. “Vampires, too. Really, anyone who isn’t a normie is welcome there. Like Wednesday. She seemed like people from Jericho, but there was something different about her.” Something special. Enid really missed her friend a whole lot. At least she still had Thing to keep her company.
“What’s Jericho?” Adaine knew talking about her world could be a little weird for some people. She kind of liked that someone else had stories that could be considered strange under the right circumstances.
She found herself relaxing a bit deeper into the couch, clutching the little bear closer. He wasn’t Boggy, he didn’t have the literal healing abilities she’d wound into him. But he had been offered in a time of need and that made him even more special.
“Oh! Jericho’s the town Nevermore is closest to. We go there sometimes. For shopping and stuff. The coffee place does an incredible caramel macchiato.” She could see Adaine getting more comfortable and figured if they kept this up, maybe she could just nap all this away until it was over, so she carried on with her story of completely mundane happenings. “There’s this store where they sell literally anything you can think of. Wednesday got her dress for the dance there. It was so pretty. For a black one.”
“You don’t like black dresses,” Adaine mused. Honestly, as colorful as Enid was, she should have figured that out on her own. “I haven’t gotten to go to many dances. We went to prom but it was to fight our vice-principal, I didn’t actually go as a guest or anything.” She’d also just been broken out of jail, but she thought maybe she should keep that part to herself. It was sort of the adventurer’s curse. Life could be happening all around them, but they were needed to save the world. “Maybe I’ll go to the next one we have at our school. Or sometimes Ms. Smith throws events here that might require dressing up.”
“I don’t hate black dresses. It’s just that Wednesday didn’t wear anything but black. The girl needed some color in her wardrobe.” She wouldn’t ever have forced it, though. Black was Wednesday’s signature shade. “Dances are a lot of fun. Next time they have one here, we are definitely going. Or at school. We can go shopping!” She added gleefully. Any excuse to go shopping wasn’t a bad thing.
“Oh, I do enjoy a good shopping trip,” Adaine admitted. “Freshman year I got a bit of a makeover. My parents made me wear school uniforms even though I wasn't going to that school anymore. They wouldn't buy me anything else so my friend Fabian gave me a shopping trip as a gift.” Even with his bravado and his sometimes-ego, Adaine missed her friend a lot. “That's where I got the magical jacket. But never a fancy dress.” There had been large events her parents had been invited to, but she had always had to stay home. “I should maybe consider a job someday soon. It would definitely make shopping trips easier!”
“I feel like magical jacket trumps fancy dress. Couldn’t you get a dress out of the magical jacket?” She didn’t claim to know how it worked or anything, but it seemed feasible. “Still, shopping trips are great. What an awesome present. We should organize one, get a bunch of people here together who want to go and make a day of it!” Now she was getting ideas. “And then we can throw a party, too.”
Oh, she liked Enid in idea mode. Full speed ahead and all. “I probably could,” she agreed regarding the jacket. “There's a dollar limit but it seems the dollar to gold ratio varies from time to time.” It was likely similar to how currencies worked here. They'd discussed that in economics class. “But a large shopping trip could be exciting. I bet the boys would enjoy it, and Julie. Maybe some of the newer people who haven't gotten to meet everyone yet?” And a party? Oh, she loved a good party. “There has to be shrimp to be a good party.”