Anna might be (elatedorgassy) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-05-01 09:34:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, anna of arendelle, tasslehoff burrfoot |
Who: Tas and Anna of Arendelle
When: Bodyswap plot
Where: Tas’s place
What: Poor Anna’s freaking out
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
There were times when Anna would go through several faces in a few minutes. It was a struggle to keep herself steady, to remember what she looked like, to remember what she was supposed to look like. It was exhausting, and Anna wasn’t sure how Katou did it. Though, he probably had tons of experience, and she’d only been in this body a couple of days.
Anna wanted to escape for a bit. Being in her house was strange, visiting Elsa would be really weird, she didn’t want to go to class because that was even more exhausting--trying to pay attention and keep her form all at the same time?--so she headed somewhere where she thought she wouldn’t be judged. Anna showed up at Tas’s place and knocked on the front door.
Tas was kind of excited to be in Raistlin’s body. For one, he was taller. Tas didn’t usually notice how much taller Raistlin was than him, but the ground was unmistakably further away from him now than it normally was. And for another, Raistlin was a wizard. Which meant he knew all sorts of magic. Tas had been trying to do tricks all day, repeating some of the spells he’d heard in his dreams, though nothing was happening yet. It was a little frustrating, but he knew soon enough he’d be throwing giant fireballs with the best of them.
The one downside was the fact that Raistlin had a cold when they switched. Actually, now that Tas thought about it, Raistlin had had a cold for a while before they had switched, though he hadn’t really talked about it with Tas much.
He swung open the apartment door when he heard a knock, and coughed softly into his hand. “Anna!” Tas said cheerfully when he saw her, and noted how strange Raistlin’s voice sounded when it was actually cheerful. “Hi! What brings you here? Come in!”
It was very strange for Raistlin to sound so happy. Anna wasn’t used to that… but then again, maybe something else weird was going on. She broke into a smile (not her normal Anna brightness) and stepped into the apartment with a gentle “thanks,” before wrapping her arms around herself. Her vision flickered just slightly for a moment as she thought about why she was there. “Is Tas here?”
Tas smacked himself in the forehead as he closed the door behind her. “Oh, of course,” he said. “I’m Tas! It was the most amazing thing,” he said. “I just woke up this morning and wouldn’t you know it but I was-” he had to cut off his sentence to cough, “I was Raistlin!” He said, once the coughing fit was over. “Isn’t that great? I mean, I guess he has a cold right now so that’s not so much fun, but I can’t wait until I learn how to cast magic spells and things!”
Anna didn’t have time to think about how weird this all was, because the moment that he mentioned who he was, he started coughing. She didn’t have a moment to reflect, didn’t have time to doubt what he said, and simply took his words at face value.
Anna really didn’t like the coughing. She stepped forward, her visage flickering as concern replaced her thoughts on her own appearance. “Are you okay? Jeez,” she brought both hands up to rest on his shoulder. “That sounds awful. Does he have a cold or something? Come inside, sit down.”
Tas frowned a little when it looked like Anna’s appearance flickered, and his brows creased in confusion. “Yeah, I’m okay,” Tas said. “It’s just a little cold, I think.” It suddenly struck him that in the dreams, Raistlin also had a persistent cough, but it was worse than what Tas was dealing with now. It was a racking cough, that often made it hard for the young mage to catch his breath and left his lips flecked with blood. For a moment, he worried that that was what was going on, but he banished the thought. Surely Raistlin would have told him if he thought something like that was happening. “Are you okay though? You looked for a minute like you weren’t yourself.”
“I…” Anna moved with Tas, giving him a tug by the arm, into the apartment and sat down on the sofa. She was worried about her friend, worried about the cough, and distracted by her worries. It meant her mind was wandering, just a little, and meant her form was fluid. But he drew her attention back to it, and she brought her hands to her lap. “...I am in someone else’s body. He’s a shapeshifter, and I’m trying… trying to keep my own face. But it’s so hard.” She whined.
Tas’s brows furrowed. He could see that Anna was upset about this, but Tas couldn’t see why. That was the most spectacular thing he’d ever heard! Well, maybe not as spectacular as Tas being a mage now. Or, maybe more spectacular than that because apparently Tas needed to study Raistlin’s dusty old tomes in order to do magic at all. “That’s great!” He said, assuming Anna just hadn’t seen the merits yet. He’d just have to tell her. “Does that mean you can do anyone? Do me! Oh oh please do me!”
Anna was forcibly reminded of that scene from the Harry Potter book with Tonks at the dinner table. She had the red hair, just like the Weasleys. So maybe it made sense? She broke into a sheepish smile, sitting upright, then leaning back a little. “...really? You want me to…” She cleared her throat. “Okay. Hang on.”
Anna’s eyes closed for a moment and she focused on her friend Tas. His face, his eyes, his nose, his hair. The image of the redhead flickered in front of him, and suddenly Tas was face to face with himself.
Tas gasped, delighted. He quickly reached out to touch Anna’s - or his? This was confusing - hair, and it felt just like real hair! And then he went to touch her - his? - face. “Wow! It’s just like me! Isn’t that wonderful? You can just turn into whoever you want! Are you stuck just looking like people you know, or can you make a whole new person?”
Anna’s eyes opened just in time to see and feel him touching her hair. She flushed a little at how excited he seemed to be (then again, wasn’t he always?) and grinned pretty bright. It probably looked absolutely natural on Tas’s face, though. Anna beamed, and the image flickered when he brought up looking like a whole new person. It was distracting. “Oh, gosh, I dunno,” she said. “Do you think I should try?”
“Do I ever!” Tas exclaimed, immediately sitting back and watching her with wide eyes, waiting to see what kind of person she thought up. It didn’t happen often, but Tas was actually excited enough that there wasn’t anything else he wanted to say.
Anna blinked, blushing and grinning, and watched Tas in Raistlin’s body leaning back a little, watching her expectantly. She shifted her weight on the sofa, closed her eyes again, and started to think of random features. Blonde hair, maybe. And a big nose. And bushy eyebrows. And thin, straight lips. And broad shoulders. Small breasts. No waist. Long, slender arms and legs.
Tas watched the person forming in front of him, wonder etched into every aspect of his face. And then he burst out laughing at the person she created, though the laughter was cut short as his breath abandoned him and he had to double over coughing. Once he managed to take in enough breath to speak again, he managed to wheeze out “That was the best!”
Anna gave a laugh, and the face flickered again. This time the visage underneath--the blank slate, she’d started to think of it--showed through. Anna was completely unaware that she’d lost grip on the thought of the strange, random, almost cartoon-like woman she’d been thinking of until the woman was gone.
“I have knives in my fingers, too,” she added, the laughter dying down. “It’s a little scary.”
Tas stared in wide-eyded wonder as all Anna’s features completely disappeared. If he was someone else, it would have been creepy. Possibly even horrifying. But he was Tas, and Tas didn’t know the definition of the word fear. “Wow, you can do mannequins too? That doesn’t sound very useful though, I guess unless you want to stand in shop windows and try on clothes and scare shoppers!” Actually, that sounded like a great idea now that he thought about it. “And knives in the hands! Wow! That sure sounds like it would be useful. Sometimes I wish I had knives for fingers. Not like Edward Scissorhands though because that seemed like the worst way to have finger knives. I wonder why the scientist guy gave him knife hands. I think something like that would be really useful though! Especially in my dreams. Though, I guess not so much against Draconians. I think if one turned into stone while your hand was stuck inside of it then you’d really be boned.”
Anna was a little shocked when he mentioned mannequins. She lifted her hands to cover her face, and counted down from five, then focused on what she was supposed to look like. Anna. Cute as a button. Tiny nose, bright eyes, red hair. Two braids, thanks. When she lowered her hands again, she was Anna once more. “...that’s sort of… the default. When I lose concentration.” It was easy, but might not be pleasant for those around her.
Then she cocked her head to the side. “Tas. Have you ever actually seen Edward Scissorhands?? The scientist never gives him the hands because when he’s about to he has a heart attack and dies. The scissors were to teach Edward to be careful what he touched in the world--that his actions could have permanent consequences.” She realized she sounded like a preacher or something, and blushed. “I spent a lot of time watching movies when I was younger.”
“Ohhhh,” Tas said, nodding knowledgably. “Of course that makes sense. I should have known.” As if Tas had met so many shapeshifters. “I like you better as yourself, of course! But imagine how many shoppers you could scare!” Oh, to be a fly on that wall.
Tas nodded. “Of course I watched Edward Scissorhands!” Tas said. Whether he’d paid much attention to it once it was on was a whole other story. Tas had conveniently forgotten that Edward Scissorhands had only ended up as background noise when he and his mother had spent one afternoon baking her famous meat pies. “If that was the case, then why did he name him Edward Scissorhands?”
Anna wasn’t really interested in scaring shoppers. She really just wanted to be herself. And the mention of him liking her better as herself made her go bright red. Her form was back, stronger than ever, and red as a tomato.
“He didn’t!” She grinned brightly. This was a conversation she really understood--not talking about shapeshifting or claws or magic or whatever. This was Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, some of her favorites. “He only named him Edward. Not Edward Scissorhands. That’s just the name of the film.”
Aside from a bit of a giggle, stifled behind his hand, Tas hardly reacted at all to Anna’s blush, which he was rather proud about. Sometimes people were so sensitive about that kind of thing, and he didn’t want to make her upset with him.
“That was awfully misleading, wasn’t it?” Tas said, feeling a little betrayed that all this time he thought the guy’s name was Edward Scissorhands instead of just Edward. “Edward’s a much friendlier name than Edward Scissorhands. I wonder why they didn’t just call the movie Edward? Or Eddie!”
“It was, it certainly was,” Anna agreed, nodding. “I think one of the characters… the Alan Alda one? I think it was Alan Alda, anyway--he calls him Ed, and Eddie, and whatever else. But that movie’s so sad in the end. When they’re all so mean to him, and he’s so misunderstood! And Winona Ryder is the only character who really loves him? Oh,” she clasped a hand over her heart and winced at the memory. “Now I really want to watch it! It’s so romantic!”
“Yeah?” Tas asked. “I bet we could find it if you wanted to! Raistlin got me this neat tablet so I’d stop using his laptop all the time, and I think that you can watch movies on it! I like romantic movies. I don’t really like sad movies though…” He frowned thoughtfully.
“Really?” Anna asked, then gave an excited squeak. There seriously wasn’t anything in the world she’d want more than to watch a movie with Tas. Preferably cuddled. (Even though Tas was in a different body, and she was in a different body… but that was besides the point.) Unfortunately, when she got excited and jumped and squeaked, a set of wings popped out of her back.
There wasn’t a lot that could leave Tas speechless, but this was almost one of those things. In fact, he was completely silent for a full three seconds after Anna’s wings popped out of her back. Then he gasped loudly. “YOU HAVE WINGS!” he exclaimed. “Have you always had wings?! Or is it just part of the body swapping thing! Do you know how to fly? Oh man, you should go flying! I think I can get us onto the roof of the apartment building if you wanted to jump off! Wait, why do you have three wings? How are you supposed to fly with three whole wings? It seems like the middle one would get-” He would have gone longer, but just then he was seized by another coughing fit. Being in Raistlin’s body wasn’t nearly as much fun as he thought it would be.
Anna was completely shocked when the wings popped out of her back. She turned to look over one shoulder, then the other, as Raistlin!Tas was babbling about it. How did she not know she had wings?? But then Tas started to cough, and Anna lost control of her face. She went back to the default as concern washed over her and her attention came back to Tas once more.
“I don’t know how to fly, and oh my God, are you all right?” She asked, both hands coming over to touch his arm once more.
Tas patted her hand in a reassuring manner, though he was a little bit worried himself now. This was beginning to seem less like a summer cold and more like the cough Raistlin had in their dreams. Tas hoped not, because it hurt enough as it was and Raistlin’s cough in the dreams was even worse than this was.
“I’m fine. It’s just Raistlin’s cold is all. Maybe I should go take him to a doctor while I’m in his body! Are you sure you don’t know how to fly? You know, muscle memory is a real thing! There was a guy who had to get both his arms transplanted, and then afterwards he found out he could play the saxophone! Because the person who had his arms before him could!”
“I dunno… maybe we can try?” Anna was still concerned about Tas in Raistlin’s body. He was her friend, and he was coughing like he had TB. “But I don’t want to jump off a roof! Can’t I just try from the ground?” She asked, then cocked her blank face to the side. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m sure!” Tas chirped. “Don’t worry about me!”
Why was everyone so opposed to jumping off roofs? Raistlin wouldn’t let Tas jump off the roofs to practice his magic either, which felt very unfair all in all. And trying to fly off the ground didn’t sound nearly as fun. Though, he supposed if she managed it she wouldn’t be on the ground for much longer and maybe she could carry him around! “Okay,” he said, sounding only a little disappointed. “I guess we can practice off the ground. Come on.” As he spoke, he jumped off the couch, and by the time he got to ‘come on’ he had grabbed Anna’s hand and was pulling her toward the door.