[BOND]

[luckyheart]

Who: lucky + unfortunate bystanders
When: day 43, afternoon
Where: the dining area

[SO TRAINGOERS. You may still be having water gun fights or you may have gotten bored of it, but if you're heading into the lounge to relax (or the kitchen to refill your water gun), you'll have to get past Lucky! He's taken over the table nearest the entrance to the car, dangling fairy lights from the ceiling and sprinkling silk rose petals on the table and the floor around it. There's a hand-scrawled posterboard hanging from the table's edge:

KISSING BOOTH
FREE
for good luck!!

If you try to pass he'll call out, so good luck trying to escape. But hey, if you play along you'll get sparks...

Or, y'know, you could be doing something totally unrelated in this post.]

Comments

[bowtiedbones]

Oh! But they do weigh over 2000 pounds for the biggest breeds, so they do pretty okay for being at their physical limits.

[daydreamshimmer]

Hayseed, there's definitely other ways to weigh a ton and still be functional. Dragons can be the size of hills and not break.

[bowtiedbones]

They're functional! Just very nervous and very specialized.

[...............points at lori]

She's a dragon, by the way.

[daydreamshimmer]

I assumed from flowerdrake. The flower is weird, but dragons are ultra omnivores. Meat, plants, gemstones. Really like gemstones. They can also be various sizes, from smaller than ponies to, well, big hills. Some dragons are so big that their eyeballs are bigger than a pony.

And I mean functional as in actually able to. Do things. Many things. Live in a society, being able to use tools is really important for that.

[bowtiedbones]

Oh, no, she's not an omnivore. I wouldn't say she wouldn't eat a bug if she got one, but she's pretty exclusively for flowers, nuts, and fruit. My other two were obligate carnivores when they were alive. I don't know of any species that eats or ate gemstones.

They don't really live in societies, either. Social groups like packs at best.

[daydreamshimmer]

So like wolves.

And you're saying that the humans here can be that different from each other?

[bowtiedbones]

[nods]

Felix has wings, my body is reliant on magic produced by my soul, some guys can lift ridiculous weights, Naeva is nightkin, there's the couple of us that can turn into wolves now, two guys are spirits of some kind, one guy has cyborg enhancements, some other girls have entirely different kinds of magic... A lot of us are from completely different worlds.

[daydreamshimmer]

So even taking out magic, the physical bodies are different?

[bowtiedbones]

Yes.

[daydreamshimmer]

...so trying to figure out how this stupid body work is also pointless.

[And she is just]

[So very tired]

[Letting herself slump against the wall, fists over her face, and just. Slides down to the floor.]

[bowtiedbones]

There's some basics that will be the same between most humans, and more basics that are the same between mammals.

If it's injury you're worried about, just stay away from near-boiling or cooking temperatures, be careful with sharp things, eyes and soft things like that are still the same, bruising's probably not much changed either, and earn some sparks so you can use the healing pods if we get a bad trial.

[daydreamshimmer]

[There is a weak, bitter laugh.] Yeah, sparks. Gonna be earning those like hot haycakes.

No memories, no magic, no body, and even studying is pointless. What am I even supposed to offer? [Curling up more, voice tight.] This is stupid.

[bowtiedbones]

[shoos lori fluttering off into thyme and crouches down next to sunset]

Do you remember what the list of bonds tasks were?

[daydreamshimmer]

I remember. But if it's even a little like harmony magic, it won't accept lies. Bonds can only go so far if someone can't....

Can't keep up. Everything about me is wrong and I'm trying to find some way to make something right, but I just...

[Her voice cracks and she goes silent.]

[bowtiedbones]

I don't know what harmony magic is, but if it's tripping you up to compare these bonds to real emotional bonds, call them something else. These are just actions, little gestures and icebreakers to encourage us along— It counts the effort.

[daydreamshimmer]

If they're not emotional bonds, what are they? The magic has to come from somewhere.

[bowtiedbones]

They're the predecessors. I can hug a friend or I can hug a stranger, but the sparks are the same.

[daydreamshimmer]

But it's still emotional. It's still supposed to become something more.

Just because I say it might be something else doesn't change what it is. If someone is useless, no one will want them as a friend, that's just a fact. I can't just hug everyone and pretend it's going to be magical all the time. At some point, there's going to be a wall and then I'll be back here except worse because I'll have convinced myself maybe I could have done something only be have reality hit me in the face again.

[bowtiedbones]

What "again"?

[daydreamshimmer]

Yes!

[Throwing her hands up in the air.] My teammate wants nothing to do with me because I was too freaked out waking up in the wrong body to even try to handle, so I'm an over emotional mess I guess, humans are apparently capable of terrifying violence I can't wrap my head around and that's worrying when that's the standard for bad trials, I've had several people ask me if my necklace is magic and if it is, I don't know how to activate it, and I thought, I thought maybe I could figure out some way to be not be a useless lump of weird limbs if I read enough books to understand this stupid body or maybe find a way to make my magic work, but apparently all the systems are different so chances are high it's all pointless and I-

I-

[Those are definitely tears and she curls up again.]

And I guess I don't understand how friendship works because either people tell me I'm right or I'm wrong with no inbetween, I know I definitely offended you somehow with how cold you were and I don't even know how and somehow I'm supposed to figure out how to help save the multiverse when everytime I start to find some footing, it's pulled out from under me and I hate all of this!

[Her arms curl around herself again, waving a hand.] But I can at least make it easy. You don't need to stay to be polite, I know you wanted to ditch me a while ago and I'm too tired to go through pleasantries anymore.

[bowtiedbones]

You did offend me and I was going to ditch you, but that’s on me. You’re having an understandably difficult time and I wasn’t giving that as much consideration as I could have.

[touches shimmer’s arm. not tugging or pulling, just light fingertips. just hey? hey.]

And I’m not going to ditch you. Okay? Come inside and we can slow down, take things in pieces. You’re only three or four acts from getting a memory back, and we won’t have to do much for them. We can have some tea, I’ll wash your hair, and you can look at the notes I’ve been taking about my wolf transformations.

[daydreamshimmer]

[The problem of being highly empathetic with a messed up view of connection leads to her knowing when she's messed up without being sure how and combined with control issues, pride, and fear....]

[Well, it leads to one messed up newbie who wants help, but doesn't know how to ask without having a breakdown.]

[Part of her wants to reject the offer, sure its pity or civil obligation and her pride hates that, but she peeks out to stare at Eliza's hand because]

[Because]

[Some part is also sure people don't touch her with kindness unless they trust her. And she has no idea why she thinks that.]

.... [She does want those notes. Even if she regrets agreeing, that was worthwhile, right? Even if trusting Eliza is a mistake, she'd know something that happened here.]

[She nods, hands moving up to rub at her eyes with the heels of her palms.] Okay.

[bowtiedbones]

Great.

[stands back up, offering a hand up]

[daydreamshimmer]

[She hesitates, but then moves her fist to her hand.]

[Another beat and she uncurls her fingers and grips her hand loosely and pushing herself up along the wall.]

[bowtiedbones]

[squeezes her hand]

I haven't asked, by the way— Do you have anything you'd like to be called?