lostcarnival | Getting used to change

Entry tags:

Getting used to change | Open

Who: Pidge and whoever
What: Getting used to some changes.
Where: The Cookhouse
When: Early morning
Warnings: Teenage grumpiness

Pidge's morning had been normal up to a certain point. She'd dealt with her roommate's propensity for music at early hours, then stumbled into the bathroom for a shower and to brush her teeth and made a discovery while staring blearily into the mirror. Perched atop her head were a pair of lion's ears to replace her normal set, all fuzzy and tawny and poking out of her hair. The next twenty minutes had been spent alternately tugging on them and beating her head against the faux-tile wall of the shower as she muttered about the unfairness of the world.

Finally, showered, dressed, and mostly put together she sat at a table in the cookhous epoking disconsolately at a plate of eggs, a half-eaten fruit cup and some rapidly cooling bacon. Occasionally, her new ears twitch as they pick up some interesting noise and she has to stop herself from reaching up to scratch at or tug at her new appendages. This place is just the worst.

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"If you'll forgive, you seemed you were
Having trouble dealing with fur."

Two brilliant yellow eyes stared out from beneath the shadows of a hood, the sort of look that promised soul-reaving or life-devouring or all that. Nevertheless, the voice that had spoken was friendly and warm, and also the cloaked zebra was not particularly large, which helped.

Ah that face. Doctor recognizes that expression. He's seen it before on other people after their first transformation. Someone's taking it hard but at least she's calm.

He pauses with his breakfast in hand to give her a nod. "You'll get used to it, maybe even grow to like it eventually. The ears come with the stronger hearing benefits just like this came with the free reading light." He taps the end of his angler hook for example.

"Don't worry, it will go away when you return home if you want it to."

Pidge looked up from her half-eaten breakfast to discover that yes, she was in fact speaking with a tiny zebra. It takes a long moment for her brain to process that and file it away under the increasingly large section for 'weird things that have happened to Katie's before she manages to form a reply.

"Uh yeah. You could say that."

"I want it to away now," Pidge replies with a pinched, about expression. Her ears flick as she looks back at the Doctor.

"They said I'd have to work, not that I'd be part of the freak show."

Brushing down her hood to reveal a head that just plain wasn't as ominous as the shadows had made it seem, Zecora stretched her beringed neck up to get a better look at Pidge's ears.

"Is it an itch
Or because of the switch?"

She wouldn't be the first one to have problems with either, and Zecora was prepared for both. Though the itching would be a bit easier, she privately admitted.

"You'll look perfectly normal to the many alien races that we'll host here. And plenty of them will look like freak shows by your standards." He smirks just slightly. 'Freak show' is another common heard complaint among newcomers. It's amusing to notice patterns but this is one of the sadder ones in his opinion.

"This isn't how my ears are supposed to look," Pidge replied with a surly mutter. Talking miniature zebras are downright normal compared to dealing with this amount of personal change. Sure, puberty brings on a lot of awkwardness but she's pretty sure that cat ears isn't one of them.

"I don't look perfectly normal to me, though," Pidge protests in reply to the weirdly chipper fellow in the bow tie.

"It's kind of disturbing to go to bed and then wake up with your body changed in some completely weird way."

"A common change
Not very strange
As others I've spotted.
Your problem is knotted
In this place's magic.
All in all, not tragic.
I hope you can adapt
And find them apt."

Though, on considerations, Zecora began rummaging in the depths of her cloak, seeking out something tucked away safely there.

Chiaki wanders into the cookhouse a bit later in the morning, yawning heavily. She gets a plateful of pastries and coffee and sits near Pidge, her lynx ears twitching lazily. They aren't covered up by a hoodie, anymore -- the garment is still sitting ripped to shreds in her new trailer home.

"G'morning..." She looks like she's about to fall right back asleep into her coffee.

Pidge takes a moment to realize that the tiny zebra is rhyming at her. This day keeps getting weirder and weirder and it's abrely started. She rubs at one eye, leaning against the table.

"Okay..."

Pidge hadn't realized that the girl she'd met before also had cat ears. It takes her a moment of bleary-eyed staring to get it this morning, too. There's some small comfort in knowing that she's not alone in the world in that respect, but there's also annoyance. Why can't she stay normal?

"...Morning."

To be fair, they had met in the dark, and Chiaki had frequently hid her ears behind a hoodie - which was now absent.

Chiaki sips her coffee, blinking sleepily at the world. "Mm... any luck with the signal yet?"

Zecora arched an eyebrow.

"Is it such a strange occurrence
To be offered reassurance?"

Protests from strangers and acquaintances roll off The Doctor's back like water off a duck.

"Yes the changes are very rude like that. They nearly never have a warning sign- though there tend to be patterns in the timing. Exposure to the fae magic operating the carnival brings them about so don't try casting spells if you want to keep the transformations at bay." He pats the top of his head then his shoulder. "I started with a height change and fae mark. Studying magic for a couple years brought about the aura and angler hook."

"Would I have preferred to go without the changes? In many ways yes. Stressing over them doesn't do any good though. Better to look on the bright side." Is that a joke on the fact he's his own walking lamp now? Maybe.

Pidge is young, so she's struggling to put her feelings into words in an articulate way. She sputters at the Doctor for a moment, then just glares.

"My body was basically violated--changed without my permission. How else am I supposed to feel? Not all of us can be as wishy-washy about this as you can, so how about a little sympathy?" She's not in a good mood and the cavalier attitude she's gotten from people so far is just making it worse.

Pidge shrugs and glances down at her plate, poking at her food with a grunt.

"No. Just these stupid ears." The ears. She's really stuck on them for the moment, trying to ignore the weird sensation of hair brushing against them as they flick.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but normally it's not being done in rhyme by a tiny, talking zebra." Pidge isn't sure how else to explain herself.

Chiaki glances up at them, her own ears flicking.

"Do yours hurt?"

Laughing a little, Zecora shook her head.

"Today it is! And tomorrow too.
So check what 'normal' means to you.
Besides, why does it matter how I look?
Do you judge the cover of the book?"

The annoying guy from the party spots her across the room and moves to sit beside her. He's got a considerably larger breakfast in front of him, almost everything on his plate consist of one kind of meat or another. No fruit, no grains, and no dairy can be found on this troll's plate. At least, not at the moment. His tray drops with a clank onto the table before he turns his chair backwards and takes a seat.

"Hey newbie!"

"Hurt? Ah, no. They're just. Weird." Pidge flicks her ears again, annoyed by the way they touch her hair.

"I don't like that I can have my body changed without knowing it. Or that I'm being like, magic'd or something without permission."

Pidge looks up from her breakfast as the annoying guy sits down across from her. Her eyes narrow for a moment and she pointedly looks back at her plate. She focuses on chasing the remaining half of a sausage around the plate with her fork, not looking at the troll. Maybe if she ignores him, he'll go away.

"It's just not what I'm used to, that's all. No offense." Pidge isn't quite sure how to explain this to someone who seems so entirely at home in this weird place.

Zecora was too philosophical, and too used to those who didn't look like her, to get too hung up on the confusion. Admittedly, ponies were closer to her than humans were, but still, she didn't need a lesson on not judging books by their covers.

"That is the point I wish to make
Thinking like that is a mistake.
View all you see with an accepting mind
And you will feel better, you'll find."

"I get that you mean well, but I'm not gonna just quietly accept someone messing with my body without my permission," Pidge replies with a frown. She leans forward and picks up her cooling cup of coffee. Gulps at it.

"Do you always talk in rhyme?"

"Now that is easier to understand.
Such changes are by no means grand."

Casually, Zecora took a seat on the floor -- quite normal, for a zebra.

"The zebra tongue rhymes naturally.
Not doing so is no path for me."

The Doctor nods his head and looks at her with a softer expression. That's fair. Most people need to take a moment of anger before they can move on to accepting their fate.

"The Ringmaster likes to skip over side effect warnings in her contracts. She forgets that some surprises are inappropriate to say the least. You have every right to feel like you've been tricked and taken advantage of really."

"Well, glad to know that I have the right," Pidge snaps at the Doctor, probably a bit more harshly then she intended. It's been a rough few days, though, and it's kind of cathartic to be able to let that out at someone. Even if they don't deserve it.

Why is her life this strange? Why can't she be doing something normal like looking for her dad? Or flying her lion? It's amazing what becomes normal after even weirder things start happening.

"That's cool, I guess."

No such luck. He doesn't look like he plans on moving anytime soon.

"What, no hello for your new coworker?"

"Oh."

Chiaki scratches behind one of hers. It's still a little strange how high they are. A sudden noise from the back of the mess hall startles her and she jumps.

"Mm..." Settling back in, she sips her coffee again. "Someone was saying... it might be more like... mm. An allergic reaction to magic. Like our bodies just aren't used to it."

Pidge stays stubbornly quiet as she shovels some eggs into her mouth, still not looking up at the Psiionic. If her thoughts were being read, there'd probably be a loud, blaring alarm of GO AWAY! blasting out of her head.

"Maybe. I dunno. It makes sense, I guess, but I still don't like it. It's weird and awkward," Pidge replies with a sullen shrug. She takes a gulp of coffee.

"I just want to go home."

"... Yeah. Me too."

Even though she had been about to die. Even though all had seemed lost.

"I'm sorry, Pidge."

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Getting used to change | Open

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