[Open + Closed] If I Had A Nickel For Every Time My Soul Got Transformed...

[crushed_pearls]

Who: Erin Peters and YOU, but also Phil and Cassandra de Rolo
When: January 21st Onward
Where: Locations
Summary: Fallout of some regains, trying to bounce back still, So Many Animal People On This Ship
Warnings: Lost bullshit, Erin's eyes in a jar, violent transformation. For reference all prompts after 1 feature the post-transformation Erin.


1. Well One Of Us Is Going To Have To Change (Closed To Phil; Sundries)

Avoiding asking Friday why she gets so much fucking mail is getting increasingly difficult for Erin. The curled-up scrap of the Contract with Stone is unexpected but very welcome; at last, she can haul her own sunfish, or at least not spend power like water to do so. The jar with her FUCKING EYES IN IT is disgusting but Erin had given them to Colors for Hedgespinning; maybe she could do the same? Or, preferably, Ossie or Giles or Okie might do the same, as Erin doesn't want these curst fucking things anywhere near her...

The grooming kit arrests her attention, though. Erin knows these tools. She used them often, once Gabby had warmed up to her. They're even etched with a little 'GG' encircled by feathers and thorns. God, it's been so long; Gabby was decades ago, and yet, and yet -

Searing pain, down Erin's shoulders. She lurches, dropping the grooming kit back into its package, crying out in shock. That sound rapidly becomes a scream of absolute fucking agony as raven's wings tear their way out of the meat of her shoulders and shred the back of her dress and coat into tatters. Feathers lace their way into Erin's tempestuous hair, joining the storm, and little scales - like a bird's - grow into place around her wrists and ankles.

"Mother fucker," Erin half-yells, half-sobs. And then, in a louder voice, a call for help: "PHIL!"

There's blood everywhere now. It's gonna be a whole fucking event, isn't it?

2. The Retired Villain's Club (Closed to Cassandra; Cabin 134 & the Hoard)

Love can you come to my cabin at your convenience? I have something I want to show you and talk about. Difficult conversation probably. There is no rush whatsoever.

3. Acceptable Levels of Hypocrisy (Around)

Sometimes you need to resort to weird measures to get around your problems. The issue: Erin has not been eating properly and she knows it. The solution: Erin is now eating in the weirdest goddamn places. Catch her with cups (not bowls) of various foods while perched on the statue in The Promenade, nibbling her way through an improbable amount of carbs while whittling in the Lounge, carefully eating garlic bread with a fork in The Library, or even indulging her endless need for sugar in the shallow reaches of The Infinite Tommy Bahama. Can't be on people for self-care if she's not caring for herself, damnit.

4. A Castle Made Of Clouds (Tauva)

Every few days you might catch Erin at Tauva with her doll's castle, now fully-manned by wooden figurines with operational siege weapons (powered by rubber bands), poking and prodding at it with her stylus and sometimes jotting down notes in braille. If she has reason to suspect you're into building, y'know, buildings, or have experience with interior design, you might have received a text requesting a consultation on a project; if not, well, she's got a doll castle in the smoking lounge, fuck's up with that?

Comments

[littlefairytale]

"...yeah, people like that don't ever leave you. Even if you might not see them still lingering there, sometimes." Her voice is soft. She offers out a hand. "And, y'know, it doesn't have to be a trial for you to teach me if the help will... well, help."

There is a certain amount of self-aware hypocrisy in the sentiment, 'hey you can ask for help before it's actually a bigger problem' being something they both know she's abysmal at, but.

"Sundries stuff sure has a habit of stirring things up..."

[crushed_pearls]

Erin takes Ruby's hand. "Sure does. I'll take you up on that when they're less sore, right now anyone who touches them will die and it won't be fast. I cannot even begin to explain how sensitive they are from exploding out of my back."

[littlefairytale]

"They actually like—" she mimes a bursting gesture with her other hand, while the first squeezes Erin's, and winces. "They didn't just... appear? That's... owwwww. Way to pair physical and emotional pains..."

She thought most gifts like that just... happened without much fanfare. What in the name of the Gods...

[crushed_pearls]

"Generally one is born screaming and covered in blood. A proper rebirth is similar." Erin's smile is pained, mostly because she's actually, physically in pain thinking about it; her wings twinge. "But enough about me, how you holding up? Do I need to take you hostage as a blanket again?"

[littlefairytale]

"Erin that felt like just the most blatant deflection even by my standards, but no you do not need to take me hostage. I'm... dealing. I've talked to Darcy and Mom and Smith and stuff. I'm... getting a few hours a night. I didn't even cry over my sundries stuff."

Not that it didn't take great effort...

[crushed_pearls]

"Mmm. 'mere." Erin opens a wing to offer a hug if Ruby will but scoot her chair.

[littlefairytale]

Ruby scoots her chair over to get close enough to lean into her. "It wasn't anything big this time, just... little things from my team. Accessories, mostly. Nothing like..."

Vague gesture at, you know, the major physiological changes Erin's had.

[crushed_pearls]

Erin folds her wing over Ruby and wraps her in a one-armed hug. Get a warm, feathery embrace lass. Feel the power of Bird Hug.

"Blatant deflection it mighta been, but I'm not gonna resolve all those feelings any time soon, sis. So talk to me, yeah? Where's your head at?"

[littlefairytale]

"Well currently I'm thinking about how weird it is that there are now three people in my family that have bird stuff, and I think one is even the same type of bird going by the wings..."

That isn't a lie, seriously this is weird why do her Uncle, Step-Mom-Aunt-Whatever-You-Call-Raven and Erin now all have bird things going on... but she sighs and answers properly after a moment.

"I don't know. It always makes me a little homesick to get stuff from home, and I'm just trying to settle back into routine after the whole... dying stuff."

[crushed_pearls]

Well you see Ruby they're all birds because you are kbity. Ravens and kbity are natural allies.

"...Yeah, I can dig it. And after the trial everyone's thinking about what getting out will even mean too. Like...it's not like we get to go home, and that's a lot."

[littlefairytale]

Sentences that will be very funny if she ever does get her own bird transformation in a sundries delivery...

"Mmhm. I love my friends and family here, but I want— I miss my other friends. And my dad and my uncle. But I'm never going to see them again. And I know I have to get used to that, but. I don't know."

She's homesick more for people than for places. Remnant is beautiful, it's home, it's full of memories, but it's also full of danger and stress and the fact she's taken a side around here, the fact she's thinking about trying to do something of value, doesn't change that home is even more pressure.

[crushed_pearls]

"...Yeah. We've lost them as surely as if we'd died, and that's a fucking lot. Sometimes I think I have it easier that way, not a lot of people left for me to miss, even if I keep dredging them up out of my memories. I'm sorry, sis. I don't know how to help, but 'm here if you ever just wanna cry or do somethin'."

[littlefairytale]

"I'm tired of crying. It just gives me a headache and then I don't even feel any better after." Probably because it's never actually enough to release the emotional tangle that's still wrapped around her insides. "I kind of wish I'd taken longer working on Summer's Thorn, buuuut I didn't. Though if you know anyone who might be able to safely pierce ears..."

She's half-joking, but one of the trinkets that arrived was a pair of earrings, so. She tucks up more against Erin's side.

"...ever since the possession, I—" her brow knits, "sometimes I wonder how many of my friends might actually exist in the Nothing."

[crushed_pearls]

"...Yeah. I've been trying not to think about that. Burn that bridge when we cross it, you know?" Erin reaches over with her free hand and pinches Ruby's ear. "And I can pierce ears, though no matter who does it it'll hurt like a bitch. But uh...not to get trapped in a digression or anything but wouldn't I have to beat the shit out of your Aura first?"

[littlefairytale]

"I'd have an easier time not thinking about it if I hadn't heard Penny's voice back at the diner..." Her voice is a little quieter as she says that, and then she's distracted by the pinching and question. Even blinks pointedly a couple of times as she thinks about it. "Well I think Weiss got hers done when she was young enough she didn't even have her Aura up, but you can temporarily sort of... repress your Aura, without actually having it broken. I haven't tried to teach you that yet because it's really not important most of the time and it's hard."

[crushed_pearls]

"Okay. Let's go. Grab your earrings, we'll hit the infirmary and I'll stab you twice. Stab-stab. Stab." Erin pokes Ruby's nose. "Stab stabbity stab."

[littlefairytale]

Ruby's nose crinkles a little and she laughs, playfully batting at Erin's hand. "Stabbity stab, okay, okay, they're back in my cabin, so we'll have to swing by there, but."

Easy enough.

Possibly wrap here I dunno how to do this but Erin does

[crushed_pearls]

"I'll meet ya in the spa sis, it'll have the right needles and such."

Erin breaks the hug and sets off. The castle will be fine on its own for a bit.

lmao fair

[littlefairytale]

Ruby will meet her in the spa with the earrings and Erin will get a brief demonstration of her consciously dropping her Aura. Focusing on keeping it down will also go a great way to stopping her freaking out about getting stabbed through the earlobe, so, two birds one stone.

Of course technically she shouldn't be going right to proper earrings, but her Aura going back up afterwards should account for that somewhat. And so after that, Ruby will be walking around with Weiss Schnee's latest earrings in.