Seasons: IC Contact/Continuations

[abnormalizes]

This is Evangeline! Sorry, I'm a little busy right now, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

Comments

[abnormalizes]

Obviously?? There's no way I would get married and not invite you!

[is this what Eve felt when Evangeline asked, woops]

[roundandaround]

Happy -- wait.

[Rinku lets go, extracts herself carefully from Evangeline, fixes the rumpled ribbon and lace layers, and then spins.]

「Happy Around!」

[abnormalizes]

[Evangeline smiles, still a little watery, and does the full spin.]

Happy Around!

[roundandaround]

[Rinku sparkles more than she ever has before. She hugs Evangeline and rubs her face on her, making happy noises. She too is starting to tear up.]

Yeah! Yeah, yeah! I'm really happy for you, Neechan! And I'm glad you're here!

[abnormalizes]

[Hugggggg. The lace is probably getting crumpled again but it doesn't matter.]

Me too. Coming to Ellipsa has been the best thing that's ever happened to me.

[roundandaround]

I'm gonna work really hard to make sure everything is okay. For you too. [sniff] And so no one has to be scared again.

[abnormalizes]

I think I'll always be a little bit scared, but... if I can still do things like this, even though I'm afraid, that would be incredible.

[roundandaround]

Yeah... yeah! I promise. It'll be nice in the future too!

[She snuggles. After a pause, she pulls back.]

Do you want me to take pictures and send them to you?

[abnormalizes]

Please. I want to be able to remind myself I did this.

[Even if it's just wearing a dress, this still feels like a step.]

[roundandaround]

Okay! Hold on!

[Rinku fixes the dress up again, humming. She pulls out her phone, steps back to the door, and starts taking photos.]

I don't really know much about photography, so pose however you want!

[abnormalizes]

[Evangeline thinks about it for a second, then makes a heart shape with her hands in front of her. It's still obvious from her face that she was crying recently, but her smile is genuine.]

[roundandaround]

[Rinku snaps some more photos at a few angles. She sends them over to Evangeline's phone when she's done.]

That was cute! And you look great in it, too! How are they?

[abnormalizes]

[Checking...]

They came out really well! I don't know if I'll ever want to share these pictures, but it's good to have them.

[roundandaround]

[Happy squeal!]

I'm really glad you like it. You can try on anything of mine you want. ...Huh, maybe I should hold off on getting a tail hole made for that one, since you liked it so much and I dunno where I'm gonna wear it...

[abnormalizes]

You can get it altered if you want, I don't want you to not be able to wear your own clothes because of me? That feels bad.

[roundandaround]

I can do it! It just means shapeshifting.

[Rinku shuts her eyes tight and shifts back to human. She opens her eyes and pats her head and then her tailbone.]

...It's kinda weird using shapeshifting to look like this instead of not, huh... I never thought about it before.

[And now that she's distracted, she drops the shapeshift and the giraffe parts are back.]

[abnormalizes]

I guess the giraffe nubs and tail are your 'normal' now. ...How do you feel about that?

[She can imagine it being A Lot.]

[roundandaround]

I dunno.

[Tail swish as Rinku thinks about it.]

I don't not like how I was before, but I used to shift like this all the time just for fun. It makes people smile, and it feels nice, except when chairs aren't made for you or you flip backwards onto your bed or something and then it's like "ow ow ow" and you gotta make sure not to fall on your tail, but people like petting me and that feels nice and I like it when it makes them happy too. But on the other other hand, it's supposed to be just changing on the outside, right? If I changed on the inside too, I dunno how I'd feel then.

[She has been working on it -- as she said in March, she wants to master all of shapeshifting -- but so far that's mainly to emulate Evangeline.]

How do you feel about it?

[abnormalizes]

How do I feel about you getting stuck like that? Well... to be honest, I still think of you as human even when you have the nubs and tail, or when you turn into a fish or become part snake. I think of you as a human who's changing shape with her powers.

And even though they got stuck on you, it's not like you have giraffe instincts or make giraffe noises, right? It's not like with Choco.

[Who is the best example of human-then-not that Evangeline can think of.]

[roundandaround]

Huh... yeah, I guess so. Not unless I use the full shapeshifting, and I'm still working on that. It might be fun sometimes, though!

[Smile! But then she tilts her head and thinks.]

Yeah! Yeah, that's true. And if I ever wanna change, or something makes me change because that happens to some people, then that's different, but it's what it is now and it's fun. Except the hard parts. Thanks, Neechan, you know everything.

[abnormalizes]

I don't know if I know everything? But I know a little about humans, at least.

As long as you're happy, that's the important thing.

[roundandaround]

[Leans against Evangeline and nuzzles.]

Thanks, Neechan. That's how I feel too. If you're happy, that's important with what you do too.

[She steps back and taps her chin.]

...Also there aren't a lot of giraffe noises anyway. I mean, they can go [incoherent bellow, albeit quieter because they're in the house and she doesn't want to startle the Pokémon] when they're yelling at each other or predators or something, but otherwise most of the stuff they say is at a level humans can't hear! Scientists thought they were mute for the longest time.

[abnormalizes]

[Scritch scritch.]

Huh, I didn't know that. I guess you picked a good one to be stuck in if you got changes on the inside too?

[roundandaround]

[Giggle and nuzzle.]

Probably! They can make other noises, but they don't do it a lot. It's kinda weird being something that my favourite animal eats, but also I guess technically humans are that already kind of. And if I needed to see a lion I'd just turn into a lion and try to talk to it that way.

Hm... What's your favourite animal form anyway, Neechan? Do you ever go part way like me?

[abnormalizes]

I like hummingbird! I give myself the wings sometimes.

[She demonstrates, sprouting brilliant blue hummingbird wings.]

Part-octopus is also pretty useful for other reasons.