victory_road | Friday the thirteenth doesn't usually get this whacky

I. Start

It's a good thing this isn't Cassandra's first Weird Weekend; otherwise, she might have panicked at the return of her yoma energy, especially since it's not accompanied by the incision she should still have if she were a warrior. But a quick check confirms that yes, food still tastes normal to her, and she's not craving human guts (a feeling she remembers far too well), so she's clearly not Awakened either.

She's still feeling a bit out of sorts following Willow's departure, which taking care of Willow's pokemon both is and isn't helping. Willow had been a friend, and Cassandra has had precious few of those, so losing her had honestly felt - still feels - awful, even if she's fairly sure Willow at least isn't dead. Cassandra hopes she's all right, wherever she is.

Regardless, moping around Goldenrod City isn't going to help. Cassandra's unlocked a lot of city warps by now, but she might as well use the random nature of travel during this Weird Weekend and see if she can unlock any more. If nothing else, it will save time later - and it also gives her something to do that hopefully doesn't remind her of how alone she suddenly feels. She just hopes she doesn't end up breaking something along the way; she's not so used to having this level of strength anymore.

II. Shift

But midway through the weekend, that strength ceases to be an issue for a while. Cassandra isn't sure how or why; neither is she certain just what she is now. All she knows is that she apparently changes color now, and that the colors she turns into seem to mirror her mood. She doesn't think she likes it.

(A Changeling could possibly explain it to her, if they cared to, but she's only really talked to one, and then only in passing.)

Her pokemon are concerned about this, as are Willow's, but they're of limited help. Blade sticks very close to her, as does Willow's pokemon Lani. Between Cassandra's color-shifting and Blade's constant sparkling, they're probably quite the sight.

III. Wildcard

[Any other ideas? Let me know!]

Luckily, there happens to be a witness to her transformation: but it's debatable whether it helps or not.

Because the tall, uncommonly slender man, who'd been watching her Sylvally with the typical surprise Blade normally receives, is suddenly much less human after Cassandra transforms. Instead he has eight green-black eyes across his upper head, huge and grotesque pedipalps coming out of his lower jaw, and the hands wrapped around his Starlybucks coffee cup are coated in thick, coarse hair and tipped with curled claws.

And he looks, as much as emotion can be seen between those features, surprised. "...what in hell happened to you?"

She hadn't sensed any yoma energy in the area, so Cassandra is more than a little startled to suddenly find herself confronted with what could very well be an Awakened Being of some sort. Had he been masking his yoma energy, or...?

...Or perhaps he's something else. It's not as if that's unheard of; this isn't her first Weird Weekend, after all, and if he was a yoma or Awakened Being, it wouldn't make sense for her to be able to see him for what he is after her ability to sense yoma energy has left her. What she doesn't understand is why his illusion would have broken for her now. Unless whatever she's changed into is something similar to what he is? She finds herself automatically reaching up to check her jaw for pedipalps, then stops herself; if she'd been exactly the same as he is, her vision would have changed too.

And she still hasn't answered his question. "I don't know," she tells him, perhaps unnecessarily at this point. Then: "Why can I see you like this now?"

Edited 2020-11-16 17:24 (UTC)

"You're after turning into a Changeling, is all," he says, still frowning. "Which is why you can see me. I'm one too."

He steps towards her - he's notably taller than her, and something about him looms unpleasantly despite his otherwise neutral posture. "Normally that's not spontaneous, sure, but here's you now."

He's not that much taller than she is, but she does notice that strange looming effect. She wonders if that's intrinsic to his form somehow.

"Changeling?" That's an unfamiliar term.

She thinks for another moment. It is strange that she'd spontaneously become something else like this, since as far as she knows that's not normally a feature of weird weekends. Why is this one different? "I don't think weird weekends normally involve changing powers and forms - just getting existing ones back. But this one is apparently different."

"Apparently it is, but I wouldn't know for sure. This is my first one." And he doesn't seem overly pleased with the fact.

"Your being a Changeling means you've the gift of seeing other Changelings in you. Your Seeming - the broad general type you are, is Fairest, so you're well pretty over the rest of us." And the palps twitch as the corner of his mouth lifts in a smirk.

Cassandra grimaces. She doesn't like the thought of being over anyone; she'd had enough of that as a warrior and a Number One. "is that what being a Fairest is?"

"More or less, isn't it?" But his tone is rhetorical. "There's six Seemings and they can all be boiled down to three or less words. There's the pretty ones, the light-fearing ones, the animals, the forces of nature, the ugly dumb ones and the ugly smart ones."

"And the Fairest are... the prettiest ones." Cassandra has never been the prettiest anything in her entire life.

"They are. Individual preference varies, mind you, as does each individual, but even the ugliest Fairest is fairer than the most well-sculpted Elemental."

Which, in Bailey's eyes, are the next prettiest in line.

"And that... puts them at the top of the hierarchy?" Cassandra sounds a bit doubtful, although it's not Bailey she's doubting so much as the reasoning.

"They're not, in fact." And he looks rather pleased at her question. "Though it rather depends on the hierarchy you're using, don't it? Fairest are all looks, no brains. Heads in the clouds, more often than not. The Wizened, ugly smart wan, are all brains, no tact, but if I wanted someone to guard me I wouldn't be calling on them sure."

That seems like a bit of an oversimplification to Cassandra. After all, Roxanne's insinuations aside, she herself isn't that stupid. "No, for a guard you'd need someone practiced in combat as well as cunning, especially if they're meant to be in public."

It is a gross oversimplification and Bailey is making no attempt to pretend it's not. "You would. That's why you'd be bringing an Ogre - the ugly dumb ones - or a Beast, or at least a smart one. Something you can keep on a leash."

"It would depend on who or what you're guarding, and the nature of the threat." She pauses. "Though I might be thinking too much in terms of how it would work in my world."

"Those kinds of questions matter no matter what world you're in." He likes her pragmatism. "But you really don't need to worry about that now. If this is just a random transformation, then you haven't gone through all the shite that really makes a Fairest of you. It's just aesthetics."

"...It's something that's done to you, isn't it? Becoming a Changeling."

He smiles around the pedipalps, and it's altogether a far less pleasant expression than his previous ones. "In a way. It's a title, more than anything else. It's our way of saying we're after clawing back independence from our Lord's clutches."

"Your... lord?" That sounds worrying.

"A combination slavemaster and punk-ass bitch. Lords and Ladies kidnap mortals and subject them to magic and torture, and turn them into... well."

And he gestures with one hand at the both of them, quirking one eyebrow up. "Us."

"So... they change you. And then you redefine yourselves when you escape." She's quiet for a moment. "Do they try to hunt you down afterwards?" She'd be surprised if they didn't, honestly.

"It's something we worry about, sure. Not all of them are happy that their precious little toys escape, if they even notice. The lot of us stick together to protect against it. Safety in numbers and all."

"So they vary." She pauses. "That's... probably obvious. I'm just not used to thinking of individual masters like that."

"Well it's not like two people are typically identical. Just push that eccentricity to twelve and remove any kind of functioning moral system and you have a Lord ready-made."

"That mindset sound a bit like an Abyssal One, except that Abyssal Ones can't use magic and aren't necessarily looking for others to serve them." Cassandra thinks for a moment. "Except for possibly Riful of the West, but she just has warriors tortured instead."

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itsybitsybastard - 2020-11-24 03:57 (UTC) - Expand

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fearinahandfulof - 2020-11-24 04:19 (UTC) - Expand

Friday the thirteenth doesn't usually get this whacky

Cassandra the Dust-Eater | Claymore | OTA | will match format [cw: body horror/cannibalism mention]

Shift

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