DONT LOOK

[eyesforward]

[Sadie had recently gone through her second, and final, transformation. It was painful, but she was alone at the house during its happening—and no matter how terrible, they never go on longer than thirty minutes, she's sure. The first time, she'd grown an embarrassing amount of fluffy fur exactly like the head on her hair basically—everywhere, which, you know, didn't feel terribly attractive (especially on her chest), even for monster stuff—and she'd also grown claws, which meant losing a finger on each hand and foot (strangely). This was topped off with a pair of little pointed ears, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Learning how to talk again without a lisp took a bit.

And that was how she'd been looking for...well, a month or two. And the longer it had been since her first transformation, the more uneasy Sadie had been becoming. She knew she was due for another, which was what she'd just survived.

Panting, her breath unstable, Sadie blearily tries to push herself up from her belly. The fur of her back and shoulders is matted with blood, and there's a pair of weakly folded, feathery wings, slick in parts from their emergence. The feathers are inconsistently coated in Sadie's blood, apparently having some sort of water resistant oil. She's pale, and her watery vision is spinning—and bright. She can barely stand to keep her eyes open for how bright everything is, and she grits her teeth, groaning as she tucks her head down (thus curling into a ball), paws folding over her head as she shields herself from the sensory stimulation. Her eyes also hurt incredibly bad, light sensitivity aside. She's not aware that their makeup has changed entirely.

Her lower back had also blossomed grotesquely to make way for a new appendage. Pretty embarrassingly close to her ass, actually, though her shorts are pretty unscathed. But there's a red, bristly tail with a furred spine, limp against the floor with a long, deadly spur punctuating its end. The fur along the tail's back is almost completely flat from the weight of Sadie's blood. She had the good sense to hastily peel off her shirt when she felt the changes coming, especially as the pain localized in her back. She's not feeling particularly sheepish or vain about it, and she's curled so tightly, it can't matter, she figures.

For now, Sadie pants, gulping for breath and clutching her head as she tries to focus on not vomiting. She moans miserably. She's got a high pain tolerance, but this a lot. Especially to undergo alone.

Stupid fog.

But it's okay. Sadie's strong. She is strong.]

Comments

[doughnuthole]

Sh-shut up Sadie, that wasn't what I meant! [He laughs a little awkwardly, kind of disappointed that he can't physically punch her or something for that remark.]

Y'know I'm kinda jealous though, all I gots are my dumb technology powers or invisibility... and I guess I can make other things 'n people fly but that ain't nearly cool enough.

[eyesforward]

[Sadie just laughs when Lars denies his own suspicious tone, pressing her face into the arm that currently doesn't have its hand surrendered to Lars's affection, momentarily muffling her giggles. She glances back at him, having recovered, and squishes her cheek against her arm as she gazes over at him.]

I dunno, you can make stuff explode and go through walls and junk. That's pretty cool. I'm probably just gonna end up eating wild animals, quizzing people on horror movie trivia since I'm not all that buffed on my riddles, and start sleeping 15 hours a day like you used to back in Beach City.

[That sounds kind of grim, but that's just sometimes how Sadie's humor can go. And anyway, she's in a pretty good mood now, so hey!]

[doughnuthole]

Hey, sleepin' fifteen hours a day is like a gift! I'd give anything to just sleep five.

[He looks down at her gazing up at him, and their eyes meet for a moment, long enough for him to shoot her a sweeter looking smile before he shyly looks away again.]

'Guess it's pretty nice to stay up 'n hang out with everyone, though. Even if I gotta stay in the shade all the time.

[eyesforward]

[Sadie is embarrassed by how much his expression rattles her to her core, and in the best way. She almost reflexively releases a bubbly little giggle, unconsciously trying to assuage her own nerves as she fills with butterflies. God. It's literally sad how much she isn't over all of this, especially since Lars literally isn't even the same guy she first came to be attracted to, physically speaking.]

Yeah, I could believe that. I always thought sleep was kinda inconvenient. Like, it's nice when you want it, but sometimes I just used to feel like I'd probably be a more productive person without it.

[doughnuthole]

Well yeah, sure you could get a lot done if you never slept but it's boring! Like, there's always hours when everyone's sleepin' themselves and I don't got anything to do besides I dunno... hang around a buncha' lame strangers. [There's a small pause, as if he was trying to decide if it was worth continuing his train of thought or if he should just leave it there.]

But.. y'know.. it wouldn't be bad. [He has more to say, but.. honestly he feels too embarrassed to really get it all out.]

[eyesforward]

Yeah?

[Sadie raises her eyebrows, grinning. She absently mindedly sort of lifts and drops her legs in tandem, slowly, unaware of how flirtatious her own body language is.]

How ya figure?

[doughnuthole]

I mean.. [He looks over his shoulder a little at her legs and feels a bit more embarrassed, with how she just seems... really happy and comfortable being right there next to Lars. It gives him a bit more of a confidence booster, though. But.. god, sappy or romantic settings like this were always hard on Lars.]

Just, y'know.. if you could become nocturnal like me it'd be.... r-really rad.

[eyesforward]

[She is pretty comfortable, especially for being partially undressed. But after all the horrible pain and their needless tiff, Sadie's just grateful to have him around in whatever capacity. Funny how traumatic events could put a certain spin on things.

Sadie laughs at Lars's sentiment, but fondly, and with a sort of bashful endearment that glows her cheeks—but her smile fades, and she blinks thoughtfully as she lifts her head.]

You know—I think I probably will be? I'm pretty sure manticores are nocturnal, actually. Even before today, I've been pretty sluggish in the mornings... You probably haven't noticed, since you're mostly active at night. Same with Ronaldo!

Could be we're just gonna be a house of nocturnal people.

[doughnuthole]

Really? [He probably sounds more excited than he should, at the prospect of it.]

That means we could hang out like, all day if we wanted to! [He lifts his head to show her his enthusiasm -- or, well, all the enthusiasm he can really show on his dark, cloudy face.]

[eyesforward]

Haha!

[Sadie rests her cheek back on her arm, enjoying Lars's rare enthusiasm.]

Just like back home, I guess. But not at work. Which means we'll probably get along better.

[doughnuthole]

I mean we get to hang out all day Sadie. Like, work was long yeah but now we got nighttime to do stuff together too.

[His enthusiasm burns out kind of quickly, once he realizes how embarrassing he was beginning to sound.]

Y-you probably don't wanna spend every waking minute with me or whatever but it...ll be kinda nice, right?

[eyesforward]

[Sadie feels her heart skip a beat, and she gazes shyly up at Lars, kind of surprised by his candidness with his feelings. He'd probably been sitting on things for a long time before she showed up, so maybe he'd worked something out with himself—or maybe something about this horrible place made them sort of discard their own pretenses about things.

Sadie knew she had, personally.]

It'll—definitely be nice...

I don't think I could ever really get sick of being around you, Lars. Even when I'm not around you, I'm...usually thinking about you in some capacity, anyway...

[Wow, that was embarrassing. Sadie's apparently determined to one up Lars in self humiliation.]

[doughnuthole]

[Lars freezes, his eyes widening with complete surprise at Sadie's response. It's like as soon as she mentioned thinking about him when he's around.. everything just felt kind of. Real. Like.. he wouldn't have thought in a million years that he was important enough for Sadie to waste her time thinking about him, and for her to just confess to it kind of out of the blue like that... wow. It.. it's probably more touching to him than it would be to anyone else.

And the fact that it really was so touching to him, who was never certain about his or her feelings up until this moment... well, it was hard to take in, and it was hard to stop himself from getting kind of emotional. Tears were starting to sting his eyes (which in retrospect, is a little weird that even in his shadow form his organs and body fluids worked normally) and he finally takes his hand back away from her, to cover his mouth as he laughed out a small sob. And laughed out some more.

It was so dumb, to him. To feel so goddamn happy just to be in someone's thoughts.. so he really couldn't help laughing on top of the tears. God.. he probably looked crazy or something.]

[eyesforward]

Lars??

[Sadie gets the gist of Lars's reaction, in part—at first, she thinks he was laughing at her, but then Sadie notices the fat tears welling in his eyes and falling down his cheeks, despite how he pressed his hand against his grinning mouth. She can't really believe personally it was something like crying out of happiness—instinctively, she assumes she must have said something...wrong, and he was just—reacting strangely?

Both worried and alarmed, Sadie completely disregards the pain that comes with unthinkingly pushing herself up on her palms to get a better look at him almost as immediately as she notices Lars's reaction, mostly flagged by the way he withdraws his hand.]

A-are you okay?

[doughnuthole]

[He shakes his head in answer to her question and squishes his free hand against one of his eyes. The fact that Sadie seemed so concerned just made everything stupider and more embarrassing, but he couldn't get a word out to explain what was wrong. Not like he really knew what to tell her, anyway. It'd be extremely embarrassing to admit that he was just happy, but what lie could he even tell her?

Gosh.. feelings were so complicated he wished he was just as dark and unfeeling on the inside as he was on the outside.]

[eyesforward]

[Increasingly worried, Sadie at least manages to lower herself again, slowly—but she rearranges herself to sit up, carefully, successfully doing well not to disturb her back—and to keep herself covered. She eventually settles with her arms around her knees, thighs pressed up against her chest.

She can't really predict what he's feeling, and she doesn't want to force him to open up about it, or anything—but she can't touch his back, or take his hand back in both of hers, or—anything she's wishing she could be doing, right now. He seemed fine—even excited—a moment ago, unless he was just really upset about her transformation.

Sadie bites her lip uncertainly, not wanting to alienate Lars for expressing himself... but feeling totally unsure of what to do. URGH]

Did...I upset you?