Party like it's your birthday [OPEN]

[plasticasshole]

Who: Connor & OTA!
When: 15th August
Where: Connor and Hank's cottage
What: Connor's very first birthday!
Warnings: None so far, will update if necessary


[It starts with a video on the 14th. Connor is sitting and petting a very large dragonfly by his head, because that isn't weird at all.]

Hello everyone. I just wanted to send a message out to let everyone know that it's my first birthday tomorrow, and I'm inviting people over to join me for the evening at my home. If we've met, you can assume you're invited. If we haven't met, well... I'd like to meet you, so you're invited too. There will be food, and the backyard has a giant pool. I hope to see you there.

--

[And on the actual night of his birthday, of course Connor is confined to his pool because of the full moons. Which is fine, he supposes, as long as people want to swim with him. As promised there is plenty of food, laid out on a table near the back of the cottage, and he's even set out a couple of small tables and seats. The backyard is large and lit up by floating lights, but most of it is taken up by a huge pool.

Connor himself is swimming around, though if he spots someone he'll come over to greet them. He'll look very different to his usual self, his teeth long and sharp and his eyes a milky blue instead of the usual warm brown; he's mostly blind above the water tonight. His fingers are unnaturally long and tipped with claws, and the little balls at the end of his whiskers and ear fins glow a soft blue. His entire body is covered in scales now. He still sounds the same though, and if approached he seems pleased that someone actually turned up.]

((Feel free to mingle amongst yourselves too!))

Comments

[firewalled]

Rich eyes her hand with a bit of concern, but he doesn't say anything. It's not like she asked him about his scars. He knows better than to pry, no matter how worried he may be.

He winces softly as she touches her hand to his face, though he at least doesn't squirm away, letting her examine both the wound and his talons.

"Just because I'm in pain, doesn't give me an excuse to hurt other people. I should know better than that."

He looks down at their joined hands.

"Seriously, I just need a bandage. I'll be more careful from now on."

[bleedinghare]

"―that's noble of you to recognize, Rich, but it was no excuse― think of it as an explanation. If I was hurt, it was only in passing. I promise."

Giving him a soft squeeze, Adeline stands to retrieve a hand-towel― bending at the sink to moisten it with the pitcher, intending to clean Rich's wound. Her eyes, however, are drawn to the mirror, to herself.

What she sees is strange. She knows her appearance― it was hard not to, seeing as she had a twin― but what she finds there is a change, something past the reddening of her right eye; a bloom of gold within her iris, gleaming faintly. She reaches forward to touch her face, her eyelid... gasping softly, fearfully.

Beginning. She fears for what might be next.

[firewalled]

"...As long as you promise, I guess. I won't hurt you again."

He looks down at his claws for a while, until he hears her gasp and looks up in surprise.

"Ada...?"

He notices her studying her face, and his heart sinks immediately, knowing just what has her so concerned.

"Ada, it's okay... it doesn't hurt, does it?"

[bleedinghare]

"―no, I― it..." Her soft, hesitating stammer is uncharacteristic; lingering at the mirror, totally fixated on her eye. "it's... itching, it stings, but it... I'll be all right."

Adeline is audibly stunned beyond words― emotions in a strange whirlwind, on the edge of screaming or crying or hiding, a tremble having found its way into her fingertips. What gives her greater pause― not pause, what makes her wince― is the burning, a strange searing at the crown of her head, doubling over at the washbasin.

"―hah― nnn, that..." Her throat dries into a rasp, struggling just to breathe. She can feel the moon, as if it had two great eyes to see through the roof of Connor's little cottage, to bore directly into the top of her golden head.

Ada can't see it, but a perfect trail of bright scarlet has followed the part in her hair, trailing onto the nape of her neck.

[firewalled]

"Ada!" Rich sees clearly what Ada can't, and despite his own injuries, he ignores them and rushes to her side, reaching out before hesitating and noticing his talons again.

"You're... shit, I'm sorry, you're bleeding..." He thinks she is, but he doesn't want to touch it in case he harms her. He fumbles and wraps a towel around his hand, then tenderly wipes it over the part in her curls.

[bleedinghare]

She gasps softly at the blood― no stranger to such a sight, but what from? As gently as she might, Adeline follows the trail of heat upward to her scalp... to find two equal cuts at the top of her head, stinging with touch. "―nngh!"

It's difficult, but she does her best to swallow her fright; albeit half-heartedly, feeling a strange electricity course beneath her skin― no― something icy in her very blood, going gooseflesh over her bare neck and arms, bracing against the washbasin amidst the onset of trembling.

"―I'm sorry," Adeline gasps, offering Rich a brief glance of open fear before turning it away from him in a meager attempt to save some manner of face. "I don't― what is this? What is happening to me?"

[firewalled]

Rich is also feeling a strange tangling of emotions in his gut, but he thinks they may be on the opposite end of the panic and fear that Adeline feels. He's desperately trying to hold onto those emotions, normal and understandable in such a situation...

And instead, he keeps feeling a hunger and rage that he can't seem to shake, a desire to find the source of that blood and rip it free.

It's those feelings that leave him backing up and away, back towards the door.

"Transformations. They said they'd start happening eventually. We... must've got hit at the same time."