Momiji Sohma (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
selfishwish) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
middaeg2019-12-04 12:14 pm
selfishwish) wrote in middaeg2019-12-04 12:14 pm
Entry tags:
[OPEN] Hold hands, wish the snow away
Who: Momiji Sohma & You!
When: Catch-all for Dec. but primarily pre-Snow Way Out.
Where: Around Aef! (Silver Belles, the Market District, the Entertainment District)
What: Quests, cuddles, obnoxious shape-changing impersonations, and other ways to try to keep from going stir-crazy when you're a borderline feral bunny.
Warnings: N/A, will update as needed.
1. Substitute Burrows (Silver Belles)
The season's first snow is exciting and distressing all at once. Momiji runs out first thing in the morning to play in it, and for hours after he can be found in the streets around the Haven stockpiling snowballs and trying to give his greatest masterpiece, a snowpuca, a suitable pair of rabbit ears.
But there's something about the cold that sticks with him after, and huddling by the fireplace back inside somehow doesn't shake it off. He doesn't have a name for the feeling, though it feels like an approximation is constantly on the tip of his tongue. It's like homesickness made physical almost. Like everything, even Kyo's apartment, is too big and too empty and foreign all around him. For a couple nights, he lies awake, bundled underneath an extra blanket, and thinks hard about whether Kyo would kick him out from underneath the covers if he tried to crawl in with him to cuddle up. (He decides the answer is definitely yes, though, so he doesn't try.)
So, it is perhaps less the extra work hours and more other factors that has him signed up to pick up spare shifts at Silver Belles by the end of the week. He's...not entirely sure if the place is supposed to be like a host club would at home? But that is how he approaches the job, anyway! He picks out one of his most dapper outfits, with a bowtie over his powder-blue jacket, and greets his guests with fawning but sincere attention and a glowing smile and a little menu sheet of hot drinks and sweets the place has on hand.
If they'd rather keep warm more literally, though--even better. He'll happily nestle into a booth or retrieve a suitably comfortable blanket to drape around himself and a guest. He doesn't have to play-act how nice it is just to curl in against someone's side or clamber onto their lap and cling close, batting eyelids up at them.
"Cozy?"
2. Borrowed Faces
His day job, though, is still at Particularly Good Finders. And sometimes when the office's caseload runs into a slow patch--which the holiday season seems to have encouraged--the resident puca-detectives entertain themselves by giving their most junior assistant homework assignments in the finer arts of their kind.
Lately, since he started to be able to control his shape-changing, the lessons are mostly about mimicry. It's one thing to sound like someone else, another to look like them, and yet another to play the part convincingly. Mostly he practices smaller animals at first, but people are much harder! His early efforts all have a certain schoolyard-in-the-uncanny-valley effect to them, like someone gave the proverbial three children piled into a trenchcoat access to hologram technology.
This is why, for the first week of Deceuril, you may turn around in the marketplace or in a shop and find yourself staring unexpectedly back at your doppelganger, browsing the same stock as you or waiting patiently behind you in line, studying the menu board with an aping of the same contemplative look you were wearing moments before.
Admittedly, the hardest part is not breaking into giggles every time he catches his target looking.
"Hi there!" is his typical greeting, though often as not it comes out in the voice of a pixieish teenage boy. He has to clear his throat and try again to attempt an actual imitation...but, give him credit, the second attempt's often eerily spot-on.
"I mean--ahem--hi there."
3. Espionage & Other Harmless Pastimes (Undercover)
There's really only one thing that fully eases that lingering, inexplicable discomfort, though, and that is being where he's Not Supposed To.
Quite possibly the City Watch's Lead Investigator wasn't seeking to recruit plucky schoolkids when she started circulating the word looking for help from the Mirrorbound. But he's already seen what lurking, anti-Monster sentiment looks like when it's able to keep to the shadows the once, and the thought of it still makes him feel--well, like he wants to bite someone, to put it civilly. That's another new feeling he hardly knows what to do with.
There's something uniquely satisfying, then, about spending his nights slipping in places he shouldn't all for the sake of that cause. He tries to be good about not going alone! He's plenty happy to be smuggled into the latest target with someone bigger (and more capable of throwing a punch), tucked into their coat pocket in an even-rabbitier-than-usual guise. But some nights there's just no finding a Responsible Adult around, while that gambling den tucked away in the Entertainment District is still clearly bustling, wealthy figures in winter cloaks slipping in and out in a constant stream through the back entrance...
On those nights, not infrequently, one can find a familiar-looking blond boy in the local joint's serving uniform, hustling through the crowd like he's clearly supposed to be there. He's missing, though, the long ears and fur and buckteeth that would mark him normally. (It's a weird feeling, honestly, mimicking yourself.) As long as he keeps away from the attention of the actual management, he can see and hear a lot--
Though, keeping up even that mild shape-changing for long can be very tiring. One might, while creeping around oneself, turn into a wine cellar and find a little, blond puca propping himself up against the shelfing, glamour dropped for the moment, panting with exertion.
4. Wildcard!
[OOC: Any ideas that don't fit naturally under one of the prompts above are great too, if you want to get up to something with 'Miji for the month! Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Also, bracket-tags and prose are both fine!]
When: Catch-all for Dec. but primarily pre-Snow Way Out.
Where: Around Aef! (Silver Belles, the Market District, the Entertainment District)
What: Quests, cuddles, obnoxious shape-changing impersonations, and other ways to try to keep from going stir-crazy when you're a borderline feral bunny.
Warnings: N/A, will update as needed.
1. Substitute Burrows (Silver Belles)
The season's first snow is exciting and distressing all at once. Momiji runs out first thing in the morning to play in it, and for hours after he can be found in the streets around the Haven stockpiling snowballs and trying to give his greatest masterpiece, a snowpuca, a suitable pair of rabbit ears.
But there's something about the cold that sticks with him after, and huddling by the fireplace back inside somehow doesn't shake it off. He doesn't have a name for the feeling, though it feels like an approximation is constantly on the tip of his tongue. It's like homesickness made physical almost. Like everything, even Kyo's apartment, is too big and too empty and foreign all around him. For a couple nights, he lies awake, bundled underneath an extra blanket, and thinks hard about whether Kyo would kick him out from underneath the covers if he tried to crawl in with him to cuddle up. (He decides the answer is definitely yes, though, so he doesn't try.)
So, it is perhaps less the extra work hours and more other factors that has him signed up to pick up spare shifts at Silver Belles by the end of the week. He's...not entirely sure if the place is supposed to be like a host club would at home? But that is how he approaches the job, anyway! He picks out one of his most dapper outfits, with a bowtie over his powder-blue jacket, and greets his guests with fawning but sincere attention and a glowing smile and a little menu sheet of hot drinks and sweets the place has on hand.
If they'd rather keep warm more literally, though--even better. He'll happily nestle into a booth or retrieve a suitably comfortable blanket to drape around himself and a guest. He doesn't have to play-act how nice it is just to curl in against someone's side or clamber onto their lap and cling close, batting eyelids up at them.
"Cozy?"
2. Borrowed Faces
His day job, though, is still at Particularly Good Finders. And sometimes when the office's caseload runs into a slow patch--which the holiday season seems to have encouraged--the resident puca-detectives entertain themselves by giving their most junior assistant homework assignments in the finer arts of their kind.
Lately, since he started to be able to control his shape-changing, the lessons are mostly about mimicry. It's one thing to sound like someone else, another to look like them, and yet another to play the part convincingly. Mostly he practices smaller animals at first, but people are much harder! His early efforts all have a certain schoolyard-in-the-uncanny-valley effect to them, like someone gave the proverbial three children piled into a trenchcoat access to hologram technology.
This is why, for the first week of Deceuril, you may turn around in the marketplace or in a shop and find yourself staring unexpectedly back at your doppelganger, browsing the same stock as you or waiting patiently behind you in line, studying the menu board with an aping of the same contemplative look you were wearing moments before.
Admittedly, the hardest part is not breaking into giggles every time he catches his target looking.
"Hi there!" is his typical greeting, though often as not it comes out in the voice of a pixieish teenage boy. He has to clear his throat and try again to attempt an actual imitation...but, give him credit, the second attempt's often eerily spot-on.
"I mean--ahem--hi there."
3. Espionage & Other Harmless Pastimes (Undercover)
There's really only one thing that fully eases that lingering, inexplicable discomfort, though, and that is being where he's Not Supposed To.
Quite possibly the City Watch's Lead Investigator wasn't seeking to recruit plucky schoolkids when she started circulating the word looking for help from the Mirrorbound. But he's already seen what lurking, anti-Monster sentiment looks like when it's able to keep to the shadows the once, and the thought of it still makes him feel--well, like he wants to bite someone, to put it civilly. That's another new feeling he hardly knows what to do with.
There's something uniquely satisfying, then, about spending his nights slipping in places he shouldn't all for the sake of that cause. He tries to be good about not going alone! He's plenty happy to be smuggled into the latest target with someone bigger (and more capable of throwing a punch), tucked into their coat pocket in an even-rabbitier-than-usual guise. But some nights there's just no finding a Responsible Adult around, while that gambling den tucked away in the Entertainment District is still clearly bustling, wealthy figures in winter cloaks slipping in and out in a constant stream through the back entrance...
On those nights, not infrequently, one can find a familiar-looking blond boy in the local joint's serving uniform, hustling through the crowd like he's clearly supposed to be there. He's missing, though, the long ears and fur and buckteeth that would mark him normally. (It's a weird feeling, honestly, mimicking yourself.) As long as he keeps away from the attention of the actual management, he can see and hear a lot--
Though, keeping up even that mild shape-changing for long can be very tiring. One might, while creeping around oneself, turn into a wine cellar and find a little, blond puca propping himself up against the shelfing, glamour dropped for the moment, panting with exertion.
4. Wildcard!
[OOC: Any ideas that don't fit naturally under one of the prompts above are great too, if you want to get up to something with 'Miji for the month! Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Also, bracket-tags and prose are both fine!]
2
It takes a moment or two before she manages to move again, said movement being a beeline away from this weird doppelganger. Maybe she would have recognized that more boyish voice if she had been paying closer attention, but Asahi is way too freaked out to think for too long about why that sounded familiar.
"W-W-What is that?!"
Please tell her it's not a ghost. Maybe those legends about face-stealing ghosts she heard all the time back home are actually real here?! Oh god, she's going to die. This is it.
no subject
The broad grin on her double's face drops into a puzzled blink at the suddenness of her reaction, but before Momiji can think to change back or explain Asahi's already taken off for cover. He stares after her for a split-second, then winces. Maybe this was not as amusing an idea as he'd thought, after her reaction to the disguises at the Masquerade...
"Asahiiii, wait, I was just kidding! It's me...!"
That would probably be more reassuring if he stopped doing her voice! Instead, it comes out sounding like--well, like her trying to do a very on-point imitation of him whining. And, of course, then he has to hurry after her, his borrowed wings and the feathers around his brow ruffling as he tries to get used to scampering in this new, taller, bird-ier shape.
Only when he catches up with her does it occur to him that maybe he should cut it all the way out--and then, blink and you'll miss it, there's a rabbit-boy in a vest and bowtie looking sheepish instead.
"I didn't mean to scare you!"
no subject
She's slowly getting there though. Asahi stares at him blankly, the wings on her back still spread out from the instinctive shock. They slowly come back down to fold up near her back as the realisation that it's Momiji is getting through to her bit by bit, but it doesn't change much about her facial expression, which still looks utterly baffled.
"I.."
Give her a second. Asahi's voice is so much more quiet than her usual over the top volume.
"I-- I'm fine..?" And then when she continues, suddenly her voice rises in volume again with each and every single word, turning into her more usual freaked out tone. "I seriously thought I was going to die!" (Granted, the whole 'I'm going to die' thought was just a gross exaggeration on Asahi's spooked mind's part.)
no subject
Admittedly, the whole doppelganger thing has tended to make most of his models jump a little at first, but Asahi is the first to immediately assume that he's come to end them. He looks equal parts befuddled, apologetic, and uncomfortable, standing there clasping his hands together in front of himself.
"Honest! I'm working on shape-changing for my job, and I thought it'd be easier with somebody I knew!"
...and he's trying not to at first, but eventually he does have to cave and ask:
"Why'd you think I was going to hurt you!"
no subject
.. She honestly isn't so sure anymore with how everyone seems to act in this place. Her facial expression turns to something in the middle of pained and exasperated as she scratches the side of her head through her hair.
"I thought you were some ghost. I didn't even know there were people who could do that!" Let alone Momiji, considering he never displayed that talent before when he had to get himself out of sticky situations.
no subject
The Rabbit pouts, looking up at Asahi with big, gold eyes. Probably he should have guessed that she'd be more than a little spooked by the surprise--magic stuff like that did always seem to put her on-edge. But trying his shape-changing out on someone he already knew relatively well had been too perfect a chance!
"The other puca at work have been teaching me how! It's like our Monster-power. But it's hard to get it right on the first try, so...I'm supposed to practice! Like how you learn to draw something?"
And, alas, he can't resist a little bit of curiosity tugging the corners of his lips back upwards:
"I was pretty convincing, right?"
no subject
puppybunny eyes? She's still feeling a little on edge after getting so spooked so badly just now, but whereas she might have gotten angry and violent with certain other people for doing that to her, that feeling has completely ebbed away now.Instead it leaves her looking just a little tired.
"A little too convincing, if you ask me.." She lets out a sigh as she says it. Maybe she wouldn't have gotten so startled if it didn't seem so real! But she straightens up. "You should make sure to ask people before you practice it on them though, you know? People might get mad at you."
People who don't have Asahi's massive weak spot for anything or anyone remotely cute.
no subject
Though, if he's being fully honest, there is also a substantial possibility that they thought it would be funnier that way. Being puca as well, they are full of good ideas like that. But Momiji had thought it made sense when they gave him the assignment, at least!
"Maybe I should practice at the Coven or somewhere people won't be surprised by the magic...?" Or is that just asking to get a fireball thrown at him? He shrugs. "Promise I'll warn you before I try it around you again, though!"
no subject
Because seeing yourself again for a second time sure isn't as terrifying as it is the first time. Especially when she knows it's just Momiji. Just.. as long as he gets up to nothing bad while looking like her, but she's choosing to trust him that he won't do that. (Despite having witnessed him making bad life decisions before.)
".. In fact, maybe that's better than doing it around those Coven people. I'm not so sure about them." Then again, that's kind of just her natural paranoia playing up. "What if they get annoyed by you and cast some sort of spell on you?"
no subject
...okay, maybe not the best possibility to point out while they're trying to de-escalate the nerves here, but still. Maybe the safer rule was just "Mimic another harpy instead?" For now, he simply shrugs and hops over to stand beside her.
"Aw, I don't think they'd zap me just for practicing! They're have a whole school just for magic, right? It's no fair if they won't let us try out ours there, too!"
Really, leaving them to their own devices just invites trouble! Like, for example, teenagers picking up tips from a trio of shady private eyes.
"And if they try to turn me into a toad, I can just turn myself back!"
no subject
Regardless, the girl looks rather sceptical of the last things he says. Not that he hasn't demonstrated his shapeshifting ability enough, but.. she just worries. Especially considering the kind of situation he got himself into before.
"Geez.. At least try to be a little bit careful, alright?" Is that so hard to do? "You shouldn't just assume stuff. You have no idea what those people are thinking! I don't want anything bad to happen to you." At the very least it says something about how much Asahi cares that she's openly admitting as much.
no subject
He grins up at Asahi, leaning into her side and giving her a tiny nudge in the ribs. He can be pretty careful when he needs to! But the Coven seems well-intentioned enough, from what he's seen? At least compared to the local aristocrats or even just the general population in Aefenglom. They let all the Witch Mirrorbound hang around like they were normal students more or less, right?
"Maybe I can find somebody to practice magic stuff with, so it's not as risky?"
Or at least so there's someone more level-headed around to try to talk down any of his mimicry-targets, when they spot the impersonation going on.
"...mm, do you know if harpies do anything like that?"
Other than, you know, the flying and the claws and all that. It's a little weird, trying to divide Monster things from Monster magic from Witch magic!
no subject
And maybe focus on what he's asking her instead of all the thoughts in her head.
"I don't think so." She doesn't sound super sure about that though. It's not exactly like there's some sort of harpy school, after all - so she's just had to figure out everything by herself so far. "Maybe that's for the best though, I don't think I'd be any good with any of that magic stuff. Just flying by itself is already hard enough."
no subject
And obviously Asahi's made at least some progress on that front, because he's pretty sure that she didn't even know if she could fly last time they talked about monster-stuff!
"Aw, did you have to figure it out like a baby bird would?" he all but gasps. "That's pretty cute--I should have tried it before I changed back! But...maybe as a real bird would be safer, I can't really tell how long I can stay shifted as something bigger, yet."
Which could make for a tiny problem, if he overstayed his welcome in a flight-capable form.
no subject
"I kind of feel like a baby bird," she admits. Which she wouldn't always do. Usually she would have kept that kind of remark to herself, but she at least trusts Momiji enough to not totally make fun of her over that remark. But it's still true - aside from that one moment where she practically went feral for a moment on that snake guy, Asahi has felt more like a baby bird than anything actually intimidating.
She glances over him, the pout fading.
"You already seem to have much more of a grip on your power though. I didn't think it'd be so easy to look exactly like someone else."
no subject
"The other pucas at work have been helping me out a lot? They all make it look super easy. But I can still only do new stuff with a lot of work--people I know are simpler!"
And getting the hang of his new powers has been his primary form of distraction lately, over other forms of trouble. Still, Momiji scuffs one of his shoes against the cobblestones slightly awkwardly, fidgeting and feeling just a tiny bit like a show-off now.
"Mm, I can't fly, but if you ever want to we could practice Monster stuff like that together...? It'd be more fun with a partner anyway!"
(Also he might be less likely to get punched, that could also be a plus.)
no subject
So she sucks in a deep breath and tries her hardest to at least give him as smile as she replies, even though it's not a super wide one.
"That sounds good to me, if you don't mind. At least we know we won't make fun of each other if the other screws up."
no subject
Because that's how he's chosen to think of dealing with the fact that he's actively not quite human, now, rather than merely cursed. Clearly getting used to it is like a game, and the only way to make the best of it is to play to win! The alternative (that is, thinking or worrying about it past that) sounds like a Bad Idea.
Or, more optimistically, if they're stuck like this, they might as well get to have fun with it, right?
"It'll be way better with someone else. And I'll get to see you fly!"
Which, even though wings are a little more commonplace on people here than at home, he still says with a fair measure of amazement. Being able to fly is just cool, there is no helping it.
no subject
"You think it's that exciting?" The flying part, she means, but she does at least keep the slight-smile in place as she says it, almost amused. "It's not really as magical as suddenly changing your entire appearance like that, right? Tons of animals can fly."
no subject
Okay, a little more normally here, but it's still neat! And while he's maybe trying to be extra encouraging, he's also entirely in earnest. Flying has to be amazing, right? Being able to just lift off anywhere under your own power, to soar--
Kureno's the only one of the Cursed who can do that back home, and he never even talks about it! So unfair.
"And I can only turn into anything for a little bit! You can just fly whenever--" And then he grins extra big, showing off the rabbit incisors that were his first change and giving a theatrical wink. "Mine just made my teeth weird."
no subject
But after shaking her head, she continues to speak. "You're just trying to cheer me up, aren't you, Momiji?"
It seems like it, anyway. Although it's not like she doesn't usually seem him act all jokingly and smiley like that.
".. thanks though. It's helping."
no subject
A less toothy and now slightly mischievous grin. Okay, so it was maybe kind of obvious, but he wasn't trying hard to be subtle or anything...! And if she admits it's working, there's even less reason for him to quit.
"And I want you to take me flying sometime," he adds playfully. "I'm not that heavy, so you could prob'ly carry me once your wings get strong enough...!"
no subject
But at least she has actual proof to back up that claim!
"I've actually carried a guy bigger than you just fine while flying." 'Just fine' may be an overenthusiastic exaggeration, but still.. "Actually, that guy was your.. I think he's your cousin, right? The guy with the orange hair who loves getting into fights."
no subject
It doesn't sound like the two of them really know each other? Then again, he wouldn't put it past Kyo to just not introduce himself even after getting a free ride. Either way, he perks one long ear curiously.
"...mm, I bet we could probably go twice as high, though! He's like twice as big as me."
no subject
"He was about to have a fall, so I grabbed him and put him back on the ground. He definitely did feel a lot heavier than you'd be though." Which is a good thing, since she was struggling to hold onto Kyo in the air. Not exactly a comfortable flying experience.
no subject
He says the last in a playfully long-suffering tone, as if Asahi's "Sohmas rescued" count weren't still weighted heavily in his favor. Kyo's brand of trouble normally had more of a risk of physical injury, at least! Or had, outside of Aefenglom.
"Yeah! He doesn't look that big, but he's probably all fur and muscle, anyway--and I could shrink down, too, probably! Then it'd be even easier."
no subject
She would have added that she would have done the same for most people if she saw them fall - unless she knew they were seriously bad people. But Asahi isn't too sure she can claim to be that good, so she instead swallows the other words back down and only lets the thanks go out of her mouth.
"But it's probably better if you just stay the way you are now if we try the whole flying deal. If I'm going to be flying around with these wings carrying a tiny boy, we're going to look like some kind of fairytale." Her tone is a little lighter as she says that, so she probably means that at least partially as a joke.