smash_logs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Hajime and Shantae
What: Magic and technology
Where: Dance room
When: May 20
Warnings: nah

The last several months had been surprisingly quiet, for this school, and Hajime was glad for the respite. He'd needed time to think, and at least try to pull himself out of his funk. It had been long enough that the fact had sunk in: he really was stuck in this form. This meant he needed to start taking what that meant for himself seriously. He wasn't the same person he was before, no matter how people tried to insist, though now he could at least accept that he wasn't entirely different either. Now it was a matter of figuring out what lay in the middle.

Edging into the practice room, Hajime caught a flash of purple hair and faltered. He might have expected Shantae would be here, but he'd dared to hope for a private moment.

"Ah--sorry. Is there a club meeting? I wasn't sure." After one or two attendances early in the dance club's start, he'd gotten too caught up with squad activities to keep up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

At this point in her school life, Shantae was used to people showing up in the middle of her practice. But given the state he had been in last time she saw him, she hadn't expected to see Hajime there. Stopping her rehearsal, she shook her head. "No, no club meeting, just some practice. What's up?" she asked.

"I was just hoping to get some practice in, is all." He edged in the room a little further; he was feeling a bit sheepish with her here, but there was little point backing out now. "I keep stumbling over my feet. Room full of mirrors might help." Sure, he'd have to keep looking at himself, but he'd have to start some time.

"I see," she replied, stretching her arms over her head. "Having a rough time adjusting?" she asked. After the conversation they had previously, she knew things were difficult for him, and she had promised to be supportive.

His shoulder plates rolled in a shrug. "Mm. I'm stuck either way, so there's no point if I keep complaining." He'd become sick of his own endless melancholy, of thinking how much he missed his old body. "All the wishing in the world won't turn me back, so I need to move on."

Shantae was about to say something, but his choice of words gave her pause. It was a big thing he was asking for, but the poor guy had been suffering so much this past while. It couldn't have been easy, to live with this constant reminder of the price his convictions carried. It wasn't fair. She told the truth when she said she understood his predicament. Regaining her magic took a lot of work and a bit of luck.

But maybe she COULD do something for him...

"...I don't know about that," she said. "You ARE talking to a genie... Maybe there IS something I can try to help you out."

For a moment, her words didn't process as anything but more assurance and smalltalk. Halfway through a shrug, however, Hajime paused, and turned to stare at her.

His first thought was she was screwing with him; he'd been like this long enough to stop expecting some magical windfall of aid, yet this was exactly the implication she'd laid out. It wasn't very funny, and she didn't seem the type. He had trouble being sure these days, though.

After a long pause, he straightened up a little. She wouldn't have waited so long to bring it up if it were that easy. "What exactly can you do?"

Shantae grinned confidently. "Think about it," she said. "I could try to grant your wish! I can't promise it'll work, and it's going to take a lot of magic, but maybe I can change you back to normal!"

Wish-granting may have been easy for full genies. She didn't know for sure. And one wish under her belt wasn't enough to say she could guarantee success at this attempt. But Hajime had suffered enough, and was out of options. A little magical aid couldn't hurt anything at this point.

Oh what. What. That--what.

Hope was starting to wriggle its way back up to the surface, but cynicism refused to let him get too far, struggling between being wary and grateful. He'd wanted something like this too long for it to just happen.

"I... w-what's the catch? I mean, is there a monkey's paw sort of thing involved, or--sorry, I mean, thank you I just--this uh. This is sort of sudden."

"No catch, but hey, if it works you can owe me dinner or something, how about that?" she asked with a smile. "Wish granting is kind of new to me. I'm not really sure what my limits are, but it does take a lot of magical energy to pull off. I'm not a full genie, after all."

"I'll buy you dinner for a year, I swear. If, if it works." Realism. Keep it in check. Nothing is yet guaranteed. "Um. What do I--do I need to do something? Aside from the dinner. Currently."

"Well, I'll need to just... concentrate here..."

Shantae stood in front of Hajime with her eyes closed. "Picture in your head what you used to look like. Your human self," she instructed him.

"Okay, all right." His hands wrung together as he stilled, trying to put his all into focusing on his previous self. Nervous energy practically sparked off of him. How clearly did he need to picture it? How much would his own perception of self get in the way, would he come out like weirdly tall or nose bigger than before or NNNRGH, calm down, okay, pretend to take deep breaths.

"I, I got it."

"All right then."

Shantae took a few deep breaths to steady herself. She could feel the energy crackling in the air around her as she started to muster up her genie magic. "Here goes nothing..."

She started to lift off the ground, floating in the air several feet up. She began to twirl, energy radiating from her hands, and then from the rest of her body as she started to channel it towards Hajime. Beams of light shone from her to engulf the cheerleader, and soon he too was lifted off the ground as he was wrapped head to toe in beams of light.

And then with a bright flash, it was over. Hajime dropped to the ground, and Shantae slowly descended again. When her feet touched the ground, she lost her balance and stumbled. That took a lot of energy... More than restoring Scuttle Town even. But that had been all objects and things. This was a living being. At least now she hoped it was...

As someone who had let his soul interact with great power countless times, Hajime might have expected the sensation to be slightly more familiar. It did feel rather like he was on fire, as magical energy ran through his every wired nerve and circuit boards overloaded with light.

For the horrible monster he was, Eggman's science had perfected the roboticization process, and Hajime had been too out of it to remember much of the pain. This reversal, led by Shantae's uncertain magic and anxiously anticipated on his part, seemed to stretch out in far longer seconds.

It would be worth such discomfort, he knew, should things go right. If things went as they hoped, he'd bear far worse than this for as long as she needed.

All she needed, though, were a few long, glowing, exhausting seconds, before the flash burst--

--and he fell back to the ground with an unbalanced, heavy thump.

For several seconds, he lay still, trying to take stock of himself. If he moved, he might feel the grind of gears. If he spoke, he might hear the buzz of a speaker. If he looked, he might see the gleam of metal. All possibilities, all things he'd decided to accept over the months, and things that he could continue to live with if things had gone wrong.

As he reminded himself of all this, careful and guarded and accepting, Hajime realized he was breathing.

He blinked once, twice--real, actual eyelids over genuine, physical eyes--and lifted a hand before his face. He stared at the bony, pink fingers, and heard his heartbeat hammering through his ears. Along his backside, a mild throb picked up where he'd hit the ground.

The sensations all began to slam into him at once, the warm summer air and cool polished floor, the scent of wood and sweat drifting through the room, the salt dribbling into his mouth from his eyes. He'd thought he'd lost them, all of them. All these little, small things, he'd gone and told himself he could go and live without them.

Hajime looked up to Shantae, blurred as much through tears as his own poor eyesight. "You... Shantae, you..."

The words vibrated in his throat, over his tongue, but he choked the hiccup behind his teeth as he staggered upright and seized her in a tight, warm, human hug.

She let out a small "oof" sound as he grabbed her up, closing her eyes and smiling. "Hey, look at that, it worked..."

Then she seemed to go limp against Hajime's form. She was still breathing, fortunately, but the energy it took to affect such a change to a living being seemed to have been extremely taxing to her, and she collapsed from exhaustion. "How do you feel, huh?" she asked weakly.

At least Hajime was already holding her pretty tight, primed and ready to hold her up when her energy failed her. "Ah--Shantae!"

Blinking through his tears, now, he could see her will--bright, shining, burning, what a beautiful sight it was to see--but still flickering from such a drained effort. All for his sake, and he'd been too caught up to notice. "I'm fine, I'm great, are you--here, sit down." Slowly, he eased her to the ground. "Are you okay? Do you need water? I'll get you water. Should you lie down?"

Edited 2015-06-05 09:47 (UTC)

"I'll be fine," she tried to reassure him, sitting with his help. Thankfully he was able to catch her. She wasn't expecting the energy usage to be that significant, but at least it worked. Hajime was human again... She couldn't help but smile at that, even if she felt a bit too weak to do much else. "Wish granting isn't exactly easy for a half-genie. I just need to rest up a bit..."

"You're sure? I'll get you anything you need, it's the least I can do..." He looked down at his fleshy hand again, and felt the tears surge again. She did this for him. It took every effort not to hug her again. "Shantae... thank you. I can't possibly say enough... I, I don't have words, how much this means, I just... You're amazing. I couldn't have wished for anything more."

"Well, that's exactly what you got," she said with a weak laugh. "Nngh... I guess practice is done for the day... Think you could help me get back to my room? I feel like I just need to sleep..."

"Sure, here, I can--urp." He'd maybe gotten a little used to having that increased robot strength, as he tried to pick her up a little too quickly. "Sorry, okay, I got you. Just relax." Easy to say, when he's all hyped up.

"It's okay," she replied, trying her best to help him out by getting up. "This has certainly taught me a lesson about my limits," she laughed as they left together.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(no subject)

Warnings: D for DANCE MAGIC DANCE

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject