smash_logs | (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.

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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.