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Liem “sock-wearer” Talbott ([personal profile] sterngaze) wrote2022-05-01 04:42 pm
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Liem Talbott
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Liem's mindscape is dark; quiet; contemplative. Any feelings or sensations that Liem doesn't intentionally project himself seem distant, as though echoing from a far-off room. Following any given sense to its source is bafflingly difficult.
warmare: (女らしく)

konoha D:'ing the fun fact in another dimension...

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-18 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
[She may have... She might be different now, in some ways, from the bitter, angry, isolated woman who had come to Kenos over a year past, but... To linger on such topics too long, to speak about them... like she imagines normal people did... It's still a bit too much. Just this much was... It was hard. And terrifying. ... And enough, for now. His words had the impact she... required. So. So now, in a slightly warmer, softer space-

(More importantly... one in which she felt somewhat safe admitting weakness-)]


... Yes.

I reported things we had learned, and what might need to be done from now... But I had mentioned that there was nothing I could do about the issue of Kowloon. About anything occurring in Highstorm. Not when I was the only shard-bearer of our generation to be-


[Not human. Not human "enough" in shape.]

Four-legged. Illusions and spells would do nothing to disguise me the moment I went into a crowd or someone tried to touch me.

She gave me something that can be used to make me human. Temporarily.


[So what? She just came to tell him? Yes, she did think it was good for him to know, as a skill Meridian now had access to but she would not be advertising publicly in order to keep it useful, but-

More importantly...]


... I would feel more at ease if someone were with me. When I first attempted it.

[Someone with at least a little experience with magics as that. And if it went wrong, if something happened... She didn't want Claude to have to see.]
warmare: (pic#16264548)

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-18 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[… Bingo!

After a brief pause in which she debates admitting she’s already near there or not-]


That would be preferred, yes.
warmare: (pic#16524843)

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-20 05:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I see. I am in Springstar today, so I will see you shortly.

[… “Thank you”.

No. Surely he is aware she is grateful. She will save the words for a more important time, such as… after he has overseen the transformation. That makes the most sense, naturally. With the mental impression of a bow, she departs his mind.

And after waiting ten minutes or so just to be polite and perhaps semi-believable…

She arrives at Liem’s home, ready to knock… or, you know, awkwardly raise a hand to wave if he’s outside.]
warmare: (pic#16524845)

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-22 04:41 am (UTC)(link)
[Normally, Hayame would go to the back garden. She had maneuvered up the stairs to Liem's previous residence a time or two, but since he'd moved here she had correspondingly moved her visits outside... though more often, she now asked him to visit her and allow her to host, as her home in Alenroux (thanks to... him) was far more suitable for a jinba indoors.

... But this time, his house is the best choice. Surely.

After a brief greeting... she begins maneuvering in. It is an awkward display, trying to get an equine body up the narrow staircase onto his porch and then in past the equally narrow entrance, but... He has seen her at far worse, more than once. She can survive the embarrassment of this. And despite her body, she has a person's mind to dictate where she places her hooves and human hands to help balance when needed, so...]


Pardon me...

[She makes it in. After moving to the side to let him back past her to close the door behind her (she cannot turn around until getting into the main room), she bows more properly... and when she straightens, she has a relatively simple-looking copper bracelet in her hands, marked only by a single clear crystal set in to it that, upon closer inspection, seems to be something that can be turned in its setting.]

... This is what Cetina provided.

[He'd said he had no direct experience, but perhaps he has seen similar... magic objects? She offers it up for inspection either way. Stalling? Maybe. She cannot deny she is not... afraid nervous.]

Supposedly... turning the gem will activate it. But it can only be used once a day before it requires time to recharge. Or so I was told.
warmare: (pic#16524845)

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-23 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
[Although Hayame considered Liem to be “like her”, in some ways, lumping them together as those that came from worlds with no bizarre metal technologies, clothes that made a certain sense, and more modest comportment in a general sense… sometimes he still did say something that reminded her they came from very different places indeed.

Yes, of course. Cost effective to make the miracle bracelet able to do miracles against what nature should allow only once a day. Yes, yes.

… She still half wonders if it will even work.]


Half a day max, she said. Maybe a little less.

[Accepting the bangle back, she stares at it before beginning to carefully fit it over her hand and onto her wrist. As an archer, she preferred to eschew jewelry anywhere near bow and quiver, but. She wore two bracelets now. The other detected the demonic. Without it… she would not be able to sleep decently. Not these days.]

… Should I expect pain?

[If it wasn’t an illusion, but an actual… change? Not that pain would deter her, not when the uses were potentially as serious as she could imagine for such a power, but.

It’s good to know beforehand. So she can brace for it.]
warmare: (採集)

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-24 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
[Hmm. Perhaps there will not be any, somehow? To her, a woman from a world with no magic at all, it seems obvious that there should be pain. Would her body not twist and shrink and... where would her bones go? What about her flesh? Her hooves? She has to stop herself before she thinks any further, because the more grotesque the wondering becomes...

No. She will still do it, because the potential... as much as she hated to need to think of such underhanded tactics, being able to change her shape in this way could allow her to do more for the sake of Meridian's victory. As the only shard-bearer in this generation that did not walk on two legs... She was easy to identify, particularly after the broadcast. She could not travel in Highstorm any longer without being noticed. She had never been able to move effectively in Kowloon because of how narrow the lanes were, how many stairs connected that dark and crowded space. If she could...

She just had to think of it as... "another arrow in her quiver".

His question, though, makes her blink in surprise. Hold onto him? Why would she- ? Oh. The answer comes quickly enough.]


I have been around humans all my life, I should certainly hope I know how they stand up...

[Of all the things she was concerned about, being able to move in a human shape was, perhaps strangely, not one of them. After all... Had she not been raised by humans, and not her own kind? Did she not know from working beside them the limits of a human body, how they walked, the way their legs moved? Surely she can replicate it. But despite the instinct to defend her completely untested abilities...

It's probably not... unwise... As confident as she is that she'd be able to handle acting human... Perhaps at first it might take some adjustment.]


But...

[In that case... Hayame looks down at her hands, and then over to Liem, lips pursing somewhat awkwardly as she reaches out and then... hesitates, her one uncovered eye flicking back up to his face. She has held him before, and... he has held her. She has cradled his Shard in her hands, kept it safe tucked between her breasts. But...

Where should she... ? She finds herself looking to him for guidance on what sort of hold would be appropriate. Er, most useful.]
warmare: (気付く)

1/2

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-24 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
[... Oh, yes. Of course. His shoulders, like when she had come to him for instruction on how to dance as humans did at fancy events such as that masquerade ball held on that mysterious island. Her first instinct is to think that the difference in their heights is too... Except, naturally, she will be... human, so, she will be shorter soon.

In her mind, she assumes... She will still be relatively tall, surely. Because she has simply always been tall, and she conceptualizes herself as towering over those around her. But if she lets herself consider it... will she even still look like herself? Will she have a completely different face? A different body type? Her brow furrows... But she stops herself. If she lets herself consider all those possibilities she might never just do it, so-

Hayame adjusts her brace on his shoulders just so, smoothing his clothing down a bit with her thumb, and... nods.]


... Yes. That may be wise.

[She takes a breath, then just one more,]

Alright...

[Before forcing herself to just do it. Just turn the crystal in the bracelet, so that-]
warmare: (一命を取り留める)

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-24 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[From one blink to the next, so fast that someone might struggle to articulate just how the change had occurred or if they'd even seen anything shift at all, the person holding on to Liem magically transforms from a seven foot tall centaur to... a five foot tall human woman. It is still very much Hayame's face, still her fit, athletic build, it has just been translated onto the body of a human woman typical of her world, era, and region. The clothing that a moment ago had been quite well fitted is suddenly awkward without equine withers and larger proportions, and though her robe hangs a bit strangely it at least stays on. It is her pelt wrap that simply abandons her, dropping quietly down to the floor in a fawn-soft circle around her bare feet. Feet. With toes. Attached to legs, with knees that lock up stiff, something that, combined with how fiercely she is clutching Liem's shoulders, does manage to keep her standing upright despite the disorienting configuration.

She doesn't seem to have noticed her exposure. She is used to her entire lower half being unclad, actually, so perhaps to her it feels completely normal at first. Judging by the shocked expression on her face... She's more concerned with other things. Mainly the fact that-

There was-

Where was-

Why was she looking up at Liem? Why did her entire body feel so weak, so cramped, so shoved into a skeleton too small for it? Why can't she smell anything? Why does her heartbeat sound so strange, pounding in her ears with only a single thrum? Her mouth opens, but...

Nothing comes out but a very delayed, way too large inhale, instinctively trying to fill four lungs when she only has two.]
warmare: (pic#16264549)

1/2

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-24 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
[For a moment, Hayame can't really take in anything about Liem. She's taking in more... of what isn't Liem. A second ago, she had been able to smell the scent of the product he used to wash his body, the sort of candles he liked to burn in his home, the last tea he had prepared, the intrinsic scent of it all combined that was vaguely different for every person, that was "Liem" to her, and now it's...

It's like someone had stuffed her nose with cotton. Her vision seems slightly different, in a way she cannot identify. His voice feels so quiet and dull in her new ears. Her chest feels too small, too tight, and though she's trying to breathe it feels like her ribs aren't expanding enough, her hearts (heart?) aren't beating powerfully enough, and-]


It...

[Finally, she realizes that Liem is... blushing? She has seen this man in many a circumstance, perhaps some that others have not, but had she ever...

Had... Had the ring changed her? Had it somehow made her so devastatingly gorgeous that a grown man would flush to simply behold her??? Confused, she looks around for some sort of reflective surface, recalling vaguely that Liem had a mirror in his entranceway, but in the process she sees... What's her pelt wrap doing on the floor? Are those muscular dun (tan?) legs really her legs? They're so bare seeming, except for the thatch of dark hair between, and that-

That-

It wasn't behind her anymore it was down and-]


Ah...
warmare: (ショック)

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-24 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
[With a sudden jerk, Hayame stiffens up like a wooden board, pulling her hands off Liem to instead try and jerk her robe down further to cover her sex, assuming that she will be fine with balancing. But you know what they say about assuming. Used to hooves, she does not flex her feet properly and starts to tip back, her toes catch the pelt wrap and drag it forward, the other side then tugging on her heel, and unless Liem has very good reflexes...

Hayame is going down.]
warmare: (何っ)

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-24 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[... Something very disorienting just happened.

One second she is realized in a dumb panic that she is entirely half-naked in front of a man with no dun coat or heavy black tail to hang over her nethers. It's just right there, completely out, and not even in some sort of mixed bathing situation where she had been mentally prepared. She had been concerned with so many other factors and possible negative outcomes that the idea of clothing had not even entered her mind.

And then she had been falling. Now she is jerked in the other direction, but not to fall again, to... be blind? She is blind, everything is dark-

No. That is... Liem's chest. Her face is level with his chest now and its his clothes that are dark. At some point mid-starting to fall she had switched from tugging down her robe for modesty and begun to flail, which had become a desperate clutch around the dhampir's waist, and now... She might be blushing, too. She is not sure. Everything and something is happening, none of her senses are working, and...]


Y- Yes... of course...

[Did she still sound like herself? Stiffly, she tries to let go of Liem, allowing him to direct her towards a room in his home she hasn't been to before. It's just over there, she'll... Liem is her friend, it should be of no consequence if he beholds her rump, it's fine. One step at a time, metaphorically as well as literally, and she will... take stock of herself. There's a mirror. She can check if it's still her.

Incredibly confident somehow still, never considering that she would struggle with movement because she had been raised alongside humans since birth, Hayame begins to walk towards the washroom.

And instead, she crumples right to the floor, potentially on her face.]
warmare: (パニック)

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-25 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
[She believed he was going to trust her to walk! ... More accurately, it was probably more like "she isn't used to people supporting her, let alone physically, so of course she just believed she was meant to do it by herself, he'd already helped her once!" But.

She definitely hadn't thought she would fail that quickly, even having just unbalanced. But she picks up her leg the same way she would move her equine forelegs, too high, she moves forward with the same force from the back that she would normally, which pushed her hips out too far, and... at bare minimum, she still knows how her arms work. She manages to get her hands out in front of her on the way down and keep herself from slamming her face into the floor.

Still ends up... in a very undignified sprawl on Liem's floor with her bare ass in the air, her human legs awkwardly quivering and sprawled uselessly. Disoriented again, it takes her a second to turn her head from her weird low position and find Liem, but she looks...

Almost comically confused. It might be laughable if she didn't also look a bit genuinely scared and uncomfortable. A mix of all of them at once.]


Wh-

[She tries to lever back up, but there's no back legs to rely on, her weight doesn't shift right-]

Is the magic not working?

[That's definitely it.]
warmare: (ッチ)

"bare-assed and bewildered" sounds like an amazing memoir...

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-25 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
["Normal"... She thinks that means she still has her own face, but the rest... The rest feels so far from "normal" that she almost rejects the reassurance, even though she certainly knows what he is going for, saying that. She... Now that she is aware that she is exposed in such an immodest way it makes her almost hesitate to touch him (or anyone), but...

It's not like he-

Liem wasn't the sort of person to take advantage or selfishly indulge while another suffered indignity. So even though she is slightly ruddy in the cheeks with fluster over the entire situation and how absolutely foolish she had been not to think about clothing when considering the many things that might happen once she turned the crystal in the bracelet... She takes his hand to brace on, the other on the floor.]


I thought-

[... It makes sense, his explanation. It takes her longer to process it because she's distracted by so many other things, so many lost senses and sudden new ones, but it does.]

Perhaps the magic would make it feel natural, or... I was raised by humans, I know how they move...

[But knowing is not the same as replicating, apparently. With a grunt she manages to get most of her weight on her hands and rearrange her legs, pulling them in to try and find the right position to push off from. She's wincing the whole time, however, and she cannot help but ask as she tries to rise,]

Are human feet always this sensitive?

[#JustHoofThings]
warmare: (恥ずかしい)

akademios best sellers list

[personal profile] warmare 2024-01-26 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[She really kind of wants to believe that the blood drinking thing was her only big mistake about Liem's character!!! Also, it wasn't even about his... okay, she had also believed he wasn't the type of person to conceal such an intrinsic biological fact about himself from a "friend", and that had been her error, but-

... He is the person she had awkwardly approached to attempt to understand her confusing mix of feelings over being granted a title as an honored citizen of Springstar while also knowing what she "truly" was... or, had been, in her world. And he is who she had trusted to see her like this, when she knew there was a chance that something might go wrong or strangely with such a drastic magical transformation, leaving her vulnerable.

She had... not thought "vulnerable" was going to mean "half-naked" and "struggling to walk", per se, but.]


Now I know why caltrops are so effective...

[The mutter is defensive and barely there, but with Liem's assistance she manages to get back to standing, and with his support she does make it to the powder room. Apparently it was largely a balance issue. The muscles are all there, they're fit, it's just... she is wobbling, accidentally trying to move the limbs with the same force and direction as her equine ones, and that... is not conducive to a smooth human gait. Once she has the sunk to grab on to she transfer to that, her face red, finally able to free up a hand to tug her ill-fitted robe down enough for bare modesty, knees locked up too rigid, putting too much of her weight on her heels rather than the flats of her new feet.

Shoes, right, she's going to need... shoes...]


... Thank you.

[For going to get those. For not laughing or leering. For all of it.]

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