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RESPITE PARK - EARLY EVENING
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Prachi is sitting on a park bench, having found some clothes on herself since her angry leaving of the Croise dance studio... although not much better mood in the day since. The camel has avoided work, people and really anything that might lead to a conversation. She's no longer angry, and right now she is just staring at nothing in the darkening park, no one daring to approach her.
Aelia has been looking for Prachi for awhile now, spending a good portion of the day just getting used to how to walk and get around, things she's taken for granted her whole life as easy are suddenly quite hard, her limbs too long, legs too muscular, that whole tail deal, but she's mostly figured it out now, though. Good enough to go find her friend, at least. Eventually, this leads her towards the park, where she spots the big camel rather easily, walking towards her bench. "Uh, hey. Was hoping I could find you today. Mind if I sit and talk?"
Prachi gives a soft sigh... then just nods. "Yeah." She gives the sergal a look: "...Aelia still, right?"
Aelia turns to take a seat on the edge off the bench besides Prachi, sitting right on her tail, and then spending several moments trying to get the damn thing to move before finally reaching back to just physically grab and lug the tail through the bench slot behind her to drape down to the ground. "Ugh. Hey. Yeah. Aelia still."
Prachi grunts in mild amusement at the tail: "Guess that's not very easy either." She sighs, glancing aside: "Look, I'm sorry for what happened. I messed up."
Aelia pauses, tilting her head curiously, "Did you find out what happened? Or... are you just assuming?"
Prachi is about to say something, then winces as Aelia hits home. "Er, well..." She sighs. "Maybe just assuming. But things obviously did not go right, did they? I casted the spell, and it blew up on us."
Aelia chuckles, still shifting a bit to try and get comfortable. "Well, we all did. You didn't cast a spell on me without permission. You didn't just do some random ritual you found. All three of us planned this together."
Prachi looks at 'Ninell' in mild confusion: "I don't understand. How aren't you more... upset?"
Aelia laughs, "Well, you don't know me very well... I don't get angry. I mean, yes, I'm terrified! This... this isn't my body. I'm trying not to freak out too much, but my last two years have been a living nightmare, trying to deal with Phoebe. And bless her we've started to figure it out, but we're still a long way from a solution. And yeah, I thought we had it, but we didn't..." She grows quiet a moment, then sighs, "So... we'll try this again and hopefully fix it, and start looking again."
Prachi blinks: "...your brightness is admirable. I wish I had that kind of hope." She pauses, grunting slightly: "Well, I thought I had, for just a moment. That maybe if you could... then maybe..." She vaguely gestures at herself, then sighs.
Aelia hums, "Not just yet, no. But we'll keep trying. Not just for Phoebe and I either, of course, if you want."
Prachi hums deeply: "I had already give up, but..." She glances at the sergal: "...I don't know. Dare I keep that spark going, if it just leads to another disappointment?"
Aelia shrugs, a slightly overexaggerated gesture in Ninell's body. "I don't know. Get back up and try again? That's all I can do. All I really know how to do? Ahh, the show must go on, as they say."
Prachi gives a weak smile: "I suppose there is that. And I suppose..." She takes a breath, considering: "...never really gave up being me, just finding a solution to not changing. I don't know."
Aelia smiles, "Well, you've got friends here, right? You've got me and Phoebe, at least." She's just assuming Phoebe is on friendly terms with Priscilla... they shared their secrets, after all! "So, no reason not to be yourself, and we can find a solution in time."
Prachi chuckles weakly: "Even if I don't really know who I am. I've been two people-" she pauses, frowning: "Well, pretending to be two people, anyway- that I don't really know anymore. Maybe I knew once."
Aelia frowns, putting her hand awkwardly on Prachi's shoulder and patting a bit as if she doesn't know what to do with this arm. "Err... well, speaking as someone who's shared a body with someone I've never met for two years, and is currently talking to you from the body of that person's boyfriend..." her eye twitches a bit, but she powers through, "Maybe time to find out? Take off the masks of Scilla and Prachi and remember who Priscilla is?"
Prachi looks at Aelia's hand, unsure how to take anyone even touching her. "Possibly. But I am so different in my two forms..." She hesitates, whispering: "...and I am afraid that someone will find out. Someone who won't have your experience."
Aelia pats reassuringly before dropping her hand away. "I know. I was afraid of people finding out about me and Phoebe too. Still am, I suppose. But I found people worth trusting with it. That... that has made all the difference, I think."
Prachi sighs: "I want to hope so." The camel looks dejected, defeated. "I've changed towns so many times... every time it looked like someone would find out... easier to just go somewhere else, be someone else."
Aelia shakes her head, "I don't know if I could live like that. Can... I ask what would happen if someone found out?"
Prachi frowns: "I suppose it depends. Most people don't appreciate having been lied to about having such a double life, I would think. It's... easier to be alone."
Aelia: "So... you're not gonna be hunted down or thrown in jail or anything right?" She pauses to think, "I guess... Phoebe ran because she was afraid... but I think in part she was afraid of me."
Prachi looks at Aelia: "...what would you suggest I do?"
Aelia shrugs, "Find a few people you can trust, and open up to them? Or, at least one. Start with one. I think that's what I'd suggest."
Prachi gives a small smile: "Suppose I have found at least one. You sort of understand who I am better than... pretty much anyone, right now." She hums, waving a hand: "...granted, not a big list of potentials, but just play with me here."
Aelia sighs, giggling, "Oh, I understand, yes. Sorry."
Prachi shrugs: "I do kind of want to stay in Respite. But... I don't even know how to start. How do you know who you can trust without such... incidents?"
Aelia pokes at her stomach, through the light outerwear that Ninell tends to favor when he's not training. "Trust your gut? I can't imagine the 'real' you is all that different from how you've presented yourself, at least, not near as I can tell. Maybe just... be open to the possibility, and if it feels right, take the chance?"
Prachi gives a weak smile: "You make it sound so easy." She sighs: "I just... yeah. I don't know. Maybe I am just making this harder than it should be. But I have... not exactly a lot of comparison points. Even you and Phoebe... you have it so much worse."
Aelia blinks, "Meh? You really think so? After telling me about how much of your life has been ruined since you were little because of these changes?"
Prachi shrugs: "At least I have my changing body be just me. But maybe you see it differently."
Prachi hums: "...present circumstances notwithstanding, anyway."
Aelia nods her head slowly, considering. "Err, well, yeah... but this is weird. I don't know. When Phoebe's in control, I'm just asleep. I just go to bed and wake up and it's a week later. Or a month later. Or... whatever. Just taught me to treasure the constants in life. And Phoebe and I have gotten better with communication. I write a journal entry every night so she knows what's going on, though, Ninell says she knows."
Prachi nods: "Far as I understood Phoebe, she pretty much sees, or feels, what you do. It's weird." She hesitates: "...of course, if she still is in ther with you. Hard to say what the ritual did before blowing up on us."
Aelia frowns. "That's the part of all of this that worries me the most... where is she now? Here with me, or with Ninell still? When she wakes up, will it put Ninell to sleep I usually am? It would be good to finally meet her, but..."
Prachi sighs: "Impossible to say. I am reasonably sure she didn't end up taking me as a... host, as it were, I do not think I was in the circle, but since I changed as well, I can't say for sure either." She lifts a hand to her head: "Ugh, this is just impossible."
Aelia: "I don't think you were in either... I don't know. I think if you had been, you'd have changed along with Ninell and I, and one of us would be in your body..."
Prachi nods: "...makes you wonder if we had even remotely the right kind of ritual after all, don't it." She sighs: "Far as we are able to tell right now, my change is just my own still. I think I burned through all my magic though. Not that I can really more than vaguely feel it when I am like this, but now I can't even do that."
Aelia: "And Ninell and I are just trying to figure out how to get by for now, but we've got this." She smiles at Prachi, a gesture that might look cheerful on the deer, but with Ninell's body she ends up flashing a rather threateningly toothy grin. "We're not worried, just... a little scared, and cautious. But once you're ready, we'll try again? If you're comfortable with it, that is."
Prachi: "Yeah... suppose that's all we can. I'll figure something out. Assuming I change back, which... well, that hasn't changed in last decade and a half, I don't really think it has now. When I change back, I have to see how I feel about casting anything. Right now I admittedly feel pretty lost. Sorry."
Aelia nods, "Well, no worries for now. Ninell says he might be able to ask about magic from the folks up in the Bouquet Estate as well, but it's not something we want to push. It's an option though. I'd rather not be indebted that Calgwen Bouquet if I don't have to be..." She trails off on that thought.
Prachi tilts her head, looking at the sergal: "...indebted? What do you mean?"
Aelia grimaces, again a much more threatening expression in this body, "Well, I think he wants me to work for him... I don't now, I don't trust him. I guess it's a moot point at the moment, but... I don't really want to dance like that ever again, for Sarn nobles who don't really care about the art, just the status of going to a big event to be seen..."
Prachi considers this: "...well, yeah, kinda moot point now. But I can see it... not that I have ever worked for a single individual long enough I guess. So maybe I don't." She sighs: "Sorry."
Aelia sighs, "Nah, it's alright. I just... ugh. Maybe he's different, but I've worked for plenty of creeps like that before. Not in any position to take a permanent position in a theater anyways..." There's a weird bit of bitterness and pain in that statement, fighting for control, but it passes after a moment of silence.
Prachi leans back: "Well, I'd kill for a chance to do something I can do with both of my... me's, but I don't know if such a job and employer even exists."
Aelia lowers her gaze, hummming, "You're probably right... if I could take the job, maybe I should think about it... No position right now, but after we figure this all out... maybe."
Prachi gives a weak smile: "I'd at least consider it, if you can. Last thing any of us need on top of our... issues, is monetary trouble." She shakes her head. "But not my call. I don't know anything about that theatre world stuff."
Aelia laughs quietly, "Well, my studio feels like it's enough for me... but I guess there's not exactly been a lot of customers."
Prachi shrugs, slightly shaking her neck: "Couldn't tell you what's right, I guess. I don't exactly have my own life in any sort of order."
Prachi: "Lots of questions with very little answers."
Aelia hums, fiddling with her fingers. "Well, I can say, you never get any answers if you keep running."
Prachi raises an eyebrow: "I suppose that is true... I am tired of running, but I don't know what to do. Who can I trust to help me?"
Aelia takes a deep breath, and shrugs "I don't think I can help you past what I already said... you'll just have to take a risk at some point... or keep running and never find an answer."
Prachi chuckles weakly: "Yeah. What can I do? Should I try and be two people still, and just... take a dive at some point when it feels like I can?"
Aelia sighs, "It has to be your call. ...but I think it's worth a try to be yourself."
Prachi nods: "Yeah... yeah." She starts to get up. "I'll figure something out. Maybe."
Aelia starts to stand up alongside Prachi, but her tail is still crammed between the slots of the back of the bench, jerking her back into the bench with an 'Unf!'. She blinks a moment, then sighs. "Ugh... good luck, Priscilla. I want to see you find a way to be happy, and I'll do whatever I can to help you."
Prachi smiles, though her heart isn't truly in it. "Thank you. And good luck to you too, figuring this out. I'll be around, though without magic I'm probably not of much use."
Aelia shakes her head, "A friend is always of use, Priscilla."
Prachi pauses for a second, before returning her smile to Aelia: "...y-yeah. Thank you for tolerating me, Aelia. We'll... find something."
Aelia smiles in response, giving Prachi a wave in return. "I hope you can find yourself."
Prachi gives a wave: "I hope so too. Take care." She starts walking, head full of questions and uncertainties on what to do next.
Aelia sighs, watching the camel go a bit sadly... before turning around to get her tail dislodged from the bench that is holding her prisoner.