strangetrip | GP: April Fools!

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GP: April Fools!

It didn't take any sort of precognitive abilities to predict some kind of shenanigans on the first of April. Many of the people stuck in the bubble world of the Madonna Inn were from times and places where April Fools' Day pranks were normal, expected... (in many cases) minor annoyances. And then there were the residents who remembered the strange egg hunt from a year ago, and the sometimes confusing explanations of the two holidays falling on the same day and how that related.

Also, life at the inn could be interminable. After a while, people started hoping for some kind of strangeness to happen, just to break up the monotony of being trapped in a kitschy no-snow globe.

So, no. You didn't have to be a mutant fortune teller to expect some kind of joke being pulled. But Emma was, and even she had no idea what was coming, other than it was going to be frustrating and topsy-turny, and the visions she'd been getting from the tarot – and way more reversals than was usual or healthy in her experience – were even less clear than usual.

She definitely didn't foresee waking up without the powers that were as much a part of her as her heart. Or just as suddenly having powers she had no idea how to control. But she did, and she had*, and she was far from the only one. The same thing was happening to people all around the inn.

(*Not to worry. The singe marks should be gone in a day or so. Right?)

[Powers swap GP! Tag in. Tag around. It's a time for out and about at the inn coping (or not) with powers gained (or lost).]

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Vex kept having to tuck loose strands of hair back behind her ears. Her rounded, not pointy, entirely human ears. And then she would glance down to where a long swath of cloth, wrapped and tied, cradled Elaina snuggly against her chest, and the delicately pointed ears that hadn't changed. Hidden by her clothes, there was a nasty bruise on her shin where she'd run into the corner of the bed when getting up with the baby shortly before dawn, the not as quiet as it should have been "fuck!" waking Percy and setting Elaina to howling. She didn't really need to use a spell to heal something as minor as a bruise, but that she couldn't had her really worried.

So she'd had even more reason to spend time in the temple this morning. She still felt a connection to Pelor she'd never really been able to explain, even to herself, but where she should have been able to let some of his power flow through her to use spells, there was nothing. But Elaina was getting fussy, and Vex was no closer to understanding what was going on, and they could probably both use some breakfast.

To the cafe, then. Maybe somebody else knew what was going on, since it probably wasn't just Vex and Percy hit with the latest weird.

Emma had known something was wrong from the moment she picked up her deck for the quick three-card throw she did every day, just to get a vague idea what to expect. She couldn't really describe the feeling of her mind slipping or clicking into place when she shuffled the cards, but she knew when it wasn't there. And while she could interpret the traditional meanings of the cards she drew, today she hadn't Seen anything in them.

Maybe she was lucky there was plenty to do in the kitchen to keep her busy and not worrying about whatever had happened to her powers. But things quieted down after lunch, and she had gone outside with her cards to one of the metal tables near the pool to see what she could figure out.

Frustration built, and with a wave her hand, a fireball formed – not the first today, and her heart hurt every single time – and flew off to the side. Fortunately right into the pool.

“Ain’t that a fuckin’ kick?” Rocket hauled out one of the chairs at Emma’ table and dropped into it, not as awkward as he had been right after he’d woken up and no more given to casual politeness. He was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt courtesy of Quill’s help, and his voice sounded right, even if everything else was wrong. “You get to blow shit up, an’ I just get to be fuckin’ bald.”

Miguel had gone to the temple, not to find comfort in a deity, but the comfort of his regular routine. He hadn't known there was anything different about him when he woke up that day until he'd gone to shut the dresser drawer and accidentally broke it with his strength.

There was small BAM when Miguel shut the door with more power than he'd meant to and he sighed heavily. It was only when he'd noticed Vex that he felt a blush go up his cheeks for the noise he'd made. "Sorry! I woke up with a lot more strength than I went to bed with."

As it turned out, the default state of a human was ‘fucking broken’. No real shock, but it was annoying all the same. Humans had a shit sense of smell, bad hearing, bad eyesight, too many fingers, no tail, blunt teeth, they were bald...he’d ranted about it already but that didn’t make it less annoying.

The only good thing, so far, was that he could reach the booze on the high shelves, but even that sucked a little, because without his enhancements his tolerance was probably shit. Reaching things was kind of fun in itself, though, which was how Rocket ended up actually sipping a top-shelf ‘Long Island iced tea’ while he hung out behind the bar in case some else wanted something off a high shelf.

Seeing a naked man-Rocket was more than he thought he'd ever see. He could never un-see it either. When he walked into the bar, he grinned. Rocket was still Rocket.

"Testing the limits of the mortal man?" He asked as he sat down on a stool.

Edited 2019-04-02 00:49 (UTC)

The wrap kept Elaina nestled securely, even when she startled at the slammed door. Vex bounced gently on the balls of her feet and the baby settled down again thank Pelor.

"Extra strength takes some getting used to," she assured him. "Especially when you aren't expecting it." At least when Pike had gotten the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength, she'd had some idea what was going to happen.

"Is that what happened to you? More strength?"

“Fuck you, Quill.” It was almost a normal greeting. Why not? Quill was Quill, but he’d helped and wasn’t being too bad of a jerk about it. “I can reach high shelves now, you don’t think I’m gonna?”

Emma was dreading having to give the welcome to the Madonna Inn speech, when she realized the voice was familiar, and then he said he was bald, when he obviously wasn't, and oh. Oh.

"Rocket? If I'd trade you the blowing stuff up if it meant I could actually See what's coming." She waved toward the cards that continued to be unhelpful.

“Yeah, it’s me. Hi. Fuckin’ revolting, right?” Rocket was actually more or less sure that this humie shape qualified as ‘attractive’, but he wasn’t happy enough to give it compliments. He leaned over to look at her cards, and thank whatever, they were as much pretty nonsense pictures as ever. “I can’t See shit either. Wherever your eyeballs went, it’s not here.”

Today was being unsettling and uncomfortable, and it had started early. Xavin generally went to sleep female, she’d gotten used to that, but this morning on waking, a decidedly he felt like going for a run or a fly, except... no shifting. That had been deeply uncomfortable, less because of the physicality, necessarily - male was male regardless - but shapeshifting was so integral to Xavin’s being that everything felt... wrong.

Rather than stay put, though, Xavin had gone about the day as normally as possible: getting breakfast, setting up for coffee, picking a book. At some point, Xavin relaxed back into female again. Which at least matched her shape, but didn’t help with being stuck as one thing.

Outwardly she was mostly as usual, if a little more fidgety and sticking more closely to her coffeecart than she generally did.

Connor didn't sleep, but he did have periods of being 'off' when he processed the day's events and ran self-checks in standby mode. There were some aspects of it analogous to a sleep-wake cycle, but it was generally much shorter. The flow of time processed differently for him than a regular human, but his days had been filled with tireless investigation and drunken lieutenant management. Now that his days were filled with far less, he ironically entered stand-by mode more frequently and dwelled there for longer periods.

When he came back from his last period of idleness, however, he found himself questioning if doing nothing for stretches was 'healthy' for his system. Nothing was running as it should. Aside from a keen sense of it all being 'off' he couldn't even enter standby mode if he tried. And he did. For an hour.

Resorting to visual checks, nothing seemed to be amiss with his body. Movement--nothing wrong but he felt far more than he should have. The tension and pull of something beneath his skin, warmth and humidity in his oral and nasal cavities, an ache spreading from the back of his head--distracted with all these sensations, Connor had ended up in the middle of the hall and bumping right into Xavin's cart.

His brown eyes found hers, and he simply gave an anxious nod and started out to be on his way, but his hand didn't follow the rest of him, still apparently grasping the edge.

Connor looked a little like she felt, Xavin thought, anxious and uncomfortable even before he was somehow unable to remove his hand from her cart. The fact that Connor, an android, looked anything like that was troubling - whether or not he truly lacked emotion as he claimed, he was a very controlled being in general.

Xavin walked around to investigate his hand, trying a 'reassuring smile' while she did so. It felt more or less normal, but as with everything there was an edge of discomfort: she couldn't adjust any part of it if she'd wanted to. "Are you all right?"

Unlike Rocket, Mia was enjoying actually being human. Listening to others talk, she was sure that it wouldn't last and she was going to take advantage of it. She'd already indulged in food and now it was time for drink.

She smiled slightly at the new bartender and slid onto a bar stool.

“Yes.” Managing an even tone so as not to raise further alarm to the kind barista, Connor was one to weigh his options before acting. Instead, he immediately yanked his arm again, making the cart itself tremble.

Mia was a welcome sight for sure. He didn’t have a lot of history with her, not like with Quill, or Regina and Snow, but... she got it, and he liked her. She’d decided he was her brother, even if he was a twisted little monster and nobody would ever use those words for her. That meant a lot.

It was obvious to even weak-ass human eyes that she didn’t recognize him, of course. Why would she? But since his voice was the same, she’d work it out fast. “Hey Mia. You okay? ‘Cause this is some mess, right here.”

When John awoke on the first day; someone had been dreaming of his other lives - specifically this face and by complete accident shapeshifted into that face - which lead to a very panicky Mr. Smith - which was soon to follow with him catching on fire but also not being in pain - which leads to him rolling on the floor and putting out his fire.

He needs help because this is impossible! And complete madness!

So, with his usual dress suit and pants; leaves his room with a face after all this is a dream but not a dream.

Maybe his dreams really are real!

“Stop!” Xavin actually flailed a little, unreasonably upset at the idea of the cart being upended or damaged. Androids and other such synthetics tended to be strong. She couldn’t preserve herself, but the cart should be allowed to survive. “You are stuck somehow. I cannot tell how.”

Her green eyes widened in surprise but she would have recognized that voice anywhere. "Brother?" What had happened to her brother? Had he been made human like her?

"I am still getting used to eating food and tasting it." She had quickly discovered that she didn't like fried foods - or chocolate.

Rocket blinked. In his real shape his ears would have swiveled and flattened, it was a little benefit of being human that you couldn’t read mood by ears. “Yeah, it’s me. Since I woke up this morning. Hadta call Quill to bring me clothes to fit a bald gangly thing. You got changed too, huh?”

Mia didn’t eat, but if she was human now.... “You tried marshmallows yet? They’re pretty great.” At least, they were to real tastebuds. Who knew what they’d be to a human?

Pausing, Connor gained the wherewithal to analyze the point of contact—

—Only for nothing to happen save for a painful squint he was inflicting on himself. He shook his head and instinctively—instinctively?— rubbed his eyes. “This isn’t intentional.”

Xavin pried at his fingers entirely uselessly. As with her shapeshifting, the Thing’s strength and Invisible Woman’s force fields had deserted her. “Did you... get glue on your hands, somehow?”

It had been an odd morning. He had woken up fine, in a good mood, until he looked down. His metal arm gone, he found a real, flesh one in its place. That was not something he ever expected to wake up to and the thought made him nervous. Rising to his feet, he dressed himself and made his way outside to think.

Random thoughts ran jumbled through his mind. This place, he knew it wasn’t like back home. He had seen enough things here to know when to be skeptical. Still, the lack of his metal arm made him wonder what else had changed around him. Did he still have his strength, his speed or other skills? There was only one way to really test it.

Outside the inn, surrounded by the trees and the quiet, Bucky began to explore inside himself. Forming his hand into a fist, he attempted to punch a tree. His eyes widened when he saw the tree fly forward from the impact of his right hook. “Shit.”

A reply in the negative would have been appropriate, but the sensation of warmth and weight on his fingers was...distracting. Not only that, but did coffee always smell that strongly? There was another aroma lingering close by, but Connor couldn't identify it--

"No?" He blinked, as if suddenly remembering he was supposed to answer. "No."

While she picked and tugged at his fingers, they felt... different. Connor's skin had been smooth enough, but not skin, when they'd shaken hands before. This felt.... "...are you human somehow?"

It wasn't unbelievable. She was human somehow.

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Page 1 of 8

GP: April Fools!

Vex - OTA

Emma Colbert - OTA (afternoon)

Re: Emma Colbert - OTA (afternoon)

Miguel and Vex

Rocket - OTA

rocket and quill

Re: Miguel and Vex

Re: rocket and quill

Re: Emma Colbert - OTA (afternoon)

Re: Emma Colbert - OTA (afternoon)

Xavin - OTA

Collateral Damage

Re: Collateral Damage

Rocket & Mia

Re: Collateral Damage

Re: Rocket & Mia

John Smith: OTA

Re: Collateral Damage

Re: Rocket & Mia

Re: Rocket & Mia

Re: Collateral Damage

Re: Collateral Damage

Bucky Barnes OTA

Re: Collateral Damage

Re: Collateral Damage