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Second Floor Common Room, Monday After Classes

There were two reasons for the party being organized in the second floor common room tonight. The official one was that Sparkle and Alana were both campaigning for seats on the Student Council and needed to get their names out there.

The less official one was that Minako's fifth floor party the week before had been amazing, and the hosts wanted to prove other floors could host something just about as awesome.

Other than the VOTE FOR ALANA and VOTE FOR SPARKLE posters taped to the walls, the set-up was standard for a dorm party. They'd filled a table with pizza and snacks (including, at Sparkle's insistence, homemade sparkler-topped cupcakes), and Alana had set up her tablet to play a mix of trancey pop music. The electronica battled for ear space with an intentionally campy sci-fi movie playing on the TV.

Everyone in the student body had gotten an emailed invitation, so now it was just a matter of seeing who would show up.

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"Thank you," Celia said, smiling genuinely for the first time in what felt like days. "I'm afraid I can't take credit -- some dressmaker in Sweden's responsible, I think." She peered at Raven's dress, tilting her head. "I love the pattern on yours -- they're like bubbles, or flowers. Depends on your perspective which, I suppose."

"Thanks," Raven said, giving a little twirl. (Someone was overcompensating just a touch.) "I copied it from the internet. So I can't really take credit, either. It feels good to have a reason to dress up nice again, though."

"You're not joking," Celia said with feeling, shaking her head. "I still barely feel like myself, but this helps. But -- wait, you're still...mimicking that?" She was impressed, considering she was still avoiding the use of her own magic while she recovered.

"I kind of don't actually own a lot of real clothes any more," Raven confessed. "As long as I'm going blonde, it doesn't take any extra effort to add a dress to it." One walk home bare-assed and blue, more than half-expecting people to start yelling at her, had been enough for now. One day she'd learn how to not care what other people thought of it, but she wasn't there yet.

Celia nodded in understanding. "I have to actually draw my clothes into existence, or modify something I already have," she admitted. "Like turning my jacket into Louise's dress, and that takes concentration. That's fascinating though -- you're not really wearing anything."

Which would probably make her more embarrassed if she wasn't so interested in the process behind it, honestly.

"So -- magic, or science, or a bit of both?" She smiled a little to temper the nosiness of the question, but she was curious, particularly after this weekend.

Raven shrugged. "Genetics," she said. "So science, I guess, but I don't really understand how it works. It's just something I've always been able to do."

"It certainly comes in handy," Celia offered, shrugging back a little. "Though it must be exhausting to concentrate on looking a certain way, all the time."

She would do the same thing -- it probably wasn't all that different from keeping things conjured in the back of her mind -- but it didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the effort involved in not being blue.

Raven bit her lip. It wasn't like she'd never thought about it before, but she didn't love being reminded of the effort. "It's a little like . . . keeping a muscle tensed. After awhile, you don't have to think about it too hard, any more. But it is nice to just relax completely sometimes. And I can't keep it up when I'm really just drained."

Like after they got back to the sub in Rapture. Pretty much straight through until she got out of bed this morning.

"This shape's easy, these days. I wouldn't be able to keep up any others all day without any breaks, I don't think."

"I know exactly what you mean." Celia offered a sympathetic smile, because she did know that feeling, all too well. "Like you're making it happen through sheer force of will, and certain things get easier with time, but it still...saps away at you, just a little. That's how it is when I bring together something out of nothing -- that's why the necklace disappeared down there, because it wasn't worth the effort of keeping it the way I wanted it."

She huffed out a breath, aware of how -- dreary this had the possibility of becoming. "Poor us, with how tired we become of changing the world to fit our whims," she added lightly.

Edited 2014-09-15 17:00 (UTC)

"It's a tremendous burden," Raven agreed with a smile. "Lesser people might just go mad with it."

"We really should get more recognition for our efforts," Celia agreed solemnly. "I mean, why you're not being applauded at this very moment escapes me."

"I suppose we'll just have to be sure to applaud ourselves," Raven said. And threw in a little golf clap.

Celia joined in, very politely and ladylike with her clapping. "It might rather ruin the effect if everyone did it every time you changed, though," she noted. "Clapping somewhat ruins the element of surprise."

"A little bit," Raven agreed. "But the things you can do. . . ." The things she'd made for Lou, especially. "I didn't even know how to talk to that little girl, and you made her presents."

Sorry, Celia. It was a little hard to avoid the topic completely.

Celia actually blushed a little, shrugging slightly. "I'm not good with children, usually," she admitted. "But -- well, that's what I do with my own clothes, just modifying things. She needed something to wear, and...well. I remember being that age, and not necessarily willing to trust adults. It was nice to use my gifts for good for once, you know?"

"I know you're not saying you usually use them for evil."

"No, just to show off, usually," Celia replied with a small smile. "At least this time it was...showing off with a purpose."

"That's usually how I end up using my power, too," Raven admitted. "It's nice to get to have whatever kind of dress I want."

"Or if you're feeling more like a brunette, one day," Celia added, arching a brow. She was tired, but not so tired as to not show off a little with something that came this easily, and her hair faded to blonde before warming back to her usual brown. "It's wonderful to have options."

Raven applauded for real this time, though still softly. "It just fades in and out on its own!" She shook her head, swapping her own style to brunette with a cascade of flipping scales. "Mine is never that smooth."

"No, but it's lovely in its own way," Celia assured her with a smile. "My father uses our magic to perform stage illusions, so it behooves us to make things change smoothly. But I really rather like that yours -- flickers, like that. It's clear that what you can do is part of you, rather than...an external force, like my magic. If that makes sense."

"I guess?" Raven said, changing her hair back. "I don't really know anything at all about actual magic. Is it something anyone in your world can learn how to do?"

"I think so?" Celia offered, tilting her head. "I have it hereditarily through my father's side, so it comes naturally to me -- that's why I broke glass, because of my inherent rather than learned magic."

She made a face, and added, "I'm not supposed to even call it magic, really. My father prefers 'manipulation,' but I think that if it walks like a duck...."

"But if you can inherit it," Raven said. "Then I'd think that would make it a part of you, too."

"...that's a nice way to think about it," Celia smiled. "Does your -- shifting ever act against you, in impulse, because it's such a part of you? It seemed like you had rather good control when we were down there."

At least, for as long as any of them did. By the end, everyone was fraying at the edges, it seemed.

Second Floor Common Room, Monday After Classes

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