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There's a light dusting of snow on the ground and more falling. The night is quiet and everything is tranquil and serene. Save for the girl dressed in jeans and a t-shirt jamming out to some music on her cheap headphones, head banging and moving her arms to the rapid drum section. She kinda ruins the whole magical winter wonderland vibe going on.
A sleek orange-and-white flash slips across the ground, weaving its way in and out of the trees. It's not unusual to see a fox at night, of course: they're mostly nocturnal. What might be unusual to Rena is the fact that the fox appears to be ... chased by? chasing? a cluster of blowing leaves. The night is tranquil and serene... but the leaves keep blowing around in circles, chasing the fox as the fox frolics in the midst of them, snapping its jaws at the slippery leaves moving in sinuous circuits around her skinny body.
They're gorgeous leaves, beautiful leaves, like fire and sun and earth on the wind, swirling around the fox like they're carried by some invisible, worshipful wind, here only to play with the fox and show it a good time.
Strange.
That's a fox. On a scale of cat to dog, a fox is like an 8. So she takes a wary stance, her heart beating out of her chest (or it would if she wasn't dead). But as she does so, she notices that there's another weird thing going on. Squinting, she turns on her spirit vision and walks closer, venturing out a, "Hello? Are you some kind of magic-y thing?"
That is a fox. And when said fox spots Rena, it stops short and puts its furry little butt on the snowy ground. It isn't fleeing the way that a fox normally would, so, that's one thing. And when Rena activates her spirit vision? The fox's tail flicks once, twice.
Via the telepathy that allows Fox and Johnnie to communicate, since leaves can't talk, Fox asks: Do you know her? She just used vampire something. Keen periphery, a friend of sharp-eyed Mages. Does Fox know what that power does? No. But she does know what kind of power it is.
Oh, she's probably looking for spirits or ghosts or such. She's seen me wandering around in Twilight. She's decent people, as far as the heartbeat impaired go. Johnnie responds as the leaves come to a swirling halt around the fox, drifting in lazy, deliberate circles around its spot in the snow.
Rena continues her nervous survey of Fox. "Okay, nothing spirity is going on," she quietly mutters to herself. She brings her voice back to its normal voice and says, "if you are a magic fox that can airbend leaves, please tell me. I wanna know I'm not going batty."
A chattering sound that's something like a laugh, and Fox thinks at Jackie, it's rude to talk behind someone's back. If she's okay, let's be friends. I like Guy. It's not their fault they're dead. Usually.
That fox stretches upward, something like a full-body yawn, and then there's a short, grubby woman sitting on the ground, wearing a pair of battered combat boots, jeans, a ratty peacoat, and a backpack. "I actually could airbend leaves, if I wanted to, but I'm not. Not this time. My friend says you're a good heartbeat-impaired individual, so you can call me Fox."
The leaves swirl and swirl and swirl higher over the fox and then down and down and down, to the ground, leaving a Jackie in their wake, noodle-thin and all-too-Her. The leaves don't so much leave as settle around her feet, drifting at random now, as she offers a quiet smile. "It's a pleasure to see you again."
Rena jumps when Fox transforms. "Holy shit!" There's a only a brief second before her curiosity gets the better of her and she looks them up and down and asks, "are you a person that turns into a fox or a fox that turns into a person?"
And then Vorpal appears. "Oh shit, you're here too. I take it this is your friend who can tell I'm a-" she switches to an utterly awful Bela Legosi impression, "Creature of ze Night?"
A broad smile when Rena jumps, and she laughs. "I won't hurt you," she assures.
Fox almost reflexively responds with "Creature... of the night!" as if she's performing the end of a song from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and then leans back on her hand. "Ehhh, fuck, I hate being cold," she mutters, and then rolls to her feet, her hands flexing and curling in a brief yantra that whorls a bubble of warmth around her. It barely brushes against Rena, and half-encompasses Vorpal just because of their proximity. "Yeah, you know Jackie, I'm sure."
"As for whether I'm a fox that can turn into a person or vice versa, I think that is debatable," she admits, absently adjusting the ring on the third finger of her left hand. It's a pretty ring, the color of dark steel, with thin ribbons of silver, gold and copper.
"I'd argue it doesn't much matter- either way you cut it, she's a Fox that can turn into a Fox," Jackie points out idly, glancing between the two, missing both references, and sighing in delight as the temperature normalizes. "And honestly, I can't recall if she's THE friend I mentioned before? But she's definitely A friend who can tell." She smiles gently. "Have you been well, I trust? People in great distress typically do not wander in snow showers jamming out that hard."
"I used to hate being cold, but I don't really feel it any more," Rena says with a shrug. There's a twinge of sadness in that shrug, but it's small and hard to detect. "And going to be honest, that's deeper than I thought things'd be getting tonight. I was more just wondering if a) werefoxes were a thing and b) if you were one."
"And yeah, I've been doin' pretty great. It's nice to just take in the prettiness of snow while jamming out to Forced Femme as Praxis. I don't know if you've heard of them, but they fucking rule."
"Really? I'm not sure if I'm jealous that you don't get cold or sad for you that you've lost a part of experiencing things. I like to experience things." And at the thing about werefoxes? Laughter again, delighted rather than annoyed or anything of the like. "Oh, maybe there are. I just meant that ... with individuals like me, that question becomes rather moot after a while." When she laughs, her sharp, vulpine teeth become very visible. She steps a bit closer to Vorpal so that she can share her bubble of warmth, lazily looping their arm around her waist.
"... I have not! But now I will have to listen to them!"
It's an easy, natural thing for Vorpal to melt into Fox's space, tilting her head. Fox says what she's thinking, so she just nods. "The snow is tremendously pretty, as well. It could snow harder- I like a good blizzard- but." Best to be discrete.
"Oh shit, are you two a couple?" Rena says of the casual intimacy, "I don't wanna third wheel or nothin'. But about the cold stuff, it is what it is, you know?" She tries to look cool and aloof but the snow dotting her knit beanie kinda ruins the look. "Wait, hold on, you can change the fucking weather? Man, I really lost the superpower lottery."
There's a pause from Fox, and Vorpal can sort of hear Fox's thoughts as they spin through possible answers. "You're not third-wheeling!" Fox offers, shaking her head so that her shaggy hair hits the sides of her face. "I'm polyamorous, and my primary partner is asleep at home. Jackie has a lot of sweethearts apparently!" That is not exactly an answer, is it?
"Really? How did you lose out?"
"Exactly," reassures Jackie. "From least to most offensive to my very rich, very Jewish parents who were expecting their son to be bringing home a wife, those sweethearts include a shortstack redheaded beekeeper firefighter, a blonde farmgirl firefighter from minnesotan firefighter who gets paid to fight on screen, a butch blonde Amazon of a chef, a towering Amazon of an ex-gangster and not-ex-amateur bareknuckle boxer- please note that all of the above can benchpress me onehanded- and then a geeky little subby boi who also swings swords around and a latinx enby ex-sex worker who also swings basically-swords around. Besides," she adds, "You say third wheel like tricycles aren't worlds easier to ride than bikes."
"Oh, and- yes, among other things," Jackie offers gently. She lets Fox take point on that question. She's only starting to learn to step into everyone else's shoes. This feels above her paygrade.
"Oh, I just mean all I can do is be fast and strong and see ghosts. I can't move the fucking heavens." Rena shrugs again. And then she blinks. "I'm a fucking asshole. I never introduced myself. I'm Rena. She/her pronouns."
She mimes staggering back from the long list of partners. "Holy shit, I think you could fill a gay bar all on your own. Possibly two."
Fox laughs a lot, apparently, and very easily. "That's quite the list," she agrees, and then absently scratches at her nose. "Including but not limited to, neh?" She grins brightly at Rena, then. "It's okay. I already told you that you can call me Fox, but also, you can use any pronouns for me and I won't be fussed. Sometimes I'm a rock and sometimes I'm a fox and sometimes I'm a fish or a field of grass or a colony of ants, so, you know, really, any pronouns." She drops her head against Jackie's shoulder, a lazy sort of gesture.
"I mean, being fast and strong and seeing ghosts is pretty awesome. I can't see ghosts very easily. I should learn how but I can't right now."
Jackie bends to kiss the top of Fox's head. "Including but not limited to, true enough. And I'm she/her at the moment, but I give no promises that won't be different tomorrow, so I take a page from Fox's book and opt not to worry too much what I'm called. And I can't see them, either. I have to drag my whole-ass self over there to see or hear what's going on. And I'd wager if you studied what you and yours can do, you'd find some impressive shit. I know I did. I'm something of a sorceress, actually, so- please don't feel like you're somehow less impressive because you made yourself better instead of learned to change what's around you."
"Powers are different for us. If it ain't something our specific kind can do, we have to drink another one of ours' blood for it. And I'm trying really hard to not do that any more. Only when I really need it." Rena folds an arm in front of her chest and starts scratching at a tattoo of barbed wire around her arm. "But my boss can turn into animals too. He's pretty cool like that. I could try to learn that from him, but hell if I know what animals I'd even want to be."
The kiss on the top of Fox's head makes her make a happy fox face. She makes that ^W^ face by squinting her eyes closed and smiling a little bit. It's practically an emoji all by itself. "What's wrong with drinking blood? I thought that was like... something that you guys had to do anyway?" Fox absently nuzzles in against Jackie's side, a gesture she doesn't seem to even be thinking about. "I know a vampire who can turn into animals, he's super fun. We go flying together sometimes."
"Hey, I know one'a those, too. Are we talking about the same guy, here?" Jackie wonders, beaming at Fox's vulpine little show of delight, and rewarding her for it with a squeezy snuggle as she tucks into her side. "Ah. As it happens, we're talking about two things, if I remember my "how to survive vampires" education. We're talking about the difference between drinking water, and original, heavy-on-the-cocaine cola with a side dish of stockholm syndrome. Some of them can make you do things. Any of them can make you think you love them, and that love does not have to be reciprocated to feel like it's thriving anyway."
You learn things when you have bitter ex-lovers of damaged ex-ghouls as lovers invested in your sanity and safety.
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