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Type: Video
Sender ID: hasapoint (Lashan)
To: Public
Subject: waterproofing charms
Warnings: none!

[FIRST: You get a very close shot of Lashan's eye as she squints at her shellphone. We have here that double-doozy of a medieval and an old person and while she's pretty sharp, these devices are not intuitive to her.]

'S it working? The bead's glowing.

[aka 'the light's on'. The video pulls back a bit but like, it's still pretty close and the angle is unflattering. This whole thing feels completely unnatural to her and the lines between her brows are deepened in a frown.]

I'm Sister Lashan. I'm a lay sister, not a nun. I've made some charms for waterproofing. They're not well-tested though. If you help me with that I'll give you one. Want to know their tolerances and if I have to tweak anything before I start selling them. I'm on Elrut.

[yeah this has made her feel ridiculous and stilted. She prods at the phone with a finger.]

...How do I- [she found out how to end message! this was Not guaranteed.]

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So you know it works for rain, that's guaranteed? [It's just large bodies of water she's unsure of, that's how it sounds to him.] I can help test it, where in Eltrut are ya' at?

[The charm reminded him of the waterproof soap Shampoo ordered once. He was never able to get where she got it out of her or the old mummy. Having a substitute for a stave against his curse would be a godsend.]

I don't give a lot of guarantees, kid. [Overpromising is bad business sense!] As I've used it, it's kept my skin and inner layers dry and my hair has gotten wet, but sometimes these things take a little differently to different people. Also I had much longer hair at the time.

[Magic can be made into an exact science, but it won't be for a thousand years or so.]

There's a sculpture garden pretty quiet right now - First Lantern Memorial. It's not all that far from, mmm, that bird woman's herbal shop.

[As to be expected. He appreciates her being upfront about it rather than making empty promises. It helps temper his expectations and keeps him from letting himself down.]

Think I've passed by there before. Give me a sec, I'll be over there.

[Presuming Lashan's already at the meeting point, it'll be a good five or so minutes before she can spot the raven-haired teen from the post. Ranma walked in with casual swagger, arms crossed behind his head as he waltzed up to the older lady.]

Yo.

Edited (Reworded text oof) 2024-09-09 06:58 (UTC)

[First Lantern is a quiet little park set up by the families and loved ones of a ship that vanished some years ago, long enough back by now that it's become more casual, though still not a place where a lot of youths go. The most prominent sculpture is a replica of First Lantern's figurehead, who holds out a lantern and has a carved look of intense blankness.

Lashan is on a bench, wrapping braided wool threads around a piece of wire. She looks up appraisingly, black eyes steady. Ranma's got some strange magic to him, but she's getting used to that. Everything's strange here.]

Yo yourself. You'd be Ranma Saotome?

[two-named people aren't that common in her day to day life and she has no idea which name to use if it's just one.]

In the flesh. Just Ranma's fine.

[This wasn't a place he visits often, only really hearing about it's history from second-hand talk. Eerie statue and grim lore aside, it's not half bad of a spot. If any of the other parks start to bore him, he might have to come visit here every now and again. It's rather serene.

Similarly to Lashan with him, Ranma studied the older woman. He couldn't tell from the call, and while she's currently seated on the iron bench, it's clear that she's tall. Wager around six feet, which compared to someone only 5'5" like him, it's like putting David and Goliath side by side. Height aside, with his trained eyes of a combatant, this wasn't some frail granny. Muscles that while worn with age still show strength that anyone'd be a fool to underestimate her. He's made that mistake before with one old-timer, never again.]

You got the charm with ya'?

[Close! She's six foot three and has her longsword sheathed on her hip. Lashan's retired as a fighter but clearly hasn't entirely let it go. Especially in a strange place without confirmed allies. She's glad to have her trusty old blade in case she needs it.

Ranma certainly moves like an active fighter, she muses. She doesn't think he's done growing, but she doesn't assume he's a child either. Lashan's people are all tall, but she's spent most of her life among people who often are not.

She puts the charm she's working on aside and takes out a finished one. It's a wire pendant, some coils and angles inside of a heavier wire circle. Braided and knotted wool threads wrap around the circle, but the inner wires are bare.]

Right here. These aren't instant effect, though. You've gotta squeeze these two wires closer together - see, there's space for fingers - and move it over whatever you want proofed so the thread touches it. Up and down your arm, over your head, so on.

[They're instant for her but of course, she made them. Lashan is still trying to work out if she can make them instant for others without it turning bad. After all, peoples' bodies have a lot of water in them.]

[Ranma hopes this isn't the peak of his height. He's admittedly a smidge under average, but a lot of people tend to be taller than him. Don't get him started on his cursed form nixing inches off and leaving him at a staggering 4'11". Could just be genes that's the cause, could be a lack of getting proper food growing up stunting his growth, or maybe he's just short just cause.

He eyed the threads observantly. Not what he was expecting. Yeah, he was thinking the charm would be a necklace or something of that nature. But from his experiences with magical trinkets, he figured that simply wearing it would be good enough for it to take effect. Mental memo to himself: If this works, don't try to use it while plummeting from the sky. Maybe. It'll be a fun challenge seeing how fast he can before he makes a grand splash.

Taking the charm, he holds it between his fingers while looking it over more.]

Run it over myself, and it'll really work?

[Trying hard not to sound skeptical or ungrateful here. Ranma isn't doubting her, grannies tend to be well versed in magical bits and bobs. That said, magic and him doesn't always see eye-to-eye. It causes just as much problem for him as it does fix it.

... Then again, the same could be said about a lot of things. Convincing himself to at least give it a shot, he does as Lashan advised. Pinch the threads, run it over his body. He's being extra meticulous to get every nook and cranny of himself. If even one spot is exposed, well, Lashan'll get a taste of magic he's brought with him.

That should do it. Hopefully. Ranma finished scanning the charm over his person, handing it back off to the older woman.]

So... Do I go jump in a lake somewhere or...

[No signs of the water in his body being depleted. That's good, right. He's seen firsthand someone getting the water in her body evaporated from immense heat, so he'd know.]

[She sees Ranma start to scrub like soap and holds a finger up.]

You don't have to do it like that. The midline of the body and the limbs works, like this.

[Lashan demonstrates with a second charm. Starting tracing a circle at the crown of her head, she draws it lightly down her face to her breastbone, then down one arm to her fingertips and back, switches hands to do the same to her other arm, and down over her gut to her hips, where she has to balance on one leg so she can crook the other, tracing the limb similarly to the tip of her boot. Then the other leg, then all the way back to the top of her head.

There may be a slight prickling but it's subtle enough that it might be imagined.]

And you keep hold of it, it'll wear off if it's more than a few feet away. Put it in a pocket or around your neck.

...Well, there's a little fountain other side of the statue. You could try that.

... Ah.

[Well. Doesn't he just feel foolish?

Sporting a small blush for a moment, he quickly brushed it off and parrotted Lashan's demonstration. Crown, face, chest, arms, hands, going all the way from head to toe until he feels that prickling sensation subside.

Ranma takes a cursory glance on the other side of the statue, seeing the fountain the older lady was talking about. Should work well enough.]

That'll do. Here goes nothing.

[Step step. The young martial artist walked over to the basin of the fountain, turned his back to it...]

[Sploosh!

And falls backwards into the fountain, letting the water hit his body. Like Lashan claimed would happen, he was dry as he was before getting in the water. Ranma stared down, silent amazement crossing over his face.

Pat pat. He pats at his chest, to see if this was real. Still pecs, still male!]

How about that...

[Ranma mumbled, voice split between surprise and relief. That same magic Lashan detected from the young boy earlier was... Odd now. It fluctuated and flickered. Like a light switch trying to turn on with a faulty bulb. Whatever it was trying to do, her charm was staving it off.]

[Lashan watches with her eyebrows raised. She'd expected him to plunge an arm in or something. Whatever magic is in him reacted to the water, she can tell that much, it flashed through his whole body, but it's balked for now.

It won't feel like he's not getting wet. The human body doesn't have a sensor for moisture, just temperature, and water still folds coolly around him and lifts and stirs clothing and hair. It just doesn't quite actually touch, and when not fully immersed the water rolls and beads as it slides off, like from the back of a duck.

There might or might not be a trace of an itch in his eyes or nose though, just enough drying action going on to irritate, not enough to cause trouble unless he decided not to drink anything all day.]

Were you expecting something in particular to happen?

[He could've simply stuck his arm in, yes. But he needed to be absolutely certain the charm worked as advertised. Why go halfway when you can go all out?

It's like oil in water. His body's pushing out the water around him rather than let it soak into the skin, hairs and fabric of his personage. Almost similar to the waterproof soap Ryoga got his hands on that one time, only with the added gratuity of his clothes being free from getting dampened.

Irritation of the eyes and nose, he can deal with if it means having a safeguard against his curse. Ranma rubs his stinging eyes and sniffled, standing up straight and splashing up water.]

A little, yeah. [He admits, a little wishy-washy and imprecise. Shaking his head, his lips quirks into a big grin.] But it's nothing you gotta worry about. Or I, for that matter!

[Excitedly, perhaps a bit too much, he takes out the charm, holding it between his fingers.]

Long as I got this, I won't have to deal with that problem ever again!

[Finally! He's got a work around for his curse! An interim solution, but that's better than nothing! The pigtailed teen stood proud, feeling on top of the world...]

[... There's one thing you should never do: egg on a curse.

Ranma should remember to not let his mouth run, or put too much faith in a remedy that's too good to be true. Pride cometh before the fall, and with it, so too would Ranma's masculinity.

With her sensitivity to magic, Lashan'll be able to tell that the charm's magic, working fine the first time, quickly waned before straight up blipping out. Ranma could've been given a paltry charm that needed more tweaking done on it. Or maybe the magic placed over him that was fighting against Lashan's overpowered it.

Either way, in the concatenation it took for the charm's protection to wear off, the boy before her changed. Shrunk down, sharper features slimming and smoothening, raven hair brightening to a crimson hue down to the last strand.

Ranma, still standing in the fountain, still with that dumb smile on his-- her face, late to catch up to the realization. It's only when she sees the world around her being a lot bigger and the now present dampness in the legs of her pants and shoes does her shoulders slack and jovial smile falter.

Sigh.]

Why did I have t' say something...?

[Her and her big mouth.]

[The charm could have handled the 'pressure' from the outside for a good while, but after holding for a moment against the 'pressure' coming from within Ranma its effect collapses down to a much smaller area.

Lashan for her part has spent years working on her temper, learning to stop and think and take things in stride. She tries to take everything into account and always be the calm center who can take things in and act rather than react. Also with her Empathy she can tell that this isn't something Ranma is not used to and nothing huge and inimical is involved.

So she doesn't do what a teen Lashan would have to something this unexpected this close, which is throw a punch and whirl to face whatever might be behind her. Or what she would have done in her twenties, which is look about like a mad thing and back away hastily with her fists balled, or thirties, which is check everywhere and back away hastily while preparing a spell. Forty and fifty year old Lashan would also do variants of that, with different spells and less distance involved as she'd more quickly see that this isn't a demon's trick. In her sixties she would have jerked in place and had a furious psychic conversation with one of her Sisters. Oh, also there'd be swearing at any stage.

Seventy-year-old Lashan tenses up, her eyes wide, her hand finding the hilt of her sword. Then she makes herself realize that she can't hear screaming, that the sounds around her haven't changed at all, and forces herself to relax, even if it means gritting her teeth for a moment. Then she can say something.]

Twins' beautiful fucking tits, wind-blown child, that happens often? Fuck my sister's horse.

[okay there's still swearing and the literal translations of the profanity she learned as a child sound weird. Her accent gets heavier.]

[Woah.

That certainly was a new string of words Ranma's heard thrown out when people see her curse for the first time. Twins' beautiful fucking tits, is she shouting that as an exclamatory or-- Lashan's got... a unique vernacular, if vulgar but nothing Ranma wasn't used to already having lived around his old man for all his life.]

Uh, yeah. It does. [She's still a little nonplussed by Lashan's vituperation that it takes her a second to get a simple word out. Ranma stepped out of the water, picking up her ill-fitting soggy shoes to wring out. The hand on the hilt doesn't go unnoticed, though she didn't pay it any mind further.] You alright there?

[She really hopes she didn't give the old lady enough of a bad fright to give her a heart attack.]

[Lashan did maybe get a bit of chest pain going. It's the kind of thing she ignores, perhaps unwisely, because it's always ebbed back quickly enough. Give her a second, she's worked her way down to a caustic mutter.]

Place is a crazy demon-pit of a motherless fucking vagrant camp.

[Lashan's outburst has drawn stares and aside glances. This is a quiet place, normally!

But she's calming down, so she's not gonna get kicked out for causing a disturbance just yet. Lashan takes her hand away from the hilt of her sword and scrubs it down her craggy face, blowing out a long exhale.]

Right.

...Why'd your hair change?

[yes this is her question]

[Now that the befuddlement of the older woman's outburst died down, Ranma was now putting in all the effort to not break into a giggling fit. Best not to do anything stupid that'll get a fight broken out here and now. The unwanted peanut gallery that had their eyes on the pairing from Lashan's shouting was disbanding, and between you and her, she doesn't want to make a mess of a beautiful park.

Ask more about those swears... and see if she can teach them to me later, she filed away in the mental cabinet.

Huh. Wouldn't have been the first question she'd expect anyone to ask seeing a guy change sex right in front of them. Ranma holds back the budding deadpan and shrugs.]

Same reason why the rest of me changed: magical curse. [The martial artist answerx plainly, slipping back on her shoes.] Why red specifically, your guess's good as mine. I guess [Tentative guess at that. Magic's wack.] I would've been a redhead if I was born a girl?

[She never really wondered why that happens or give it much more than a passing thought. It seemed trivial to worry about in comparison to growing boobs.]

[look, Lashan's not anime and brightly colored hair is weird to her.]

That's some curse. Damn. I might be jealous.

[Only a touch. Lashan's comfortable with her body and even if every time someone assumes she's a man it rankles, she fully puts it on them being uncultured barbarians. Ranma still feels to her extra senses like the same person.]

So, what, this curse makes you into... [Lashan pauses, knowing other people don't have all the same idea of gender that hers do, what's a fast way to say it -] A man-like woman? A... man's spirit? But only some of the time?

[that's not exactly correct to the term binalaki, but it can take a while to get this stuff across.]

[Welcome to anime, where 50% of the motley casts have bright, luminous hair that could make psychedelic tees look dull and lifeless.

Ranma's vain enough to take the might in front of the jealousy and aggrandize it. Hey, she knows she looks good, and hearing another women say something of that caliber only validates her pride. Lashan's sixth senses is getting it right on the money. Biologically she might've changed, but in the end, Ranma's still Ranma.

The redhead's face drops slightly hearing all the descriptors Lashan was trying to make heads of to call her. It's better than Ranma's time. Late-1980s Japan don't really have the best understanding of gender, and a lot of the time the norms and standards can be iffy.]

Pretty much? I'm a guy who turns to a chick half of the time whenever I touch water, but I'm still-- [Tapping the side of her temple.] a guy up here.

Hm. Hence the interest in my charms, I see.

[Lashan cups her elbow in the palm of one hand and rests her chin on the other, pensively. ...Yeah, she should probably say it. It's not that she's ashamed or anything it just gets annoying sometimes to explain. Lashan doesn't fit very neatly into her peoples' gender quadranary but they're more equipped to understand than most others]

When I was born my parents thought I was a boy. I was more like a girl, actually. Fortunately, where I'm from there's nothing remarkable about that. I'm a bayot like one of my parents, "one with a woman's spirit". There wasn't any problem about it until I left home.

[and then that had been only one of a myriad of problems, honestly.]

Fortunately once I was far enough out many of them were perfectly ready to assume Plainswomen all look like me. Being a 'barbarian' has advantages, sometimes.

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correct me if any info's outdated, skimmed through profile for info

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aagh I'm really sorry I didn't mean to put this off forever

You're good, no worries! (1/2)

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Rolled a 2 for Ranma (2/2)

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drags self back in after a thousand years

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