Shape and Silver

Shape's miniaturization depleted a couple of hours after they arrived to her home, returning her to normal height within the span of a few breaths. The hours had set in, however, and her cheery and even suave demeanor became shot. She thanked Silver for her help, and she helped her to the front door. The fox tails remained, but Silver insisted she had no concern. She wanted to return to her mansion.

But Shape now sits at her laptop into the late evening, the stylish outfit Silver designed for her folded aside, flicking through webpages for something to fulfill his promise to Silver. Magical artifacts and individuals exist anywhere you have a hunch—less common are ones that are safe enough and yet interesting enough to probably catch Silver's attention. One of the local lakes has a promising candidate, however, according to a collector's account.

Silver is happy to be home, and most importantly out of any public eye with her striking appearance. She carefully offloads the potions in a cabinet where Nina won't be expected to brush through the next day, and settles down. While the tails have started growing on her in a more metaphorical sense, she still finds them oddly awkward while seated. It ends up being an evening of being mostly bare draped across the sofa, and watching whatever catches her attention on the television. The lingering phantom sensations of fur sweeping across her legs makes her not even realize the exact time the tails faded away. If nothing else, she's glad the process was subtle enough to not distract from watching a documentary on organized crime. She'll sleep heavily tonight. It felt a very long day despite them returning home in a very timely manner.

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"We're going to be outside pretty much the whole time this time, Silver, if where I was told to scout it is true. I hope that's fine. But trust me, I think you'll find this next, uh, magic thingy well worth your time. It's an amulet, actually."

Shape turns the monitor on the kitchen table toward Silver. A few documents are overlaid atop one another and, beside these, a road map and a sketch of the amulet are open. The artistic render of the amulet is unassuming—it's an opaque white gem in the form of a teardrop inset to a thin metal circle, draping of course from a tightly-wound string.

"Apparently it can have a whole swarm of birds at your bidding. I do wonder what kind of obtuse enchanting rituals the native people did with this thing, but it worked, I guess. So, what do you think? And do you think I'll look good in like a sunhat? Outfit number two seems in order."

The latter part of Shape's comments goes right past Silver's attention as she absorbs the amassed information that Shape has on her screen. There's a fascination in her eyes. "Birds? I will admit... I have on a few occasions seen if I can affect animals or the like. But the language barrier does mean I can't get through to them. I am very curious how this must be like - doing what I already know but in a different way." She leans in close to get a good look of the sketch and read some of the finer text on the screen.

"Yeah, I used to shapeshift into animals sometimes, and interestingly that didn't really give me an advantage with communicating with them either. I'd imagine that's because my mind is still human, like how you have that language barrier with your abilities too, when it comes down to it. Maybe this amulet doesn't let you talk to birds though. Maybe it's more like making them like you, or playing them like an orchestra conductor, or something like that?"

She shrugs, and she checks if she has the coordinates ready on her phone. And the phone's battery, for that matter. It should last long enough.

"Anyway—sunhat? What do you think?"

Silver finally dignifies the question, since Shape insists. Her eyes shift off the screen and at her companion. Sizing up, projecting ideas.

"Hmm. It's a neat idea, but don't go for one of the boring ones. You should try a red band on it, make it pop."

And then Silver distracts herself again, returning to both the notes on screen and her reflection in the monitor at the same time. Her hair flows weirdly this morning. She doesn't like it.

"Red, now that's a color I could go for... I said it before but you really do have a talent in this. What goes well with a sunhat, again, though? Probably something light? Probably even lighter than last time."

She'll gladly keep Silver hostage anytime they assemble a new piece in this wardrobe.

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"It's kinda bigger than I expected."

Shape leans on the passenger side door of his orange car parked on the grass. The light fog obscures whatever may be beyond this mile of the lake's gently rippling surface. And some sparse trees and shrubs line the rocky sand and the water.

"I think we should rent a canoe, unless you'd like to take a dip. I have no problem with it, but, yeah."