New Names, New Faces

Boon hadn't expected the message from Ophanim. It had been a minute since they'd done anything together aside from seeing em in passing the other day. Still though, hearing that ey'd wanted to tall piqued Boon's curiosity. So they figured they'd invite em over for tea.

Flash forward to the present, Boon is wearing a track jacket and joggers that they got from their job modelling for Heimdall. They'd spent most of the afternoon shirking their work for university in favor of planning out the layout of the office that Helga had scouted out, and researching the various permits one would need to set up an extra-dimensional embassy anyway. "Ugh. I should really just ask Elle for help with this."

"Æsir as my witness you'll do no such thing blessin' " Maggie chimes in coming up from the hidden staircase in the kitchen.

Boon jumps in their seat. "Mom!" They shout in surprise. "I don't know what you heard but it was totally not me considering going to your bitter rival for help" Boon explains sheepishly.

Maggie grins and folds her arms "Mhm. Sure it ain't." She chuckles and shakes her head. "Say, didn't you have a friend coming over soon? The one I met the other day?"

Boon looks at their Mom with shock. "Uhhh yes. Yes. And I totally didn't lose track of time." I totally lost track of time. Ey'll be here any minute. Boon hurries over to the fridge and grabs a container of Atlanta's cupcakes and then rifles through the pantry for a modest selection of tea. "Ey wanted to talk in private, and no offense but you'll probably make em uncomfortable considering your friends attacked em on sight the other day. Or maybe you won't, either way, you mind if we have the kitchen for a bit?"

"Of course dear. I'll be up in my room if you need me."

"Thanks Mom! I'll talk to you in a bit."

As Maggie climbs the stairs to her room Boon hears the doorbell ring. They rush over to open the door and find the frame filled by Ophanim. "You made it! Come on in, make yourself at home."

Ophanim hunched down to greet eir teammate as Boon opened the door. Ey offered a humble smile to them and looked around the entrance curiously. It was difficult not too look around, of course, but for now eir body was in line with eir thoughts.
Five facial eyes settled on Boon;

“Just barely.” ey joked with a chuckle before leaning over to walk inside.

Ophanim was in costume though, given the difficulty of finding casualwear eir size, this was not unusual. Eir long hair was windswept with a feather still stuck in the back and gave a clue as to how Ophanim had journeyed here.

Ey already had a toe at eir heel, ready to toe off the simple canvas shoes, before thinking to ask;

“Shoes on or off?”

Ey looked for a shoe rack or cubby - a telltale indication to em.

“Well I’m glad you found it eventually! And off if you don’t mind.” They say gesturing to a shoe rack near the door.

They lead Ophanim a short distance to the kitchen and pull a chair out for Em. “Help yourself to some cupcakes! Atlanta makes sure we’re always stocked. These ones are chocolate orange flavored! Also I managed to scrounge up what little tea we had on hand if you want to pick one, it’s all herbal though, caffeine and I have a strained relationship.”

Ophanim eased eirself into the chair, lowering slowly as ey checked how robust it was. Ey had found that well-made chairs could typically hold eir weight whereas five dollar chairs from Walmart would snap into pieces. Safely seated, ey looked over the table.

Ophanim chuckled at the caffeine comment; "Guess coffee's out of the question, then?"

Ey looked over the selection before picking out a Rooibos and then reaching out for a cupcake.

"You're so lucky to have a constant supply. Mmm, ah gosh, so soft."

Swallowing, ey asked more politely;

"How've you been? How's your- uh, everyone?"

"Heh, the others in the house drink coffee so we have some if you want it. But it's a one way ticket to the panic zone for yours truly."

Boon fidgets with their ears awkwardly. "I've been… getting used to things. I've had the horns for months now for unrelated reasons so like, no need to adjust to those, but yeah, everything feels so different now. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that of course."

Ophanim frowned subconsciously, nodding, and tapped nervously at eir cup. Ey hadn't expected Boon to be so open about it, an unreasonable expectation. Why would Boon be as closed off as ey was?

"What happened? I met who did it. Seemed like the sort to not think it through." Ey scowled, still unimpressed with the space dragon.

Boon's eyes light up, revealing their horizontal pupils. "Oh you met Hurricane! Yeah she did it, but it wasn't her fault really. It was… kinda my own actually?" Boon pauses for a moment to take a bite of their cupcake. "So. True names. Everyone has a true name that like, represents who they are as a person. I did a ritual to learn my own and I wanted to impress Hurricane since dragons use their true names as just like their names you know? So I told her my true name and this fire giant overheard it. Now for humans, or most things that aren't space dragons really, a true name can be used to manipulate someone. This asshole used mine to make me fight my Mom… Hurricane claimed that a big change to someone's self can in turn change their name. If she hadn't done what she did I would've… I don't like to think about what I would've done." Boon is visibly clutching at the tablecloth as they finish recounting the circumstances of their transformation.

Ophanim nodded, allowing a moment of peace for that heavy implication to lay. Ey sipped at eir tea, the taste more bitter than expected. The mood did that. But eir shoulders did relax and some tension drained from eir face. Ey felt kind of bad for being so sharp with Hurricane, now, since it had been out of such necessity.
“I didn’t realise. Then I’m… glad for you. That you had help.” That’s why Ophanim appreciated the Big Team, after all. For help, support, to learn more about all this.

Ophanim nibbled on some more cupcake before giving a chuckle;

“How’s the new sight? I think that’s what always gets me the most.”

Boon laughs “Oh, yeah, eyes are all different now. My coordination is shot. I’ve been putting in extra hours training to get used to it again.” Boon looks down at their hands on the table. “I’m really really glad I still have thumbs though, can you imagine?”

Ophanim put on a playful shiver.

“You’d have to say goodbye to Atlanta’s cupcake’s, that’s for sure. Unless you just, like, vored them whole.”

Ophanim laughed, feeling relaxed to get to talk about this stuff so freely - free enough to joke about it. Ey looked at the last bite of eir own cupcake, a sobering mood chasing the playful one in a way that just made em want to shout.

“So, are you still in danger? I mean. Are you going to reverse it? Or would that put your mom in danger again?”

Ey didn’t look up this time, worried about looking at Boon. Eir mind was suspiciously blank as if even eir own mind couldn’t fathom the possibilities.

Boon taps their fingers on the table and looks down at the table cloth in thought. “So. I mean. There’s a cure for permutation pink right now. And it may not work but like, assuming that’s something I wanted it would be dangerous to set my name back to what it was, yeah.” Boon sighs. “My girlfriend made a good point though, we deal with stuff like this all the time. It may be difficult, but we could find a way to turn me back safely if we really wanted to.” Boon smiles. “If I really wanted to. But to be honest, I- I really don’t mind? I mean, I’m not like begging to stay a sheep or anything I just. I’ve never really cared about appearing different, even when I used to be able to turn into a gargoyle and stuff. And with this, I feel fine, I look cute, why change back you know?”

Ey start to grin a little, hearing the reasons why Boon felt so comfortable like this, before suddenly stiffening up straight at the last sentence. Ophanim tapped the side of eir tea cup, raised it, and put it back down before starting;
“This is gonna -” Eir head shifted, becoming an ox. Looking at the other horned teen Ophanim wondered not for the first time precisely how uncontrolled those changes where.

“Sorry,” ey shook eir head gently, “Can I ask you a. Weird. Question. Uh, something sorta personal? I mean. More than all this.”

Ophanim looked at the cupcakes but didn’t take another one.

Boon does their best not to wince as Ophanim's head shifts. "Of course! I'm an open book."

"Okay, uh." Ophanim ground eir teeth together nervously for a moment, "Does Atlanta, y'know. Does she still like you? I mean obviously she doesn't hate you. But. Does this change- Frick- Does she think you're hot? Even though you're a sheep?"

Even ey just blurts it out. Ophanim doesn't even consider either of them being ace or sex-repulsed, being ignorant of those concepts.

But the idea that so much could stay the same and that one could still be essentially a person after such a change was so outside of eir experience that ey was grasping. Waiting to prove the dream wrong and hoping at every bump that it was as good as it looked.

Boon looks stunned for a moment and then starts laughing. “Sorry! Sorry I shouldn’t laugh.” They put their hand over their mouth to stifle themself. They get their giggling under control and regain their composure. “Yes. Atlanta still thinks I’m attractive, not that it really matters that much. We’re both ace and at this point we already love each other more than anything, it would take a lot more than a change in appearance to separate us at this point.”

The answer did a moderate job at reassuring, though Ophanim supposed the truth was better than sugar-coating.

"That's- good. I'm sorry, what do you mean 'ace'?"

It sounded like outdated slang to em.

“Oh!” Boon looks surprised, having never really had to explain it before. They scratch the back of their head  “Well, we both like girls and various flavours of nonbinary folk, like, to date. But neither of us experience sexual attraction. So we’re asexual, or ‘Ace’!”

A furrowed brow on the oxen face was peculiar but Ophanim nodded cautiously. The explanation created more questions, but it made sense in general.

“Oh, ye- okay. But it’s still good that the change didn’t affect that.”

Ey taps the teacup again.

“I had a girlfriend. Back. At my old school. I didn’t get to say goodbye to her and I- don’t know if I can. Or should’ve. Or how she. Mom said not to, that it would be cruel.”

Ey rubs eir hands down eir snout and lets out a groan.

Boon looks confused for a moment. “Why would it be cruel? I mean if anything an explanation about what you’ve been up to all this time would probably be a good thing right?” Boon folds their hands into a platform for their chin to rest on. “If she’s still important to you you can always get back in touch. Your body is different, but you’re still you. Do you want to talk to her?”

"I don't know." Ophanim sighs and rubs work hands over work about again, looked pained and tired.

"I don't know. What if I see her and. I mean, Halcyon has Zodiac City, right? People look weird here. But back there…"

Ey take a tired pause before looking up with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry. This was meant to be about you. This tea isn't too bad, y'know."

“Hey don’t worry about it. You can talk about whatever you need to! No offense but it sounds like you could use someone to talk to about it” Boon smiles “I’m glad you like the tea though!”

Another smile and a light snort. Ey nods at the tea comment.

“I used to mostly just talk to my Iman about- this? This stuff. But Big Team has been pretty cool. Thanks, though. It’s good to talk like this.”

Boon smiles warmly “Hey, I’m glad it helped. You’re welcome here anytime and there will always be more tea and cupcakes for you.” They pause for a moment “Thanks for talking this out with me Ophanim, seriously. It may not seem it but this has been a lot for me, so it’s nice to have someone else to talk to about this.”

"I just wanted to make sure- Well. I know what it's like to suddenly change like this. Happy to help." Ey smiled as best as one could with an ox's snout, the look more goofy than intended.

The pair shared a second cup of tea together and chatted about more mundane happenings - as far as anything in Halcyon City could be called 'mundane' - and as their last cupcakes turned to crumbs they bid each other adieu and felt just a bit better about the world.