Ulani Majusaka

David nodded in understanding.  There was a lot of ingredients in his special concoction—maybe too many.  It was probably for the best to shelve the idea…for next year.  “All right, fair enough.” He laughed at her teasing tone, putting her order in the computer.  "I could do that, or since I’m poor, I can comp the tomatoes for ya.  They’re pretty good today, pretty fresh; I had a tomato sandwich today so you can trust me.“

“For what it worth, it looks quite pretty. I think it’s better off to display on the counter with a preservation spell. Maybe don’t blend it all together though because it might just look like a pile of--well, for lack of a better word... shit,” she said, grimacing before shifting into a smile. “You know what, I think I might just take you up on that offer,” she said, handing him her money. “I trust your judgement.”

“I’m fine,” Steffi snapped, extremely annoyed that Ulani had not only caught on to her hesitation, but seemed to think she needed reassurance. There was nothing wrong with a little caution - she wouldn’t have lived anywhere near this long if she hadn’t had some common sense about her. “I don’t know the station’s number, and I really don’t have time to call in for you. Making sure my body’s current inhabitant doesn’t walk into the sun is a little more important than making sure you aren’t unaccounted for at work.” She was getting pretty irritated with how focused Ulani seemed on her own problems - it wouldn’t have been an issue if Ulani was doing so in a way that didn’t require her attention, but Steffi didn’t appreciate the distraction from what actually could be a life or death situation for her. Or maybe for Elaine? At this point it wasn’t clear who would be in mortal peril if something were to happen to her body. Either way, she didn’t intend to find out. Now that she knew she wasn’t in immediate danger from the sun, she could head on over to her home without issue. She looked around until she found some keys, grabbed them, and stepped into the sunlight. “I’m going to lock this place up - have a text sent to me if you’re able to figure everything out. If you don’t get it figured out, come back here - I’ll try to stop by later on, but I can’t promise anything.” Ulani wasn’t the worst person to work with under normal circumstances, which was the only reason she was feeling benevolent enough to offer any potential future help at all despite her own current crisis.

Ayla honestly couldn’t be happier to be in her own body. It had been kind of nice being able to go out in broad daylight with no covering up, but she much preferred being herself. Even if that meant she was currently sitting at a lemonade stand by herself, looking like a fool. Just taking a quick break her young charges had told her. Bullshit, that was 15 minutes ago. “Lemonade for sale.” Ayla deadpanned, wondering why she was still sitting there. She was much too soft it seemed. 

On her days off, Ulani liked to jog in the middle of the day instead of late in the evening, after work. She remembered that sometimes, the kids from the orphanage would put up a little lemonade stand. They’d usually talk her ear off about the craziest things and ask her to do shadow tricks for them. When she did make it to the stand today, she was surprised to find the kids nowhere in sight. Instead, a rather covered-up woman was sitting there, sounding like she didn’t want to be there at all. “Is it just you, today?”

( open event starter )

While Deacon had luckily been able to avoid being body swapped by whatever this phenomenon was, that didn’t mean he wasn’t involved in trying to solve it. In fact, he felt like it was one of the bigger priorities in town right now. Right now, he was trying to give himself the much needed break. The night sky sparkling above him as Deacon made his way to the cafe. Though he wasn’t able to consume coffee anymore, the shop always brought a sense of comfort to the man. It was one of the only times in his childhood that he didn’t have to worry. The door really did transport you to a new place, even if it wasn’t always physically. As he made his way towards a table in the corner, Deacon half wondered if he should get himself a drink or not. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have options for any supernatural type around. There was just something off about drinking blood in the middle of a cafe that humans could walk into that didn’t sit well with him. Shaking his head, Deacon slipped into the seat and pulled out his notebook to start jotting down notes for the day.

Ulani had a rather eventful morning of wandering about as a goat, and as odd as it was at first, once she sort of got used to it and calmed down, she was able to turn herself back into a somewhat humanoid form. The Glamour was a little harder to work around, though. For a while, she was afraid of going out with pointy ears. She figured she could at least tell humans that he was born that way, and they’d probably believe her. She’d managed to ask for the day off to gather her bearings and promised she’d come in first thing tomorrow regardless if she’d been swapped back or not. She took a deep breath and spotted Deacon. She wasn’t sure if he had been swapped as well, but she figured there’d be no harm to mess with him (or whoever that might be) a little until she found out. “Hullo, kind sir. Mind if I sit with you? Of course you don’t. Did you want the usual? I’m sure they have opaque sippy cups for you. It’ll be our little secret,” she said, giving him a wink and sliding into the seat beside him. 

As much as Steffi hated to admit it, Ulani’s reason for tagging along made sense. She sighed, glancing around until she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Yes, that was definitely Elaine. Opening the door should be fine then, right? The last thing she wanted was to open the door and burn to a crisp, but if that was going to happen then she probably would have felt pain by now from the sunlight streaming in through the windows. “Alright, alright,” she agreed. She was still annoyed at being sidetracked from her own goals here, but it wasn’t like Elaine (or whoever had her body) had answered the phone yet anyway - and it certainly wasn’t like she couldn’t walk and talk at the same time when they finally did pick up. Although she wasn’t quite sure where this building’s front door would be, she strode through it with purpose until she located it. She opened it up and reflexively moved to stand as far away from the sun’s rays as possible, though it turned out not to be necessary - she still wasn’t in any pain at all. “Off you go,” she told goat-Ulani. Maybe later she would be curious as to how exactly Ulani had been turned into a goat, but for now she was eager to be rid of her so she could focus on her own problems. 

Now that she knew what was going on, Steffi had rearranged her priorities - which meant that while she understood that Ulani’s situation wasn’t a good one, she didn’t have the energy to particularly care at the moment. She had her own issues to deal with, after all. She didn’t have an issue with goat-Ulani following her around, but it was irritating to field questions from her. “Whoever’s commandeered my body,” she snapped as she waited for whoever was on the other end to pick up. “Are you just going to follow me around, then? Don’t you have more important matters to attend to?” If she were trapped in a goat’s body, she was confident she would be a little more focused on that situation than what someone else was doing.

Steffi listened as Ulani explained how her morning had gone, doing her best to put the puzzle pieces together - which was rather difficult, as several crucial details seemed to be missing. The mention of waking up in a different body was startling - maybe Ulani meant that she’d woken up as a goat, but that would be a rather strange way to phrase it… Steffi looked down at her own hands, well aware they looked nothing like her own. She’d thought (hoped?) that perhaps someone had cast a glamour on her or done something to just transform her body in some way - so when Ulani-the-goat asked if she was Elaine, her blood ran cold. “No, I most certainly am not.” Could she trust goat Ulani’s judgment? She wasn’t sure, but she was relatively confident the woman was competent enough not to mistake her for an entirely different person even while under strenuous circumstances. If this was true, and she really was in Elaine’s body… “Excuse me.” She turned and left, leaving the door open behind her as she hurried back to the room she’d come from, unconcerned about whether or not goat-Ulani followed. She turned on the light and looking around until she found what she was looking for - Elaine’s phone. She picked it up, startled to see her reflection for the first time in five centuries. Well, not her reflection, but - at least this confirmed what goat-Ulani claimed. She unlocked the phone (thank god Elaine had set it to unlock with her face) and dialed her own phone number.

( open starter with Briar during body swap)

Where the hell was she? One moment she was sleeping in her cushy bed, surrounded by the blanket that felt like a cloud and the next she was waking up in a secluded part of the woods. Was this some sort of sick joke that Luca was playing on her? As she stumbled out from where she had been sleeping (was that a tarp? This had bad horror movie vibes written all over it), Briar made her way towards the first spot of water she could find. Yep, she was going to kill Luca for this when she found him. What kind of practical joke was this? Was Atticus involved? He was supposed to be her partner in crime, not his. When she finally reached the water and moved down to splash some of the flowing liquid on her face, Briar was struck by the face staring back at her. This was not the human form she typically put on. Officially freaked out, Briar made her way from the stream and started fumbling her way through town to find the first sign of civilization she could. 

Fae magic was... quite odd to say the least, or it was a lot different than she was used to. Then again, she was never really able to turn herself into a goat to begin with, so it never really occurred to her how that might have made a difference. With the help of Atticus, she was able to sort of figure out how to return to his fae form, but she was still quite confused about the glamour, so she appeared a lot shorter than Atticus usually was with pointier ears. She got called back into work when Marnie and Andy got a hold of them all, but she thought she could use the rest of the day off to wrap her head around everything. She took a sick leave and promised she’d come in tomorrow regardless if she was still in Atticus’ body or not. She was pretty zoned out when she almost crashed into a young stranger. “Oh, sorry. I’m just a little out of it--hey, are you okay?”

Letting out a sigh as she felt a tap on her shoulder, Willow wasn’t sure what to expect. However, as she turned around, she recognised the woman standing there; she wasn’t sure that she knew her name, but she had definitely seen her around before. “You’re a life saver, thank you.” She spoke, taking the bottle into her hand for a moment, and then holding it towards her jumper. “Do I just… spray it?”

“Dry it off first, and then spray. It should be good as new in no time,” she said with a smile as the barista waved her over for her drink. “Let me know if you need any help with that,” she said as got her drink and moved over to one of the free tables to take a seat. This was proving to be a bit of an eventful morning. She was glad to have diffused the tension a little bit. 

The goat didn’t seem very happy to listen to his instructions, based on the angry expression on its face.  But she was trying, and that was more than Atticus expected.  He looked around, noticing real people that weren’t fading away watching him argue with a goat.  He wasn’t embarrassed, but he turned back to the goat and said, “Do you want to go someplace that isn’t a morgue to try and get over it?  We could take a walk, or go to your place?  Maybe you’ll be more comfortable in your own space?”  Atticus now had nothing else going on for the day, and maybe if she stopped being a goat she could explain what happened and how to fix it.

Steffi wasn’t sure what answer she’d been expecting, but the one she got certainly hadn’t been it. “Ulani?” She confirmed aloud. There was something about this telepathy that felt different from her usual abilities, but she still hadn’t quite connected that she would be able to have a conversation with the goat - which was actually Ulani, apparently - entirely in her mind. “How odd. I assume turning into animals isn’t something you typically do? And - can you tell me what’s happened to me?” Even if she held the woman in higher esteem than some of the town’s other residents, ultimately Steffi was more concerned about her own situation. She despised asking for help, but it wasn’t like she could look in a mirror… or could she? It was an absurd thought, but he light peeking through the curtains still wasn’t hurting her - who was to say what else of her reality for the last 500 years no longer applied?

Atticus couldn’t decipher words, but at least the person was understanding his words as he watched the goat nod its head.  Then more angry bleats.  “I can’t help you if you’re freaking out,” he exhaled impatiently.  “You’re acting like you’re the only one with the problem, but not only am I not me, but I’m also seeing shit, and it’s very stressful.”  He didn’t like the way she seemed to find it a problem they were a goat.  That was a little rude.  “Look, I mean it,” Atticus shook his head.  “You have to calm down first, and then maybe I can help you find the magic to turn back.”

Still with the bright and excited smile on her lips, Allie continued to drag Ulani out of the apartment once the other had grabbed her jacket, and locked the door behind them. Of course she had a key for Ulani’s. the other had a key to her home as well. You love my energy. don’t even pretend you don’t. She tutted, wagging her finger in the direction of her best friend. Now, where to first - what are you wanting to do?

Ulani shook her head and raised a hand to put up her wards before Allie promptly dragged her into the elevator. “Somewhere where we don’t really have to rub elbows with a lot of strangers,” she said. “We can start off with dinner, at least. I’m starving. What are you craving at the moment?” She asked, clicking the button and watching the doors close in front of them. 

This was a little bit of a weird sight.  This goat that was himself was in the middle of some sort of rampage, trotting back and forth and bleating very loudly.  Atticus wasn’t very good at translating goat, but he could distinguish the tone and anguish.  “Are you the woman who is…this?”  He gestured vaguely at his (her?) body.  He was trying to stay calm, but he was truly becoming more stressed about the situation as time went on, and a goat screaming at him was not helping.  “Is that my body?”  Atticus grimaced.  “Why the hell are you a goat?”  

Steffi was so baffled by everything going on that it took a moment to notice the fact that there was sunlight peeking in through the curtains of this room’s window, and it wasn’t causing her any pain. Had there been sunlight in the other room, too? She wasn’t sure, which she was having trouble processing. She almost forgot about the goat, only turning her attention back to it when she heard it in her mind. Hearing thoughts wasn’t new or particularly unusual, but she’d never heard a goat’s thoughts before. “I don’t want anything from you - and I don’t have the faintest interest in you being here,” she told the goat, feeling rather silly for speaking to an animal. If he was able to hear this goat’s thoughts though, perhaps it wasn’t an ordinary goat. “What are you?” Another important question was why the goat had called her a librarian - it probably had something to do with why her body was wrong, but she could figure that out after she was done interrogating the goat.

“Okay, fair enough,” David shrugged.  “Hey, I haven’t made the drink yet, I could still do that.  It’s Pride Month, which means uhh…live your life. Yeah.  But I don’t blame you on the cold brew thing,” he put in the order.  “We have a couple breakfast sandwiches today in the case, do you want a specific one?  Or I can choose one based on your vibe.  You seem like a ham and swiss type.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “I appreciate the gesture, but I’m good, thanks. If you’d really want to celebrate pride month, maybe make a donation to your nearest gay,” she said teasingly, looking around inconspicuously while pointing to herself. “I could go for a ham and swiss, yeah. Could I get some tomatoes on there too?”

closed starter for @ulani-majusaka​

Atticus woke up to the sound of a very annoying alarm.  This was immediately weird, as he didn’t set alarms, and also he didn’t know how to do that on his flip phone.  He opened his eyes to a ceiling that wasn’t Elaine’s and looked over at a phone that wasn’t his.  It was 8:00am.  Practically the middle of the night.  Was he at Adrian’s? Anywhere else he remembered being at the night before?  No.  This place was new.  Atticus rubbed his eyes in case he wasn’t seeing things correctly, and felt eyelids that were different.  He looked down on hands that weren’t his.  He jumped out of bed and searched the house for the bathroom, and when he found it, he stared into the reflection that wasn’t his.   He couldn’t figure out this woman’s password, or how to navigate her phone other than to finally turn off the alarm.  Atticus searched for other clues around her apartment as to who she was, maybe where she worked.  He found a badge on the counter and a lab coat hanging up, and surmised she must be at the police station doing…science?  That didn’t make sense, but it wasn’t him doing the science cop work.  At least, he hoped not.  Atticus skipped the lab coat but grabbed the badge and headed down to the police station.  Maybe this person would be there and he could get some answers. Walking into the station, he was overwhelmed.  Multiple people all running around in a frenzy, and only one person that practically stress-yelled that he should be down at the lab.  Should he?  Okay, so she was a science cop.  Maybe he should have brought the coat.  Atticus followed signs down and arrived at the morgue doorway, gingerly opening the heavy door.  He saw an empty room, save for a large man in the corner.  “Oh, sorry,” he used his unfamiliar higher pitched voice, and felt a chill run up his spine as the man turned to him with eyes that looked through him, then faded out of existence.  “What the fuck,” Atticus said aloud.  Weirder still, he heard the unmistakable sound of hooves–his hooves, by the trained sound of it, running down the hall.  And then, his bleat.  He whipped around and opened the door to see a goat.  Him as a goat.  “What? Who are you?”

Ulani was eternally grateful that the Seelie fae twins seemed to have a telepathic sort of connection, otherwise, she didn’t know what Steffi would have done with a goat in her apartment, given her reputation. It still didn’t help the fact that she was still a goat with no idea how to turn herself back. A goat walking about Traceless wasn’t exactly a common phenomenon, but with supernatural folk walking about, it wasn’t something that really warranted a lot of attention, either. Her first priority was to at least try to inform someone at the police station, maybe try to file a complaint. There was bound to be someone there who could read minds or form telepathic connections with animals or something. It was a bit farfetched, but she couldn’t just sit around when someone else could be inhabiting her body. The station was in obvious disarray, so she figured her best course of action was to get into the laboratory from the back entrance. She looked around at the empty morgue before making her way into the laboratory. She bleated for help, but that only seemed to scare the lab staff and make them run away. She huffed and stomped her hooves angrily when she heard a familiar voice. She turned her head quickly and was shocked to find herself. “Who the fuck are you?” she bleated.