Freefall (Olivia and Cassie)

Episode 2: Freefall
Summary: Cassie and Olivia have a falling-out, and deal with things in their own way.
Character Sheet: http://pastebin.com/pFMktA4n
Episode 0: http://pastebin.com/cYDQwsMh
Episode 1: http://pastebin.com/Um5u0WQD

Cassie stumbled down the road, not watching where she was going and ignoring the angry honks from the cars that had to swerve around her. She didn't seem to notice the rising welt on her forehead or the pieces of plate in her hair. She just kept walking.

She made for a strange sight: a dazed-looking girl in a lacy jacket and skirt walking in the middle of the road with an owl sitting sleepily on her shoulder. A long braid bounced behind her.

It was a bright, cheerful autumn afternoon. The air was clear, with a faint breeze and the sun shone brightly overhead. The last few leaves of the season were falling from the trees and into colored piles in the street. It was Halloween season. Cassie couldn't bring herself to enjoy it.

This time yesterday, the worst she'd had to deal with was visiting her family over vacation, lazing around. She'd still been herself then. Now? Crashing her car without a seatbelt on and running someone over in the process was the least stressful thing that'd happened to her since last night. She'd hit Olivia by accident, and Puuchu'd made her into her replacement as a magical girl because of it. And then things had gotten even worse.

The owl shifted as though it knew she was thinking about it-her, Cassie mentally corrected- and stirred, blinking muzzily. Its claws dug painfully deep, tearing another hole in her jacket sleeve and biting into the skin underneath. Cassie found herself biting down on her lip, a pained hiss escaping through her teeth. She was starting to really hate the way Olivia clawed her all the time.

She kept walking.

Olivia hooted faintly, shifting on her perch: Cassie's shoulder. Reflexively, Cassie shrugged, startling Olivia awake and nearly shaking her off.

The owl was still getting used to her new body. She did what came naturally: she dug in, talons tearing through fabric and skin.

"Ah!" Cassie cried out loud, and knocked Olivia off her arm. The owl screeched in surprise and displeasure as she flopped onto the sidewalk in a mess of feathers. "Watch it!" She yelled down at the owl, touching her bleeding shoulder with a wince. "Do I look like a scratching post to you?"

Struggling to get back on her feet, Olivia's answering hoot was short, pained, and needed no translation.

"You...You stupid little FEATHER DUSTER!" Cassie snarled, stepping onto the pavement and advancing on the former magical girl as all the past day and night's stress finally boiled over. Right now, Olivia looked very small. Just a bird. Just a stupid little bird that was the reason she was in this mess. For one, ugly moment, she thought about kicking her like a football.

The moment passed.

"This...i-it's all y-your fault!" She stamped forwards another step. Even as she spoke the words, she knew they weren't true, but it was so easy to blame someone else. Someone who was right there. Forget that she hadn't been watching the road, or worn her seatbelt, or that Puuchu'd been the one to change her...Olivia was right there and she WAS partially to blame, wasn't she?

"If you...If you hadn't been so STUPID, neither of us'd be in this mess!" It felt good to rant. To let it out. "I-I wouldn't be THIS!" She tugged at her torn jacket, glaring down at Olivia. "I'd still be...be me! I can't...I can't even say..." She was blinking a lot. Must be the wind making her eyes water, or not having glasses or something. Had to be. "I c-can't even say my own name..."

Cassandra. Cassie. Sandra. Cass. No problems with the name Puuchu'd given her. She could say other people's just fine. She could try lying. But when she tried saying who she really was...the words just came out wrong. Another little present from Puuchu to go with the rest.

"T-they didn't believe who I was..." she stammered, shaken. Her hands dropped to her sides. She'd been terrified, but she still hadn't expected just how badly they'd take it. Her family hadn't believed her. That wasn't the bad part. What was was how they'd seemed shocked and outraged when she'd finally explained. Part of her was still wondering why. None of this made any sense. The rest of her just wanted to crawl into a ball until all this went away...or right now, yell at someone else she could blame.

"This is all your fault. You know that, right? If you hadn't run out like that, we wouldn't be here." she hissed, anger making her voice go low and cold. Before the change, she'd always ranted when she got angry, but right now, she felt herself- almost calmly- planning out what she was going to tell her. What might hurt Olivia the most. "You're upset about being an owl? Well, whoopdeefuckingdoo. At least your FAMILY didn't just call the cops on you! You deserved what you got." Cassie glared down at the owl.

Olivia didn't screech. She didn't try and claw her. She just sat there, for so long that a small part of Cassie under all the anger was worried that she'd hurt her head somehow. Then, without a sound, she hopped away one step, then another, then took off and was soon out of sight.

Cassie watched her go through blurry eyes. Cars sped by without slowing down. When she was sure Olivia was gone, she collapsed onto the sidewalk and began to sob.

~~~

Olivia was wide awake, and not happy about it. Owls were nocturnal, and so was she now, apparently. That, and she was flying away from the only person she could talk to.

She'd be damned if she went back though.

Why'd she let the rookie get to her like that? Stupid. She was stronger than that. So what if the new girl thought she'd deserved it, or that it was somehow Olivia's fault? Not like her opinion about anything mattered- she could barely swing a bell around, let alone do anything Olivia could have in her shoes and she'd been the one to run HER over in the first place! She hadn't gotten a look at the driver before Puuchu'd gotten to him- she'd been a bit busy dying at the time- but he couldn't have been the sharpest pencil in the box if he'd been that careless, and if Cassie was anything to go by.

If anyone was to blame here, it was Cassie! So what if she'd messed up too, just this once? It was just one mistake. If Cassie didn't like what had happened, that was on her own head.

She told herself that until she almost believed it.

Olivia jerked her head irritably to shake away the brooding thoughts, then had to frantically flap her wings to stay in the air to compensate for the movement. Flying as an owl was different from the brief, controlled pulses of magic she was used to as an air mage. Sure, she could stay in the air for longer, but it was annoying having to follow the laws of physics.

She could feel her heart pulsing in a machine-gun beat under her breastbone, the feeling of flight muscles tensing with her every wingbeat. It felt...not wrong, but definitely strange. She focused on where she was flying instead, and the strangeness went away.

The feeling of wind rushing over her feathers wasn't quite the same as what she was used to, but it helped her calm down. She could deal with this. She'd been through worse. She'd figure something out here too. That thought made it easier to keep flying, as trees, cars, and roads blurred together under her.

~~~

Cassie slumped on the sidewalk, head lowered. Tears trickled down her cheeks. Stupid. Why had she said all that to Olivia? It wasn't even really true. This mess'd been her fault as well- and Puuchu's- and now she was on her own. Inside her, guilt warred with uncertainty and self-pity as she tried to figure out what to do. She'd never find Olivia now, even if she did go after her, but she couldn't just stay here by the road forever.

Cassie eventually managed to stop crying, wiped her eyes on her sleeve, and slowly stumbled back onto her feet. She didn't know where her wallet had gone, or anything else she'd had on her when she'd been changed, so she didn't have any money either. Maybe she could try hitchhiking again or something. She definitely couldn't go home. All she could go was keep going.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been walking when she noticed the theme park sign. The sun was starting to descend as afternoon turned into evening, and the chill was picking up.

"METEOR FALLS ADVENTURE PARK & PICNIC GARDEN" the sign announced, in faded red and yellow letters. Bushes had grown around it, branches and leaves obscuring the lower half. The edges of the sign and the frame were tinged with rust. Cassie stopped to look at it, frowning. Further down the road, there was a ticket booth with a rusty, lowered toll bar...it'd clearly been a while since anyone'd been this way. Abandoned, then. At least it meant she wasn't likely to be disturbed.

She'd never heard of a theme park around here...but right now, she just wanted somewhere to rest. She wasn't physically tired- whatever else Puuchu'd done to her, she felt like she could just keep going forever- but right now, on an empty stomach and after everything else, she just wanted to be able to sit down and pretend things were going to be alright. An old theme park wouldn't have been her first choice...but right now, she wasn't picky. Besides, this felt like the...right thing to do, for reasons she couldn't quite place.

Cassie took a deep breath and walked down the road. She just hoped that there weren't any security guards.

~~~

Sitting on a shaded branch and surrounded by trees, Olivia finally had some time to herself to plan. She didn't like what she was coming up with. She had no hands. She had no access to her magic so she didn't have any way to get back to the City or in touch with her spirit guide. A few of her friends on the other side might miss her enough to come looking...but even if they managed to track her up to the crash, they'd probably think she was dead if they found her body. Hell, technically, she WAS dead. She'd have scowled if she still had the facial muscles for it.

She was really hungry.

Olivia considered her options, shifting on her perch as her mind raced. She could go back. Stake out the car crash-if she could even find it again- and hope someone showed up. She shook her head, orange eyes automatically searching the underbrush even as she dismissed the idea. That felt like giving up...and it was a longshot anyway.

Next option. She could try flying around until she got to a city or something, wait for the inevitable magical disaster and hope another girl showed up that she could hitch a ride with. That sounded even worse. Magical girls weren't always all that common...and she really didn't want to end up trying to get through to a crazy one, or worse.

That left the third option. The one she'd been trying not to think about. She could go after the idiot. Make nice. Show her how to do things long enough for her to get them both to the Overcity. "Cassie" was an idiot, but she could still talk, she had magic, and she had hands. All of which meant she was better off than Olivia right now.

Olivia's brooding was abruptly interrupted. She went completely still as she spotted something rustle, head snapping around and fixing the bush with her eyes. It was too bright, and she couldn't make out much, but she got a sense of fur and beady little eyes, and a frantic, thready heartbeat. A mouse, she thought.

She didn't even realize she'd swooped until she was gliding back around onto the branch, wings beating furiously and something in her beaked mouth. Something that struggled feebly as she reflexively tilted her head back and it went down her throat. It was a strangely warm, comforting taste, like eating a peach with the skin on. She settled back on the branch as it settled comfortably in her stomach. Then realization kicked in.

...What had she just done? Part of her wanted to gag, badly. She'd just eaten a live mouse. Whole. She should be nauseous.

But she wasn't hungry anymore. And she felt warm. Satisfied.

Olivia's talons dug into the branch until it splintered and she let out an angry screech. When she caught up to Puuchu after all this, she decided, she was going to skin him into a fur hat, consequences and back-up bodies be damned. Being nudged to stop monsters was one thing, but eating mice? He was going to bleed for messing with her head like that.

...Even so, that mouse had been pretty tasty.

~~~

Cassie picked her way through the deserted parking lot. Now that she was off the road, things were suddenly quiet, with only her own muffled footsteps and the faint rustling of her outfit breaking the silence. Plastic bags and other debris lay scattered in empty parking spots, crunching underfoot as she passed between faded lane markers. Here and there, lampposts and garbage cans slowly rusted away.

Without anything to distract her, she was suddenly very aware of the small things she'd been too busy to notice before. The braid bouncing against her back. The way the skirt brushed-irritatingly- against her legs as she walked. The sound of her own breathing. How it was just her, walking across an empty parking lot with no real idea what she was hoping to find.

...She wished she wasn't on her own.

'And whose fault is that?' a little voice seemed to whisper to her. Shaking her head, Cassie kept walking, absently tugging at her suddenly too-tight collar.

Up ahead, there were rows of empty stalls and buildings with shuttered windows. Dried leaves and garbage were all over the place, and puddles of standing water had formed where the ground was lower. Trees and bushes had grown wild or died with no one to tend them. Cassie saw empty benches and picnic tables, a row of vending machines, and a merry go-round with flaking paint. The roller coaster loomed over everything else. It had three peaks, lined with support struts. The cherry-red paintjob had flaked away until Cassie wasn't sure where the rust ended and the paint began.

Cassie took in the bleak scene for another, long moment, then shook her head. It was like the people had just gotten up and left one day, and left everything behind. Cassie felt a shiver go up her spine, suddenly feeling like she was being watched. She glanced around nervously, her mind briefly flashing back to the zombies from last night.

A comforting weight dropped into her hand and she wrapped her fingers around it. She looked down. The bell. Her bell. She considered it for a moment, then shook her head. It wasn't going to help here. Probably.

Cassie let it slip from her grasp, and saw it vanish into thin air before it hit the ground. It was magic. She was too, and she still couldn't get her head around that. Or any of the rest, really. Either way, she was more hungry and thirsty than curious right now.

She looked around. There was nothing but the abandoned park.

"Right...Let's get going." She told herself, not quite managing to avoid a wince at the sound of her own voice. Slightly squeaky, and more than a little hoarse right now...and her throat felt like it too. She'd never liked hearing her own voice, even before- but this wasn't hers. Even if she knew it was.

The stalls were shuttered and the door to the gift shop was padlocked, but a quick inspection revealed that the padlock's chains had rusted.

...A little breaking and entering wasn't much after she'd run someone over, Cassie told herself. She got to work. The chain had all but rusted away and broke apart into fragments with a loud crack after a few good whacks from a brick. Cassie tossed the brick away and managed to shove the door open after straining against it for a moment.

Cassie stepped inside, squinting in the gloom as she picked her way along. She tried the light switch, and wasn't surprised when the room stayed dark. The little shop was cluttered with boxes of packed-up merchandise, scattered all over the floor and shelves where they'd been left behind. All of it seemed to be of some kind of furry yellow mascot that reminded her uncomfortably of Puuchu. A row of smug-looking plushies looked back at her with soulless beady eyes. Suddenly very self-conscious, she pushed the hair out of her eyes and kept looking around.

Stacks of hoodies still in their plastic wrap were heaped on the counter and T-shirts dangled from racks. A little spinning stand with key chains and magnets stood in one corner, and bins of trinkets were everywhere in the way there always are in small shops. The cash register on the counter had its drawers open, and was empty. She felt like a thief for even checking...and even more for being slightly disappointed about it.

...There wasn't actually all that much in here. Just box after box of clothes and touristy junk, probably left behind when this place'd closed down. With a sigh, Cassie stepped back outside, feeling even more hopeless.

She took a few steps away, then reconsidered and just slumped bonelessly against the wall, feeling sorry for herself. Head lowered, she looked down at herself, watching her own chest rise and fall with each breath. She snorted humorlessly after a moment, tugging at her jacket. She had cleavage now, thanks to Puuchu. Looking at it wasn't going to change that.

She found herself looking at herself again without thinking. Her hands were smaller and paler than she was used to, and the metal bracelets were cold on her wrists. This whole outfit was just another thing that'd been dumped on her since last night. The bodice and jacket suddenly felt too tight. Restrictive. She felt like she couldn't breathe. She started hyperventilating in short sharp breaths. She had to get this thing off. Right now. She scrambled to her feet, almost tearing at her jacket as she tried to pull it off, unthinkingly.

Something seemed to click inside her, and the jacket simply vanished. So did her bodice, along with the rest of her costume. Cassie didn't know what she'd just done, or how, just that she was now completely naked. And it was a windy day.

"Crap!" Cassie swore. She inadvertently looked down again. "...Well. Congratulations, it's a girl." She muttered unhappily. Looking at herself, she didn't feel like she was looking at a stranger. It felt like her body- and that scared her because it definitely shouldn't have.

It had to have been Puuchu's work. Between that and what she could only think of as a magical gag order for her real name, he must have done something to her head when he'd...changed her. If he'd messed with her name and self, what else could he have done? Cassie didn't know and that scared her.

Right now, though, she was naked. Not what she'd really wanted, and she had no idea how she'd done it. She tried willing the outfit back, or at least some clothes. She felt something build up for a moment- but nothing happened. What'd happened to her actual clothes, the ones she'd had on when she'd crashed? If this was because she was a magical girl now...shouldn't she be able to change back?

She wished Olivia was there right now to explain all this.

On impulse, she tried to say her actual name.

"Ah-" She choked out. "C-Cassie."

That still didn't work. Biting her lip, Cassie ducked back into the gift shop. She really hoped they had pants.

~~~

Olivia was starting to run out of reasons to stay in the forest. She'd kept herself distracted trying to plan, but hadn't come up with anything other than managing to shred several more branches out of pure agitation.

Nothing was going to change that her choices boiled down to trying her luck on her own or finding the idiot, somehow. She just had to decide which one she was going to do. It was that or keep eating mice until the trail went cold and the choice was made for her.

Olivia knew the longer she waited, the worse her chances were going to be. She refused to even consider giving up. One way or another, she was going to fix this and get her body back. Her magic was hers, so was her duty, and she wasn't going to let something as small as being dead stop her from getting both back somehow.

Something rustled nearby.

Olivia flapped her wings once, her talons digging into yet another branch. She leaned forwards slightly to keep her balance.

That was what saved her.

She felt something massive and furry slam into her back, throwing her from the branch with sickening force. She blindly lashed out with her clawed feet as she spun, and was rewarded with a screech of agony. The ground shot up to meet her as she spun head over tail. She barely managed to flap her wings once before she hit the ground, landing dazed on her back.

 A black shadow landed with a muffled thump nearby, looming over her. It was a mangy alley cat, with matted, thin fur streaked with gray. Slitted green eyes stared at her with undisguised hunger. Blood dripped down its muzzle where she'd clawed it.

Right now though, as far as Olivia was concerned, it might as well have been a tiger.

She wasn't going to die here. Not again. Not like this.

Covered in dirt, Olivia struggled to get up, or at least roll over, frantically flapping her wings. She managed to flop onto her belly, talons finding purchase in the mud.  The cat watched her warily, slowly inching closer. It hissed, an angry noise like a kettle boiling over.

"Come on, then!" Olivia yelled at it. The words came out as a screech instead. She shifted, wings already half-spread and not taking her large eyes off the cat. She already knew what she was going to do.

The cat lunged, and Olivia arced upwards. Her talons raked its head and grazed its back as she sped by like a feathered bullet. The cat yowled and kept running, fleeing in blind terror and leaving tufts of fur and blood behind it.

Battered but triumphant, Olivia flapped onto the nearest branch and then the next, heart racing even more than usual as she kept going. Eventually, when she was sure the cat wasn't coming back, she let herself skid to a stop on her current perch. That'd been too close.

She abruptly came to a decision. She was going to find the idiot. She was going to stick to her, whether the new girl liked it or not, and she was going to beat some sense into her if she had to- just so long as she got her to the Overcity and someone who could help fix this. And just like that, she knew which way Cassie was, a magical sense of direction and distance flickering into being like it'd been there all along. Which it might just have been.

At least she wasn't going to get lost.

~~~

Cassie stared grumpily at the plushie, arms folded over her waist. It stared back.

She'd started off by ransacking the shop for clothes, pulling on the first T-shirt she'd found. It was too big for her, hanging on her with the sleeves almost reaching her elbows, but she really wasn't in a mood to care. She'd grabbed a hoodie as well- with all of the packaged hoodies either soft pink or eye-wateringly bright yellow, she'd reluctantly gone with the pink.

Both the shirt and the hoodie were stamped with the face of the same obnoxious mascot as all the other merchandise here. It really did make her think of Puuchu, with the same vacant cutesy smile and the beady eyes. It'd made her seriously consider staying naked for a moment before her common sense had kicked in.

At least she'd found a pair of baggy sweat pants she could wear, as well as a pair of sandals. She'd actually made a small, happy noise when she'd literally stumbled over a forgotten water bottle behind the counter, then gulped it down greedily within a minute, clearing her parched throat. There'd been stale chips and twinkies in the vending machines as well...and several bricks later, she'd managed to fish a few out without getting cut on the broken glass.

 For the first time in the past day or so, she felt like something had gone her way. She had clothes. She had food, of a sort. What she didn't have was a plan. Eventually, she'd gotten bored enough to look through the dimly lit shop again.

The shop didn't have much...but it did have a small army of the Puuchu plushies on display. With nothing better to do, Cassie'd pulled them out one by one and dumped them a half dozen meters away outside, against a stall on the other side of the road. If she couldn't throw rocks at the real thing, the plushies were going to have to do.

She leaned over and picked up one of the rocks at her feet. The plushie she was looking at was twice the size of a teddy bear. She cocked her arm back, took aim, and tossed a rock at it with more force than strictly necessary.

The plushie fell over, the rock hitting it right on the head and tearing off an ear.

"One."

She commented out loud. Out of the blue, she felt a prickle go down her spine, as though someone had walked over her grave. She glanced over her shoulder. No one was there. She shrugged, and tossed a rock at the next plushie, more carelessly. This one hit as well, dead center. Fluff scattered everywhere.

"Two."

The third and fourth rock hit their marks as well. She blinked. She hadn't even been aiming properly that last time.

...Something strange was going on. She was going to need more rocks to find out what what.

A whole pile of rocks and torn plushies later, Cassie found she had to actually try to miss the plushies. Otherwise...when she threw something, it was going to strike home, almost every time. She flexed her wrist, looking at her hand like she'd never seen it before.

She wasn't sure how she felt about that. On the one hand-literally, a small part of her brain noted- she now had magical aimbot powers...on the other, everything else. She was pretty sure she'd still gotten the raw end of that deal, by a lot.

She felt eyes on her back, and spun around. No one was there. Just the same empty stalls and shops that'd been there all along.

"H-Hello?" She called after a moment. "Anyone there?"

No reply. She blinked rapidly, gaze darting around. No lurching zombies emerged to greet her. She swallowed, her brief calm now gone.

The moment stretched on. Eventually, she sighed, looking away from the empty park. There wasn't anyone there, she told herself. It was starting to get dark. She might as well stay here overnight, or at least for a few hours. She could always try and figure something out after getting some sleep. Or at least trying to.

She started to head back towards the gift shop.

Something feathery fluttered down from the darkening sky and landed on top of the nearest stalls. Cassie gaped. It was a fluffy, and very familiar looking barn owl.

"O-Olivia? Is t-that you?" She swallowed nervously, not meeting the owl's gaze.

The owl gave her an equally familiar glare of annoyance.

"You...um...came back..." Cassie mumbled, shamefaced. She quickly changed the subject.

"Was that you earlier? Watching me?"

Olivia looked confused-as much as her body would let her- then shook her head once.

"Then..." Cassie blinked in surprise, just as a panicked scream echoed through the fairground.

Someone was falling from the rollercoaster.