Owner	Pose
Nerina Rosso	It's hours before the living sun finds her way back to her apartment. Hours of darkness, distant road noise, and solitude, but eventually there's a loud clatter from the kitchen and a familiar voice shouts, "I'm back!" It might sound weird to hear from the outside; it still sounds weird to say it.     Cracking open the bedroom door, the beam of a flashlight paints the back wall of the room as 'Buttercup' pokes her head in. "Are you still here?"
Buttercup	The gangly, dark-eyed man is still there, for sure, having sated his curiosity and, in a gentle sway of post-curiosity endorphins, drifted to sleep. He's slightly curled up, the bones in his back and ribs showing clearly between the midriff tee he's still wearing and the shorts he'd changed into afterward. His head is half-buried beneath a pillow, and ribs are shifting slowly with the rise and fall of the sluggish sleep-breath. "Hmmh?" it's a sleepy noise, but not a negative one, as the only-too-familiar voice draws him from sleep.
Nerina Rosso	"Good," Nerina murmurs as she steps inside and sets down a guitar case. Contrary to her words, she's dressed herself up in her former outfit, but it only lasts briefly as the sun bearer kicks off her boots and strips back down to bare skin.     The transplanted naiad lets out a breath as a soft glow fills the room. "This sun pressure is annoying," she gripes, relaxing just a little. Crouching down and rummaging through the pile of discarded clothes, Nerina stands back up and walks over to the edge of the bed.     "Here, eat this," she instructs, opening her palm to Buttercup. Inside is a small lock of blonde hair.
Buttercup	Buttercup keeps his eyes closed, turning his head and able to see the light glowing red from behind the membranes of his eyelids, reaching out blindly with both arms toward it and feeling the softness and warmth of his former shape, pawing softly until he finds the offering, one which makes him quirk up a brow and squint open with one eye, "Hair?" the voice is sort of creaky with sleep. He takes a moment to consider the morsel, feeling out whether this form has a natural yen toward hair-eating that his transplanted mind is missing.
Nerina Rosso	There's no butter affinity to be felt with the sample and no special nudge of buried instincts. To all the world it's just a tiny bundle of hair... how appetizing.          "Yes," Nerina affirms as she leans back slightly and tenses, trying to turn down her natural glow. "Eat."
Buttercup	First blood, now hair. "You're weird," Buttercup half-moans, sniffing the hair once to see whether it's at least clean. When the light dims, the other eye opens, and he wrinkles up hisnose a little bit, opening his mouth and putting the lock on his tongue, trying not to gag.
Nerina Rosso	"Would you like to be stuck like that instead?" Nerina snaps, frowning in time with another pulse of light. "Just hurry and swallow it already, you'll feel better."          Turning back to her pile, the bearer fishes out a hip flask and offers it. "Wash it down with this."
Buttercup	Buttercup looks like he might be about to lose his cookies entirely, but he sits up, taking the flask and tipping it back to wash down the hair before the hair can wash up all over his bedsheets which he needlessly clutches with his other hand. "OK-- what's that-- what's that going to do?" he hiccups.
Nerina Rosso	The liquid down the shapeshifter's gullet is a sweet and fruity reprieve, the sort of light, sugary flavor of cheap fruit punch, but as it too washes down there's a mild, almost coppery after-taste.     "Help," Nerina answers tersely as she folds her arms and waits with Asgardian muscles still locked in a state of half-tension.     A few seconds later, there's a disorienting sudden awareness of every inch of skin, hair, and sinew as all of it begins to change back towards the naiad's smaller, feminine norm.
Buttercup	Buttercup had just sort of gotten used to this gangly monstrosity of a form. The aftertaste of the fruit punch melds into the oddity of the shifting form, and he-- she-- curls her legs back in against herself, hugging them as if to try to keep herself all in one piece. But at the very least she's not so horrifically bony anymore. An the weird genderish feelings are gone, leaviing her back to her female norm, or close thereto. Once it's all over, she spreads back out over the bed. "What is all of this?" she huffs quietly in the wake of the shift.
Nerina Rosso	"Something you are never going to tell anyone, si?" Nerina commands as she takes back the flask and her expression lifts just slightly to see her old body again. Her resting frown is gone at least.
Buttercup	"I--" Puddlecup rolls her head about to look up at her old self with a sigh, "I'll have to tell someone. Several someones, probably. If you're going to be doing my job from here on out they'll need to look after you," she sounds more concerned for the new keeper than anything else, but there's a little bit of longing there in her voice as she lifts up a finger to boop the keeper's adorable little button nose.
Nerina Rosso	Nerina frowns again and her hand leaps up to snatch the naiad firmly by her thin wrist. "You will tell no one what your body just did or I will turn you into steam. Capisci, tu piccolo idiota?"
Buttercup	Oh dear Sunna, that Keeper grip is strong. Puddlecup arcs from the bed, "Stop it! Why are you being like this? You don't want people to know you're a shapeshifter? Well, no worries," she grunts, trying to wiggle away, "You're not one anymore."
Nerina Rosso	Nerina holds fast and glares at the naiad for a moment more before letting go and turning to stalk across the room. A glow begins to rise again as the bearer paces to quell her temper.          "Would you like me to shout to the world that this body holds enough fire to destroy it?" she shoots back. "Maybe I should get on the news to tell all my friends at once, no? I am sure *nothing* bad would happen to me, or you, or this planet from that..." the sun bearer pauses to let the parallel sink in before adding in slow, carefully enunciated English, "Now you are going to swear to any power you believe in that you will tell no one what that body can do. Do. You. Understand."
Buttercup	Buttercup falls backward and winces, holding her arm before turning her head to watch Nerina stalk away. "If the world hasn't already figued it out from your behavior at Oktoberfest-- I think you won't have anything to gain from all of that coming known. But, you know, if there are people out there who care for you, who know you and would miss you, who you might want to talk to about what you're going through, I couldn't tell you-- don't go to them, don't say anything to them." She sits up and crosses her legs.
Nerina Rosso	At the mention of loved ones, the Asgardian turns back around and smirks grimly. "Hmph. That's no problem at all; there is no one. The only people who know of me, you do not want to meet."
Buttercup	"Well-- the people who know of me-- those are the people you have to meet." Puddlecup's voice is firm on this point. "They have to know what happened to the sunstuff, and I'd like them to know what happened to me, too. It's not like they're going to tell anyone, any more than they told anyone about me when I was me." She rests her hands on her knees and takes deep, centering breath, straightening her back.
Nerina Rosso	"Okay," Nerina accepts dismissively with a flippant wave of her hand. "Tell them you're stuck in that body. Tell them you can turn into water if you must... but tell them anything more and I let out enough of this sun to kill you, them..."          The new bearer clenches her raised hand and inspects it while diverting her focus inward to restrain the pressure inside once more. What glow had been leaking from the Asgardian again fades away once more.          "This is a very nice body," the former naiad compliments non-sequitur as she lapses into admiring herself.
Buttercup	Buttercup is quiet and calm despite the threat. Millenia of near invulnerability will do that to you. "That's not what it's for," she instructs gently. "You shouldn't misuse it. It was a gift from Sunna. And one she can just as easily take away if she thinks you can't manage it. You're going to have to learn to be a proper sun-bearer if you want to keep it," she warns. "But tomorrow we'll go talk to Thor. We'll get you the help you need. You're going to be fine, alright?" She tips a smile at the compliment, "Thanks," she quite near chirps. "This one is... hm. Odd. Do... Do I have to eat hair all the time to keep from... whatever that was?" 'Cause that was gross.
Nerina Rosso	Nerina glances back up, pulled from her new hobby. "Yes," she answers simply. "Or drink. I will show you how to refill the flask tomorrow."
Buttercup	"Alright," Buttercup agrees. If this is life, what else can she do but figure out how to live it? "Oh. You'll probably want to call my boss and tell him I'm not coming in tonight. Or... I dunno, tomorrow. Tell him I'm sick or something."
Nerina Rosso	Nerina quirks her brow strangely, but nods after a moment's thought. "Later, later."
Buttercup	"I mean, it's not the best job, but it pays the r--" "--ent," comes the end of the word from the sun-bearer's own mouth, along with a blast of heat before she instinctively clamps back down, dimming the light easily to all but nothing, the lantern going out in the room as Buttercup claps her hands over her mouth in surprise, utter surprise to be back to herself, and just like that.
Nerina Rosso	Nerina meanwhile falls to her side on the bed and shrieks with a start at the sudden wave of heat, blessedly brief. The naiad is wide-eyed as she looks across the dim room at her naked self, then back down at her... oh. The nymph huffs. "That ended fast..."
Buttercup	"Oh, praise Sunna," Buttercup lets out a breath, then, marking Nerina's distress over the switchback, "I'm sorry," she grimaces, treading closer and sitting gingerly on the edge of the bed near the naiad. "Why don't I make you some dinner?" she asks. She knows Nerina is hungry. She hadn't done anything to fix the problem due to sheer anxiety over the situation.
Nerina Rosso	Nerina pushes herself back up to sitting and grumbles under her voice before turning her attention back to the true sun bearer. "Will there be ingredienti other than butter?" she asks sceptically.
Buttercup	"Of course! I'll, um--" Buttercup hesitates, not really knowing what's in her fridge but butter right now. "Why don't we order a pizza or two just in case?" she offers. "I'm starving, too," despite having eaten about a stick and a half of butter like two hours ago. She edges gently closer, reaching out for Nerina with a warm but not inhumanly warm hand to rest on her shoulder. "If we find something in the frige to cook up we can have it for appetizers. I'm gonna call work and then the pizza place. What do you like on yours?"
Nerina Rosso	Nerina looks sidelong at the naked Asgardian and leans away to avoid the hand. The naiad's own experience with the sun bearer may have made her skittish. "Hot peppers," she answers. "After that anything else."
Buttercup	Buttercup doesn't press the touch, but swings her legs down from bed and pats across the creaky wooden floorslats to her closet, dragging out a t-shirt jersey robe that hits right to the top of her thighs, then leans down to grab her phone from where it's charging on the floor and dial up pizza. One with hot peppers and sausage, the other with... hot peppers and sausage, because that actually sounds really good. Both with extra cheese, too, and a stuffed crust. She ambles around in the kitchen while making the call, and finds a package of bacon in her fridge, so she holds the phone to her shoulder with an awkward crick of her neck and starts laying out some rashers. Also there are bagels, so she slides four halves into the toaster oven.
Nerina Rosso	Nerina dwells on the bed and tugs a bit awkwardly at the crop top, trying to fit the oversized garment better to her smaller frame. The naiad takes the idle time to look herself over anew. Scrawny limbs, small, a seemingly endless river of hair, and the oppressive malaise of self-deprivation. She sighs and reaches for her gold locket, fastening it back around her neck before plucking a few hairs from her head and tieing them into a new bundle for safe keeping.
Buttercup	Soon enough there's a sizzle of pig fat in the kitchen-- and like thunder rolling in after the lighting comes the smell of cooking bacon, and the cheery sound of a solar maiden singing -- some sort of homesy folk song. "Krummi svaf i kletta gjl, kaldri vetrar nottu a," she chimes, while taking out a plate for bacon and a plate for bagels, and a roll of fancy honey-chive butter she'd found at Whole Foods and was waiting for a special occasion to have.
Nerina Rosso	The nymph's ears perk at the singing as she turns to dressing in warmer clothes, exchanging the Asgardian's loose garments for her hoodie and sweatpants. This time she doesn't bother tucking away her hair and the fine blonde strands are left to sit as they may down her back and legs. Nerina wanders out of the bedroom tapping a flute against her shoulder in time with the maiden's song and smiling in quiet expectation as her nostrils are filled with the kitchen's hearty aromas. "You have real food after all," she teases.
Buttercup	Buttercup shifts periodically between singing and humming, that way that a person does when half-distracted and not really performing-- or maybe having forgotten some of the lyrics. She's tonging golden-toasted bagels onto one of the plates she'd pulled out when Nerina emerges. "Hey, now," she grins, "Butter is the reallest food. But the rest is pretty good, too. Bacon? Mm." She's almost salivating, herself, as she lays out the log of fancy butter in the middle of the bagels like it was some fancy serving platter. A couple of butter knives are scooped from a drawer and she hands both plate and knives off to Nerina while she goes back to tend to turning the bacon. "Pizza will be about half an hour."
Nerina Rosso	Despite her earlier reticence, the naiad pulls herself up into a chair and takes the offered plate promptly. She's willing to bury a hatchet for food. Smearing a tab of butter across one piece, Nerina takes a hearty bite and chews it through. "I think you eat a lot more than me. I may need time to finish this all," she considers.
Buttercup	"Take your time, bacon might get cold, but I can always pop it in the toaster oven for a little bit if it does," Buttercup smiles. It //is// kind of a lot of food for two people. "Or you can crumble it onto the pizza when it gets here. I just ordered hot pepper and sausage. Two pies, so feel free to swat my hand if I try to wheedle a piece from yours," she giggles. "You know, I would never have wanted to meet someone this way, but I'm glad we got thrown together like we did. You need to eat more. If you want, you can always come here and I will feed you."
Nerina Rosso	Nerina continues to eat as she listens and glances up again between bites. "Then don't be surprised if I show up at your door senza preavviso." "Some of us are not so lucky to have great bodies," the naiad murmurs afterwards, more to herself than Buttercup.
Buttercup	"That's OK. I know you can get in if I'm not home," Buttercup winks playfully. "Help yourself to, y'know, whatever. I'll try to keep 'real' food stocked." She's pulling rashers of bacon out of the pan and onto a plate, not even using a paper towel to soak up the grease. The grease is the best part. "Do you-- well, do you have a place to stay?" she wonders, somewhat bluntly. "I have a couch, y'know. It's not much, but it's yours if you want it."
Nerina Rosso	Nerina pinches a piece of the fresh bacon between two halves of her bagel and nibbles a hot, greasy end almost as quickly as it's set onto her plate. Yes, she likes bacon too. "Grazie," she murmurs with mouth half-full. Pausing to swallow, the naiad pulls a familiar flask from her pants and sips it to wash down her food. "I may use it some nights," she answers vaguely.
Buttercup	"Good!" Buttercup is only too glad the naiad is accepting help. She doesn't bother putting together a sandwich, just leans tableside and crunches through a rasher of bacon, then uses a butterknife to smear a big slab of fancy butter on top of another hot rasher, letting it soften atop the bacon and then using the bacon as a crunchy, tasty butterspoon. "Mmgh," her eyes roll back in a moment of sheer butterbliss, the sort which Nerina has personal experience with at this point. "D'y'ave a job r annyfing?" she wonders, reaching with her off hand for another piece of bacon. It's a double-fisting bacon type of night.
Nerina Rosso	Nerina's own pace of eating slows as she watches the bacon buttercide being inflicted in the kitchen and the naiad quietly starts favoring her bagel over the richer fare. "Fishing," she replies simply, "And performing."
Buttercup	Buttercup injests pure caloric intake, yes. But she's fueling a sun-fire, here, so beg your pardon for the grotesque combinations of oily substances. She gets through another four or five piees of bacon before she just cuts a few inches off of the end of the butter log and just-- eats it like an apple. "Oh, you fish? That's fun," she goes on, greasy-lipped. "Is there good fishing here in the winter? Do you go cut through the ice?"
Nerina Rosso	"It's very cold, but no. Out in the ocean are tuna and other good fish," Nerina explains as she alternates food and drink, emptying her plate a few bites at a time. "It's hard to get warm after, so mostly in winter I perform."
Buttercup	"Do you go out on a boat?" Buttercup wonders. It's got to be hard to fish for ocean fare from shore. Or maybe it isn't? "Where do you perform? I'll have to come see you, sometime," she beams, a rosy golden glow manifesting at the base of her throat, perfectly suffusing the apartment with the coziest, gentlest sort of loving warmth. "Or we can go fishing together. I can keep you warm," she smiles, then crunches into another piece of bacon. "Do you want any more bacon? I don't want to finish it beore you can get what you need," she tries to slow herself a little bit.
Nerina Rosso	"Two pieces is enough," Nerina replies, letting Buttercup do what she pleases with the rest. The naiad chuckles quietly at the offer. "Maybe you could. I swim to the ocean," she corrects as the hand holding her bagel dissolves into a glistening mass of crystal clear water before reforming itself. "I have ways to stay warm for a short time in water, but afterwards, it's hard to warm back up." As for the performances... the naiad seems slightly more interested in finishing her bagel.
Buttercup	"Oh, gosh. I wasn't even thinking. Of course! You could just-- be there in the water and wait for them to swim straight into your tummy," Buttercup had been thinking invariably like a solid when it comes to the matter of fishing, and now perhaps going too far in imagining the ways a puddle could fish. She's not shy in finishing up the other ten piees of bacon once she's given leave to, and she slaps most of the rest of the butter onto a half of a bagel, but then-- with much discipline, she leaves the end of the log in case Nerina wants any on the rest of her bagel. "I work down at Port-Lee's Road Stop near Port Newark," she offers up, since they're sharing. "It's fine. It's like... really laid back, so if I have to call out it's not like I'm going to lose my job or something."
Nerina Rosso	Nerina nods as she finishes her first bagel and turns to the bacon, washing its grease down with plenty more from her flask. "Buona. I've seen that but never ate there. How is the food? Cheap?"
Buttercup	"It's a buffet, so, yeah, cheap, if you eat as much as I do. You gotta learn to heap up your plate, or just stay there all night and get two meals in for it," Buttercup giggles. "And honestly the rest of it I would rather leave there than eat, but-- do you like macaroni and cheese? I swear to everything, if there's better macaroni and cheese in the universe I've never had it, at least." She munches into a butterbagel.
Nerina Rosso	"It's not my favorite, but if it's that good I can try it," Nerina offers as she cleans off her plate, minus the second bagel, still left whole and unmolested. The naiad sighs heavily as she leans back in her seat and sips some more water.
Buttercup	"And you can get a to-go bin of it with your buffet dinner, so if you heap it full there's another meal right there," Buttercup finishes her half-bagel and leans to her side, herself, eyeing the leftovers, but politely leaving them for Nerina if she decides she wants any more. "I'd skip the wings entirely, though. They're, uh-- not great."
Nerina Rosso	Nerina doesn't make any action towards or away from her plate. She might be saving it for later. "Ah, buono, buono, and if you're working I can follow you home."