Sky Beak is an athletic outdoorsman seeking to make money out of being a tour guide.
Ocean Flow is the sister to her country's queen, now out on the field and doing work for the Tourism Board.
The married couple meet once more in the small coastal town of Basalt Shores in the wake of magic gone wrong, the whole world having become strange fantasy creatures. With Ocean stuck at the beach and the sea, and with Sky doing double duty by helping the village's population adapt to their new forms, they end up having to work together.
And worst of all, to live with each other.
~~~
This both takes place in the universe of Magical Curiosity and supersedes all other stories in said universe. If there is any conflicting information between this story and other entries, this story takes priority.
This is also an entry to FanOfMostEverything's Ancestral Tribute contest.
Thanks to Venerable Ro for brainstorming, and KorenCZ11 and Casketbase77 for pre-reading.
Lovely examination of a marriage's slow death and improbable revival, along with another fascinating perspective on the shenanigans of this world. Fascinating stuff throughout. Thank you for it and best of luck in the judging.
Re-reading this whole story with fresh eyes, I really appreciate how well its random cocktail of storytelling ideas come together to make such a strong whole.
As I mentioned during pre-reading, the parallel to hurricane relief is a strong foundation. To any reader unfamiliar with your favorite fic premise, a worldwide wave of species swapping magic is earth-shattering. They could be forgiven for feeling that the characters are under-reacting to the disaster, just like a Westerner who has never weathered a tropical storm would be amazed to see the stern determination with which Pacific Islanders manage natural disasters. This fic takes place in Pedestria, the EqG Universe, which has grown accustomed to magical cataclysms. This is their equivalent to a hurricane season, and the Basalt Flow castaways don't waste their energy cursing their low priority status on the worldwide relief list. Sky Beak and his buddies are quick to put paws and hooves on the ground because even though they're affected by the change as much as anyone, they're the only medics available in this little island town.
Sky Beak's pre-broken wings and Ocean Flow's sea-stranded status isolate them even among their fellow polymorphed villagers. Their otherness amid already othered people allows for varied scenes of drama, gaffs, and sentimentality, intercut with flashbacks of their human days to keep the story firmly anchored in earnest realism.
Ocean Flow is an extroverted workaholic. It is fitting that her growth is spurred by isolation in the water and receiving no tangible job updates from her boss other than "you're being placed on paid leave so you can focus on fixing your personal predicament." On a plot level, this is directed at her temporary leglessness. In the overall story though, this is her fraying marriage with Sky Beak.
Speaking of whom, our male lead is established as valuing his physical prowess and lifetime of accolades; He revels in being a social novelty. Naturally, his own humbling in this polymorph plot comes from being a broken-winged horsebird amid other, more physically or magically empowered associates. If Ocean Flow's pivotal moment was her boss giving her the week off, Sky Beak's was witnessing his flight-enabled best friend lift a magically enabled tourist up to take a picture of a mountain that Sky Beak could have easily scaled himself if he still had his human form. A former athlete relegated to a bystander to a failed physical and courageous endeavor. In my interpretation, that's the moment when he really starts to grapple with his physical prowess being sent back to square one by this polymorph. Everyone else is at square one too, of course. But he was farthest ahead before the race was reset with these new rules.
And that mention of racing brings us to the charity marathon. The Act Two low point for our leads. Again, the direct, literal plot comes to a tightly written convergence. Ocean Flow's tourism project needs money. Sky Beak wants to raise morale while waiting for relief efforts. The residents are open to getting accustomed to new bodies that until now have been causing plenty of pratfalls. The marathon even kicks off with one, though the shattering Ocean Flow's life support bubble is handled with far more tension and terror than any preceding scene in what was until now a relatively lighthearted and character-driven fic. Plot aside though, it does bring our twin protagonists to their most vulnerable and frustrated moments: Ocean Flow is a helpless burden and Sky Beak is physically incapable of stopping her suffering. Both of them know they've failed the other, but are too shaken up by the experience to allow it to bring them closer.
The first time I read this story, I felt the ending stretch (that being the extended denouement after Ocean Flow is counseled and re-leg-ified by her Equestrian counterpart), was a bit too long and slow paced. This re-read made me retract that concern, since our leads (and by extension, their marriage) was strained to breaking point by the events of this story. And as the increasingly stark flashbacks demonstrate, there was decay setting in far earlier than the opening sentence of chapter one.
In short, you were set on having our leads reconcile by the end, but you knew that both of them needed long periods apart to heal and reinvigorate before you delivered that payoff. And deliver you did.
If I were to don my English Degree cap and produce a pithy thematic summary of this fic, I'd say the lesson taught by Yellow Light Waves is this: What was once thought immutable can in fact be changed. And what was once thought unsalvageable can in fact be remade. Our leads are permanently polymorphed by the end of this fic. Both literally and symbolically, they are not and never will again be the same people they were before this eventful week spent in Basalt Flow. And yet, like a blinded person developing better hearing, the loss of their human bodies eventually recharged their long neglected human connection. The ending scene is the culmination of that, as they fly on wings they wouldn't have received if not for this adventure they were forced into. Then they kiss with a love that wouldn't have been renewed if they were permitted to stay stagnant and human.
Friendship may be magic, but love is transcendent.
An oddball ghost happened across your fic and read it. Have a review!