AD-Hoc Tails - Delia and Gillian

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Twelve Hours Later

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Twelve hours and a whirlwind of introductions, facility tour and way too much paperwork later, Delia shows Gillian back to the room now in the Satyr's name. "...aaand we're back here. Don't worry if you feel lost in all these hallways at first. I sure did. And now I sweep them." She pauses, then smiles: "But I hope your tomorrow feels brighter now than it did in the morning."

Gillian sighs just a bit, but it's more out of tiredness than sadness or the despair she felt just this morning. "It... it's already brighter. Everyone was so kind, and most of all you. I... I don't know if it feels like 'home', but it feels like a new hope."

Delia smiles, then motions at the keys in Gillian's hands: "Well, if not a permanent home, at least a safe haven for now. As you heard many times today, where you go from here - or when - is up to you." The corgi does not quite dare to admit she would very much miss the satyr were she vanished by morning, though.

Gillian smiles, clutching the keys closely. "I... I don't know if I have a home anymore. Or at least, not one that I want to go back to tomorrow... not after everything you and everyone else have said to me." She swallows. "I wasn't... I wasn't abused, l-like, I wasn't hurt by the people who raised me. I used to feel like part of their family, even... but not anymore."

Delia looks at Gillian as she talks, then just nods: "I think I know that feeling. Even if it wasn't all bad, there's just no going back." She motions at the door: "Come on, let's see your room."

Gillian nods, lowering her hand to set the key into the door and open the way to her room.

Delia allows Gillian to go first, and the room is definitely qualified as 'not much', but it is something the Satyr can at least call her place for now.

Gillian steps inside, glancing around the room. It's essentially what might be considered a decent hotel room, one large room with a bed, a separate room with a shower and bathroom. With a brief psyche profile that was part of her registration, Gillian was labeled as a 'low risk', and as such, her room also has a small kitchenette with fridge and stove, a fact that seems to delight the Satyr instantly. "Oh wow... it's so nice!"

Delia can't help but smile at the faun's reaction: "It's pretty small, but has all the basic stuff you're likely going to need." She looks about the room, noting to her own amusement that it's not actually been that long since she dusted this particular unused room.

Gillian walks over and examines the kitchenette, running a hand over it with a smile. "It's more than I'm used to. I'm... a bit excited to try and cook something for myself. That probably sounds a bit silly."

Delia follows Gillian's motions: "Not... not all that silly."

Gillian opens a few drawers to examine the contents. She turns back to Delia with the widest smile she's had all day. "I... I love to cook. I just... don't get to do it that often. Not the way I like to do it anyways. Oh! Maybe I can cook you something as thank you for being my guide today!"

Delia blinks: "I... huh. I mean, if you want to? I wouldn't want to waste your time on my beh... alf." She pauses as she realizes the words she just used, then just softly sighs. "You got me."

Gillian giggles, as if only just now realizing the implications of it all, "Exactly... c-cause it's my time to waste. I've never had that before."

Delia laughs a bit: "W-well, then I best not stop you."

Gillian smiles at Delia, "Well, only if you're okay with it! I wouldn't... I wouldn't want to force you. It won't be anything special, I can't afford much, but... It's something I can do. And I can do it for you, because I want to."

Delia shrugs with a smile: "Fair enough. Guessing we need to head downstairs to that corner shop so you can grab some basics, whatever you have in mind."

Gillian nods, "Of course, but we can do that whenever, or I can do that tomorrow before... err... that is, if you're okay coming back? I know it's kinda late already, and I've... I've had a long day... so I was kind of hoping you could come back for a meal?" The faun's voice is full of some kind of hope she can't quite express, or is just far too awkward to say aloud.

Delia smiles: "I'd be happy to. You probably have a full day tomorrow if you're at all interested in all the introduction stuff, but well, I'm definitely around." She lets out a bit of a soft sigh that turns into a yawn: "But you're not wrong about today. We can continue tomorrow." She mentally questions herself as to why she's taking this faun as such a personal project, but shoos those thoughts away. It's just something she wants, needs, desires to do and that's that, dumb back of brain.

Gillian nods, "Lei said she'd upload a schedule for me... and I want to attend as much as I can. But I also want to make sure... we um... k-keep in touch, you know?"

Delia nods as she mulls this in her head: "...yes. Of course I want to see you - see how you are doing, tomorrow, too." Where did that slip come from, you silly woof?

Gillian grins widely, closing the drawer she'd been awkwardly examining in between glances at Delia. "Thank you, Delia. For... for everything today."

Delia smiles as she recovers from her brief self-berate: "It was the least I could do. Once upon a time, I needed a helping hand, so I am just paying it forward when I can." Helps that the faun has a pretty cute... tail, though.

Gillian bows her head, giving Delia a curtsey in her slightly ragged maid uniform. "It was far from the least you could have done. And I... I needed a friendly face and a guiding hand today. She steps towards the werecorgi and opens her arms up as if to give her a hug, but hesitates in the moment. "I err... y-yeah." She proceeds to hug Delia tight.

Delia pauses at the hug, but then returns it, hugging slightly upwards as she does. "Y-yeah. We um... well yeah, today happened. Let's continue tomorrow so it's not just today that happens."

Gillian bends down a bit before she releases the hug and stands back up, blushing lightly as she glances away, a small smile still on her face. Maybe she shouldn't feel quite so attached to someone she just met today, but... "Yeah... here's to tomorrow!"

Delia can't exactly stop the blushing smile on her face either: "Tomorrow. It's a day for sure." She finally gathers herself and gives Gillian a nod: "I will leave you to get all home-y up here. But I am sure our paths will cross pretty soon."

Gillian gives a wave as Delia heads back to the door, "I'm sure it will! Take care!"

Delia gives a wave and wanders out. Once well out of earshot of the hallway, she gives herself a light smack on the forehead for all the exceedingly dumb things she muttered up there, then just starts making her way home. More work tomorrow, and she's very much tired.

Gillian stares at the door for awhile once Delia has closed it... thinking over everything she'd learned today. Before she can turn back to truly consider her new room, she first has to shake the thoughts of that corgi out of her mind... and she's not really sure she wants to. But... she's looking forward to tomorrow, for the first time in a long time.

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The Next Day - Evening

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Delia makes her way towards Gillian's room, at a time when she's done her duties for the day (and the leftovers from the previous day), and is reasonably sure the Satyr is also done with her day. The Corgi is dressed in simple shorts and shirt, fairly casual, just not as dust-and-grimed as her work overalls. She finds herself actually kind of excited for this evening, it has been a fun change of pace to talk with Gillian about this all (and slightly overselling AD-HOC while at it, but hey, she can admit to being biased).

Most people really don't talk with the Corgi all that much, but she admittedly likes to keep it that way. The AI's especially are... exhausting, since they rarely understand the concept of being tired, let alone being tired and not wanting to discuss much of anything. So Delia keeps a bit of a surly facade just to be able to get on with her day without small talk.

Gillian though, Delia feels is more on the same kind of wavelenght. Quiet, yet very friendly and she feels there's more to her once she dares to open up a bit. Some part of Delia is unsure why she especially would be the one to help the Satyr open up, but it just feels right to keep trying. With that in mind, and her smelling just a hint of something good cooking... she knocks on the door.

Gillian has started to take the first steps to make her time at AD-HOC into a routine. She does very well for herself when she feels like there's a routine, though she's markedly shy around others, doesn't raise her voice much. She's rather meek, something the volunteers helping her today gently probed, but it's not something Gillian felt comfortable talking about, other then to assure the AD-HOC workers that no abuse occurred.

Still, she's a fast learner, and did well with the baseline exams to see what kind of education might be available to her through the facility. A bit of talk with a counselor as well, though she was rather quiet there, still unsure what kind of future she wants, let alone will be able to reach for.

But she did manage to gather a bit of ingredients together from the tiny shop set-up in one corner of the facility to help encourage residents to learn some life skills and take care of themselves. Today's been a lot, but part of her has been looking forward to getting a chance to cook for herself... and for someone else as well.

She rather eagerly prances to the door on her hooves, opening it a little too quickly, quite excited at this particular bit of company, "Delia! You came! Please, come in! Come in!"

Delia blinks at the sudden door opening, then smiles brightly: "I did say I would, aye?" She looks the Satyr over, appreciating her with her eyes for maybe just a second too long before snapping back to the conversation: "So, how was your first day? Good I guess, considering?"

Gillian is dressed in a simple black skirt and a conservative light blue top, nothing special, just some donated clothing to replace her maid dress, which is laid out nearby. It was rather dirty after she'd come in off the street, and as awkward as she feels not wearing it, she needed to change until she could get it mended and cleaned up. "Good. A better day than I'd had in a long time, at least."

Delia smiles as she enters the room, tail wagging in excitement: "Always good, to be able to say that." She turns to Gillian: "You certainly look more relaxed, now."

Gillian nods, watching Delia walk in with a smile before she turns back to check the oven before she can give Delia her full attention. "T-trying to be at least. Trying not to think about some things, and having a plan to follow certainly gives me plenty to do. So, having a schedule helps me stay together and on track. I... I don't do well without some kind of schedule..."

Delia shrugs with a warm smile: "I can see that. Sometimes it's easier to have structure in your life like that." She then gives Gillian a look: "And yeah, having other stuff to think about as well. You can take your time now."

Gillian bows to Delia somewhat formally, "That's... it's a weird feeling, yeah. Everyone was so kind today, and so helpful... I just didn't know where to begin." She checks her timer and smiles, posing a little stiffly in a well rehearsed fashion, "And dinner will be ready soon, I do hope it's to your liking."

Delia's smile wanes the tiniest of fractions at the stiffness, but lets it slide. "And don't worry about it, I'm sure it's great. Certainly smells pretty divine." She tries to relax herself, and only half succeeds, leaning on the wall, misjudging the distance and flailing for a second, then grinning with a blush.

Gillian gasps, starting to rush forward to try and help Delia before the canine rights herself, after which she pauses, awkwardly standing close, but not quite too close, and now completely unsure how to deal with this situation. She's very used to playing the role of maid, other social situations are beyond her. "Ah! Are you alright? Gosh um, oh... I... um... y-yes?"

Delia laughs awkwardly as she gathers herself: "Eh huh yeah. I'm fine, just mistepped... misjudged. Failed at the... Thing. What were we talking about?"

Gillian scratches at her head, rubbing a hand down a horn, slightly flustered, "Err... not... not much? I just... dinner and um... what... do you want to talk about? I'm not so good at this, and dinner has to finish cooking... I um... sorry, my timing wasn't great on it."

Delia giggles awkwardly: "We um... We did yeah. Dinner. But we could like... Sheesh, this is hard, isn't it?" Some psych major. This shouldn't be hard.

Gillian chuckles awkwardly, "Oh um... yeah... it kind of is? I don't... I mean, I've been trained to host guests to the manor and all... you're... you're like my guest, right?"

Delia smiles warmly: "Only in the literal sense that I am right here, as sort of your guest. No pressure though, I'm easy to impress." Her tails wags as though to prove her point.

Gillian smiles, glancing around the room. There's two older styled chairs, a bit out of fashion, and then the bed of course. Her maid dress is spread out on the small office table in the corner. "Um... you can take a seat wherever you please, of course. Please, make yourself at home! Anything you need? Um, water? Juice? I oh... I didn't really stock anything... I d-didn't think about drinks... it might just be water."

Delia blinks, then shuffles her way to one of the old style chairs: "Oh. Yeah. No worries. You, uh, just came here a-and it's fine. And stuff." She sits down, feeling... well, feeling, and unsure how to deal with this right now.

Gillian frowns slightly, and starts fiddling with her hands. "Oh um... okay." She pauses, letting the awkwardness hang a moment as she stands there, blushing slightly as she watches Delia, still uncertain what to do.

Delia lets the awkward hang in the room like a third guest for a moment, before she forces continuation, tapping the seat next to her: "It's your home too. Please, join me."

Gillian nearly jumps, startled back into the moment by Delia's request. But as she processes the words, she clops her hooves over to the chair and slowly lowers herself down, careful of her skirt. She laughs again, still blushing, "Never um... never gotten to sit down like this when guests were over... g-guess this is sorta what it feels like to be on my own, hm?"

Delia smiles: "Probably. No one to bow at... definitely not me." She hums, leaning back: "I guess I don't know what situation you came from, but I can guess you never had much time for you."

Gillian shakes her head, pursing her lips. "I... I guess I didn't say much about it before... do you... want to hear about me? W-where I came from?"

Delia smiles warmly and lowers her voice a bit: "Only if you want to open up about it. It's not always easy."

Gillian takes a a deep breath and nods. "I just... don't want you to think less of me, that's all. I... it's pretty foolish, when I think back, why I'm here and all. S-sometimes I question if they weren't right. But if you want to listen... I'll..." She swallows and looks up at Delia. The canine has done nothing but help her. She absolutely does not want to face some kind of judgement from her, but something tells her that that won't be the case. " I'd like you to know."

Delia smiles wryly: "I was quite the idiot when all this started, but that's a story for another time. Please, if you don't mind." She shrugs: "I admit I'm curious."

Gillian blinks at Delia, tilting her head slightly, but then she sighs and laughs, "W-well... I was adopted, um, sorta. I don't really know the circumstances, just that... it was a rather influential family, and they took me in when I was so young I can't even remember. They raised me as part of the family, gave me a home, clothing, a purpose. I got to be their maid, and I was grateful to them." She frowns, knowing how this seems to paint her in a rather selfish light. "I just... I wish that sometimes... they... I don't... I don't want to speak ill of them, afterall, but sometimes... I didn't feel... ah... appreciated?" The last word is practically a squeak, so quiet and embarrassed that she should even desire such a thing, she could practically sink into the chair and disappear in shame.

Delia listens, and her ears droop as she does. "Oh... oh. You uh..." She can't stop herself from wincing: "That's... that's awful. Disgusting."

Gillian starts, hands clinging at the sides of her chairs, "W-what? No! It... they were good to me! A-and I was... I... I know I wasn't a very good maid, b-but they were kind! They were... they... they... I mean... I... I shouldn't have said anything."

Delia looks at Gillian disbelievingly: "They adopted you to be their indentured servant." She takes a breath: "Even if they were the nicest people in the world - and I'll take your word for it - it's still incredibly wrong."

Gillian sighs, hanging her head a bit, "I... m-maybe..." She takes another breath, squirming a bit uncomfortably, "I... should have stayed... b-but... I just... the Lord's son, I was serving him, and just... I couldn't... I couldn't take it anymore." She's growing quite upset, tearing up as she talks, but she pushes through, wanting Delia to understand. "He was... he just said things, and... it made me feel like... nothing. I... ran. I ran in full uniform and everything! I just ran... until I saw a flyer for this place."

Delia looks at Gillian, her anger fading just as quickly as it started to rise. She gets up, and with no real hesitation anymore, leans over to hug the Satyr tightly.

Gillian stiffens slightly, but then leans into the hug and sighs ,"I'm sorry..."

Delia: "Don't be. No one deserves to go through that. No one." She gives one more squeeze, then lets go and looks Gillian in the eyes for a second, before moving back to her own chair, realizing she overstepped.

Gillian does seem a bit reluctant to let go of the hug, but slowly recovers, wiping the tears from her face with a faint smile at Delia. "T-thank you. I know it's not... it's not the worst thing. I just... I don't know. I thought, maybe... I could do something for... for me. D-don't even know if I'm good enough to do much, but... I want to try? J-just to see for myself."

Delia smiles weakly: "Everyone deserves to live for themselves." As she sits down to her own seat, she offers her hand to Gillian: "And that means you as well."

Gillian pauses, watching Delia open her hand towards her. She smiles softly, reaching out to take that hand and squeeze. "Appreciate that thought... I hope to make it work... make something work at least."

Delia squeezes Gillian's hand, then sniffs the air with a smile: "If nothing else, dinner. As said, it smells divine."

Gillian laughs, "It's simple... just a pasta bake. Like... a very simple one, b-but I didn't have much time after all the activities today, so I hope it'll be okay."

Delia glances towards the oven: "It also smells ready, but you'll be the judge of that."

No sooner does Delia finish her sentence than the timer dings, and Gillian releases the corgi's paw to quickly head to the kitchen, "Oh! You're right! Let me get that out and ready to serve! I've got bread as well, but it's just a pre-made bit of garlic bread! You should see what I can do with time and the right ingredients, trust me! If you enjoy this, then a true meal will really impress you!"

Delia can't quite stop herself from smiling as the Satyr whirs into action, previous downer of a mood forgotten in an instant. She watches her with warm amusement, happy for her and eagerly anticipating a meal.

Delia starts idly humming as she sits down at the table, watching Gillian set it up at rather admirable speed and efficiency, if also slightly nervously. Delia the catches herself as to what she's humming and quickly stops with just a bit of a blush.

Gillian very efficiently gets everything out of the oven, and onto the table with surprising speed. She cuts into the pasta bake and sets out a serving for Delia... standing at attention nearby for a moment before she blinks, then blushingly gets herself a serving as well, awkwardly taking a belated seat at the table.

Delia smiles at the Satyr: "Old habits die hard, hmm?" She starts eating as Gillian does, mm'ing softly at the deliciousness of it. All the while she is eating, she is giving Gillian these not-so-subtle glances.

Gillian nods shyly, "Y-yeah, guess so... Sorry. Hope you enjoy!" She waits a moment for Delia to take the first bite, then begins to eat as well, every so often looking up at Delia, shyly looking away whenever their glances meet.

Delia eats with visible enjoyment, clearly loving the pasta bake. If she admitted it to herself, she would note that she usually subsists on microwave meals and takeout, so of course anything homemade tastes great, but admitting things to herself has never exactly been her strong suit...

Gillian eats a little more casually than her rushed eating in the cafeteria the other night. She's just simply enjoying herself, enjoying the meal, and enjoying the company. All things she's not been particularly able to do in a long time. The two both opt for seconds, and as the meal winds down and plates are emptied, Gillian stand up and begins to clear the used dishes off the table, "I'm glad you enjoyed everything!"

Delia smiles brightly: "Are you kidding me? That was nothing short of amazing, I could barely get a word out!" Her tail is wagging and the corgi is very much content right now, if also slightly admiring Gillian as she works.

Gillian blinks, certainly having not expected that level of praise. Still, her smile brightens considerably. "Ahh- Y-you're just saying that. Thank you. th-thank you though. I... it wasn't much."

Delia leans back a bit, grinning: "W-well, yeah, I am just saying that, 'cause you deserve it. Ever considered a career in cooking?"

Gillian's face goes red, and she shakes her head, "Oh no no no! I'm not good enough for that. I just... I like cooking... I used to read cook books whenever I had free time. I tried to do things in the manor kitchen too, b-but they didn't much appreciate my cooking."

Delia gets up, crossing her arms as she leans on the counter next to Gillian: "All I'm saying, you now have that chance to learn on your own, if you wanted to. It's obvious you have a passion."

Gillian glances down at the dishes as she starts to run water in the sink. "W-well... I mean... maybe? I don't really know if passion alone.... can um... w-well... I mean... d-do you really think I could?"

Delia shrugs: "You probably know better than I do, I'm just saying it's possible now for you to pursue it. I reckon you want to do something with your life once you get on your feet. Err, hooves."

Gillian giggles a little at the latter comment, but nods. "Well... y-yeah. You're right. It's at least an idea. Something... something to aim for."

Delia hums: "Not that you need to know any of that right now I guess." She smiles as she ponders on this: "One day at a time is also a way to look at things, that's how I usually roll myself." Now, admitting to herself that the corgi is actually kind of stuck in a rut and afraid to pursue her own career... not going to happen just yet.

Gillian scrubs at the dishes, getting the suds up on to clean off the residue left by their meals, quiet for a moment as she thinks, "I um... w-well you know talking about what brought me here and all... I um... c-can I ask... your story?" She rather quickly adds, "You don't have to share anything of course!"

Delia blinks, then hesitates. She then takes a deep breath: "Well..." She pauses again, trying to put her thoughts on the matter in any kind of form: "Suppose so, yeah. I uh, had a pretty average upbringing. Mostly grew up with my Dad." She winces slightly at that thought before continuing: "Started studying, found a great boyfriend, wrote for a successful student magazine, had life all planned in front of me..."

Gillian listens intently, setting the dishes down to give Delia her full attention. "What... what happened then? I don't mean to pry I just..." She trails off, blushing a little once again. She really just wants to learn more about Delia.

Delia gives Gillian a weak smile, nods, then continues: "Well, in a nutshell... had my first uncontrolled change, my boyfriend freaked out, had to drop out of school because I couldn't risk changing in the middle of the day like that..." She waves a hand, sighing: "...things fell out in a myriad of ways, and one morning I found myself at the door of this facility." She pauses: "Well, this facility about three buildings less than it is now. Auriel had sort of just started, then."

Gillian blinks at the word 'change'. She struggles for words, trying to be sensitive about this whole topic, but unsure how to ask, "Uncontrolled... change? You weren't... or, you aren't normally like this? Or are you something else or...?"

Delia gives a pained smile: "I was born a human. Nowadays... I can not change back without the pain pretty much knocking me out. Anything further than this-" She gestures at her small anthro dog form: "And the change hurts too much to do."

Gillian 's face falls, "I... had no idea. I'm sorry..." She sighs, feeling rather guilty for making Delia bring this up, but manages to force a smile, "G-Guess you at least got lucky that this form is so beautiful, hm?"

Delia blinks and blushes: "I er uh... beautiful?" Her tail swishes a couple of times: "Me?"

Gillian's face goes red, and she coughs slightly in embarrassment, "W-well, um... I mean... yeah? Of course you are. N-not that you weren't before, of course! I don't mean to imply that! I just... think... you're quite beautiful like this. Th-that's all."

Delia blinks couple of times more, then manages a blushing smile: "I well... I g-guess I have to take your word for it. Thank you." She reaches for a chair, fumbles her hand in the air for a bit as her gaze doesn't leave Gillian, and finally finds a place to sit on.

Gillian glances away for a moment to finish up the dishes, then takes a deep breath, "I... I hope that's not out of place for me to say. I'm just... well, it's just how it seems to me. But I've always been like this."

Delia gathers herself from that compliment: "N-no one's said that sort of thing to me in a long... long time." She swallows: "S-so, no, not out of place, just... caught me off guard." She smiles with a bright blush visible through her fur.

Gillian sets the last of the dishes to dry, then comes back around the counter to take a seat next to Delia at the table. "W-well I'm glad, then. I... was born like this. I was taken in young, never really knew anything else. But you had everything you wanted, and lost it because of these changes. If... if there's anything I can do for you...?" She is absolutely in no position to be offering anything to Delia, but can't help herself.

Delia sighs as she looks down, then shakes her head. "Not really... it's all in the past, anyway." She gives Gillian a smile: "I may have lost the life I had, but I have gained something worth more. I would at least like to think I am making a difference, being here." She pauses, briefly frowning: "Well, probably."

Gillian smiles back, "W-well, you made a difference for one person at least, so no probably about it."

Delia smiles and offers her paw to the Satyr: "Thank you."

Gillian raises her hand to take Delia's paw once more, "And... thank you."

Delia smiles warmly: "I-it's rare to have someone listen to me." She shrugs: "My story is not pretty, but it is what it is. I'm not going to spend my days wallowing in it. I can't change the past."

Gillian nods, smile fading just a little. "I guess... I don't know what to think about my past. M-maybe it was terrible and exploitative... b-but I still thought of them as my family? I keep thinking I should go back and beg for apology... but I need to look ahead too, don't I?"

Delia smiles softly, squeezing Gillian's hand gently: "For now, it is probably best to focus on the here and now. Get you back on your hooves, and then worry about dealing with all that other stuff."

Gillian squeezes back, "That... sounds much more doable. It feels like there's so much that I don't know, or don't... I barely have any money, only th-the little I took. I probably shouldn't have taken it."

Delia shrugs: "Do you think they'll even notice to miss it? You're doing what you need to, to survive."

Gillian sighs, "It... it's both comforting and heart-breaking when I think about it... b-because they probably won't miss it, or me. That's both why I left, and why it hurts so badly."

Delia considers, then squeezes some more: "Can you promise me one thing, Gillian?"

Gillian tilts her head at Delia, then nods, "Um... what's that?"

Delia smiles, though then it wanes slightly: "Don't go back until you are on your own for real. I know the temptation to face what you left is there, but it's better if you take your time."

Gillian hesitates a moment, then nods. "I... I promise. I won't go back there until... I... I don't know until when. Until I can say I don't need them..."

Delia smiles: "Atta girl. Focus on the here, now, and most importantly, you."

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Apartment housing some blocks away from AD-HOC - Early evening

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Delia leads Gillian up the stairs... and up another set of stairs, in the old building. From the outside, the ancient multi-floor looked like it was built before the invention of elevator, but at the same time, sturdy enough to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes... who knows, maybe it has.

The corgi is excited and can't stop her tail from wagging, as this is her showing her apartment for the first time to... anyone, really. She's mildly confused as to why she is excited now, but brushes that thought off - Gillian is special, and that's all the reason Delia needs. They finally get up to her door, with a slightly wonky '355' on the door. Delia is silently happy that no neighbours were around at the moment. Not that she actually knows much of her neighbours and really prefers to keep it that way - something about how demi's are usually looked down upon.

She turns to Gillian with a smile, if slightly exhausted from all the steps: "A-and here we are. My uh, home."

Gillian has followed Delia to her apartment with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. It's her first time off of the AD-HOC campus since her arrival, and it makes her a bit uncertain, but Delia is there, so she can trust the canine wouldn't lead her wrong. She's got some big news of her own, wanting to get Delia's opinion on what she should do, but first, she smiles at Delia, giving a bit of a bow, "Th-thank you for inviting me over, I'm honored."

Delia smiles with a mild blush: "W-well, felt like it was time since we've been in your room so much." She fishes for her keys and has to awkwardly open the lock that is on her eye level, to get them in. She opens the door and motions Gillian to head in first.

The apartment is... old, and full of stuff. Seems like the corgi has a bit of a habit of collecting all kinds of affectionate junk - lots of shelves, cabinets and other assorted mildly chaotic containers full of hobby stuff. One wall is nearly lined with CD's, DVD's, BluRays and even a shelf of old vinyls - whole lot of movies and music- , while another on the opposite side contains a near perfect collection of small glass figurines of canines and other art glassware collecting dust. On the wall next to the entrance, a full bookshelf of titles about human (and demi) psychology and other 'how do people even work' related titles. Same goes on for nearly every wall surface of the apartment - seems that whatever interests the corgi, she devotes time and effort into acquiring everything about the topic. What little space isn't covered by shelves, are posters from old movies and bands from at least couple of decades ago.

The space of the apartment isn't all that huge, just the large main room full of aforementioned hobby stuff, a small bedroom to the right side that really just contains a big bed, and a kitchenette to the other side that doesn't look all that used. At the end of the main room is a big windowed door, leading to a small balcony overlooking... mostly the industrial district, but hey, at least she has a balcony.

Gillian looks inside with a bit of awe, letting her eyes pass over everything as she tries to take it all in. "A-all this is yours? W-wow..." She nervously chuckles, fighting an urge to start tilting dusting and prop up some of the DVD's to get things in proper order, "There's so much... stuff."

Delia shrugs as she tosses her shoulderbag aside to spot it clearly rests on every time: "Eh, I have a lot of time in my hands... most of the thrift stores near here don't mind a demi all that much if she's buying something every time." She motions to the couch in the middle of the room, a worn-out but comfy pillowfort made for watching movies. "Sit down, and I'll get us some tea going."

Gillian smiles, dipping her head again, "Tea would be nice." She walks over to the couch, taking a moment to carefully fluff the pillows, arranging things a bit to trying to clean up the clutter around it.

Delia smiles, then steps into the kitchen. Once out of sight, she takes a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm herself. She might have been waiting for this but jeez does it make her nervous anyway! Once she has the worst of the jitters out of her, she puts together the tea set from a matching pair of cute little cups with rainbows and hearts on them that she totally has not been waiting for a chance to use.

Making her way back to the living room, she sits down on the couch next to Gillian: "So uh, yeah... my place, been here a while, sorry for all the mess." To be perfectly honest for herself, for all the cleaning she does for a living, that only half-applies to her own home. It's not messy, but it's not... exactly pristine, either.

Gillian eventually got herself seated on one side of the couch, sitting with her hands folded on her lap. When Delia takes a seat next to her, she laughs awkwardly, "I-it's not so bad. It's just... old habits. I'm so used to just cleaning, you know? It was my whole life for a long time."

Delia shrugs with just a bit of a blush: "Still, I should have cleaned before I you came here..." She did, in fact. If slightly hastily, and got distracted by her 'background noise for cleaning' movie halfway through last night. But she tried!

Gillian shakes her head, "It's fine, I promise. Thank you for inviting me in the first place! I've never um... n-never been a guest to anyone's home before."

Delia smiles: "Well, it's been a very long time since anyone's been, uh, my guest too..." She trails off, glancing around: "So uh... do you like movies?"

Gillian blinks. "Err... I don't know?" She glances away sheepishly (goatishly?). "I've... never... had one?"

Delia blinks: "Oh. Um... well, we have to fix that." Dodging the awkward questions as she hears the tea whistle, she gets up to get it: "Tea! Right. Be right back!" True to her word, she is soon back with two cups of tea in those cute little rainbow cups, smiling at Gillian.

Gillian oofs with a laugh as Gillian rushes out to get the tea. She smiles at the cups as she takes one, "Aw, cute! Thank you, Delia."

Delia laughs a bit: "Y-yeah, thought that was fine. At least, they hold liquid, so that's good." She shuffles onto her seat, just coincidentally a touch closer to Gillian than before: "So, yeah... my place. I guess you could say I kind of collect hobbies as a hobby of sorts? Does that make sense?

Gillian nods, "Well it's like... you. All this stuff is your experience, your joys, your interests... right?"

Delia shrugs with a blushing smile: "I-it's me, yeah. Stuff that interests me, and... yeah, stuff. I have... a lot of time on my own, I guess." There is a note of sadness in her voice, even though she tries to keep it off.

Gillian chuckles, "W-well there's... a lot. A lot to get to learn about you, then, right?"

Delia smiles: "I mean, i-if you want to... yeah, guess there is." She gives a soft sigh, sets her tea cup down after taking a sip, then reaches her hand towards Gillian's free one.

Gillian glances over, then slowly opens her hand to take Delia's. "I... do. I feel like there's not much to me in return, though."

Delia ponders, then smiles: "That just means you haven't found it yet. Who knows what catches your interest when you have the time?" She lightly squeezes Gillian's hand.

Gillian smiles back, "I.. have time. I have time now, and I... like this." She blushes, fumbling a bit with her words, "I mean, I think.. I s-suppose... I... I know... that you've caught my interest."

Delia blinks and blushes and smiles: "Oh. I mean, y-you too. My interest." She scratches the side of her neck: "S-sort of obvious, I guess." Awkward, but the corgi's short legs are refusing to work so no escaping to the kitchen now. "I... Like you. Spending time with you. Showing you around. Having, um... Tea?"

Gillian is equally flustered, but nods quite quickly, "Oh! Yes! Me too! T-tea! And Time... and... you. Never quite gotten to know anyone like this before. I'm s-sure that sounds awfully silly."

Delia gives a brightly blushing, demure smile as she shifts on the couch: "... Not all that silly." She lets out a nervous giggle as she looks at Gillian.

Gillian glances at Delia, then rubs her fingers along Delia's hand. "So... we figure it out together then? The whole, um... time together stuff, and... and..." She sits up in surprise, "Oh gosh! My news! I almost forgot!"

Delia blinks in surprise though doesn't pull her hand away: "Time tog... news? What news?"

Gillian grins awkwardly, "I got a job! A w-well a sorta job! A temp job at least. Just a little diner that's willing to give me a shot doing waitress work. Maybe a little bit in the kitchen? It's... it's not much, but it's a start."

Delia smiles: "Oh! That's excellent! Getting back to your feet, er, hooves-" she corrects herself for the thousandth time: "-for like, proper hopefully. Doing what you have been training for, right?"

Gillian still giggles at the correction, not seeming to mind at all. She nods, "It's... it's a big step, but far from the last one I'll need to take. Still, another step forward, and another step closer to being my own person! It's... scary, but exciting."

Delia continues smiling, getting excited on Gillian's behalf: "When do you start? Maybe I can pick you up afterwards." ...Where did that suggestion come from, she briefly wonders to herself.

Gillian's expression brightens further at the suggestion, and she spontaneously hugs Delia before releasing the corgi awkwardly, "Oh, um! S-sorry! I just... I'd like that a lot. I still aren't all that comfortable being out on my own... walking from the AD-HOC campus here was a little nerve-wracking, and the diner is a bit further away... I start next week, I just wouldn't want to be a bother if it's too far out of your way."

Delia blinks at the sudden hug, though doesn't exactly find herself minding: "It's... okay. I can uh... I can do that. I want to do that." She finds her smile again: "If you don't mind having an embarrassing, small furry chaperone walking back."

Gillian shakes her head, "I wouldn't mind at all! I'd love you -IT. I'd.... I'd love it." She sighs, still quite close to Delia after the hug, and now just staring at the Werecorgi.

Delia blinks again, though finds herself sitting close to Gillian and fails to do anything about this fact, staring at Gillian in return: "W-well, if you... w-would love it, I would love you... it, too."

Delia mildly stammers in the middle of the not-quite love confession: "A-ahm yeah. Tea. You. With you?" The corgi is slightly - by which we mean very - perplexed on exactly what to do here.

Gillian sort of stares at Delia a long moment, then simply leans into to kiss her.

Delia blinks, then leans into the kiss~

Gillian breaks the kiss after letting it linger, then blushes brightly, "Oh my gosh, I didn't- I mean, I did, but I shouldn't have? I just thought, and- and it felt like i t was right? But I sh-should have asked! I'm sorry!"

Delia blushes bright: "It it's... it's o-okay. Just s-surprised, is all. It's um... yeah."

Gillian nods quite quickly, still unsure, "Yeah, yeah okay! S-sorry I just... I couldn't help it there in the moment... it... it did feel nice though..."

Delia gives a soft smile: "W-well... that it sure did." Pause. "Want to... try again?"

Gillian nods again, "Yes! Err, um, yes! I mean... whenever you're ready to?"

Delia blinks, then just smiles a sharp smile and leans over to kiss the Satyr softly, tenderly and at lenght.

Gillian leans into the kiss in turn, her hands that were gripping the cushions of Delia's couch in nervous anticipation slowly loosen. She lifts one hand to Delia's face, slowly breaking the kiss to reveal a huge smile upon her face. "R-really nice... yeah."

Delia smiles with equally huge smile: "I-I'd dare count that as 'really nice' yes." Her tail wagging, she looks at Gillian: "B-been a very long time since anyone thought of me like, uh... like this."

Gillian blinks, seeming a bit startled, "R-really? You're beautiful, and kind, and intelligent. Honestly, I just assumed you wouldn't be interested in someone like me. I... I was kind of afraid I was making a fool of myself."

Delia smiles with a blush: "I-I mean, then there's two fools on this couch if that is the case. I uh... r-rather very much like you, Gillian. Maybe even... love you."

Gillian blushes, awkwardly tracing her hand down Delia's face to settle between them. "I feel the same... and I... oh gosh, maybe this is all too fast. I feel like I just barely started to find myself, but... well, you found me when I needed you most. You kept coming to make sure I was doing okay. And I just... couldn't get you out of my head. I might still be figuring things out, but I think I love you too."

Delia smiles with a slightly brighter blush: "T-that obvious, huh? I g-guess I was." She lets out a small sigh, looking down for a second before looking back up: "T-that morning, when you showed up, I... I saw a lot of myself in you. Lost, confused, without a place to go, afraid to even ask. I wanted to help you. I... needed to."

Gillian shakes her head. "You didn't need to... but I'm glad you did. The advertisements gave me the courage to leave my old life, but you gave me the chance I needed to actually reach out and ask for help. And now... here I am. I'm getting an education, starting a job... o-on your couch... holding... your hand." She looks down to find that her hand has found Delia's.

Delia looks down at their hands: "So uh... it seems. Oh well." She gives Gillian a smile as she squeezes her hand: "I don't think I mind."

Gillian squeezes in turn. "So... then... if we're... if we're going to try this whole d-d-dating thing... um... what's next?" She blinks "If you want of course! I um, didn't mean to imply we um... we're dating. Or should date. I just... I've never done it before..."

Delia blinks, tilting her head: "Next? Uh... well, once you are off work, we can go out? Somewhere else to... eat together? Or come here. Or the park for ice cream. Or really... I don't care, I just want to spend time with you."

Gillian smiles at Delia, chuckling, "Oh? Um... that seems... easy? That's all I really wanted too. I guess... if you're going to come walk me back home after work, we'll have plenty of time for that."

Delia lets out a small giggle: "T-then I guess we are in agreement." She blushes, still grinning: "How is this so hard? We spend like all our free time together, but call it 'dating' and we're just flailing?"

Gillian giggles, "I know, right? We're already doing it, but why do I have butterflies in my stomach just because we're calling it something different!"

Delia smiles: "Must be something in the tea, then. We can't be silly, surely?" She giggles anyway, as though to prove her point.

Gillian looks down at the cup still in her other hand, "You did make the tea, so I guess you'd know? C-can't be us. I um... I've never been silly, um, at all." She giggles as well, the corgi's laughter being quite contagious now that the awkwardness seems to have turned to relief and joy.

Delia continues giggling, at the sheer absurdity and warmth of the situation, leaning on the Satyr as she does. "Hehe, heh. This is so... So..."

Gillian lets Delia snug against her, letting herself sink into the couch a bit more. "...crazy? Unbelievable? ...Great? Everything all at once?"

Delia muses: "Let's go with... Yes." She reaches her hand behind Gillian's back, lightly tickling the base of her tail.

Gillian eeps at the touch against the Satyr's quite ticklish tail, causing her to fumble the tea cup and hurriedly let go of Delia's hand to try and save it from spilling. She's blushing rather brightly, "Ah! C-careful! Sorry! Sorry!"

Delia shifts to hold Gillian steady, succeeding in holding the cup steady... And they find themselves very close. The corgi blushes bright: "Uh..."

Gillian stares at Delia again, blinking a few times at just how close they are, but not making any move to break away, "Uh... My tail is um... it's kinda sensitive. Just um... letting you know..."

Delia blushes and smiles apologetically, though also fails to move away from the embrace: "Uh. Sorry. Noted." And possibly filed away for future use.

Gillian looks aside, setting the tea cup down on a small side table, then bringing her hand back over towards Delia. "W-well, no need to apologize. Just wasn't expecting that, that's all. It wasn't a bad thing at all."

Delia smiles with a bright blush: "Y-yeah, but I was still... or am, forward?" If anything, the corgi has been overly cautious so far. "I hope you d-don't mind."

Gillian shakes her head, "I don't! Err, that is, I don't mind at all. It's just all very new." She hesitates, "I-is it too forward to ask if I can pet you? O-or is that too weird?"

Delia blinks, then lets out a nervous giggle: "It uh... well it is kind of forward, but..." She gives Gillian a blushing look: "B-but it's usually reserved for l-loved ones so I g-guess it could pass..."

Gillian blushes as well, but moves her hand to the back of Delia's neck to pet her. "I guess that's me now. Th-that's quite an honor."

Delia leans into the neck petting, closing her eyes: "Mmm, debatable if it's an honor... but it feels nice." She lets out a kind of sigh, feeling pretty vulnerable: "G-guess you can see why I can't let just anyone do this."

Gillian nods, continuing to pet. "It's an honor to me." She reaches her other hand up pull Delia in closer. "But if you enjoy this, I promise I won't abuse it. I... I wouldn't want to hurt you at all."

Delia leans closer: "Mm, you're good." She opens her eyes, giving Gillian a smile: "I think I love you~"

Gillian 's contented smile grows at the words. "I love you, Delia."

Delia giggles nervously at Gillian's touch: "G-good. Would hate for this to be one-sided..."

Gillian giggles, letting her hands pet a little deeper into Delia's fur. "Me too. But it feels so... right."

Delia leans onto the faun: "It definitely does... just wanna be with you like this."

Gillian shifts to help Delia get more cozy, "Then I'm happy to be here for you, beautiful."

Delia giggles as she definitely gets more cozy: "B-beautiful? Me?" She blushes: "Only if you accept that you are too."

Gillian takes a breath, humming, "Ah! W-well... Yes... I suppose I am too, then, yes. I... I am beautiful. And so are you. Th-there. It's settled."

Delia smiles with a bright blush: "S-sounds about right, then." She leans upwards, giving Gillian a soft kiss: "You liking such a wretched creature, I'll take it~."

Gillian leans down to return the kiss. "Nothing wretched about you."

Delia leans into the kiss, grinning, mmhm'ing. "G-guess I'll have to take your expert opinion, then~."

Gillian nods. "A-as your expert g-girlfriend..." She pauses at that word, then giggles, "As your expert girlfriend, yes. I guess you um, do."

Delia hums, smiling: "Guess that's settled, then. I hereby name you the resident expert of... me." Her hands wander towards Gillian's midriff: "Mm, you're soft."

Gillian blinks, "I don't... I don't know a lot about you... err, yet I guess. I guess we'll have to take the time to learn, yes?" She ooo's at the sudden bit of a bellyrub. "Ooh, that does feel good..."

Delia continues to let her hands wander: "Such is our fate. Having to learn more about each other with like... dates, and stuff. We must endure it with honor."

Delia takes Gillian's hand in hers and smiles: "Pretty thing~."

Gillian squeezes Delia's hand, blushing, "Oh uh, yes. But it takes one to know one?"

Delia blushes in turn, scoots closer to Gillian: "Well, then... here we are. Um..." She hesitates: "...B-been a while since I felt like this. But I like it."

Gillian smiles, snugging against Delia, "And I... I've never felt like this. I used to think, maybe the Young Master... b-but that was just a silly maid. I just hope... I don't want you getting into trouble because of me."

Delia smirks: "What trouble? You can't be that bad underneath all the cute and timid."

Gillian gasps slightly, "Oh! Oh I'm not! I um, I don't think I am? I just thought... you know... a Demi- like me..."

Delia shrugs, leaning ever closer: "Exactly. You're like me." She hums, then nods as she looks Gillian in the eyes: "I like that."

Gillian stares back, the uncertainty in her eyes fading into a tender gaze, "Well, not 'exactly', but you're right. Close enough." She leans forward to kiss Delia as the corgi draws closer (But not close enough in this case.)

Delia melts into the kiss she didn't realize she was waiting for, her hands starting to wander around Gillian on their own...

Delia leans onto Gillian's kiss some more~

Gillian holds the kiss for what feels like an eternity, yet still ends too soon. She blinks, slightly at her own presumption, and how readily Delia reciprocated. She's really not sure what she's stepped into with a relationship, just that she doesn't want to let Delia go. "Ah... so... what next?"

Delia stares, then finally blinks: "... More tea?" The corgi is more than a little dumbfounded herself.

Gillian giggles a little awkwardly, then nods. "I guess I did spill mine. Could um... start that movie? And then just... get close to watch?"

Delia laughs nervously: "W-well, I fail to see a downside... What do you want to watch?"

Gillian turns to look at the shelves full of movies and chuckles, "Oh... I don't... know?" She's painfully unfamiliar with popular titles or genres, "Something... good?"

Delia hums, considering: "...oh, right. You probably haven't seen a lot. Weelll..." She gets up: "Let's watch something silly and romantic, shall we?" She stares at the shelf for a moment, then picks up one 'Down With Love'. "This definitely is a lot of both, despite the name."

Gillian nods, shifting on the couch to try and take a closer look at the title. "Oh? Silly and romantic both sound good to me. I mean, the only way to see what I like is to watch a bit of..." She waves her hand towards the shelf, "Everything. Right?"

Delia grins: "Ain't that right." She picks the dvd out of the case and puts it into the player with practiced ease, before returning to the couch next to Gillian and smiling to her: "Everything with you sounds good."

Gillian blushes again, lifting a hand to her snout to rub it slightly. "Oh gosh, you're so sweet. W-well, we'll just have to try it all then. Together."

Delia giggles, twitching her snout: "Eep! Well, maybe am sweet. But uh... d-definitely together."

Gillian pulls her hand back, settling it down on Delia's thigh, "W-well.. I say we um... snuggle up and enjoy the movie?"

Delia belatedly remembers to press 'play' on the remote before turning her attention back to the Satyr: "Mm, sounds g-good." Her paw finds itself on Gillian's thigh in turn: "I like that."

Gillian sits back to watch, but until the movie actually starts, her eyes are still on Delia, a smile upon her face as she shifts to cozy alongside the corgi, keeping a hand upon her. "I like you too."

Delia leans on the slightly taller Satyr. She's slightly conflicted between going further than just holding Gillian close, or not wanting to distract too much from the actually darn good movie. "Mmmhm..."

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A Few Hours Later

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Delia snuggles with Gillian. Only slightly awkwardly.

Gillian snoozes lightly alongside Delia, having fallen asleep at some point in the night. One arm is wrapped loosely around the werecorgi.

Delia smiles in her sleep. Been a while since she's done that.

Gillian lets out a little yawn, starting to awaken. She murmurs a bit, "Mmmhm? Iss the movie over already?"

Delia blinks slowly awake: "Mmhmmm?" She takes several moments to piece together the situation as she glances around. Dark outside, and time has definitely passed more than their movie's length. "Oh. One could say so..."

Gillian slowly blinks. "Hmmm...? O-oh... Oh... sorry? I guess... not used to being out so late..." She doesn't seem to make much effort to move though, just blushing as she glances aside.

Delia likewise doesn't make much of a move, though she starts blushing at the closeness. "Eh heh. Guess that's okay, now..."

Gillian pauses, dragging out a bit of a silence whilst still not moving. "I uh... I guess I feel asleep here... that's... very weird. And um, unlike me. I hope this isn't too... awkward? I um..." She falls silent again, just looking down at Delia with a red face.

Delia looks up with an equally red face, but doesn't otherwise seem exactly bothered: "I uh... Fell asleep too. But... It's okay." She gives a silly little smile.

Gillian giggles at Delia's smile. "It is your home, so... uh... I could go back to my room now." She glances towards the window, seeing how dark it is outside. "It's pretty late though..."

Delia hesitates for half a second, before suggesting the obvious: "W-well... I only have the one bed, but if you do not mind..." Yep, definitely smiling silly and blushing, but one has to make sure of these things.

Gillian's eyes widen in surprise, "I wouldn't want to be an inconvenience! I mean, uh... I wouldn't mind... me, that is. It's just... sharing a bed. And... oh gosh." She looks down at Gillian, half terrified and half overly-eager. "I'd... I'd like that."

Delia giggles nervously, but her grin is unmistakable: "I d-definitely would not mind... would kinda uh enjoy it..." She looks at them, still holding each other close: "As uh sorta might be obvious I guess."

Gillian nods, smiling at Delia. She shifts her hand to find Delia's, squeezing gently, "M-maybe a bit? But probably a bit obvious with me too. A-as long as you don't mind hooves in your bed, I um... I'll keep to my side. U-unless you'd rather I didn't..."

The werecorgi smiles sheepishly: "Might be small enough that declaring 'sides' would just get silly." She squeezes Gillian's side: "I think I like you close."

Gillian giggles at the squeeze, "Guess you should lead the way, then. You lead, and I'll follow."

Delia looks up and gives Gillian's neck a soft nuzzle: "... In a bit. Don't wanna get up yet."

Gillian lowers her head to nuzzle against Delia's neck in turn. She brings her other hand up and places it on the small of Delia's back, "W-well, I'm at your mercy."

Delia giggles at the touch: "Y-you know, I haven't really had anyone... Close like this, in a very long time." She looks at Gillian in the eyes: "I kinda like it. A lot."

Gillian frowns slightly, but can't keep it going as she stares back. "It's hard to believe. I... I've never had anyone close like this... Makes me worry I'm rushing into this, but then I look at you and it all feels right."

Delia smiles: "Well uh... At least we're rushing headlong into this, together?" She hums, then shrugs: "Feels good, guess that's all that matters for now."

Gillian snugs, sighing slightly, "Feels good not to be alone... yeah."

Delia gives a similar sigh: "You can probably read 'loneliness' from every inch of this place. I'm pretty pathetic, but if you'll have me around... " She gives a hopeful, warm smile.

Gillian shakes her head, "You're not pathetic! You're wonderful... this place is a little disorganized, but it's just a whole temple of experiences I've never had..." She laughs quietly, "Guess if your home says loneliness, my room says emptiness, but if you'll have me... I... it sounds like we solve each others problems."

Delia blinks: "... I hadn't thought of it like that. I guess we sorta can, huh." She smiles: "I think I would like exploring stuff with you. Possibly also things."

Gillian giggles, "Me too, uh, but with you."

Delia giggles, feeling a bit silly but not really caring at this point: "Well, then we have a plan. Uh, however loose one." Pause. "Bed?"

Gillian nods. "I always feel better when I have plan. Bed... bed is a good plan." She blushes, stroking her hand along Delia's back. "Bed with you is a better one."

Delia grins, then finally stretches and gets up: "W-weeelll, let's uh, do it." She turns to look at Gillian and offers her paw: "Just don't set your expectations too high."

Gillian's heart flutters as she rises from the couch, her little tail wiggling a bit after being sat on so long. She takes Delia's paw and gives the corgi a formal half-bow, "I have none. I... I guarantee that it won't be the worst thing I've slept on. With you here... far from the worst."

Delia giggles, giving Gillian a nod and a warm grin: "Well, if that's the case, we're good. Follow me!" She's not excited, nervous or completely jittery, you are just imagining it. And her tail definitely isn't wagging. She shows the way to her bedroom, a small room that's only slightly bigger than the old-but-solid king size bed in it.

Gillian lets Delia excitedly lead her through the small apartment to the bedroom, where she is confronted by a much larger bed than she's used to, prompting a short gasp, "Whoa..."

Delia looks at Gillian's reaction slightly disbelievingly: "I uh, okay." She shakes her head: "But yeah, it's my bed. Should be enough for both of us."

Gillian laughs it off awkwardly, letting go of Delia's hand. "Oh uh, sorry. It's just... never slept in a bed this big. Even at Ad-Hoc the room only has a twin bed... it's just new, and kinda neat?" She shrugs, a little embarrassed.

Delia smiles with a shrug: "Well, it's my bed. And uh I guess, sorta yours now too."

Gillian giggles, reaching up to start removing her dress and stripping down for bed. "My bed... that's... a lot to take in."

Delia removes her shirt, hesitating for maybe half a second before just revealing her braless chest. After all, she barely has anything visible due to all the fur. "W-well, you're too late to back out now, you've seen my bedroom." She's joking. Mostly.

Gillian continues undressing as well, carefully follding her clothing aside as she strips down nude. She's always slept in the nude, as it's just always felt more natural to her, and she's more nervous about the idea of sleeping alongside someone else than she is about being nude. Her chest is a little more ample, even with the fur. "It might have been too late for me long before now..." She smiles at Delia, joking as well... maybe. Not quite.

Delia finishes dropping her clothes unceremoniously to the floor, before sitting on the bed, inviting Gillian to join her. "Possibly. Suppose we only have one way to find out what terrors might await us, snuggling together for the night." She sounds braver than she is, but damn if she is going to mess this up with uncertainties right now.

Gillian giggles again, finishing setting her clothing aside in a very neat pile. She turns to sit on the bed next to Delia, reaching out to take her hand again. "Y-yeah. Not just in the same bed, but... Actually... Together." Sleeping. Together. Her face is bright red as the faun clutches Delia's hand tightly, just as nervous for nearly the same reasons.

Delia lightly squeezes Gillian's hand, then lets go enough to maneuver herself under the covers: "W-well, here we are. And.. you're kind of great, so there's that." She blushes: "...that sounded silly."

Gillian shifts along with Delia, getting herself into the bed alongside her, definitely the bigger spoon. "N-no, it didn't. You're great. Um. Too. We're both great. Both silly too, I think."

Delia giggles, blushing fiercely as she leans close towards Gillian: "Well uh, we'll just have to deal with that, then. Somehow." She looks at Gillian's decently endowed chest: "Um. Huh. You're bigger than you seem. N-not that I mind."

Gillian wiggles a bit self-consciously, "Oh uh... s-sorry? I mean... if you don't mind... I guess there's not much I can do about my size one way or the other..."

Delia giggles, leaning closer: "Technically, I can, but that's not really the same." She looks at Gillian's eyes: "But I don't care. You're you, and that's what matters."

Gillian stares back at Delia, breaking into a wide smile at the words. She scoots forward in bed to pull Delia into a close hug. "You're wonderful, Delia. Thank you."

Delia smiles, blushing: "Don't say that... or do, I guess, since you already did." She giggles at her own silliness with words.

Gillian sniffs, giggling along with Delia. "I'm going to say it, a-and I'll probably say it again. So... g-guess you'll have to get used to that too."

Delia leans over to give Gillian's neck a soft nuzzle: "Probably my fate then. I think I will live. Cause you are are great."

Gillian eases up on the hug, but keeps her arms around Delia and hums, feeling far too cozy as she already starts to drift towards sleep. "I think I can live with this."

Delia closes her eyes, leaning into the hug as as she does: "Mm... I think I like this~." The corgi is very comfy right now.

Gillian clings to Delia as she falls asleep, smiling warm and cozy, "Me too~"

Delia smirks, already well on her way to sleep: "Mm...~"

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The Next Night

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Delia snuggles Gillian. Several times.

Gillian holds Delia close to her and nuzzles.

Delia nuzzles, the height difference making her giggle a bit again, but she doesn't exactly seem to mind.

Delia ventures into a kiss~

Gillian mrphs in surprise before kissing back in turn~

Delia lets go, blushing: "W-was that too quick? It was too quick, wasn't it."

Gillian pulls back a little, blushing as well, "M-maybe? I've been afraid of going too fast... but maybe if we both want it..."

Delia mulls this thought, then nods, although the blush is still there: "Yeah, guess we kinda do, don't we? Just better to be sure."

Gillian nods slowly, sitting on some thought. She leans in to hug Delia, "Well... I've heard my kind has kind of a bad reputation... so yeah... I don't know how far you want to go just yet, and I've been trying to be cautious. I don't... I don't want to screw this up."

Delia nods: "Weres are kinda known for, fairly or not, being untrustworthy. Something about this whole changing nature." She sighs: "I can't really say. Would I try to hide myself if I had the opportunity?" She shrugs, smiling at Gillian: "So guess that makes both of us kinda being 'against type', you know?"

Gillian smiles in turn, "Don't know if I can say what others of my 'type' are like, so... I just have to be myself. I don't know much about Weres either, but I'm getting to know you. And I trust you. I... I think I love you."

Delia nods along until that last part, which makes her pause: "Y-yeah, think I love you too. You're all kinds of kind and fun and lovely. A-almost makes me afraid I'll do something dumb and make you leave, you know?"

Gillian chuckles awkwardly, "I do know, c-cause I've been thinking the same thing. You're kind and smart and funny. You make me feel like I'm doing something that matters. A-and I really like cuddling up with you."

Delia reaches her paw around Gillian: "Well, we do have that in common.. Even if I can't quite reach. I'm tiny."

Gillian reaches her hands around to pull Delia close to her chest, "I don't really see that as a negative."

Delia eeps slightly, but grins with slight uncertainty: "W-well, if you say so!" She leans to hold Gillian close. "You're soft. I like that."

Gillian giggles, holding Delia for a moment more, "Thank you? I like you too... you're warm."

Delia grins: "G-guess we have that, then. Doomed to cuddle forever, for warmth and softness."

Gillian snugs Delia softly, "That is a lot. I..." she swallows, growing a bit serious, "If... as long as you want me here, as long as you don't take me for granted, then I will stay by your side. I just... I just want someone who loves and respects me. That's all." She closes her eyes a moment, "The fact that you're so beautiful... th-that's just a bonus."

Delia nods solemnly: "I promise I will. You are wonderful, and the last thing I would want to do is betray that trust. You're... You're worth every bit of the respect I can muster. Probably more. I don't want to lose you, Gillian... Like, ever."

Gillian blushes, nodding back. "A-and... what about you? What do you want from me?"

Delia hums: "Someone to share my... everything with, I guess. Movies, books, art, bed-" She pauses, catching herself, then shrugs with a blush: "... Okay, probably bed too."

Gillian grins, "I think I can handle that. I want to learn so much, and see all the things in the world I wasn't allowed to see. And... experience all those things too." She blushes, "B-bed stuff too. I meant that beautiful line."

Delia giggles, nuzzling into Gillian's chest fur: "As long as we are in agreement. Find and experience the world... One step at a time, and only the fun parts."

Gillian shifts to let Delia get comfy, stroking her hand down the corgi's back, "Mmm... plan for the fun parts, but we can always prepare for the bad. I want to be strong enough to weather any storm."

Delia nods, shivering slightly at Gillian's touch. "Y-yeah... Survive this crazy world together, but have fun doing it." She looks up: "I think most things would be fun with you."

Gillian giggles, "Well... only one way to find out?"

Delia grins: "You're on."

Gillian giggles, "Hard to say we both don't want each other, then." She blushes slightly, "Be with each other... But the rest as well."

Delia giggles: "One step at a time... But I have a feeling, we'll keep rushing and then being afraid that we did."

Gillian deflates a little, but nods, "P-probably. I want to grab your hand and sprint forward, but also afraid I might miss something."

Delia smiles: "At least I'll be stumbling right along with you." She pats her bed, the one they've been sitting on. "Like, say, for a random example, help me order food for us. Important decisions."

Gillian does seem a little confused at first, "Oh, I guess I just assumed I'd cook for you...?"

Delia smiles: "Another day, yes. But I don't want you to slave away in my kitchen on a day we dared to say those three words to each other." She smirks: "Besides, I crave some pepperoni, but don't have any."

Gillian blinks a bit, then smiles, "Oh! Well, we'll need to stock your pantry up one of these days. In the meantime, I can help!"

Delia smiles, then leans over to kiss Gillian on the cheek before jumping off the bed. "Come on, pretty thing. What are you in the mood for? My treat, naturally." It seems the corgi has gotten some encouragement from the conversation earlier...

Gillian readily joins Delia, her weight just a bit more than Delia's, she opts not to jump off. "Oh, uh, I don't know. I've never cooked much with pepperoni, but I've used capicola to make sandwiches!" She's never had a pizza. She's seen the word, but isn't even sure what pizza is, nor what she's missing. "So if you know a place that uses it, I'll trust your choice!"

Delia grins: "I'm pretty sure my parents would say that I subsist too much on ordering out." She flops onto her well-used computer chair and puts her desktop on in deft, routine motion. She turns to Gillian on the chair: "There's places nearby for just about anything that's fast food-ish. I'm particular to pizza right now, you up for that?"

Gillian considers as she follows Delia over to her chair and , "Oh! I've heard about pizza a few times since I um... left." She flinches a bit, opting to avoid the topic of her time between leaving home and arriving at Ad-Hoc, "I think they serve it every Friday at the cafeteria? I haven't tried it though."

Delia nods: "Yeah, they do though it's not very good pizza." She browses onto a delivery site and starts picking through it. "Mmm... Yeah, that one looks good. Double pepperoni with peppers."

Gillian looks over Delia's shoulder (or, entire head), watching the screen as Delia picks out pizza toppings. "That... will get spicy."

Delia grins: "I like spicy." She smiles warmly: "But you don't have to get one. Go on, pick what you want. Your pizza, your pick."

Gillian chuckles, blushing for some reason at Delia's smile. She gets closer to the screen, leaning in to read the options, "Oh, uh, I never made a pizza... what do I even want?" She hums a minute, "Okay, then, how about... Mushrooms. Garlic. Onion... Bacon? Yes, bacon. And add the feta! Oh, all those flavors will work well together, I bet! Um, is that good?"

Delia hums as she adds the combination to the order: "Sounds pretty good, actually." She giggles softly: "I wouldn't have thought to try mushrooms." She quickly changes her own pizza to include some, then goes to finish the order with well-familiar clicks. "Annd... There. Shouldn't take too long."

Gillian watches the process curiously, "Huh... We never really did ordered food, with my... Um, where I'm from. Everything was prepared for them. I guess this isn't that different."

Delia shrugs, spinning around in her chair: "I mean, it is someone else making food for us, just... Not in a fancy restaurant serving kind of way."

Gillian leans back to look down at Delia, smile fading slightly, as her tufted ears droop, "You must think I'm awfully dumb... I don't know much about pizza or food delivery or movies, or... A lot of stuff. Sorry if this is all so basic."

Delia smiles, opening her arms: "Hey, everyone is new to several somethings in their lives. How many things do you think I had to relearn upon losing almost half my height upon becoming a corgi?"

Gillian kneels down to hug Delia in her chair, laughing quietly, "I guess you're right. I... really need to stop worrying and just... go with it."

Delia leans into the hug: "There's enough things to worry about. No need to add this to the list."

Gillian hums, lowering her head to rest on Delia's lap. "It's easier said than done, sometimes."

Delia holds Gillian's head in her hands, smiling softly: "True. But I promise I won't be judging you for any lack of knowledge."

Gillian hums, enjoying the sensation and Delia's warmth. "It's all very new, and a little overwhelming sometimes. But it has all been pretty wonderful."

Delia runs her paws through Gillian's hair and neck: "Exploring new stuff can be... Also something I should maybe do more."

Gillian hums "Just more for us to do together, then."

Delia smirks: "Such a shame, that." She glances over her shoulder: "Half an hour to the pizzas, want to get comfier on the couch?"

Gillian reluctantly lifts her head up and nods. "I could help clean some stuff up around your home, but... I really can't say no to snuggling up either."

Delia smiles: "Well, I'm not going to stop you from cleaning since it seems to help calm you down, but..." She gets up and gives Gillian's cheek a kiss: "Up to you~"

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Delia and Gillian's Apartment - Late Afternoon

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Delia opens the door to her apartment. Well, not really just hers anymore, not really in any practical sense. The werecorgi steps inside, closes the door behind her, sets her shoulder bag aside and drops her jacket onto the floor. Few seconds pass as she just stares ahead, not really at anything in particular. Slowly, a smile creeps on her snout. Quietly, she pumps her fist... And very much not quietly, she lets out a loud cheer that almost turns into a howl. "Yes! "

Gillian only arrived 'home' moments ago, and is just setting things out in the kitchen to cook up something for dinner. Nothing in the oven yet, just spreading out the ingredients and taking stock of her plan. She glances up with a smile when she hears the door, and responds to the cheer with a giggle, "Oh! I'm glad to see you again too!"

Delia blinks mid-cheer, then looks at Gillian with a blushing smile. "Oh, uh, hey there, pretty thing." She walks towards the Faun, tail wagging: "Good to be home~."

Gillian slips out of the kitchen to meet the corgi half-way, giving her a hug, "I appreciate that, but I'm guessing that cheer wasn't for me though?"

Delia giggles: "Well um no. Though it kinda is too." She shakes her head, then grins: "I uh, I got it."

Gillian perks up, her ears standing up excitedly, "The interview was today? You got it?!" She grabs Delia and lifts her up into a tight hug, the Faun not exactly 'strong' but, well, it's not a hard lift. "I Knew you'd get it! Yes!"

Delia eep's upon being lifted, even though this has happened plenty before: "Ack! Yeah, uh, yeah I did!" She takes a breath: "Auriel apparently knew I was g-going to ask, can you imagine she had a room ready for me, an empty office I've even been cleaning!"

Gillian eeps as well, putting Delia down carefully, "Sorry! Sorry! You just... I get so excited for you! I uh... have a little bit of news myself... good and bad, if you're ready for it."

Delia tilts her head, looking up at her lover: "What's up? Hopefully nothing too bad."

Gillian shrugs a little sheepishly (goatishly?), "Well, uh, I had my review today regarding my progress at Ad-Hoc, and my job, and volunteer work, and everything else and well... they did offer me a job as the head chef of the campus cafeteria."

Delia blinks: "Oh wow, that's pretty incredible." She steps over to hug the Faun's midriff tightly. "Congratulations!" She then blinks her eyes open: "Wait, did we just... On a same day?"

Gillian giggles, "I suppose we did? I didn't realize you had an interview with Auriel, and uh, I didn't realize my check-in would turn into a job offer, but... here we are!" She practically beams.

Delia grins herself, hugging tighter: "We definitely are!" She steps back enough to just hold Gillian's hands: "We've got to celebrate this~."

Gillian shrinks a bit, "W-well I was cooking something... but it's not all good news. I mean, it's a little bit of a pay drop from the diner, but better hours... and um, the other little thing is... they sorta... told me I had to leave the campus."

Delia tilts her head, the smile waning slightly: "Leave?"

Gillian nods, "They um, weren't even sure I'd been using my room on campus... so they asked me to start looking for somewhere to live off-campus..." She points to a very small box of things by the door (because most of her things are already in the apartment), "I hope you don't mind me bringing everything here."

Delia blinks, the pauses, then realization dawns and the smile comes back. "Oh. Guess that makes sense... Roommate? No that sounds wrong. Let's go with girlfriend some more."

Gillian blushes, raising a hand up to rub her neck a bit awkwardly, "I didn't want to make assumptions and just say 'I'm moving in', but um... I guess I kinda already had? So um... if that's okay?"

Delia smirks: "I could say 'thought you'd never ask', but that's a bit cliche isn't it?"

Gillian giggles again, "Err... Umm.. sorry. I didn't want to impose! But I guess I sorta thought about it and... Um, not much changes if I'm just 'living' here versus always here anyways."

Delia giggles: "I think you're right, love. I guess... Welcome home, then."

Gillian squees a bit at the sound of it, "And welcome home to you! It's your home, I just um, live here? I'm just... Yeah. You know. I'm here."

Delia giggles and pulls herself into another hug: "Congrats, pretty thing."

Gillian hugs back, much less suddenly, but no less passionately, "And to you too! So uh... I hadn't really done much besides kitchen prep... what kind of celebration did you have in mind?"

Delia shrugs: "I dunno. But um... We could go out instead, let someone else cook for us, be pretty for just ourselves."

Gillian snugs again before letting Delia down, "Thought that might be what you had in mind. So, somewhere cheap...? Or somewhere I might need to wear that nice dress I bought myself?"

Delia hums, considering Gillian up and down: "I think I'd like to see you in that dress some more... "

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Delia and Gillian's Apartment - Late Evening

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One night, Delia is feeling hornier than usual. She starts idly licking at Gillian's chest when they're in bed.

Gillian eeps at the sudden sensation of corgi tongue across her chest, "Oh! Ah, um... you caught me off guard...!"

Delia giggles, leaning over: "Sorry. Just felt like doing that. Hope you don't mind."

Gillian blushes, shrinking a little in embarrassment, "N-no, a bit unexpected... but I certainly don't mind."

Delia hums: "Well good, or else I'm way worse at reading the people I love than I thought."

Gillian giggles, wiggling a bit beneath Delia, "O-oh? And what is your read on me, then, hm? You said you don't always like to do the therapy analysis with friends and family but... I think I deserve a little bit after you licked me."

Delia nuzzles onto Gillian's chest floof: "Well for one, you're soft. And big, relatively speaking." She looks up: "You're also adorable."

Gillian grins, nuzzling into Delia's fur, "That's all just reasons why you want to lick me! It doesn't tell me why you think I want to be licked."

Delia giggles: "Oh, fine. I actually don't know that for sure, but based on previous experience, I made an educated guess." She licks at Gillian's tit fur again: "And also cause that sends shivers down your spine I think."

Gillian does indeed shiver at the second lick, a little more prepared this time, but still clearly enjoying it. "Well, it was a good read anyways. I can give you some insight. B-because it feels good, and you make me feel special, and loved, and because I love you in return."

Delia smirks, then licks again: "Good insight, then. I like making you feel all that, and more. You're like... extra special in that regard." She giggles. "My little goat."

Gillian lifts a hand to pet Delia's head, then leans in to lick her face in return, giggling, "You never need to worry about that, you make me feel amazing, and special, and very happy."

Delia licks Gillian's nose: "Well, good. Cause you're very comfy to make comfortable and I'd hate to lose that~"

Gillian crosses her eyes to look down at her snout as Delia licks it, "Well... you won't lose me anytime soon. Anytime ever, if I can help it. So, um... lick wherever you feel like." She maybe doesn't quite realize what she's inviting with that.

Delia does, and blushes. "Oh. Well... m-maybe later. For now, Imma just... stay right here." She leans onto Gillian, closing her eyes.

Gillian blinks, but ends up wrapping her arms around Delia and snugging her close. "I'm not going anywhere, I rather like you right there as well."

Delia giggles: "Slightly more than roommates, now? I'd say yes." She nuzzles Gillian's neck: "Love you."

Gillian giggles at the feeling of the were-corgi's nose against her neck, "Just slightly more, and then some. I'm your humble servant, my love."

Delia smiles warmly: "Servant nothing, no more. You're my equal. Possibly better than me, really."

Gillian shakes her head, "Certainly not better. Equal, I'll accept. But the servant is in my blood. What I've learned from you is that it's my choice how and who I choose to serve, now. And you're my number one choice. It's just... One way I show my love, that's all."

Delia hmmf's on purpose to Gillian's neck fur: "F-fine, be that way. I'll just have to yield to you doing nice things to me." She pauses: "You'd honestly think I'd gotten out of that mindset of nice things done to me being bad, but here we are. How do you tolerate such a were-trainwreck?"

Gillian frowns ever so slightly, but it's hard to keep that up when your lover is on top of snuffling into your fur, "As easily as you tolerate my own trainwreck. I still have to fight back a panic attack if the silverware isn't properly put away in the kitchen! I'm getting better though... We both are. And together, too. Without you... I might have slunk back to my old manor that night... And I'd have probably thought I deserved any kind of punishment they gave me."

Delia frowns, looking up: "I-I'd find a way to travel back in time to stop you from doing that." She pauses: "That makes no sense, though. Unless my continued unhappiness from not ever having met you caused some kind of eureka moment into then finding a way into meeting you, and I'm not sure if time travel is necessary in either case. And I'm pretty sure it hasn't been invented yet, but who knows?"

Gillian can't help but laugh, squeezing Delia and giving her a peck on the forehead, "You thankfully don't have to do any of that, love. You found me entirely on your own, no time travel required... That we know of... I guess we can't rule it out...? But gosh I hope if there's a place we aren't together, that we get together there..."

Delia shrugs and leans on Gillians boobs again: "Yeah, if we're also out there somewhen, I hope we're going to be have been as happy as we are now."

Gillian hums, sinking back into the bed as Delia leans against her, "Agreed... I'm glad you've let me be a good thing in your life. And been such a good thing in mine as well."

Delia hums in mirror: "Well, we're all good then." She pauses: "...okay, so things are still all crazy in this world and at Ad-Hoc, but you know, deal with all that one day at a time. Together."

Gillian frowns, squeezing Delia again, "I don't... I don't think I can do anything about all of that... I'm not much... But I just want to help where I can... And cling to our own little bit of happiness here."

Delia squeezes back: "Like I am clinging to you right now?"

Gillian nods. "Maybe a bit like that, yes... The world is... Scary... I know so little about it, and how others might think and feel about me... About anyone at Ad-Hoc."

Delia sighs a bit: "Yeah... I have no illusions that there are people out there who would not want us to be. But Ad-Hoc is a safe haven. For us and others."

Gillian nods slowly, and smiles faintly. "It brought us together. For that alone, it's worth doing everything I can to help them."

Delia smiles: "Wouldn't have it any other way. It just feels right, you know? Helping others like so many of them did help us."

Gillian nods, "Being of service to those who Need it... Feels a lot better than being of service to people who don't even care about me, that's for sure."

Delia nuzzles onto Gillian again: "Mm, I can only imagine. And besides, your food is so good~."

Gillian blushes, and pecks Delia's forehead again, "It's... well... I think I do alright. But you're sweet to say so."

Delia smirks: "Are you kidding? My diet consisted of junk pizzas and cheap takeaway until you came in and changed all that."

Gillian grows serious, though a hint of a blush remains on her face, "A crime. A crime! A well cooked meal is an experience! I'm just glad you enjoy my cooking... I do love to cook for someone as appreciative as you."

The corgi grins: "Well there's a lot to appreciate. You spoil me."

Gillian's expression breaks back into a smile, and she kisses Delia a little more passionately, "You're easy to spoil, when you always give me that grin in return."

Delia giggles into the kiss, her tail wagging: "I'm an easy puppy to amuse."

Gillian giggles back, "Then I'm lucky no one else came along before me."

Delia hums: "Well you know, I'm kinda below most people's notice. But you noticed me."

Delia pauses, then licks Gillian's nose.

Gillian squeaks again, giggling at the lick, "I know that feeling... but you noticed me first... and now you could never be below my notice."

Delia blushes, smiling, her tail wagging slowing: "T-that does make me happy, you know that. Being... well, noticed."

Gillian blushes, "I don't know if I like being noticed... at least, not by most folks... being noticed by you though, it was the turning point to a lot of things in my life."

Delia shrugs, still leaning on Gillian's chest: "Well you know, it kinda turned into one for me too. I d-definitely don't feel as alone as I once was. Ad-Hoc is a found family of sorts, but... even there, no one really gives me the time of day that much."

Gillian giggles, "Until now, at least. And even if they don't, and you feel ignored, you know that I'll always be here waiting for you." She blinks, realizing just how sappy and strong that sounds, but opts to double down. "I mean that, too. I love you dearly, Delia."

Delia smiles, her blush bright enough to light up the room almost: "W-well, you know... I love you too. You're the best thing that's happened to me since I grew fur... scratch that, you're the best thing that's happened to me ever."

Gillian steals a kiss, "I suppose I'll accept that... but the fur does make you look rather beautiful... but I guess I've never known you without it."

Delia blushes as a thought occurs to her: "W-well... f-for you..." She hesitates, swallowing: "I c-could, in theory... s-show you..."

Gillian blinks, "D-didn't you say it hurts to transform? I wouldn't want you to go through anything like that for my sake."

Delia nods slowly: "I-it does. It usually makes me pass out." She looks up at Gillian's eyes: "But for you, i-if you want to see who I was, and I guess still am in a way..." The corgi is torn. Very, very torn.

Gillian reaches up to put a hand on Delia's cheek, looking back into her eyes while cradling her face, "...Love... I already see who you are."

Delia blinks and blushes: "Ah um. Y-yeah. O-of course." She sighs with a soft smile: "I g-guess you'll see one day anyway if I have to force it."

Gillian nods, "If you have to... but I would never want you to force it on my account unless you want it."

Delia goes quiet for a second, gathering her thoughts. "It's... for the first time I would feel safe enough to try. That you'll be here if the change takes my lights out."

Gillian nods again, slightly concerned, "I will be here to keep you safe if anything happens, yes."

Delia sighs: "It just... I know it sounds silly, but I k-kind of want you to see."

Gillian smiles, "I just want to make sure it's your choice, and not because you feel like you owe it to me or anything. I love you no matter what you look like."

Delia blushes: "I know. I know. It's just... well. I want you to know." She shakes her head: "J-just gotta have a day where it's okay for both of us if I pass out."

Gillian reaches around to hug Delia tight. "Whenever you're comfortable with it, I can be hear. All I care about is making sure you'll be okay." She pauses, "I... okay, I'll admit, I'm at least a little curious about how you'll look as a human... part of me, that old voice that makes me feel bad about myself... it says if you were human, you wouldn't even want to waste your time with a demi- like me... I know that's stupid but..."

Delia smiles with her blush: "I have no idea where my life would be if I hadn't been cursed back then. But I doubt I'd be this happy, comfortable and loved." Her hands wander to Gillian's sides: "I want to show you, because I want there to be nothing I'm keeping from you, even if it's not like... on purpose, but just like a part of me that once was, and still is. Kind of."

Delia continues: "And it's... I know you are not with me cause of who I could be, but I still want to give you a glimpse of me that - well - could be."

Gillian rests her head against Delia's neck, nuzzling gently. "Then I'd like to see that, yes. All I want is for you to be safe in doing it, and then I can do everything I can to keep you happy, and comfortable... and very, very loved."

Delia nuzzles into Gillian: "Mmm. I think you do all of those." She pauses for a second: "C-completely safe I can not promise, a-although you being with me helps... it helps a lot."

Gillian sighs, "If you're sure..." She pulls back to look Delia in the eyes, "But not a force in this world could keep me away."

Delia smiles warmly: "Then I believe I should." She pulls back as well, sitting on the bed with her legs under her. Still easily within arm's reach, just far enough to her form about to get bigger. She leans her hands to her knees as she looks at Gillian: "Are you ready?" Her tail wags nervously. This is a lot more nerve-wrackingly exciting than just being naked with her lover.

Gillian watches Delia, then slips out of bed to sit on edge, making herself close without crowding the corgi before she changes. She reaches out her hand, a serious expression on her face. "I am. If there's anything I can do to help, just say the word. And please, please don't push yourself too hard. I love you... I'm here for you."

Delia nods, her heart beating hard and fast: "I p-promise. T-this is something I've been thinking about for a while..." She tries to give an encouraging smile, though it's slightly marred by her nervousness. She takes a deep breath. "Okay. Here goes." She lifts her hands to her sides, making small motions as though encouraging the change to come and get her.

Her change starts as her shifting between feral and anthro does, although it's noticeably slower. She grits her teeth and lets out a small squeak of pain. Brave face or not, going human hurts. She doesn't stop, though, opening her eyes enough to glance at Gillian.

Gillian reaches out to take Delia's hand, even if just to give her something to squeeze in pain. Her face still shows her obvious concern, but she simply nods, "You're okay, love. You're alright. I'm here."

Delia gives Gillian a smile: "Y-yes. Okay. Okay. I can do this." She focuses again, squeezing at Gillian's hand almost instantly as her fur goes lighter, softer, thinner as her snout starts to push ínwards. It's not completely unpleasant looking, although certainly off-putting for someone who has only ever seemingly been the one with the dog's face. Her paw in Gillian's hand slowly loses its' pads, and behind her, her tail starts to shrink. All the while Delia gets bigger in size.

Gillian frowns, watching Delia struggle through the changes, but her hands don't move from Delia's paw/hand, only shifting to make Delia's grip more comfortable. Watching someone you know so well quite literally become someone, something else is certainly strange and unsettling, but the faun doesn't say anything about that, "Almost there... uh, I assume. I mean, yeah. Almost there, Delia."

Delia groans, then shrieks in pain as the changes course through her. She shivers as her fur diminishes and vanishes, leaving only a mid-lenght brown hair down her head and back. She pants heavily, wrapping her arms around herself as she shudders. Somehow, she is still conscious, if barely.

The human in front of Gillian is about the same height as the Faun, and about as shapely. Her skin is light brown, and her looks overall are vaguely of Mediterranean direction, although it's probable even Delia herself couldn't tell from where exactly. She gives Gillian a pained, shivering smile: "H-hurts. B-but, b-but I wanted you to see."

Gillian moves to hold Delia and keep her from falling off the bed. "It's alright, you got through it..." She smiles at the human, "And I do see. I'm just sorry to say you're just as beautiful like this. ...you need anything?"

Delia keeps breathing hard. She just nods: "J-just. Just..." She takes a breath and takes the Faun's hands in hers: "N-not f-feeling great, b-but I had to... oh boy the room should not spin this much."

Gillian holds Delia's hand but quickly gets to work, shifting out of bed to (somewhat insistently) urge Delia back to lay down. "Of course it shouldn't. That took a LOT out of you, Love, and I'm glad you're alright, but you need to lay down, and you need to rest from the exertion. I think if you ever want to do this again, it should be with a heartier meal too... lots of carbs, might give you the energy to get through it smoother... I don't know! I uh, just... lay back, okay."

Delia does as guided, not that she's really in the position to argue. She giggles tiredly: "Ah heh. I'm f-fine. I'm... okay, sorta mostly kinda fine-ish?" She leans to give Gillian a kiss: "Y-you-re pretty as ever, tho." It's fairly obvious the not-corgi is pretty delirious, and probably in more pain than she's showing: "We have a good bed. Come here."

Gillian hesitates at first, "I could get you some water or something out of medicine cabinet or..." She sighs, smiling cautiously, then climbs back into bed, carefully coming alongside Delia, gently returning the kiss, "Ah, I can't leave you like this..."

Delia giggles again, then collapses back, the energy out of her. She winces, then lets out a groan: "I'm just gonna... gonna..." She leans her head back to the pillows, out like a light. She's breathing calmly, if painedly. The tiniest creeping of fur back to her features are already upon her cheeks and at the edge of her ears.

Gillian watches Delia in concern, but once she notes the breathing is alright, she simply cuddles up to cautiously, too nervous to do much more than watch her love slowly shift back to her old, yet new self.

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The Next Morning

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The next morning, Delia slowly wakes up, her head feeling a bit foggy and her body all kinds of numb. There's an odd thought that something happened last night, but she can't quite place what it was...

Gillian lays besides Delia, an arm draped over her as she seems to have fallen asleep at some point while watching over Delia.

Delia mm's warmly as she realizes who is on top of her. "Hey, sleepyhead. Good morning~", she whispers.

Gillian hums at first, then startles herself awake, "Ah! Delia?! Are you okay? Oh gosh, I feel asleep!"

Delia blinks a couple of times: "Am I... Oh! Oh darn I really did it, didn't I?" She blushes, smiling sheepishly: "H-hope it wasn't too horrible... "

Gillian takes a moment to get her bearings, then sighs, relaxing back down into bed as she smiles at Delia, "You did... and it wasn't. I was just worried about you."

Delia smiles, leaning her head towards Gillian: "G-good. I mean, I did kinda know you'd be okay, b-but... Those kinda nagging thoughts, you know?"

Gillian nods, "You were beautiful... not just as your human self, but the whole way through... Even the change... i-is that weird?"

Delia shrugs: "W-well, most maybe would not agree, but I'm glad you think so." She sighs: "K-kinda a weight off my chest, knowing that."

Gillian smiles, leaning over to peck Delia, "I'm glad you feel better about it. I would love you no matter what you looked like. Though, if you ever feel so crazy as to want to do that again, I want to help you a little more than just holding your hand."

Delia hums, thinking: "Well... There may be something..." She turns to Gillian, leaning to the kiss: "... But that's later if anything. Right now I just want to love you~"

Gillian sighs, but gently leans in closer, getting herself into a cozier position than her unintended nap left her. "...that, I can provide."

Delia nuzzles the Faun: "You know that's a bigger help than anything else right now." Her stomach growls loudly and the corgi blushes: "Well um. Besides maybe breakfast."

Gillian giggles, "Breakfast I can also do. I can't imagine a transformation that hard doesn't use up a lot of energy, so lets do something carb heavy, hm?"

Delia grins: "You won't hear a no from me." She licks Gillian's cheek before shifting enough to start getting up.

Gillian blushes at the lick, turning to watch Delia for a moment and simply admire her with a happy grin, before she too gets out of bed. "I love you, Delia. ...simple as that, really."

Delia giggles: "I think we've had enough complications in our lives without making love one of them." She takes Gillian's hand in her paw: "Lead the way, beautiful."

Gillian nods, squeezing Delia's paw just a little as they head out of the bed room and into the kitchen, her smile growing as she gets into her element, sorting out some ingredients to make pancakes, "True enough."

Delia sits at the small table, leaning on it as Gillian does her magic: "I'm not often right, but I think I got this one."

Gillian giggles, "I can't speak for past decisions, but you've been more right than wrong as far as I've ever seen."

Delia shrugs: "Maybe you've just been blinded by love and I'm in reality a complete disaster." She smirks.

Gillian sets about stirring the batter, humming, "Could be. Could be that I'm the mistake and you're blinded to me!" She smirks back, "I don't think either of those are true."

Delia hums, pretending to think on this: "I don't know, you are pretty radiant. You might have a point."

Gillian stops to glance at Delia, "W-well there are those stories about Satyrs and Fauns being too alluring, inviting adventurers to drink their wine and forget their troubles, only to seduce them. S-surely I wouldn't do that!"

Delia nods, continuing her musing: "Clearly so. I don't think we have wine in here right now."

Gillian glances around the cabinets, "We don't... We could get some..."

Delia shrugs: "I think we can fit it to sometime today. Pick something sparkly. Like you."

Gillian giggles pouring the batter into the pan, "And something sweet? Like you."

Delia grins: "Sounds like a deal to me. Now, what to enjoy with it, besides you?"

Gillian starts to rather efficiently make a stack of pancakes, moving the finished ones onto a plate. "Depends, um, what are we celebrating exactly? Should it be something big and formal, or just... a movie and snacks? And wine...?"

Delia shrugs: "We can figure out what we're celebrating later. I just want to spend the day with you."

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Later that Day - The Park

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Delia walks in front of Gillian, the feral form corgi wearing a guide dog vest. No reason, beyond she found it funny to do it that way when Gillian is 'walking' her.

Gillian blinks, watching Delia walk by. "...it is cute. But we could probably find you some cuter outfits for that form if you wanted~"

Delia giggles, as usual only paying the lightest of lip service to keeping up the illusion of actually being a dog: "Well, I'm not going to say no..." She glances around the path, the pair being seemingly alone in the small park for the moment, an odd spot of calm in the middle of the day.

Gillian giggles, wearing a simple skirt and blouse, her apron removed at the moment while she's on break. She reaches down to lift up the corgi and set her down on her lap. "I think it'd be fun, but I do like dressing up. Both me and you."

Delia eep's, giggling some more: "We-eell, when you put it that way..." She gives Gillian's snout a lick: "Sure." Definitely just a loving dog and her owner. Deeefinitely.

Gillian giggles back as Delia's tongue tickles her nose. She scritches at the corgi's ears, "I don't know if I could find a maid dress your size..."

Delia blushes under her fur: "A maid dress...?"

Gillian shrugs, "Well that's my favorite... I mean... I guess I did spend a long time as a maid, so it just feels comfortable to me in a weird way." She glances away awkwardly, "Maybe that's weird? But I think it'd be cute."

Delia hums, then nods: "I can live with weird and cute." She gives Gillian's chest a nuzzle before jumping back down on the path.

Gillian snorts, laughing as she gives Delia one last pat before the corgi jumps down, "I'd hope so, since you do live with me now. And I'm... oh gosh I didn't mean to just outright say I'm cute." She probably didn't, the goat is a bit shy about complimenting herself, "B-But, um... I am a bit weird."

Delia smirks: "You are cute. There, now I said it so you're safe implying you are." She flicks her tail: "Should we start heading back?"

Gillian still blushes, but slowly nods, standing up from the park bench, "I can be, sometimes, I suppose.... and yes, I suppose we should."

Delia glances around, then seeing no one, shifts into anthro form despite lacking clothes. She hugs the Satyr: "I can set the table, this time."

Gillian gasps a bit, glancing around the park as she hugs Delia back, "D-Delia! You're in public! T-the scandal..." She glances down at her girlfriend, blushing heavily.

Delia lets go, then shifts back to feral form just as quickly: "Just wanted to give you that, love."

Gillian giggles, still blushing from the naked hug, "N-not complaining about the hug... th-though I am glad it doesn't hurt you to shift down into that form, love."

Delia nods as she continues walking: "It's weird how it has worked for me, but I'll take it." She gives a small sigh: "Not that I have options."

Gillian follows closely, glancing down at Delia with a frown. "But plenty of support." She pauses, thinking, "You did mention that you might have an option before, the other night when you changed all the way back human."

Delia blinks, then pauses to think... Then shakes her head. "Maybe. It is a bit of a long shot, but... I guess it's not completely impossible that someone else somewhere, outside of Ad-Hoc, has found a solution."

Gillian listens, nodding, expression dropping a little, "Oh... I thought maybe it was something expensive, or dangerous... but you don't even know if it's a thing. Guess if you'd found a solution, you'd have pursued it already. It's such a hard thing for me to think about sometimes... if I could do something to just... become human... would I? Would that make life easier? Would it make the doubts in my head go quiet? But I was never human to begin with, which makes it a much weirder question."

Delia looks over her shoulder and gives a small canine smile: "Hard questions I've spent half my life trying to answer. And I just don't know."

Gillian sighs, smiling back. "Well... at least you won't be alone in not knowing... but if you look into it and find anything, I'll support whatever you decide, of course."

Delia gives a soft, warm laugh as she turns to nuzzle Gillian's leg. "I know. But thank you anyway. After you saw... Well, me, I have not had a sliver of doubt anymore."

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Delia and Gillian's Apartment

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Delia pounces onto Gillian's lap.

Gillian eeps! But quickly reaches down to pet Delia.

Delia shifts form while in Gillian's lap, growing in size and shape enough to kiss the Satyr. "Hi, you."

Gillian giggles, continuing to pet Delia, although that petting does shift a bit into a loving caress as she kisses back. "And hi, you."

Delia leans: "How was your day?"

Gillian smiles, "It was... good. a little overwhelming at times, but... but it was good! How about yours?"

Delia shrugs: "Same old, mostly under patient-therapist confideliaty. Nothing I can talk about much, not even with you, you know how it goes."

Gillian nods, "Wasn't too long ago it was me having those talks... I wouldn't want to know, I just want to know how you're doing."

Delia gives Gillian's snout a lick: "Oh, in that case, I'm doing good. Better now that I'm right here."

Gillian giggles, "Oh? Why better? N-no reason in particular?" She's teasing, but also part of her does want a bit of validation. She's been doing so much better, but still has her doubts sometimes.

Delia leans, holding her arms to Gillian's shoulders even as she continues to sit in her lap: "Well you know, something about a loving embrace with a lovely lover who is worth loving a lot. Somewhere along those lines, in that sort of vague territory of things."

Gillian blushes, but shifts position to better hold Delia close, "I uh, had a hunch... but it is nice to hear. Home with you here does make everything feel all right in the world, I admit."

Delia giggles: "At the very least, everything all right in this apartment, with you. I'm not sure we can extend it to the whole world and the world likely wouldn't want it it either." She pauses, pretends to think, then grins: "And I don't want to share anyway."

Gillian kisses Delia's cheek, "My world feels right, then. And you're the only one I want to share this feeling with."

Delia blushes just slightly with her grin: "Sounds like a plan, then." She holds Gillian close: "Don't really wanna leave anyway, so you're stuck."

Gillian nods, nuzzling against Delia's neck, "I can't think of anyone I'd rather be stuck with."

Delia smirks into the nuzzle: "I mean, eventually we might get hungry but that's a problem I'm willing to wait to solve until we are there."

Gillian scrunches her snout, feigning a bit of pain, "Aw, but cooking for you is a problem I love solving!"

Delia licks the snout in question: "Fine, you can do that. But only if you don't let go of me." She giggles.

Gillian giggles in turn, "A challenge, but one I'm willing to try... sometimes it gets so busy at the cafeteria that I swear I'm going to try to train my tail to carry plates anyways, so it'll be good practice!"

Delia smirks: "I can just sit at the table, too. I'm just teasing." She jumps down from Gillian's lap, shifting to all fours as she does: "I don't want my hair in the food anymore than you do." She starts walking towards the kitchen, winking at Gillian over her shoulder.

Gillian shakes her head, then gets up to follow Delia into the kitchen, "Oh, fair I suppose. It would have been a way to combine my two greatest loves. Cooking for you is just as good as cooking with you, though."

Delia giggles: "If you think you're up for you it, you know you don't need to ask to pick me up~"

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Delia and Gillian's Apartment

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Gillian snuggles Delia strongly.

Delia giggles and snuggles and sneaks a lick on Gillian's nose.

Gillian blushes, then gives Delia a lick back. "L-like this?"

Delia blinks, then giggles: "D-dang, you're learning!"

Gillian blushes hotter, grinning a little guiltily, "I'm trying! I'm trying. New ways to show I love you."

Delia smiles proudly: "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love that are!" Her tail wags as she talks: "It's good to be fluent in love languages~"

Gillian wraps her arms around Delia's back and kisses the corgi, "I'm... I'm hardly fluent. Just practicing. But you're quite an encouraging presence."

Delia smirks after the kiss: "Yes, but the only way to get fluent in a language is to actively practice~."

Gillian giggles, "Well, that too. I'm a diligent student."

Delia grins: "The best." She licks her nose again, just for good measure.

Gillian licks Delia's nose afterwards, "In love, you're the best teacher I could ask for."

Delia blushes, giggling some more: "Well, maybe. You're my first love as a corgi." She sighs a bit and leans back: "I've just read a lot of fiction and nonfiction both on the topic, and am silly enough to put them to action I guess."

Gillian blushes, "You're my first love... it's all new and exciting to me, like a lot of things in the world, and you're here to show me both. It doesn't feel silly to me... it feels... I don't know... special."

Delia scoots closer: "Well, then you can safely ignore my uncertainties and treat it as fresh as you want~. I won't mind."

Gillian hugs her against her chest, "Oh, Delia... you know I can't ignore you at all~. I have a lot of uncertainties too, but you, and my feelings for you, they're not even on the list."

Delia giggles and nuzzles upon her girlfriend: "Well then, we're good. Snacks, blankets, hot drinks and movie tonight?"

Gillian giggles, nuzzling her snout against Delia, "I'd love that. Maybe one of the cheesy romances... and cheesy snacks?"

Delia smirks as she leans on her much taller lover, placing her snout upon her chest: "Mmm I like cheese. And your boobs, but perhaps not cheese on your boobs."

Gillian squirms a bit as Delia's snout tickles against her, giggling, "That might be a bit too messy for my tastes... besides, it would ruin the cheese! But you can certainly help yourself... to either, I mean. ...to my boobs, I mean."

Delia smiles with a slightly lecherous blush: "Only if you're okay with it, and of course same goes in reverse, love~."

Gillian nods, face still quite red. "I'm okay with it. I like being cuddled up with you. ...I like your touch."

Delia takes Gillian's hand and gives a small bow: "Then, shall I lead you towards our den of cheesy romance? You pick the movie, I'll get the snacks ready~."

Gillian squeezes Delia's hand and nods as she gets up, "That'd be fun! I'll try to pick something just right... something fun, but not too fun that we get all drawn in and forget each other..." She pauses a moment, "...there's probably not a movie out there to make me forget about you, so... I'll just pick something fun, yeah."

Delia giggles, leaning over to give Gillian's neck a kiss before leading the way to the den: "Tonight, it's all your choice, love."

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Delia and Gillian's Apartment

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Gillian unlocks the door to Delia's... (And her own!) Apartment, slightly dazed from a strange encounter on the way home. She's carrying two packages with her, one a rather plain grocery back with the top of a wine bottle peeking out, the other a somewhat fancier looking box without any other markings upon it. She sounds a bit lost in thought as she speaks up to announce herself, as if Delia didn't already know it was her, "Delia? I'm home."

Delia blinks up from her study (of laying on the couch), perking up enough to peer over the back of the couch to the door: "Hey there, beautiful. Good day?" The corgi is as usual only wearing shorts and a bra, her long fur really making it uncomfortable to wear much more even in this old tenement building.

Gillian smiles warmly, "Good day... Weird day." She walks to the couch first, leaning over the top to give Delia a kiss, then heads around into the kitchenette, something clearly on her mind, "...Hey uh... So you know how I've been talking with Liza and Lei about my own kind, right? I never really knew much about Satyrs before. Nothing but the stereotypes."

Delia leans onto the back of the couch after the kiss, being short enough to be on her knees as she does so. "Oh? I admit I also have had a shortcoming in there, really by now I should have found a book on the topic that is neutral... which come to think of it, easier said than done." Vast majority of psychology, biology and related academic topics still being written by humans, and all that. Or Demis under a pen name, pretty much what she figures she'll do if she ever writes anything.

Gillian chuckles a little awkwardly, fiddling with some of the kitchen utensils, something Gillian has probably come to recognize as a bit of a 'safety zone' for Gillian when she's feeling uncertain or uncomfortable, "W-well there's lots of myths about Satyrs and... you know, sex magic. And that led to a talk with Dr. Arum-Lily... and I guess I have been a bit afraid of that kind of thing, but we've certainly done some exploration together and it's not like you're enthralled or anything so... Lily said maybe we should... go a little deeper, together... and I was going to bring it up to you but..."

She fiddles with the box, "On the way home... I found this weird store..."

Delia tilts her head, uncertain where this is going as she looks at the box. "So, er... what's in the box? You're leading up to something." She blinks and blushes just a bit. "Something... sexy?"

Gillian blushes, caught off guard by Delia's abruptness, "I- I was getting to that!" She takes a second to compose herself, then opens the box, holding up two sets of gold-looking anklets. "They're... well, they're supposed to be um... 'shared experience cuffs', he called them. We each wear them around the ankle, and they... well... 'join us' together..."

Gillian is beet red at this point, "I told the clerk I wanted something that would bring us closer together, and he recommended this. Said it was 'practically made for us'. It was really weird, sorta... just felt right to buy? They weren't even that expensive, the wine cost me more. But when I left the shop and turned around to check the address, it wasn't even there anymore."

Delia giggles, then stops herself, waving a paw. "Sorry, sorry. Go on." She then listens intently, the blush not exactly going anywhere, only somewhat tempered by confused curiosity. When Gillian stops, she is quiet for a second as she figures out which part of the deal to ponder first.

"So... wait, the shop just up and vanished? What kind of shop does that?" She stares at nothing for a second, then shrugs: "...some fib somewhere, I guess." Her mind then wanders to the admittedly lot more interesting part: "'Shared experience cuffs?' How do you mean... join us? I... am going to hazard a guess that we're not talking merely about cuffing our ankles together. I have no magic and I can still tell something of the sort is going on with those."

Gillian motions with her fingers making two 'Vs' that probably represent their legs, and slides them together, "Sorta magically merges us at the legs... And then uh... Then I figured we'd be a bit stuck, without much between us, so I needed to get something to uh... Fill the gap..." She removes the next piece from the bag, a rather high quality double-sided dildo, and she bites at her lip, "A-and then I got the wine at the corner store run by that nice Harpy. I-in case we uh... wanted a bit of extra courage." She laughs just a little too loudly at her own joke.

Delia's eyes widen at the timid Satyr bringing this on her. "Oh... oh wow, Gillian." She tries to get off the couch, just barely avoiding falling down on the way, standing with a wide smiling blush: "That's... very forward of you. Good k-kind of forward, I think." Even if she didn't say it, the careful wag of her tail would betray what she thinks. Or at least, what some lower parts of her think. Want.

Gillian laughs again, "W-well I didn't know if you'd be interested or not... But at least I knew you'd be open to listening. I don't want to pressure you into this, cause I know it's a lot. Everything just sorta... Conspired against me today, and next thing you know..." She motions down at the sex toys, "All this. Lily said I should just go with my feelings when I want to... That maybe I've repressed some part of me that's completely natural, but that I've tried to puah away. That maybe I've been ashamed of those feelings of being a satyr..."

Delia considers, though the consideration comes with definite smirk at the edge of her smile: "W-well, if it's... exploration you want, I t-think I can help... n-not that, you know, I'm the most experienced with, er, stuff either, so this should be..." She hums for a second, then shrugs: "...enlightening." Yes, clearly that is the word to use.

Gillian giggles, "Very, I'm sure! We uh, oh gosh, I really jumped into this. I mean, we'll want to know if this is all safe and all first. Sketchy mystery shop that disappeared after I left selling cheap magical sex toys? Ha... What was I even thinking buying some like this..." She plays with kne of the anklets carefully, "I mean... So long as we can undo it..."

Delia steps closer, examining the package: "Well, surely there's some sort of instruction set with something this weird, yeah?" Surely enough, she finds a neatly folded set of papers that are detailed as she starts reading. "Just hmm, put your stuff away while I read, that work? We wanna be sure there's nothing sketchy - well, more sketchy - about this." Even with her doubts, she admits she is intensely curious.

Gillian nods, humming "Sounds good. Love you, Delia." She grins and egins neatly putting things away while Delia reads. She clearly feels a bit relieved just to have it all out there, regardless of what Delia does or does not agree to, there's a certain degree of happiness just in knowing her partner treats this matter seriously, even if it feels weird to talk about.

Delia starts reading, and really puts her mind to it, as she does with anything she's passionate about. After perhaps five minutes of the corgi not even making any kind of sound. "...from the looks of it, they've covered every base. There's an incantation written that does and undoes the spell, there is a small backup potion included, and even if the shop vanished... there's even an email address you can reach if something goes wrong. But it does say it is tested with people who have no magic, and it is foolproof, so we shouldn't even need the potion." She looks up from the floor she sat down to read at and smiles: "We should be good to go. Though the way this is described, might be easier if we mostly enjoy the wine first..."

Delia glances at the paper, blinking: "...they even have a patent. How?"

Gillian finishes up, even wiping down the counter, she's taken to keeping their kitchen spotless, her point of pride in the apartment. She comes back over to Delia and tilts her head, "That is awfully rigorous for a disappearing magic sex shop... Must be part of the mystique...? But... But it's safe, then? And y-yes, even as excited as I might be... It's sorta... A little scary to think about. H-hence the wine. Yes."

Delia giggles, finally putting the paper aside once she's sure she can't extract more information from it. "I agree with the wine, I t-think. This is kind of scary, but the good kind of scary. I'm sure plenty of people have done this before, we're just new to this." she gets up and walks over to give Gillian a soft kiss.

Gillian gently kisses back, lingering a little moment extra, "But new is good, right? Exciting and... Fun, I hope? I love you, and I love spending time with you..." She blushes, "And maybe I should try to be a little more satyr-like, because gosh if you don't make me burn at the thought of you..."

Delia waves a hand even as she uses the other to hug her lover: "I don't know if leaning to stereotypes is the answer, or otherwise I'd have to go crazy every fullmoon... but otherwise I agree. You make me hot."

Gillian nods, "Not leaning into them, just... Not denying my feelings just because they're 'saytrish'. I guess when it's you making me feel like this, I can't know if it's because of me, or just because you're so beautiful. I don't think it matters so long as you're here."

Delia nuzzles Gillian's chest, then smiles as she looks up: "Fair enough. Hard to say what's feeling all passionate cause it's us, or cause of some Satyr thing. Though I guess, it doesn't even matter, I'm not going anywhere." She glances at the golden cuffs: "...it seems, literally pretty soon."

Gillian snugs Delia close, in part pushing the Corgi against her chest, licking her lips just a bit, "I- I'm looking forward to it."

Delia sighs her face softly against Gillian: "I d-didn't know it, but I think I am too...?" Yep, there's the tail wagging. The corgi is excite.

Gillian watches the tail wag a moment with a grin, "So... A little dinner, a little wine, and then...?"

Delia smiles warmly: "I think you got it. The usual, except after dinner instead of movie it's..." She can't help but giggle: "Enlightenment."

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Later that Evening

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A light dinner and a few glasses of wine later, the very nervous couple moves towards the bedroom, Gillian holding the box containing the gold cuffs like it's going to explode, and the way the Satyr is tittering, she might too. "Ohh okay. Okay. Are we really going to do this? H-how do we do this? Are you ready to do this? ...I feel ready."

Delia is equally jittery as she slides to the bed: "T-this feels almost unreal, like part of me wants to say this is just... I don't know, some very elaborate joke, but... well, I guess no one would go to these lenghts..." She looks at Gillian: "Sorry. Yeah, we are doing this. I guess just... sit face to face as instructed and... go from there?"

Gillian nods. She leans in to give Delia a kiss, "You're no joke to me, but I would go to Any lengths for you. Th-thank you for this." She glances back at the cuffs and nods, taking the first one and climbing up onto the bed to sit down, waiting for Delia to join her.

Delia picks the other pair, then sits on the bed against Gillian. She lifts the cuff in her hand: "So... we pair like, I understand, the marked pairs together, like the 'left' of this pair to the 'right' of yours, and once they're on, the magic should... kind of attract our ankles together and... that's the part that was full of magic explanations I did not fully understand, but it should be fine." She has never truly understood magic or how it works, but there is no denying that it does, that much she is surrounded by it with just working with a lot of Demis.

Gillian nods, comparing the markings on her set with Delia's to make sure she's following directions to the letter. "W-well, guess we'll find out!" She carefully slips the first onto her left ankle, waiting a moment to see if there's any kind of sensation, then shrugs and nervously slips on the right ankle. "O-okay! Okay... Nothing yet. But, that makes sense... S-so... It's up to you. As long as you're sure. I'm okay if this feels too weird and we need to stop."

Delia nods, just a bit nervous, then starts to slip the anklet on... and immediately feels a pull of her right leg toward Gillian's left: "O-oh. There's definitely something." She swallows and puts on the other one: "Here goes nothing. Worldly caiman pie." Soon as she finishes saying the words of the spell, her legs move towards Gillian's on their own and... as a glow emanates from her toes touching into the satyr's hoof...

The corgi stares in silent amazement as her toes, then foot, then ankle just swallows into Gillian's, while the goat's hoof similarly vanishes into the spell.

Gillian shivers at the feeling, like the pins and needles of one's leg falling asleep and losing feeling, only to have an entirely different limb wake up, as she can indeed 'feel' Delia past where they connect... Where do they connect? Their legs merge into one another past the point where you could easily say where Gillian ends and Delia begins, "Ohhh, w-wow... I thought I understood but..." She experimentally tries to lift one leg.

Delia giggles as her leg is lifted from the knee down: "Eep!" ... or is it up, and is it actually her knee or Gillian's? One fur pattern sort of merging into another in actually fairly smooth gradient... Her leg goes down as normal until her thigh, then it starts to merge into Gillian's in a way where indeed it's hard to tell whose limb they're even talking about. Feelings and all. But only one joint where she's pretty sure Gillian's knee is, her own feral 'knee' (such as it is) feeling inflexible slightly up... or down? from that.

The corgi just stares, leaning back onto her hands: "...yeah um... wow." She experimentally attempts to move her leg and YEP definitely also moving Gillian's leg.

Gillian lowers 'her' leg as Delia moves the other, "O-oh! That feels weird... But good~." She glances at Delia, making sure this hasn't gone too far, "How are you? Still alright?"

Delia nods back as the glow settles and vanishes, their legs just fused together as though it was always that way, so smooth is the transition. "Y-yeah, I am... yeah, feels strangely good, I don't know if it's the magic working on us or..." She trails off as she stares at their now-fused legs. After a moment, she just nods at Gillian with a smile. "It's crazy, and like a dream, but... I'm okay. We're okay?"

Gillian nods back, watching the glow fade at last. The sensations and feelings in the faun are already building up a powerful heat in her, "I guess we're okay, yeah. Working as expected. Oh gosh, I didn't expect it to be so... So... Just so sexy~." She squirms, making Delia squirm with her.

Delia giggles: "And weird! Very weird. But sexy. S-something about..." She waves a hand, almost surprised it hasn't change too or something: "B-being this close..." She can be riding a wave of sex-addled hormones, but she's still trying to make sense of it. "I dunno, just feels great and I'm not sure why." She wiggles a bit in return, just enjoying the strange feeling of it.

Gillian giggles in turn, "Being so close and being a part of you, maybe? I... I don't think I could do this with anyone else, but with you, I already know I can trust you with... Well, with me." She scoots her butt slightly, a gesture that doesn't do much except jostle the two, "Oof... And I mean... We're also kind stuck here while we're like this, and that's kind of hot too."

Delia laughs a bit: "T-there's something very, very hot about b-being unable to leave you, right now." She smiles, swallowing: "N-not that I would, but... I t-think we agree that restrictions of freedom, k-kinda, can also be passionate..." Her tail curls under her and she shifts just enough to free it. "Mm that's better."

Gillian stares at Delia, absorbing her words, as several switches flip in her mind, releasing a train of images of herself in similar situations, O-"Oh... Oh you're right... I... Don't think I realized how badly I wanted to be... To be helpless? Or at least... Something like this. This is just really doing something for me, Delia, and I think I want more."

Delia blushes: "W-well, if you want me to be... every bit honest, I t-think I'm finding parts of myself with this... b-being bound to you, unable to... do things without you..." She swallows: "It feels hot."

Gillian blushes, reaching down towards her nether lips to idly finger them open, flashing Delia a peek whether ahe wants to or not (but she quite certainly wants to),, "D-do you want to take it to the next step?"

Delia blinks, then finds herself doing the same: "W-well... if you're inviting me to..." She starts fingering around herself, uncertain if Gillian feels any of it but not really minding. "F-find out where the, er... feelings kinda limit, yes?"

Gillian shudders, eliciting a low moan when Delia begins, the sensations Clearly DO reach up at least that far, which probably makes sense for a product designed with exactly this in mind.

It takes Gillian a moment to recover from the foreign sensations enough to start playing with herself as well, "I c-can definitely feel you~. W-Wow."

Delia blinks and moans in turn: "Oohhhh... ohkay, yeah, oh boy. T-that's, er... like, I'm f-fingering one edge, a-and you're the other, a-and we're... both, feeling both?" She swallows, leaning back as she just lets her hand (and Gillian's) wander.

Gillian pants a bit as she responds, "Ye-Yeah, I'm fe-feeling it, alright~" She follows Delia's lead, leaning back on the bed. She starts to try and work her fingers in a rhythm that compliments Delia, touching herself opposite of where Delia's fingers are.

Delia lets out a long contended sigh of pleasure: "G-guh. Yes." She gasps: "D-do we even... d-dare introduce the dildo to this?" She says this like it's actually an option to not satisfy their curiosity.

Gillian moans, "Th-think... We have to..." She glances around to where they'd left it, the small dresser besides the bed that seemed close enough, but actually stretching out to reach it now makes it feel like it's on the other side of the apartment, especially as Gillian seems unwilling to remove her hand from herself. "Mrph.. h-have to actually get to it though~"

Delia blinks: "Oh. Right. Um..." She starts to shift her position, using her hands to lift her butt off the bed: "I think we can, kinda, scoot closer...? Can you reach it if we get that way a bit?" To say that this feels weird to the corgi would be rather an understatement, but at the same time she's rolling with it.

Gillian finally pulls her hand back and starts to scoot along with Delia's movements. "I think... I just need a little, G-Got it! Got it!" She grabs it, nearly fumbling it with her hand before she gets a solid grip and is able to pull it off the nightstand over towards them, lowering her voice with a chuckle at the effort. "Got it. Thanks, love."

Delia laughs a bit: "Woop, success!" She blushes as she looks over at the big purple thing that at a glance looks almost intimidating to put in oneself... let alone both of them. "Oh boy. How... how do we do it? I think the instruction said it that it naturally extends once it's... inside..." She swallows in anticipation.

Gillian blinks, blushing bright, "O-oh! Oh wow... I didn't quite consider... I guess I just push it in and then... p-push towards you..."

She brings the dildo down towards her nethers, thankfully now slick and ready from their first experimentation, and starts to ease it in, 'squatting' towards Delia as she does so to get the other end closer to her.

Delia swallows as she helps guide the end of the dildo into her. "T-this is definitely more intense than, er, doing it alone." She pauses before it's entirely in, looking at Gillian: "J-just to let you know, I got the feeling that this part might get intense..." She takes a deep breath, then guides the dildo the rest of the way. And true to the instructions, the magical rubber between their nethers expands in lenght, causing Delia to squeak in surprise despite knowing what was coming: "O-oh! G-goddamnit it's close!"

Gillian screams out as well, having tried to prepare herself, but still not ready for it when the dildo pushes deeper, "Fu-fuck!" She bucks back instinctively, with the dildo pushing into her, pulling it along. Her hands now free, she grabs at the sheets of the bed as if to brace herself further before trying to settle herself back down, (her movements, of course all vibrating through Delia as well~)

Delia squirms which only serves to make their situation more unbearable. "Gah! Okay, n-not that! C-calm down, c-calm down..." She takes a few deep breaths, and leans back and swallows and screams some more, but after that the pressure is only 'normal' and not 'everything all at once'. "S-shoulda b-been lying down... Oh jeez that was a bit much."

Gillian barely manages a nod, trying to catch her breath and settle back down. "S-sorry! Sorry! F-fuck that feels... it's... so much..."

Delia giggles despite the pleasure bordering on pain: "F-fuck is the r-right word!" She gasps a few times, her breath evening out: "Okay. Okay. Now it's just... f-feels good, b-but not too hard..." She glances at Gillian: "How you holding up?"

Gillian laughs a little tiredly, but sounds like she's recovering, "Good, I... good, it's not g-going to take much to push me over the edge, Love. I feel s-so close already~"

Delia shifts just a tiny amount, smirking: "So I shouldn't... push...?" She's well aware that the tiniest push forward is also a push inward. Probably.

Gillian is slightly better prepared for another thrust, especially not one quite so sudden and deep. Instead of the sharp and sudden pain, this is a more penetrating pleasure, and as Delia might expect, the sensation is mirrored by the magic merging them. It's also mirrored as Gillian gently pushes back, trying to work out a rhythm. "Mmrph, or k-keep going~"

Delia squeaks as she pushes, double-whammied by the magic mirroring the feeling and the rubber now very well inside her: "Oh g-goodness. Oh boy." She swallows, then tries to gently push another time, realizing it doesn't take much at all to achieve pleasure. For now opting to not try and stretch things... but keeping the thought in mind. "I uh... p-pretty sure a normal dildo can't do this."

Gillian moans as Delia pushes again, "N-no, not at all~" Though, all of her experience with such things has come alongside Delia, this is still a whole level beyond anything the satyr has done before. She pushes back, trying to stay focused despite the mind-blowing pleasure with each motion they make.

Delia keeps pushing, but at the same time keeps herself from pushing too hard. "Okay, okay. I think we have found a... spot. F-feels good, just... these-" She pushes again: "-small m-movements. R-right?" Almost feels silly to ask since she is pretty sure she can feel what Gillian feels down there.

Gillian practically purrs (do Goat's purr?), as she melts "Yeah~ R-right there, ohhhh~ Yes~ Just... don't need to do much, just..." She can feel Delia push into her, and pushes in response, trying to match Delia's movements so that the two magic points of pleasure coursing through her are 'synced'

Delia giggles as she keeps going, starting to feel very pleasantly buzzed in the rhythm of pleasure, not pushing too far, but just far enough that every bit tingles both of them a lot. "Ohhm... ooh d-dang t-this is almost... too... much..." She gasps: "G-gah. How come we didn't... before...?"

Gillian moans again, feeling the electric pleasure through her body with each push, "D-don't... don't know... D-didn't know! Would have... l-love you so much~"

Delia squirms despite trying not to, knowing it only makes things worse: "Gggghhh... m-maybe oh wow next t-time..." Whatever she thinks of next time is lost to another moan of incoherency. She lolls her head to the side as she attempts to make eye contact with Gillian without agitating their nethers: "D-dare we try... d-dare we try to go for a kiss to... f-finish up?" She tightens a bit at the thought of it, but there is a crazy part to her that wants to try anyway.

Gillian turns her head to smile a little vacantly as well, nodding her head, "N-not gonna last... m-much longer. Let's do it~"

Delia lets out a breath, then another: "Okay. On the count to three, we lean forward, grab hands, pull forward, and kiss. A-and... well..." She swallows: "Well, hope we can last that conscious." Part of her is telling her to not do this, but that part is overwhelmed by curiosity of whether they're able to do it.

Gillian takes a deep breath as well, going still for a moment in preparation... "Okay... We can... we can do this... or have fun trying~" She waits, taking a deep breath, "One..."

Delia nods: "Y-yeah... two..." She shivers slightly, but no backing down now. Or possibly like an hour ago.

Gillian tenses up a bit in preparation, swallowing before she manages to croak out "Three." And with that she begins to lean in towards Delia, reaching her hands out towards her, with the sudden explosion of feeling in her nethers.

Delia leans forward as well, grasping Gillian's hands perhaps a bit tighter than she intended, as her lower half feels like it's exploding! She grasps at Gillian's hands hard and pushes forward into a kiss, closing her eyes as every inch of her wants to scream and pull back.

Gillian meets the kiss both eagerly and passionately, doing her best to pull Delia close as her overwhelming orgasm crashes over her as well. She holds back a scream, but definitely moans heavily into the kiss as her eyes roll back at the sensation.

Delia gives one last breath upon Gillian's lips, before letting go with a bloodcurling scream as she falls backwards: "G-gyaaaaaah!"

Gillian falls backwards as well, too overwhelmed to do much else other than cry out... blearily trying to cling to consciousness in the fog of pleasure and pain.

Delia leans back on the bed, just gasping for air as her nethers feel like they're on fire... granted, a very pleasurable kind of fire, but the kind of fire that is made of pain as well. Fires of passion, if you will. She lets out deep breath one after another, coherent thought on a break right now.

Gillian moans, less out of ecstasy and more like someone slowly coming back around, "Ugh... D-Delia...? You... okay?"

Delia nods, then giggles with gasps as she realizes that Gillian has no chance of seeing it. "Y-yeah. Ow. G-gonna feel that tomorrow. You?"

Gillian cringes, still seeing stars when she opens her eyes, "S-same... hurts... so... good."

Delia dares open her own eyes as well: "Yeah ow, but yeah good too." The act may have finally broken the learned scholar's thesaurus. "Just gotta maybe not ow do that again. A-at least, n-not right now."

Gillian has definitely closed her eyes again, "N-no... not right now, no." She catches her breath for a moment, "H-how... do we... get it out?"

Delia swallows: "Just gotta... I t-think best way is to undo... t-the leg spell, with the words." She blinks as her mind attempts to uncloud enough to remember the words that undo the spell. "Um..."

Gillian blinks, still breathing heavily as she waits. "W-words? Words... or potion... potion that's... still in the kitchen...?"

Delia blinks: "O-oh. D-dangit. Knew we forgot something." She squirms despite it being not the best idea. "W-well, we can just... wait right here while I... remember the..."

Gillian cringes again at the feelings that course through her now very oversensitive body. "A-ah! W-waiting... Just... careful."

Delia winces: "S-sorry, love." She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, calming herself. She can do this. She can do this despite the rubber implement in between her legs. She's smart, Gillian keeps saying she is. She can-

She blinks her eyes open: "Worldly caiman pie." To her infinite relief, she starts to feel a tingle around her legs instead of yet more in between them.

Gillian smiles as a good deal of the pressure and sensation suddenly relieves itself. "Mmmm... Knew you had it." She waits as she lets that similar tingly sensation from before now runs in reverse. Her legs slowly grow out, splitting and winding back into existence, the dildo between them seems to stretch at first, but apparently the magic portion that pushed deep inside has also reset along with the spell, and pops out with relative ease, along with quite a bit of fluids from the very intense orgasm, causing Gillian to moan in relief.

Delia gasps as her legs become only hers again, as the dildo gently pops out of her. "Oh my... let's do that again... maaaybe not tomorrow, exactly." She just lies on her back, moving her legs only enough to make sure they're there again, taking deep breaths as the flood of euphoria and hormones start to finally ebb.

Gillian giggles tiredly, stretching her hooves out and back as well. "Could do with... A little less pain?" Gillian has only fleeting sexual experiences with Delia, and this one by far is the most intense. "Loved the rest. The helplessness. Loved being a part of you~."

Delia nods, breathing out: "Y-yeah, p-probably skip t-that last stretch next time. Jus', you know, wanted to know..." The corgi spreads her arms and legs out, just staring at the ceiling: "Hoo boy. D-don't mind me as I just... lie here... for a bit..."

Gillian hums, "...Want to hold you close... But, having a little trouble moving. Hah.."

Delia giggles breathily: "Go figure, same problem... we can just... be here for a bit." Her body feels like it's on fire, but now mostly the good kind of fire where doing things is not necessary.

Gillian giggles tiredly, "It's alright... We're still together. I still feel like a part of you."

Delia smiles, tilting her head enough to glance at Gillian, now that she is able to again: "We are, I don't think that's going to change~."

Gillian tilts her head to look back with a warm smile. "Me either. No matter what magic may change us, that'll remain."

Delia giggles softly, shifting enough to touch her hand to Gillian's: "Y-yeah. I love you, Gillian."

The Following Morning

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Gillian does pull Delia closer into a snuggle once they both recover enough to... you know... move.

Delia does likewise... eventually...

Delia plays with Gillian's tail, poking at it.

Gillian giggles, wiggling the little tuft of a tail.

Delia hums as she plays with the tuft: "I think I like 'pretty-tail' better."

Gillian turns her head to look back at the Corgi, "It's not as nice as yours. Not nearly as fluffy~"

Delia grins: "Something good of my predicament, I guess. If I never turned, I'd have a severe lack of fluffy."

Gillian giggles, still wiggling a bit, "My tail is just a little poof that's a bit ticklish. Not much you could do to style it... but we could give your tail quite a makeover if we wanted. Think of all the ribbons we could tie into it..." Probably something she wants more for herself than for Delia, honestly.

Delia nods, humming: "I guess something could be done." She squeezes her arms around Gillian's round firm butt as they lie on the bed: "But only if I get to hug your rear~" Possibly a moot point for her to say, but oh well.

Gillian eeps at the sudden hug, but continues laughing, "You can hug my butt whenever you want, love~. I think there's a saying, like 'My butt is your butt'... not literally... I mean... not like last night." She giggles again.

Delia giggles with a blush: "Okay yeah, maybe not that literally." She smiles up at her lover: "Though it was rather fun. Like, don't know if that makes me weird, but there's something about figuring how to... do things, when we were like that." She waves her legs in the air and her tail makes it obvious she's enjoying just being here and talking about this.

Gillian nods, blushing along, "It's not something I really ever considered, but that feeling of struggle, of being almost helpless and at each other's mercy... it was really fun. I don't think it makes you weird... it probably just makes 'us' weird instead."

Delia giggles softly as she squeezes at the Satyr's butt cheeks: "I can live with that. Everyone outside of Ad-Hoc already thinks I'm a weirdo, anyway." She plays with the tuft again: "Something about that restriction of freedom... Now I'm genuinely curious if we want to sometimes spend time like that, outside of sex..." She blushes a bit at that thought.

Gillian smiles, reaching down to stroke Delia's face as the corgi snugs her butt. "I'd be willing to try that, or anything else you might have in mind... maybe we should talk out what we're both comfortable with and actually like... plan this kind of thing a little better? I mean, the spontaneity was all my fault anyways! We could... we could do better, and have more fun with this kind of stuff, I bet."

Delia hums: "Well, you won't get me saying 'no' to planning. Especially planning fun sexytimes with you~" The corgi giggles at Gillian's touch: "I don't know, is there a chart or something for this sort of thing?"

Gillian shrugs, "Maybe we can find one online? And... e-mail that store about their location? More experiences can't be a bad thing... and more time with you can't be bad either~"

Delia blinks: "Why didn't I think of that. Huh." She smirks: "Oh well, we have time I guess, but worth looking into. Not that I need to spice up life with you, but... At the same time, why not?"

Gillian grins, "A good spice rack is the bulwark of any kitchen. You can trust me on that! So... this kind of spice is pretty similar, right? We don't need it, sure. Just adds flavor and depth to our together-time. And lets us get... um... a bit creative with things when we want~."

Delia giggles: "Magically creative at that. Whoever sold you that knew what they were talking about~." She prods at the tail tuft again, because why not.

Gillian wiggles her tail at the poke, the patch of her tail definitely a bit sensitive to being touched, even if Gillian doesn't always seem to notice or react otherwise. "Yeah... magic like that shouldn't have been that cheap either, but I guess they were confident in repeat customers?"

Delia giggles: "Or super niche audience. Don't know how many non-Demi's, or even Demi's, are into this sort of thing."

Gillian shrugs, grinning, "I didn't know I was into this sort of thing... it did kinda get me a bit turned on to think about... which is I guess why I bought it on an impulse."

Delia slowly runs her paws along Gillian's sides. "To be fair, I didn't know either... But it makes an awful lot of sense now, doesn't it?"

Gillian hums, curling up a bit to cuddle up closer with Delia, "I guess it does, yeah."

Delia smiles and half-massages, half-leans onto the Satyr. "Exploring stuff at our own pace~"

Gillian kisses Delia gently on the snout, "I'm quite happy to explore with you. And to explore you, too~."

Delia giggles, smirking: "Heh. I would be pretty surprised if after last night you said you never want to do such things again~"

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The Next Night

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Delia snuggles onto Gillian, tonight (probably) without any potions, trinkets or collars. Probably.

Gillian pulls Delia close against her. She probably hasn't done anything kinky tonight either... probably.

Delia giggles and licks Gillian's cheek: "Takes a lot of energy and time to mess around with that stuff. I don't think we could do it every night if we wanted to."

Gillian shakes her head softly, giggling at the lick. "No... not every night for sure... but any night with you is wonderful. Going all out, or just snuggling like this."

Delia smirks: "Well you won't hear me object to such a bold statement. Snuggles tonight it is~."

Gillian nuzzles Delia and hums, blushing just slightly when she speaks, "Though I do have some... thoughts for later."

Delia hums, looking at her lover: "Oh? Do enlighten me." She leans onto the Satyr slightly, as always.

Gillian glances away slightly, "It's kinda embarrassing... though, I guess not that embarrassing, considering... but... back at the manor, less happy times... well, the young mistress used to have a collection of plush toys. I used to have a bit of a fantasy that... if I were one of those plushes, then maybe I would be happy... and I'm happy now! I'm here with you, and I have a job, and... well, you! But still... that silly idea seems a little more... attainable, with that shop. And a lot sexier when you're the one using me~."

Delia blinks, stares for a second, thinking: "So er... If I were to... 'use you', what would you want me to do?" The corgi seems hesitant: "I wouldn't want to... You know, use you for real. But at the same time, I am pretty curious."

Gillian lifts a hand to cover her snout, "I- I don't know! Just... snuggles, maybe. Maybe more... Nothing permanent, of course... it's like those feelings of being helpless when we were joined... it all felt so... alluring."

Delia smiles, humming: "I guess I can see that. So... Kinda making you helpless and me teasing and snuggling you? Cooooould be...."

Gillian nods, rubbing her snout in embarrassment before pulling her hand away to rest on Delia's back. "Y-yeah, pretty much."

Delia smiles at Gillian, leaning onto the Satyr: "Well, I'm not going to say no about any ideas you might have... since, you know, it's still us doing things together. However silly."

Gillian rubs Delia's back gently and smiles, "Thank you. The same goes for you as well, of course. I'm sort of excited to see what ideas you might have too."

Delia sticks her tongue out: "We'll just have to see, now that the floodgates for sexy have been opened~."

Gillian blushes, "W-well... 'floodgates' um... I mean... I guess we did kind of push ahead in the craziest, hardest, sexiest way possible, didn't we? S-sorry?"

Delia giggles, smirking as she idly plays with Gillian's hair in her paws: "I didn't say any of that was bad, love. It just didn't occur to me that such things were even possible... or that we both would enjoy it so immensely~...."

Gillian blushes more heavily, humming softly as she watches Delia, "Me either. It wasn't bad, not any of it. A little more painful than I would have liked... But the rest was way better than I could have hoped. Especially because it was with you."

Delia nods, her hands wandering around Gillian's hair near the back of her neck: "Couldn't do it with anyone else, that's for sure. Though yeah, we kinda overreached with that last one. New rule: no kissing attempts. Leave that until after the spell ends."

Gillian giggles, "Deal." She shifts her head up to plant a kiss on Delia's snout, smirking. "No spells on either of us now, is there?"

Delia gives a small shrug as she leans onto Gillian more properly: "Nope. I still have no idea where that shop even is... or was, or whatever. Didn't get to that part yet."

Gillian puts her other hand on Delia's back and pulls her in closer to kiss more passionately. "Just making sure~. The rest... I don't even know. Such a strange shop..."

Delia blinks in almost-surprise as she's pulled into the kiss. "Mmm! It's definitely doing good for your self-esteem, if nothing else~."

Gillian laughs awkwardly, "Oh, um, sorry! Sorry! That's... That's probably more your fault. You're good for my self-esteem. Just one more reason I love you."

Delia waves a paw, blushing: "Aww, you're just saying that. I just cheer you on~."

Gillian squeezes Delia gently, "And look how far your cheering has gotten me. And hardly just cheering. I wouldn't... I couldn't have done any of it without you."

Delia blushes somewhat more at the compliments: "Ahh, anyone... Well, at least most anyone would... Or at least any kind Demi would have. .. Okay, maybe you have a point." She smirks a bit: "Worth it, though. You're great~."

Gillian smiles as Delia works though it. "So are you. Maybe we're both pretty great... but I think we're greater together."

Delia giggles: "Certainly if we're literally together, but we can't do that all the time." Her paws wander around Gillian's midriff again as the corgi lightly (how else) positions herself on top of the Satyr.

Gillian shifts beneath Delia to let her get cozy atop her, "It did feel pretty great, being a part of you~. But I just mean... us working together and being together."

Delia smirks: "I knew what you meant but I couldn't resist pointing out our recent strangeness." She leans to nuzzle her lover, smiling.

Gillian giggles, nuzzling back, "Oh, okay. Just... know that I meant that too. It did feel really good~. But I guess you felt everything I did too."

Delia smiles, closing her eyes as they nuzzle: "That part was unexpected. I read later on the instructions that that part, us feeling each other's pleasure so directly, it doesn't happen every time. But if you're close enough...~"

Gillian blinks, "That's not... normal? Close enough meaning...?" She squeezes Delia against her a little more tightly, "That's... oh Delia~."

Delia grins: "If we can trust the judgment of a random magical sex toy, yes, we are close~" She licks at Gillian's snout just to prove her point.

Gillian giggles again, "W-well... if I can't trust a random magical sex toy... but, I guess to be serious, it was just surprising since... I already felt that way?"

Delia hums: "No disagreement there, I think." She smiles warmly as she looks at Gillian's eyes: "In case it comes as a surprise, I love you~."

Gillian grins, looking back, "That part I knew... though, it's still good to hear. I love you too, Delia."

Delia licks at Gillian's nose, grinning: "You know, we're being very sappy right now~. Should we..." She trails off: "... Nah. Love you~"

Gillian tilts her head a little at Delia's pause, "S-sorry if I'm being too sappy. I just always feel so grateful for you." She watches the corgi for a moment. "Should I ask? Should we... what were you going to say?"

Delia giggles: "I don't mind! You're fun to be with either way... and you know, I have my sappy moments too~." She grins: "And I was about to suggest getting up, but actually I'm way too comfortable right here."

Gillian giggles, blushing a bit more, "Oh! Oh, I thought you were going to suggest something much sillier... Well, I guess nothing is sillier than getting up, anyways. I like you right there." She emphasizes with a snug.

Delia leans into the snug, closing her eyes again: "Mmm well you know, getting up takes effort. And I'm afraid I've already spent all my effort for today. So I'm going to just lie here~."

Gillian only releases the snug so that she can stroke her hands through Delia's fur, "Well, I'm powerless to move you when you get like this. I've no choice but to remain here and keep you cozy."

Delia gives a small laugh as she cozies up: "You have a tough life, however will you survive this evening?"

Gillian hums, "I think I'll manage. I've survived worst. And I have someone special cheering me on."

Delia mms', her hand wandering to massage Gillian's shoulder and arm: "Mmm, I hope that someone special is good at what they do~."

Gillian giggles, relaxing further at Delia's touch, "The best, really, at anything she puts her mind to."

Delia mm's again, resting her head against Gillian's chest: "Although you have better breasts. That's just objective fact."

Gillian blushes, then lowers her hand along Delia's back to squeeze her rear, "J-just like you've got a better butt? I can accept that."

Delia grins, though blushes as well, her tail swishing self-consciously. "I imagine that's a share of responsibilities we can burden."

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The Next Night

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Delia cuddles closer, nuzzling onto Gillian's chest. She may be a dog, but her mind is still human. Therefore, boobs.

Gillian giggles, squirming a bit as the corgi's cold nose tickling against her boobs as she continues to pet her girlfriend.

Delia giggles in mirror: "That'll probably never get old, I'm sorry to say~"

Gillian stretches a bit, and lowers her arms down to wrap around Delia in a hug. "I might enjoy it just a bit as well~"

Delia smirks: "Fair enough then~" She is content to just lie there for now.

Delia licks the dozing satyr's snout after some time, smirking.

Gillian squeezes Delia in a hug, and (weirdly?) licks the corgi back. "Two can play at that."

Delia laughs: "Augh! No fair, definitely not fair!" She smirks: "Well, except the parts where it is~"

Gillian giggles, pulling back to stick out her tongue. "All's fair in love, I've heard."

Delia lifts her paw, then shifts just anthro enough to be able to lift a paw to her chest, getting slightly bigger in the process. She then mocks being hit in the chest: "You wound me, my love. Deeply."

Gillian oofs as Delia's weight shifts, becoming just a bit heavier atop her, still grinning as she watches Delia, "I did? Oh gosh, I never mean to harm you, love. Whatever can I do to make amends?"

Delia kisses the Satyr: "That'll do for now, and breakfast later~" Nevermind that Gillian does their breakfast 98% of the time anyway.

Gillian kisses back, blushing, "I can live with that~."

Delia giggles: "You better. You're stuck with me now~" She hums: "At least - not to be unromantic but - until I need to pee."

Gillian blinks, then laughs again and snugs Delia, "I think I can bear to be apart long enough to let you do that. Otherwise... I can't even call it being stuck with you. This is where I want to be. I mean, literally right here like this... it's the best."

Delia laughs: "I was being facetious, but yeah, I'll take it. Love being here too~."

Gillian shrugs a little, "I know, I know, but I'm just not so good at that. I'm just too sincere..."

Delia hums: "Maybe not. Really, I've had to lie way too much in my life just to stay under the radar for... " She waves her paw: "... You know. I love your honesty."

Gillian nuzzles at Delia, "You've had a hard time of things... but me, I wasn't really raised to lie. What would a maid like me even have to lie about? I had things a lot simpler, I guess... but without any freedom." She grows quiet a moment, lost in some memory, before she focuses back on Delia. "I love you for opening the world up to me."

Delia considers: "Oh my Dad would frown heavily every time I was caught lying..." She sighs softly: "'course, that was before all this were-stuff. After that even he understood why I had to bend the truth every now and then." She smiles softly at Gillian: "You've opened things for me too."

Gillian smiles back, "I'm glad I am, for as little as I have to offer. ...I guess I don't even know my Dad, but the head of the manor treated me like a daughter... well... at least, he treated me well. Taught me not to lie, and to watch my manners. House staff taught me all the etiquette, of course, and then I was old enough to join them. It's... weird to think about that now."

Delia shrugs: "Whatever qualifies as weird these days. From a non Ad-Hoc perspective our lives are plenty weird."

Gillian giggles, "That's a good point. I'll take this weird over what I used to have, though. I guess I'm just feeling... well, nostalgia isn't the right word, because I don't really miss it... I'm just thinking about my old home."

Delia mm's: "Nothing wrong with that. I try to not think too hard about what I lost." She smiles and gives Gillian a kiss on the snout: "Especially considering what I have gained since then~."

Gillian grins much wider, giving Delia another snug, "That's a hard argument to ignore. I didn't lose anything worth crying about, and gained something more valuable than I could have ever imagined."

Delia smiles, nuzzling closer as she subtly shifts back to being 'just' a dog, leaning on Gillian's boobs. "No kidding. I love you, pretty thing~."

Gillian lowers one hand back onto the bed and resumes scritching Delia gently with the other, "And I love you, dear."

Delia giggles softly, leaning onto Gillian's hand just a bit: "You know, most people wouldn't so willingly date and love and get engaged into a dog." Her tail wags as she talks, clearly teasing just a bit.

Gillian giggles, "The same could be said for a goat, you know." She hums, "But if they only see a dog when they look at you, that's their loss."

Delia smirks: "Barring the times when I intend to do that, anyway. You'd be surprised how much I hear even at Ad-Hoc, and people know who I am there." She hums and looks towards the window of their bedroom: "Out there, a lil' doggy can eavesdrop with no problems." Demis may have always been around, but most people still assume even demi's to not just look like a normal house pet.

Gillian chuckles, "Guess that's a fair point. I'm not exactly a goat goat even if I look like this. Though I think most people would probably question a loose goat in the office if I could change like you could..."

Delia giggles a bit: "But you have to admit, the mental image is pretty hilarious. Let's hope we don't have to find out, though."

Gillian smiles, "Maybe a little funny. As far as I know, Satyrs and Fauns can't transform like that..." She pauses a moment to think, "I don't... Know a Whole lot about what Satyrs can and can't do, actually."

Delia hums, thinking: "Can't say I know either. Though I'm sure we could find someone somewhere via Ad-Hoc." She considers, looking at Gillian: "A blind spot, I guess, since your abilities, if you have any aren't terribly obvious to us."

Gillian nods, "I have no idea. I can cook, of course. But nothing magical about that."

Delia gives Gillian's snout a lick: "Well, maybe we can find out one day." She lets out a big yawn: "...later."

Gillian scratches Delia and nods, "A mystery for another time... When bed isn't so cozy."

Delia nuzzles onto Gillian's chest again: "Mm, bed, or you. Both? Both."

Gillian blushes, "I think both is very good."

Delia mm's: "I can't help it, you're comfy."

Gillian wiggles a bit, bouncing her chest beneath Delia, "Well, you're not exactly uncomfortable to have sitting atop me."

Delia eep's at the bounce: "Ack! Using my small size against me! Unfair! Unf-air!" She scrambles to be on top of Gillian's chest again, glancing at her: "Sneaky."

Gillian can't help but laugh, even as Delia scampers back atop her. "Oh gosh, I didn't mean to bounce quite so hard! Next time I'll just have to pull you in closer to make sure you don't go anywhere."

Delia giggles: "Like you could be rid of me that easy." She shakes herself and lays back down on Gillian's chest. "You're way too comfy~."

Gillian wraps her arms around Delia to keep her in place, "Well sure, but I didn't want you to miss out on these~." She bounces again, her boobs pressing against Delia as Gillian blushes further at her own boldness.

Delia giggles, eep'ing again but this time staying on just fine: "G-guh!" She laughs, unable to contain her amusement at Gillian daring to do such things to her.

Gillian giggles along, relaxing back into bed, still blushing heavily, "Oh gosh, I don't know what's gotten into me!"

Delia smirks as she lies on Gillian's boobs again, shifting her form just enough to have more usable joints and fingers, which she then uses to lightly trace around Gillian's chest: "I dunno. Love?"

Gillian nods, shivering a bit at Delia's touch across her chest, "I guess it does make me a bit silly."

Delia smiles: "Only as silly as I am, and I assure you, that is a very high bar to reach~."

Gillian hugs Delia and nods, "Th-then I will strive to reach that bar! Or um, at least, to do what I can."

Delia mm's: "Well, you're well on your way to it. Clearly my company is good for you."

Gillian smiles, "Clearly. And obviously. You're all sorts of good for me, love."

Delia just ever so slightly teases at Gillian's chest, the little dog gremlin that she is: "Well, I try~."

Gillian hums at Delia's touch, "Mmm, and succeed."

Delia smiles warmly as her paws wander: "Well, you are pretty nice to touch~."

Gillian grins, running a hand down to squeeze Delia's rear, "You are too. And your touch feels wonderful~."

Delia shivers a bit at the touch, giggling softly: "Same to you, love~."

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Delia and Gillian's Apartment - Afternoon

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Gillian nuzzles at Delia, "I think no matter what kind of 'were-this' or 'were-that' you might be, I've seen who you are deep down, and that's who I love."

Delia blushes and nuzzles back, then looks at Gillian in the eyes: "Mmm. What brought this up?"

Gillian shrugs, "Just... thinking back to when you showed me your human form... I don't know... I've thought about it a lot, and about you. I mean, I can't quite stop thinking about you in one fashion or another."

Delia hums, then smiles: "Well, neither can I really stop thinking about you. From your cute little horns, to your tail, to the way to you cook, the way you talk with me... and, admittedly, your breasts are really nice to hold. Call me based but I know what I like~."

Gillian leans forward to kiss Delia, but the blush on her face is quite clear. "W-well you don't hear me complaining about where and what you hold~. I rather love your fur and petting it, as well as your kindness, your intelligence, your taste in movies... I don't know what I like, but you've shown me so much."

Delia giggles: "Does that mean you haven't learned enough of me to find the mysterious dark side, or is that a moot point after we literally became one for sex purposes?" Her tail wags, it's obvious she's not being terribly serious right now.

Gillian giggles, "Maybe I like the dark side~. Maybe I really like that kinkiness too~. I have literally never been closer to anyone."

Delia mm's: "Well that makes two of us." She holds Gillian close as she is able as the two sit on their bed: "On a different note, do you want to do anything today? Or just lie here, make food and watch something of the comfort movie sort?"

Gillian hugs Delia tightly against her. "We admittedly haven't gone out enough, lately. It's just so cozy to cuddle up and watch something sweet."

Delia giggles and leans: "Well, you're not wrong. But maaaaybe I could persuade you to go out to eat a bit fancy, you know, eat food someone else is making for a change?"

Gillian frowns a bit at first, but sighs with a bit of a chuckle, "Okay, okay, fair. I do like cooking for us though, but maybe a break and a fancy date night out is called for."

Delia hums and shrugs: "Admittedly, I do have an ulterior motivation." She grins just a bit as she turns back to look at Gillian: "We're going dress shopping for you. I have saved enough for something fancy, and I don't want to hear a 'no' from you."

Gillian blinks in surprise, "Dress sho- w-wait for me?! But I-oh you're determined on this, aren't you?"

Delia nods, smiling with just the tiniest of devious edges to it: "You deserve it, love."

Gillian blushes, "W-well you deserve it too, you know. Though... if you insist, I can hardly say no to you."

Delia's tail wags: "I deserve to look at you trying on pretty dresses. Win-win, I'd say."

Gillian brings her hands up to cover the blush on her snout, "Well, gosh, put like that, I definitely can't deny you that experience."

Delia giggles: "I like plenty of things about you, as I said~." She lifts her paw for Gillian: "But of course, only what you're comfortable with. And er, skirt clear of any place that looks down on furry demis, but that's a given."

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Delia and Gillian's Apartment - Afternoon

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Delia pounces Gillian, tail wagging~

Gillian giggles, catching Delia to hug tight

Delia shifts back to anthro form, almost melting into the embrace. "Miss me? ~"

Gillian gives the corgi a kiss, "Always, of course."

Delia grins, her nakedness after shapeshifting not exactly an issue anymore. "Weekend away from you is at least half an eternity, objectively speaking."

Gillian blushes, "It's manageable... I uh, kept busy cleaning the apartment while you were gone. But my thoughts were always with you as well."

Delia blinks and looks around at the perfectly spotless apartment. "Oh. Wow. Very busy." She turns back to kiss the Satyr.

Gillian kisses back, blushing further. She looks over the apartment and scratches her neck awkwardly, "W-well I uh, needed to keep busy somehow. You can take the maid out of the manor, but..."

Delia giggles, her tail swishing: "I think it's adorable that you need that much distraction~"

Gillian watches Delia's tail and tries to wiggle her own, which mostly looks like nothing but a butt wiggle, "Well I didn't have anything else to do this weekend but wait... and you know I'm not much for going out on my own."

Delia smiles: "Maybe you should. See people that aren't me." She laughs: "Look at me telling you to go out, being at least as introverted myself. Such a 'worldly traveler' when I went next town over to see if my Dad still breathes."

Gillian chuckles, "Yeah, fair. I mean, I think I get along well enough with a lot of the others at Ad-Hoc, right? A bit of socializing there isn't so bad... Still... it's a whole thing, you know..." She pauses, letting a bit of silence rest between them as she just holds Delia close. "... how did it go?"

Delia sighs slightly: "Dad's still not like suuuuper happy to see me like I am, but at least accepts that I can't become completely human again. We had an awkward day and a half and then I just explored the city for the rest of it once my head couldn't take it anymore." She shrugs. "Eh."

Gillian smiles supportively, giving Delia a quick squeeze. "So... a little better than you'd feared... if not as good as you'd hoped. Still... progress... maybe someday he'll be ready to meet me? Or... maybe not. But I'll support you, regardless."

Delia gives Gillian a look: "Yeah... maybe one day. Possibly decades from now." She shakes her head: "Nevermind that. I'm home, and I wanna veg a comfort movie with you."

Gillian nods, "Of course. I want nothing more than to catch up on missed snuggling."

Delia nods sagely: "We have a quota to fill, clearly." She leans closer to the Satyr to prove her point.

Gillian giggles, and lifts her girlfriend up, carrying her over to the couch with a bit of effort, but not much struggle. "Well, I would never wish to deprive you. And you know how I feel about completeing tasks and fulfilling quotas!"

Delia giggles in turn as she's lifted up. Usually this would make her feel a bit undignified, but when it's her girlfriend it's a different kind of feeling. Once she's standing on the couch, she crosses her arms: "Yeah I know. Really I should be calling you out on that, but for this particular issue I will let it slide." She sticks her tongue out with a grin.

Gillian settles down on the couch, lifting her skirt to let it settle properly as she sits, grinning a bit guiltily. "Thank you for letting it go this one time, love~. I'm still trying to not get overly focused on things! Though uh, admittedly I'm not trying very hard when it comes to ensuring you get the attention you deserve."

Delia giggles and reaches for a kiss: "Fine, I guess, that part~." She flops to leaning on her lover: "Really I just wanna stay here right now. Well, besides needing to decide on a movie and snacks."

Gillian half-catches Delia and lets her hands rest against her back, rubbing gently, "Nothing too emotional, maybe. Though, you know I get emotional with most movies. Especially the ones you like most."

Delia hums: "We do share that. Something that makes us all feely but in a good way? Some classic animation?" Her tail wagging would give her opinion away even if she wasn't an obvious read for Gillian.

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AD-HOC Campus Pool - Late Afternoon

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Gillian sits at the edge of the pool, the really rather revealing bathing suit she's wearing going unused as she nervously stares at the pool. "I've just never liked the water... Not that much of it."

Delia holds her hands around Gillian's waist, best as the shorter corgi is able. She idly touches at one of Gillian's ears: "Well, no one but me here to watch if you flail."

Gillian flicks her ear idly at Delia's touch, but does tilt her head slightly towards the were-corgi with a hum. "W-well... It's not embarrassment I'm afraid of... I don't think."

Delia is kneeling next to Gillian as she holds the Satyr: "Mmm, good to know then. Just water, then? You can swim, right?" Not that the unnaturally natural dog really has much of an argument here.

Gillian shakes her head. "Don't know. Never been anywhere outside of the mansion and the places we've gone around town. I've... I've never been around enough water to swim in!"

Delia then lets go and stands up, before offering her hand to Gillian with a smile: "We'll start in the shallow end, then. No pressure, just feel how water, well, feels."

Gillian takes a deep breath, unsure why she's so nervous, and then takes Delia's hand. "At least I know you've got my back in this."

Delia smiles warmly: "What else would I do? Come, let's see how water feels against your fur. I'll be right there with you." She helps Gillian up (hooves on slippery tiles nonwithstanding) and leads her towards the shallow end of the Ad-Hoc pool. Tail definitely not wagging.

Maybe a bit.

Gillian chuckles quietly, still clearly nervous, but trusting in Delia as she steps towards the shallow end. She steadies her other hand against the metal assist bar, and slowly eases her first hoof onto the first step. "Ah! It's... A little cold." She doesn't pull the hoof out though, but it's clear she's a little uncomfortable.

Delia nods, before quickly glancing around. This late in the evening, by all sense they're alone but she wants to be certain anyway. Don't need an audience. She then turns her attention back to Gillian with a smile: "Water has that weird quality that it feels colder at first, before your skin and fur get used to it."

Gillian lets her hoof sit on the first step for an overly long moment, trying to get used to it, then slowly steps her other hoof down to the second step, her facial expression makes it seem like this is akin to stepping into sewage, but she seems determined now. "A-and you enjoy this? I mean, obviously you enjoy it. I just... Sorry, sorry! It's so... Weird."

Delia giggles, being as close and present for Gillian as she needs to. "I do. Maybe it's my canine nature, but swimming, especially in summer just feels right. It's like the one thing where my small size is not really a disadvantage to a hobby, too."

Gillian leans in to give Delia a kiss, one hand still holding hers, the other still clutching the safety bar, "Well, it's worth trying out then. It just feels so foreign to me... like, I'm not supposed to be doing this? But at the same time it's sort of electric... I... I'm going to sit down on the steps, okay?" She takes another deep breath to build up her courage, then lets go of Delia's hand to lower herself down, shifting her legs on the steps down to make room for her to her to sit in the water.

Delia smiles, then lets go of Gillian. Instead, she steps aside and from the edge of the pool, she slips down into the water barely even disturbing it. Her paws touch the bottom but even the shallow end ends up being up to her chest. She obviously doesn't mind this, or the water on her long fur, though, as she just smiles at her lover: "Take your time, I just wanted to get down here to help you if need be."

Gillian sits still a bit awkwardly, trying to laugh as she watches Delia's ease. "Ahh, thank you, love. It's... a little better." She glances at the deeper end of the pool with a bit of dread in the pit of her stomach. "I... I can't imagine the water going over my head... I just... give me a moment here."

Delia lifts herself slightly, to just lightly paddle in place as she watches Gillian with a smile: "I understand it can be scary. Just understand there is nothing to fear here." The wet corgi is clearly excited at having Gillian try, but at least attempts to temper her expectations.

Gillian nods, smiling to Delia as she watches the corgi. "Nothing to fear... it's... it's just a pool. I mean, obviously nothing to fear. Just... a lot of water." She swallows, then reaches a hand down into the water, touching it just enough to break the surface tension with her fingers, before slipping the hand just below the surface and looking up to give Delia another smile. Her hand moves down into the water to idly itch at her legs.

Delia watches and smiles, being near but letting Gillian go at her own pace. "If you didn't swim as a kid, it can feel scary. And it feels funny on fur." Not that she really can remember anymore what it was like to be conscious, unfurred and wet, considering.

Gillian holds onto her smile, "It does feel... odd. Very itchy... is... is it always so itchy?" She is still scratching at her legs.

Delia blinks, looking at Gillian's legs: "Err... no? It should just feel kinda smooth on your fur."

Gillian's smile fades slightly as she looks down, pulling her hand away from the itchy spot to reveal her fur has started to receed, leaving a small scaly patch underneath. Her eyes go wide, "Wh-what is that?!"

Delia blinks a few times more: "Err... not good. Probably definitely not good." She swallows and looks closer: "...s-scales? What?"

Gillian quickly stands up from the water, hands frantically clutching at the safety bar. "Scales!? Th-that can't... I d-don't..." She is clearly shaky on her hooves, gripping the metal bar with all of her energy. "Delia, wh-what is happening?" The small patch of scales is slowly spreading, and Gillian is very much starting to panic.

Delia stares for a second, before realizing she needs to do something, now. She rushes next to Gillian. "Give me your hand. W-whatever this is, I need you to calm down." She attempts to keep her own voice steady and without fear.

Gillian's eyes are darting around, but as Delia rushes forward, she manages to pull a hand away from the safety bar and take Delia's. Her grip is tight, shaking and slightly damp. "D-Delia... I'm scared..."

Delia glances about the pool and Gillian's being: "M-me too. But..." She takes a deep breath as she squeezes Gillian's hand and looks directly at the Satyr: "You trust me, right?"

Gillian looks down at Delia and nods. "I do... y-yes, of course I do."

Delia nods resolutely, her voice calm and practiced in a way that her choice of profession allows her to, despite her heart beating like crazy: "W-whatever is happening, I need you to be off those stairs. And going upwards is not an option if your legs are changing at all. We're going to get you down here, standing in water that's still easily shallow for you." She steels her grip on Gillian's one hand and offers her other for her to grasp.

Gillian suppresses a look of panic as she looks deeper into the pool, instead dropping her gaze back to Delia, "B-but... if it's the water th-then..." She squeezes Delia's hand again, and slowly nods, removing her other hand from the metal bar to take both of Delia's hands, letting the corgi guide her. "A-alright... alright."

Delia nods: "I know. It might make things worse. But we can't risk you falling and injuring yourself." She swallows: "One." She grips both of Gillian's arms steadily. "Two." She stands herself as well as she is able, fully ready to pull the panicking Satyr on top of her if need be. "Three!" She pulls on Gillian's arms with enough force to make sure she's clear of the stairs, and can easily reach the bottom of the pool as the corgi steadies her.

Gillian follows Delia's lead, letting her pull her down into the shallow water and off the stairs. Her legs definitely don't seem to want to cooperate, the scaled patches of strange fish-like scales spreading as her legs have begun to grow together, resulting in the satyr splashing into the water, "AHH! N-nonono nono! U-up! Out! S-something Something..." She tries to squirm away from Delia's grip, only stopped from flailing in panic by Delia's hands keeping hold of her own.

Delia tries her best to steady the much heavier and taller Satyr, only managing to stay relatively calm by sheer stubborn tenacity towards keeping Gillian steady. She almost dips under the water herself, losing some of her footing but pushes back to keep Gillian's head above the water, even as she notices her girlfriend is having a lot less... leg?

Gillian slowly tries to calm herself, hands squeezing Delia's very tightly as she sobs, doing her very best to not panic. Her swimsuit snaps as the scales reach her waist, though they seem to slow there, a smattering of shiny scales along the sides of her belly but going no further. Even her hands in Delia's grip have a bit of scales as they grow bits of fin-like webbing between each finger.

The biggest change is her legs, as they continue to merge into a mermaid-like fin, and Gillian's discomfort is obvious as the process continues, her eyes are closed, partially in fear, partially in pain. Her voice is strained, as she tries to just focus on one thing to get through it all, "S-stay close, Delia... stay close... y-you're all I have... you're everything to me... I love you so so much."

Delia holds Gillian's hands tightly and swallows: "I will. W-won't go anywhere, I promise. We'll get you through this." Her mind is already racing about possibilities of what this change is and means, having read quite widely on the topic for some reason, but wisely she keeps those to herself for the moment.

Gillian's changes eventually begin to slow to a stop, and the satyr has calmed down enough to slowly open her eyes, still full of tears running down her face. "Is... is it over?"

Her legs are now fully formed into a tail, covered in pinkish-silver scales and ending into fins, two smaller fins have emerged from where her thighs were.

Delia stares, though she manages to keep her hands grasping Gillian's. "I... I think so. Um... wow."

Gillian flinches, "My legs... I can't... something is wrong with them. Is... is it bad?"

Delia opens her mouth, works it for a few seconds. She looks down at Gillian's tail, clearly enough visible in the pool, then back up: "Er... I wouldn't call it necessarily bad, love, just... see for yourself."

Gillian turns her head to look, testing out her control by wiggling her tail into view. "I... I'm some kind of... fish?" She quickly looks down at the rest of her body to see what else has changed, "J-just my legs? Is the rest of me okay? It... it looks okay... what about my face? Has my face changed?"

Other then a few scales beneath the fur, only really noticeable because of the occasional shimmer when the light catches them, her face and chest seem unchanged.

Delia shifts to look back up and smiles warmly and brightly: "As lovely as ever, dear. Whatever this is, it seems to only have caught you up to your waist." She punctuates her point but giving Gillian a deep kiss; it's obvious her love isn't tempered by mere change in physical form, after all.

Gillian blinks in surprise at the kiss, but doesn't take long to reciprocate. As it breaks, she sighs, "O-okay... okay... I... th-thank you, Delia. I... I need that... Wh-what do we do now? Am I just stuck in this pool forever? I- OH NO! A-are you going to get in trouble for using the pool overnight?!" She looks deeply at Delia with concern, her worry for her partner somehow completely overshadowing her own quite traumatic issue for at least this moment.

Delia blinks, then sighs as she runs her hands over Gillian's arms: "No. I have free access here, the keys and... okay that's not even remotely the thing to worry about here! Are you feeling okay, like physically and in your own mind and all that?"

Gillian pauses, slumping down a little into the water. After a moment, she wiggles her tail again, "...nothing hurts anymore... it just feels like trying use a limb I never knew I had and don't know how to use... it's... I don't like it."

"But, my mind... I don't know... I... I think so? The water feels less... b-but I don't want to think about the water! I just... yes. I think I'm still myself." She pauses a moment to gather her thoughts, "I'm a former maid, met you when I came to Ad-Hoc after running away, I work as a cafeteria chef here now, and I live with you in our apartment. I love you... that will never change. A-and I always cry at the sappy movies you watch, even when they're happy. I love to cook, especially for the two of us, and... does all that sound right? It feels right..."

Delia smiles just a bit brighter at that description. "So you're still you. Good." She kisses the not-quite-satyr again, then looks down. "So it seems your fear of water may have been at least a bit warranted. I wonder what caused this?"

Gillian kisses back, sighing, "I don't know. I'm not magical, not really. I can't think of anything I would have done or touched that would have caused this."

Delia winks: "Plenty magical to me~, but I get your point." She then hums: "Experience says you don't want to try to push to change back right away-" She holds up a paw as she sees Gillian's expression: "-hear me out. Spontaneous as this is, we're not talking about anything unprecedented I'm pretty sure. And almost universally, shapeshifting is easier if you allow it to."

Gillian leans back in the water, her tail resting on the bottom of the pool now, though the fins continue to idly move outside of Gillian's control, "Okay... okay... I guess... that's why you said to go into the water and not run out of the pool? So... I just... allow it... to... to what? How do I allow it?"

Delia smiles: "Actually I mostly didn't want you to trip since the change started on your legs. But more to the point... I don't spend considerable amounts of time as your personal lapdog just because it's incredibly comfy and fun." She taps her chin: "How do I put it... a shape-change that comes from yourself - if this is what it is - wants to exist. To be released. Embraced."

Gillian listens, trying to figure it out as best she can, "Embraced... okay... won't that... I don't know, make things... worse? Not that it's worse when you change to your full wereform, it's just... Oh... oh. Just different, but still you, right?"

Delia nods: "I fought my change at first. It only served to make things worse." She shivers at some ghosts of the past, then refocuses: "You have a big tail and fins now. As... counterproductive as that seems, try them out. Feel what your body is telling you."

Gillian hums, looking down into the pool, "Like, with the water. It all felt so uncomfortable and cold before, but now it almost feels too comfortable. Like slipping into freshly cleaned sheets, you know? And it feels wrong for me to want to think like that. That part of it feels so foreign and new, but... is that my body telling me what to do?"

Delia nods: "It sounds like it is." She smiles, lifting her paw for Gillian to touch again: "Your call, but I suspect your body is right now more at home here than you are. You may want to see if you can change how things feel." She looks aside and gets a distant look in her expression as she thinks: "I didn't." She realizes that she's never really told Gillian some of the darker parts of her fight against - well - herself, but doesn't want to distract from this moment too much so turns back to Gillian again, whispering with a smile: "Show me what you can do."

Gillian swallows a bit nervously, but nods her head. She takes Delia's paw and gives it a much more gentle and calm squeeze. "Okay... okay, yes... I can do this... I just need to swim... but I don't know how to swim? Or... do I?" She lets her tail push her up from the floor of the shallow end of the pool and gives it a few experimental shakes, trying to 'make it work' like legs at first without much success. But with a little bit of effort in trying not to put too much effort into it, she manages to swim out towards the drop off in the pool where it moves towards the deep end. She stops, almost surprised at herself as she has kept her head above the surface, and also pulled Delia along with her. "Oh gosh, I swam? I swam!"

Delia smiles even as she yelps a bit at being pulled along: "Ack! Yep, you definitely did!" She lets go of Gillian's hand, giving her an encouraging smile: "I'll be right here, don't worry about me. Go. Let your body do its' thing."

Gillian giggles, but looks a little guilty as Delia lets go of her hand, "Oh, right! Sorry, sorry! I just... and you were still holding my hand, and..." She manages to swim back in closer to Delia, and gives her a hug in the water. "And okay, I'm going to give this a try. You did want to see me swim, after all." She gives the hug a moment longer, then lets go and lets her self drift a moment in the water, letting her smaller fins guide her without any real input.

Delia giggles and absolutely does enjoy seeing Gillian go. Something about this feels like the right thing to do, to the corgi. Whether it's about her own past mistakes with similar though not same experiences, or just seeing Gillian stop worrying, harder to say.

There is also a part that screams that they should be alerting help for this, but she's opting to file that issue for later if it becomes necessary.

"You go, girl~." She paddles along, since for her swimming only became more natural once she embraced her own change.

Gillian lets herself guided drift towards the deeper end of the pool, and laughs a little nervously as she realizes there's no longer an easy floor beneath her, yet she's still swimming (Though, if she stretched it all the way out, her tail might be long enough to touch the bottom of the deep end). She glances back at Delia and laughs again, "Okay... I'm... I'm going under."

She takes a deep breath, and then lets her head sink below the water, letting it fully embrace her in a way that was utterly terrifying to her not moments ago.

Delia smiles as her gaze follows Gillian's movements. Ready to spring in action if need be, but something tells her she may not need to. That whatever this is, it was meant to happen.

Gillian lets herself sit in the water a bit, then swims around at the bottom of the pool, just exploring the sensations of her body, and the way her scaly tail works. Her finned hands help less, and it's not entirely certain if she even needed to air down there, or if she's just really good at holding her breath, but it takes her a bit longer than one might expect to come up for air, swimming up the incline out of the deep end to come up alongside Delia again, "Haa! It... it does feel really good, I admit. I sorta feel like I should be freaking out more? R-right? but... but you make it kind of hard to really panic."

Delia smiles, paddling in place: "You do seem pretty happy, at least the instant you're not worrying about how 'right' it is." She swims closer: "Knowing you, you'll probably have a grand existential crisis about this later, comes with the package I fear, but really I don't think any of this is all that life-ending." She reaches for a kiss before Gillian can directly answer.

Gillian: "W-well I-mprh..." She kisses back, properly interrupted from her thoughts. By the time it breaks, she's blushing, "I... probably will. This is... all new and scary... I... I'm just sorry you had to go through something like this without someone like you to help you through it... if you weren't here, I'd have probably hurt myself, panicked, and I definitely wouldn't have just tried to be... this."

Delia hums, then nods with a sigh: "It's in the past now. I learned to deal, so the least I can do is teach you how to cope..." She blinks, then shakes her head: "Coping implies this is something bad. Does it feel like this is a bad bad thing, to you?"

Gillian seems taken aback by that question, and has an instant gut reaction "No?" She takes a few moments to think, "I... I mean, it's scary. I don't know what happened, or what still might happen? But it doesn't feel Bad bad, so... no."

Delia paddles for a moment, then nods: "Yeah. It feels like it shouldn't happen, like you should try to resist it, but... it's not painful, it doesn't hurt, and you're still you. It's possible something outside caused this to you, but those kind of changes tend to be a lot... uglier." She lifts a paw up from the water: "You know, the... 'classic werewolf' thing that those old movies like to exaggerate for drama? I don't exactly change like that."

Gillian nods, "Yeah, exactly... my mind was... well, still is, screaming at me. This isn't right. This isn't what I am. But, at the same time... So, you said that before, the change comes from inside?"

Delia nods: "That's my hunch, anyway. You said you haven't really had much exposure to bigger bodies of water, right?"

Gillian shakes her head, "Wait, do you... think this might have happened before now? If I had been in any body of water?"

Delia shrugs, then continues paddling cause she's definitely out of her depth... in the water, that is. "I get the feeling that might be the case. The way your change looked so... smooth, it got me thinking. Thing is, most first changes are more erratic, to put a word to it. It doesn't follow a pattern, since the body doesn't really know what it's doing and the person even less."

Gillian swims alongside Delia, pursing her lips as she thinks. "Smooth? It... didn't feel that way... but I suppose? If this is something older, then, maybe, I... guess my old..." She pauses, having since had a great deal of time to reflect on the nature of her work as a maid for the Mage who found her, "...'employer', they might know something?"

Delia shrugs: "Possibly. I don't know the exact origin of my change, other than vague hearsay about my great-grandparents pissing off a witch somewhere before they migrated across the sea... but nothing solid. And my parents opted to not tell me until after I grew fur." She lets out a snort, then instantly regrets it as she breathes into the water. "Gah! Should know not to do that."

Gillian tilts her head to make sure that Delia is okay, shifting onto her back, the torn swimsuit has somewhat held up, but is mostly a tangled mess around her neck and chest now, causing her to sigh a little and reach up to try and disentangle its remnants. "You've talked about how much your changes have caused you issues, but you don't talk much about it beyond that it happened. I never want to push, but... well... I've also never much been in a position to understand before."

Delia reaches to help Gillian free of the ex-swimsuit. "I guess it's a good time as any." She then takes a deep breath: "I'm gonna exhaust paddling in place if I tell you all that." With that, she swims towards the shallow end until she can reach her paws to the bottom again. Once there, she turns back to Gillian with a smile.

Gillian follows, taking the broken swimsuit into her hands. She lets her tail rest on the floor of the pool and sits down next to Delia in the water. She smiles back supportively, "Whatever you need, I'm here for you... err... present circumstances prohibiting, of course."

Delia gives a small chuckle at that as she leans against the edge of the pool, the water up to her chest once more. "Fair enough. So..." She takes a deep breath. "So, yeah. You know I was born a human. A normal human girl, far as I knew, and for my childhood, was. Thought demi's were kinda weird but you know, not harming me either so I was mostly just curious from a distance."

Gillian reaches to take Delia's hand as she talks.

Delia smiles as she happily takes Gillian's hand in hers. "'Course, that changed when I neared adulthood. Somewhere after my seventeeth birthday, I... shifted, for the first time. Of course, I was freaked out in about a dozen different ways. Why would it happen to me, I had not even been in any contact with any weres or anything, or hurt anyone besides Mom with my middling school performance maybe, and every other conceivable way to catastrophize it all. All the while I grew fur."

She sighs and rolls her eyes: "And the claws and the ears and the tail and... well of course I thought I was becoming a werewolf of some kind since they're the famous ones anyone knows about." She giggles: "Little did I know."

Gillian considers what 'Wolf!Delia' might look like but shrugs, "You're beautiful in any form, I think. I didn't realize that this wasn't the result of an attack... I don't really know much about these kinds of things, I'm afraid."

Delia smirks: "Neither did I, back then. I only know cause I've sorta... you know, pushed to specialize in all this. Thank you for that, by the way." She looks aside: "But yeah. Freaked out, didn't know what was happening or why, my changes made no sense or seemingly followed no pattern at all. Eventually I clued into my emotions playing a part, but even there no hard and fast rule."

"Eventually my parents decided to tell me the story; that my paternal great-grandparents had done something egregiously stupid and pissed off a local witch... that is, before they emigrated up here although I think I now know why they felt the need to cross the ocean." She rolls her eyes.

Gillian wonders, "Your great-grandparents? So were your parents cursed like this too? Your... father?" She lowers her voice a little, knowing Delia's relationship with her father is tense.

Delia shakes her head: "For whatever reason, my Dad never got it. He later told me he'd hoped I didn't get it either. When I did..." She sighs. "Caused my parents to fight. A lot. Mom regretted everything about it, and Dad just closed up. I ended up in the middle of their divorce and seemingly the main reason for it. Had a really stupid year bouncing between them and either having or not having a tail... opted to leave both of them behind after turning eighteen, after a lot of harsh words were said from all three of us."

Gillian squeezes Delia's hand, pulling her into another hug.

Delia hugs, though there's no tears for this topic anymore. "Anyway... conventional university studies and being a demi don't really mix, not in a lot of places for a lot of reasons." She sighs: "Didn't know what to do then. Kinda bounced from one bad place to another. Lost one temp job after another, then lost my lodgings when I couldn't pay for it. Couldnt' make sense of shapeshifting during all of it either."

She then winces: "...well, I did make things worse on that front. Attempted to resist changing for as long as I could, then changed when I couldn't anymore. Then because I'm a stubborn idiot, did it like five times more."

Gillian releases the hug, but stays closer, despite the water, "So... you held it in... is... is that why it hurts you so much to turn all the way back to your human form now?"

Delia nods: "Far as anyone is able to tell, my inner corgi, or wolf, or whatever you want to call it, pushed back on me resisting it... pushed back hard. I spent weeks as a barely-sentient corgi. In practice that means that to change further towards human that this, yeah, hurts like hell."

"But yeah, eventually I found myself at the doors of AD-HOC one very early morning..." She smirks wearily at her girlfriend. "You can probably guess the rest."

Gillian nods, smiling, "Some kind soul brought you in and showed you how to lead a good life? Not just despite yourself, but because of yourself? Because... that's what happened to me?"

Delia shrugs with a smile: "Something along those lines. Got taught meditation, self-control, patience and embracing my changes. Eventually got a handle on things, although I seem to have created a permanent barrier on being able to be a human again. Not that I really mind anymore, I guess. Far as anyone is concerned, this is me."

Gillian squeezes Delia's hand and nods, "I do love you, no matter the form. I just want to see you happy." She sighs, looking at herself again. "...when I came to AD-HOC, I found you. I'd be terrified right now... but you looked at me the same way you always do, and I knew that, at least, we would be the same"

Delia smiles: "Yes." She squeezes Gillian's hand, then leans over for a kiss: "That much is not going to change anytime soon."

She then looks at Gillian's fishy lower body: "And well... I think we can find a way for you to work this, too."

Gillian returns the kiss, "I'll do my best... I just need to figure out how to get out of the pool... if I even can get out of the pool."

Delia hums, lifting a paw to her chin: "You probably can, although depends on your arm power... but more to the point, changing back may not happen until morning." She gives Gillian a sorry look: "Kinda an unwritten rule with these things, that applies more often than not - the first change tends to be an overnight deal."

Gillian sighs again, "Well, in that case, probably best if I stay in the pool for the night at least?"

Delia nods: "I'm sorry. I can't be sure, but if I had to guess, your... well, your now lower side probably won't like being in dry air." She smiles: "I'll be..." She blinks: "...actually I have no way of staying in the pool safely, do I? I mean, sleep and such."

Gillian shakes her head, "Probably not wise of you, no..." She gives a shaky smile, "That's... that's okay though. I can deal with this on my own until morning..."

Delia smirks: "If you think I'm going home or anything, you're wrong." She pokes Gillian on the chest: "I'm staying right here with you, I just can't fall asleep still in the water."

Gillian blushes, "W-well I don't want to be an inconvenience to you... I... okay, I know, that sounds stupid." She sighs, but is still smiling. "I... I'm sorry."

Delia smiles: "Sorry no be. We'll figure this out tog-" She blinks, then holds up a paw, glancing at the stairs and the guide rails. "Actually... we might want to set up something for you to sleep kinda leaning on so you don't get splashed if you change back in your sleep. Tie something around your midriff, kinda, then onto the rail?"

Gillian holds up the damaged bathing suit, "Well... I have this? But you were the janitor here, so maybe there's something better to use in the building?"

Delia smirks: "Will you be fine here for a few moments while I go run inside for things?"

Gillian nods, "I will... and I promise, no breakdowns while you're gone.... I... I think. I hope. I'll try."

Delia leans over to give a kiss: "Will be right back, love~." With that, she makes her way to the stairs and out of the pool, giving her long fur on short body a thorough and very doglike shaking. She glances at herself, naked and all... and then shrugs. "Eh, it's like nothing o'clock in the night. I'm not gonna bump into anyone on the way."

Gillian swims back up to lean against the wall of the shallow end, letting her tail rest on the bottom of the pool as she waits for her lover to retun, doing her best to keep her promise and not freak out. She doesn't feel too awful about it all, as she told Delia, it's not Bad bad, but it's still more than a little strange.

Delia goes her way into the building, just picking up her keys on the way. Quietly sneaking inside from a back door and directly to the janitor's closet, she grabs a coil of plastic garden hose. Seeing no one around, she makes her way back to the pool in the relative darkness, only the pool area itself being somewhat lighted even at night.

She steps back to the edge of the pool, holding the plastic coil. "This should do and not be too uncomfortable."

Gillian turns back as she hears Delia return, smiling happily as it is definitely clear she did not Break down... how close she got is unclear, however. "Not quite what we've talked about with tying one another up, is it?"

Delia blinks, then bursts into laughter. "...touché, love." She puts the coil down and steps back down into the pool. "Just gotta tie that thing up on a loop before we, er, 'go to bed', so to say."

Gillian sighs, "Assuming I can get any sleep like this... thank you, by the way... for everything."

Delia smiles: "You'd do the same for me~."

Gillian grins, "In a heartbeat, love."

Delia leans closer for a kiss. "While we wait... do you mind me petting your scales a bit?"

Gillian blinks, face turning red, "You... want to? Well, you know I can never turn you down." She waves a hand down towards her tail, letting it prop up above water. "Um... pet away?"

Delia leans closer and runs her paws on Gillian's tail. "Feels weird. But not like... bad kind of weird. Just different. Not bad at all." Her paws wander as she continues touching her lover.

Gillian shivers at the feelings, "Oooo! Y-yeah! Same, it feels different, but good. You.... like it? It's not like, slimy or gross or... I don't know... stinky?"

Delia hums bemusedly: "You're talking to someone who has to occasionally suppress an instinct to go sniff a strange dog's hindquarters. Gross is pretty relative."

Gillian chuckles, shrugging, "Well, sure... but I've prepared fish, and it's kinda... I just assumed the tail would be like that."

Delia hums as she continues petting and feeling the tail: "It is... and it isn't. I don't know if it's cause it's you, or because we're in water, but..." She shrugs. "Eh. Doesn't matter. I like it, and I can see you're not exactly objecting to me continuing."

Gillian giggles, her tail wiggling a bit beneath Delia's paws, "Ah, well, no. I'm not objecting... in fact, I do really like the feeling... but I always like your hands on me."

Delia giggles: "Okay, possibly biased dataset there. Won't do for publication of research." She hums: "...not that some of our activities are fit for publication anyway."

Gillian blushes, tail twitching, "Maybe... not in any decent magazine, no."

Delia smirks: "I'm not qualified to write such stuff anyway. Can you imagine, me writing smut?"

Gillian giggles again, "It's... awfully difficult. But then again, maybe you'd just write down whatever it is that we get up to? Don't know if it would sell very well though."

Delia giggles: "Probably not. Maybe better we leave those things undocumented." She continues petting, holding, feeling and touching Gillian, making it in no way uncertain how much she still likes the satyr, hooves or no hooves.

Gillian lets out a little hum of pleasure as Delia massages her new limb, "Yes, I'd be... mortified if anyone ever read that kind of thing out... I'm not embarrassed of you, but, oh gosh... still... Mmm... th-that feels so good, Delia."

Delia mm's: "So if I touch... here, how does it feel?"

Gillian lets out a surprised eep, "O-oh! Good! Very good!"

Delia's eyes widen: "Oh." She files that information for potential later use, if this change isn't a one-off or something... "So you're saying I should... pay attention to here, as well?"

Gillian leans her head back, "Oooh! Y-yes? Wh-why is it so sensitive? My legs aren't this sensitive to the touch?"

Delia relents for the moment: "It's hard to say, and it's possible there's no correlation at all. Although I do like ear scritches regardless of form..." She shrugs and smiles.

Gillian reaches up her hand to do just that and scritch behind Delia's ear. "Well, I can't resist that invitation. I didn't expect anything like that... the swimming makes sense, I guess."

Delia giggles and leans into the scritches: "Mmrrm...~. Whatever of all of this even needs to make sense."

Gillian hums, "Err, I... yeah, that's a fair point. I guess 'making sense' doesn't include a big pink fish tail..."

Delia shrugs: "About as much as it does a curly dog tail, I guess."

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AD-HOC Campus Pool - The Next Morning

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With a big, big yawn, a dog - corgi to be more specific - wakes up from her sleeping spot next to the swimming pool. Delia opted to shift full feral for sleeping as she does most of the time, having long since lost any fear of being stuck on this end of the change. If anything, it's more likely she gets stuck like this if she doesn't spend time on all fours and if she's honest it doesn't really bother her anymore.

She stretches herself up, tail bobbing upwards as she attempts to awaken to the sunrise somewhere behind the buildings. Thank whatever deities are around she doesn't have work today, considering... She glances down at the pool.

Gillian is still tied up somewhat loosely to the metal hand railing by the green garden hose the two jury-rigged the night before, Looped under her bosom, it has successfully kept her from slipping deeper into the water following any additional changes over the night.

And a good thing too, as the satyr is (mostly) back to herself, the tail gone and in its place are her usual hooved legs. Her fluff of a tail beneath her. The biggest sign that things have changes are the small patches of scales here and there, shimmering beneath her fur, occassionally shimmering under just the right light.

She seems to still be sleeping, bobbing slightly in the pool.

Delia smiles upon seeing Gillian back to normal. Well, whatever passes for 'normal' around these parts, she reminds herself.

She makes her way to the edge where Gillian is tied up and lies down. After a moment of watching her love, she idly reaches to poke at Gillian's shoulder with a paw.

Gillian slowly rouses from sleep at the familiar touch, one eye creeping open to look at Gillian, as she starts to wake up... "Delia~. Err... Why am I so wet...?" She doesn't quite jump, but splashes a little as she strains against the hose, then relaxes, "R-right... I almost wanted that to all be a dream."

Delia hums as she sits up: "If you ask me, the latter part of it was pretty dreamy. But I getcha." In one motion she makes her way into the pool and is bipedal again by the time she stands up in the pool, next to Gillian. Maybe slightly showing off what it means to have control over one's shapeshifting. "Let's get you untangled, first of all. Feeling alright?"

Gillian watches Delia and smiles, then turns to take stock of herself, stretching her legs out in the water back and forth, then checking her hips and belly with her hands, "I've... been better. Still a little scared... But everything feels right and seems to be working the way I remember."

Delia smiles as she starts to undo the simple ties of the garden hose. "Good. And scared just means it's new, I imagine. I was scared out of my mind the first time I grew a tail." She chuckles, blushing: "Seems so silly now, considering. But I understand." She gives Gillian a kiss as she 'frees' her.

Gillian lifts her arms to let the hose unwind from around her, giggling slightly, "My hero, to the rescue." She kisses Delia back, then carefully sets a hand down to the pool floor and pushes herself back up to stand on two legs once again. Shakily at first, but with growing confidence as the familiar muscles reaffirm themselves. Her other hand has a death grip on the metal bar to which she was tied, betraying her fears about standing up. "O-okay... Legs seem to be working. How... How do I know they won't just change again?"

Delia nods: "You won't." She lifts a paw up: "What I mean is, you won't be able to tell just yet when the desire of your body to change turns into a need, but as long as you don't push yourself to avoid it... I'm pretty confident you will be able to have at least a feeling when you should." She takes Gillian's hand in hers again: "We can come up with a plan to get you here, or to Fiddly Creek, or something."

Gillian nods, taking Delia's hand once again as she takes a few uncertain steps out of the pool. "Planning... planning, I can do. Thank you for being so... Amazing." She sighs, then forces a bit of a smile about the whole situation, "W-well at the very least... I won't have much of a problem swimming with you?"

Delia follows the Satyr up when she is able: "Yup. There is that. And if you're anything like me or really most shapeshifters... You're going to learn new things about all this as you do more of it." She chuckles: "I know so much more about dogs now than I did back then, if you can believe that."

Gillian's smile grows a little more genuine as she gets out of the water and finds a towel, beginning to dry herself off. "Well, new things about... Whatever else it is I am, yes. A fish? A mer-goat? Ugh, I don't even know... I don't know what, or how, or... Or why."

Delia smirks at her lover: "If there's one thing we're both good at, it's reading and learning. I'm pretty sure the AD-HOC library has some answers." She steps closer to hug Gillian, wet dog or not: "We can figure this out."

Gillian hugs back tightly, "Y-yeah... Yeah true. It's... It's not knowing right now that's bothering me. But you're right, of course. Guess we're in a pretty good place for this kind of thing to happen."

Delia smiles: "If I may boast a bit, you might be in relationship with the best expert on figuring out what's going on in your noggin', right now. Best in this city, at least."

Gillian giggles, giving Delia another kiss, "Boast away, love, but I already know you're the Best. About this kind of thing, too." She steps back to finish drying herself off, giving a little turn-around to Delia, still naked and holding her ripped up swimsuit, "So, um, how do I look? Is anything still strange?"

Delia tilts her head, now looking at Gillian's body in the light: "Mmm. Not really... Though I suspect that small patch of scales on your hip is here to stay."

Gillian eeps, deflating a little as she spins to find the offending patch, poking a finger at a different patch entirely, "Th-this? Ugh... It... It feels so smooth though... You were right, I really thought it would be all slimy and gross."

Delia squints: "I think it's only really visible when the light hits it right. Like right now-" She glances towards the bright morning sun. "- I wouldn't worry about it."

Gillian keeps poking at the scales a moment longer, then lets her hand drop away with a sigh, "Yeah, guess there's no sense in overthinking it... Much... I'll... We. We'll figure it out."

Delia shrugs: "You're still you. Few scales under your fur isn't going to change that." She hugs Gillian again, smiling with warmth that tells Gillian that exactly nothing has changed for the corgi.

Gillian's expression softens further, "The rest I can deal with... y-yes, I'm still me. And I will always love you, Delia. So... what do we do now? I... I want to say breakfast, but is there something else important to do?"

Delia steps up onto her toes, reaching up to kiss Gillian deeply: "That. Now we can get clothes and go find breakfast."

Gillian blushes brightly, "That was pretty important, th-thank you. And oh right... clothes."

Delia steps away a few steps and shakes herself vigorously. "Mrrrf!" She looks all poofy and wet now, not that it bothers the corgi at all. She then glances around: "Our clothes are where we left them, on the other side. Also, told you no one really cares to use the pool at night."

Gillian looks back at the pool, an odd sense of dread and familiarity with the water crossing over her, "You were right about that... guess that's good, since we might have to make more use of it..."

Delia giggles softly: "I guess that might be the case now, yes. I mean, there's still a chance this was caused by something we just didn't notice, but all signs that I know of point it to being something that already was in your blood." She glances aside: "Transformation magic is weird like that. It feels like it should have more rules, but they often end up being more like... guidelines, at best."

Gillian sighs, holding Delia's hand as they start to head back to the room they left their clothing. "Sounds... chaotic. But I guess that's just how it goes with this kind of magic stuff... and... t-transformation. I've done my best to be understanding about it, knowing how it's affected you. It's a bit different happening to 'me'. N-no offense."

Delia shrugs: "None taken. I study this nonsense for almost a living now, and it still blindsides me at times." She glances at Gillian's hips: "Case in point."

Gillian nods thoughtfully, "As long as it's not hurting either of us... I... Sorry... Overthinking again."

Delia smiles as she looks up at Gillian: "One day at a time. Clothes, then breakfast, then home on a sick notice. Sleep properly, then see how you feel like, maybe continue figuring this out. Sound like a plan?"

Gillian almost seems more aghast at the idea of a sick day than she does her transformation, "A sick day? B-but I can't... I can't just... I... You're not going to let me get away with working, are you?"

Delia smiles, her tail wagging: "I totally will not. We're going to figure how this works, and for that we need you to not suddenly grow a tailfin in the restaurant kitchen."

Gillian frowns, "That... would be awkward. I don't think Brianna would ever forgive me either."

Delia hums: "You can tell her later what it's about... once we know what's happening, you know?"

Gillian sighs, "What's wrong... err... happening..." She chews on those words a moment. "Okay. You know best. Food, home, and rest."

Delia giggles as she leads Gillian to their clothes: "I have my moments, at least."

Gillian giggles, "Well, it was bound to happen eventually?" She shakes her head, "That's a joke. You know how much your words mean to me."

Delia smiles: "I know." She starts putting her clothes on, just the usual shorts and t-shirt that are quick and easy to drop if... when she shapeshifts. "Depending how this all starts to feel for you, you might want to considering having a clothes stash somewhere here."

Gillian takes out her clothing, examining it a moment. "I guess the swimsuit is proof enough of what could happen with these kinds of changes. I do prefer skirts and dresses, so... that means pants won't be a problem... my um... more personal effects though... I guess having some spares around won't hurt, just in case."

Delia smirks: "Take it from someone who's feral form is almost incapable of wearing clothes... you're gonna end up inconveniently naked a few times even with preparation."

Gillian blushes, still rather awkward about nudity, and she takes the opportunity to put her bra back on. "W-well... I guess I'll be shopping for a two-piece bathing suit next time... Oh gosh, this is... a lot to consider."

Delia nods as she finishes putting on her shirt: "Yup. I'm not gonna sugarcoat and say it's all going to be easy, but at least you'll have me on your beck and call when stuff goes down."

Gillian puts on her clothing as well, a bit quiet as she gets into the rather simple long skirt and top, "...I like my clothes... Oh gosh, Delia... I'm sorry that this had to happen like this..."

Delia shrugs and smiles: "Like what? At least we were already planning alone time together."

Gillian flails her hands a little, then drops them down, "Just... it all sounds like so much that you're going to have to do for me. You know I hate to be a burden... a-and I know! I know. It's no burden... doesn't stop it from feeling like a burden... it's... a lot. And it is scary and new and a l-little overwhelming. I... I want to scream, a-and now my hands are shaking, and I don't even know why except that I d-don't know why and that's messing with me!" She slouches down, ears dropping as she realizes how loud her voice had gotten in that little rant. "I... s-sorry."

Delia steps close to hug Gillian from behind: "Cause all of this is a lot, so you're allowed to think it's a lot. Breathe, love. I'm here, it's all okay, and we don't need to solve every part of this issue right here and now." She holds onto the Satyr, refusing to let go so fast this time.

Gillian breathes heavily, almost hyperventilating, but slowly getting it back under control as she leans into Delia's hug. "I- I spent the night in the pool... wh-why is it just thinking about Clothes that's making me b-break down...?"

Delia hugs tighter: "Cause brains are weird and definitely not always doing the logical thing."

Gillian manages to pull herself together enough to get her arms around Delia, "I-I keep thinking this wouldn't have happened had I never left my old life... and I hate myself for thinking that... I- I haven't thought that since the first week I spent here at Ad-Hoc."

Delia shifts to look at Gillian, to hold her gaze: "You may have never found another beautiful and exciting side of yourself. Yes, it's also scary, but a lot of life is."

Gillian: "I know... I... yes... I know. I will never, ever regret finding Ad-Hoc and finding You. I just... it all hit me just now and... well... bad thoughts... that dark place."

Delia nods and doesn't let go. "I understand." She nuzzles close to Gillian, closing her eyes.

Gillian simply squeezes Delia close for a moment, sniffling and sobbing and letting out some pent up emotion as she holds the corgi close. Finally, she eases back, bringing an arm away to wipe her face, "Th-thank you."

Delia smiles, getting a bit choked up herself. "N-no problem. As always."

Gillian gives Delia one more squeeze before she legs go, "As always. I think... I think some rest will be a good idea. I think you're right. I need a day off."

Delia nods: "I do too, even if it's just 'cause I slept on the cold pool tiles." An excuse, mostly, but she pushes that thought to the background. She'll fight Auriel herself on this if she needs to.

Gillian frowns again, "Ah, s-sorry about that... the water was cold too, but I didn't really feel it. But... a world of difference from our bed at home."

Delia smiles: "Definitely. Let's go find that breakfast, love~"

Gillian takes a deep breath, and runs her hands down her skirt to smooth it over her legs. She manages to smile once again, and nods, "Breakfast sounds... incredible. I love you, Delia."

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Delia and Gillian's Apartment - A Day Later - Morning

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Gillian has been spending the past day after she and Delia returned home resting, as it turns out transforming into a strange form and sleeping in a pool while trying not to panic is quite bad for actual restful sleep. Still, being back home, with Delia resting snuggled against or on top of her, she managed to sleep quite deeply.

Feeling more herself this morning, she's decided to attempt to get back to her usual morning ritual, getting up early to cook Delia and herself a hearty breakfast. But first, she needs to get cleaned up and dressed and...

The shower. She had prepared to run the water, and stopped in mid-reach. Slowly, she pulled her hand back, the same cold panic in her stomach. Water had changed her in the pool. What if it changed her again? What if she lost her legs on the shower and dropped down into the tub? She'd be trapped... She'd be... That thing again

...no legs, stuck, hideous. That alien feeling in the water except here she wouldn't even have the room to swim or move hardly at all... Just... Trapped. Changed and trapped...

Her hand was shaking again, and she tried to steady it, the faint glimmer of the small scales grouped up between her fingers only made things worse as she tried to keep her breathing steady, to take deep breaths like Delia had told her.

W-would she ever be normal again? Would she ever be able to shower again? Not without changing... Was this what Delia meant by fighting the changes? Was she failing even now? She felt so trapped, barely able to move. Just staring at her shaking hand, face contorting as she went through ever worst case scenario in her mind.

The feral corgi of the house walks behind Gillian in the hallway, yawning very wide. "Mornin'."

She shakes her head as she attempts to wake up still, tail drooping behind her. She walks past, and... blinks.

"...Gillian?" The dog turns to look at the slightly shaking Satyr, confused.

Gillian makes no reply for a moment, staring ahead into the shower. Finally, her voice comes across, quiet and shaky, "I- I can't do it... I can't.... I can't take a shower Delia. I- I'm failing so badly... I can't even make myself take a shower b-because something might happen."

Delia walks next to Gillian, brushing against her legs as she looks up: "Nothing failing about it. The fear is a legitimate one, since we do not know for sure. But, sooner or later you need to face it, don't you?" The corgi glances between the Satyr and the offending shower as though attempting to divine how things might go.

Gillian finally lowers her hand, letting out a frustrated sigh, "Yeah... but... what if I get trapped in the tub with a tail? Wh-what if transforming again makes it worse? I just... you said I should be embracing this, and I just feel panicked at the idea of those changes... especially here. This is our home! I- I should feel safe here..."

Delia looks up at her lover, then sits down. "'Embrace' doesn't mean you have no control over it. Your body wants to change and... well again, I can not be certain but let me explain." She steps forward and pounces onto the toilet seat to be more up. "Think of it this way. What I imagine you have tapped into a reservoir of sorts. Of change. There's an amount of change it - for lack of a better word - needs in a month, or week."

She glances towards the tub: "Water is obviously a trigger for you, but I have to believe you can still be in control. Accept the change, and you have a better chance to say when it happens - or doesn't." There is a weight in the small dog's voice that hints at more than one of these lessons learned the hard way.

Gillian half slumps / half sits onto the bathroom floor, quietly listening to Delia. Her brain is trying to work that into a metaphor she better understands, "Like a tea kettle building up steam? If you leave it on the stove, it'll boil over, but if you listen to when the kettle whistles, you know when to relieve the pressure before it goes too far." She sighs, "I'm just... I don't know. I just can't stop worrying that I won't have control. Ugh, we don't know anything yet, good or bad, but I can't stop thinking about the bad."

Delia nods with a bit of a grin: "Honestly, better analogy than mine. And I won't lie, there will probably be times it'll happen without any control on your part." She jumps down and sits in front of Gillian: "It's going to happen, I'm pretty sure, whether or not you want it to. Question is, do you want to live in fear of water until the point comes where you have a better grasp?" She waves a paw and looks at it.

In a lower voice, she adds. "I feared for a long time. And now I will never be human again."

Gillian reaches her hand out to Delia as the corgi sits with her. "I... I don't want to be afraid. Not of water, or these changes... But I am. I want... I want to just live like I have been, but I think that's impossible now, and... I'm not sure what to do."

Delia nuzzles into Gillian's hand: "One step, or in this case shower, at a time."

Gillian gives Delia's head a good pet, letting it calm her. "Okay... One shower, just to start. I can... I can do that. I've taken showers before."

Delia smiles as she pushes Gillian's hand upwards: "That's the spirit. I'll be right here with you."

Gillian takes a deep breath and gives Delia one more scritch behind the ears before she gets up to reach for the water again.

She hesitates again but after a moment she pushes through and turns on the water. "Ha! It... It's a start."

Delia smiles as she looks at Gillian, proud of her girlfriend. She gives an excited little 'woof' to punctuate her point.

Gillian giggles, turning back to hug Delia. "I must sound so silly, when you've been through all of this and more. Th-thank you for helping me through this."

Delia giggles into the hug and shifts towards human just enough to be able to hug back: "Nonsense. I've been through it so I know how harrowing those fears can be. You have all the time in the world, love."

Gillian holds the hug for awhile while the water runs in the tub. She reluctantly lets go, and takes another breath, "Okay... Shower. I can do this. Just stay close, just in case."

Delia smiles and jumps up to give Gillian's cheek a loving lick even as she shifts more towards anthro. "Like you'd be able to tell me off if you wanted to."

Gillian laughs again, "I know, no need to ask, but... Thank you. I love you in every form." She gives Delia another pet, then makes room to push herself back upwards, standing at the edge of the tub and staring at the water.

Another deep breath... And another. And at last, she steps into the water, taking a moment to turn on the shower, and waiting for anything to happen.

Delia finishes shifting fully into anthro form, leaning against the edge of the tub as she watches with curiosity and love.

Gillian stands still as the water washes over her, and other than the patches of scales shimmering a little brighter, there's no appreciable change in her body. No fins, no tail.

Still, the Satyr is concerned, waiting for something... She glances at Delia, "Anything? I don't... Feel anything."

Delia looks Gillian over: "I don't see anything changing. And if you don't feel anything, perhaps it won't happen this time."

Gillian nods, "That's good! I... Think? Maybe my kettle is empty right now? Or maybe... This isn't enough water to trigger anything? Or... I don't know."

Delia hums as she leans on the edge of the tub: "We won't really know until we try. Trial and error and just you growing a kind of feel, an instinct on what works and what doesn't." She smiles warmly: "But one step at a time. You get yourself clean and see if those scales change on that department."

Gillian smiles, growing a little more confident and a little less afraid as she begins her usual shower routine, lathering up and washing her fur, only seeming to pause when she scrubs over a patch of scales, the unfamiliar sensation throwing her off for a moment before she continues. At last, she turns off the water and lets out a much more content sigh, "There. Already feel much better."

Delia nods: "Yup. Knowing you, getting clean helps a lot."

Gillian blushes a bit, but certainly doesn't deny it. "The scales still feel weird to touch... I didn't even realize how many there were... Little patches on my hips, the sides of my chest, I think I felt one on the small of my back. They don't seem any different than before though, I just hadn't touched them before."

Delia nods: "They're just kind of... part of you, now. Benign reminders of your newly acquired second nature." She chuckles: "Look at me, getting all philosophical. It's a big change."

Gillian smiles faintly, at first, then reaches for a towel to dry herself off, very careful when it comes to patting the scales, "They're not too bad, are they?"

Delia gets up to touch Gillian's back and the scales on it: "I think they're actually kind of pretty, looking in better light. And they're not that visible from farther off."

Gillian blushes deeper, from the compliment and the touch, "Uh- um, oh! W-well... That's all good, then." She lowers her towel and glances at the patch along the side of her chest, reaching out a hand to touch it more gently. "They're shiny when they're wet... Kind of a pretty pink, it does match my fur a little..."

Delia smiles, lifting her hands wrap around Gillian's sides: "They kind of do, yes. So you're still pretty~." She leans closer to her lover, mmm'ing softly.

Gillian hums, nuzzling down against Delia's head, "I wasn't- I... ahh, you're sweet... Thank you. Shower... Complete. What's the next step, I wonder... Other than cooking us breakfast."

Delia shifts around to Gillian's front without letting go of her entirely. She reaches up to kiss the Satyr. "That~."

Gillian is still caught by surprise, but happily kisses back, giggling, "That's a pretty good step..."

Delia giggles, then takes Gillian's hand in hers: "But as far as your changes go, I think we want to go catch up on some reading." She glances at them both rather lacking clothes: "Er, after breakfast and some clothes, probably."

Gillian grins, taking Delia's hand tightly. "Guess the more we know... Finding whatever we can about these changes can only help."

Delia grasps Gillian's hand tightly for a second before letting go: "Someone, somewhere, has surely written about your specific brand of changes."

Gillian lets her hand drop aside, nodding, "I can only hope so..."

Delia touches her hand back to Gillian's hip, pointedly to a part with scales: "I'm pretty sure. If were-canines weren't the most common type of shapeshifter, or close thereof, I'd be considering writing a book." She hums: "Heck, I still might anyway."

Gillian blinks, and quickly her expression grows into a wide smile, her own concerns forgotten in the face of supporting her partner, "You should! If you could help or inform others half as well as you've been guiding me so far, then I'm certain it would help others!"

Delia blushes a bit: "I don't know if I'm all that great a writer, but..." She reaches up to kiss Gillian again: "File that one up for later. Thank you, love~."

Gillian shakes her head to deny the thanks, but ends up giggling, "Always, but thank you too. We're in this together. It would be easy to think I'm alone but... here you are. You've been with me the whole time."

Delia smirks: "Where would I go? Find another lovely Satyr who might take to task to make a proper social person out of an outcast werecorgi loner? Not likely." She tilts her head: "Come. Let's go get a breakfast going."

Gillian kisses her girlfriend once again before nodding, "Breakfast sounds good, love."

Delia returns the kiss, then bounces a bit in her step as she goes, her tail wagging.

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Afternoon - A few weeks Later

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Gillian walks through the woods with Delia, feeling her heart beating in her chest, the goat-faun is still nervous about this whole thing.

With no other transformations since the pool incident, and slowly building her confidence back up after having her panic attack about the shower, the past few weeks seemed to go by almost mundanely, as she managed to get back to work and her routine. She was almost able to pretend nothing weird had happened, as long as she didn't dwell on the small patches of fish-like scales that lingered after the transformation.

And then she'd started getting antsy. She'd tried to ignore it at first, but Delia had made a few hints, and when she froze up outside the shower again this morning, she relented. Something in her needed the water, and Delia was right, fighting it would only cause her grief and pain she didn't have to deal with. And so, here they were, walking out in the woods towards some destination that Delia had promised her 'would be perfect', while she nervously tried not to think about it.

Delia is walking next to Gillian, the werecorgi having opted to go on all fours soon as the pair were out of sight of other people outdoors. On her back is a modified backpack, the small dog carrying her change of clothes, wallet, keys and phone (in a waterproof pouch of course) and other stuff. She is quite a bit stronger in this form than one would think at a glance.

The corgi looks up to her girlfriend as she plods onward. She can't really smile when this much feral, but Gillian can hear it in her voice anyway.

"I think we picked a perfect day. Overcast enough that out here we'll probably get to be alone, but not like, storm storm. Er, probably. Hopefully."

Gillian looks up at the sky, trying not to let her worries overwhelm her. "Hopefully... not that we really got to pick a day..." She could have delayed, but it didn't feel right. She looks back down to Delia and smiles softly, "...sorry. I'm just... a bit in my head about this. It's not as scary as not knowing if I'll change or not, but going out to deliberately do this? I feel like I'm crazy for doing this..."

Delia hmm's as she bounces over a root: "The thing is, with a lot of shapeshifting, your options often narrow down to 'do something a bit crazy to sate your inner critter'... Or not do that and end up doing something a lot crazier, often unwillingly." She thinks back to the time where she was, for weeks, just a dog with no higher thought between her ears - and shudders.

Gillian takes a deep breath as she walks, "I know. You've told me about some of that, and... I definitely want to avoid it if I can. I'm just... afraid."

She lets the breath out and nods, "Y-yeah... I mean, that's really it isn't it? It's really hard to keep all the 'what ifs' out of my head."

Delia would shrug if she could. "Yeah... but fear means you're alive, and in your head, thinking about said 'what if's. The you is still home up there, and in control." She pauses in her walking to look at her girlfriend again, flicking an ear. "It sounds a bit crazy, but it just means that whatever the water-living part of you is, it's not calling the shots just yet."

Gillian slumps slightly, "...not just yet..." She shakes her head, "But I can feel it... just... in the back of my head. I mean, it's not like another voice or another person, but like... intrusive thoughts."

Delia nods, then climbs over a rock. "Yeah, I can understand that. My inner voice mostly tells me to do dog things I find disgusting." She is quiet for several seconds as she takes a sniff at a tree trunk, then lowers down for a second to pee. The dog sounds a touch embarrassed. "... And sometimes it's not worth the effort to fight it. Ahem."

Gillian turns her head to give Delia a moment of privacy, then turns back to continue their walk. "I've been trying not to listen. I guess I just keep fighting it. Or it's been really quiet... until now, anyways. It's like, it wants to swim. It wants me to slide into the water and let myself sink."

Delia hums: "But is it really sinking if you're swimming?" Her tail gives a single wag, her equivalent of a smirk.

That manages to get a laugh out of Gillian, the goat giggling despite herself. "Oh, maybe not. But I guess there's only one way to find out, and that's to just let it happen..."

Delia giggles as she bounds forward, sniffing to make sure she's on track, not that the path is all that hard to follow. "Yup. Should be good, just letting go."

Gillian does her best to keep up, her legs quite suited for hopping and leaping through the woods, "It's funny... I feel something similar about being out in the wild. i mean, we're just in a park, but... I've never been so far out in the wilderness that I can't even see a building or street. There's a similar sense to being here that part of me recognizes being out here as right."

Delia hums: "Perhaps there's a point to that. I mean, we both spend a lot of time indoors, far from anything green." She glances at Gillian. "Well, anything green that's not about to be chopped up to be eaten, anyway."

Gillian nods, "I spent my whole life in my... my former family's Manor. Then moved to Ad-Hoc, then with you. I mean, I've never really questioned it." She sighs, "I have no plans to leave you or our life, but... it just makes me wonder. What would things be like if I had been raised where I was supposed to be?"

Delia hums: "Lot less wagging dog tail in your life, probably." She lets out a little giggle: "Probably entirely different in all kinds of ways."

Gillian stretches her arm out, flexing her fingers. Unlike a human hand, the fingers have larger, thicker nails more like the hardened material that forms her hooves. "I prefer having you in my life to any kind of hypothetical. I just never spend much time questioning what I am... even before these changes." She lets out a sigh. "Okay, that's a lie. I think about it a lot. I just never do anything about those thoughts."

Delia gives a short, barking laugh. "Fair enough. Come on, let's get you to the spot where the stream is fairly calm. See how you feel about the water - and how it feels about you." She leads the way forward, to an opening that leads to a small, almost beachy plot where part of the river seems to almost meander 'inland'. Surrounded by trees on all sides except the river, it's harder to think of a calmer spot to try something new to do with getting wet.

Gillian follows Delia to the point where the grass gives way to sand, looking out at the river with a bit of trepidation, she still lets out a breath in amazement, "It is beautiful..."

Delia nods, then glancing around one more time, shapeshifts back to her short anthro form. "Mmrph. Better. I just figured I'd satisfy my own inner need on the walk over."

Gillian chuckles, stepping closer to put a hand against Delia after she changes, "Leading by example, hm? It... does make me feel a bit silly, being afraid. For anything I could be afraid of, you've already been through it all."

The corgi steps closer to give Gillian a nuzzle, as usual not caring at all that she's lacking clothes when it's just the two of them. "Well, I've never grown scales. But you do have a point, and it's good if I can use my experience for something positive."

Gillian leans down to give Delia a somewhat tight hug, betraying just how worried she really is. "I'm thankful for it... I'm thankful for you!" She tears up, "I couldn't do this by myself."

Delia hugs tightly, giggling at the height difference as usual. "Me too for you, love. And I wouldn't be anywhere else, you know that."

Gillian laughs, "I do know that, that's why I'm thanking you. I love you, Delia." She looks down at herself and sighs, guess I should undress before I give this a try, hm?"

Delia giggles and sneaks in a bounce for a kiss. "Maybe! Not that you will have me objecting to you undressing~."

Gillian blushes, "Well, I don't want another ruined swimsuit, so skinny dipping is a better option." She dressed pretty lightly for the walk, knowing this was likely what would be happening, a light camisole and miniskirt.

Delia winks, her tail wagging: "I could use a swimsuit, but... I'm not going to~."

Gillian pulls off her top, and starts to unbutton her skirt, giggling, "So your plan is to give me something to distract myself with, hm? Your pretty self~?"

Delia grins with a bit of a blush under her fur: "Maybe. Or it's impractical when shapeshifting. Take your pick~."

Gillian giggles, finishing undressing and carefully folding her clothes up, slipping them into the previously empty backpack which she had brought. "I pick... that you were thinking about me. It's the sweeter answer. And probably true even if the rest is true as well."

Delia giggles: "Guilty as charged." She then steps towards the water, smiling: "Shall we?"

Gillian nods, setting her backpack aside, and talking towards the edge of the water alongside her girlfriend. She takes a deep breath. "Wh-whenever you're ready..."

Delia wades couple of steps into the water before turning around and offering a hand to the Satyr: "I believe it is, when you are ready."

Gillian nods, shaking a little as she lifts her hand and takes Delia's, then steps into the water. "Ah! It's cold! Cooler than the pool water at least. Feels... more right as well. Less cloudy?"

Delia nods with a smile as she looks over the river: "Cleaner. Natural. Flowing." She turns to Gillian: "How are you feeling?"

Gillian looks out over the water with Delia, "...good? Like I've had an itch I couldn't scratch all week, and it's suddenly gone... I didn't even realize how badly it had gotten until now, when I can't feel it anymore."

Delia smiles: "Atta girl. Let's see if that means anything for this skinny dipping~". She blinks. "... Stupid saying when we both have fur, but I digress."

Gillian giggles again, then starts to step deeper into the water, until she's up to her waist. "The coolness is nice, now that I'm pass the first hoof in the water. I... I have no idea how to just make the change happen."

Delia mm's: "If it's anything like mine was... Just calm down and let it happen. Focus on the nature around you and just... Let go of control for a bit. It's scary, but happens faster and hurts less if you let the change go its' course."

Gillian nods, "Alright, that... make sense." She leans back into the water, letting her body go buoyant and float on the surface and closes her eyes. She reaches out to squeeze Delia's hand, "I... Just keep h-holding my hand, Delia, alright?"

Delia smiles, taking Gillian's hand with a strong grip. "I won't go anywhere." She has to paddle a bit to stay afloat herself, but manages.

Gillian floats, trying some breathing exercises and mediation until she starts to feel something wash over. Delia feels it in her hand as it subtlety shifts, but Gillian gasps out in pain, kicking her legs at the sensation starting to run through them, "Ahhh! I-it hurts!"

Delia's demeanor changes instantly at Gillian being in pain. She swims to steady the Satyr best as she is able: "B-breathe! Breathe! Gillian, beautiful, love, you gotta get a grip!"

Gillian flails in the water, but her hand squeezes Delia's as the canine supports her (physically and verbally). She starts breathing in and out somewhat quickly, but at least is focusing on her breathing. Her panicked movements slow, but her face is still pained, "G-get a grip... g-gotta get a grip... Mmrrrggh!"

Delia kicks in the water hard enough to keep Gillian afloat no matter what, pulling into her canine side's sheer strenght and stubborness. "You can do this, love, you can do this. It's just water. It's just what's in you. You can do this."

Gillian gasps again as the changes begin, squirming in the water as the scales begin to emerge more and more along her legs and up along the sides of her belly. Her webbing on her hands returns, and as Gillian keeps her eyes closed tight, focused on nothing but her breathing and her vice grip on Delia's hand, the changes seem to accelerate.

Delia holds Gillian with both hands, just paddling to keep Gillian afloat for the likely few moments she needs to. She glances at the scales spreading and smiles but doesn't say anything of it, just repeats. "You can do it", a few more times.

Gillian slowly starts to relax, the pain on her face fading as the transformation draws to completion. She's still breathing heavily, trying to keep a pattern, five seconds in, hold for five, breath out. Over and over again until she slowly realizes the sensations have stopped, and she is rather effortlessly floating again, "It's... it's so hard not to fight that..."

Delia nods, although the movement is kinda lost in her paddling. "Y-yeah, it is. You want to resist your body doing impossible things... though r-really, what even counts as impossible anymore?"

Gillian turns in the water, her tail splashing up and then reorienting beneath her as she gets her bearings. There's more room for her to fully extend herself than in the pool, even the deep end. She does reach out to hug Delia in the water, though, "I don't even know anymore... this feels so... wrong. But right, at the same time. My body and my mind feel like they're arguing about what to do, but now that I'm changed and in the water... b-body is winning."

Delia giggles, the wet dog genuinely being happy to be here in every regard of that expression. "Isn't there a saying, that you should listen to your body? Probably not said with this sort of thing in mind, but works anyway." She hugs back as tightly as she is able, the physical power parity even bigger between the two now that Gillian is in her element, so to say.

Gillian laughs along, unable to hold it in when this close to Delia, hearing her laugh, "I don't know! I've heard 'listen to your heart'? Is that the same...? I mean, I'm doing that! But you know... my head does sort of get in the way a lot."

Delia giggles as she starts swimming: "In that regard, we're very much the same. Overthinking is a noble pursuit and all that."

Gillian releases Delia from the hug as the corgi starts to swim. she paddles back slightly, trying to figure out the motions of swimming again, this being only the second time she's ever been in the water like this. Yet, she seems to be a natural, letting instinct move her when she's not thinking about it, her focus on Delia, "Hah... I don't know about noble, but... we are certainly both guilty of it."

Delia smiles as she paddles in a small circle, her tail wetly swishing. "Guilty or not. Or does this count as a guilty pleasure?" The corgi is clearly enjoying being in the water again.

Gillian shrugs "Can something you enjoy be a guilty pleasure? If so... we're guilty of much worse than a bit of skinny dipping."

She takes a breath and ducks her head under the water, diving down to swim below Delia and back up on the other side of her, "I still don't know what I'm doing but I guess my body does. Feels good. And you look good from below too~"

Delia giggles, swatting a bit with her paw: "Ooh, naughty girl peeking on my vulnerable underside like that." She smirks: "I don't mind~."

Gillian blushes guiltily, "I couldn't resist~. Just... listening to my body~"

Delia laughs, a genuinely amused pearly bark in the water clearing. "Hah! You got me there!"

Gillian swims closer to Delia again, moving her fins and tail quite naturally. "You make this easy... focusing on you makes the rest of my worries fade away... I love you, Delia."

Delia smiles: "A perfectly acceptable use for my average dog body, I'll take it." She paddles close enough to kiss the now-finned Satyr: "Love you too~"

Gillian kisses back, "More than average to me. Spectacular." She relaxes in the water, laying back to float once more. "I want to dive a bit... to really swim fast and deep. But not just yet. It feels really good to just be at your side like this."

Delia laughs again, then starts swimming a bit faster, just feeling the movement. "We got time."

Gillian giggles, "We do. And you're right about this... the water is so much cleaner. It feels so good." She hums a moment, enjoying the sun on her body a moment before she leans her head back under the water, her tail flipping up to push her down into a dive.

Delia just watches Gillian dive, smiling warmly.

Gillian surfaces nearby a moment later, and paddles towards Delia again, "Did you see me dive!" She asks like an excited child, clearly feeling a lot less nervous about the whole thing.

Delia smiles wide: "I did! You're pretty natural at this, it seems."

Gillian laughs aloud, "I... this isn't so bad... I mean... if I have to come out to the park to swim with you every so often, that's hardly the worst fate. Maybe it'll be harder in the winter but... I... I was worried this would push us apart somehow. Like, I'd have to go live in the ocean? That... I know that's not very rational. But I can do this."

Delia giggles: "Honey, if me being a dog half the time doesn't stop us, nothing will." She starts eventually have a bit of difficulty keeping up with the aquatic goat and makes her way to the shallow: "S-sorry, gotta take a break."

Gillian nods and follows along, though obviously can't leave the water like this. The small hitch in her thoughts is that she really doesn't know how to change back beyond waiting it out. "It's... alright. Honestly I don't know how I have so much energy to keep going."

Delia stands up once she's in shallow enough water. She turns to smile at Gillian: "Take your time, anyway. We got all day."

Gillian rests her hands on the shallow sand while her fin treads the water behind her, "You don't mind if I explore the water a little bit without you?" She sounds unsure just how much she wants that, eventually laughing guiltily again, "I... think my body wants that. My heart wants to stay close to you, but for the moment..."

Delia waves a paw: "Go ahead, love. Trust me when I say, I understand the desire that you can't quite explain." She starts making her way towards the shore: "I'll be right here."

Gillian hesitates a moment longer, smiling. "Alright. Enjoy the sun. I love you!" She pushes back from the shore, and waves back.

Delia looks at Gillian go with a bright grin, then vigorously shakes herself dry before locating one of their towels and sitting down on it.

----------------------------------------------

A few Hours Later

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Gillian swims back, feeling a bit lonely and a bit tired from doing laps and diving around the not quite-a-lake, exploring and burning off whatever all this weird energy in her is. Finally, she come back up along the shore where Delia has laid out her towel.

"I think... that's about everything I need to do? I finally tired myself out." She chuckles. "I think I know how you feel when you say you just have to go out and run."

Delia perks up from her book. The corgi is lying on the towel, reading a light novel for a change. She smiles at Gillian: "It's life, and really there's probably worse urges to feel than spending a lot of energy outside."

Gillian struggles for a moment to flop up onto the sand, then rolls over, keeping her tail in the water as she sprawls out a little, "It's... sorta... I don't even know how to explain it. I sorta got lost in the feeling." She looks up towards the sun, "I don't even know how much time went by, sorta lost track of it... lost track of myself... it felt incredible, but sorta scary when I think back on it."

Delia nods with a bit of a smirk: "Is it too haughty of me to say 'yeah, I know that feeling'?" She scoots closer to give the goat-fish a kiss.

Gillian kisses back and giggles, "Oh, right. Of course you know. I'm just... I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. How did you get through this kind of thing alone?" She pushes up to look at Delia sadly. "I am... I am so so sorry you had to go through it like that."

Delia sighs a bit, then just smiles again, waving a paw: "Eh. It's in the past. I lived through it. Least I can do is help you and others to not have to do it alone."

Gillian smiles, "You're certainly helping me... so... what comes next, hm? Just... wait out the change again?"

Delia tilts her head. "Maybe? How are you feeling, like, about the other, this side of you? You could probably do it yourself if you focus."

Gillian tilts her head, "W-wait... like... turn back on my own? I... I don't know. I barely felt like I was in control turning into this! ...do... do you think I really could?"

Delia shrugs: "Yeah, probably. I could once I was conscious during a change."

Gillian lifts her hands up to look at the webbing between the fingers, "Could... try. It would be nice to go home and be back in our bed tonight, rather than sleeping in the water."

Delia giggles softly: "I agree. I think you can do it."

Gillian takes a deep breath, feeling afraid again, but somewhat inspired by her lover's confidence. "Okay... I'll give it a try?"

Delia nods with a warm smile: "You go, girl~."

Gillian lowers her hands down into the sand and tenses up, taking a few breaths as she tries to focus. Her hands dig into the sand and grit of the shore, and she starts to strain, her scaley tail, shifting as it starts to seperate back into legs very slowly, "AHHH!! It- It hurts!"

Delia swallows, then rushes to Gillian's side. "Just... Just let it flow n-naturally!" She kinda suspected this might happen, but with enough differences between the nature of their shapeshifting, couldn't be sure. And well, not like she can do much about it now.

Gillian grimaces, pain evident on her face as she tries to change happen. She really doesn't know how to 'let it flow', the change has always just sort of happened without her thinking about it (and she doesn't connect that important fact now that she tries to overthink it). The change does creep along slowly and painfully back to to her normal 2-legged self, though.

Part of the pain is just because she expects pain, and that's where her mind is dwelling. "I-it's like I'm b-being torn apart!"

Delia holds Gillian's upper body in a hug: "Don't fight it. The harder you do, the more the change hurts. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but just trust me!"

Gillian wraps her arms around Delia, hugging her tightly as the changes continue. Her eyes tear up from the pain, but she does her best to just surrender to the sensations. "I-it's hard! It h-hurts so much..." But the changes do seem to accelerate at least, without seeming to put GIllian in any more pain.

Delia continues talking, since it's what she can do: "It is hard. And it certainly feels unnatural. But you have to remember, change is nature. You're not used to it, so your instinct is to fight the change."

"You have to realize, remember that the change, the 'other you'... is still you. Whichever way you are changing, it's still just your body, your... self, that's working at it."

Gillian focuses on Delia's voice, enough so that she isn't focusing on her changes, on the pain, and after a minute that feels like hours of agony, the changes slow and stop as she regains her 'normal' form.

She pants out, trying to recover a moment, then shakily smiles at Delia, "It... stopped? D-did I do it?"

Delia smiles: "You did it." All that needs to be said, so she just hugs Gillian tightly some more.

Gillian relaxes all at once, all the tension dropping out of her as she hugs back tightly. "Thank goodness..."

Delia kisses Gillian: "My brave little chef~."

Gillian blushes brightly at Delia's words, but forgoes a reply in exchange for a deeply passionate kiss.

Delia holds Gillian close in the embrace as long as they feel like it... which is a pretty long moment or seven. Eventually she lets go with a warm, pretty much glowing smile. "...so, feel like you want to do this again sometime?"

Gillian still holds Delia close as the kiss breaks, "I... I don't know. It's scary to think I might not have much choice... but it did feel good to be in the water like that. I... I guess it wouldn't be so bad. The pain... gets easier..." She recalls the difficulty that Delia had in changing to her human form, "...right?"

Delia nods. "It does. The more you do it, the less you think about what you're doing, the easier and more natural it becomes. It just becomes, well, you." She shifts into a fully feral dog form while still being held by Gillian. "See?"

Gillian giggles, "I see, love. Then, yes, I... I want to try to do this again."

Delia licks Gillian's snout. "Well, there you go~."

Gillian grins, reaching a hand up to wipe the tears out of her eyes. The fin-webbing is gone from between her fingers, but some scales remain, just permanent additions to her body it seems. "I feel so tired from all of this though, I guess both of me's have been through a lot today. I might even be too tired to cook once we get home."

Delia attempts to shrug, then blinks and shifts back towards anthro to actually be able to do that. "So we either order out or endure my cooking. Your call~."

Gillian giggles, "I wouldn't want to make you cook alone, it's fun when we cook together, even if the kitchen is a little cramped." She hums, "Though, is it weird I have a craving for seafood?"

Delia glances at the river, then at the scales on Gillian's hand, then at her lover: "...that's probably the least weird thing today, if I'm honest."

Gillian smirks, "You're not wrong. ...seafood pizza? My treat?"

Delia sticks her tongue out, lolling it a bit: "Yes, but only if I get to pay for half of it."

Gillian giggles, "You know we live together and I deposit my paychecks into your account. But okay. We'll split it."

Delia giggles: "It's the principle of the thing." She gives Gillian one more hug, before offering her a towel.

Gillian giggles, hugging back before taking the towel. She stands up, her two legs a little shaky for a moment as if her brain has to switch over to 'two-leg mode', and then she seems fine, drying herself off as best she can.

Delia is long dry herself, so just starts picking up her stuff and packing them back up to the corgi-sized 'saddlebags'.

Gillian takes a moment to get herself 'presentable', then turns back to Delia, "Home will feel very good... This was... difficult. But fun? In a way... But nothing beats our own bed."

Delia giggles, glancing at the darkened sky above: "You got that right. While we could sleep out here... we don't want to."

Gillian shakes her head, "I don't know much about satyrs, but I know I prefer a nice soft bed and a warm companion snuggled alongside me."

Delia smiles: "Well, to my advantage... I do know those are things that us doggies like."

Gillian retrieves her own backpack, quickly slipping her clothes back on. She laughs, "I can definitely accommodate. Your maid and chef at your service once again." She bows with a wink. "Your girlfriend and lover too~"

Delia wiggles into her 'saddlebags' while simultaneously shifting onto all fours. "You won't be catching me calling you my 'servant' outside of bedroom anytime soon, but otherwise, I agree~."

Gillian giggles, "Acceptable. On both accounts." She pauses to look back over the water with a slight surge of longing, but it's small enough that she can push it down for the moment, her expression shift slightly. "Guess this really is just a thing now, huh?"

Delia nods, her dog form not really allowing for a smile but Gillian can hear it in her voice anyway. "Yeah, pretty much. But it's not like... a bad thing, just... different."

Gillian nod, turning back to start down the path along with Delia, "You've show me that much, at least. Will take some getting used to, but... it's not as bad as I wanted to imagine."

Delia chuckles softing as she starts bounding forward on the forest path: "And the thing is, it's worse if you imagine it is. Minds are weird things when it comes to shapeshifting."

Gillian follows, looking up towards the sunset. "That's... good to keep in... well, mind. Did... it hurt more because I was so scared of it hurting?"

Delia glances over her shoulder: "Quite possibly. Hard to say."

Gillian hums, walking quietly behind Delia. "...I know we've talked about it before, but I don't think I fully understood what you've gone through to get to this point... Delia, you are so strong... I don't know how you managed to get through it all... and I know you say it's all in the past now... but you still got through it to get to here, and now. You're... amazing."

Delia gives a low chuckle, although there is a hint of pride in her voice. "I'm just stubborn. Can't just lie down and wait for death to come, so pushing forward is the only option."

Gillian nods, "Stubborn and beautiful... and look where it's gotten you. Here... with a girlfriend who turns into half a fish..."

Delia giggles: "You're quite literally talking to a dog, here. If you were afraid you getting scales would deter me..."

Gillian chuckles, "I- okay, I might be being a little self depracating..."

Delia jumps forward over a root. "Well, there you go~. Let's go home, I hear that sushi calling."

Gillian giggles, "Home sounds good. Sushi too..." She steps over the root, smiling wide as she follows her lover along the path on their way home.