Previous: Chapter 19 Next: Chapter 21

AD-HOC Campus Pool - Late Afternoon

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."

Previous: Chapter 19 Next: Chapter 21

Home