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RESPITE BARRACKS - AFTERNOON
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Louma heads from her office, locking the door behind her, straight to the less-occupied interim quarters with a book under her arm. She stiffly slithers by the guard sitting on watch for Victoria as he stands and quickly salutes. "I'll take the rest of your shift, Vandal." She mutters, returning the salute before settling on her coil. She watches the guard head out, glancing toward the sleeping leopard before sighing and opening her Orelan military text, reading uninterrupted for the next hour or so.
Victoria groans in her sleep. She is a fully-anthropomorphic leopard/snow leopard hybrid once more as she lifts a hand to her face. Her long red hair is sprawled everywhich way, seemingly having grown overnight. Her tail twitches in slight annoyance/sign of life, but she doesn't dare open her eyes yet.
Victoria is also very naked, not that any of the guards would have dared to do anything to her while she slept.
Louma looks up from her book at Victoria's groans and movement, a relieved smile appearing as the guard before her finally stirs. She speaks quietly, in case the flower's victim isn't quite awake yet. "Victoria? How are you feeling?"
Victoria groans once more, shifting her position to lie on her side. Blearily, she looks up: "B...bwuh? Louma? Hi. Feeling..." She quickly reaches to the side of her bed and dry-heaves a bit: "...f-fine."
Louma sets her book aside, uncoiling as she glances around. In a few seconds, she's set a wooden bucket next to the bed and retrieved a blanket that she lays on the mattress next to Victoria, before backing off a few feet. "I hate to break it to you, guard, the bad news is you seem to have lost two legs."
Victoria coughs once more though nothing comes out, then looks at Louma dumbly: "Bwuh?"
Louma chuckles lightly, gesturing towards Victoria in general. "Don't be too worried, you've got arms in their stead. Victoria, you're yourself again. Take a deep breath and a moment to flex your fingers."
Victoria blinks at Louma dumbly, before slowly moving her arms... and looking more dumbly as they actually move as they move in ways she isn't quite expecting. "Oh. Wow." Without thinking about it, she gets up to sitting, her legs over the edge of the bed and her just staring at them: "I'm... back?"
Louma nods, shifting a little to the side and spreading her wings to block line of sight from the room's door. Her eyes remain on Victoria's face, though, as she speaks. "It would seem so. How does it feel, after so long?"
Victoria glances at Louma before looking back to her own body: "Weird. Like... good kind of weird. Or like... lost things, but I'm sort of here again." She shakes her head: "Later."
Louma nods, understanding though she doesn't fully relate. "We'll have to have Plume check up on you, of course, but they seemed fine with letting you wake up on your own after observing the other two."
Victoria nods, tentatively getting up to her legs and after a second of wobbling, holding onto the position and looking up to Louma: "Guess that's... fair." She pauses, her mind clearly running for a few moments before she continues: "Look, just... don't tell anyone why. I'll tell them if I want to, right?"
Louma tilts her head slightly. "I'm not sure what you mean."
Victoria sighs, looking aside as she holds her hands over her chest: "They don't need to know I've gone soft. I did this for me."
Louma nods, offering a warm smile. "Don't worry, I wouldn't speak on your behalf on any of this. And besides that, I doubt anyone believes you, out of anyone, have gone soft."
Victoria lets out a bit of a 'hmph', before looking back at Louma: "Maybe. Still, just..." She sighs, spreading her hands: "Well, I'm back. Reckon it's back to normal, then." She doesn't seem entirely happy about things, certainly not in a way that 'recovered from a terrible body change' would suggest.
Louma sighs slightly, shrugging. "You're back. I'm glad to be looking at a once familiar face, and I hope you can find satisfaction with your decision to take the cure." She grins a little bit. "On the positive side, anyone that annoys you can probably be convinced to take it up in the sparring ring now, without the excuse of being afraid of a vicious animal."
Victoria sighs again, but then at Louma's last comment finds a bit of a vicious grin: "You do have a point, there..."
Louma chuckles lightly, nodding. "Just... Perhaps wear a little more armor than you've been doing the last little while?"
Victoria blinks, looking at Louma before glancing at herself: "Mmm. Maybe. Don't want these babies to go all the way back to being a distraction... more than I mean to, anyway."
Louma shakes her head, grinning. "I can't help but recall a certain night where neither of our coinpurses got any lighter after many rounds at the Minnow. Did you miss that, just a little bit?"
Victoria doesn't blush, or at least definitely tries not to do that and fails. "If it did, it wasn't at all my fault, I literally did not ask directly for a thing. I merely hinted at possibilities, so it's not my fault they then happened."
Louma chuckles quietly, leaning back into her coil a bit. "I would never suggest anything happened."
Victoria grins toothily: "Good. Cause obviously nothing bad did. Just a fun night out~."
Louma grins as well, nodding. "Nothing bad, of course." Her grin slips into a smile a she looks aside. "That was some time ago, though. Perhaps we can have another like it someday."
Victoria smirks, then her smirk wanes as she thinks of last few months: "...yeah, been a while. Once I get myself... together, we will."
Louma nods, smiling warmly. "I'll look forward to an invitation, then."
Victoria lets out a bit of a mean giggle despite herself, then shifts around to look for... for... "So hey, where's my stuff? Or was there any left?"
Louma shakes her head. "We never got around to looking for any of your equipment on the mountain, so you and Garwin have been provided new travel armor. Your uniform is over in that locker, though." She points to the footlocker at the other end of the bed. "Sorry, I didn't want to disturb your sleep by getting it out."
Victoria looks at the footlocker, then shrugs at Louma: "Eh, fair enough. Reckon I best put something on or half the folks in this building will get the wrong idea before I want them to."
Louma chuckles lightly, looking over her shoulder towards the door. She's relieved to not see any peeking faces begging for a reprimand before turning back. "That's probably a good idea."
Victoria lets out a chuckle as she starts digging for what passes for her 'guard gear', which is somewhere slightly above 'loose leather armor and loincloth'. "Yeah, seems fine what we have here. Thanks, Cap."
Louma blushes lightly, looking away from Victoria as she digs for her gear, as her previous focus on Victoria's face became obscured. "Hopefully it's all there, I admittedly hadn't checked it myself."
Victoria mumbles as she digs and starts getting the gear on: "More or less. Enough, anyway."
Louma nods, still averting her eyes for Victoria's privacy, such as it is. "If there's anything missing, just report it and it can be replaced."
Victoria shrugs as she puts what passes for 'pants' on: "Do I get my knives back? You were always so insistent I have them."
Louma feels her blush subside, stil finding the closed book across the room intensely interesting. "You'll have to pick out new ones in the armory, they're still somewhere on Mean Peak. If you can remember where they are and want them back, we can arrange a retrieval."
Victoria sighs, shrugs: "Fair. Wouldn't go digging for them out there again, not worth it."
Louma nods, "That's fine, probably for the best. There's a new smith in town, too, so a new option if you wanted something tailor-made, so to speak."
Victoria finishes putting on her armor, then looks at Louma as she gets up: "Meh. You're the one who wants me to have some knives. If they're sharp and balanced, they'll do."
Louma notices Victoria shifting, looking back towards her. "I know it's a bit silly, but clawing a bandit to shreds just looks... Cruel and uncivilized to the public."
Victoria grins: "I'd say 'fun and efficient', but I think we've had this argument before."
Louma chuckles, giving her a bit of a look. "And we agreed, if your knives somehow wind up on some rooftop nearby after a problem has started, then nobody can complain."
Victoria chuckles, rolling her eyes just a bit: "Well, you know, anything can happen."
Louma giggles. "The wind."
Victoria shrugs, grinning: "Indeed. This place has some weird winds at times."
Louma tucks her wings back in after shaking the stretch out of them, slithering over to pick up her book. "Well, you look the part now, ready to get back out there, guard Victoria?"
Victoria chuckles and shakes her head: "Ready as I ever were. Let's see if I can do anything on two legs now." She takes tentative-but-stable steps out from the room.