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RESPITE FALLS - CROISE DANCE ACADEMY - LATE AFTERNOON
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Aelia fidgets nervously, having gathered up all the materials listed in the ritual book and set out most everything, she's understandably nervous. There's a circle of salt she's spent the better part of the afternoon drawing, a single large circle with three smaller ones linked throughout it. A few candles are lit around the edges, as well as some pleasant smelling incense. In not too long, she might be free of this curse, and perhaps even meeting Phoebe for the first time in forever, whispering to herself, "I really hope this works, Phoebe... for both our sake. I want to give us both a real life. I... hope works..."
Scilla is sitting to the side, reading the relevant passages for the spell for the eleventy-seventh time. She mumbles to herself as she goes over the steps. "Mm, this all should do it. We've almost overshot the amount of materials, but better safe than sorry, right?"
Ninell walks into the area that Aelia partitioned for the ritual, only to blink and looks around at the sight of the completed designs. "Hm... I will need to be careful to not drag my tail over any of the lines..." He nods at Scilla, "Yes, better to have too much than not enough in most cases."
Aelia nods to Scilla, frowning over to Ninell slightly. "I was afraid there wouldn't be enough, so I might have overcompensated. Sorry about that, but um, yes. Are you sure you're okay, Ninell? That bruise looked pretty sore..."
Scilla tilts her head: "What bruise?" She gets up, putting the book aside. "Anyway. I probably couldn't remove the spell pattern from my eyes if I wanted to, so we're about as good to go as we will ever be."
Ninell nods at Aelia's concern with a smile, though he does visibly (if only slightly) cringe as he rests a hand on the bruise, which has gotten more obvious since the day he got it, while rolling his shoulder to work it out. "It is not any worse than anything I have had before. I will be fine for this, at the very least."
Aelia sighs, "I guess it's not like you need to do any lifting or fighting for this..." She shakes her head, clearly not comfortable with that aspect of Ninell's knighthood. She glances over at Scilla and smiles, "I appreciate your help in all of this. I don't have any kind of magic at all, and this is... hopefully pretty basic, but still more than either of us could do."
Scilla shrugs: "Best I can do to help." She steps closer, looking over the circles with appreciation: "Looks good though. Precise. Should do it just fine."
Ninell hums and nods at Scilla. "Then... if everything is in place... shall we get started? Let us know what needs to be done."
Aelia nods, "I spent a good deal of time making sure it was perfect. Just like in the book." She points towards one of the circles, "I stand there... and Ninell, you stand there... from what the ritual said, you're like... an anchor? We hold hands here, and then extend our free hands over the empty circle, and... I guess that's where Phoebe is going to end up! So that just leaves Scilla's magic to trigger it all and then... the four of us go out to celebrate?" She's heartbreakingly hopeful here, giving the two big doe eyes and a nervous smile.
Scilla nods: "That about does it, yup. We've checked and double checked everything enough that this should go without a hitch." She looks at the other two: "Places, you two. Er, three. Sort of." She mentally reaches for a well of magic that has well been gathering the proverbial cobwebs within her, but brushes any worries aside. She needs to do this. She needs to help. So she just summons an encouraging smile best as she is able.
Ninell hums quietly, then nods as he goes to take his spot in the circles, one hand gently reaching out for Aelia to grasp once she's ready to begin. "What better way to celebrate a success than with a nice little party, hm? We can make plans once all four of us are done here, I think."
Aelia takes Ninell's offered hand and steps into her spot in the circle. She reaches her open hand out as if to hold hands with where Phoebe would be standing as well, and nods in determination. "Sounds perfect to me. I owe all of this to you both, so it'll be my treat. I owe you both, and I owe Phoebe as well."
Scilla almost steps into the circle, then realizes her mistake at the last moment, gives a sheepish grin and stays outside of it. "Uh, yeah. Let's not do that. I'll stay right here. So now... we take a few calming breaths, and I will push my magic to give all of this volatile energy a spark, and... that should do it."
Ninell nods with a soft smile at Aelia as he reaches his free hand towards the open circle, ready to feel Phoebe's hand in his once the spell is complete. He does his best to keep his tail elevated above the salt lines all the while. "I am as calm as ever, Scilla. I think we can do this once Aelia is prepared."
Aelia takes a few deep breaths, performance exercises to calm nerves and reduce stage fright. "Not much different than getting ready for a big performance, right? Haha ha... ha.... I... I'm ready, yes." She takes on more deep exhale and starts breathing normally, her hand squeezing Ninell's gently for a moment.
Scilla tries to center herself, kinda sort of succeeds in it, and without much bigger ceremony... draws into all of her magic, attempts to pour it into the spell, and keeps it steady. A spark. That's all they need. And for better or for worse, the ritual now has that spark, the magic runes activating around Aelia and Ninell...
Ninell gently squeezes Aelia's hand in turn as the runes activate, though he remains still all the while so as to not disturb anything about the ritual.
Aelia nods as the ritual begins, turning her head to look towards the center of the circle as Scilla's spark of magic feeds into the circle and activates the spell. She can feel something immediately pulling out of her towards the empty circle. She can't be sure it's Phoebe, but she feels her spirits rise, her expression brightening that it's actually working. She can FEEL it working!
Ninell hums quietly, still uncertain what the spell is supposed to entail, and it's with a little concern that he feels something similarly tugging at him. He shuffles awkwardly, but doesn't really say anything since the spell is already progressing... and he doesn't want to raise any unnecessary concerns that might dampen Aelia's cheer in the moment.
Aelia only starts to grow concerned when that pulling starts to feel like it's tugging on 'her', as the spells intensity increases, and with a sharp noise like a giant popping balloon, the effect triggers in its entirety, and Scilla's magic runs its course, the salt burning off leaving behind a faint white smoke that fills the room. Aelia feels like she's ripped across the room, nearly blacking out from the strange experience,. She flinches, a sudden pain in her shoulder. Staggered and disoriented a bit from the sensation of the spell, she shakes her head, feeling a hand in hers... in her previously empty hand. "P-Phoebe?" Her voice sounds strained, probably from the smoke.
Ninell is similarly knocked back when the spell ends, his senses getting knocked for a bit of a loop as the room fills with smoke from the salt being expended by the magic ritual. Though he lands hard, he keeps a firm grip on whoever it might be in his previously free hand. "Ugh... Phoebe? Aelia? Are you... are you two okay?" He coughs quietly, the odd pitch of his voice making him think the smoke's irritating his throat.
Scilla takes a step back from the dust and smoke kicked up by the spell, covering her face. "Unff... might have overdone the amounts..." She then blinks her eyes open, listening to the confused sounds... and looks at her hand. Her very muscular, long brown hair covered hand. "Wonderful." The camel gives heaving sigh before turning to look at the others.
Prachi tilts her head: "...it didn't work?" She frowns, looking over the now blown-off set of runes.
Aelia uses her free hand to wave some of the smoke away, then stops to wonder at why she has a free hand. "Wait... Ninell? Where are... I..." She turns towards the hand she's still holding as she feels it pull on her arm, causing another spike of soreness in her shoulder. She turns to help whoever that is up, feeling very confused. "Did... it not work? Whose voice was that... this... this is Aelia." It sure doesn't sound like Aelia.
Ninell lifts his free hand to rub at his head, only to realize that his head isn't shaped as he's familiar with. He blinks, then turns to look towards the figure he's holding hands with, only for confusion to appear on his face as he notes a very familiar outline. With his head still slightly muddled by the knock back and obscuring smoke, he stares at the figure. "...I... Ikaika...? When did you...?" He pauses, then shakes his head, "Wait... no..."
Prachi looks up from the messed-up spell to the two: "So uh... well I changed, but you, Aelia, didn't. That's just... back to the drawing board, I guess."
Prachi then realizes she has no magic when she is a camel, and smacks herself on the face.
Aelia blinks down at the deer on the ground talking to her, "I... didn't? Then who is... this?" She points at 'Aelia', then looks down at her own hand. "W-whoa! This... isn't my hand. I... I definitely changed Scilla! Or..." She glances back down a the deer... "Ninell?"
Ninell tilts his head at the sergal sitting next to him, only to glance at his hands for a moment. He pauses, then looks back up at the person with an expression of surprise and shock. "...Uh... yes? A-Aelia...? Is that... you?"
Prachi lifts the hand from her face, blinking as she turns to the pair: "Wait, what?" She's confused enough that she hasn't even registered that her sudden change destroyed her genet-sized clothes.
Aelia nods her head in response, only just seeing her longer snout. She lifts up her hand to feel it. "Whoa... what? Am I... you?" She glances over at Prachi as well, "And you're still Scilla. Then that means I'm in-" She takes a few steps forward, only to trip on some long tail. "-Gah!"
Ninell slowly stands up, only to flop forward as well, as he tries to balance himself to account for his tail... which isn't the long, fluffy sergal tail he's accustomed to, but instead the tail of a doe. "Ah...! S-sorry, Aelia...!"
Prachi looks at the two, lifting her hand to the side of her head, as she slowly pieces the situation together: "...t-this is not good. Definitely not good."
Aelia pushes her(?)self back up, her limbs feeling bulkier than she's used to, hands and feet much larger and stranger. She looks up at Prachi and frowns, "It... swapped us. Did we do something wrong with the ritual? Is..." She starts to panic a bit, "Phoebe! Where's Phoebe? If... if we swapped, where did she end up? Is there even any way to know?"
Prachi blinks, then looks down. She stood outside the circle... right? "Um... I hope it's not me. No uh, offense."
Ninell likewise stands up a bit more rapidly, though his(?) relative unfamiliarity with Aelia's proportions causes him to stumble and catch himself against her(?) for a few moments. "S-so... the spell... changed us to be in each others' bodies? Wh... what does that mean for Phoebe?"
Aelia shakes her head at Prachi, "I don't know... I don't think it was you? Something else... the ritual seemed to work perfectly, I felt it pulling, and then... It all popped and I was... well, I was Ninell. Phoebe... is probably here? Or still there... Gosh, I'm... I'm sorry. I rushed us into this. I just... I wanted a solution! I wanted to fix things! But this is all my fault."
Prachi looks down: "Well... technically I cast the spell..." She looks away, ashamed.
Ninell shakes his head as well. "We all thought the spell was what we were searching for. I just hope that Phoebe is still linked to one of us, but I suppose we will not know for certain unless one of us changes." He sighs as he straightens himself up again and pats himself down to straighten his clothing out... though he obviously has no real idea how to manage Aelia's physique just yet. "No one is to blame."
Aelia nods, pushing herself up to stand tall, then (carefully) walking to Prachi to hug her... which is just weird on all ends, her sergal body definitely a little better equipped to hug the camel, "He's right... you tried. We all tried. And we all thought this would work. Th-this... well, I'm sure we can reverse it, right? Just... try the ritual again?"
Prachi is too surprised by the hug to realize to return it: "I uh... yeah, we tried." Her expression then darkens as she looks between the two. "But... I'm not sure we can." She sighs, frowning to herself.
Ninell tilts his head curiously. "No? What makes you say that, Priscilla?"
Aelia releases the slightly awkward hug and steps back, looking between 'herself' and Prachi, and feeling really weird about being able to look at her own body.
Prachi lets out a big, heavy sigh, enough that she shudders a bit. "I don't have magic in this form."
Ninell hums quietly and goes to cross his arms, though he has to hold them a little differently from normal due to the different proportions of Aelia's body compared to his own. "Ah... that would make attempting the spell again rather difficult... Do you know about how long until you can attempt it again?"
Aelia stands fairly still, trying carefully to balance the tail, but moving it requires a lot more concentration than she'd expect. "R-right! So... we can't try right away? That's... not a huge deal? I'm sure we can cope with um... this. For a few days, at least."
Prachi frowns, thinking: "I have never really... counted the days or anything, but I don't think it has ever been less than a week. Although sometimes it can be as long as a month. Or more." She balls her hands to a fist, and only the knowledge that these walls belong to a friend prevent her from hitting one of them very, very hard as she would want to do right now.
Ninell hums thoughtfully. "Mmh... so uncertain how long until we can attempt it again. Then we simply keep the plans set aside and... try to live our usual routines for the time being?"
Aelia takes a deep breath, even breathing like this feels weird. "So... we manage. N-not much else we can do, hm? We'll make this right in time."
Prachi gives a grunt and looks aside, though she nods if in a very small way. "Not much we can do." Except be angry at yourself. Cause that always helps. The camel gives another grunt: "I'm sorry."
Ninell nods at Aelia, though he still has to work to not think too much about the sergal in front of him as anyone he knows... and that said sergal in front of him is actually his body. "We simply must try to make do until such a time we can try again, yes..." He wiggles a little, still feeling more than a little out of sorts in this body, though trying his best to keep it under wraps for the time being.
Aelia sighs, "It's not like there's anywhere else we have to be in the meantime."
Prachi looks between the two, then nods with a frown. "I will figure out what went wrong." She starts for the door, clearly fuming.
Ninell watches Prachi heading out, thinking it better to not try and stop her for the moment. "We will, er... see you around town, then, Priscilla. Take care."
Aelia watches Prachi go a moment, always taken to a more passive role, she doesn't quite register that she might have the strength to stop her friend. Instead, she simply nods in reponse to Ninell's words and calls after, "Priscilla... just, promise me you'll stay safe. Don't do anything reckless on my account."
Prachi turns enough to glance at the two, trying to parse that it's Aelia talking even though it's Ninell's voice she hears. She gives a hard grunt: "Promise." She then heads out, not caring one iota right now that she's also baring her full front to the world. The camel is royally pissed off, at herself, at the situation, at the world at large. Possibly also other parties, but those three are the most important ones.
Ninell sighs a bit as he looks back towards Aelia once Prachi leaves the studio. "So... er..."
Aelia looks back at Ninell awkwardly, "Um, yeah... I guess we need to um... figure this out? I... I'm sorry."
Narrator: After a moment, there is a thunderous boom as something is hit very hard. A not-so-faint "AAAAAARGH!" is easily audible from the outside as the camel yells her frustrations to the skies before stomping away.
Ninell shakes his head. "As I said, there is no one to blame for this." He pauses, looking around towards the origin of the sound with a surprised expression on his face, "...Though I think Priscilla really needs a little space for the next little while..."
Aelia cringes at the sound of the crash, nearly falling backward at the weird shift in her body weight, but managing to catch herself this time. "Err... yeah. Sounds like it." She puts a hand to her new chest, "It's... a lot to get used to all at once, isn't it?"
Ninell reflexively moves a hand to rub against his (currently unbruised) shoulder, only to nod as he drops his hand again. He casts a glance down at his chest for a moment, then nods once more. "Yes... it will be quite a lot to get accustomed to."
Aelia watches Ninell, then reaches over to poke her shoulder and flinch at the bruise, then run her hand down the muscles, glancing back at her tail as she tries to keep it still. "I guess... you'll have to get used to my clothes? I can help, obvioiusly. Whatever you need, I can help you through."
Ninell nods. "And I will offer the same to you, as always, Aelia. There are a lot of differences in our styles of dress, after all." He gives her a sympathetic look, "And, er... my apologies for you having to deal with the injury, now."
Aelia chuckles softly, "Least of my worries..." She manages an awkward laugh, half a giggle before she stops, clearing her throat, "Uh, it's just, a bit more painful that it looks."
Ninell chuckles in turn. "You can thank a giraffe for the injury, as it was acquired during a sparring match against her. She has quite a lot of force behind her punches, as I acquired that while wearing full armor..." He pauses, then smirks, "...Of course, I did manage to return the favor before we declared the spar a draw."
Aelia frowns, but nods, "I... hope I don't have to do any kind of fighting like this. I don't think I could do it."
Ninell nods. "I do suggest turning down any and all requests until we get this problem resolved, though thankfully, they should be few and far between." He trails off, then nods, "But I do still think you should do what you can to maintain my body... And I will do what I can to keep yours in good health, too."
Aelia looks down at herself and nods, "You do stay in good condition. I've done enough training over the years to know how much effort that takes to maintain. I'll do my best, Ninell. Our... diets are going to be pretty different too... you won't be able to eat meat. It makes me sick."
Ninell takes a moment to bare his teeth and gently taps at one with a nail, noting that they're definitely more herbivorous than his own. "Mmh... good point. It may help for us to write up things for one another, so we do not accidentally do something that makes us feel horrible."
Aelia runs her tongue along her own teeth, in mirror. "That's probably a good idea." She slumps her shoulders a little, then cautiously steps closer to Ninell, reaching out to give her a hug as well. "We'll get through this... I just hope Phoebe is okay... I didn't mean for anything to happen to her."
Ninell hums as he goes to give Aelia a hug in turn, the difference in strength quite evident in their respective embraces. "We will know soon enough, I think, about Phoebe..." He pauses, then looks up at Aelia, straight into her eyes, "And... Phoebe, if you are still in there... we will do what we can to figure this out further."
Aelia blinks, staring back into her own mismatched eyes, "Err... likewise if you're in there? Gosh, this is such a mess. I don't even know how to feel, I'm just... exhausted and tired and sore and it's... it's all so much."
Ninell nods a bit as he gives Aelia another soft hug. "Then... let us perhaps try to just spend the rest of the day resting? It has been a decently long day for all of us, after all."
Aelia slowly lets go of the hug, looking down at the floor, the burnt remnants of the salt. "I guess clean-up can wait for now... let's go back to the Thirsty Minnow and... at least share whatever we can think about ourselves. I'll lock up he-" She reaches for the studio key, then laughs quietly, "Guess you'll have to lock up."
Ninell reaches for the key that he knows Aelia keeps in her pocket, then smiles a bit as he pulls it into view. "Indeed... At least... well, we do not have anything especially pressing outside of what we normally do every day, hm? Nothing unusual to concern either of us..."
Aelia perks up the edges of his mouth into a smile, "Yeah. At least there's that. Nothing we need to do but wait, so best spend it getting to know um... ourselves better?"
Ninell smiles a bit more brightly. "In a manner of speaking, yes. We are both in unfamiliar bodies..." He trails off for a moment, then gives himself a little shake, "...But at least we know what we are capable of, so that would make it far easier."
Aelia smiles, "And we're not alone. If this happened to me alone I..." Her smile fades, "Guess it would have been a lot like when Phoebe first showed up. I... know this sounds a bit stupid but... I'm glad you're with me in this."
Ninell offers Aelia a soft, kind smile. "And I am happy to help you and Phoebe both as much as needed and wanted, Aelia. It has certainly been quite a journey for us so far."
Aelia gives a bit of a courtsey, before stopping herself with a laugh. "Guess that doesn't quit fit for me. But... you're right. Hopefully it won't be too much more of a journey for any of us." She starts to carefully walk towards the door, the tail keeping her more off balance than she'd expect. "Ha... I'm not sure how much more journey I can handle... but at least having friends along the way helps ease the hardships."
Ninell laughs quietly as he moves to follow Aelia out of the studio. "Indeed. Having companions helps to make many endeavors much less troublesome... and the company is always welcome to have."
Aelia steps outside, waiting for Ninell to lock up the studio before the two awkwardly head back to the Minnow, tired, hungry, and leaning on one another to get through this right now.
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ERIKA'S GARDEN - EARLY EVENING
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Erika is standing in the middle of the garden, for once not crawling in the bottom layer of plants, but rather reaching upwards to see what this year's fruit and berry results look like. The okapi is quite thankful for her reach as she picks up fruits that are mostly familiar to her. "No cursed peaches this year, but maybe that is a good thing." She grins, her tail swishing from under the light skirt she chose to wear today.
Nesseth walks over towards the tree that Erika's leaning against and trying to reach up to grab a fruit from. He's carrying a basket loaded down with perfectly normal-looking fruits plucked from other trees and bushes in the garden, and he smiles as he looks up. His tail wanders on its own, however, and teasingly caresses Erika's rear under her skirt. "No cursed peaches is always a good thing. Pretty good late-summer harvest all the same."
Erika squirms slightly at the the touch, though doesn't lose her focus. "Y-yup, pretty good. Nothing all that new that we haven't tast-" She blinks. "Hold that thought." She reaches upwards to a particularly thick pile of branches, her hand coming down holding a fairly big pink fruit. The fruit looks like... "Heh. It looks like a butt."
Nesseth leans over a bit to peek at the fruit Erika pulls out of the branches, only to chuckle with her at the description. "Heh... it kind of does, doesn't it? Not quite a peach... Something new?"
Erika lifts the fruit for both to see: "Yeah. It does smell good though." She sniffs at it: "Mmm~. Very good." She lifts the fruit for Nesseth to smell as well.
Nesseth leans in a bit to sniff at the fruit once Erika offers. He hums and nods with a smile. "Ohh, yeah, that's pretty good!" He looks towards Erika after a moment, "Think it's okay to eat?"
Erika considers for a second... then splits the fruit with her hands, the juicy sweet smell only going stronger. "Let's find out. I mean, the worst that happens is that you grow a second dick again." She's teasing. Probably.
Nesseth chuckles, only to start drooling just a touch as the fruit's tasty scent permeates the air when Erika splits it open. "And... well, that wasn't so bad, that time. It was pretty fun~"
Erika offers half of the fruit to Nesseth: "Exactly~. I kinda want to do that again some day." She then takes a couple more divine sniffs of the pink fruit... and takes a lick. Lick is quickly followed by nibble, which is followed by a chomp. "MmmMMmmmm~"
Nesseth sets the basket against his hip so he can free up a hand. He takes the offered half of the fruit, then follows a similar pattern of sniff, lick, nibble and then chomp. "Mmmmhm~... This tastes really good! And... hey, we just need to wait for the plant to fruit again before we can dig back into that bit of silliness~"
Erika looks up the the foliage as she munches on the fruit: "Mmm I wonder what this one is... it probably has more of them up there, but I can't see any..." She shrugs: "Ah well. This is delicious~."
Nesseth hums as he likewise looks up into the branches, only to shrug when he can't see anything either. "Might be one of the first fruits to come out? We'll just make sure to save the seeds once we eat the rest." He nods in agreement, his tail swishing about slightly, "It's really good~"
Erika finds her tail swishing in agreement. "Mm." She finishes eating the fruit, having destroyed it in quick process. She spits a couple of seeds to her palm, grinning. "Gotta save these."
Nesseth isn't too far behind Erika, finishing up the last bits of his fruit a few bites after her. He's careful to get his own seeds out without too much issue, and he examines them curiously. "Yeah, looks like this one's viable, at least. Even if it doesn't do anything, it's a tasty thing to grow."
Erika nods. Then yawns. Then blinks. "Huh. I guess it's a good time as any to call it for today. We've kinda worked all day, haven't we?"
Nesseth gives his neck a bit of a stretch and nods as he offers the seeds to Erika, only to draw his hand back to stifle a yawn of his own moments later. "Yeah... we did get a good bit done today." He offers Erika the seeds again once his yawn is done, and he grins as he hefts the basket to show their work.
Erika picks the seeds and collects them to a small pouch on her hip. She pats the pouch and grins, then offers her hand to Nesseth: "Wanna hold me for a bit?" She feels rather tired all of a sudden, so leads Nesseth to sit down with her, next to the big tree.
Nesseth gladly takes Erika's hand in his own and smiles as he leans in for a little kiss, though he's also looking rather exhausted. "You know I love holding you whenever and wherever, dear." He follows the okapi over to the tree and lets out a quiet groan as he sits down beside her, then leans warmly against her side.
Erika hums as Nesseth sits next to her, smiling... but it is interrupted by another big yawn. "Mmkay. Might have overdone it today..." She leans against the lizard, with a goofy smile on her face.
Nesseth slips an arm around Erika's waist and hugs her closely against him, his tail likewise wrapping around her lower back. "Maybe, but at least we've got plenty of time to rest, hm?" He nuzzles lightly against Erika's neck with another yawn, "We got a lot done, either way."
Erika giggles tiredly: "We always do." She closes her eyes, nuzzling Nesseth's frills: "Mmloveyou."
Nesseth hums quietly and gives Erika a soft kiss on the neck again as he starts to doze off. "Love you too~"
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SOME TIME LATER
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Erika mmhs, slowly waking up. Did she doze off? She looks at Nesseth next to her. Yep, she did. "Oh well, at least I didn't fall asleep on a root this time..." She feels a bit stiff, but for the moment busies herself with just leaning on her lover. It's dark, so no hurry to get up for any reason.
Nesseth yawns again as he feels Erika stirring next to him, and he winds up waking up a few seconds after her. "Mmh... did we doze off again? Heh... guess today wore us out more than we'd expected..."
Erika giggles in the darkness: "I guess we did." She nuzzles Nesseth's frills: "Not the first time."
Nesseth hums warmly as he continues to snuggle against Erika. "Mmh, at least it's not all too cold tonight, huh? Still... might not be a bad idea to shift us to your bed so we don't wake up stiff in the morning."
Erika smiles: "Mmm, you're comfy but also probably right. Already feeling a bit stiff in my legs, must have sat funny." She shifts herself and attempts to get up... only to lose her balance before she's even on hooves, leaning back on her hands. "Oops. Not like that."
Nesseth chuckles as he tries to stand up as well, only to have his legs buckle under him and send him back down onto the grass and onto his butt again next to Erika. "Ah... guess we both sat a bit weird when we dozed off..." He reaches down and massages his thigh to try and get a bit of feeling back into it, only to blink when he feels fur... not that it stops him from massaging the leg anyway, "Whoops, sorry, dear~... Didn't mean to grab your leg."
Erika blinks at the odd feeling: "Mm? It's no problem." She reaches down to massage her leg as well. "Oh. Heh. I found yours. Well, now you get a quick massage for my troubles." She blinks as it feels... well, nevermind.
Nesseth chuckles a bit as he works the leg's muscles a bit, trying to help Erika get the feeling back into the limb. "You know... you already know I'm a fan of your legs, but I still can't get enough of messing with them, even when half-asleep."
Erika giggles: "Well you're hopeless. Thankfully I like that." She gives Nesseth's leg one more touch, before steeling herself: "Alright. Let's get up." She manages this time, although teetering slightly and the feeling in her legs is still a bit off.
Nesseth hums as he gives Erika's thigh a tender/teasing squeeze, then nods as he goes to stand up as well. He rests a hand against Erika as he gets fully upright, still feeling just a little unsteady on his feet from a general numbness that's slowly fading. "Think we just need to take it slow, especially at the steps..."
Erika nods as she wiggles her toes on the ground to keep steady. She then blinks: "Wait, what? I think that fruit did something, Nesseth..." She reaches her hand down her side, and can feel a point near her hip where her fur trades for familiar scales: "...what."
Nesseth blinks as he takes a step, only to feel a hoof clunk against an exposed root. He blinks, then glances down. "...The fruit... did something...? But..." He pauses, then reaches down towards where he's quite sure his legs should be... only to feel the familiar warm fur of Erika, "...This has to be a weird dream of some sort..."
Erika nods: "...then we're both in it. We need light. And a mirror." She starts scrambling through the garden, the familiar steps feeling awkward and weird and wrong. "This isn't right..." She winces as her tail hits a branch, having a bad feeling about the nature of said tail but not stopping to inspect.
Nesseth nods and goes to follow Erika at as good a pace as he can manage with his legs feeling way, way different than before. "Weird... lucid dream thing, maybe? I don't even know at this point, considering some of the stuff I've had in the past."
Erika finds her way to the porch, frowning at her lack of foresight to put any light up. But at least she's starting to see something, what little town light finds its' way back here. She takes a breath, sitting down to look at her legs... which she has definitely not seen from this perspective before. From what she can tell in the dark, her legs have turned into Nesseth's. "This is unreal. Dreaming."
Nesseth likewise looks down towards his legs as his eyes get adjusted to the low light that comes from the posts out on the main lane, and he sees very familiar, stripey legs where his own should be. He experimentally pokes at one of them again, only to realize that... yup, he felt that. "...Well... that's... okay, either we're both dreaming the same thing at the same time, and that fruit is giving us some weird dreams... or that fruit somehow swapped our lower halves..."
Erika looks up towards Nesseth: "This is... I don't even know. Somehow even weirder than being feral." She's not scared, not exactly, but... severely weirded out. She feels at her legs, rubbing at the scales as she tries to think and mostly fails.
Nesseth hums in agreement. "Getting turned into a regular frilled lizard is one thing... and getting double tongues and, er... other fun bits is another thing... but half of our bodies?"
Erika nods, lifting her skirt, looking at the scaley legs: "Seems so." She looks at her side, tracing the relatively smooth line where her dark fur turns into shining scales: "It's like... yeah." She traces her hand back and forth at the edge, trying to find... something, anything, that would give a clue.
Nesseth offers a bit of a helpless shrug, since magically-induced changes via eating fruits is kind of outside of his wheelhouse, but he also does offer Erika a little kiss on her neck anyway. "I mean... not that I'm complaining, mind... since we know it's going to be temporary anyway, like that other fruit. Just..." He lifts one of his now okapi-shaped legs and props it against the edge of the bench on the porch, just to let the light play off of the patterns as he continues to lightly rub the feeling back into the limb, "...Yeah..."
Erika looks at her leg... now attached to Nesseth: "Yeah, we can... probably deal..." She feels an itch on her... Nesseth's leg and rubs it as well. "No wonder I felt stiff."
Nesseth nods as he takes a moment to stretch Erika's... his leg out against the bench before straightening out. "Yeah... that explains the stiffness." He shrugs after a moment, "...At least our legs still work, though. Small blessings, you know?"
Erika giggles nervously: "You have a way to look at the positive side of the weirdest things, love. And this definitely qualifies as a 'weirdest thing'." She resumes tracing her sides, fascinated by the area where her upper body turns into Nesseth's lower half.
Nesseth chuckles a little and grins at Erika, though he's similarly a bit uncertain. "Just a well of positivity, and I learned from the best." He pauses, his smile giving way to a thoughtful look, "...Now that I think about it... that might explain why the fruit was so easy to split in half."
Erika blinks, then giggles despite the situation. "Oh. Heh. That would, wouldn't it?" She lets out a sigh: "Oh boy."
Nesseth finally turns around a bit and looks to see what kind of tail he has... and sure enough, it's Erika's adorable tail wiggling about behind him. He turns back to Erika with a sigh and a bit of a smile, "You can say that again... It's going to be interesting trying to deal with this until it wears off."
Erika nods, tracing her hand to her big lizardine tail: "Yeah... never thought I'd be feeling these scales like this. And yet here we are."
Nesseth ponders the situation as he looks at Erika again, noting that she seems to go from Okapi to Lizard around the skirt area. "Ditto, dear. Never thought I'd wind up feeling your legs or tail like this, but..." He chuckles, "Heh... that's what I'd look like in a skirt, huh?"
Erika sticks her tongue out: "Well, half of you, anyway." Her tail swishes, and she is mildly thrown off balance by the sheer amount of tail. "Oop. How do you even work that?" She giggles, balancing herself to sitting again.
Nesseth chuckles as he moves a bit, finishing stretching his legs, only to flail his arms a bit as the okapi tail doesn't quite provide him enough counterbalance for his movements. "W-whoops! I could ask the same for you and your tail, dear." He laughs again as he regains his balance, "It's going to take a little bit to get used to this change..."
Erika smiles disbelievingly: "Oh, y-yeah. This is... definitely up there for weird stuff we've seen." She leans back, sighing, as she looks at her now lizardine legs: "At least it's your legs. They're pretty."
Nesseth hums as he looks down at his now-furry-and-striped legs. "Same. You've always had really nice legs, dear." He chuckles and smirks as he glances back up at Erika, "Not that I was ever all too secretive about my appreciation, anyway."
Erika giggles: "Subtle as a generator explosion, love." She leans back, then hums sharply as something occurs to her. She lifts her skirt, and... "Oh. Guess that makes sense. Hello, you." Between her lizarding legs is definitely a thing that she didn't possess before.
Nesseth blinks, then looks down as well, only to realize that his pants are actually missing, having slipped off when he stood up with okapi legs instead of the lizard legs his pants are meant to fit. "...Huh... yeah, I guess that makes sense... So I guess we literally just switched lower halves?"
Erika nods absently, fascinated by her new appendage: "Seems... so..." She lowers her hand to touch the member, feeling tingly at the touch: "Oh. Oh. Yep, definitely is mine now." Some part of her is screaming that this is not okay, but fascination far overpowers that part.
Nesseth chuckles a little as he experimentally reaches down to touch the familiar folds of Erika's (now currently his) nether lips, only to jump at the intensity of the sensations. "Uh... okay, wow... wasn't expecting to feel that..." He glances back up at Erika, only to stifle a laugh at the okapi's reaction.
Erika glances at Nesseth, feeling weirded out at looking at her lower half... over there. "Well no, yes, this is..." She moves her hand in the air, trying to find words: "...well, whatever this is."
Nesseth ends up smirking a bit just at the whole situation. "More temporary trouble that we've gotten ourselves mired in, because we decided to just snack on a fruit in the garden?"
Erika lifts her hand: "...yeah, something like that." She looks down, shifting her hips a bit. "Ah well. At least I still have my hands, and I'm safely at home. So that's already better than some that I've been through."
Nesseth nods in agreement. "Yeah, exactly. I might have your lower half right now, but at least we're still... you know, relatively normal otherwise. Definitely beats getting turned into a feral lizard and okapi, anyway."
Erika chuckles: "Though admittedly more inconvenient than that weird doubling berry. Still no idea how that worked." She just admires the lizard legs for a while, experimentally stretching them.
Nesseth shrugs a little as he paces about the back porch a bit, just getting a feel for how his current legs function differently from his normal ones... and also just kind of admiring them as he always does when they're attached to Erika. "Yeah, definitely still inconvenient, but... could have been all kinds of worse." He laughs, "I'm just going to have trouble making my armor fit for patrols for a little bit..."
Erika giggles: "Thankfully I don't need armor." She leans back on her hands, lifting a leg up, twitching her toes and just being fascinated by that movement: "It's weird, but... maybe not bad weird? Does that make sense?"
Nesseth chuckles and nods as he looks down and wiggles one of his hooves while leaning against the wall of the house. "Different, but not bad, yeah. Still a bit weird, though, just seeing the changes."
Erika nods: "Gonna take some getting used to. But, since it's like... you, I don't mind?" She hums, then just takes her skirt off in order to explore her lower body better. "You do have some pretty scales, so there is that."
Nesseth hums. "Mmh, it'll be a little awkward for a bit while we get used to things until it wears off... but I definitely don't mind since it's your legs." He turns towards Erika and grins, "And you know I love the stripes your legs have, along with a lot of other things about your legs that I like."
Erika looks over at Nesseth standing with her legs: "You know you're biased. But I suppose in this case it helps." She hums, her smile waning slightly: "So... what do we do now?"
Nesseth shrugs, actually seeming thrown off of their usual sort of late evening activities by the changes for once. "Good question... I mean... we could just get back to sleep in a proper bed and deal with this stuff once the sun is up." He punctuates the point with a yawn, "Ahh~... And... well, see if we can get back to what we've been doing?"
Erika shrugs: "Yeah. I mean, this might just wear off by morning. It's hard to say with these. Some are quick, some are strong enough that we need to figure out a cure." The okapi does not seem all that worried, either way. She reaches her hand to Nesseth: "Help me up."
Nesseth takes hold of Erika's hand and helps her up onto her feet, then pulls her into a warm hug. "Yeah, we'll just have to see how it goes over the next however long before we change back. Besides, even if we need a cure, we can just go to Plume to get it made."
Erika hugs tightly, partially to hold onto Nesseth to keep her balance. "Yeah. For now, let's just go sleep. Not like we can do much until morning, either way." She starts taking tentative, then more confident steps towards the house proper and the bedroom inside, while still holding onto Nesseth.
Nesseth guides Erika all the way to the bedroom, likewise supporting her and using her to help keep his balance as he works to get used to his hooves. "Sleep sounds nice right about now, and definitely on a bed instead of on roots."
Erika giggles: "You say that like we've fallen asleep in the garden a lot." She sits on the bed, inviting Nesseth to join her with a big yawn.
Nesseth yawns as he goes to plop himself down beside Erika, and gives her a warm, loving hug. "Probably because we have, as nice as it is out there. Waking up without a kink in the neck or back is also really nice."
Erika waves a hand, then tackles Nesseth for a hug on the bed: "Mm fine, that works. You're my pillow now."
Nesseth laughs as he flops back onto the bed, happily letting the okapi rest atop him. "I'm your pillow whenever you need me to be, Erika." He gives the okapi another kiss, "See you in the morning, dear~"
Erika gives Nesseth's cheek a tired lick: "Mm, indeed. Good night, love."