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Shortly.
One tense walk back to the hotel, with only a few more photo and hug stops, the pair enter back into their room with a mixed energy of nervous relief pouring out of them. They have a solution.
The rest... the rest can wait, information overload provided by Rowena has mostly fallen to the wayside for Akari, with a much bigger focus on just getting this 'fixed', even though part of her hates this. And the rest of her hates that she hates that. And... it's all too much.
Akari pulls out the papers, setting them on the bed as she looks eagerly to Cindi. "W-well... h-how soon do we want to get started?"
Cindi follows Akari in, her mind full of jumbled thoughts as she closes the door. "W-well... probably by just... getting to it?" She doesn't sound hundred percent certain, but there is hope in her expression.
Some tiny, tiny part of her is afraid that this works, but doesn't work back, and she will never ever get to experience this feeling again. She's not a fan of that part.
Akari nods, feeling similar mixed emotions. She likes being Akari... but... too much? If Cindi had said she wanted to wait, she'd have readily agreed.
She picks up the paper with the spell on it, and reads it over slowly. "There's... not much to it, hm? Almost seems too easy..."
Cindi nods as she steps closer to Akari: "Yeah. It seems almost like... I don't know, yeah, too easy. But..." She looks at Akari from almost a snout-to-snout distance. "...we saw it. It works."
Akari nods, "Yeah... no way Rowena was faking this. Way too much... well, I was going to say 'makes sense', but it doesn't make any sense at all. But it all seemed right and true. I guess there's nothing to do but to uhm... do it."
Cindi nods, her snout close enough to feel Akari's breath. "Y-yeah." She swallows. "D-does it make... any goddamn sense that I'm afraid we won't... see these forms again?"
Akari blinks, feeling her heart beat faster as she realizes just how close Cindi is, "No... Yes? I- I don't know. Rowena made it seem easy to go back and forth... so maybe that's not something to worry about? I just don't know if I ever want to..." She trails off, feeling guilty for even saying that.
Cindi winces, then looks aside. "Y-yeah, it makes no... sense. We should just... fix this, and get o-on with our normal lives." She swallows, takes a deep breath. "I c-can go first."
Akari blinks, "Are... you sure? I can go first... then if something goes wrong, you'll be... okay?" She sighs, "Or... maybe we should go together?"
Cindi looks back up to Akari, then nods.
She then grabs Akari to a tight hug, closing her eyes: "I'm scared. B-but see you on the other side."
Akari hugs Cindi tightly, almost sobbing, "Me too... but... Cindi... I..." She stops herself, "S-see you soon?"
Cindi lets go of the hug, and smiles despite the obvious glistening of her eyes. "See you soon."
She then steps back and takes a deep sigh. Then another.
She swallows, and hesitates again. "Just..." Her heart is beating like crazy.
Finally, she manages to start saying the spell, with definitely shaky voice.
"One's true form, fulfilled.
One's fake form, needed.
Become what you need to be,
To eventually return to what you are."
Akari takes a deep breath, and then begins along with Cindi, her voice speaking in tandem with the Spaniel...
"One's true form, fulfilled.
One's fake form, needed.
Become what you need to be,
To eventually return to what you are."
She pauses as they finish, feeling every second tick by. "Wh-what now? What are we supposed to feel?"
Cindi opens her eyes, then blinks once or twice. "I don't... know. Rowena didn't... or we didn't ask, anyway..."
Akari: "She just spoke it and then... it was a costume again... but I don't know..." She reaches up to feel her neck, up to her face, but no changes yet.
Cindi nods, swallowing as she feels around her own body, that is still definitely her body. "Did it work? Or did we do something wrong...?"
Akari's eyes begin to tear up ever so slightly, the doe just starting to panic as she can almost count the seconds, "I don't know! I don't know! W-we must have said something wrong? Or... or maybe... we kept the suits on too long? Or... or..."
Cindi shakes her head: "B-but that doesn't... Rowena said it would be... f-fine...?" She looks at Akari in desperation, before her eyes glaze over as the spell finally takes hold and she turns into a he wearing a fursuit.
Jacinto groan-yelps loudly inside the costume, part from imagined pain that doesn't happen, part from surprise.
Akari blinks, starting to lurch forward to aid Cindi when she feels a sensation something like vertigo, a sudden dizziness in her perspective like falling backwards, and her... his? eyes lose so much of their field of vision.
Rowan lets out a cry as well, confusion and a wave of feelings as all of his nerves tingle at once. "Jac'? I think... It worked?"
He reaches up, fumbling in the gloves to remove the head of his fursuit.
Jacinto pauses for a long, long moment, before swallowing and reaching to take off Cindi- the costume's head. Like he always meant to, and nothing scary or insane has happened in between.
A notion that is shattered the moment he actually takes off the head and feels a case of post-spell dizziness that almost topples him over. "Oh jeez... Rowena wasn't kidding..."
Rowan lets out a deep breath as he takes the head off, "Yeah, whoa. That's a hell of a rush once it hits..." He sets the head down on the bed, then quickly strips off the gloves, relieved to see his own hands. "But it did work. Ha! We're ourselves!"
Jacinto does the same as she- he sits down, swallowing as he wiggles his fingers again. "We're... we're back. Ourselves." He looks at Rowan as though to confirm he didn't imagine last two days.
"That uh... that all happened, right?"
Rowan glances at the papers on the bed, reaching out to pick up the page with all the contact info, "RFC Discord... it's all here., Jac'. Seems crazy but, but yeah. That, whatever 'that' was, just happened."
Jacinto swallows, then nods. "That... t-that does take a bit out of you. I..." How to even describe the chaos of emotions inside him right now?
"...we should get out all the way. F-figure then what to d-do." Having a plan of action helps. When doing something, you're not thinking about every scary thought in your head, for example.
Rowan nods, seemingly more than eager to get out of his suit, wanting to get it off of him before something else happens... before he starts thinking like that again. "I don't know what there is to figure out, Jac'. We got out. I don't understand any of this and I don't think I want to."
Jacinto nods, getting up on slightly unsteady legs, now that they are human again. "Y-yeah, you're right. We should just... forget about this. Get our stuff sorted, and..." And what? Rowena mentioned it being an option to just leave this behind, but she failed to mention what happened to those that did.
"...pack up our suits and go find dinner. Outside. As just us."
Rowan slips out of the legs, removing the last of Akari from him. He stares at the suit with a weird mix of pride and terror, pride that he crafted it, but terror at the experience they just survived.
He nods, trying to find anything to distract himself from the thoughts threatening the corner of his mind, "Yeah, dinner... dinner sounds good. I'd rather be able to sit down and order somewhere than be trapped in our hotel room, right?"
Jacinto gets off from the suit, noting that it's considerably easier now, with less steps. He opts to not think about that right now.
"Pretty much what I was thinking. Get... at least get away from all this for a moment. I don't know about you, but my head is a mess right now." He sighs, gathering himself as much as he is able just being in the cooling undersuit he put on what seems like an eternity ago.
Rowan pauses, the conflict flashing over his face, "I mean... of course I'm a mess too. That was... I don't know. Crazy and scary and traumatic. I don't... I don't even know what to feel right now." A very loud part of him says he should just walk away and never look back. That he can never do suiting like this, or at all, again.
Jacinto nods, take a deep breath as he stretches in his own proportions again. "Yeah... just... yeah." He starts going at his luggage, finding clothes more fitting for going out for some casual dinner than just the cooling undersuit. "Gotta change clothes first, though."
Rowan nods, looking over his own body for the first time, "Fuck... yeah, guess so, huh? Can't go out looking like this, can we?" He hesitates, unsure why he feels so embarrassed about his body all of a sudden, more than just the usual dissatisfaction with his weight and looks, but he shakes it off, getting his luggage to pull out a change of clothing.
Jacinto gets into jeans and a T-shirt, the traditional non-fur disguise in any convention. He ignores how weird his normal body feels right now.
"I want something greasy and unhealthy and a big beer to go with. Something to knock me out of sheer tired by the time we're back here, you know?"
Rowan nods vacantly as he changes into similar garb, "Y-yeah... yeah. I saw a bar that serves pizza, maybe some fried cheese, it's just down the block. Cheap, good, greasy." A noisy sports bar that might help to drown out their thoughts.
Jacinto nods in agreement and dares a small smile. "Sounds good. Really just..." He gives Rowan a look. They both know.
"...yeah. Something like that to ease up our minds. Gosh."
Rowan meets Jac's look, but turns away. He knows. He just... "Yeah. Still want to process all of this... or decide to forget about it all. But not now. Food now."
Jacinto nods again, then picks up his wallet and phone and stuffs them into his pants. Again trying to just ignore anything his body is telling him. "Food sounds good." He heads for the door, just glancing at Rowan to make sure he's coming as well.
Rowan slips his own items into the pockets of his jeans and follows behind. The only thing worse than company is being alone right now. He smiles faintly to Jacinto, at least feeling sure that they will remain friends through all of this. "Let's do it."
Jacinto manages a smile at his friend. "Yeah."
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