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Lebanon, Tennessee - four days later (Friday), late afternoon.

Jacinto's house slightly outside of the suburbs on the north side of the city is not pretty, but it is debt-free. Which is to say, it was built by his great-grandparents, left to him, and is in serious need of... everything, but functions as a place of living and is definitely pretty private. The driving distance to work in Nashville is... tolerable at best, but at least it keeps his coworkers from even knowing where he lives, let alone accidentally bumping into him.

The floors of the old wooden two-story building creak on every step, but after the absolute insanity that was this particular Anthrocon, Jacinto welcomed being the only source of noise within hearing distance. The building is blissfully largely surrounded by trees, and what parts aren't just have a view of fields owned by people richer than him. Fields that once maybe belonged to family, but have long since been sold to people who actually wish to do something with them. Jacinto himself certain never cultivated an interest in cultivating anything.

The bottom floor of the house is built on stone, and partially from stone. It may be old, but nothing short of a particularly vengeful and targeted hurricane season would take the house down. Every piece of furniture has seen at least two generations of use, not that Jacinto himself minds since he rarely uses most of the house besides the den he has built for himself in the upper floor bedroom. Once upon this house had generations living in it, but those days are long gone, leaving Jacinto the sole owner mostly by way of 'no one else wanted it'.

He takes a coke from the fridge and sits down on the old stony windowsill in the bottom floor, nicely cool as it is in the middle of summer. Waiting for his friend, so they can... he's still a bit uncertain as to what, but at the very least review where the hell they stand regarding the events of last weekend.

Rowan has felt tense all week, trying to get back into his daily routine, he even ended up pushing himself a little harder than normal, perhaps, trying to recover past his 'vacation', and adjust back into normal life.

His own home is nowhere near as old, or in need of care, but a single floor ranch home built in the 50's in the middle of the Nashville suburbs is hardly tolerable for this kind of thing.

To that end, he packed Akari up into his jeep last night, or more accurately, he has yet to unpack her since the con, and started the drive over to Jac's place more than a little earlier than was strictly necessary.

Soon enough, the familiar vehicle is pulling up the long road and driveway that really no one goes down without the sole purpose of coming to this one home.

He gets out and throws his friend a wave, then unloads the case with his suit and jogs to the door, equal parts fear and anticipation bubbling through him.

Jacinto gets out to open the door, smiling at having company besides his own thoughts first time since Monday. "Hey there. Guessing good travel as always." As if he needed to ask. If anything, there is traffic towards the big city, this time of the week, and Rowan has likely never had differences coming up here.

"I got good supplies for tacos for a meal or two, and a few drinks to go with. So at least on that front and notion, we don't really need to go anywhere tonight or tomorrow, depending how we feel."

The back of his mind reminds him again that for people who aren't dating, they sure spend a lot of time together. Blame the fursuit construction and thus a common passion project.

Rowan pulls his case in, breathing out a sigh of relief to be with a friendly face, "You know it. The only thing that can make this drive bad is the weather but no rain yet. And it can storm all night now that I'm here." He glances back over his shoulder at the cloudy sky, but it's nothing to worry about now that he's here for the weekend.

But weather aside, he definitely perks up at the mention of food, "Oh! I uh, brought a little extra in the 'food' department too." He presents a familiar looking cardboard box, opening it up to reveal a dozen doughnuts, decorated with sugary colored icing. "For dessert. Or breakfast. ...or whatever."

Jacinto blinks, then smirks: "Good thinking. Our, er, furselves do have a thing for sweet stuff." He motions towards the inside, the old building having way enough space for two people to spend time, and then some.

"I don't know about you, but I have mostly played lip service to work more than drowned myself into it." He doesn't need to say what's been the topic on his mind.

Rowan chuckls, "I uh, was definitely not just thinking of Akari's sweet tooth when I bought them."

He closes the box, then brings it and his luggage case along, following Jac' into his house. "But, yeah, I guess I've been kinda working hard to keep everything out of my mind. Manager even said I seemed way more tense than I was before vacation." He laughs, but it's clear it's not fully a joke, the topic has been on his mind as well despite his best efforts to ignore it until now.

Jacinto nods, nodding at the fursuit of Cindi resting on the couch, clearly ready. "Yeah... I have thankfully relatively little immediate oversight to what I do, cause I'm pretty sure I was staring at walls while mulling over what I read about all this." He takes his bottle of cola and drinks almost half of it in one go.

Rowan wheels his luggage over to the couch, setting the doughnuts down on the table, he begins to unpack Akari, even though they might not put the suits on right away, it's probably best to get the suit ready... just in case?

"I uh... joined the Discord channel... but just to lurk so far. I've not really read much of anything about it all. Been too... well, not exactly busy, but just trying not to overthink anything."

Jacinto nods, sitting down on the old couch next to his suit, with plenty of other old furniture around them to settle down on. "I have pretty much spent time trying to get the heads and tails of this. And the vast majority of the gist of it seems to be 'figure it out, every case is different'."

He shrugs: "Some were more helpful, giving some insight on how to figure out this new addition to... us, basically."

Rowan finishes setting Akari up alongside Cindi, then takes a seat on one of the overly plush chairs that visibly sinks as he sits down, "Well... whatever we think might help we can find, we can try out. That's the whole point of this weekend, um, right?"

Jacinto nods: "Yeah. There was a lot of vague stuff on the stuff I read and discussed, but at the end of the day I guess I can see it. Everyone's fursonas and their relation to them is just that different. Whatever Cindi and Akari are to us is not the same thing it is for others..."

Rowan chuckles, leaning back, "Don't know if that's positive or not... But it does make sense. No two people come up with the same fursona. Not really."

Jacinto nods, tapping his palm with his other hand: "Which kind of means... it is for us to figure out, what Cindi and Akari... mean to us. Just us." He pauses. "...which, in turn, makes a sort of sense, since not like we want anyone, maybe even within RFC, to connect us to our fur-selves."

Rowan blinks, not having considered that, "Oh, uh, yeah. I didn't think on that, but you're totally right. So, it's all down to just us, but at least we have a bit of a safety net with folks online if something goes really wrong, I guess."

Jacinto nods slowly. "Yeah... it's not the worst if anyone inside RFC gets to know I guess... since we share the same secret, as it were." He looks at Cindi's head. "But... eh. That's thinking a bit far. Did you want to eat first, or get right to it?"

Rowan hesitates, the whole point of the evening right there on the couch, "Oh, uh, I hadn't really thought it through." He turns to look back at the suits on the couch.

Jacinto hums softly. "Well... as previously experienced, we can certainly eat... in fur. Considering everything else, eating tacos is probably not that earthshaking is it."

Rowan slowly nods, "We managed ice cream, and burgers... so I can't see why not. Err, I just didn't think we'd be doing it so quickly, but .."

He looks back at Jac', "You've been waiting for this all week, haven't you? ...let's do it."

Jacinto hesitates, but then nods. "...yeah, pretty much. So much unanswered, both in general and to myself. Let's find out if we can get more feel for things." He gets up, stretches a bit even though it's completely unnecessary, touches at his pendant in the colors of Cindi, then picks up the one-piece suit. "You know, it's still a bit strange how the spell made the suit so... conveniently one-piece."

Rowan sits back up from his seat and pulls out the necklace from beneath his shirt... admittedly, despite it all, he's not really felt a need not to wear it... "It's weird... all our hard work is gone, the supports and the wiring... but I guess without all that hard work, they wouldn't be what they are, huh?"

He lifts the suit up off the couch, running his hands across the fur. "Did you see anything about upkeep? Cleaning? They don't even seem dirty after the con..."

Jacinto has the somewhat heavy suit in his arms as he looks back to Rowan: "Not... much. The general consensus seems to be that having the occasional shower in-fur is enough. It doesn't make sense, but... magic."

Rowan sighs with a laugh, "But, magic. That's probably going to explain a lot of things over time, huh? Still... seems convenient."

Jacinto nods as he hefts the suit in his arms, moving it to the position to be stepped in: "Really, for all that this stuff made stuff inconvenient and weird... it sure as heck also made some parts of it pretty convenient..."

Rowan hesitates again, but after a moment begins to set up the suit to wear, "Don't even need anything to cool us off underneath... actually, that's a good question too... is there anything we should or shouldn't be wearing when we put this on?"

Jacinto pauses in putting the costume on. "Well, there were some mentions about jewelry that are not the pendants themselves, they can act weird. Like a ring on your finger becomes a nose ring with no explanation. Not dangerous or painful, just... weird. No clothes seem to have any effect, mostly. Some reports mentioned feeling hotter than usual if they have more clothing before they 'fur up' - that's another term I heard for this - but the magic in general is pretty darn lenient, and tries to accommodate most anything you have on you."

Rowan listens, looking down at his casual jeans and t-shirt. "Alright, so this is fine then? Good to know."

He resumes putting on the costume, climbing in to pull the suit up to his waist, wiggling his feet a little to get them set into the hooves properly.

Jacinto likewise steps into the suit, getting his legs into the costume's legs. The feeling is impossibly smooth, like putting your legs down into jelly or honey, except not feeling wet. Just smooth and good and naturally unnatural. "This will never not feel strange..."

Rowan slips his first arm into the suit, testing his fingers in the hand, "No... I think I said it before, it's like a second skin... like I'm... err..." Naked... it feels like, even though he's wearing clothes, with the suit on over the clothing, like the parts of the suit he's already put on are already part of him.

He slips his hand back out of the arm and examines it, then back in, curious. "So weird..."

Jacinto lets the suit rest for a moment at his waist, before continuing. "It's probably... and I know this sounds weird coming from me, maybe not worth getting into with too much detail. I don't want to know what actually happens when I put this on." With that said, he hastens the familiar-yet-unfamiliar process of putting Cindi on, soon ready just for the head.

Rowan raises an eyebrow at Jac', but slowly nods, "Yeah, maybe not... it's just 'magic' again, right?" He doesn't quite laugh at that, shaking his head as he slips on the other arm.

Jacinto nods as he looks at the arm that for right this moment still feels like his arm inside the fursuit arm: "Also... I just don't... when I put the headpiece on, and the amulet activates, I do not wish to know what physically happens to my body when this happens. It just happens, and franktly that is enough to worry about."

Rowan pauses as well, shuddering, "Y-you're right. Best not to think on that too hard at all."

Jacinto sighs a bit: "Yeah. It's not dangerous, of that I've been reassured a lot over the last week, but... yeah." He puts the headpiece on, settles it down.

Few seconds later, Cindi blinks her eyes, looking at her arm: "...yeah."

Rowan stares a moment, watching as the suit his friend is wearing just becomes his friend, seeing Cindi's eyes blink as her antennae being to move on their own. He relaxes slightly, smiling at her gently as he picks up Akari's headpiece, "Ah, right. Here we go again..."

He slips the deer's head on, closing his eyes, only to open them up a moment later with a much wider view through Akari's vision, her smile widining, "Yeah."

Cindi looks at her paws, flexing the fingers. "And yet, as this happens... this feels pretty natural. Weird, yeah, but these are definitely my paws now." She gives a bit of a stretch of her arms up and back: "Mmm! I do love being so much more flexible than being in the suit was, though."

Rowan stands a little awkwardly, trying to get a sense of herself once again. She stretches her hands out, wiggling the three hooved fingers at the end of each. "It is really different, huh? Just... completely realistic and does feel really, really natural."

Cindi nods, giving another stretch. "Yep. All of this is... is just as much 'us', as we were just moments ago. And with that..."

She takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes. Slowly, with wavering hands, she puts her paws on top of her breasts. "A-and that... that includes this part. Cindi is female... so when I am Cindi, that is what I am. This is not a reason to lose it." She takes another deep breath, as though she just completed some kind of ritual, when all it was is just self-affirmation.

Rowan shifts back on her hooves, her tail balancing her out as she watches Cindi. She's not quite ready to confront that particular line of thinking, still sitting on edge between 'him' and the 'her' of Akari. Still, concern for her friend overrides this in the moment.

"Feel alright still?"

Cindi opens her eyes with a bit of a gasp, then blinks a few times and nods. "Y-yeah, just... s-something I felt I needed to... confront. Read a couple of things online that might help." She looks down at herself: "...d-denial only goes so far, after all. I have boobs, and that's fine." She does grit her teeth a bit at that last part, though.

Rowan swallows, "S-sure but, it's not denial if... I mean... yeah, Cindi has... it... but I..." She glances towards the seats in the room, picking one she can sit on comfortably with her tail, and takes a seat, putting her hands on her cheeks in a mix of anxiety and confusion.

Cindi nods, letting her arms drop to her sides. "It's... the reality of it." She shifts on her legs, her shoulders stiffening and loosening. "I need to accept that."

Rowan looks down at herself... "...do I?"

Cindi turns to look at her friend. She is quiet for a moment. "...I think that is up to you. But..." She trails off, not really just wanting to say 'go find a mirror' when she's just barely coping herself.

Rowan sighs, closing her eyes a moment as she hangs her head down, "I mean... sure, Akari is female... I accepted that. But... I don't know about this Cindi..."

Cindi takes a deep breath, centering herself. "Yeah. It's..." She frowns, opening her eyes and looking at her friend: "...'tis really dumb, that's what it is, but it is also our reality right now. Like the gravity I can feel affecting several parts of me I did not possess a week ago."

Rowan pauses, "M-maybe... Maybe I should just take the suit off. I- I don't know if I'm actually ready for this..."

Cindi shrugs: "No one is forcing you to be Akari, right now."

Rowan sighs, "I know... I know. But, I like being Akari... so why does it have to be so complicated right now?"

Cindi shifts on her legs before sitting down on the couch: "...that, I can't tell you. I just want to figure parts of this out, so it gets hopefully maybe less complicated in time."

Rowan pulls her knees up against her chest, now keenly aware of the extra weight there. "Akari has boobs... I mean, sheesh I had art commissioned to show them off... it's not a big deal that she has breasts like this. It's all just more detail to make this be more accurate and real."

She keeps doing the mental stretching to talk around the actual issues.

Cindi nods, then lifts her paw in the air towards her friend and looks at her: "...but are you okay with having all that?"

Rowan sighs, "But I don't... not... really... Akari does..." She unfolds her knees carefully, cautiously reaching a hand up to feel one of her breasts. "...golly... they're really there, huh..."

Cindi lifts a paw to her own breast, and without a doubt can feel it from both sides. "Yep. I can feel my paw pads upon my breasts. And boy is that a sentence I never thought I'd utter out loud."

Rowan... Akari takes a deep breath and looks back up to smile at Cindi weakly, "I'm not helping us figure out much of anything just sitting like this, am I?"

She swallows, "It's just all hitting me at once, how good this feels, but that feels like the problem."

Cindi nods, letting go of her breast. "Yeah. Kind of like I so masterfully handled myself on Sunday. Kinda have had time to think since then." She smiles at her friend: "But... I am not sure if we should feel bad about feeling good."

Rowan sighs, "Is it okay to just let myself do that? It feels so different, and I've spent all week trying to convince myself that it was just being at the con that made it all so good, yet, here we are."

She puts a hand over her breast, atop her heart, "I've been missing this all week, and trying to tell myself otherwise."

Cindi looks at Akari for a moment, then opts to do something Jacinto would not do. She gets up and walks over to behind Akari and puts her paws on the doe's shoulders. "I missed being Cindi as well. And the shape... I was afraid, so afraid on Sunday, and now I am not quite certain why. It's just... Differently shaped fur and fat under it, right? I know my head is trying to yell at me that I shouldn't enjoy being f-female, but... I'm getting kind of sick trying to deny what I feel."

Rowan... no, forget it, Akari. Akari looks up at Cindi as she touches against her, and starts to tear up. "G-guess it's my turn to be afraid. I just wanted to make sure you were okay all con, and then had that week to think. B-but... why? Why is this so nice? I-it almost feels like a trap, like it's trying to trick me, but that's silly."

Cindi squeezes slightly more at Akari's shoulders. "Yup. Like we are getting sucked into something we didn't ask for, and in a way you are right - we didn't." She allows her paws to just rest on the doe-dragon. "As to why this feels so nice, well... Hasn't suiting up always felt pretty nice? What is this but fursuiting plus, as you put it?"

She knows that's not exactly it, that there's more, but one step at a time... Especially when those steps will still need some work for herself as well.

Akari nods, "Y-yeah... oh, Cindi..." She stands up to pull her into a tight hug, letting herself cry in a mix of happy and confused tears."

Cindi is surprised, but not that surprised at the doe getting up for a hug, and happily returns it. "We c-can figure this out. And we're still us."

Akari nuzzles just a bit, finally pulling back as she wipes the tears away, "I'm okay... I'm okay... You're right, I'm still Rowan, y-yeah. I guess... I'm just also Akari. And right now, I want to Akari... and there's not anything wrong or bad about that..."

Cindi nods with an encouraging smile. "Yeah. Extension of self right?" She hesitates for a second, then puts her paw on Akari's chest just resting it there, before looking back up: "We can both be ourselves, and... furselves."

Akari giggles, "That term is still so silly and perfect and I love it." She does slowly realize where Cindi has her paw, causing a blush to bloom across her face. "Err..."

Cindi blinks, then pulls her paw away. "S-sorry."

Akari glances away, still blushing, "It's uh, it's fine. Just... still all new feelings..."

The feeling of her chest, as well as the feeling of her heart in her chest whenever Cindi does touch her like that. But, that's all just the characters, she's certain.

Cindi winces slightly, blushing. "That was pretty Cindi of me, wasn't it." She takes half a step back. "... We spent so much time hugging and being cute in costume, and it's bleeding over."

Akari shrugs, "Well... yeah, but... we did all that because it was fun, right? I guess it's part of the performance, but... I like when we hug."

Cindi touches her paw on her wrist, glancing aside: "Y-yeah... No performance here, just... Well I do also like it when we hug..." She trails off, not really going anywhere with this.

Akari:"I never really... well, Akari never really thinks about it. Hugging is just like breathing for her." She laughs a little awkwardly, shrugging her shoulders shyly, "And I mean... it does feel good, and you did just say not to feel bad about that... right?"

Cindi hesitates, then steps closer again, taking the doe's hand in hers. "Y-yeah. Sorry."

Akari steps the rest of the distance forward, and squeezes Cindi's hand back. "Nothing to apologize for, we're both in uncharted territory, here."

Cindi blushes a bit, but nods. "... Yeah. And we have both acted and written Akari and Cindi being close, right? So it's just... A thing."

Akari nods, "It... it is. But... it's just us, so... but also it's them. But I mean, just some hugs don't mean anything for us."

Cindi nods in agreement. "True. We can just hug without it meaning much." As though to prove her point, she gives Akari a meaningless hug.

A meaningless hug that she wants from the bottom of her heart.

Akari fortunately returns that hug that means exactly the same meaningless amount from her. It doesn't mean anything to Rowan, obviously. Totally obviously. But it does mean the absolute world to Akari.

"Yeah, see? This... is totally normal and fine."

Cindi lets go of the hug, smiling and her eyes a bit moist. "Y-yeah. Just new things to be normal about."

Akari slowly lets go of the hug, but keeps holding Cindi's hand, "Well, that is sorta why we're doing this again, right? Learning the new 'normal' and what to expect."

Cindi chuckles softly: "Getting together to be in fur instead of crafting with it." She relaxes as she keeps touching Akari's hand. "Seeing how... How furselves even work."

Akari giggles, "Also tacos. And doughnuts. But we'd eat those in whatever form were in."

Cindi nods. "... I kinda want to eat as Cindi tonight. If that makes sense."

Akari hums, "Worth trying...? As... long as you're prepared to maybe shower as Cindi tonight too."

Cindi blinks. "Oh. Uh, true. But... Maybe I am, now. Kind of... You know, want to know what it even feels like to have wet fur. Sounds so alien."

Akari giggles, "Might be miserable, you know? But we do have hair dryers at least." A few spare hair dryers in the workroom that the pair have used in the past to help dry up glue when crafting.

Cindi hums: "Wellll... It felt pretty nice, in an odd way, to have warm water flow through my paws, at least..." She shrugs, smiling: "So who knows. But that's later anyway."

Akari looks at her unoccupied hoof, still grasping Cindi's paw, "I guess I never tried that in the hotel room, huh? I don't even know how it would feel on hooves or... the rest of me."

Cindi shrugs, smiling as her tail twitches. "Couldn't tell you. But your fur is as long as mine... and one day I will not feel weird about referring to my own fur like it's a thing, cause it now is."

Akari nods, "My own fur... and scales... and tail... it's all really weird to think about still." She glances down at herself, "Even if it feels pretty natural."

Cindi nods: "That's about the gist of it."

She looks onto the other side of the big downstairs common room, to a spot she cleared up earlier, with a couple of exercise mattresses on the floor. "Anyway, I figured besides the... feminine side of things, I thought we could try an easy exercise routine, how we actually feel like if we bother our new bodies a bit."

Akari blushes again at the mention of the 'feminine', but otherwise nods, "We do know we can basically last a whole day at the con and not feel much, but we didn't do anything too stressful there beyond walking around and posing as if were in normal fursuits."

Cindi nods and leads the way to the exercise mattresses. "I'm also just curious if I am at all flexible. Didn't really get to test that much. Sense kind of says yes, but we'll see..."

Akari lets Cindi lead on, only letting go of her hand once they reach the mattresses and prepare to try out their bodies. "Flexible, hmm?"

Cindi nods as she sits down and looks at her sizable legs. "You know, these things were filled with padding." She reaches to touch her leg, straining slightly: "Now, obviously not. I can feel the muscles under the fur, strangely shaped as they are."

She then attempts to do the ol' reaching for one's toes, but it's rapidly obvious her new shape allows no such thing.

Akari tenses a bit, rather quite on purpose, trying to flex and show off any muscle apparent in her, "Huh... I can certainly feel it, especially in the legs, and... my tail?"

She shakes her rump a bit, wagging the tail, trying to get some sense of how to control it, surprised at the ease of it.

Cindi smiles up at her friend with some amusement: "That's probably the strangest part, entirely new parts we just innately know how to use on some level." She gives a bit of a stretch and then attempts to lift one leg over the other... Manages it, but it's certainly trickier than it was before, as human.

Akari stops playing with her tail, then bends down to the fitness mat, getting into a position to do some yoga poses, or at least things that look like yoga poses, "Okay... so I'm used to be overweight, but this does feel different. Legs feel sorta strong?"

She gets into position and stretches out one of her back legs, a little awkwardly, but successfully at least.

Cindi nods: "Our legs are huge. It feels like half my body weight is centered on my hips." She shifts her position, just somewhat managing to gather her legs under her in a sitting position. "Not... inflexible, just big, you know."

Akari lowers her leg back down, rolling onto the mat to stare up at the ceiling. "Yeah, big hips too. Sheesh. And a big uhhhh well... butt." She blushes slightly. "Gosh."

Cindi giggles a bit, shifting to look at her rear as she lifts her tail: "Y-yeah, no kidding. Oddly though, if I gained this much without all the other furry stuff, I'd feel more weirded out... don't ask me how I know that."

Akari giggles a bit, then hums as she grows more thoughtful, "Honestly... the whole body shape and fur and tail stuff... it weirds me out less than the gender stuff. Maybe because it's such a dramatic change that I just have to accept it?"

Cindi nods, shifting to lean on her hands: "Well that, and you know, making Cindi and Akari was years of planning and work. We quite literally created the form we now inhabit. And are obviously neck deep in furry even outside of this."

Akari blinks, reaching a hand up to her chest again, and feeling a swell of unexpected pride, "I never considered that, but we did, didn't we? I literally sculpted this body exactly as I wanted."

She remains still on her back, grappling with this idea for a moment. "Maybe that's why it feels so... Cozy?"

Cindi stretches her chest upwards, arcing her back slightly: "Mm, probably at least plays a part. Everything I've read about this circles back around to the costume creator's desires in some way." She takes a deep breath as she feels the weight of her breasts and continues making peace with that fact.

"...and that sculpting includes Cindi and Akari being female."

Akari tries to sit up, pulling her chest up to her knees, pausing between attempts to think, "I... guess so. I... huh..."

Cindi sighs, sitting up, rolling her shoulders. "At least on some level, we currently have extra on our chest, because we wanted it. If indirectly."

Akari manages a sit-up, and looks down at her own chest once again, "This... weirdly makes me feel better about it. I mean, even if we didn't choose this happening... we did kind of choose the result."

Cindi nods, her antennae twitching: "Yeah. It kind of does, doesn't it." She lifts a palm to touch her chest, feeling the softness of both her breast and the paw pads. "In a way, we just achieved a lot more realism to the presentation we were already doing."

Akari giggles, shifting position to try to sit on the ground, rolling her shoulders, "If nothing had happened, and we'd spent the whole weekend suiting without incident, we'd be just as eager to do it again soon. So that's not any different than we feel now."

Cindi blinks and laughs softly: "...dang, you're right. We'd be planning of things to tweak and improve for next con." She hums, thinking as she lifts her paw from her chest to her chin: "It's weird. I've been comfortable presenting female for cosplay's sake for so long, but now that it actually happened... it shook me so bad."

Akari sighs, but gives her friend a warm smile, "Me too. But fiction is one thing and having it actually happen to you is another. I admit, I never wrote Akari as female for any specific reason other than female characters always feel more natural to and plan for me."

Cindi nods, before doing another stretch with her legs, flexing her foot-paws. "Yeah, about the same for me. Cindi was always that in my mind. Nothing that special about it." She blinks: "Well, until now obviously. And even... comparing to also being what amounts to not being human, does it even weigh that much?"

Akari chuckles, starting some arm stretches over her head, though the antlers do get in the way a little. "I don't know... Doesn't feel like it matters. Like I said, somehow the 'being female' part weighs more than 'being a mythical half-deer half-dragon.' when I'm human, I can't visualize being Akari like this. But I can visualize myself as a woman, so it.. uh... I don't know... Feels more real?"

Akari giggles, "I say as I try to do yoga as a very real deer-dragon."

Cindi is quiet for a second as she stretches, but then smiles in agreement. "Yeah. We've been dealt a weird set of cards, and kinda funky with the gender of things, but... maybe it's not a bad thing at all. After all, this is so enjoyable, I swear Cindi's positivity is infectious."

Akari giggles again, smile brightening, "It's certainly infectious to Akari. You know how I write my backstories. She was always a little sad until she met Cindi, who pulled her along on a grand adventure. I mean... Art imitates life and all that, but really I don't think Akari can stay sad if Cindi is around."

Cindi nods: "And really, it goes the other way too. You... Akari always pulls me... that is, Cindi, up." She gives a bit of a sigh-giggle. "...we gotta figure out how to deal with names and such eventually, if we do this with any regularity."

Akari hums, lowering her arms back down and tilting her head back and forth, "Hmm... Maybe it is just easier to go by Cindi and Akari like this? We halfway just do it already anyways. It's only really difficult to consider the fictional stories we've discussed versus this reality."

Cindi shifts her tail and for a second looks at it giving a small wag that's only half-conscious action from her. "...I think you are right again. So, to rephrase: you always pull me up, Akari." She smiles: "...and I think that applies out of fur, too."

Akari blushes, a faint glow around her shoulders as well, "Easy! Well, you make it easy to be happy as myself, Cindi. In whatever form that might be for me as well."

Cindi lets out a light giggle. "You know all that shapeshifter fiction we've shared over the years? I think we're in one."

Akari lets out a sigh, "Oh gosh we are, aren't we? That's..." Terrifying? Amazing? Both at once? She shrugs with a smile. "That's something. I'm not sure I know what yet..."

Cindi nods, cracking her neck slightly: "Mm. Yeah. This thing has been a darn rollercoaster." She shivers slightly, but then offers her paw to Akari: "Together, though, I think we can make it work."

Akari doesn't hesitate to take Cindi's paw with her hoof. "Together."

She giggles, "And also with tacos."

Cindi giggles: "Definitely tacos, and almost certainly also ice cream." She gives another stretch, then sidles to sit closer to Akari. "I like being close with you."

Akari nods, shifting to meet Cindi halfway, "I feel the same way."

Cindi touches her hand to Akari's between them again. "...we did ship Akari and Cindi, so it makes sense this feels good."

Akari closes her eyes to lean against Cindi, "Yeah... They're very snuggly. On top of how good it feels just to hug like this."

Cindi sighs happily, leaning against Akari. "Yeah. It's a curious side effect of this, but not one I really mind..."

Akari's tail flops over closer to entwine with Cindi's, "I don't either. We... Really didn't spend a lot of time like this just the two of us, did we? At least, not without all the fears and worries getting in the way."

Cindi is slightly surprised at the tails touching, but happily returns the gesture. "We didn't. Not last weekend, and not bef-" She blinks and stops herself. "Um. If... Cindi and Akari find themselves often shipped in our writing, and we are currently here, and the 'life imitates art' part of the magic..." She looks at Akari: "...are we dating?"

Akari blinks, straightening up in surprise at the question. Though she doesn't exactly pull away, "Are we... We agreed a long time ago that wasn't going to work out, didn't we?"

Cindi nods and looks aside. "Yeah. We did..." If they agreed, why does it feel different now?

Akari sighs, laughing quietly, "It's... Kinda stupid of me to ask you 'What's changed?', huh?"

Cindi blinks, then giggles. "...yeah... it's silly. Nevermind me."

Akari doesn't let Cindi's hand go, squeezing tighter, "Do... You want to date? Or... More importantly, would Jacinto want to date Rowan?" She swallows.

Cindi finds her throat dry, and she looks back up: "I... I am not sure. But... m-maybe with us also being our furselves at times... I t-think I would want to try again."

Akari's breath catches, and she finds herself trembling slightly. Her hand squeezes Cindi's once more, "I just don't want it to be only in fur... Akari and Cindi, you know? If we're going to do this, it has to be everything, yeah? Otherwise... I couldn't bear it if you loved Akari but not Rowan..." His voice is raw by the end, threatening to betray him.

Cindi swallows and looks down. For a very short moment that might as well be eternity, she is quiet.

Eventually, she looks back up and gives a weak smile, her eyes going moist: "...y-yeah. I think I have feelings for Rowan too."

Rowan and Akari smile, and simply nods as his eyes grow wet as well, "Then... I vote 'yes'. We're dating."

Cindi nods and leans over to hug Akari, sniffling: "Just... want to be with you, no matter what."

Akari turns to hug back, "Y-yeah. Me too. I've always thought you were amazing, Jac' and Cindi both."

Cindi swallows as she hugs tight, definitely crying now: "Yeah, I just... I want to see if we can make this work. I-" She swallows again and whispers: "I love you."

Akari is taken aback as Cindi confesses her feelings, and it breaks her as well. She begins to cry along, squeezing tightly, "I've always loved you."

Cindi nuzzles into the hug, almost tackling Akari to the floor and not caring one iota.

Akari lets herself fall backwards onto the mats, and nuzzles against Cindi, punctuating it with a kiss as her scales glow with a soft pink light.

Cindi leans onto Akari, and with no hesitation anymore, kisses back with glowing passion, tail wagging.

Akari immediately responds in kind to Cindi's passion with her own, kissing deeply, letting the moment carry the two along.

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