Sable's eyes widen, her expression falls, and she sets her glass down heavily. She hangs her head. "Well fuck."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Something to the effect of 'good fucking job, you stupid fox'. Additional undertones of the specific flavors and variations of how I was a fool."

"She was only trying to help..."

Pigeon sighs. "Yes, yes, alright. I'd like an actual apology but I concede no harm was meant."

Sable snaps her head back up, her teary eyes meeting Pigeon's. "Pigeon, I apologize. In my eagerness to help, I made foolish assumptions and crossed boundaries. Your impact of your emotions isn't mine to manage, especially not when my unsolicited advice is both based in my share-heavy style of coping and so sloppily worded as to convey an intent to manage what you felt on top my already-pushy attempt to advise your handling or sharing of those feelings and my assumptions about what feelings might be present."

She sighs hard and shakes her head at herself, looking a bit downcast. "I am deeply and truly sorry for doing that, and I will try to be more mindful of that in the future."

"Do you have to talk in legalese? But okay, apology accepted."

"Um... weren't we talking about my wings?"

Sable winces briefly at the "legalese" comment, but smiles with a bit of relief, and then turns to the wingless Pigeon and smiles wider.

"Absolutely. So let's talk about those various options. You can trust-fall through a Door of Night, you can reach out to a charity here or on a Trade World, or you can join a whole planetful of winged folk by becoming an Aevis on Valimer. How do each of those sound?"

"Um... Well..." 

She tilts her head. "I feel like the Bowers charity option is maybe the best? I don't really want to have to move again so soon, even if it was to a Trade, and I don't think any of the Trade programs would accept me since I'm from a Half-Tamed..."

She nods, humming. "Okay, let's find them."

She grabs her phone and starts looking up the charity.

The charity office comes up instantly, and on the first page there's a link to the request form. It has blanks for income, citizenship status within the OTC, type of dysmorphia, duration thereof, etc. There's a warning that all answers will be checked with truth magic and that if you lie that's reason for summary dismissal of your form. Turn-around time 2-4 weeks, approval rate calculator built in based upon supplied information. 

"Okay, this looks pretty straightforward as these things go. It's an online form that I can send to your phone, or we can pull it up on the main tablet here if the bigger screen is more comfortable to use. Obviously you don't have to fill it out right now, but I'm convenient for answering any questions at the moment. You can of course just text me later, but no guarantees what I'll be in the middle of at the time. And while we're at it..."

She taps a few more times at her phone, flipping back to the wing-rental and adding a few more options, then flicks the page at the table's main tablet and slides it to Pigeon.

When Pigeon looks, the tablet shows a gift rental customization screen, listing the full breadth of options for renting a top-tier set of cosplay-semblance wings. A discreet panel in the corner displays that rental fees, deposit, and damages are all covered by Sable Ellen Douglas, and that there is a conditional rental duration of two months unless she books and then attends a procedure to get her own permanent wings, in which case the rental lasts until the procedure is complete. A note further specifies she can customize and tweak as much as she'd like while on-site, and that the rental period doesn't begin until she leaves the Bowers.

"They say the wait's two to four weeks, but I tied the rental directly to the booking system with a placeholder, so it should just handle that automatically. Go wild with the customization, get it as right as you can, swap it out while you're still here today until you're satisfied with your pick."

"I, um, uh, gosh, this is all so sudden -"

"So is this how you flirt? You bribe girls with expensive gifts?"

Her alt stills. "... You aren't going to... expect anything, right -"

Sable's mouth drops open, and then she freezes completely, even her tails entirely still.

She turns to look at Pigeon across the table. "No," she says in an icy tone. "This is how I act on a deeply personal and fundamental belief about a wrong in the world. Tainting that with expectation would completely miss the point."

She looks down, takes a slow, forceful breath, and then turns to look at the prospective gift recipient, a bit more life and warmth back in her expression and voice. "No, Pigeon, I don't expect anything at all. I have a vague hope that you might let me know if the procedure goes well, but even that is optional."

The winged Pigeon winces, and looks over at her alt. 

She meets her alt's gaze levelly.

"... I'm sorry, I... I'm just getting in the way, aren't I. Should I... go?"

She sighs ruefully. "Ain't that a familiar mood: 'I'm just making things worse; how 'bout I just go.' Been there, lived that, don't recommend it. You can leave if you want to, but I'd really rather get back to trying to get to know each other, once the intermission of helping your alt is handled — y'all should consider having a schema for unique names, by the way."

She shakes her head and gives both girls a bittersweet, lopsided smile. To the wingless (for now) one, she says, "No offense, but I'm only interested in you for the satisfaction of making sure your getting wings goes smoothly. Your alt's the one I'm still hoping to get to know properly."

To the Pigeon she came here with, she says, "Please, stay? Help think of anything I haven't, and then try to pick back up getting to know each other after?"

"Oh. No offense taken. Um, I just... sign here?"

"Thank you. Um, I've never had... a cosplay semblance before, I don't know how they work..."

She nods. "Just tweak 'em how you like 'em, or ask the Bowers to recommend something if you want suggestions, and then yes, you can just complete the order."

Turning across the table again, she smiles. "Yeah, neither have I. I've never had wings before, either, though, and you've had a pair your whole liiiff—oh!"

She grins and looks to the Pigeon on her side of the table. "That reminded me! I had a whole bunch of skeletal and structural differences when I got my tails and ears that cosplay semblances may not simulate properly. In the case of wings, I'd guess probably something like probably some rearranging of the shoulders and adding some extra muscles around the shoulders, upper back, and pecs. I don't know enough about wings to say for sure, though."

"Can you elaborate on that any?", she asks the winged alt.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely some muscles involved there. And there's - how do they even handle the attachment, that's got to be tricky -"