Hyacinth - (she's still getting used to the name) - sets down her ill-fitting body on the side of her bed. 

It has been pretty much the worst month of her life. She had thought that because it was clear to her, that because the love and the joy inside her that bubbled up when she finally put on the dress was so shockingly obvious, that it would be obvious to everyone she cared about too.

That was wrong, and a disastrous month later has seen her move out of her old family home on the seashore for this cramped apartment. UBI's caught her, sure, but god was it ever a headache getting the papers together and moving everything out. Her family fought her the whole way, but they had to admit that she was allowed to leave if she wanted to - 

She pushes up her glasses and presses her palms against her eyes just to bathe in the soothing blackness for a while. 

All because of that damn assignment in her creative writing course and some well-meaning advice from that author at the conference to "look at what scares you." 

She has no idea what she's doing. University is a week on and a week off now, and she's been doing her best to throw herself into the work, but now she's got nothing to do for nine whole days. Any other week this would be a vacation she'd welcome, but going back to her friends in Soul Reavers is impossible, her family's in the fucking guild, it'd be awkward as hell. 

She hasn't got anything to eat. She should go get groceries but she's exhausted. 

She gets up and paces over to the window, looking out at the five feet of alley before the window faces another brick wall. It lets in light, but it's a far cry from the seaside view she's used to. 

She wants out.

She wants out of this whole situation. 

It's ridiculous and unfair and stupid. 

... She finds herself in the pod room. Her feet must have carried her in here on their own. 

She checks over the pod. It's something to do. 

The nutrient solution's fully stocked, unlike her fridge. Of course.

... She could try CORA. 

It's the hot new thing, supposedly better than Realms of Dragons. No guild in it for her, but maybe what she needs is a fresh start. 

A fresh reroll. 

Come to think of it, she hasn't been in full-dive before... knowing this. 

She's in the pod before the thought even fully forms, her violet dress flapping against the edge of the pod awkwardly. She pulls it in, settles the neural stimulator on her head, and lays back. 

For all her family's reluctance to accept her, they didn't skimp on this present. She'll be safe in here. 

It's always a little scary to accept the dive. If the feed system doesn't work she could starve herself unknowingly. But right now, she needs out.

Hyacinth settles back, tenses for a moment - this part is always uncomfortable - and accepts the prick of the intravenous line to the underside of her right wrist. There's more, but she doesn't like to think about it. This is clean. Medical. A safety feature, really. The rest happens once she's under and is gone by the time she wakes, so it's like it never happened. 

She lays her head back against the comfortable pillow, and sends the familiar mental motion through the neural crown...

And her room vanishes.

And with a flicker of light, her starspace opens up around her. 

She's had it since she was a child. A small plane of stars, to launch and edit programs from. Her own little magic factory. Some of it even works based on her own little bits of code. She's no expert, but she can read an API. 

Her body is more slight here, a little more androgynous and formless. She doesn't have a proper avatar here. Never set it up, for... some reason. 

She traces a symbol - [Search] - then wills for CORA to appear. 

After a few moments of flicking through lore she's brought to a character generation screen. She installed it before the move. Hoping for... something. 

Now it's blindingly obvious what she wanted.

Character creation sliders blur under her will. She knows what she wants. 

She wants the body she'll never have. 

She wants to be free. 

She wants braids. Long ones, down to her waist. Lavender hair. Magic. Real magic. Glasses, of course, can't not have them. A pair of fox ears, so Tod Sifv for the race. A smaller, shorter body. Slight breasts. Between her legs can be standard for girls. It's not like she's committed to playing CORA. There'll be another fulldive MMO along if she doesn't like it. Even though she can't reroll this - 

It's good enough. 

She'll never have another first chance. 

And, after a long blurry moment, she just is.

As she dreamed herself.

She has fox ears. And breasts. And a distinct lack of something she's used to between her legs. Her frame is shorter, her skin a little more sensitive. There's a fluttery sensation in her stomach. 

She could stay on this character selection screen for a long time.

It feels right. In a way that no other body she's worn ever has. 

... Suddenly, it seems blindingly obvious why she played Undead in Realms of Dragons. The feeling of having a rotting, wrong body is just everyday for her. It doesn't surprise her, the way it did other players. It doesn't feel wrong. The unnatural strength of being Undead was just... how she lived. 

But this body is full of energy. She feels like her heart is going to burst, it feels so right.

She grins irrepressibly. "Hyacinth," she says to herself. Her voice is light, bubbly... A little too cute actually. 

She tunes it downwards a little. Keep it feminine, but she'd like something... a little more husky and soft, actually... does she want to keep her Canadian accent? 

"Hyacinth." 

There, that's a little better.

She looks at the confirm button. 

Does she want this.

Forever and ever.

To be her, in the realms of CORA. 

Heck yes!

But she hasn't checked the skill trees yet, it's tempting to hit confirm but her build -

Alright so if she just consults the CORA strategy guide she has open in this other simulspace, she should take Ranged Cast Magic for any form of blasting or offensive casting. For defensive casting she should take Self Cast Magic, and if she wants to make magic items of any kind, Sustain Magic. There are a lot of more specialized trees but she wants to be an enchanter of the most generalist type she can be.

Her race gives her Affinity: Arcane for free, which is tremendously versatile, so the question is whether she wants to go with light or fire as her secondary affinity. 

Light... is traditional, for women. There's always been an inclination towards "girls heal." That makes her want it a little, but...

In her heart, and until the end of time, she will always be a Fire mage. It's just part of who she is now. Realms of Dragons saw to that.

As for being useful out of combat, it's clear that the best stat to focus on overall is Intricacy. That will let her build more complex enchantments and items with Sustain Magic and hopefully serve as the equivalent of a Realms of Dragons "Profession."

She's so excited to get to blow things up.

Anyway. 

Once she confirms she'll be thrown into the game. 

... She should really get ready for a proper session, she's still wearing her dress and if she comes back in a few days it'll be soaked through with sweat. That's no way to treat it.

Regretfully, she saves the in-progress character and closes her session. 

Consciousness doesn't return instantly. There's a timeless moment of dislocation before the neural crown disengages and she's left back in the pod. 

She gets out, goes into her bedroom. Changes into her VR wear, little more than a set of underwear. She doesn't have a proper bra but that's okay. Nobody's going to see her in the pod, and nobody would know what they were looking at. 

She's going to be going down for a long time. She can feel it. 

She sets the pod to give her an alarm on next Sunday morning. Nine days of her newest life. 

Then she gets back in.

One familiar pinprick and she's back in her real body.

Back to herself. 

The confirm button's right there. 

Time for a new adventure. 

She hits Confirm.

Hyacinth experiences a moment of discontinuity, then finds herself standing in a forest. She hears the growling and barking of wolves, and smells blood. Six wolves with red eyes surround a demon girl.

The girl — who is a Darkling, from what Hyacinth remembers of reading the lore during character creation — has large black wings, and horns that sweep back over her scalp, starting just above her violet hairline, and a long dark violet tail with a blunted spade on the end, and bright violet eyes. She's wearing a black blouse and trousers under some very basic leather armor, and black boots.

She dances between the wolves, slashing at them with her saber and occasionally using her wings to vault high over the beasts.

And she abruptly has a staff now! Yay starter inventory!

Okay so how does she cast in this system, she completely forgot to set up her abilities at character creation - 

One of the wolves makes a pass at her, and she reflexively clubs it with the end of her staff. Old habits die hard. 

She opens the ability menu and quickly slots the recommended starter spell, [Fire Bolt]. Fortunately she seems to have finished off the wolf that came at her so she's out of combat for the two seconds it takes to slot.

Alright, who wants some?

This other wolf wants some. It seems to think Hyacinth looks like easier prey than the Darkling girl, who's a bit bloodied but doing fine, judging by the three other wolf corpses on the ground.

"Oh hey, where'd you come from?", the girl asks. She leaps over a nearby wolf, slashes the flank of another, then briefly lights her sword up with sparking electricity before stabbing the wolf she jumped over, which spasms and limps away from her.

She tosses a firebolt at the wolf with an effort of will, but the end of her staff is off to the side from her earlier cast and it goes wide. Shit, this is one of those games where you have to actually aim, like Terra Defenders. 

She runs to the side - always faster than backing up - and lines up the angle, then casts again. 

This time the firebolt catches it full in the face. 

"Just spawned in, so sorry to interrupt!"

The wolf she blasts howls and darts back toward the violet-haired girl. The one the darkling girl stabbed with lightning takes one more slash and goes down, and the girl spins and slashes the burned one, which quickly drops as well.

"Awesome. Welcome to Parcosia, I'm Sable, wanna party up?"

One wolf lunges toward Sable's thigh; she leaps out of the way. Another runs past Hyacinth, snapping at her as it passes. It has a large gash bleeding down its side.

She darts sideways again and strikes with the butt end of her staff this time, keeping the focus on top relatively aligned. 

"Sure! At least till the wolves are down!"

She tosses off another firebolt at one of the wolves Sable's dealing with as she gets a moment of alignment. She's worse at Terra Defenders, but not bad.

The one Hyacinth whacks peels off with a yelp, but then darts back in toward her, lunging at her! The one she blasts, meanwhile, gets very unlucky. Her firebolt catches it directly in a wound, and it sizzles and falls.

"Sweet," Sable replies with a grin, and a party invite appears in Hyacinth's UI.

You have been invited to join Sable Inkheart's party.

Accepting or declining feels like a primitive mental action.

Meanwhile, Sable laughs and vaults over a charge from the other remaining wolf, then stabs it from above.

She accepts, and casts mana shield -  

Shit, wrong game - 

She stumbles backwards, and tries to get her staff between her and the charging wolf, but this doesn't look good. 

The wolf ducks under Hyacinth's interposed staff and bites into her thigh, then bowls past her, knocking her to the side. It hurts. She can feel the way the teeth tear into her skin, the way the individual punctures tear into a larger wound.

"Fuck!" 

That's way worse than anything in Realms of Dragons. She's used to light stings to indicate damage but this is on a whole other level. Who are CORA's devs, a bunch of sadists? 

Shit, her new partymate is in trouble. She leaps off the wolf she just stabbed, which is quickly dying, and lunges in a wing-assisted charge at the final beast, slashing its throat.

It falls in a bloody heap, and both girls get the chime of a level up notification. When inspected, it reveals that there's an attribute point and three ability points to spend. The former increase a character's basic attributes, while the latter allow purchasing new nodes from one's ability trees, to create new spells and abilities.

"You okay?" Sable gives her an inquisitive look and steps over to check on her.

She takes a careful step, and winces as her still-injured thigh stabs her. Another thing that's different in CORA. In Realms of Dragons you only took pain on a hit, not afterwards.

"Ow," she says eloquently. "That'll teach me to jump in without slotting any abilities." 

On closer inspection, it looks like Sable's stepping a bit gingerly as well. She must've been doing a good job of ignoring it during the fight.

She nods. "Yeah, worth spending some time on that before you see combat. No idea why you landed in the middle of my fight with the wolves, rather than in a safer spot."

"Maybe the gods think we'll get along," she jokes with a grin.

"Yeah, maybe," Hyacinth grunts out. "Give me a second to go through my abilities and actually slot things. I wanted a shield-spell and didn't have one slotted, give me a sec."

Okay, so the system shows her that she has got... Fire Bolt, Repel, and Shove/Leap. 

Fire bolt is easy. Fire node in ranged casting plus bolt node in the same ability tree. Very basic. (Ow.)

Repel is the defensive spell she was looking for. It uses a burst node from the Self tree and a Force node from the Ranged tree to throw things away that get too close. It's not the classic defensive ward she's used to, but she could've used it. Serves her right for not looking over herself during character creation.

Shove/Leap looks to be a strength buff that works by aligning force with blows or pushes. Force again, with Enhance from the Self tree and Sustained from the Sustain tree. 

All of this she could've used, but she is apparently a stupid dumb-dumb today. Her leg is making it hard to concentrate on anything other than that.

She investigates the Sustained tree, and indeed finds Heal Wounds in it. It's Light affinity so it'll cost a boatload of mana but right now she does not care. She unlocks it, and screw her Fire affinity.

What nodes can she mix with that? Self Burst makes sense. A ranged bolt of healing... less so?

She'll have to see if she can get enough power out of a self burst to not be fucking bleeding.

"Come over here," she says a little woozily. "I can slot a healing ability but it'll be a burst close to me, no clue what the range will be."

She'll get close enough to Hyacinth to hug her, but doesn't actually hug her. "Close enough?", she asks with a smile.

She blushes a little. CORA avatars are hotter than she's used to, and... people didn't get up in her personal space in Realms of Dragons.

"Y-yeah." 

She focuses her mana, and channels. It's going to take a hot second to work with this outside her affinities. 

But after pouring enough raw POWER into it - 

Both their wounds close up and get well on their way toward healing fully.

"Ooh. That feels much better. Cute, handy with a firebolt, and able to heal? Quite a handy combo." She grins playfully. "So what's your name, and would you like to keep teaming up even after we head back to town and collect our bounty?"

<Go on,> Hailey teases internally, <you've only known her for five minutes.>

<Is anything I said wrong?>, Sable fires back with an internal smirk.

She opens her mouth, pauses. 

"Hyacinth," she says after a second. "Though I will admit I didn't really think about how it'd abbreviate. Sin and Sable, the purple sisters. Kind of cute." She tugs at a strand of her own lavender hair. "You were really cool fighting those wolves by the way."

"Pretty name, Hyacinth. I do like the ring of Sin and Sable, too. Not sure about sisters, though," she grins warmly as she replies, arching her eyebrows a bit at the end. “And thanks. This game really rewards external skill, and the opportunity to practice in private VR combines really dangerously with having nothing to do. The result is being surprisingly good with a sword."

Not sure about sisters, huh? Well she'll file that away for a bit.

Hyacinth plants her staff firmly. It's a casual motion. 

"Yeah," she says. "I'm just coming from Realms of Dragons so I'm a mixture of a complete newbie and an actually good player. The sharpness of wounds in this one really surprised me."

She nods. "It's kind of a lot. Feels... grounding, for me, though. I suppose that's why I made a melee build." She hums a bit. "I haven't played Realms of Dragons. Wasn't a flexible enough magic system for me, honestly, and I wanted something eighteen-plus. No worries about not knowing CORA, though. I think that was level level two for both of us. I just know swords and guns for my own special interest reasons, is all, and picked the former for my build."

<I'm a special interest? Awwww!>, teases Ruby, hugging Sable mentally.

She rubs her thigh where the wound was. It still aches, but kind of in a nice way.

Sheeeeeeeeeeelving that thought.

"Yeah, I wanted to... move on a bit. I moved out recently and I wanted a new game my family wasn't also playing. CORA's been big lately so I decided to try it out."

"Makes sense!" She offers the shorter girl her arm. "Shall we return to town?"

Yeah she will totally take some support on her way back towards town. Getting to cling to the pretty girl a bit is just a bonus. 

"Please, let's, I think I'm close to empty on mana."

And so Sable will escort Hyacinth, arm in arm, back to the small Parcosian village that issued this bounty. The woods are mostly quiet, with birds chirping occasionally. When they're most of the way back to town, Sable pauses for a moment, her wings, horns, and tail shimmering and vanishing.

Hyacinth pauses. "Um, should I be hiding my ears?"

She paws at one of them, and is rewarded with an alien but very pleasant burst of sensory feedback. 

She frowns and shakes her head. "No. You're fine. Darklings sometimes get a bit of unpleasantness, but no one gives artifisuki or any other nonhumans any trouble unless they've spent too much time listening to Pagutum's bullshit."

It appears Sable has mistaken Hyacinth for a non-fae foxgirl.

Being mistaken for artifisuki suits her just fine. 

She tilts her head. "Who's this Pagutum character then?"

"Big country full of assholes across the sea to the east, lots of propaganda against nonhumans, some homophobic and transphobic propaganda more recently too. They invaded Joret, which was supposed to be one of the newbie starter nations."

Oh. 

Of course. 

She sighs. "Do you ever get the feeling that CORA's devs made the game a little too realistic?"

She giggles a bit and nods. "I do wonder sometimes. I think this was outside action, though, at least if the rumors I'm hearing about the Patriot Church being involved have any truth to them."

"Ugh. Them. America loses one war against the Commonwealth..." 

She sighs and futzes with her hair a little. 

"Can we focus on questing a bit? I don't play games to do politics." 

She pauses, tilts her head. "Actually that's a lie, I'm pretty damn good at Mafia. But that's for fun. It's different when real world shit gets involved."

"Good idea, Sin," she says with a laugh and a grin, "I'm trying to avoid those assholes myself. So we're going to get enough money from this to afford an inn for tonight, along with some very basic supplies you're going to need — waterskin, some food, bedroll, a personal tent, maybe some little warding stakes to go around it. If you're sticking with me longer we can share my stakes, but I still want you to have a pair of your own. After that we can see about upgrades to your gear."

She hums thoughtfully. "I don't have explicit plans about next quests yet. I guess we'll see what's available when we get there."

"Yeah, I think I'll stick around. You seem interesting." 

She ducks her head. "Sorry about the swearing by the way, the guilds back in Realms of Dragons were... very male-dominated and I found that swearing got me taken a bit more seriously. I can knock it off if it makes you uncomfortable."

Sable giggles and grins, shaking her head. "Unless you start quoting Patriot Church doctrine at me and suggesting I should be purged or calling me 'young man'," she makes an eloquently disgusted face for a moment, before returning to her easy grin, "it'll take a lot more than some cursing to make me uncomfortable."

"Why on earth would I call you "young man" when you're obviously a girl?" 

Wait, hold on a second - 

"It's funny how a group that talks so much about 'souls' spends so much time insisting the circumstances of your body at birth dictate identity more than who you know you are inside, don't you think?"

"Yeah, it really is." 

She ducks her head.

And, over the private message function...

This is actually my first time in fulldive as a girl. Very first session. In Realms of Dragons I was a boy, but...

She gives Hyacinth a hug as they keep walking.

But something was missing, and it turned out to be this? Family didn't take it well, I gather?

Yeah. There's several reasons why I wanted a new game. 

I'm guessing you have a similar situation.

Yep. I don't leave VR often. Doesn't help that I don't really have any leverage on the political mess, either. Not much draw for me out there, as a result.

They're walking in the main gates, and receive nods from guard. "So, the inn is also where the bounty was posted. I figure we head there first."

Yeah, well, I guess that's life to some extent.

I don't want to just abandon my external life, but I've got a week before I need to get back to my creative writing course at university. So you'll have me for a while yet.

Hyacinth casts her gaze around at the small town, taking in the unfamiliar sights. "Yeah, let's see what there is to see."

I'll be lamenting how short it is by the end of the week, I'm sure.

On the way to the inn, they pass a few homes, some of which double as businesses like a cobbler and a blacksmith and leatherworker. Also there's a general store. Down a side street, an orphanage is visible. The small tavern, when they reach it, has a sign declaring it the Rusted Bucket Inn, with a wooden bucket hanging upside down below the sign.

Hyacinth takes a moment to study the bucket sign.

"Quaint!", she declares. 

She smiles and nods, and leads the way inside.

Several wooden tables fill the room, and a roaring fireplace occupies a far wall. A smattering of guests are seated at the various tables. The innkeeper stands behind the bar, just passing a drink to a patron.

Sable heads directly for the innkeper, and waves him over. "Hello, Jorem."

He's a stocky man, with weary, grey eyes and short brown hair. He smiles at Sable and Hyacinth. "Afternoon, lass. Made it back from those wolves alright I see. Looks like you found a friend?"

She nods. "She appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the fight. I hope you'll forgive me for not collecting proof from all the wolves and prioritizing getting her back town safely as soon as the fight was over."

He scoffs, and reaches under the bar for a small pouch of coins. "Ach. I trust ya."

They each get a level up chime from the experience awarded for completing the quest.

"Nice to meet you, Jorem. I'm Hyacinth." 

She smiles and ducks her head, leaning on her staff a little. "We both took some wounds from that wolfpack, but I was able to focus and manage a healing spell. It just about exhausted me to heal both of us though, so I thought discretion was the better part of valor."

She rubs her thigh. "Also, I've done my fair share of sparring, but it's another thing to actually get bitten." She gives Jorem a sour look. "It still aches a bit."

He chuckles ruefully and nods. "Aye, lass, that it would. Well met. Will you lasses be staying the night, and will you be wanting supper?"

Sable has meanwhile split the pouch into two stacks of coins, sliding one to Hyacinth. "We will, on both counts. A double room, please?"

"Double room and two dinners will be a crown, lass."

She hands him a gold coin.

She picks up the coins. Iiiiiiinventory system?

Inventory system! Accessible through this simple mental motion! Her carrying capacity is weight-limited, and based on her physical stats.

That'll be annoying as a mage, but it can't be helped. 

She "pockets" the coins. 

Wait a minute, a double room... 

Prooooooobably nothing? Probably? Right? 

"So," she says seriously to Sable. "I wanted to do some planning for my future abilities, if you wanted to talk that over over dinner?"

"Sounds like a pretty good idea. I think we might want to handle the shopping first, though, just because because some of the stores might close."

"Oh! Yeah, right, that makes sense. I'm a little scattered, sorry."

She giggles warmly and gives Hyacinth a friendly squeeze. "No worries. I've been there."

And then she leads the way out to the shops, with a parting wave to Jorem. First stop is the general store. A wide variety of basic goods are available. Sable immediately bustles off and grabs a bedroll, waterskin, and some assorted tools. "Anything you want while we're in here?"

"... Do they have hairbrushes?" 

"Let's see..."

She looks about.

"Ah!" And grabs a simple wooden hairbrush, setting it on the counter with everything else.

A real wooden hairbrush eeeeeeeee - 

She takes it and hugs it to her chest. 

"Okay," she says after a moment. "This will be my one vanity purchase for the day. The rest should be practical. I bet no enchanted items are in our price range, right?"

"Neither in our price range nor sold in this town."

<You would buy this girl enchanted gear in a heartbeat,> Hailey teases.

<Only if she had a really good argument. It would blow the budget otherwise.>

"I want to make them eventually. I'm going for a high-Intricacy build with Sustained Magic as one of my trees. Eventually I'll be able to lay enchantments. Eventually."

"Oooh, that's a fun plan. Long build-up time, but high reward. Clever girl."

"Oh hm. Slightly cheaper to trade my solo tent for a two person tent than to get a whole separate tent. I'm fine with either. Thoughts?"

"A two-person tent..."

She nods to herself. 

"Yeah, that would work for us. I like you and I expect you're on a lot, right?"

"I basically only leave once a month to make sure my nutrient paste is topped up, and then stay out for a day or so to make sure I don't shock my system too hard from switching too often. I can make sure to schedule those for your uni weeks."

She adds the two person tent to the pile, and then sets her old tent next to it to trade in.

"Anything else you think you'd like?"

Hyacinth blinks. "Switching what too often?" 

"In and out of VR? Some people get VR sickness."

<That is not the only thing we switch, but that does not usually line up with whether or not we're in VR,> Maya notes.

"Oh. I hadn't heard of that before."

Hyacinth sighs. "I guess people didn't really share information like that in my last game."

Hyacinth clearly deserves better than her last crowd.

Sable hugs her close. "Well, I'm glad to make sure you don't miss out on anything like that."

"Thanks." 

Hyacinth smiles and adjusts her glasses. "I wonder if I can eventually enchant these... well, it'll be a long while before then." 

She drums her fingers against her staff's length. "I think this collection more or less covers it?"

"Two crowns and three silver then, misses," she clerk requests.

Sable pays the clerk and stows the tent, leaving the rest on the counter for Hyacinth.

Hyacinth scoops it up and inventories it.

"Thanks so much," she chirps.

"Gladly. No point in recruiting a cute new adventurer to my team if I'm not going to make sure she's kitted out." And Sable leads the way out.

She follows along, using her simple staff as a walking stick along the way.

"Did you want to look into more quests, or...?"

"Let's see... Did you wind up finding a shield spell? We can go see about some basic leathers for you, if you'd like. Other than that, I think yeah, we'll head back to the inn and look at the bounty board and get supper."

"I don't have a shield spell, I have a self-cast force burst that'll throw things away from me. Leathers are probably a great idea if they won't interfere with my magic."

"It won't." She nods and leads the way to the blacksmith and leatherworker. "Got anything in my friend's size?"

The clerk nods, steps into the back, and comes out with some basic leathers. "That'll be a crown, lass. I can dye these for another three silver, though."

Sable gives her companion a curious look.

She really wants pretty purple leathers. 

No, she has already made one vanity purchase today. And she'll probably replace these soon enough.

"Undyed is fine."

"Do have purples that match our respective hair?"

"Aye, lass, I do."

Hyacinth blushes a little. 

"I, um."

Somehow she doesn't quite manage to voice an objection.

"Is there a color you'd like better? Oh, or we could match each other's hair?"

"I'dlikeadarkerpurplesoyourhaircolorisgood," Hyacinth manages. 

Sable nods. "How long would it take for you to dye them to match my hair color?"

"A good few hours. They'll be done by morning for sure. Would you like to do yours as well?"

She turns to Hyacinth. "What d'you think, Sin? Would I look good with your lavender over these dark clothes, or should I get mine done in my darker violet instead?"

"I think your darker violet is better, then we'd match."

What is she saying. 

Hyacinth's being adorable is what she's doing. Sable unequips her leathers and sets them on the table as well. "Both in my violet, please. We'll be back in the morning."

And she pays the man.

"Gladly, lass. You two have a lovely evening now."

Okay, Hyacinth, focus. You have an inn to get back to and food to eat and a build to discuss.

"So where to now?"

"Back to the inn, Hyacinth. It's time for supper and new quests and abilities."

She loops an arm around Hyacinth's and leads her out and toward the inn.

She is on the arm of a pretty girl. 

What.

She follows, leaning a little harder on her staff than she meant to. 

"Yeah, that makes sense."

She leads the way back to the Rusted Bucket, inside, and lets Jorem know. Then off to the bounty board.

Ooh, what's it got in store for her?

A basic bulletin board hangs on the wall, with various paper notices pinned to it. Little interface windows hover next to each listing the minimum recommended level.

Ten crowns to kill a herd of corrupted mountain goats east of town. (Min level 1-2)

One hundred fifty crowns to identify and put an end to whoever or whatever is corrupting wild animals in the western hills. (Min level 20-25)

Fifty crowns to kill a crew of bandits on the road east of town. Requested by  the city of Cardova. (Min level 5-7)

"Goats, huh? That's the only one that's level appropriate for us."

"Well, we're three now and I think we'll at least hit four from the goat bounty. Between the two of us, that might be enough to take care of the bandits. Also, there might be a new corrupted animal bounty tomorrow or the day after that we could use to get to five. They've had them every day this week, from what I hear."

"The thing corrupting them sounds like bad news though. We should probably stay sharp about that."

She nods. "Definitely. We should keep an eye out for signs, just to avoid tripping over it. Definitely underleveled for that."

She plucks the two chosen bounties from the wall and accepts them.

Then turns to Hyacinth. "So how about dinner?"

"I would love dinner." Hyacinth grins.

Then she'll pick out a table, briefly swinging close enough to the bar to signal Jorem. She picks a spot out of the way, not too far from the fire, at a smaller two-person table. She also pulls Hyacinth's chair out for her. Chivalry isn't dead, it's just trans.

She settles into her chair with a small blush. 

"Thank you," she says. Even this small courtesy is... More than she's really used to getting.

"Gladly, Sin," she replies with a grin, sitting down across from her. "So let's talk builds. I hit level three with the quest completion, did you?"

"Yes, I did as well. I spent a node on Heal Wounds, so I guess I have five remaining if it's three per level?"

She nods, smiling curiously. "And I've still got all six of mine. So what sort of build are you aiming for? Maybe we can try to build for synergy."

"Well, my usual methods of consulting build guides and handbooks aren't super applicable given the incredibly flexible node system of CORA..."

"So for right now I'm hoping for a generalist wizard build. Blasting is good and worthy but I'd like to get into something of a controller role as well. I've always found crowd control to be very useful in these kinds of games. And I'd like to pursue some noncombat applications of magic too - item crafting systems are fun!"

"Crafting systems are so fun," she agrees with a grin. "W—I'm mostly aiming at a sort of swordwitch build, agile as fuck and channeling magic and abilities through the sword. Also, I've got shapeshifting as a racial ability. Infiltrator variant of Darkling. We can probably do decently on our own if you lean into the crowd control and herding, and I bounce between targets being highly mobile DPS."

"We might want a tank, though. And eventually we need to find a dedicated healer, just so we don't eat your whole damned mana pool for it."

She shakes her head. "But yeah. Swordwitch. Currently I have a lightning charge I can apply to my saber, and a couple enhanced strikes and parries. Need to come up with a few better magically empowered attacks, I think, and definitely want to make a deflecting parry that can handle ranged attacks or even spells eventually."

"I considered taking Light affinity, but I was a fire mage last game and couldn't resist. I regret it a little now."

Sable shakes her head. "Nah, a good party needs more than one DPS. Plus, your crowd control idea is pretty great. And who knows, maybe you'll manage some great enchanted healing artifacts, eventually?"

Jorem shows up with two large bowls of stew, and fresh-baked rolls on the side. "Here you go, lasses. Anything to drink?"

"Not for me, thank you."

She looks back at Sable. "Yeah, maybe I will. I hope so."

She picks up her spoon and tries the soup.

The stew is rich and hearty, made from venison and potato and carrot with some lovely spices rounding it out that she can't quite recognize.

Sable tilts her head for a brief moment, barely a fraction of a second, then shakes her head. "None for me either, thanks."

"Enjoy!"

After Jorem heads off, Sable nods. "So hmm. If you're leaning into fire, I could build a fire resistance passive perhaps, make it easier to dance through your crowd control unburnt. That and a few shadow-enhanced strikes, perhaps? Maybe a supernaturally fast attack of some kind?"

This is actually quite good. She's never had venison before. 

"Yeah, that makes sense. Given how realistic this game is I'm worried I might actually start a fire with my blasting, so some nodes to supress fire would probably be useful. And would let me get rid of my own crowd control."

"Yeah, they would do that," she replies, nodding. "Sensible of you."

"I wonder if there's such a thing as pyrokinesis in my trees. We'll see."

She smiles and flips through some nodes, eating a few more spoonfuls of stew. "Oh this is useful. Life drain node. Could make a vampiric slash. It's not strong, but every bit counts. And then here's an elemental cut node, which could be combined with shadow — my affinity — and a couple others to make a shadow cutter. And... ah, there's a basic resistance node. Okay, I think I know what I'm building: a shadow cutter for breaking basic armor, a vampiric strike to minimize how much you need to use that healing spell, and a passive fire resistance ability."

"That makes a lot of sense. Let me see what I've got in my trees..."

She flicks through her nodes, selecting out nodes.

"So what I'm thinking is... I want the Extinguish node from Persistent, and the Ranged Burst node from Ranged... And then I have three more left. I want to do my best to exploit my high Intricacy, so goodstuff utility nodes are probably my best bet, especially because my Capacity is low. So mixins and passives. 

"Mixins... Held Spell looks good, it'd let me hold a firebolt for light or create an extended repulsion field... I could take a misc buff from the Ranged tree like less mana expenditure or more power, but that seems boring. Ranged could give me curving or chaining or bouncing shots with some more investment, which would play nicely with Held Spell... I think Held Spell is just an obvious pick, it chains into better persistent effects later.

"I feel like a mana regeneration buff would be nice out of combat utility. I could take a Passive from the Self tree, but the buff percentage is really low. Is there a way to get higher efficiency... Ooh, Meditation! "Dramatically increases the effects of a passive buff while you concentrate on it as an active ability." And it's actually pretty effective. That'd be like Evocation in Realms of Dragons, super handy out of combat."

Void. She's so cute when she nerds out about spell design. "Those sound like some impressive options, and some very solid ways to build for future growth. I like it."

Sable just grins at Sin for a moment, clearly intrigued and delighted, before adding, "I wonder if the meditation will be built on actual meditation techniques."

"Heh, stealth mindfulness therapy. That'd be fun."

She flicks through her trees some more. 

"Looking later into the trees, there's eventually a "chain effects" node in the deeper persistent tree. Which I think is core to a high-intricacy blaster build with persist because it lets you build more versatile and powerful anyspells. Anything that gets you more action and capacity economy from intricacy is good for my build. 

"Also in the persist tree a little closer is "minor lingering buff", which would let me trade mana and time for stats. There's an old meme about a powerful wizard who'd cast a dozen buffs at the start of every day - I maybe don't want to go that far, but again, anything that gives better action and capacity economy is good. 

"Under Self Cast Magic there's passive buffs for all the casting stats. I hate to say it, but I might have to season my Intricacy build with some Capacity simply because only having three spell slots is going to get awfully narrow in practice. We'll see how it goes with Intricacy buffs and so on, but part of me wants more options."

"Looking for crowd control... Extinguish Force could potentially provide some fun effects, I don't know what it'd do precisely but making someone or something unable to walk easily seems like a possible outcome."

She takes another spoonful of her stew and thinks for a bit. 

"I should really have a look at all the caster stats again and refresh myself on what they all do."

Stats, briefly explained:

Strength

Your physical strength and ability to move powerfully.

Power

Strength's magical counterpart, and the might of your spells.

Speed

How swiftly and precisely you can physically move.

Urgency

Your casting speed, the ability to throw spells quickly and smoothly.

Endurance

Your physical stamina, your ability to keep running or fighting longer.

Capacity

Your magical stamina, determines the size (and to a lesser extent the regeneration) of your mana pool.

Constitution

Your resistance to status effects.

Toughness

Your resistance to damage.

Anamnesis

Your capacity for "spell slots".

Intricacy

The complexity of spells and abilities you're allowed to construct in the ability builder.

"Oh, it's a good thing I checked, Capacity is actually mana pool and regen, it's Ananemsis that I should be improving for more spell slots. I'm glad I resolved that before I bought anything."

Sable blushes faintly and smiles sheepishly. "Oops. I should've caught that, I had to invest in those for the witch side of my swordwitch build. It's just too entrancing watching a cute girl nerd out about spell design."

She blushes. "You think I'm cute?"

All her thoughts about spell design have suddenly been knocked out of her head.

"Either you're adorably oblivious or I was subtler than I expected, at least one of the two. You spend several minutes geeking out adorably on spell design, you're incredibly pretty in a very cute and petite way, and you've just rolled with all the chaos since landing here. Yes, I think you're cute."

She eats a bit of stew to keep some semblance of composure after saying that.

"I mean, I absolutely noticed, I'm just... really unused to anyone being interested in me." She ducks her head. "I mean, it's been hardly an hour since I got my new body and already someone's hitting on me. That's fast!"

She grins and giggles. "I do move kinda fast on occasion. I'm just objectively correct here, though. It's not just the body, either. Everything about you is cute; the body just brings the rest into alignment as a whole."

"Awwwww, thank you. It's - a little hard to take it seriously - but I really do appreciate the sentiment." 

... It is an 18+ game, she supposes, so maybe she shouldn't be surprised... 

"So I was saying! Before I got totally distracted by the flirting. Probably it would be smart to take some Anamnesis improvements soon to slot more spells, and then once I feel I have enough to load a proper toolset we can focus more in on Intricacy. Self Tree has an Anamnesis passive, I just checked, so that can maybe be one of my next three nodes... Or I could just spend my new ability points there, not sure which is more efficient. Rapidity and Power will probably come in later too, but for now I want utility over raw strength."

She nods. "Yeah, a flexible foundation works better, in my opinion. Moving in the direction of more options is rarely a bad idea. Anamnesis is going to be key to early survivability, I think, so you can keep enough things available to be able to respond to a wide enough variety of circumstances."

Then, with a tilt of her head and a thoughtful hum, she wonders aloud, "What sort of crowd control is reachable just with these early nodes, though? Maybe one that makes flames sticky and persistent? That would let you modify any fire spell for area denial, or to ruin a whole group of beasties' days at once."

"Held Spell with Ranged Burst Fire would let me sustain a big patch of fire, but I bet it would suck mana like nobody's business. I could beeline for Minor Lingering Spell in the Persistent tree but it'd take all my points. It's a really good ability though, since it'd apply to buffs too, so it might be worth beelining to." 

She flicks through nodes. "Splash spell in the Ranged tree - it's a variant of Burst - comes with a minor lingering effect at a lower intensity around the main target. It might be better to take than the direct more explosive Burst. The tradeoff is less AOE effect, but for longer. More of a damage over time thing."

"Hmmm. In your shoes, I think I'd lean for Splash over Burst, at least early on? Oh, did you get a passive fire resistance ability? Might be worth having one, just so you're not closing off territory to yourself as well."

"It is my affinity, so it's possible I already have some of it as a passive..."

She checks her passives, just in case.

She does in fact have a minor passive resistance to fire damage that will improve as she levels up!

"I've already got a minor passive resistance, but it might be smart to upgrade it. I don't know what it means to have a "minor" resistance, whether that means I'm already proof to mundane flames or not. It might be smart for us to do a test with a candle or something."

She nods. "Good plan. Resistances usually scale by being immunity below a certain intensity, then decreasing percentage of reduction above that. So I think you'll have candles covered, maybe as far as torches? Not sure. There'll be a candle in the room."

She tears a piece off her roll to sop up some of the remaining stew.

Oh yeah, food!

She takes some time to eat more of her stew as she mulls.

"It'll be really interesting to test. I think torch intensity would be better to have, given that I expect to be tossing around a good amount of flame."

<Interesting, yes, that's one thing to call it,> Hailey snarks. <Also hot.>

<Adorable sadist,> Sable teases back fondly.

"Definitely! Hmmm." She eyes the fireplace. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

She looks over at the fireplace. 

"You're on," she says. "I bet I've got spare mana by now, I can heal it even if it hurts like a bitch." 

She leaves the remnants of her stew behind and walks over next to the fireplace, where she crouches and holds out a hand to feel the warmth of the flames on the back of her hand.

The flames feel gently cozy from that far away.

Let's see how far she can stick her hand in before it feels like a bad idea.

Brushing the edges feels distinctly hot. Holding her hand directly in the upper reaches of the flames stings a little but doesn't really get worse. When she starts to lower her hand closer to the logs, about midway down it starts to noticeably hurt, though even there it would take a while to actually do more than redden her skin.

She reaches a little lower and then pulls back her hand with a hiss. Yeah, her resistance is definitely failing there.

Then she laughs and shakes out her lightly-scorched hand. "Cool!" 

She runs her thumb across her palm a little and grins. "Honestly, if I took another fire resistance node I could maybe hang out in the splash of my own flames, which would be one heck of a deterrent for anything that wanted to attack me."

She picks up the poker, which has been lying in the fireplace for a bit, and slides her hand slowly down it until she feels her resistance start to fail again. Does it extend to generally hot objects?

Yes, it definitely does. It's hard to burn a fire witch, harder still the higher she levels.

When Sin looks back at Sable, she finds her blushing a bit and biting her lip. She shakes her head. "Very cool. I can probably do similar with lightning or shadow, but there's something viscerally impressive about seeing you do that with fire."

"It's a really interesting sensation. It still feels hot, like, intensely hot, but something in me likes it rather than flinching. It doesn't burn, even when it gets to be too much I have space to play with. I wouldn't want to put my hand on that log down there, but this much is easy." 

"Fire resistance is awesome." 

She smiles brightly and rubs her scorched palm a little more. "This is just about convincing me to buy another point of resistance. There's so many options!"

She raises an eyebrow at the mention of liking it. "Goodness. Well, far be it from me to stop you. Hopefully the herd of goats tomorrow is easy but numerous enough to get you plenty more points, because I'm quite eager to see what you do with them."

"Right now I think I want Splash Spell, Extinguish, Held Spell, another passive node of Fire Resistance, and either something from Persistent or an Anamnesis passive."

She hums a bit. "Passives occupy a slot themselves, is the thing, so it would take one hell of an ability build to make an Anamnesis passive that was slot-positive. With the fire resistance, you're just making a new version to go in the already-occupied slot using your improved intricacy and any better nodes you've bought."

"Oh, I see, that makes sense. Is it possible to stack multiple fire resistance nodes on each other with high intricacy, or is it a best-wins situation?"

"I think there are ways to combine them, but they're a little tricky to get locked properly in the ability builder. High intricacy definitely helps with that, though."

"So it'd be more like just buying a second level of a passive than being able to do something more fancy, at least at this level. Eventually it could produce some interesting results though..."

"If passives take slots, then the Meditation and Passive Mana Regeneration out of combat recovery build is a bit more fragile because I would have to unslot two of my four things out of combat, which means that if we're ambushed I'm really in a bad situation. On the other hand, being able to meditate to become even more proof against flames is really cool. But probably not actually that useful."

"I'm definitely putting my ability points into Anamnesis now, if it's that hard to buff."

She nods. "I'm not even totally a caster and I have to keep my Anamnesis up. It's very useful. You've got a good plan at this point, I think."

Sin gets up from the side of the fire. "So then it seems I need to pick a fourth node, probably as a mix in... I could take Redirecting Spell from the Ranged tree, and then with Held I'd have a lot of control... But I want to work on the Persistent tree to get to Lingering..." 

She sorts through her tree again. 

"I'm taking two nodes from Persistent in this, Extinguish and Held Spell, and Heal Wounds is from Persistent as well so we're making good progress there. In Ranged we take Splash Spell and in Self we take Passive Fire Resist. So the last node is really kind of free. That said, most of my core build items are in Persistent..." 

She hums to herself softly.

"I think I want to take a mana efficiency node in Persistent, that'll let me use my high Intricacy well."

Oh right she should respond rather than being a hopelessly gay dork. "Efficiency is rarely a bad idea if you've got the intricacy to fit it in, and I think you do."

Hyacinth claps her hands together. "Right! That's that settled then. Give me a second, I'm going to buy the improved fire resist and then try the fireplace again."

The purchase only takes an instant, and in a moment the new passive is slotted. 

Then she crouches again. How close to the log can she get now?

Would she like to grab the log? Grabbing log by the coals only stings now. This probably isn't nearly as hot as mage fires can get at higher levels, but it's hot enough to warm an entire tavern, and should be blistering her hand right now.

Instead it stings.

She pats it lightly. Good log.

Then she picks up the fireplace poker and slaps its still-cherry-red end into her other palm with a grin.

"We have ways of making you talk," she half-jokes. 

And then Sable grins and laughs brightly. "Oh you are a gem."

She grins and cracks up laughing, and leaves the fireplace poker behind in the fireplace where it belongs. "Yeah, uh, I kinda got into character there. This is fun." She ducks her head and smiles and then goes and picks up her staff from where it's leaning against the table.

"More seriously, probably it's time to head back to the room and finalize my build. We're both done our stew and I want to take some time to fiddle with making abilities before I turn in."

Sable nods. "Sounds like a good idea." She stacks the bowls and brings them back to the counter for Jorem, thanking him with a smile, and pulls out the room key. "Shall we?"

... Sharing a room with this girl is feeling a little dangerous, the same way holding the red-hot poker felt a little dangerous...

"I would love to." 

Sable offers Sin her arm and leads the way upstairs, and then down the hall to their room.

Eep???

She takes a breath, controls her reaction, and proceeds down the corridor on Sable's arm. She's a bit stiff.

That's okay. Sable can keep up some idle chatter about considerations she's balancing in designing her shadow cutter, on the way to the room, to help her be a bit more at ease.

Soon enough, they're looking at a medium-sized room, big enough not to be cramped but not really spacious either. Two beds sit against one wall, and a desk, two chairs, and a mirror sit across. A sign in the hall indicates that the bathroom is at the end of the hall.

Despite herself, Hyacinth finds herself heading towards the mirror.

It's silly to be preoccupied with her new appearance, but...

But still...

There she is, petite and pretty, with her braids and fuzzy ears and fluffy tail, the pretty little fae fox the outside world tried to deny her.

She finds herself blushing and staring. 

It feels so good to be her. She'd almost forgotten it, it feels so natural. But seeing herself in the mirror, her real herself, makes her feel... amazed. Thrilled. Her stomach is full of butterflies and her whole body seems to tingle a little. The flush on her face is heavy and hot but she doesn't care at all.

She darts in and kisses Sable's cheek.

She blushes and smiles. "Feels pretty great, doesn't it? I remember when that was new for me, when it was still such a blissful surprise to see."

"Yeah," she says reverentially. "It really does." 

"Oh! You might not know, but you can download your in-game appearance to your pod, use it in your local environment too. Should be an option in the menu."

"I am so doing that. I tried to make a - custom avatar for myself - a couple times years ago, but nothing really... fit, until..." 

She laughs. "I'm amazed I was so oblivious."

She walks over to one of the beds, still tugging Sable along on her arm.

"I..." She looks down at her feet. "I feel so good. And you've been nothing but good to me. I hardly know you, but..." 

She leans in very gently and kisses Sable again, on the lips this time.

Well this is a welcome surprise. She leans close to gently return the kiss. "What's the point of power or skill if not to be good to people, especially people you enjoy?"

"Yeah," she says softly.

This is a dreamworld. 

It's okay.

She can do whatever she wants. 

... And what she wants is this lovely girl.

She kisses her again. She doesn't know how this works but she thinks she can figure it out.

Well how about they tumble onto the bed together, and Sable deepens the kiss a bit, eager but patient, mixed with little playful nips? How about Sable's hand strokes along Hyacinth's back, smooth and gentle and firm, grounding her in this moment here?

Ooooooooooooooooooh. That would be lovely.

She presses in, eager for skin contact. It's a lot. It's a lot like holding the poker was a lot, such a wash of sensation all across her body, but she's here for it.

It is a litttttttle hard to handle all of this at once but her anxious brain can just shut up. 

Sable's happy to help shut up an anxious brain, such as with a thigh pressing between Sin's, or a hand slipping down to squeeze her ass just a bit, all while continuing to kiss her tenderly.

Ooooooooooh. Thank you Sable. 

She kisses back and closes her eyes and lets her body move. She presses up against that thigh, and alien-yet-right sensations rush through her body, sending shivers up her spine. 

Yes. Good.

Sable kisses her way across Sin's cheek, over her jaw, down her neck, mixing in gentle little bites here and there. Her hand squeezes Sin's ass, pressing her hips forward to grind against Sable's thigh through her clothes. Her other hand cups Sin's cheek, then strokes down her chest and caresses her breast softly.

She stiffens with a sharp intake of breath as Sable's finger brushes her nipple beneath her dress - the sensation is sharp, insistent, bright - and then giggles helplessly. 

Gosh this is really, really a lot. This is so good. This is, like, wow. 

She seems to be having some problems making thoughts. 

Oh good. Trouble forming thoughts is exactly the goal. That means Sable's doing something right.

She notes the gasp she got and thumbs across Hyacinth's nipple again, all while grinding her thigh in harder. Oh, how about she tries stroking the base of Sin's tail?

Oh. Oh wow. 

She giggles more and pulls Sable in more firmly atop her, her hands digging into her back and ass.

The hand on her tail just makes even more warmth coil in her core, and her breath shivers as she smothers another laugh with a kiss against Sable's shoulder. She grins helplessly and lays her head in and hazards a soft bite.

"W-wow..." She breathes against Sable's shoulder and closes her eyes for a moment, focusing for a moment on the hollow ache inside her. That thigh pressing into her is so much.

The groping and especially the bite from Sin manage to pull a brief little hissed gasp from Sable, before she redoubles her efforts, rocking her thigh forward and back, kissing and nipping, caressing warmly.

And Sin finds herself quickly approaching the edge, with nowhere to escape to because she's under Sable. 

"W-whoa," she manages, "Careful, ahahahahahaha, care, ha, ful -" 

She smirks playfully and whispers in Sin's ear. "In here, who says you have to stop at just one?"

Oh. 

Oh.

Oh she's so fucked.

A heavy burst of nervous laughter spills from her mouth.

... and then a challenging smirk comes to her face. 

"Do your, hee, worst," she says.

She laughs and steps up the pace, grinding her thigh forward and back, deepening the kiss, capturing a nipple to pinch lightly, nipping teasingly at Sin's lower lip.

She flushes and kisses back, knowing that she's completely doomed at this point. 

Her breath comes hot and heavy as her body tenses and her fingers clench against Sable's skin.

And she keeps building that pressure and intensity, faster and more, because she loves watching Sin come undone like this, watching her begin to realize just how good this can be, when it's only going to get better still. Sable nips and kisses and sucks at Sin's neck, rolls her hips, grinds her own sex against Sin's thigh even as she grinds her thigh against Sin's.

She shudders under Sable's thigh and bucks instinctually, trying to get out from under the stimulation, but that just makes it worse - 

Her body shudders and she buries her face in Sable's shoulder. The sensation's filling her up, burning through her, there's nowhere for it to go -

Nowhere but letting it build to bursting. She keeps grinding, pinches both nipples now, caresses softly and tenderly, keeps kissing and nipping. Then she leans higher up Sin's body, licks the edge of one fuzzy ear.

It's all too much. Her whole body is on fire, so bright and intense, so perfect, so electric. 

She gasps out helplessly as pleasure overwhelms her, and feels a flutter of surprised joy at how high and sharp her voice is like this.

Then she buries her face in Sable's shoulder again and lets out a long string of blushy laughter. 

"I, I, um, ehe, oh wow, he, eheheh, okay, I..." 

It's so much better than she imagined. Her whole body feels warm and tingly and hot. She doesn't feel the need to stop at all. It's like the intensify of that flare's just kindled the need for more in her.

She presses her lips to Sable's skin and giggles and kisses and moves, grinding back against her even through the lingering warmth. Her body feels sweet and fuzzy like static and she wants more. Her hands grab greedily and her body presses in hard, her thigh shifting against Sable's sex.

It's the best thing that's ever happened to her.

She giggles delightedly and keeps holding Sin close and keeps grinding. "And that's just what I can do without taking your clothes off," she purrs into her ear.

She makes a little flustered noise and kisses Sable's shoulder in reply.

... But after a moment her hands slip in and start stroking at Sable's breasts in return. 

She can't win this, but she can totally inflict some splash damage.

She flushes and smiles, then pulls Sin upright to pull the dress off of her.

She giggles nervously as it comes off, but grins despite herself. She's got the default player underwear on, a basic grey bra and panties. 

And her fingers are gonna be sneaking in to grab at Sable's clothes in turn. No fair her being the only one who's nude. 

Well Sable certainly won't say no to that. Her blouse comes off easily, revealing the same default grey sports bra, and then she'll shimmy out of her trousers as well. She quickly pulls her bra and panties off too, releasing her shapeshift in the same moment, revealing nipples that run just a bit more lavender or violet than the usual human pink, skin just a bit unnaturally pale, and that her flushed cheeks have shifted to be a bit violet rather than pink-hued as well.

... Hyacinth is a little distracted by running her hand down Sable's soft feathery wing. 

"Gosh," she says quietly. "So many new things today..."

Sable grins, nods, shivering faintly at the touch, and takes advantage of Hyacinth's distraction to pull her bra off as well, then starts shimmying her panties down her hips.

Wait, she's literally having sex, what's she doing -

She giggles to herself, and settles in against Sable with her hands groping her breasts instead of running across her wings. Sable's so warm. And soft. And it's really really good to touch her. 

Her fingers pinch in at Sable's nipples, teasing them lightly.

Sable flushes, savoring the gentle touch, then presses back down atop Sin, fingers slipping along the folds of her sex, stroking tenderly along slick labia. Her tail wraps around one of Sin's thighs, and her lips capture one perky nipple, sucking gently.

Oh...

So this is how it really feels...

Even from Sable's light touch, her whole body shudders.

She can just have this.

... something in her which has never quite ever been at rest relaxes, just the tiniest bit. 

Her hand slips down to Sable's sex, and she starts to stroke as well, imitating Sable's light touches.

Her body is full of happy hormones already, and she just knows that this will be incredible. Her stomach is full of butterflies and her body is flushed with sweat and she's never been so happy.

She gasps again, softly, and bites her lip, pulling away from the nipple she'd been sucking and gazing into Sin's eyes. She notices that little untensing, too. She's so glad to make something in this lovely, precious, beautiful girl's life finally go right. Long overdue, in her opinion.

She starts teasing a fingertip around Sin's entrance, stroking gently, before suddenly slipping it in and stroking slowly.

That gets an intense, shuddery moan out of her. That aching hollowness in her suddenly has an answer and it feels so good. She's being claimed, being filled, being taken. 

"H-holy fuck." She clenches instinctually and rocks in against Sable, her own hand pressing in a little more firmly but not quite daring to slip inside. 

"Good girl," Sable whispers breathlessly. "Savor it. This is your body, and I'm going to help you find so many ways you can feel amazing in it."

She rocks against Sin's fingers, panting a bit, and then slips a second finger inside the smaller girl. She strokes and pumps her fingers, in and out, stroking against those particular oh-so-sensitive spots along her walls, and then brushes her thumb against Sin's clit, lightly, through the hood.

She stays pressed close, breasts squishing together, gazes locked together.

She responds as best she can, her own fingers daring to slip inside Sable for the first time. Her motions are a little clumsy, but she tries. It's so hard to focus through this. Almost impossible. 

She stares deeply into Sable's eyes and nods shakily. "Yeah," she says softly, her fingers pressing up against the roots of Sable's clit like that one sex education manga said to do. "It is." 

She shudders, a breathless little moan spilling out of her.

"Ohhh that feels good. Someone's been doing her homework," she teases fondly, and rewards Sin's efforts with stroking that is at once faster and somehow more tender.

"Oh, you like that huh?"

She strokes slowly and firmly, grinding in against the spot that got a sigh from Sable. She feels sharp. Sharper than she's ever been, intent like a falcon on its prey. She wants to hear more of those sounds from Sable. She wants it so badly. So much she can taste it.

Her own hips roll against Sable's hand, her body hot and willing, her gaze still locked with Sable's.

She shivers and gasps, biting her lip but holding onto her focus enough to step up the intensity as she keeps plunging her fingers in and out of Sin. Sin may want more noises out of Sable, but she wants them just as badly from Sin.

"I do," she murmurs, "almost as much as I like watching you come apart in my hands from the pleasure."

Hyacinth breaks down into another fit of nervous giggles, and tenses, clenching around Sable's fingers. 

Her own fingers work as smoothly as she can move them, even as her breath rushes and pauses. It is so hard to concentrate on this, but she'll do her best...

... It's quickly becoming obvious that she's going to get there first, though.

Sable's not too far behind. She's been building up to this since they first tumbled onto the bed, after all. She moans and shudders and keeps fingering, keeps plunging and rocking, keeps clenching around Sin's fingers. "You," she murmurs breathlessly between kisses, "are a delight," kiss, "and a beauty," kiss-nip, "and a thrill," nibble-kiss, "and I'm the luckiest girl in the Duchy."

"I, hehehaaaahfuck - I think I have that title, actually -" 

She kisses back and grins fit to burst and shudders, sharply - 

And with a tense sigh, heat spills out across her chest and leaps up to her face. Her body bucks against Sable's fingers and she gasps, high and melodic. 

Fuck it's beautiful watching her come like that. Sable gasps harder, pants faster, and then a few seconds later she's shuddering and rocking, tail and free arm clinging tight to Hyacinth, a rising set of short moans spilling out of her as she falls over the edge as well.

She captures Sin's lips in a delighted kiss, breathless and satisfied.

She twines her tail together with Sable's, and kisses her like she could lose her.

She was right. It was incredible. This gorgeous woman wanted her and got her and she got to make her shudder too and she's no longer a virgin and she got to lose her virginity as a girl -

Her body's still warm and flushed and Sable looks so good. She's comforting. Beautiful. Precious. 

This sex thing is really dangerous. 

If she's not careful she just might fall in love with this ridiculous woman.

... for right now, though, she just wants to hold her close.

She pulls Sable in and flops down onto the bed.

Sable snuggles tightly into Hyacinth, smiling softly and draping her wings over her. "Well, whichever of us is luckier, I can firmly state that there's no one luckier than the two of us."

Honestly, Hyacinth might not be the only one at risk of falling in love. Clearly neither of them is going to say it yet, though. Even if they're both thinking it.

All this. 

All this, and then on top of it, wingsnuggles. 

She buries her face in Sable's shoulder and cries. Her tears stain Sable's shoulder as her breath hitches. 

"I - I'm sorry - It's all - It's just too much. Too many good things. I -" 

She pulls away and wipes at her face.

She holds Sin close and strokes her hair. "It's okay. I cried too, my first time. Both of 'em, in fact. Second was a little bit like the reasons you have now. Better to let it out than stifle."

"You're so good," Hyacinth whimpers, putting all her heart into the last syllable. "How did I ever luck into someone like you -" 

She closes her eyes and hiccups and presses her face against Sable's body. 

She's going to stay there for a while.

Well, that's perfectly fine with Sable. She's just going to keep holding Hyacinth here and petting her and snuggling her, wings and tail and all.

"Dumb luck, AI meddling, or both?" She shrugs, giggles faintly, and continues petting. "I feel pretty damned lucky here too."

She settles in close. She doesn't feel like she needs an answer. 

Sable's body is warm beneath her, and her feathers are soft and tickiish against her skin. They feel like a warm blanket, a place of safety. A sanctuary. 

Nothing in the world can hurt her in this woman's arms.

She feels at peace. Her tears have stopped and her body feels heavy. Her eyes stay firmly closed.

Right now she just wants to stay in this perfect moment. 

Then here they'll stay. It's quiet and peaceful, just occasional soft creaks of the wood, warmth from the fire downstairs drifting upward, and the tender embrace of someone who wants to protect and cherish Hyacinth as much as she can. No outside world, just arms and wings and tail and soft bed underneath. Just gentle stroking and soft breath.

It's good.

She doesn't have words.

Who needs words? They can hold each other here, touch each other, quietly and slowly revel in each other's presence. They have all night, and then another and another and another, as long as they want.

It's easy. Comfortable. She can stop thinking and just be.

Being held by Sable is the most lovely thing in the world.

Sable's a bit surprised at how lovely it feels too, honestly. Even better than expected. She smiles tenderly and keeps holding Hyacinth tightly.

And eventually, Hyacinth drifts off. 

And Sable drifts off with her, holding her.

The night comes and goes, hours passing with them held in each other's arns.

And very eventually, Hyacinth comes back to herself.

The first feeling she has is warmth. Soft warmth enfolding her. Heat pressed up all against her back, soft blankets wrapped around her front...

Wait, that's not a blanket, that's a wing!

And all the memories of last night rush back. 

She's so stuck. She's still wrapped up in the wing of this girl she barely knows. Who she had sex with. 

And she's naked. They're both naked. 

... that's okay, though. 

She's okay. 

It's... really really awkward but she was the one who wanted this. 

And she got what she wanted. 

For once in her life she got what she wanted.

"Hey," she says softly. "Good morning."

And she ducks her head and kisses the edge of Sable's wing.

Is... wha... hmmm? Oh. She's here in the inn with a girl she slept with, right. And might be falling for. She pulls Hyacinth tighter into her arms. "Very good morning indeed."

"Yeah," Hyacinth says. "It really is." 

This girl... 

What does she mean to her? 

She's just stumbled into this incredible relationship in less than twenty-four hours. Another trans girl. Who wants to quest with her, who thinks she's cute, who buys her presents... 

It's a little too good to be true, isn't it? 

But the way she took her, the joy on her face, the way she shuddered - 

That's not fake.

She doesn't know this girl, not really.

And yet she's her first. 

Clearly the winning strategy is to investigate this questline further and determine this strange woman's allegiances. That's what she would do if this were a novel. 

She supresses a giggle and settles into Sable a little more.

She's pretty thrilled with this state of affairs, honestly. She squeezes and holds Hyacinth, smiling warmly, lingering in all the wonderful feelings. Who knows if this girl will stick it out, if this time she's found someone outside her head she actually gets to keep? She's willing to try, though.

She mentally pokes her UI, what time is it? Seven thirty? Not bad, she actually slept well for once in her life. Huh... she eyes the girl in her arms.

<Yes, I do think she has something to do with that,> Maya remarks.

Yeah, she probably does. Well, Sable stretches a bit. "They'll have a basic breakfast downstairs, just bread and jam, for another hour and change, I think. So we're not in a rush."

She kisses Hyacinth's cheek.

"Mmmmmm... I want pancakes." 

She considers for a moment. 

She could log off. Go get pancake mix at the store. Make pancakes. Eat them. 

Nah, fuck that.

Adorable.

"Well, I don't know if anywhere in town serves pancakes, but I bet someplace in a bigger city does. The capital if nothing else."

Now she wants to make her pancakes. Pity they don't have a house.

Did she just think that?

<Yep. Pretty sure you're falling for her,> Hailey teases.

Huh. Yeah.