A Delicacy from Siracusa
"Disappointing"
"Well, sort of?" Lappland casually replied to the nothing around her.
An exceptionally brief exchange, that one. And then no more words were said for a while. The lupo simply kept walking, nothing but the echoing sound of her shoes on the cold steel floor to fill the air. Somewhat unusual, in truth, but if there was one non-secluded area of the landship one could semiregularly find peace and tranquility at, that would be one of the living quarters during the morning and afternoon shift hours. Most people were out working, and even those who weren't were still rather unlikely to be holed up in their rooms in the middle of the day. Not to mention that the dormitories had some of the best soundproofing one could find on the landship. Combined with the fact that they were, at least for the most part, rather far from the engines, the weak but almost everpresent noise of the rumbling behemoth as it made its way through the wastelands was also absent. Somewhat amusingly, the night hours could be a fair bit louder if there happened to be a party happening somewhere.
"What is disappointing, though?" Lappland eventually asked, turning around and walking backwards to stare at the thin layer of black mist following her, so faint it was that one could easily miss it despite its colour if not already aware of its presence "I didn't show you the canteen and you don't care about food either way"
"All that I have seen so far" the ethereal wolf replied, his tone lying somewhere inbetween annoyance and boredom, with a notable tint of distaste "For something to drag you back away from Siracusa, I was expecting something far less mundane"
"Ah, makes sense" she said back, apparently not caring at all as she turned around again.
Admittedly, Lappland herself wasn't finding her own return to be terribly thrilling for the time being. Mostly due to that overly bothersome medical examination they oh so wanted to put her through. She ended up spending nearly three hours and a half over at medical, her little new scar on the chest and back getting that tiny pipsqueak of a vulpo doctor way too agitated for her own good. But whatever, making a scene or sneaking out of that one would've only made things even more bothersome later -at least so long as she didn't change her mind about staying on the landship for a while- and so she simply bore through it.
How boring.
But whatever. That was all past her, and now she was heading to one of her six or so most favorite little corners of Rhodes Island. Her quarter, to be more accurate, since she had confirmed already that the room was still assigned to her. Surprising, given the way she had just up and left without a warning and how long it'd taken for her to come back equally without warning, unless one wanted to consider that one letter she had sent Shamare, plus the one for Suzuran hidden within said letter. She was pretty sure there was a telling-off of some kind planned for her for the way she had come and gone, in truth. Anyway, her room still being hers was rather amusing, and most of all handy. And so she walked on, strolled almost, a couple of plastic bags in hand, shelving the thought of spinning one of her swords around for fun as that'd be more trouble than it'd be worth dealing with if someone were to see her.
... or would it?
Be it good or bad luck, however, her feet took her to her destination before she could find an answer to that question. She did stumble upon a few people along the way, admittedly, but nothing worth mentioning happened.
"There's no place like your own kitchen, uh" she mused out loud as she grabbed her key "... kind of" she felt like adding as she unlocked the door and opened it.
Something was wrong.
"Had I spent less time with you" Zaaro commented from right behind her "I would almost marvel at your tastes"
"Implying something?" she asked back, her voice equally amused, annoyed and uncaring.
"That these are not yours" was his reply, the thin black haze marking his presence making its way into the lupo's room.
"Not even asking before entering?" she chuckled rather than said, neither expecting nor receiving an answer as she walked in herself, bothering to close the door behind her "This is still a lady's room you know"
So.
Someone had clearly made use of her room. The kitchen she had gone through all that terrible work and paperwork and footwork and whatnot to have installed in her little personal quarter was still there, and someone had even kept it... well, calling it clean was not something Lappland was willing to do given its state, but it was clear someone had at least dusted it recently. The bed was still where she had left it, tilted against the wall at roughly fortyfive degrees because sleeping in a vertical bed wasn't her thing but leaving it flat on the floor would've taken too much space away from the kitchen. The gain was rather small from keeping it in that position, in truth, but it was still something. As for everything else, well, there wasn't really much. Just a wardrobe, a nightstand, and nothing else. There used to be a table but she had done away with that to make more room for the kitchen counter. Nothing else.
Or that was how it should've been, at least.
There were quite a few statues placed here and there. The smaller ones, a little more than a fist in size on average, seemed to have been carved out of marble. A few larger ones, around as big as a backpack, appeared to have been sculpted out from a much more mundane stone, thouch which one exactly Lappland could neither tell nor care. Then there were two large ones made of something the lupo also couldn't name but which did appear to be a bit more high quality, one as tall as Lappland and one almost once and a half her height. That one in particular gave off the impression of being one big hassle to fit through the door. The subjects were somewhat variegated: some people, some bizzarre fishes that might or might not have been real, a few abstract stuff. A few of those people she even recognized. Sort of.
And then there was that one, left in plain sight on the kitchen for anyone who walked in to see. A most odd scene, that statue depicted, so much so it even managed to catch Zaaro's interest for a a few sparse seconds. A square base, and far in one corner was a steak which, by the look of it, had just walked out a door with no walls around it and was heading away. The fact itself that one could get the impression a steak with no anthropomorphic features at all was walking away was quite impressive, in truth. In the middle of the composition was a pillow with two oddly large, fur-covered ears, slumped on itself, with a weird teddy bear of sort patting what could somewhat reasonably be considered its back. The whole thing was around the same size of a small book and sculpted with exceptional attention to details, but the subject was so different from that of everything else present in that room it wouldn't be odd at all for someone to think there was someone else entirely behind that one.
Lappland, however, was sure it was all the work of the same sculptor, and that little statue had just told her exactly who it was too. It had also gotten her eyebrow to twitch a couple of times, in truth, a sight that made Zaaro let out an ever so faint, ever so brief noise the meaning of which Lappland could only guess, though she guessed it was a mockery of sort.
... fair enough, she thought, but that didn't stop her from displaying her annoyance on her face for him to see.
"Whatever" she spoke out, almost literally throwing her bags into the mini fridge and heading to the bathroom "I've got stuff to do. See ya later"
Not that long after, Lappland walked back out dressed only in a bathrobe, dripping enough water to leave a small puddle on the floor with every step as she started to properly clean the kitchen, then retrieve the content of her bags and make herself something to eat, either not caring or actually not noticing Zaaro's absence. Probably the former. Whatever, he'd come back either way at some point. Probably. After that she decided to take another shower for no real reason, actually dry herself up for a change before stepping out of the bathroom this time, quickly whip up a little something else to snack on, stuff it into a bag, get dressed and leave her room with said bag in hand, a precise destination in mind. Not too long after, she closed her hand on the handle of someone else's room, equally amused and bemused at having found it locked. But she did have a spare key for that anyway -as for how exactly she had come into possession of such spare, let's just say it was a matter better left undelved into- and so she made her way inside, without knocking.
Her little morsel wasn't around. Her eyes told her she wasn't in the main room, while her ears and nose told her she wasn't in the bathroom either. Truly disappointing, but at the same time not really surprising. It was early in the afternoon by then, it would've been more odd to find her there at such an hour if her memory was right.
Someone else was there, however. A woman Lappland was quite well acquainted with and a little girl she had seen once, perhaps twice before. No, no, just once. The lupo's ears twitched, the left one a single time, the right one twice, her neck bending a little. As the initial surprise quickly wore off, she pieced together bits of her memories she cared enough about to not forget but not enough to be able to recall without needing a few seconds of digging around in order to make sense of what she was seeing.
And then she chuckled.
"Tell me you ain't roleplaying for inspiration again" she joked as she let her bag down.
"Whatever could you possibly mean, oh little lost lamb?" Specter replied as she gracefully got off the stool she was sitting on "Has the depth of your tribulations clouded your mind?"
While remarkably more elaborate -more appropriate even, most would say- than the one she used to wear back before that seafaring expedition gone wrong or whatever that thing had been, the huntress was nonetheless donning a nun's outfit, though all the frills made it look more like a costume to Lappland.
"What are you two doing here?" she asked back, crossing her arms.
"Painting" Rosmontis answered from a little farther away.
"I appreciate your honesty" Lappland half-joked "But you see, kitten, when you answer someone it's good manners to provide some details"
In other words, Rosmontis' answer hadn't actually told her anything, for the simple reason that Lappland wasn't blind. The feline was standing in front of a small tripod holding up a canvas, and from her position the lupo could see a few paints and even a couple of brushes next to her. She had never figured her for an artist, but then again she had never really cared about that child enough to try and figure her out in the first place.
Well, Specter had taken somewhat of an interest in her herself so there had to be something amusing about her, but Lappland wasn't exactly interested either way at the moment. Anyway, her words seemed to have gotten Rosmontis into a pensive state. She was probably thinking about what details she should've given exactly.
"Don't be mean to a pure, innocent soul, sinful one" Specter replied, hands joined together as she stepped towards the lupo.
Lappland's gaze fell on the feline for a few moments, her attention focusing on the little girl. On her eyes in particular, and then on something within them. Her instinct told her that she should've simply laughed at that statement. And so she did, a soft laugh she let out, because for some reason she had the feeling that little creature could level half a city block with rather minor effort.
Oh, now she was beginning to see why Specter liked her so much.
Maybe.
Ugh, whatever. She wasn't there for that, so she shifted her attention back to Specter, who in the meanwhile had gotten within arm's reach of her.
"We are guests here, so allow us to take our leave soon" she said, and Lappland truly wondered whether the chill she felt running down her spine came from her previous experiences with the huntress -very much pleasant experiences, if she had to say so herself- of from her little unsettling nun act "But before that, there is something you should have"
Lappland bent her head to the other side a little bit, her tail waving once or twice.
"... ah"
The faint noise made by the feline made her turn her attention to her, the little girl looking around herself a short while before grabbing something and walking somewhat slowly towards them, handing said thing to Lappland.
"... my terminal" she said as she took the phone -because when it came down to it, all standard-issue Rhodes Island terminals were pretty much just phones linked to the landship's internal web, with a few exceptions admittedly-, both ears and tails having dropped a little bit "This is kinda disappointing, meatgrinder"
Thinking about it, why did those two even have it in the first place? Not that she minded, but -oh. Oh, right, she was supposed to do some paperwork to get it back after that long of a leave, right? Or maybe just fetch it from storage? She had never really checked, so she couldn't be sure. Either way, that did spare her some hassle.
"My, my, such a crude name is unbefitting of a servant of the lord, is it not? Although it is quite fitting at the same time"
"Give me a break"
Specter's lips curled up into a wide smile, her unnaturally sharp teeth in full display.
"Prayers can take many forms, oh little lamb. If that is truly how you wish to offer yours I shall oblige"
There had been a certain... incident, shall we say, involving both Lappland and Specter once, one that saw the lupo walking out of it with several fractured bones among other things. The wounds from back then had all since long healed, and yet she felt them flare up for half a moment at that sight.
Oh, how she had missed her.
"Thrilling, meatgrinder, but I'm here for my morsel"
Specter didn't reply, simply widening her smile a little bit instead before turning around to face Rosmontis.
"Prepare your belongings, for we should soon separate from this abode"
The feline blinked. She still wasn't sure why Specter occasionally acted that way, and she talked in a somewhat complicated manner too when she did. But she figured that was simply some kind of game, adults played too after all, and so she had never really questioned her about it. Or maybe she had simply forgotten the answer? Having decided to check her own terminal for that later, Rosmontis nodded and started packing her stuff. Just a few brushes and some little glass jars for the paints, really. A small pouch was enough to fit it all inside. As for the canvas, she carefully covered it with a cloth and rested it against a wall while she closed the tripod.
"See you around then"
Rosmontis, who handed the tripod to Specter before grabbing the canvas herself, simply nodded in response, her inquisitive gaze silently fixed on the lupo.
"Cut your impure thoughts from your mind, sinful lamb" Specter told Lappland as she opened the door for the little feline "Cutting is such fun, after all"
"There'd be nothing left of me if I did that" the lupo said back with a chuckle.
In response, the huntress ran her index over her own lips, baring her teeth a little as she smiled.
"Aren't you just the most lovely kind of lamb a believer could hope to encounter" she said, perhaps breaking character a little bit.
"You can encounter me again later, you know"
"I shall hold you to these words, oh bemusing sinner. Now, young one" she added as she turned towards Rosmontis, who on her part had listened to the entire exchange without quite understanding it completely "Let us be on our way"
And so Lappland found herself alone in Suzuran's room, at last. And the first thing she did was check the bathroom, under the bed and inside the wardrobe to make sure the vulpo really wasn't around. Unfortunately, that turned out to be exactly the case. So, what to do then, what to do. A part of her wanted to open every drawer she could find inside that room just to see if little morsel had gotten herself anything amusing during her absence, but she quickly left that thought to bleed out and die in some badly illuminated and rarely frequented secondary road somewhere inside her mind. No, it was an alluring idea, but it'd been a few months since she had last seen morsel. Or sniffed her. Or touched her. Or tasted her. Or had her be the one doing the tasting, which was how it usually went down to be honest. So she kind of wanted to get to her right away. To that end, admittedly, Specter and that kitty of hers having gone through the trouble of giving Lappland her terminal was quite helpful.
But then again, just giving her a call sounded boring. And it would also ruin the surprise. No, hunting her down through the landship sounded much more amusing. And so she grabbed her bag and resumed stalking the hallways, humming or maybe chuckling a tune as she did.
Maybe she even remembered to lock the door on her way out, who knows.
If one were to pay too much heed to the rumors going around the hallways, Shamare's room would probably appear disappointing. There were no dolls nailed to the walls, no bones of little animals dotting the place, no wind chimes hanging from the ceiling, no weird circles drawn on the floor. What was there, other than the bed and wardrobe present in pretty much every single dormitory, were two rather large, sturdy-looking chests tucked against the bed next to each other, with one looking a lot older than the other. A table whose legs had been sawn short so that people would have to sit on the floor to use it, surrounded by a grand total of eight pillows to use as chairs of sort. A drawer around as short as a durin. A wide but not tall at all library, though there were more boxes than books placed on it. Candles of several different kinds lying all around, some lit, most not. A few scrolls rolled up and ordered neatly enough in a corner of the room. And, right in the middle of the table, a fruit bowl filled with apples, a knife stuck into one of them, a few notebooks, a couple of pens and two or three other things around it. As for the ceiling, it looked like someone had crudely painted it all with a dark shade of blue and then dotted it with little, irregular white stains.
No dolls in sight, no. Not even Morte actually, as it was busy keeping an eye on a certain someone. And Shamare didn't have a whole lot of dolls other than it, in truth. In fact, the overwhelming majority of those she sewed she destroyed herself after a few days, for reasons nobody had ever inquired about, albeith said reasons were exceptionally large in number and heterogeneous in nature. As for the bones, they were all stored out of sight. The bells and chimes too, and everything else as well. And ritual circles were not toys, leaving them on the floor without intending to use them right away would've been nothing short of reckless. Not to mention that one could end up tripping on some of their components if she left them out in the open. As for the collection of needles and threads and buttons and scissors and knifes, as well as the stuffing for her dolls, those were all safe too.
As for Shamare herself, she had just finished checking on the content of the newer chest and was currently sitting on a pillow, apple in one hand, knife in the other. She peeled the fruit with practiced motions, placed it on the table, grabbed another and began carving a weird pattern on it, occasionally casting a quick glance at the bathroom. It hadn't been long at all, but she did worry a little bit nonetheless. Once done with the second apple, she took the skin of the first one and began to stab it a few times, drawing a different pattern on its surface. Before she could finish, however, someone knocked at her door. She turned around, her ears twitching separately as the knock echoed again.
With a complete lack of emotions of any kind on her face, perhaps slightly less so in her heart, Shamare got up and went to open.
"Hey there. Got my package?" Lappland inquired, since she didn't actually know if the box she had sent from Siracusa had actually made it to Rhodes Island.
"Yes. The fur has a very potent negativity to it. It's a fine ingredient. As compensation, I gave Lisa your letter"
For a split second, Lappland wondered how Zaaro would feel about hearing that his fur has a "very potent negativity", whatever that could mean. Or about a child using it to stuff dolls. But eh, whatever.
"You don't say" the lupo replied, patting the little vulpo on the head, fully aware of the kind of dangerous game she was playing "Say, is morsel here? I'm pretty sure she is"
"She is. But I won't let you in"
"Oh, and why is that?" she asked, ruffling Shamare's hair a little bit.
"We are studying together right now. Come back later, or wait in her room. Or in yours"
"Listen here, Shamare. You had morsel all to yourself these past months. I didn't. So pretend to be a good child for a couple of seconds and step aside, yeah?"
"We are studying together"
Lappland's gaze briefly moved past the little vulpo, doing a quick scan of her room. Somewhat of an habit of hers, in truth, but she did notice something interesting on the table. Bringing her focus back on Shamare, she ruffled her hair with a bit more vigor, pulling her hand back the moment she perceived a first hint of proper animosity from the girl, a faint glow in her eyes dying down without having even bloomed properly in the first place.
Lappland wasn't really scared of Shamare. If someone were to ask her she'd say that was the first sign of her survival instinct going down the drain, admittedly, but that was a different matter. Still, she knew both how Shamare thought -kind of-, how she reasoned -broadly-, and what she was capable of -loosely-. Not exactly accurate knowledege, admittedly. Still far deeper than that of nearly everyone else on the landship though, and also good enough to let her recognize when to ruffle her hair and when not to.
Oh, the terrible things that little girl could do if she managed to make it to adulthood. The kind of things people would turn into scary fairy tales for children, because remembering them as history would've been too painful but forgetting about them would make it easier for something similar to happen again. Lappland couldn't help but chuckle at the thought.
Oh, but her best friend was morsel, right.
Scratch that, she'd come up fine enough. Probably.
"Fine" she conceded "I'll let you have her for now"
"... "
With all of that said, Shamare knew how Lappland's mind worked too. At least when Suzuran was involved, that is. And so she could only think that the lupo had something in mind, otherwise she wouldn't have turned around so quickly and meekly.
Now, Shamare did wonder if she couldn't have let her in. It was true that she and Suzuran hadn't seen each other in a long time, after all. But it was also true that -no. No, she had no need to justify herself.
But that ever so faint bitterness in the far corner of her mind truly annoyed her. On the bright side, Shamare was an expert when it came to ignoring unpleasant feelings, as unfortunate as the circumstances which had led her to develop that skill had been. And so she did just that as she closed the door.
Then the sound of another one opening reached her, and she turned around to walk up to Suzuran as she came out of the bathroom, the two meeting next to the table. Shamare raised her hands a little, a silent question in her eyes, ears bent a little low and tail still.
"I'm fine now" Suzuran replied, holding her belly a little bit "Really. I didn't want to make you worry, sorry"
"I told you not to eat those shrooms" she said back.
Being familiar enough with her, Suzuran could tell that Shamare wasn't annoyed, despite what her lack of expression and neutral tone might suggest.
"But Lunacub had gone through the effort of cooking them for us, it would've been rude to leave them on the plate. Besides, she ate them too"
"She has the same kind of stomach as Ceobe. She could eat a poisonous frog and survive so long as the toxin isn't too strong. And she can't cook either way"
"Those two really are amazing, aren't they?" Suzuran said back with awe.
Shamare opened her mouth to speak, but figured that she didn't actually mind Suzuran misunderstanding her words that much if it meant seeing her sparkle a little bit and remained silent instead. And so the two sat back down at the table and resumed studying. Shamare wasn't exactly interested in school, in truth, and most subjects bored her. Fortunately enough, she could get by with little effort and not much time spent on the books, which meant she was in no real danger of failing any test, with maybe the occasional exception every now and then. Now, the two or three teachers on the landship who felt like they could talk freely enough to her without fearing for their life did think it was a bit of a shame that she didn't apply at all, but at the same time they figured it was better to let someone with her background get a chance to actually enjoy her youth while it lasted, rather than ending up making her hate school altogether by forcing her to study.
All that to say that, to Shamare, studying together was little more than an excuse to spend some time with Suzuran. There was usually someone else too when they got together to study admittedly, Popukar most of the time, but Shamare didn't mind her all that much. Bubble was... more unpleasant to have around, but nothing she couldn't bear with either.
Which is why her ears twitched with an unusually expressive amount of annoyance upon hearing Suzuran's terminal ring. Doubly so as she was sure she knew already who was on the other end of the line.
"Oh, just a moment" Suzuran apologized as she grabbed the little device of remote communication, which she had left lying on the table earlier.
It hardly ever rang, in truth, so she was rather curious about who could've contacted her through that. That wasn't a phone call she had just received though, just a message. And not from someone in her contact lists either, though admittedly said list was made up only of Shamare, Popukar and Folinic. She just didn't use that thing all that much, not to stay in touch with others at least as that something she'd rather do in person. Anyway, she opened the message, and the way she jumped to her feet, redness quickly taking over her cheeks as the fur of her ears and tail stood up, told Shamare her suspicion was right.
"Who is it?" she inquired as she stood up as well.
A pointless question if she had ever asked one, that was. So much so she wondered why she had even bothered voicing it in the first place.
"It's La- miss Lappland!" she nearly shouted, startled by the fact that the lupo was actually using her terminal at all. Among other things.
"... "
Seeing how captivated by the screen Suzuran was, Shamare decided to just walk around her to take a look at the message herself. It was a... how were those things called again? A self pic? Whatever, she didn't care about the name. Fact was, Lappland had taken a photo of herself and sent it to Suzuran. The lupo's eyes were left ouf of the frame, only her smile caught on the camera, and the angle the picture had been taken at also left her legs out. Not even her stomach appeared on frame. The focus was clearly further up, her large coat unbuttoned just enough to bare the skin of her shoulder, punctured in four close spots with something -her own blades, most likely-, the wounds just deep enough to let out a bit of blood.
"Th-this can only send and receive inside the landship and in its immediate surroundings! When did miss Lappland come back?!" Suzuran asked, a thin string of saliva nearly making its way out of her mouth as the provocative photo reminded her of just how... addictive the lupo's flesh and blood were -to her, at least-, her nose suddenly itching for that most alluring aroma.
"Lisa. We are studying"
"... ah! You're right, Shamare, I'm sorry!" she apologized, tails waving as if to visually display the franticness of her thoughts "But I -it's been so long sice I last saw her, I think I should... "
"You can send her a reply"
"Eh? I suppose I can, but wouldn't it be better if I go and look for her instead? No, actually, I could just ask her where she is... is... is that my room?"
"What now, morsel, what now?" Lappland chuckled as she sat on Suzuran's bed, munching on a tramezzino and wondering if she shouldn't have brought some coffee along.
Suzuran had the stuff to make tea in her room, but Lappland wasn't too fond of that. Too bad, not really all that sad though. She could just picture her fluffy tails waving all around at the sight of her bare and bleeding shoulder. Assuming she hadn't gone through any growth spur, Lappland was pretty sure she had pierced the skin just right to make it look like Suzuran had sank her canines into her, and that would surely thrill her. She was expecting her to rush out to come look for her, and maybe send her a text asking her where she was too. Precisely because of that, however, she was caught off guard by her terminal ringing. Partially because she couldn't recall having ever heard it ring before in the first place, admittedly.
"An image?"
Well, now that was surprising.
"... ah!"
And there it was, a close-up picture of Suzuran's open jaw, her tiny teeth's modest sharpness in full display, a glorious sight that made Lappland's smile grow wide and devious. Oh, how she missed the feeling of those small fangs sinking into her flesh.
"This was Shamare's idea though"
Because she really, really couldn't picture her morsel coming up with that on her own. Was that just an excuse to still keep Suzuran to herself for the afternoon? Nice one, little curse maker, nice one. A bit annoying, but also amusing enough to make up for that. Sorta.
Still, if that really meant Suzuran wasn't coming out of that room then Lappland had to do something. And she just knew what, too. She got off the bed and started searching for the first aid kit she knew for a fact Suzuran kept in her room, found it soon enough, made sure it had everything she needed inside, grabbed one of the saucers from her tea set and then pulled her coat a bit further down. Then she actually took it off completely, because she kind of liked that one and bloodstains could be an hassle to clean sometimes.
... did it get dirty already when she took the first picture though? Eh, even if it did those'd be pretty small stains anyway.
Bringing her attention back to the task at hand, she pulled a small spare knife from her boot and pointed it at her shoulder, between the little incisions she had made earlier. Sinking the blade into the flesh, she began to cut out a small bit of herself, smaller than the phalanx of her little finger, as she knew anything more than that would make morsel freak out over the need to treat the wound. She pulled the little sample of meat off, the wound so small she almost had to actively remind herself that it was still, in fact, a wound, and placed it on the saucer, with the skin lying against its cold surface. Then she scooped up some blood from the neatly carved hole in her shoulder and made a few drops fall around it, much like a chef would decorate a dish with sauce, lifted it up and snapped a picture of her own face with the tiny treat in front, forwarding it to Suzuran.
Chuckling at the mental image of Suzuran's sweet, sickly amusing, loving reaction, she started to treat the wound, if just to have another picture to send her to make sure she wouldn't rush to her simply to patch her up. That'd be amusing, but also slightly disappointing. And so she sent said other picture soon after. Much to her delight, her terminal rang a few minutes later, curiosity and expectations building up within her.
Only to turn into something not entirely pleasant as she saw the photo those two had just sent her.
Starting from the good parts, well, Suzuran was in the frame. Kind of a given, admittedly, but Shamare was with her and sometimes that little half hollow shell of a person could do the weirdest things for reasons beyond Lappland's comprehension. She had also been the one to take the photo apparently, since while Suzuran's hands were left out of the picture her arms were clearly not in a position to hold the portable terminal to achieve that angle. As for Suzuran herself, her tails were lying a bit low as most of them were out of the frame, and she had one ear bent a little while the other was standing straight up. But the most delicious and bitter part of it all was her face. She was smiling, though there was a little bit of nervousness in it. Her pupils were a little thinner than usual, a faint redness to her cheeks.
And there were two little trails of blood coming down her chin, right out from her closed lips.
Lappland's tail stood up, much like her ears and every single strand of hair of her fur, her pupils turning into thin slits at the sight.
Because that wasn't her blood in little morsel's mouth.
"Fine then. Have it your way"
"A-are you sure this is alright?" Suzuran asked as she tried to decide between wiping the blood off her chin or simply scoop it up and drink it, ultimately resolving to do the former with a little bit of regret.
"She is tantalizing you" Shamare calmly replied as she finished putting her clothes back on, the brief but sharp pain in her arm already fading "You are merely doing the same. This is what people mean when they say to act fairly"
Suzuran had only bitten her hard enough to draw a little blood, just the amount they needed for the photo, and she had also already closed the tiny holes in her skin. She had neither her staff nor her portable Arts unit with her, admittedly, but for simple enough matters such as restoring cuts of such minimal size the Originium stuffing Shamare had in her room could suffice for a wand. Though using Arts to cure that little wound was somewhat of an overreaction in the first place.
"I... " Suzuran began to say, only to fall silent instead as she fidgeted with her own fingers, her gaze lying somewhere between Shamare's knees and the floor.
Shamare bent her head to the side a little. She wanted to keep going, admittedly, but she had told Suzuran they'd just send Lappland the photo and then resume studying. Though by the looks of it Suzuran herself was thinking about biting her again.
She still wouldn't say she understood that side of Suzuran, in truth, but it was nonetheless a part of her Shamare greatly... enjoyed, shall we say. One she liked to bask into. It put her mind at ease, laying some old thoughts and unpleasant memories to rest, however briefly.
"... does it hurt?" Suzuran eventually decided to ask, daring to look up, some conflicting emotions arising in her mind upon not being able to see the patch of skin she had sank her teeth into just a few minutes ago.
"It's fine"
And then, after a brief silence which felt nowhere near as awkward as it appeared to be from the outside, the two sat back down and resumed studying. Though neither one really committed much to memory, albeith for different reasons.
Suzuran jolted again when her terminal rang once more, not quite jumping to her feet but rather bumping her knees against the underside of the table.
"Calm down"
"You're right, sorry"
It'd been almost an hour since they had sent that last photo, Suzuran noticed. Much less than she'd have thought, in truth, time seemed to have slowed down a lot apparently, but that realization also made her worry. What if she had made Lappland angry? She already felt like she had to apologize to her either way for the way she had answered her first message -even though the one to talk her into that had been Shamare- but now she wondered if she shouldn't have bought her some kind of gift to apologize.
No, actually, considering how long she'd been away Suzuran figured she should've prepared some kind of welcome-back present either way. Her ears dropping a little at that thought, she opened the message. And her ears shot back up, together with most of her tails. Shamare, who had moved closer to take a look at the screen herself, said nothing, and probably also felt nothing at the sight, but the same really couldn't be said for Suzuran.
It was a picture of Specter, who apparently was going through another play-pretend phase as Shamare sometimes referred to them, at least judging by the clothes she was wearing. Naming conventions aside, she was sitting at the table in Suzuran's room, wiping her mouth with a napkin. And there in front of her was the soucer, still decorated -stained?- red but empty.
"... that was mine... "
"Would you be fine with that in your fridge?" Shamare asked right away, nearly placing an hand on Suzuran's shoulder but backing away at the last moment.
"That... you're right, that would be pretty bad... "
"Then this should be fine. Unless you wanted to go and eat the piece right away"
Suzuran's ears twitched.
"No! A-ahem, I mean" she immediatly adjusted her tone, Shamare having recoiled ever so slighty from her near-scream "It's just... how do I say this... it feels... a bit bad, I think?"
"She is still trying to tantalize you. You should do the same" she answered, almost casually baring her arm once again "You told me you wanted to be more assertive with Lappland. This is practice"
"A-awawawa... "
The ever so faint taste of Shamare's blood still lingering weakly on Suzuran's tongue suddenly flared up, an itch spreading within her nostrils as the sight and offer tempted her to indulge in a more generous serving compared to the earlier sampling.
"But Shamare, this is... "
"We have gone over this already" Shamare interrupted her, one of her ears bending down "I will be fine"
"But your room doesn't have a first aid kit"
She didn't answer, simply tilting her head a little instead, an hint of a question appearing on her normally cold, expressionless face. Then she bent her neck a bit further still, a gesture Suzuran could only see as an invitation.
It'd been a long time since she had last bitten Lappland, since she had last tasted her, felt her raw, heated pulse. Had it not been for Shamare, Suzuran would've gone without that most peculiar thrill of the senses for entire months on end. Admittedly, had it not been for Shamare Suzuran wouldn't even have realized just how much she actually missed sinking her teeth into Lappland to begin with, as much as the act troubled her despite everything, but that was a somewhat different matter.
"... maybe I should... "
"... "
"... just... just a little. To take a photo"
Again, Shamare didn't answer verbally, simply grabbing Suzuran's terminal instead. With that settled, she stepped forward, mouth open and nearly drooling from sheer anticipation.
"What a wicked soul you have" Specter said, sitting with a composure that almost seemed eerie "To have me partake in such a sinful act such as this one"
"You know" Lappland replied "You're kinda creepy when you do this. I mean, it's like, sort of funny I guess, but still"
"Only those who have strayed from the path of the lord feel unease from the actions of his faithful" she answered, hands joined and eyes closed as if praying, or pretending to at least "Shall we sing an hymn together, before cutting those stained thoughts off from your still unsaved mind?"
"For being a nun, you sure speak of committing some seriously tempting sins"
Her eyes still closed, the huntress' lips curled up into a smile.
"To grant joy and salvation onto others is such fun, after all. To severe and dismember their fictitious integrity, stripping them to their most basest of parts in both body and mind, is equally a duty and a reward"
"I almost envy that captain of yours when you act like this" Lappland chuckled, earning a lovingly eerie laugh in response.
"This is no way to treat a guest, however" Specter said back, eyes half-closed as she moved the saucer towards the lupo.
"... ah!"
Then her phone rang again. Specter, who was about to lean forward, stood still instead as Lappland took a look at whatever message she had just received. The huntress' lips curled up as something cold, sharp and almost ominous appeared on Lappland's face, a mixture of feelings mostly but not entirely negative decorating her expression, her ears bent down and to the sides, her tail still.
"... ohy, meatgrinder" she called out as she took off her own coat, throwing it wheverer it happened to land "Come here and get a second serving"
"To help those who have strayed from the path is my duty" she replied with joined hands, getting one of Lappland's eyebrows to twitch "However, there is a method to this. Rushing ahead is indicative of a good spirit, but... "
"Listen here, you freaky roleplayer" the lupo interrupted her, just barely keeping herself from slamming her fist into the table for fear it might break, and getting Suzuran a new one would be an hassle "My morsel -my. Morsel- is sinking her sweet little teeth into someone else right this moment. Now, as much as I'd love to barge in and give her some much needed correction, I really can't go and lose face in front of that depressed friend of hers like this. So get over her and bite me"
Specter kept smiling, but something about that smile definitively changed.
"And" Lappland added the moment she saw her get up "I still need my arm to be functional after this"
"I hear there are many excellent doctors aboard this land-dwelling vessel"
"Ain't that true"
Some kind of chuckle could be heard then, before Specter moved to grab Lappland, putting just enough strength into her grasp to remind her that she could snap her in three with little effort.
She had kind of missed that too, honestly.
That aside, Specter leaned in, warm fingers on warmer flesh, swiftly and rather carelessly removing the bandages Lappland had bothered to put on the wound on her shoulder to place her teeth around it, their sharp tips sinking in almost like anchors into the waters, crimson quickly spilling forth and wetting her dry lips.
Specter wasn't particularly fond of the act itself of biting, in truth. Not to say that she had a distaste for it either, but her interest resided more in the circumstances and situations that could lead to the bite, as well as the reactions that it caused. A pointless distinction, perhaps, as to intimately bite someone was still an activity she quite enjoyed, but the situation at hand made her think of the current ordeal as amusing rather than thrilling, exciting or even arousing, the feelings she usually associated to the act.
Lappland's audible annoyance, funny as it was in its lack of laughs even as the huntress munched a little bit on her shoulder, annoyed her to a degree, but not one she couldn't easily ignore. In fact, while she couldn't quite see it properly given her current position and activity, listening to the lupo trying to get a good angle to snap a photo from was rather entertaining in its own way. Being careful to not severe something that would require proper medical aid from a professional to fix -oh, how annoyingly frail Lappland was, for someone so amusing- the huntress sank her teeth a little bit further down, wondering if perhaps a little abstractization of what she was doing at the moment couldn't make for a funny little sculpture to give to Skadi. Or maybe to swordfish.
"I kinda hate to say this" Lappland commented at some point, moving the fingers of her hand as she spoke just to make sure she could still actually do that "But this one had hurt a whole lot more" she said, tapping a large, relatively new scar visible on her chest.
Specter, on her part, took the liberty of sliding her mouth to the side and sinking her tongue into the bleeding circle her jaw-like teeth had just left on Lappland, the kindless touch making a new wave of plain flare up and spread through the lupo's entire body, her fur standing up a little bit.
"'lright, 'lright, this should do. Ouch" Lappland said as she pushed Specter back.
The huntress went along with that, taking the same napkin from before and whiping her lips and chin as clean as possible.
"Let's see what you think of this one then, morsel"
"Does it hurt? ... still?" Suzuran quickly corrected herself.
It's not quite that she felt bad about biting Shamare hard enough to draw blood. She had sort of gotten over that after the fourth or fifth time her friend had convinced her to go through with it, in fact. But that still didn't stop her from worrying whether she had gotten too carried away or not, and that worry was, somewhat ironically, what kept her from actually going too far.
"No" Shamare lied flatly for Suzuran's peace of mind.
There were now two bite marks on Shamare's shoulders, one left when they'd taken the photo to send to Lappland, the other made right after. Shamare was different from the lupo no matter what aspect one where to compare them in, be it taste, texture or scent, but that didn't make her any less... lucious. But since she was around the same age as Suzuran and with roughly the same physique as well, Suzuran knew she couldn't bite her as hard as she did Lappland. Which is why, rather than insisting on the same spot, she bit her in a different area when the urge to savor her more intensely arose. Shamare herself then pushed her away because, as much as she appreciated -relished, even- the closeness that the act both offered and demanded, she had told Suzuran that they would only be doing that for the sake of having a picture to send to Lappland that time around. And even before that, they were supposed to study that afternoon. Both things Shamare only marginally cared about, but she had said those were their plans, and so she would stand by her word.
As... unpleasant as it was.
"Let me give it another look, please"
"... sure"
Suzuran had accumulated quite a lot of experience healing bite marks by then, though whether that was any different from healing other kind of relatively small wounds was debatable to begin with, and she could make the entire injury disappear within a few minutes so long as she didn't sink her teeth down completely or chewed on the beating flesh. As the time needed to heal someone with Arts increased exponentially with the severity of the wound -so much so it was pointless to even use them in the first place for any injury truly worthy of concern unless one were exceptionally skilled with them, and even then their actual efficacy was still debatable-, there had been occasions with Lappland in which it took her several hours across different days to fully heal her. That was partially due to Suzuran's refusal to simply let the wound heal with time once she had patched it up well enough -as Lappland would say-, admittedly.
On a more educational note, this is how Suzuran had fully realized why healing Arts were used mostly to just stop bleedings and close minor to small wounds.
Just as she was making sure that Shamare's shoulder was in pristine conditions, however, her terminal rang again, a faint shiver causing her fur to prickle up. Much to her friend's unexpressed annoyance, she opened the chat to look at Lappland's reply, something unexpected and concerning showing up on her face.
"... Lisa?"
"I'm really sorry, Shamare" Suzuran replied as she rushed to the door, suddenly in an hurry "But I really have to see miss Lappland right now! I'll catch up with our study tomorrow, I promise!"
"Wai... " she began to say, but by then Suzuran had already bowed to apologize and dashed away, barely sparing a moment to close the door behind herself, headed for the place she had recognized from the photos Lappland had sent her.
"... t... "
Shamare wanted to go after her right away, in truth, even though she hated running. Had she done just that, she might even have caught up to her before she could make it back to her room. ... maybe. But a certain responsibility kept her from doing that, cold annoyance in full display through her ears and tail, a show of expressivity rarely seen from her. She nearly stomped her feet on the ground even, once enough time had passed to ensure she no longer had any hope of reaching Suzuran before she could make her way to Lappland. So she turned around, walked to one of the two large chests placed in front of her bed, the newer one to be more accurate, and opened it.
Inside of it was a mass of barely-moving purple tentacles covered in a thin layer of something slimy and apparently sticky, each one odorless and occasionally phasing through the chest a bit as if it wasn't physically there, though never enough to stick out and be seen from outside. Half-submerged there was Lunacub, immobilized by the surrounding mass of appendages, some of which were covering her eyes and making themselves... shall we say comfortable inside her mouth, others still sliding and bumping against her privates without ever actually giving her enough stimulation to receive anything other than evergrowing frustration from the predicament.
Morte was inside there too, a metal plier in its stuffed hands. Shamare had tasked it with keeping an eye on Lunacub while she was inside there and bang the plier on the chest the moment it suspected something was going wrong, but the doll also had the responsibility to pinch the lupo's skin every now and then for no real reason other than to keep itself entertained a bit. Well, that and the fact that Lunacub quite liked it too, yeah.
"This is your fault" Shamare said, her voice almost but not quite as unexpressive as usual as she took some of the ghostly tentacles off Lunacub's face "Do you know why I put you inside here?"
Her mouth free, Lunacub coughed and panted for air a bit. Those appendages couldn't actually prevent her from breathing even if they were to fill her very throat completely -"ghosts can only touch the living, and the air isn't alive" Shamare had once explained to someone, though whether those were truly ghosts or something entirely different, well, that was a question not answered yet- but that kind of reaction still came natural to the lupo.
"I'm... sorry" Lunacub replied, making sure to not speak too loudly and almost ending up whispering too softly instead "But I tried those shrooms myself and I was fine. It's not my fault Suzuran's stomach is so delicate" she added with a pout.
If one were to ask Shamare, she would say Lunacub was a simpleton, perhaps even an airhead, and so Shamare believed her when she said she didn't consider herself at fault. She saw that opinion as reasonable, but also as wrong.
"Are you thirsty?" the sweat dotting the lupo's skin reminded her to ask.
"... yeah"
Shamare walked away, Lunacub's ears twitching with her every footstep, and came back soon enough with a bottle of water. Then she helped the lupo drink it all.
"Hungry?"
"Of course I am"
"Dinner is still a few hours away"
"But I'm hungry now!"
"This is a punishment" she reminded her.
"But -ouch!"
Morte had pinched her with the plier, and Shamare took the chance to throw the tentacles back into her mouth to silence her and close the chest again.
For anyone wondering, that chest was equipped with a few hidden air inlets, and Morte regularly checked from inside to ensure they were all still unobstructed.
As for Lunacub herself, letting her out already was out of the question, but at the same time Shamare couldn't leave her room so long as she had her locked up inside there. That would've been irresponsible. Besides, the lupo actually loved that kind of treatment, the half-smile she had plastered on her face for the entirety of their conversation save for the moment she was denied a snack made that plenty clear, and somewhere deep inside herself Shamare had a taste for pleasing others in such unusual fashions.
Well, that was meant to be an actual punishment though so she had a few not entirely pleasant things planned for Lunacub either way, but those would come later. The problem was that she was stuck there while Lappland had lured Suzuran out. Which was... not quite a problem, she would say. Simply something she disliked.
Then she had an idea.
Suzuran running at full speed through the hallways of Rhodes Island was a sight more unique than rare but, perhaps precisely because of that, not many people stopped her to ask her what was wrong or if she needed help with something. As for those who did, she assured them everything was fine and told them she was just late for something as quickly as she could, still making sure to do so politely, and ran all the way back to her dormitory, almost slamming the door open and closing it behind herself right away.
"Morsel!" Lappland greeted almost casually, getting up from her chair as she did so.
"Miss Lappland, are you ok?!"
"... ah?"
With hurried steps, Suzuran walked up to the lupo and placed both hands on her belly. With her coat nowhere to be seen -probably lying somewhere on the floor-, the only thing covering her upper body was her tank top. Because of that, the last picture she had taken also included a glimpse of what the little vulpo was now worriedly staring at: a large scar going from her unbandaged shoulder down to the opposite hip, testimony of an injury which had most likely nearly killed her, at least if the mark was truly indicative of how bad it'd been.
"D-does it hurt? Do you need some medicine? Did you disinfect it properly? Was it an animal? Ah, it's on your back too!" she added as she walked around Lappland once "Is this a bite mark?! W-what kind of animal did this to you? Did you avoid physical activities while it healed? Are- awa?!"
"Morsel!" Lappland interrupted her with a chuckle as she grabbed her under the shoulders and lifted her off the floor, making her tails squirm around, a lovely flurry or fur that soothed the lupo's eyes "Morsel dear! You're worried about me? That's so sweet of you! But it's kinda a bummer too!" she laughed "I thought you had come here to taste me? It's been so long, after all!"
Light as she might've been, holding Suzuran up sparked a painful sting in Lappland's shoulder. Not an intense one by any of her standards, admittedly, not like said standards would make much sense for the average person. Specter, who was nowhere to be seen at the moment, had apparently left her in a somewhat worse state than she had thought. But eh, whatever. She could take it just fine.
"Of course I am worried!" she answered, something vaguely resembling anger in her voice "You're always so reckless, miss Lappland! You suddenly disappeared one day, only leaving me a small letter telling me you'd gone back to Siracusa, and then you didn't even contact me again for months! I-I didn't even know if you were still... still alright until you sent that letter two weeks ago!"
"... well, ain't this an unpleasant mess. I had things to do, morsel" she replied "I still have things to do, actually. But you know, I just missed this a whole lot" she said as she broadly gestured to the little vulpo in her entirety.
Suzuran's ears twitched as Lappland then pulled her in, burying her nose in her blonde hair, in the fur of her ears, hugging her tightly and taking in her scent, that odd and alluring scent that reminded her of a weird Siracusa that didn't match at all her memories, neither her old ones nor the most recent ones, an aroma that made her feel like the everfalling rain of her wretched homeland could somehow wash her clean.
It made no sense, Lappland thought. It never made sense, Suzuran's scent, but it was far too alluring, far too sweet for her to possibly care about such details.
"I'm fine, morsel" she eventually said as she pulled her back, just enough to look her in the eyes "A nasty fellow bit me hard, but I'm fine"
"A... nasty fellow?" she asked back, that particular choice of words sounding rather odd to her.
"Yeah, don't worry about him. He kinda follows me 'round now, weird thing. He should be somewhere aboard"
"Wha- miss Lappland! You can't let an animal this large roam freely on the landship! What if it bites someone?"
"Nah, he won't"
Probably she thought, but as much as she'd have liked to watch little Suzuran get even more worked up, she didn't want the focus to remain on that subject.
"But you know" she added as she moved her up and down in the air a few times "You're just as short as last time, but you feel kinda heavier"
Suzuran's ears dropped slightly.
"T-that's... my tails are growing... it's not much, but since I have a lot of them it's... and I think I've been eating a bit too much lately too... "
"That so. How about a little snack then?" she added as she put her down, getting on her knees as she did so to remain at roughly the same eye level.
"Miss Lappland, I just told you... "
The words died in her mouth as she watched Lappland remove the bandages from her shoulder, revealing the still fresh wound left by someone else's teeth on her pale skin.
"A bite to clog up your stomach a little bit before dinner?"
Suzuran blinked. The wound had yet to heal at all. The naked flesh was visible within the holes left by Specter's teeth, luring her in. With her attention brought to it so directly, the little vulpo suddenly found herself unable to ignore the smell of blood coming from it, the familiar, ferrous aroma leaving her jaw open, saliva beginning to make its way down her chin.
Her ears twitched.
The wound on Lappland's chest, that one she had simply felt worry about. But the sight of the one on her shoulder, its smell in her nostrils, they gave rise to some odd feeling in her chest, something unpleasant.
Specter had bitten Lappland.
Someone other than her had bitten Lappland.
The mark was there, in plain sight.
Possessed by something she couldn't quite name, Suzuran stepped forward, an impulse rather different from the usual one making her hold Lappland tight and sink her teeth into her warm flesh right away, the lupo chuckling at the searing pain that the vulpo had just sent through her, her little fangs messing up the wound left by the previous bite, opening it even further. Rather than stopping to lick up the blood or suck it up as she normally did, however, Suzuran kept biting, opening and closing her jaw on the wound over and over almost as if chewing, getting overwhelmed by that intoxicating texture, by that addicting scent, by that immoral taste.
"I thought you kept yourself busy with your friend, morsel" Lappland laughed as she felt her shoulder catch fire "But you seem starved!"
Then something got ripped off from her body, and a sound halfway between a grunt and a chuckle escaped her lips.
"Morsel!?" she cheered, feeling even her fingers sinking into her skin -as little as they could with Suzuran's strength, at least- as she ruffled her hair casually, running her other hand over her waving tails as she heard her chew and swallow.
The forbidden treat sent Suzuran's thoughts into a new direction, one that seemed logical in the heat of the moment.
She could heal superficial wounds in little to no time at all. She could heal small wounds quickly enough. But the hole she had just bit into Lappland would require quite some time to properly recover with just Arts. So...
... so, if she were to make it a little bit worse still... they didn't want anyone to find out about that, anyone other than those few who were already aware at least, which implied not going to the medical ward for treatment. So, if she were to really, like really injure her shoulder...
... would that mean Lappland would have to stay put until Suzuran fully healed her?
Or maybe that was just an excuse she came up with in her mind to justify herself as she sank her teeth into the warm flesh again, sucking up the hot blood that poured forth as she ran her tongue all over the exposed meat, digging her way a little deeper, until a spark of caution spurred her to bite to the side rather than forward, enlarging the wound without getting closer to the bone. Then she remembered that Specter's mouth was larger than hers, which got her to bite around to cover the marks of her teeth with new ones, tearing small bits of skin off, minching them in her mouth and swallowing them, and then some bits of warm flesh too.
She chewed, she chewed and ran her tongue over the small, precious piece of pure, unadultered taste in her mouth, satiating an old, primal instinct.
The smell of blood completely overpowering all other scents in her nose, Suzuran either pulled back or got pushed away a little, she couldn't quite tell. Her gaze was fixed on Lappland's shoulder, on the little crater she had just dug into it with her teeth, its size growing larger and larger in her mind as clarity slowly began to return to her. Torn skin, minched meat, visible ligaments, bare muscles, perhaps even a tiny dot of exposed bone if Suzuran's mind wasn't playing a trick of her, a possibility she didn't feel like dismissing right away. There was blood dripping down the lupo's arm, a bit down her chest, and Suzuran had gotten a good amount on herself as well, the floor beneath them having taken on a new color here and there from the drops.
"... ah!"
"That's something 'lright, morsel!" Lappland laughed enthusiastically, the searing pain in her shoulder feeling absolutely awful and remarkably blissful at the same time "That's something!"
For a brief moment, her eyes moved past Suzuran, to someone who had entered the room at some point during their little moment of intimacy. The vulpo had been far, far too caught up in the act to even notice, all her senses completely focused on Lappland, but the lupo was sitting facing the entrance, so she did spot the new arrival right away. But she said nothing about it.
"A... awawawa... I-I'll treat it right away! Oh dear, this will- I-I should call the- ?!"
Before she could scramble past Lappland to fetch her first aid kit, Suzuran was grabbed and pulled forward by the lupo, their lips crashing together. Tasting herself like that was quite the weird thing, the lupo nearly caught herself thinking as her tongue ran wild within Suzuran's mouth and lapped up her own blood. The taste was kinda whatever, the scent was nothing worth losing one's head over, and the texture was a bit annoying to the touch even, but licking it off Suzuran's little lips and watching her squirm and tremble as she did so was oh so amusing. Not to mention just how well she could take in her sweet aroma from so up close, the intoxicating scent filling her nose with every breath.
Then she moved one hand down, sliding it beneath Suzuran's skirt and between her legs, chuckling without breaking their kiss as she felt her utterly soaked underwear, only to push them aside and casually slide two fingers inside of her, her entire body trembling from the sudden penetration and jolt of pleasure as her inner walls contracted around the probing intruders as if to pull them even further in.
"Excited much, morsel?" she laughed, joked and marveled all at once as their lips parted, saliva and something else now stuck to Lappland's mouth too.
"I-this-I-I-mean-a-awawa... " Suzuran tried to answer, only for her thoughts to shortcircuit instead.
"My turn then, alrigh- "
"No!" the little vulpo shouted, Lappland's ears twitching at the unexpected shout "I- I'd love to... to do that with you, miss Lappland" she said, her face as red as it could physically get, her gaze focused on the lupo's teeth because she was too embarassed to actually look her in the eyes "But I must treat your shoulder first! Absolutely!"
"... aaawww" she replied, lovingly -if a little roughly- ruffling her hair and making sure to bump her hand against her ears several times, relishing the way they twitched in response to that "You're as sweet as ever, morsel! Still sick in the head too. Sure, have it your way" she conceded as she sat down on the floor and casted a quick glance at her own shoulder.
Just cleaning this mess will take a while. Gotta do something about all the blood stains too. Is Aak aboard? He should have somethin' to help out. Scratch that, too risky. Aahh, guess we ain't doing much else today, uh. Lame. Right, those things I got for morsel -ah, whatever. Another time.
Suzuran, on her part, leaned forward towards the wound again to take a better, more analitical look at it, pinching her own nose to keep her impulses under control at least to a degree. Incidentally, shutting her nose was also what kept her from catching the presence of someone else despite having regained her self control. Then she turned around to fetch the first aid kit and the portable Arts unit she kept around specifically for such occasions. And that's when she saw her.
Shamare was standing at the entrance of her room, completely unexpressive -as usual- with her neck bent a little to the side.
There was also a black goat next to her for some reason, one of those Suzuran knew for a fact to be Eyjafjalla's pets. Or... something along those lines? And the goat had an arness around its body to pull a chest placed on a -was that a skateboard? A large chest on a skateboard. And Suzuran even recognized the chest, it was one of those Shamare kept in her room.
... did... did she stick Lunacub inside there again, by chance? Suzuran wanted to check whether that was really the case, but she knew Shamare was really good at handling those situations. That and Lappland's shoulder had to take priority over that.
... and Lunacub was kinda into it too, as far as Suzuran was aware.
Lunacub was weird.
"Ah... hello, Shamare... I'm sorry for having left so suddenly but miss Lappland had a bad scar on her chest and I worried that... "
Shamare's left ear twitched exactly once, which made Suzuran stop. The reason for that response, however, had been Lappland's triumphant smile, not Suzuran's words, much less her actions. To make sure she wouldn't misunderstand, Shamare scratched her head as casually as possible, to make her think that had just been an itch and nothing more.
"I know" she said "I just wanted to check on you. Lappland needs treatment. I will leave you to that"
"I promise I'll make up for today!"
"I know" was all she said as she turned around and left, followed by the black goat.
And as she walked back to her room, she thought about how she still had to properly give Lunacub her punishment for those mushrooms. All she had done so far was leaving her to simmer for the afternoon.
Maybe she'd be a little bit harsher than usual that day.
Lunacub liked it rough anyway.
Lunacub was handy to have around.
Thank you for reading.
