Curiosity Killed the Cat('s Innocence)

Shamare wasn't really feeling much of anything at the moment, and only partially because she was concentrating on the task at hand. Having one person observe her as she worked was something she had sort of gotten used to, especially because said person couldn't actually see her all that well anyway, but having two doing that provided her with a very slight but still noticeable discomfort. But since she couldn't truly explain to herself why that was, she simply ignored the feeling and kept writing with chalk on the walls, following a line in her mind which ran a complete circle around the room as if it was some kind of baseboard, even going up around the door and following the furniture's outline so as to remain a single, uninterrupted string of words and symbols. As for chalk being her choice to write all that, that was because it was easy to rub off afterwards. At the same time, however, it could come off on its own at the wrong time if someone or something accidentally rubbed themselves against it, so she was also covering her work with a layer of see-through duct tape as she wrote. Dragging it on the metallic walls also produced an unpleasant sound, to be honest, but she figured she could do nothing but bear with it. All things considered, she didn't find that to be a tedious task, despite what one might guess from her lack of expressivity, but it did take quite some time to complete. Especially because Morte was bad at handling both chalk and tape, so she had to do all of it by herself. She'd have probably hummed a tune as she worked, had they not had a guest over that day.

Eyjafjalla, on the other hand, was feeling the usual mixture of excitement, nervousness, anxiety and marvel. She had arrived nearly forthy minutes earlier than the time they had planned to start at only to get to look at Shamare work, though her eyesight didn't allow her to actually see any detail of what the vulpo was doing. Still, there was a particular kind of methodicality to the way Shamare handled the preparations, of that much she was sure. Eyjafjalla herself had believed the vulpo to just be kind of making things up as she went at first but, having observed her for quite a while by that point, she had realized that there were some rules she followed strictly. It just so happened that most things not directly violating those rules could be bent and adapted however Shamare wanted, which made the process as a whole appear chaotic if not downright improvised to any onlooker. But, for example, the vulpo would never, ever use the peel of a fruit to make a complete, closed, uninterrupted circle, nor would she put a finished doll away without undoing some of its details a little bit beforehand. She usually removed the eyes, in fact.

Whether Shamare had come up with those rules herself or not, whether something would happen were she to break them or even how many they were, of that Eyjafjalla had no idea, as Shamare had completely ignored her that one time she had tried to inquire about the matter. On one hand, the volcanologist had an hard time seeing such odd measures as anything more concrete than somewhat peculiar superstitions. On the other, as a rather accomplished Caster and researcher, she couldn't simply ignore the fact that the entirety of Shamare's spectrum of abilities couldn't really be explained by modern Originium Arts theory. In light of that, she couldn't actually exclude the possibility that those rules she followed as she prepared her rituals had some real, practical effect. Much like the rituals themselves, perhaps. Focus and state of mind were important when casting, after all, and it wouldn't seem all that weird for someone as young as Shamare to be more at ease using her Arts if she genuinely believed those rituals to aid her in their usage. That would even comply with modern understanding of Arts, after all. But when it came to that vulpo, theory, reality, practicality and fantasy could get all mixed together, and... not always in a good way, no.

Shamare herself was still experimenting with her Arts too, of that Eyjafjalla was rather sure. They had never really had a proper talk about it, but she had kind of guessed that to be the case from her observations. Truly, that little vulpo was fascinating. Still, watching her going through those preparations was more of an extra and not really the reason why she was there in the first place. No, she just wanted to keep her company. She believed the little vulpo needed that. And, since Shamare wasn't ready yet, Eyjafjalla simply followed her with her gaze in the meanwhile, from her seat in an already written-over corner of the room, feeling the heat of the vulpo's body slowly moving around her quarter as she worked. The caprinae had offered to help her out the first couple of times, but Shamare had been exceptionally firm on that front: those were things she had to do herself or, at most, with the help of Morte.

So she watched in silence, squinting every now and then, occasionally tapping her fingers on her legs as her anticipation grew stronger, a faint redness slowly taking over her face.

"... ehm, Adele... "

No response. The third person in the room, sitting on a second chair right next to the volcanologist, bent her head a little. She knew that the caprinae had problems with both her sight and hearing, so not having been heard wasn't exactly surprising to her. But she also knew that Shamare didn't like loud noises, and for one reason or another she really didn't want to risk upsetting her. So she decided to try and shake Eyjafjalla a little instead, placing an hand on her shoulder and-

A sudden shock, however weak, ran from her palm to Eyjafjalla's shoulder, making them jolt and let out a little yelp, more out of surprise than anything else.

"I-I'm sorry!" Goldenglow apologized immediatly "I didn't mean to!"

"Oh, it's fine, don't worry" Eyjafjalla replied, not exactly used to but not bothered either by the weak shock "Little accidents like this are nothing to fret about"

"Is that so? Well... "

The feline's words died down as she noticed Shamare had turned around to look at them. It's not that she believed the rumors about the little vulpo -... not most of them, at least- nor was said vulpo staring at her in a menacing way or anything, but... well, it's the stuff she had heard from Lunacub herself which had her worried. From Lunacub and Eyjafjalla. Honestly, her very presence there was enough to make her nearly break out a sweat out of sheer anxiety. Even if all the things about... ghosts and dolls and whatnot she'd been told turned out to have been nothing more than a prank, the remaining bit would still be enough to have her nervous.

Or very, very embarrassed, at least.

Still, seeing Shamare turn around and go back to writing on the wall made the feline relax a little, enough to let her sit back down. She casted the words another glance, but she couldn't make out anything. Was that siracusan, maybe?

"Did you want to ask me something?" Eyjafjalla then spoke, her eyes on Goldenglow since seeing her lips moving would help her make out what the feline would say.

"I... well... no, nevermind" she sort of answered, having decided that waiting and seeing for herself would -probably- be an easier and more direct way of figuring out whether she was truly getting pranked or not.

And so nothing really happened for another while, only the sound of chalk on metal, of tape being ripped and of Eyjafjalla humming an admittedly rather nice tune to distract Goldenglow from her own thoughts. After what felt like half an hour but had probably been closer to ten minutes, however, Shamare finally finished running her line of writing and scribbling all around the room. The feline wondered if it wouldn't have been faster to pull the furniture away from the walls rather than following their outline, but she decided to keep that to herself and, since Eyjafjalla was doing that, she settled for simply following Shamare with her gaze too. The vulpo walked to her desk, where two relatively large wooden stands were lying, each consisting of a small surface with a wall up one side, both floor and wall lined with a sort of padding which really reminded Goldenglow of a pin cushion for some reason. And on each stand was a doll. Shamare turned one of the two around and reached for the doll lying on it, pulling it up.

It was a replica of Eyjafjalla. A somewhat crude one, perhaps, but the horns, the hair colour, the hairstyle, even the clothes were the same. The outfit in particular was especially well done, which actually gave the doll a somewhat eerie look as, clothes aside, it wasn't all that realistic, starting from the button eyes. She turned it around in her hands, feeling the stuffing underneath the fabric and checking the stitches until Morte walked up to her, holding a bag up on its head and keeping it from falling with its arms. Shamare casted her walking -... living? Goldenglow refrained from thinking too much about that- doll a quick glance before turning around, her gaze now settling on Eyjafjalla, who on her part was still humming. It looked like she had lost track of Shamare at some point since she wasn't looking at the vulpo, but maybe she was just staring at something else.

Goldenglow saw one of Shamare's ears twitch, a faint shiver suddenly running up her spine, making her fur stand up a little bit. The sensation had lasted such a short time, however, she almost wondered if she hadn't just imagined.

"Ah"

Eyjafjalla's voice caught her attention, and the feline ended up moving her gaze between the volcanologist and Shamare, who on her part was tapping the Eyjafjalla doll following a precise pattern.

"Sure" Eyjafjalla then said before getting up and walking to the middle of the room, which had been cleared out beforehand.

Goldenglow caught her tail shaking a little, though it was pretty hard to notice since caprinae's tails were all really short.

Shamare, in the meanwhile, had moved in front of Eyjafjalla. The volcanologist was short, especially for someone her age, but she was still taller than Shamare, who had to look up a little to meet her gaze. She was still tapping on the doll, and in fact she only stopped when Eyjafjalla spoke.

"No, it feels pretty nice"

...

"Oh, it's... well, it does feel a bit... it's a bit particular, I'd say? But Susie said she was curious, and Lunacub already told her about it while getting her hair done anyway... and I think we can trust her"

...

"No, I'd rather not. ... not this time, at least"

...

"D-don't ask something like that" she said, as if she had just heard something outrageous.

Right. They'd told her that, whenever possible, Shamare talked to Eyjafjalla through morse code. Goldenglow had had some trouble believing that at first, since having to constantly be around her to tap her sounded troublesome, but if that... if that doll was truly linked to Eyjafjalla, then she guessed it wouldn't be such a bother. Though she couldn't help but find that somewhat unsettling, if also somewhat endearing at the same time. Still, being excluded from half of the conversation kind of left a sour taste in her mouth. She was there just to observe, granted, not to take part, but that made her almost feel like an unwanted intruder.

Then, as if having noticed her unease, Eyjafjalla turned her way and waved her hand at her, smiling. She had calmed down, it would seem, which in turn helped Goldenglow relax as well.

Shamare tapped the doll a few more times and the volcanologist's face turned bright red again, the feline's own cheeks following suit the moment she saw Eyjafjalla beginning to strip, placing her clothes down on the nearby bed until she had nothing but her underwear on. Goldenglow found herself torn between curiosity and modesty, the former winning out at the sight of Shamare placing the stand with the doll down and taking something from the bag held by Morte.

A pair of plastic gloves, a sight which really puzzled the feline. Shamare put them on and then took another pair from the bag, putting them on as well over the first two. Goldenglow blinked two, maybe three times in confusion, yet more questions popping up into her mind as the vulpo grabbed a jar from the bag, removed the lid and carefully placed it on the floor, dipping her fingers into it and then smearing the content on her palms. It looked like some sort of cream, sticky, blue and somewhat transparent, and the attention Shamare was handling it with felt pretty concerning.

Eyajfjalla, on her part, hadn't taken her eyes off the vulpo for a single moment ever since she had pulled out the first pair of gloves, the distance between the two being small enough that she could see her quite clearly. Feeling her heartbeat rising, she took a deep breath and counted up to fortytwo point three by increments of two point thirty five, her breathing slowing down as a result. She also took a few steps without really moving, althoug that was mostly to warm herself up a little. She was quite sensitive to cold, after all, especially for someone of her race and with her kind of Arts.

Shamare, having finished spreading the lotion over her gloved hands, showed her open palms to Eyjafjalla, who took another deep breath and then nodded. So the vulpo touched her thigh with the tip of her finger. A burning feeling briefly ran over the skin around the point of contact, intense enough to make the caprinae jolt had she not been used to it already. The heat abated quickly, replaced by a cool feeling which then slowly began to turn into a tingle, an itch of sort, one Eyjafjalla had to actively keep herself from scratching. Even that dissipated rather soon, however, leaving only a smooth, cold sensation in its wake, her skin relaxing. Perhaps a little too much so, in truth.

Shamare, in the meanwhile, had stared at her as if to gauge her reactions. That wasn't the first time they used products like that one, but she nonetheless wanted to make sure everything was working properly. And so, having received no complaints of any kind, the vulpo placed both hands on Eyjafjalla's inner thighs and started rubbing the cream over them, the spreading itch quickly making her tremble and even groan a little. But as the tingling abated, the vulpo's touch appeared to grow sharper, more intense, despite nothing of that really being the case. Then Shamare slid her fingers underneath the caprinae's underwear, and Eyjafjalla had to grab hold of her own wrists behind her back to control herself, her sensitivity slowly increasing.

Then Shamare smeared the concoction over the caprinae's clit. Not really a surprise, in truth, but the abruptness of the touch combined with the cream's effects made her yelp a little, followed by a second, louder one when the vulpo snuck a finger past her folds to spread the cream on her insides as well, another, more natural kind of fluid aiding the penetration to a degree. Eyjafjalla let out a small moan, or something that sounded similar at least, as Shamare kept running her finger around within her methodically, spreading the cream as evenly as she could before pulling her finger back out. The caprinae, still holding her wrists, brought her arms up to allow Shamare to run her hands around her hips, sliding them along her skin and the fabric of her panties to spread the itching substance on her rear, a veritable cry from Eyjafjalla startling Goldenglow as another finger poked her anus, pushing against it without quite forcing it open.

Then Shamare readjusted Eyjafjalla's underwear and took a step back, leaving her to take another deep breath while fighting off the urge to scratch herself. The vulpo leaned back in front of the jar again, taking another serving of it and reapplying it to her gloves. And, as she did so, she looked up, her eyes meeting Goldenglow's.

The lack of expressivity on the vulpo's face felt... well, it was quite in line with what people said about her, yes, but that didn't really make it any less weird to actually witness first-hand, especially in such a situation. As for the cream she was smearing on Eyjafjalla, Goldenglow had heard from Lunacub about a few lotions the vulpo had somehow acquired a stash on and, while she couldn't tell which one that was, she really couldn't understand why Shamare would put any of those on someone. The fact that the caprinae was letting her do that, and on herself to boot, only heightened her confusion.

Without having said a single word, Shamare turned back around and started spreading the cream on Eyjafjalla's sides, taking care to apply a generous amount to her belly button before moving to her chest, fondling her petite breasts underneath her bra with an apparent apathy which by that point Goldenglow was beginning to consider concerning. Shamare dipped her fingers in the jar again, putting a generous layer underneath Eyjafjalla's armpits, a couple of light chuckles leaving her lips in the process. Then the caprinae lifted one feet, laughing softly again as Shamare covered that one as well. The process repeated for the other feet too, and then Eyjafjalla started to get fully dressed again, slowly, the feeling of the fabric touching her skin being almost enough to make her jolt, something faintly pleasant and mostly uncomfortable -and thus thrilling, somehow- spreading across her with every piece of cloth she put back on, the discomfort -or something similar- being apparent enough that Goldenglow couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable herself just by imagining how that would feel. Even just standing on her feet was slightly troublesome with the cream smeared between them and her shoes. Shamare, on her part, had carefully removed her gloves, turned them inside out and placed them into a small plastic bag before closing the jar just as carefully and putting it away. Then she positioned the wooden stand between herself and Eyjafjalla before crouching down in front of it, her touch on the doll taking the caprinae by surprise if her reaction was of any indication.

The vulpo reached for the bag Morte was still holding, and something inside Goldenglow froze at the sight of a needle being pulled out. Shamare's ears twitched, her tail waved once, twice, then no more, and she held the doll's arms up, Eyjafjalla's own limbs mimicing the gesture. The feline saw her bracing herself and averted her eyes at the last moment, a weak, pained noice reaching her ears. When she looked back, the doll's hands -if they could be called such, stylized as they were- had been nailed together to the vertical padding of the stand, and the way Eyjafjalla's fingers were twitching above her head suggested that she was truly feeling that in her flesh.

Several questions came to Goldenglow's confused mind, and underneath those something else raised its head as well, albeith not enough for her to become aware of it.

Shamare, on her part, didn't seem to notice that. It was questionable if she was even really paying attention to the feline in the first place. No, she was looking at Eyjafjalla, not moving her gaze away even as she reached inside the bag and pulled out an actual pin cushion, one filled to the brim with needles.

Goldenglow found her own breath growing heavier than even Eyjafjalla's own, a bit of sweat running down her forehead. She... didn't really know what to think when Shamare slowly, carefully pushed a needle inside one of the doll's horns. The caprinae flinched, but it was hard to tell whether what she was feeling was pain or simply discomfort. How sensitive were horns, again? Maybe she was just squirming due to the cream, that was also a possibility. As a second needle penetrated the other horn, Goldenglow adjusted her seat a little, if only to have something else to do, to think about, if only for a few moments.

Then Shamare grabbed another needle and traced its tip against the doll's chest, poking the area of the breasts softly before moving it down along the legs, the contact sending a warm shiver crawling on Eyjafjalla's skin, relaxed and made more sensitive by the concoction. A different kind of shiver then took over her leg as she felt the needle move her feet to the side, an ethereal force pushing her leg before sliding above her shoe.

She took a deep breath, and perhaps Shamare purposefully waited for her to finish before sinking the needle into the doll's feet, pinning it to the soft padding underneath.

Partially fixed in place as she might've been, Eyjafjalla trembled, her entire body shaking as a sharp, intense but localized pain pierced her, her muscles tensing up in response to the unmistakeable, almost familiar feeling of thin, sharp metal going through her skin and flesh. Still, she had to make a conscious effort to remain relatively still. There was no needle in her real foot, much less any kind of actual, physical injury -Shamare could've done that too, but that wasn't the point of their activity- but she could nonetheless feel the thin piece of cold steel embedded into her foot, and trying to move instilled into her brain the fear or snapping it in two, which would've made it that much harder to pull out later.

Rationally speaking, Eyjafjalla knew that none of that was real, but the feeling was so intense her brain refused to aknowledge it as a trick of the mind.

She focused on her breathing, in and out, slowly, beads of sweat running down her skin, the friction of her clothes against her skin making her shiver and jolt slightly thanks to the cream Shamare had applied.

Then, without warning, a needle pierced her other leg, going diagonally through her ankle and burying itself in the padding, fixing that foot in place as well, another sharp jolt of pain running through her body, her hands instinctively pushing against the non-present needle holding them above her head, a weird, uncomfortable feeling coming from her horns whenever she moved her neck.

Goldenglow watched on in silence, confusion and at least four other different emotions filling her mind, with one of them in particular being in stark contrast with the other. She realized she was gripping her knees only when her fingers dug a little too strongly into them, and made a conscious effort to ease her grasp.

Eyjafjalla, on the other hand, was feeling... elated, almost. She closed her eyes, counting her heartbeats, feeling the pain in her hands and feet and the discomfort in her horns and drawing an odd sense of wholeness from it, the cold touch of another needle on her body to remind her that Shamare had many, many of those in stock.

The vulpo didn't proceed immediatly however, placing her palm in front of the doll instead and staring at it for a while. Then her left ear twitched, her tail waved one and a half times and her ring finger tapped the doll's forehead, all at once. Goldenglow had no idea what that might've been about, but Eyjafjalla felt her connection to the doll change. The needles already inserted were still holding her in place, but she knew that the following ones would now follow a slightly different rule.

Even as another thin metal rod pierced her shoulder slowly, she didn't flinch. The beginning was usually the most difficult part to get through after all. Once they started getting into the flow of things, Eyjafjalla could keep her composure quite well. For a time, at least. She started humming a song even, her voice shaking a bit when another needle was lodged into her arm, her leg, her shoulder again. Then one pierced her thigh, the skin still covered in cream sending a cold, uncomfortable shiver through her whenever she moved, however slightly.

She breathed in and out again, slowly. Her sight abandoned, her ears perked up almost on their own to try and catch any kind of noise, but the room was silent. Not perfectly, but still enough to appear so to her degrading hearing. That made the feeling of a needle slowly piercing her belly that much more intense, the fake belief of having a thin string of metal going through her stomach sending a confusing, almost distressing string of conflicting signals to her brain, the heightened sensitivy of her skin only making everything that much more intense.

There was something soothing about it too. Or at least Shamare supposed there was, but she had never really asked Eyjafjalla about that. She sure didn't get anything of that sort out of it, she believed. Not really wanting to linger on such thoughts, she grabbed another needle, one especially long, just like the one holding the doll's hands up, and poked it where the caprinae's belly button was supposed to be, pushing forward until the tip came out from the doll's back and then forward still, lodging it into the padded wood behind it. Then she took another one, and pierced the hands again.

Her gaze was fixed mostly on the doll, but she would occasionally look up while pushing a needle through the lifeless cloth to look at Eyjafjalla's reactions. Compared to the first time they'd done that, the caprinae was now a lot more... tolerant? Was that the right word? She used to squirm around a lot more, not to mention that just a few needles were all it would take for her to ask Shamare to stop. And she would listen, she had no reason not to. As far as her personal enjoyment went, she... wasn't sure what to think of it. Doing that with Eyjafjalla, or rather doing that to Eyjafjalla did rouse something in her chest, a feeling she wouldn't describe as unpleasant, but she had made an effort to not ponder about it too much. Her mind would wander to the past if she did so, and that would've been nothing more than a waste of time and mental energy. Still, the act of driving a needle through a cloth was definitively pleasant, if only slightly, if only for a brief moment. And the caprinae's composure was vaguely amusing as well, although Shamare knew from experience that making that composure disappear later would be a little bit more entertaining.

Goldenglow, on her part, was watching the scene playing out in front of her in silence, a part of her thinking that politely excusing herself and leaving would've been the best thing to do, another one wondering what else might happen if she stayed there and kept looking on instead. The conflicting thoughts kept swirling around in her mind, neither one truly winning over the other, what the feline would later think of as a sort of morbid curiosity pinning her to her seat, her gaze moving back and forth between Shamare, Eyjafjalla and the floor. At least until she noticed the vulpo holding a needle up to the doll's chest, on... on the heart?

That could've well been a mistaken assumption, given the size of the doll and the distance Goldenglow was looking at them from, but the feline jumped to her feet nonetheless.

"W-wait!"

Both Shamare and Eyjafjalla turned towards her, albeith one did so much more slowly than the other.

"Ahem, I mean" the feline nearly tripped on her own words, her hand nervously playing around with her skirt "Is that... is that safe?" she asked, shouted almost because she guessed she had to do that for the caprinae to actually hear her.

Shamare simply bent her head to the side.

"That's a reasonable concern" Eyjafjalla admitted, the redness of her cheeks catching Goldenglow's gaze "But don't worry, Shamare is an expert. This is almost certainly safe"

"What do you mean "almost"?!"

Shamare nearly had to hold in a sigh.

"Ah, no, that's just... how do I put it... I don't know exactly how Shamare's Arts work, so it came natural to me to avoid making an absolute statement about them, but I trust her"

"That's... no, no, I don't think this is... "

"Susie Glitter"

Hearing her full name called out by that child whom Goldenglow sort of resented herself for finding so unsettling, the feline felt a shiver run up her spine. Shamare, on her part, was focused on her hand, on those fingers still fumbling with the hem of her skirt. Without saying anything else, the vulpo turned around, gesturing towards Morte. The doll walked towards her and turned around, offering its back to her without letting go of the bag still held up above its head. Shamare reached forward, her hand sinking into the fabric making up Morte as if it was made of water and pulling something out from it. A little... thing, Goldenglow truly couldn't think of any other word to indicate it. A small... conglomerate of tentacles, purple, half-transparent and slimy, at least by the looks of it.

"Ah, Shamare, I don't think... " Eyja began to say, but the vulpo ignored her and walked up to Goldenglow instead, the feline paralyzed more by the realization that Lunacub seriously hadn't pulled her leg on that either than by the sight itself.

"Take this"

"... eh?"

Shamare grabbed her hand and put the thing on it, the creature of sort being small enough to comfortably fit on the feline's palm, a weird sensation accompanying its touch, a soft, unvoluntary discharge from her making the tentacles twitch for a moment, their sudden motions nearly making Goldenglow jolt in turn.

"Keep it" Shamare told her, because she figured Goldenglow needed something to do with her hand since she saw her wrinkling her skirt and believed that to be a suitable solution to said need.

At times, Shamare's thought process could indeed resemble that of a child.

"W... h-hol-ho-hold on" Goldenglow stuttered, a cold sweat running down her forehead "This is... th-this isn't a g-ghost, right?"

Oh, she was trembling. That wasn't the reaction Shamare had wanted to get. But... but it wasn't too bad either, no.

"It's harmless" the vulpo replied flatly "But don't let go of it. It would drop through the floor, and having it fall on someone's head on the lower decks would be annoying"

"What do you -wait?"

"... too noisy"

"-!"

At a complete loss on all fronts, Goldenglow sat back down, maybe because her knees had given out, maybe not. She briefly watched Shamare as she walked back to Eyjafjalla before moving her gaze to the thing in her hand, its tiny tentacles coiling softly around her fingers, the faint pleasantness of its touch making it all the more unsettling.

Ghosts aren't real. Ghosts aren't real. This is... this is just some kind of, how did they call them, this is an Arts construct. Yes, that's it. Ghosts aren't real, ghosts aren't real, ghosts aren't...

"That's dealt with" Shamare told Eyjafjalla as she crouched down in front of the doll again, gently tapping it to be sure the message had gotten across.

"... I'm not sure... " she replied, squinting to try and get a better look at Goldenglow's face, to no avail unfortunately.

And so Shamare turned towards Goldenglow again.

"Do you have anything else to say?" she asked, once again tapping the doll to avoid the risk of Eyjafjalla feeling left out of the conversation.

Goldenglow, on her part, opened her mouth but failed to speak. There were surely a lot of things to say about that situation, there just had to be, but it was like her mind had short circuited itself, not a single coherent thought managing to form inside her head.

Shamare decided that, as a reply, that was good enough and went back to the doll.

And, much like Goldenglow had feared just a short while earlier, the vulpo placed a needle right on the position of the heart, with unsettling accuracy. And, unless the caprinae's pain tolerance had gone through a sudden and unreasonable increase since their last meeting of that kind, that was going to be the last needle of the night. Assuming it would remain inside of her, at least.

Eyjafjalla felt the tip poking her chest, the realization of what was about to happen freezing her. She inhaled, exhaled, inhaled and then exhaled again, slowly but not quite calmly.

Shamare had been the one to first come up with that particular position for a needle, and to tell the truth Eyjafjalla had refused at first. The vulpo never brought that up again, nor did she ever bother explaining why she had thought of that idea or how, but a certain kind of curiosity, morbid in appearance but desperate in nature, had been planted into the caprinae's mind, and after a few, shall we say, sessions she brought it back up herself.

The first attempt at that had gone rather poorly, to use a generous euphemism. Eyjafjalla nearly had a panic attack and they ended up interrupting the entire scene. The second try didn't quite succeed, but the caprinae made some progress through every session and, eventually, she managed to take the entire needle through her chest. Still, what Goldenglow was about to witness would've been the first time they'd leave the needle there for the rest of the session rather than pushing it in and then pulling it right back out. Or that was the plan, at least. Eyjafjalla looked down, the not too blurry image of Shamare looking up at her meeting her gaze, her head bent a little, an ever so faint hint of an expression on her face.

Eyjafjalla nodded.

She felt Shamare's hand taking hold of her body as her fingers closed softly around the doll, holding it in place as the tip of the needle moved forward. A cold, localized pressure on her chest sent a warm shiver through her body, and just keeping her breath regular took up most of Eyjafjalla's concentration. The immaterial pressure then moved forward, and the caprinae felt her relaxed, tender skin rupturing. Her superficial nerves, made more sensitive by the concoction, sent a sharp signal to her brain, the dissonance between the sensations reaching her mind and the knowledge that nothing was actually happening to her body creating a thin layer of confusion which helped her deal with her anxiety.

The needle then moved forward, piercing through her entire chest in a single, swift motion.

Eyjafjalla's entire body froze. Sweat ran down her forehead. She subconsciously tried to find the words to describe that odd, peculiar, searing and yet localized pain, the absurdity of it all allowing her to distance herself somewhat from it.

Her heart beat. Of course it did. And Eyjafjalla felt the flesh of her organ move through the needle, because that's what Shamare had changed. So long as the doll didn't move, the needles stuck into it after that adjustment wouldn't hold the caprinae in place. No, she would instead feel like she was moving her body through them. And while it was hard to tell from a distance, the needle Shamare had used for that was an especially thin one, so much so the vulpo would've lost it a few times already if not for the colored plastic ball fixed to one end of it. As far as practical applications went, that meant that Eyjafjalla felt a slim blade cutting through her heart with every beat, a feeling that couldn't quite fit the description of "pain" despite the striking similiarities filling the caprinae's mind, be it due to some other handiwork of Shamare or by extreme partial dissociation from Eyjafjalla.

Goldenglow moved her gaze to the caprinae's hands, if only to avoid looking at her face, and saw the tension in her fingers. The feline's own hands closed down, one on her knee, the other on that weird creature in her palm, its little tentacles returning her grasp with what little strength it had. Not enough to distract her, it would seem.

Eyjafjalla breathed. Her lungs filled with air, her chest rose, and the needle cut through her heart again. Something dark and red began to fill her mind. She had felt all the other needles lodged into her doll shift within her with every motion for a while by then, yes, but she had also gotten somewhat used to those already. That, and she hadn't really moved all that much in the first place. But that was different.

Her breath grew heavy, something close to a groan leaving her lips every time her chest rose up and fell, a cold burn spreading through her chest. The temperature of her body began to rise further, perhaps a little too much so.

Shamare looked on, in silence. She stared, she observed and wondered, unspoken questions gently swirling around inside her mind, some aimed at Eyjafjalla, most at herself, a few at someone else still, not a single one of them earning the privilege of being voiced.

She looked on, and then decided that the caprinae couldn't actually take it.

The one who truly drew a breath of reliew upon the removal of that needle, however, had been Goldenglow. The entire thing still seemed nonsensical -at best- to her, but the fact that Shamare had apparently decided on her own that that one needle couldn't be left inside the doll was... it took a lot of tension off her shoulders.

Enough to make her remember about that thing in her hand, even, which made an entirely different kind of anxiety fill the newly formed gap in her thoughts, ultimately leaving her just a tiny bit more relaxed than she had been a few moments earlier.

Eyjafjalla, on her part, started panting, the pain in her heart fading almost frighteningly quickly, as if it'd never even existed in the first place. She slumped down, a similar kind of torment hitting her all over as the needles lodged into her doll pretended to tear her flesh apart a little bit, the first ones preventing her from falling instead. She felt the needles still lodged into her stir within herself as she adjusted her position again, but compared to the one in her heart those were almost easy to bear.

Almost.

And only comparatively.

"... that... uhm... thanks, Shamare"

One of the vulpo's ears twitched. She returned her gaze, but she didn't say anything. What she did instead was getting back up on her feet, grabbing Morte and plunging her hand into it again, pulling something else out from it.

Goldenglow felt a cold shiver run from her nape all the way to the tip of her tail, making her tremble at the sight. Shamare had put her doll back down and was now placing a... thing on her right hand. It was clearly the same kind of creature as the one currently snuggled on the feline's hand, but its tendrils were thicker and, most notably, longer, not to mention that they were more numerous. At least a dozen, by the looks of it. Shamare had unceremoniously dropped the gho- no, the thing on her hand and had then started picking some of the smallest tentacles and just... pushing them into her wrist. The fact that they didn't come out on the other side led Goldenglow to think that the tendrils were crawling along the inside of the vulpo's arm, the mental image causing something bitter and unpleasant to form inside her stomach. Shamare herself, however, didn't seem bothered in the slightest, only an occasional half-twitch of her ears or a slight wave of her tail to perhaps betray some kind of sensation. Eyjafjalla, on her part, had yet again a mixture of nervousness and expectancy on her face.

Shamare finished with whatever it was that she was doing rather quickly, turning her hand around and moving it a bit, bending and stretching her fingers while staring at the tendrils of that creature, its tentacles moving in response to every little motion of her hand. For a few moments, Goldenglow was reminded of another vulpo, one with a prosthetic hand who had once been dragged into her saloon by an exceptionally collected sankta. Although that vulpo needed the prosthetic because her real arm was missing, while Shamare... Goldenglow didn't really want to even think about that, no.

Not like she actually had to, however. Shamare grabbed Eyjafjalla's hips without even taking a single step forward, the tendrils -on average a little longer than her entire arm- acting like an extension of her hand and wrapping around the caprinae, phasing through her clothes as if they didn't exist, touching her skin directly. They weren't exactly cold, but given Eyjafjalla's current body temperature they indeed felt rather chilly. A bit slimy as well, or perhaps oily, it was honestly hard to tell. Their touch caused her to jerk a little, all the tiny needles stuck into her body sending small, sharp jolts of pain through her.

Goldenglow brought both her hands on her lap, somehow not noticing the little thing on her palm crawling its way up her arm to avoid getting smothered on her legs and sitting on her wrist instead, latching on somewhat firmly. Her gaze was focused on the spectacle in front of her, the inability to fully see what was going on underneath Eyjafjalla's clothes making her imagination run to places she wasn't entirely comfortable with. Or which made her cheeks turn bright red, at the very least.

Some tendrils crawled up to the caprinae's modest chest, squeezing her breasts gently, their ethereal touch almost tender on her stiff nipples, a measured care in the way they treated her slowly beginning to stoke a little flame within her which had sparked to life since before the first needle had found its way into the doll. A few others ran around her thighs, shifting and squirming in place in a way which would've been almost soothing if not for the need to stay still as to avoid the sensation of thin steel cutting and tearing her from within. Some more found their way to her nethers, spreading her labia and dipping gently into her wet privates, teasing her insides and almost lovingly caressing her, as some others still reached for her rear, grabbing hold of it firmly.

If one were to only look at Shamare's hand and ignore everything else, it would almost seem that she was playing an invisible piano of some sort. Goldenglow found that fascinating, in a way, which in turn made her question herself on quite a few different matters. A sudden, loud whimper from Eyjafjalla then made her jump, almost literally.

A rather thin tendril had probed her rear entrance before sliding into it -something Shamare would've never done with her actual fingers, admittedly- and creeping forward, soon followed by a few more.

The sudden feeling of fullness in the wrong place set off a few bells inside Eyjafjalla's mind, a particular kind of pleasure building up in her lower half. Failing to keep still in front of her anus being played with in such fashion, the caprinae felt another wave of sharp pain run through her, her body cutting itself on non-existing needles. Had Goldenglow been able to see the way Eyjafjalla's privates had gotten even wetter after that, she'd have probably given up completely on trying to make sense of the situation.

Shamare, in the meanwhile, had walked up to the caprinae and gotten on her tiptoes, patting her head a little with her free hand while still moving the tentacles with her other one with somewhat unsettling dexterity. Eyjafjalla's hair was warm and almost felt like wool under the vulpo's palm, it was relaxing to touch. And Eyjafjalla herself leaned into the caresses a bit, despite the fact that it was a bit embarrassing. Still, that helped her somewhat with remaining still, whimpers and moans mixing together as Shamare kept teasing her, the little girl having enough knowledge of the caprinae's body to be able to tenderly guide her to her climax without actually taking her there, pleasure and pain and relax and discomfort blending together in an oddly elating way.

Then a few sounds suddenly filled the room almost all at once.

The first one was that of the door being thrown open and slammed shut right after, the loud, dull noise echoing within the four walls with enough intensity to nearly make one's ears tremble. At basically the same time as those came the voice of a lupo who announced her arrival with a needlessly loud shout. Not even a moment later Eyjafjalla let out a surprised, pained cry, since all that sudden, intense noise had startled Shamare enough to make her move the fleshless tentacles linked to her hand in a decidedly uncaring manner, stimulating the caprinae in two entirely opposite ways at the same time. And last came Goldenglow's own shriek, the entire thing having taken her by surprise, her hands closing on the first thing they could find. Which, by the way, was the little bunch of tentacles Shamare had given her earlier. The sudden realization made her quickly let go of it and place her hands somewhere else, the tiny creature holding on to her arm on its own.

"I'm here!" Lunacub repeated, panting and sweating as if she had just ran across the entire landship as fast as she could.

Which was actually the case.

"Ah, oh... hello, Lunacub" Eyjafjalla greeted her as she recovered from the sudden shock, the lupo's words so loud she had understood them quite well even from that distance.

"... Lunacub"

Shamare had spoken with indifference in her voice. Not coldness, not hostility, simply a low tone. But as unfamiliar as Goldenglow was with the vulpo's body language, even she could tell that slight downturn in her ears and the uncanny stillness of her tail were bad signs.

"You're late. You look horrible"

That was sort of an overstatement, but the lupo truly wasn't sporting her best look. Her hair was disheveled, her clothes were messy, there were a few crumbs of something around her lips, most likely food, her belt was on rather loosely and her coat had somehow slipped off her entirely upon her arrival, now lying on the floor instead.

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad!" she argued back "And it's not my fault Exusiai dropped by and threw a party today of all times!"

Shamare patted Eyjafjalla's dolls a few times to tell her something, a somewhat conflicted expression showing up on the caprinae's face as the vulpo walked away from her and towards Lunacub, stopping halfway between them.

"I told you we would begin an hour earlier than what we had actually planned" she said as Morte presented her the second wooden stand, the one with a doll shaped after Lunacub lying on it "And you still arrived nearly an hour after the true start"

Lunacub swallowed.

"Well, that's not my fault either" she complained again, this time standing as tall as she could as if to emphasize the height advantage she had over Shamare "Besides, you just admitted you lied to me!"

Lunacub herself still looked quite short from Goldenglow's point of view, in truth, and the feline wasn't exactly the epitome of a tall woman either.

"Lunacub"

"What?"

"On your knees"

"Make me"

Shamare's tail waved exactly once, her hands moved the doll's joints as she saw fit, and a few moments later Lunacub was not only down on her knees, but with her face against the floor as well.

"That's cheating!"

"Airhead"

"Dummy!"

"Stop shouting"

"As if!"

Eyjafjalla nearly giggled. She didn't actually hear anything of what Shamare had said, but she had witnessed similar exchanges enough times to know that there wasn't actually anything to be worried about. But, seeing how the feline was slowly approaching her with a very concerned look on her face, she figured someone needed to be reassured about that. Which was more than reasonable, probably. After a bit of hesitation, Goldenglow resolved to walk close enough to whisper into Eyjafjalla's ears. It felt a bit rude, admittedly, but she didn't want to somehow upset Shamare by mistake.

"Ahem... is that... is that ok?" she asked, not quite whispering since the caprinae probably wouldn't have heard her properly despite the lack of distance otherwise.

"Don't worry, they're just playing"

"... are they?"

Honestly, Lunacub trying to shout something through a cloth tied around her doll's mouth to muffle her words while Morte held said doll down and Shamare tied its arms behind the back and secured both legs and neck to the padded surface of the wooden stand... maybe that was just how childs played nowadays? No, no, it couldn't be. She simply refused to believe it. And, if we want to be honest, she was right.

"Oh, absolutely. Though I understand that it might be hard to see. What about you though, Susie?"

"Me? Wh-what do you mean what about me?" she asked back.

Just pacing her breaths and trying to not let out any spark by mistake out of sheer agitation was already taking up most of her mental energy, which spoke volume to how nervous she was.

"I felt your body temperature rise, especially in your face. I'm not an expert on biology but I think that's usually associated with either fear, stress or arousal, and- "

"W-wait, hold on" Goldenglow interrupted her, just barely managing to not shout "I'm not exci... h-how could this turn anyone on?"

"... Susie" the caprinae answered "The lotion we used earlier has dried up already, it won't get on your hand, so... try and touch me d... down there" she said, her already flushed face turning even redder.

"... eh? Ah, n-no, I mean... I'm not sure I wouldn't shock you at the moment... "

"That's fine. Actually, I'd be a bit... curious to feel it while in this situation"

... these people are crazy...

And maybe she was too. After all, she took a few long breaths and moved an hand between Eyjafjalla's legs just as instructed. But she was so agitated she ended up doing that too quickly, her palm pretty much slapping the caprinae right on he privates, the combination of the physical impact and the electrical current -however weak- shooting through her body making Eyjafjalla yelp and nearly jump in surprise, a pleased groan following right after as she felt the needles dig around within her again.

Lunacub had shouted too, because that sudden noise had taken Shamare by surprise and caused her to accidentally pull something too tight. She undid her mistake right away and turned around, the closest thing to an annoyed expression Goldenglow had ever seen on her face.

"What are you doing?"

"I... I don't know... ?"

"She was a bit curious" Eyjafjalla jumped in, having guessed rather than heard Shamare's question.

"... sit down" Shamare said while pointing to the floor.

For one reason or another, Goldenglow found that to be an exceptionally reasonable request, so much so that she decided to comply right away. Though the cold steel wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing to rest her legs on, admittedly. Shamare then walked up to Eyjafjalla's doll and tapped it a few times to tell her something, placed another couple of needles in her shoulders for good measure and left her there to simmer.

Truthfully, that degree of differentiated feedback from a single doll to an individual was not something Shamare could pull off easily under normal circumstances, if she even could at all. But she hadn't spent all that time writing on the walls for nothing, after all. She had also hidden a few bones of small animals stashed inside little glass bottles in strategic places inside her room, not to mention a couple of other details she had taken care of precisely for the occasion, but those are all things she had done before either Goldenglow or Eyjafjalla's arrival.

Going back to the current events, Lunacub was still stuck, arms forced behind her back, neck leashed to the floor, ankles stuck in place and even a little something beneath her hips to force her butt up in the air. Shamare took the cloth away from the doll's mouth, the lupo taking a long breath right away.

"You were stuffing yourself with junk food and sugary drinks again" Shamare didn't ask so much as she declared.

"No, I wasn't. Those things are bad!"

"Then you did something bad"

"I told you I didn't!"

"There are crumbs on your mouth, Lunacub. And your breath smells like cola and lemonade. And you reek of sweets"

"... well, your nose's broken then!"

Goldenglow was starting to feel scared. Mostly because Shamare had walked up to Lunacub, lifted her dress to leave nothing but the lupo's underwear to cover her behind, walked back and started to tinker with the half-transparent cluster of tentacles which had remained latched to her hand the whole time. In truth, seeing those phase through all inanimated objects they stumbled into as Shamare worked on Lunacub's doll had been its own kind of an unsettling sight, and watching the vulpo sort of adjusting their lengths somehow so that they were all of roughly the same size sent a very specific shiver down the feline's spine. Doubly so as, to adjust that, Shamare had shoved them even further inside her own arm. Goldenglow didn't even want to imagine how that could've possibly felt, and was utterly lost as to why on Terra a part of her did just that anyway.

"Apologize"

"I did nothing wrong!"

Most confusing of all, however, was the wild abandon with which Lunacub's tail was wagging.

Shamare waved her hand, swiftly, in much the same way one would when slapping someone. The tentacles latched to her hands cut through the air, landing on Lunacub's rear and producing a sharp, intense noise. Goldenglow jolted. She had never really head a whip at work, but she imagined the sound one would produce to be quite similar to that. Which wasn't actually the case, but nobody corrected her. Lunacub, on her part, had made half an attempt at keeping her voice inside her mouth, with half a success to show for it.

"You are hopelessly late"

"Because that stupid sarkaz kept winning at darts against me!"

The tentacles hit her rear again, leaving another set of bright red marks on it.

"You knew we had plans for this evening"

"It'd been months since the last party like this, I had to go! For a bit at least"

Shamare waved her hand again. Another hit, another pained yelp, another set of marks. Goldenglow looked to the side, to Eyjafjalla, and looked away as soon as she realized the thing on the caprinae's face might've been envy.

"You stupid cub"

"Ohy, I'm your elder!"

Another hit.

"Then start acting like one"

"Show some respect and I will!"

Another one, intense enough to make Lunacub's entire body tremble, a paradoxically pleasant pain searing her butt, the immaterial restraints holding her down amplifying the sweet torment, the knowledge of her wetness becoming visible through her underwear adding a layer of humiliation to it which only made her even more aroused.

"Airhead"

"I don't want to hear that from a pup!"

Smack, once again.

"You even told an hairdresser about us" Shamare said, a faint hint of disdain in her words "All because you got high on sugary drinks and pasties before going to her saloon"

The hit that followed that sentence both sounded and looked especially strong, judging by the way Lunacub's entire body seemed to recoil from the impact on her red, swollen bottom.

"You are fortunate it was only the two of you when you spilled everything to her"

"Oh, come on! She's just a kitty, she doesn't have the bravery to tell anyone, what's the harm?"

"Do you?" Shamare immediatly asked Goldenglow, almost ignoring Lunacub's delightfully pained groan as she whipped her again.

The feline felt every single hair of her fur standing up.

"I... " she began to answer, wrinkling the hem of her skirt with both hands without even realizing "I won't tell anyone, I promise. But" she added, perhaps speaking more to herself than to anyone else present "That's not because I'm too scared to do it"

Shamare bent her head a little to the side, and Goldenglow kind of wondered if she shouldn't have taken back her words.

"As if. Ouch!"

Whipping her butt another couple of times, the lupo's rear being red and swollen to the point Goldenglow nearly felt uncomfortable sitting down just by looking at it, Shamare walked around and crouched in front of Lunacub, with Morte waddling its way next to her.

"What?"

She didn't answer, just sinking her hand into her trusty -or was it?- doll again and pulling out yet another cluster of tentacles, one which basically threw itself onto Lunacub's face, coiling around her neck, her head, her ears, and then even her teeth, tiny tendrils sliding inbetween each one of her fangs and holding her mouth open as yet more seized her tongue, protusions similar to brushes then making their way into her mouth and beginning to scrub her all over, the odd stimulation forcing an oddly pleasant mix of whimpers and laughs out of her, the lupo's tail waving wildly in the air, especially when Shamare casually landed another slap to her behind while walking up to Goldenglown.

"... i-is something wrong?" the feline asked, having completely forgotten about the little creature which had nestled itself on her shoulder.

Shamare stared at her in silence for a minute, perhaps two, bending her neck a little, and Goldenglow truly couldn't tell if the little vulpo had blinked at all during that time. She probably had, those were surely just her anxiety and embarrassment mixing together to play bad tricks on her mind.

"Do you want to play with her?" Shamare then asked as she pointed towards Lunacub.

The lupo tried to jump up upon hearing those words, to no avail of course. But she did love the way her doll forced her down on the floor without physically restraining her. There was a paradoxical feeling of freedom to be found in that.

"I -what?"

Shamare had been wondering about that since quite a while, in truth. She didn't think of herself as someone capable of reading people, far from it, but she had questioned Goldenglow's reasons for actually accepting Lunacub's invitation to watch from the start. She wasn't exactly acquainted with the hairdresser, but what little she had heard of her from Suzuran didn't paint her as the kind of person who had such interests. But the way she acted while watching Shamare play, both with Eyjafjalla and Lunacub, seemed to suggest otherwise. The vulpo had then come to the conclusion that yes, Goldenglow had that kind of interests, but no, she didn't actually know it herself. Which made sense, Shamare thought. Or rather, it didn't, but it at least felt logical, or so she thought.

"You heard me" she said, since she really didn't like repeating herself.

Goldenglow's face couldn't turn any redder than it already was, but her tail stood straight up behind her. Something resembling panick showed up on her face, but the feline managed to restrain herself, take a deep breath and... not relax, no, but at least regain a bit of self control.

"I... "

Her gaze trailed to Eyjafjalla, who seemed to be enjoying... well Goldenglow really wasn't sure if she was enjoying the sight of Shamare spanking Lunacub with a whip, the fact that she had been left on her own to deal with the feeling or needles tearing her flesh whenever she moved or what, but she seemed to be having a good time. Then her eyes moved to Lunacub. The lupo's face was still wrapped by that semitransparent cluster of tentacles, a generous amount of saliva having pooled on the floor beneath her forcibly wide open mouth, her ears pointlessly trying to twitch through the firm grip holding them in place, the ethereal brushes running amok over her cheeks and teeth and tongue still dragging soft laughters and odd whimpers and perhaps even a few weak moans out of her. Despite all that, however, Lunacub had managed to turn her head around to a degree. Had their positions allowed it, she'd have been staring back at Goldenglow.

"... I wonder how it'd feel... ah?!"

The realization that she had just spoken out loud rather than silently mused inside her head hit her suddenly, but with enough force to make her discharge a bit of electriticy right there and then.

"Alright"

Lunacub clearly tried to say something, but Shamare ignored her and, when questioned by Goldenglow, assured her that everything was fine. The lupo knew what to do to signal that she wanted to call it quits even in that state, after all. And if she had forgotten then that was entirely her fault for being such a dummy, so Shamare saw no reason to stop. Though she didn't exactly bother giving the feline all those details.

"No wait! I mean, I-" Goldenglow began to say, stopping halfway to take another deep breath "I don't think I should intrude like this, and... and I don't even know what to do anyway, so... "

"You never played these games before?" Shamare asked back as she went to retrieve the tentacles stuck to Lunacub's head, and somehow the complete lack of emotion in her voice as she asked that hurt Goldenglow a little.

"Figures she hasn't" the lupo said as soon as her mouth was freed "I told you she's still a little pupp- hey!"

Rather than reprimanding her with words or another spanking, Shamare simply pinched her nose. Not even all that strongly, just enough for the complain that followed to come out sounding rather weird and sort of funny. Had she been a bit more relaxed, Goldenglow might've even laughed a little at that. Eyjafjalla, on her part, did chuckle a bit as she could figure out what was going on even without really hearing them properly simply because she was really accustomed to Shamare and Lunacub's back and forths. Her chuckle was swiftly followed by a very different kind of vocalization due to the needles, but that's a different matter.

Shamare then walked back up to Goldenglow, one hand still encased in that glove -thinking about it as a glove somehow made it easier for the feline to not freak out- while she held the other thing in her other hand.

"... I know I've asked this already, but these... aren't ghosts, right?"

Shamare simply looked at her blankly and then blinked.

"Here" she ignored the question "Stay still"

Goldenglow did just that, but mostly because feeling the lukewarm, somewhat oily tentacles suddenly coil around her waist and hips made her freeze on the spot, the surprisingly pleasant tingle sent running over her skin as they circled her thighs causing a small but intense storm of conflicting emotions to form inside her mind. Had they wrinkled her clothes, she'd have probably worried about not having brought a spare set with her. But since those tentacles seemed to only be able to touch living things and not inanimated objects, the thought failed to form and thus didn't distract her in the slightest. For better or for worse.

"This way"

"Hold on! No, you don't!" Lunacub protested as she squirmed on the floor.

Goldenglow found that... somewhat nice, which in turn made her feel even more lost and a little bit bad as well, to be completely honest.

"On your knees. Align your hips with her. You are taller, bend down a bit"

"Wait, w-what am I even supposed to do like this?"

"How about bringing me a snack? I'm getting hungry" Lunacub said as she waved her tail right on Goldenglow's face a couple of times.

One of the feline's eyebrows twitched ever so slightly, and she grabbed the lupo's tail almost by reflex, a small shock discharging through both of them as she did so.

"Hey, kitty! You're younger than me and don't even have a pack of your own, how dare you?"

Either Lunacub was truly indignated or she was a terribly good actress. As for her being older than Goldenglow, that was something only Angese could confirm or deny.

"You weren't this annoying when you came to me for an haircut!" she shot back, the lupo's behaviour starting to get to her.

"That was that and this is this!"

"Here" Shamare chimed in, or rather cut them off as she grabbed a few of the tentacles curled around Goldenglow and guided them right into the feline, the ethereal tendrils sinking into her belly like fishes in a pond.

Her mind went blank for a second, something warm and tingly and terribly intense completely erasing all of her thoughts for a few moments. Then something else hit her, something which felt natural and yet foreign at the same time, familiar but alien, like... like a third arm, or something like that. She looked down and, upon realizing that what she felt was Lunacub's cute behind touching some of the tentacles sprouting from the creature latched to her waist, her face turned a very pale shade of red. It took her a few more moments to undestand that the other thing she was feeling were the other tendrils coiled around herself.

"Here" Shamare said again as she grabbed some of the tentacles with both hands and clumped them together, Goldenglow feeling a shiver of pleasure run up her spine "It's here"

The vulpo aligned Goldenglow's newly acquired, temporary apparatus to Lunacub's sopping entrance, the ghostly appendages penetrating the drenched cloth of her underwear and hitting her warm privates.

"Wait hold on what this- ?!"

Shamare simply pushed Goldenglow's hips forward, the feline and the lupo's sudden moans mixing together as the makeshift pallus got buried within Lunacub's welcoming folds, their hips meeting with the distinctive sound of flesh upon flesh. Goldenglow opened her mouth to speak, to ask, but all she managed to do was pant as she tried to process what the sudden pleasure which had just coursed through her had been. It felt wildly different from the one she experienced when touching herself.

"Stay like this now"

"Eh?!"

"What, you're scared she couldn't las- !"

By then, Lunacub's butt had grown so sensitive that all it took to make her whimper in pain was for someone to grab it firmly, which is exactly what Shamare did.

"Stay still" she said once again to Goldenglow.

"But... "

Almost on their own, her hips moved back a little bit, blissful warmth gently spreading through her and Lunacub.

Until Shamare moved her fingers at least, commanding the ghost still encasing her hand to grab Goldenglow's stiff nipples through all the layers of her clothes and pinch them hard. The feline was the first to yelp, pain and something diametrically opposite shooting through her chest, Lunacub's voice leaking out right after due to the electrical discharge caused by that.

"What are you, an infant? Control it a bit!"

"It's not that easy!"

"I said quiet"

"As i... "

"Lunacub. Oil and brush"

The way the lupo immediatly turned quiet unsettled Goldenglow a bit. In truth, that was just Shamare's way of telling her that, if she kept that up, she'd dip her doll in a particular oil and then brush it in all the spots were Lunacub was most ticklish. The lupo could enjoy that kind of play as well, in truth, but... well, to be a little blunt she just couldn't have an orgasm at all while being tickled, and she really wanted to get off at the moment. That, and there was always the chance that Shamare was actually talking about something worse.

"Stay still" the vulpo said for the last time as she got up and walked away from the two.

They couldn't quite look each other in the eyes due to the way Lunacub was restrained, but for arguably the first time since they had come to know of each other's existence the two felt a certain degree of connection. In other words, they both really wanted to move their hips at least a little bit, but neither one dared to openly go against Shamare's direct order, albeith for slightly different reasons. And they both found that really, really exciting, in more ways than one too. It just so happened that one fully embraced it, if only on the inside, while the other was decidedly far from coming to terms with it.

As for Shamare herself, she had walked back to Eyjafjalla, who on her part looked plenty amused, and in a rather innocent fashion too. Somehow. The vulpo tapped her doll again to communicate properly.

"Oh, no, I don't mind" she answered her non-vocal apology.

...

"That sounds lovely, doesn't it?"

...

"Wait, I thought you didn't -oh, I understand. Sorry, my mistake"

Lunacub had gotten somewhat used to hearing only half of those conversations, but Goldenglow still found it odd.

"M-me too? I... I don't think this would be good for Susie, I believe she has no experience in these matters"

Goldenglow's fur prickled up with a certain kind of embarrassment upon hearing that. Shamare, on her part, turned around to meet her gaze.

"Your mouth's free" she pointed out, as if the feline might have somehow forgotten about that "Say cinnamon if you need the game to slow down. Say honey biscuit if you need a pause. Say chocolate pasta if you need everything to stop immediatly"

Goldenglow didn't even want to think why Shamare had picked those words in particular.

"A-alr- !"

Her answer turned into a pained, startled and pleased yelp all at once as Shamare waved her hand, the tentacles encasing it cutting through the air to whip the feline's stiff nipples with remarkable precision. It hurt a bit, but it also sent an enjoyable kind of warmth through her chest. Lunacub, on her part, had to really put in the effort to not say anything about the electric shock which came from it. But just thinking about the threat of tickling had the soles of her feet haching already, enough to make her remain silent. For the time being, at least.

"Alright" Shamare concluded as she took the needles pinning Eyjafjalla's doll to the stand out of it, the sudden removal causing the caprinae to whimper a little.

The vulpo then held the doll for a few moments, her ears twitching asymmetrically a few times.

"Follow me" she instructed as she stepped away, teetering on the edge of Eyjafjalla's clear field of view as she made sure to keep the distance between the caprinae and her doll constant, her form being ever so slightly blurry to Eyjafjalla.

She swallowed a little bit. Shamare tapped the doll a few more times but, rathen than to communicate, she did so to poke the needles still piercing it. A pained noise escaped the volcanologist, the ever-so-slightly unsettingly familiar feeling of thin steel cutting and tearing her sending a brief but searing pain through her.

Goldenglow found herself staring at the now visible trail of fluids running down Eyjafjalla's inner thighs, but all she earned from that was an even stronger urge to move.

Shamare took a step together with Eyjafjalla, albeith a shorter one, and then again, leading her towards the other two women. The caprinae would've held her arms in an attempt to better deal with the sweet torment assaulting her with every step -whether due to her moving or due to Shamare playing with her doll, she couldn't tell- had she not known that doing so would've only made the pain coming from the needles stuck in her arms even more intense.

A not too small part of her did entertain the thought precisely for that very same reason, however. But she decided to not go through with it in the end, since her pace was rather slow already, every step interspersed by a deep, almost heavy breath.

"Here?" she asked for confirmation once Shamare had led her right in front of Goldenglow, standing with one leg on each side of Lunacub.

"You're being way too disrespectful"

Shamare didn't admonish her, but the lupo caught her staring for half a second and felt a decidedly pleasant shiver run up her spine, enough to fall quiet again. The vulpo then instructed Eyjafjalla to lift her skirt and walk forward, poking the back of her doll with a needle to make sure she'd do just that.

"... wait a minute, I'm... "

Goldenglow failed to fully formulate her protest -observation?- as Eyjafjalla walked pretty much into her, albeith somewhat hesitantly. With the tencacles stuck to her hips coiling around both her and Lunacub to keep her waist in place, the feline ended up having to arch her back quite a bit, her hands grabbing Eyjafjalla's hips through her clothes in their search for any kind of support, the caprinae's drenched underwear basically in her face, an intense, alluring scent and an even stronger heat coming from her, so much so that Goldenglow quickly began to sweat. To sweat more, that is. She couldn't see Lunacub at all from that position, which somehow made her entire body shiver whenever she felt the lupo's inner walls twitch ever so slightly against the tentacles buried within her privates and linked through some unholy mean to the feline's nerves. Or worse, to her soul itself. No, that was definitively just Goldenglow's imagination running way too wild.

Still, she used every ounce of her willpower to not think about that possibility and to remind herself that no, ghosts were not real.

"Are you alright, Susie?"

"I... I have no clue... " the feline kind of answered, though her tail suggested that, if nothing else, she didn't hate her current situation.

Though it was a bit taxing on her back, yes. And having Eyjafjalla's privates basically on her face was a tad too embarrassing for her heart. The caprinae dropped her dress down, dramatically reducing Goldenglow's field of view, but whether that was a good thing or not, that she couldn't tell.

"Susie" the vulpo spoke as she sat on the floor, or rather on a pillow Morte had fetched in the meanwhile, Eyjafjalla's doll still in her hands, the stand with Lunacub's one well within her reach "Play with them"

"... eeehhh?!"

Whether it had been Goldenglow or Lunacub to speak, one could only guess.

"This is... quite embarrassing" Eyjafjalla commented, apparently much more collected than the other two.

"What... what should I even do?"

"Move those hips for starter!"

"Lunacub. Quiet"

"Just take a deep breath and relax. It's... " Eyjafjalla began to say, stopping halfway through her sentence as she realized that the situation probably wasn't exactly normal "It's not that weird to feel a little nervous when trying something for the first time"

Goldenglow decided to follow her suggestion, and the caprinae made an effort to not react to the feline breathing pretty much on her privates, if only because she believed that would help her calm down a bit.

"A... alright, I'll... "

"Start with Adele"

"No, she won't!"

"You were late"

"That again? It wasn't my fault!"

"... Morte"

"... no wait wait I meanghgf-!"

Goldenglow looked to the side a bit. Her field of view was greatly hindered by her position but, since Eyjafjalla's dress wasn't all that long, she still managed to catch a glimpse of Shamare's ever-so-slightly unsettling assistant tying a cloth around the mouth of Lunacub's doll. Which did explain why her words had turned into a muffled mess all of a sudden. Then, however, she also saw something strongly resembling a pair of toothbrushes approaching the same doll, all the while Shamare seemed to continue holding Eyjafjalla's doll up, probably to make sure she wouldn't accidentally fall down on Goldenglow. That would've been really bad given their position, admittedly. She was also softly petting its head, which would've been sort of endearing had she not also poked the needles every know and then, a whimper equally pained and pleased escaping the caprinae whenever she did so.

Then Lunacub started trashing around, something strongly resembling a muffled laugh coming from her as Morte followed its order and vigorously scrupped the feet of the lupo's doll with the toothbrushes, which had been previously dipped into a special kind of oil.

That, incidentally, made her squirm and shake as wildly as her restraints allowed her to, which is to say more than enough to send an intense and unexpected stimulation through the tentacles still buried deep within her. And, by extension, through Goldenglow herself, as she was still connected to those in ways she still refused to really think about. Be it due to her own jolting or due to the shock which went from her to the other two women, the tentacles sprang to action on their own, squirming and rubbing Lunacub's inner walls somewhat vigorously and decidedly thoroughly. Whatever pleasure that brought the lupo was neutered by the intense scrubbing of her soles, however, the constant tickling preventing her from enjoying her every sweet spot being stimulated. Although that was, in truth, something she found quite fun too.

Goldenglow, on the other hand, had no such distractions to take her focus away from the pleasure. Ethereal feelings she couldn't associate to anything her body was normally supposed to be able to experience shot through her, her hands firmly closing down on Eyjafjalla's butt and hips in a reflexive hunt for support, her modesty -or something that went for it- being the only thing keeping her from burying her face between the caprinae's legs in an attempt of silencing herself.

"Susie, try to r- !"

Her words got cut short by a sudden, sharp pain piercing her buttock, right beneath Goldenglow's hand. The feeling also pushed her body forward, causing every other needle in her body to send another jolt of pain right to her mind, her hips giving in just that little bit needed to make her end up right on the feline's face, Goldenglow's brief but intense panic making her squirm against Eyjafjalla's privates in an embarassing but also somewhat stimulating way.

"I told you to play with Adele, not Lunacub" Shamare said, seemingly as uninterested as always.

"I-I caan't, -s-stop moving, Lun- aaahhh-!"

Completely unaccustomed to that kind of stimulation, pleasure building up within parts of her body which weren't even hers in the first place as well as areas she was more familiar with, Goldenglow held on to Eyjafjalla for dear life as her entire body began to tremble, her muscles tensing up, her every effort focused on not discharging too much electricity, her success on that front being observable but also perhaps a bit questionable. Lunacub's body twitched in response to the current flowing through her, the intensity of the shock being low enough to not pose any harm while still being high enough to cause a reaction, especially because it continued for as long as Goldenglow's orgasm did, which made the lupo trash around even more wildly, which in itself caused the tentacles to flay and rub her insides, which fed even more pleasure into Goldenglow. In fact, had Shamare not gestured to Morte to stop tickling Lunacub there's no telling how that self-feeding loop might've ended. Still, with her soles being allowed some respite and the feline's orgasm passing, the tentacles falling still as well in response, the two were granted a bit of rest, heavy breathings echoing inside the room.

Eyjafjalla, on her part, had made an effort to not hold on to Goldenglow's head and rely on her own legs and on Shamare's grasp on her doll for support instead, all the little twitches caused by the current having made terrible wonders to the ethereal needles stuck inside of her. Her body temperature had risen to the point that the feline's grasp on her would've slipped due to all the sweat covering her hands, had she not still had clothes on for her to grasp.

"Are you alright, Susie?" she then asked, wondering if maybe patting her head a bit would've helped her relax. Maybe not though, she wasn't a child after all.

"I... I have... no... clue... " she panted back, almost wondering if her spine could withstand the position she would end up in were she to let go of the caprinae.

... she was a feline, and felines were rather flexible, so maybe...

"Susie" Shamare spoke, her voice nearly making Goldenglow yelp "Do you have anything to say?"

All kinds of thoughts rushed to the forefront of her mind, crashing into each other and clogging up the junction between her brain and her mouth, getting all entrangled together and keeping every single one from making it out and being voiced. Perhaps because the feline remained silent, Lunacub tried to say something instead. Her words didn't really come out as anything intelligible due to the gag, but she sounded upset.

"Silence, airhead"

Her body recoiled slightly from the blow delivered to her doll's butt, sending another jolt through Goldenglow as well.

"I... "

Goldenglow tried to look up at Eyjafjalla, only to scold herself for having even tried since the only thing she could see at the moment were her panties. Still, she felt like she kind of owed it to the caprinae to get her off too since she had sort of crashed their private time together.

"... can I... try?" she asked, repeating herself more loudly after not having received any answer for a while.

"If you want to, I'd be glad" Eyjafjalla replied, the sweetness of her voice sounding almost out of place in that situation.

Goldenglow swallowed a lot of things at once.

"Lunacub. Stay still" Shamare spoke before gesturing to Morte again.

The doll resumed brushing the soles of the lupo's simulacrum again, albeith much more softly than before, and Lunacub found herself conflicted between the desire to comply and the need to trash around as much as she could instead, ultimately settlign for the former. At least until she could better catch her breath, she told herself. Her body began to tremble again, a muffled laugh occasionally leaving her, but the stimulation sent to Goldenglow by her motions was nothing compared to that from before, even when taking into account the feline's heightened sensitivity from her prior orgasm. So she took a deep breath and looked up, unable to keep herself from wondering what Eyjafjalla's twitches could be caused by.

It was probably a good thing that she couldn't properly see what Shamare was doing, since she had been slowly sticking more and more needles into the caprinae's doll for quite a while now.

A different kind of shiver then ran through Eyjafjalla when Goldenglow closed her mouth on her panties, trying to recall what she had seen on the adult videos she had happened to watch during some lonely, tedious evenings. As for the caprinae herself, a silent gesture from Shamare told her to refrain from guiding Goldenglow through the motions.

Alright, calm down. Breathe. But not too strongly, I'm to close to... relax, relax. This is... don't think about what this is, Susie. Just... just go with the flow, yes. Do what they did in those movies, yes. They... they... w-what did they do again? Oh heavens, I can't remember, did they even show the details on camera... I think I should take the panties off -wait, how do I even do that in this position... ?

Be it because she had sensed Goldenglow's hesitation, be it because nearly a minute had gone by already without anything happening or be it because Shamare had forced her to through her doll, Eyjafjalla bent her knees a little bit, just enough to push her privates into the feline's face again. A mixture of panic, arousal, shame and a couple more things still then drove Goldenglow to open her mouth, place it against the fabric and start sucking or running her tongue over it or both at once, occasionally remembering -and managing- to breathe in as well.

There was definitively vigor in her touch, but... Eyjafjalla couldn't quite find much else to say about it, as far as praises went. Not that she held Goldenglow responsible for that, granted, but the feline clearly had no clue what she was doing. Admittedly, the fact that the caprinae still had her underwear on wasn't of much help either, but that didn't change the fact that what Goldenglow was doing ultimately amounted to an awkward tease at best. Which was... not too bad in itself, no, but also not quite what Eyjafjalla wanted at that point.

Shamare, on her part, simply looked on.

Sometimes at Lunacub, who was doing her best to bear the constant assault on her soles and, even more difficult, not make any further demand or complain. The vulpo wondered if she should reward her for that or not, since she had arrived way too late. Then again, Lunacub actually liked most punishments anyway. In that sense, Shamare found her a bit hard to deal with. In an oddly amusing way though, which was source of a very faint confusion within the vulpo's mind.

Sometimes at Eyjafjalla. The caprinae's pain tolerance had reached levels probably nobody would associate with someone of her frame, the amount of needles stuck into her doll was well over twice what she used to be able to stand, and her ability to remain still to avoid overstimulating herself through their ethereal, fake cutting of her flesh had also improved considerably. Shamare wasn't entirely sure why Eyjafjalla liked that, but she found some mild entertainment in it nonetheless, in the way she would twitch and whimper or moan whenever Shamare poked the needles or added a new one or even removed some and occasionally teased certain other areas with more tenderness. Even more odd was that she got excited from being treated like that, a fact the vulpo had never really bothered to think about all that much. Well, that went for Lunacub too, to be honest.

And then she would look at Goldenglow. Leaving aside the things Shamare had done to Lunacub a week earlier as punishment for having told the feline about those activities of theirs in the first place -it took the lupo two days and a half to recover from that-, she would have never allowed her to watch had Eyjafjalla not vouched for her trustworthiness. But during that evening she had gotten the feeling that the feline was... enthralled. Also confused and lost and embarassed and a bit excited, but mostly enthralled, in two different ways.

Still, as much as she couldn't really see what the feline was doing with her mouth due to Eyjafjalla's dress being in her way, she could tell from the caprinae's reactions and from the sounds that Goldenglow was doing a terrible job. So she pondered for a short while what to do and, once having taken a decision, she tapped the head of Eyjafjalla's doll to inform her. The caprinae nodded and braced herself, two needles then piercing her shoulders and legs again for no particular reason. Shamare pushed those all the way into the padded wall of the stand, to ensure that the doll wouldn't fall down on its own, and once she had made sure that it was properly supported she got up and walked next to the two. And sighed.

Goldenglow froze. Again.

"H-have I done something... wrong?" she asked, immediatly regretting having even voiced that question. Because she really couldn't see herself not doing something wrong in that situation.

"Stay still" Shamare simply instructed.

The feline, however, failed to hold in a weak shriek as the tentacles still latched to Shamare's hand suddenly entered her field of view by moving through Eyjafjalla's dress, some grabbing hold of her, some of the caprinae's thighs, pulling them apart a little and holding the feline up as well. Shamare had considered grabbing her by the nipples too, to be honest. She believed Goldenglow would've liked that. But since she really didn't want to get shocked herself, she refrained from doing that.

"Ahem... are you going to... no, nevermind"

She really couldn't see a whole lot of reasons why Shamare could be sneaking her, shall we say, ungloved hand under the caprinae's dress, after all. Although the way Eyjafjalla suddenly grabbed hold of her head worried her a fair bit.

As for what happened after, Goldenglow wasn't sure. Or rather, she kind of knew, but at the same time she couldn't really believe it. She managed to catch a glimpse of Shamare's face since her arm was holding up the hem of the dress, and the vulpo still had that seemingly uninterested expression on her face. But as soon as she plunged her fingers inside of Eyjafjalla and started moving them, the caprinae seemed to melt down all at once. Her entire body jolted, an unholy mixture of moans and screams -mostly the former, however- leaving her mouth, her body temperature rising to the point Goldenglow nearly feared she might get a few burns just by being that close to her. And she saw her tremble, she saw and felt her hips shivering and then transparent fluids leaked out from the caprinae's privates, her panties being the only thing which kept Goldenglow's face at least somewhat shielded from them, her mind blanking out for a few moments as she realized that Shamare's fingers had somehow brought Eyjafjalla over the edge in a matter of seconds.

Then she saw the tentacles crawl. Since Shamare's other arm was hanging somewhat limply and the vulpo herself was standing close enough, Goldenglow could see the hand those tendrils were latched to rather well, and the little girl was moving two of her fingers as if she was... doing something, the feline couldn't really think of any comparison at the moment, but she was moving them in weird ways, the other three fingers moving only occasionally instead. Being unable to see what exactly she was doing sent a warm shiver down Goldenglow's spine, excitement and anxiety mixing together inside her mind, her fur standing on edge, the need to keep her electricity under control possibly being the only thing keeping her relatively calm. Relatively, that is.

As for Eyjafjalla herself, her legs gave out when the tentacles coiled around her breasts and started to rub and fondle them, running against her stiff nipples and contributing to the burning heat raging inside of her, the tenderness of their touch a stark contrast to the overwhelming precision and -almost- ruthlessness of the fingers scratching and stirring and spreading her from within, Shamare's thumb assaulting her clit at the same time, the vulpo's every touch somehow bringing her more pleasure than her own fingers could ever hope to. Unable to remain still, Eyjafjalla kept trembling and shaking, each of her motions making her feel like the needles stuck into her doll were tearing her flesh from within, intense but highly localized pain burning her nerves. And through all of that she still managed to marvel at how Shamare could achieve such different results from a single doll, since the last two needles she had stuck into her simulacrum acted like anchors instead which prevented her from moving her shoulders.

"Honey biscuit" Eyjafjalla managed to somehow say, to somehow not shout after at least four orgasms in the span of at most a minute and a half had shaken her to the very core, although whether it had been an excess of pain or of pleasure to bring her to call for a pause, one could only wonder. Maybe she just needed to breathe.

Shamare, on her part, had stopped moving as soon as the words had reached her ears, one of them doing a third of a twitch in response. She waited a few moments, then took a step back and broke contact, crouching down next to Eyjafjalla's doll again and tapping it softly. The caprinae didn't answer however, not at first at least, as she was too busy catching her breath. Goldenglow, on the other hand, had nearly forgotten to breathe at all and only remembered to do so when her lungs started screaming at her.

"I'm fine, don't worry. Though this is... I think this is enough for me today, Shamare. Thanks"

The vulpo neither replied nor nodded nor made any other sign of having heard her. What she did instead was get up and walk over to a drawer, returning with a little saltcellar and pouring some of its content over Eyjafjalla's doll. As for what said content was exactly, all Goldenglow could tell was that it looked like a mix of different kind of dusts or sands of varying size and colours. That was just Shamare putting up a show for the feline, in truth, but nobody other than the vulpo herself knew. Eyjafjalla might've suspected something, admittedly, but nothing more. Still, Goldenglow felt the caprinae's body relax soon after, which in turn reminded her that she was still holding her hips and butt for support. The realization made her face turn even redder.

No longer linked to her doll, Eyjafjalla stepped back slowly, helping Goldenglow back into a more comfortable position.

"Is your back alright?"

"It absolutely is, don't worry!"

I think I'll find out tomorrow though... thank goodness I don't have any commitments for the day...

Seemingly relieved at that answer, Eyjafjalla had a brief exchange with Shamare before walking straight to the mini fridge guided by its heat, or lack thereof, and helping herself to a bottle of water.

"What do you want to do?" the vulpo then asked Goldenglow.

"... I... "

The feline looked down at the... creature? Thing? The definitively-not-a-ghost still attached to her and through which she was still feeling Lunacub's insides, the lupo's constant but surprisingly controlled squirming still sending little jolts of pleasure into the feline's nervous system through theoretically impossible connections. Goldenglow then thought back about the way Eyjafjalla had broken down as soon as Shamare had started fingering her, and somewhere in her mind curiosity started to bloom. But the feline was too exhausted already -more mentally so than physically- to be able to continue.

"I think I'm good too, uhm... thanks... ?"

Again, Shamare didn't answer her in any way, simply walking up to her instead and grabbing the tentacles sliding into her lower belly with her free hand. Goldenglow felt something detatch from her, a brief feeling of loss washing over her and disappearing quickly, albeith not quickly enough to not unsettle her a bit. She stood up at last, stretching her legs and arms and back and pretty much everything and then casting an embarrassed, awkward look at Lunacub.

"You can keep it" Shamare said from next to her "That one will fade soon anyway"

"Keep i- !"

Goldenglow only then remembered of the little thing the vulpo had given her earlier, that tiny cluster of tentacles which was currently nestled on her shoulder. Compared to everything else she had experienced in the meanwhile, its touch was so soft and small that she had completely forgotten about it.

"No absolutely not thanks! A-ahem, I mean" she immediatly tried to regain at least a bit of composure as she grabbed it and handed it back to Shamare "I, uhm... I appreciate this, but I don't think I'm suited for keeping it... ?"

"... fine" Shamare answered as she took it in her own hand, inscrutable as always.

"When are you open?"

"Come again?"

"Your atelier. Are you open tomorrow?"

Goldenglow blinked. It took her a couple of seconds to rewire her brain and make normal subjects of conversation make sense again.

"I have the day off tomorrow, actually... but I can open up in the afternoon if you want. It'd be my pleasure, really. I'm sure your hair would look so pretty with just a little bit of work"

"Not for me. For Morte" the vulpo said back, shattering Goldenglow's hopes for a normal conversation "But it's fine. I'll come by when you're open"

"S... sure"

"Are you done talking?" Lunacub bursted out at last, something that strongly resembled but which wasn't actually annoyance in her voice.

Shamare looked down at Morte, which had stopped brushing her feet apparently. For possibly the first time ever, Goldenglow saw the vulpo casting a properly admonishing stare, her doll beginning to flay its arms in the air in response.

"You can use the shower if you want. I still have to punish Lunacub"

"What do you mean punish?!"

"Do you apologize?"

"Never!"

Goldenglow silently took a step back, more out of instinct than conscious choice, and then another. Slowly, her gaze fixed on the scene beginning to play out in front of her. She wasn't sure why Shamare had gone to retrieve a bowl from her mini fridge, but she sort of got an idea when she saw her empty a jar of broccoli into it. Then she got an even worse idea when she poured a bright red sauce all over them.

"Eat" she told Lunacub as she placed the bowl down in front of her, close enough that she could reach it with her mouth.

"You're kidding me, right?" the lupo shot back as she looked up to meet her gaze.

"Morte"

The doll carried the same pillow as before to Shamare to avoid having to sit on the cold floor, then the stand with Lunacub's doll still on it, and at last another pair of gloves. Unlike those she had used earlier, however, these looked thicker, not to mention that they were covered in dozens upon dozens of bristles.

"... no wai-!"

Without wasting words nor time, Shamare closed her hands over Lunacub's doll and started brushing it quite vigorously, the lupo suddenly finding nearly every corner of her body rubbed at once, from the least to the most ticklish spots. Her nipples and her privates too, but that feeling had no hope of overcoming all the others. As a matter of fact, it took barely a couple of seconds for all air to escape her lungs in the form of an hopelessly uncontrolled laugh. But Shamare knew that the lupo could take more than that, so she kept brushing her doll until her eyes started to tear up and then some. It couldn't have been more than a minute before she stopped, but to Goldenglow it felt like nearly an entire hour had gone by.

"Don't worry" Eyjafjalla said from right next to the feline, startling her "Lunacub really likes this. Oh, here, you probably need this" she added as she handed her a bottle of water.

Goldenglow took it, removed the tap and started drinking without being able to take her eyes away from the lupo, and from her wildly wagging tail in particular. She subconsciously avoided thinking about what her own tail might've been doing at the moment.

"Eat" Shamare repeated.

"I'm a pack leader, you can't treat me like this!"

"You are an unruly, unrepenting airhead" Shamare corrected her with all the disinterest in the world before spending another minute or so nearly choking Lunacub through rutheless tickling.

Then she stopped, but she said nothing. She didn't like repeating herself, and the lupo was fully aware of that. So she refilled her lungs as quickly as possible before lunging forward. Not by much, she was still bound to the floor after all, but the bowl was close enough. So she set on one broccoli and bit down, chewing as little as possible before swalling. Now, Lunacub had never been fond of broccoli. She had tried them out for the first time at Volsinii and kept them at a safe distance ever since. She wasn't sure what was worse, their taste or their texture or their stench or the unpleasant sound they made when she sank her fangs into them or the way some little bits would occasionally get stuck between her fangs, what she knew was that she hated them. Another thing Lunacub didn't really like was spicy food, and while her nose had warned her that the sauce Shamare had poured over them was an especially racy one, she fully realized just how intense it was only when it hit her tongue.

The vulpo, however, tapped her own knee with one hand, as if to tell Lunacub that she had no intention of waiting around for her. And so, with tears streaming down her face for an entirely different reason compared to just a few moments earlier, Lunacub bit down on another broccoli and ate it as swiftly as she could, bearing a surprisingly intense hope that the spiciness could somehow make those failures of nature people insisted on calling food easier to eat. That hope, however, died right away, leaving her with nothing but the most foul taste she could imagine on her tongue, with the most intense fire she could conceive burning her mouth at the same time to make things worse, her gums, her tongue, her cheeks on fire. She bit again, fixing her gaze on Shamare as she did so, and something about the way that little vulpo was looking down on her -in more than just the literal sense- sent all kinds of sparks flying inside her head, her hips trembling with anticipation and frustration, her fluids having dripped down along her thighs to the point of having reached the floor.

It was with a special mix of conflicting emotions that Lunacub started licking the bowl clean, a deep sense of humiliation filling her, an oddly pleasant humiliation which Shamare could so naturally inflict upon her.

"There. There" the vulpo eventually said, taking off her gloves and patting her head -her doll's head- once the lupo had lapped up every last bit of sauce and broccoli, a raging inferno ablaze inside her mouth, her lips wide open and her tongue hanging loosely in a desperate attempt to get fresh air to cool her down at least a little bit.

"You did well" Shamare continued as she plunged her hand inside Morte for the last time that evening, getting a different kind of glove out of it.

Lunacub's entire body trembled. The thing Shamare was putting on her hand was still purple and half-transparent but, unlike the others she had used up to then, it didn't look like a cluster of slimy tentacles. No, it was rather slim and uniformous, its shape such a good fit for the vulpo's little hand all three women couldn't help but wonder if she hadn't somehow molded it specifically for that. More than its size, however, what got Lunacub to tremble was the fact that the thing was covered in little mouths, each sporting oddly shaped, blunt teeth and long, bumpy tongues. To make it all even worse -better? ... better-, those mouths weren't stationary, but rather they kept moving around as if sliding over an exceptionally smooth surface.

"W-wait, wait wait wait!"

"Do you want to apologize?" Shamare asked as she got up and walked behind Lunacub.

The lupo quickly pondered which answer would've been the right one in that situation.

"As if!"

"Unsurprising"

"Hold on a second!" Lunacub shouted again as she felt Shamare's hand approaching her vulnerable, awaiting privates "C-can't we do this on the bed at least?!"

"Unrepenting airheads don't deserve to dirty any sheet" she said back, the ever so faint trace of amused disdain in her voice nearly making Lunacub come already.

"... I think I need a shower" Eyjafjalla told Goldenglow as she tapped her shoulder to distract her, because she kind of doubted the feline was truly prepared to see what was about to happen "Would you like to join me? There's enough room for two"

"Ah... sure... yeah, I'm coming... " the feline answered, her hands firmly clutching the hem of her skirt, a very simple question throwing her mind into complete disarray.

Would it feel better to be in Lunacub's place... or in Shamare's one? Or, somehow, in both? The doubt assaulted her.

As for Lunacub herself... let's just say it took her one day to be able to get out of bed after that, two more to resume walking straight, and another one before being able to run properly again.

That, however, didn't improve her punctuality at all.


Thank you for reading.