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*ring ring*

Dacj: *picks up her cell, checks the ID, and nearly drops the phone* Aaa! *manages to hit the answer button correctly as she shifts the phone to her ear* Sorcha! <3

Sorcha: *sounding rather worn out chuckles at Dacj's voice* Well glad to know you missed me finally got back to gaia I'm gonna need to shower for days... or maybe I should just bug Eli to clean me off with magic and spare my shower the worst of it probably still shower for days regardless though.

Dacj: Hmm, well, I do have water magic, and I know how to use it now... *no sense in involving Eli when Dacj's already got the shower-magic going?* Why for days? I figured Nageya had you offworld, but...

Sorcha: Weeks and weeks of Zombie gore and and swamp muck that has had zombies stewing in it... Well I was kind of hopeing that I'd get a bit more presentable before you saw me..

Dacj: Zombies?! Why zombies? That planet didn't sound like one you'd want to stay on for weeks and weeks... *and forget presentability, she's going to make sure her girlfriend's in one piece still, after statements like that...*

Sorcha: Er well *Sorcha now sounds distinctly embaresed* I kind.. sorta.. accidently blew up Magway's portal?

Dacj: *there is a long pause before the kraken speaks again; when she does, it's difficult to tell whether her sigh is more amused or more "it could've been worse"* ....Sorcha.

Sorcha: w-well the plasma canon should have worked fine in theroy, I'm still not quite sure why it lost containment and fired backwards...though the sight of stone melting like ice under a flame thrower was pretty cool..

Dacj: ...I'm sure it was very cool. And totally worth the weeks of zombie-muck you are now covered in. Actually--where are you now? Back home?

Sorcha: yeah finaly..nothing is worth the zombie muck..though I am probably going to build a new one... huh it looks like Lear saw Nageya when he telported ahead and has locked me out of the house...ya know I think I would like to take you up on that offer to help me get clean..

Dacj: *chuckles at the Lear comment* Come on over then. My treehouse is finished, so you can just make your way through the back. I'll wrangle up some towels Mom doesn't mind tossing out afterwards and we'll see if we can't get you reasonably clean again?

Sorcha: Haha okay Machiveli isn't letting me on board.. I might have made her a bit too smart though I should have some thing in the garage from when I was working out the hover tech to build her..

Dacj: ...should I come to you? *definitely sounds amused now*

Sorcha: Ah I should have some thing I can use... though that may be easier... ah there we are a hover bike.. not as fast a Machiveli but it should do. I'm glad I never got around to makeing every thing inteligent

Dacj: *teasing* Mmm, also it heads off some AI revolt, right? *a pause* Should I be prepping food or something too, while you're on the way?

Sorcha: food would be lovely it was only supposed to be a three day trip so..

Dacj: Can you not go offworld again without, I dunno, getting something that'll let you talk to Elti? Then you can get rescued in a properly dramatic fashion. And, you know, not...wait, so what /did/ you eat?

Sorcha: Err well I'm pretty sure Shimy and Nageya can talk just about any where when they want to...kind of makes me wonder why he didn't though that was the only portal on magway.. and lets just say I have never been so glad to be able to eat grass

Dacj: *conversational tone* ....I'm going to kill her or Nageya or maybe both of them. *shakes her head* Oh, Sorcha...get over here so I can feed you properly while I am at it...

Sorcha: haha on my way *a soft rumble come over the phone as Sorcha starts up the bike*

Dacj: Should I go speakerphone, or just see you when you get here?

Sorcha: Well this bike doesn't have any form of auto pilot so probably best to talk when I get there

Dacj: *dryly* Good idea. Be safe!

Sorcha: Haha I will see you soon!

***
Sorcha drove the bike around to the back near Dacj's tree house and pulled out the phone again no reason to have more people see her like this then nessesary and she doubted any one would apriciate her tracking the gunk she was covered in any where. speaking into the phone she said "Hey Dacj I'm out by the tree house."

"Got it!" said the kraken, and then the phone clicked, as Dacj appeared on the wide porch outside the treehouse, leaning over the railing to assess the state of her girlfriend. Yikes--that /was/ pretty bad... "Sorcha, love, I'm going to drop a whole lot of water on your head right now," she said in warning, focusing on summoning her little-used water magic. A mass of curiously gelatinous-looking water emerged from her lightly glowing hands, hovering ominously. "Just step away from the bike first, I'd think."

Sorcha at the moment rather resembleing a some what Sorcha shaped thing made of mud and gore then an actual person was all to happy to move away from the bike and let Dacj soak her.

"Waterfall away!" Dacj said with a grin, letting go of her levitating hold on the water. Gravity took over, and the water came down with a very solid splash. It seemed to have gotten some of the worst of the extra off--Sorcha looked rather more like a Sorcha now--but there was absolutely still a lot more work to do. "One more big drench, I think, and then you can come up and we'll work on the scrubbing," Dacj said, preparing the next volley of water.

Sorcha grinned "Well that was alot better then the last time I saw you do magic~ Fair warning though I lost my top along the way." And her sleeves for that matter but she doubted Dacj would mind the bare arms. she was glad that her belt at least hadn't been lost to an overly touchy zombie would have been hard to call Dacj if she had lost her phone

"Well, I've been practicing," Dacj said, with a shrug. She flushed slightly when Sorcha admitted she was naked under the muck, but, really, when she'd made the offer, she ought to have expected as much, right? Even if she'd had clothes still, they would've had to come off at some point in the showering process... "Here we go, last dunking!" she added, dropping another mass of water on the Highlands Hyte, and then she went to throw down the rope ladder. "Can you manage the ladder okay? With your hooves..." It was something she hadn't entirely thought through, come to think of it.

Sorcha considered the ladder "Hmm well it would be pretty akward but I should be able to manage it useing mostly my arms."

"Sorry--I'll make sure I've got something more satyr-friendly by the next time you come over," Dacj said, apologetic. She hovered near the opening in the porch floor where the ladder hung down, ready to haul Sorcha up the rest of the way once she got within tentacle-range.

"Hmm well a ladder with wooden steps for rungs would probably work." Sorcha grunted as one of her hoofs sliped off the rope, Okay forgt the feet and just use the arms.

"More permanent sort of ladder, yeah..." Well, and apparently Threadinians put fake elevators in their trees, and one of the trees holding up the house was entirely synthetic...she'd have to ask Mena or *shudder* Shimy about it later. Dacj extended her clubs as far as she could, opting to wrap them around Sorcha's waist so she had some sort of safety net. "Almost there!"

"Eh a rope ladder with wooden steps for rungs would probably be enough though you'd want the steps bigger then they normally use maybe abour 6 inches wide?" Sorcha happily exepted Dacj's help up and sat panting for a minute after she got all the way up.

"Mmm, I'll keep that in mind," Dacj said, shaking out her tentacles--less for the muck and more on account of the muscle strain--before she reached for Sorcha's hand. It was less dirty than a full on hug, but got the point across. "I'm glad you made it home safely," she said, squeezing her girlfriend's hand lightly.

Sorcha laughed "Me too reckless adventure is alot less fun when you can't decide you've had enough and go home for a hot bath."

"I think we can manage that much now though," Dacj said, helping Sorcha to her feet once more as she drew the other inside. "Bathroom's this way~" She led Sorcha through the main living area, pillows normally scattered about on the floor now piled high on the futon couch on one end, rugs rolled up against the wall, and made straight for a door which opened into a cozy, yet not overly small bathroom--a slightly larger than regular size shower/tub awaited. Older looking towels were piled on the closed toilet seat.

Sorcha smiled at Dacj's prepreations and did her best not to track muck on any thing seeing the shower she let out an almost primal sigh and turned on the hot water to the shower and steped under the stream. soaking could wait till she was clean enough not to turn the water brown.

Dacj stayed out of the way of Sorcha and her preliminary shower, well aware of her current state of mind--hadn't she been frantic for a bath on Zephyrus? And that was just a day's worth of dust! Sorcha had been downright civil, compared to if it had been Dacj in that situation--if Dacj had been covered in weeks of muck, well...bad things would've happened, likely. Granted, with water magic, it was a situation she could probably avoid, but...

Sorcha sighed happily as the hot water carresed her body and then started to try and untangle the matted mess that was her hair with her fingures "I don't suppose your water magic would be any help with this mess would it?"

"I can try, at least," Dacj said, moving forward to eye the tangled hair. "When you're ready to soak? Then I can try and use my magic to do little bits at a time, maybe." Her gut feeling was they might be better off just chopping the hair off, but she also wasn't willing to let Sorcha's hair go without a proper fight.

"Haha okay, the hair was probably the main reason I was gonna ask Eli for help might have to try that after all~" Sorcha said as she set to srubbing the mud and gore off her legs, at least her fur wasn't long enough to tangle.

"Probably after the rest of you's clean enough you can put on some clothes," Dacj said with a smirk. "Eli'd probably have a heart attack or something elsewise." Really, for someone who was supposed to be defying an Empire or something, the kuppy was so...fragile? Sensitive? Well, something.

Sorcha snickered "You know his entire invasion thing would probably fail if the empire knew how sensitive he is, if the empire has a greco roman culture they probably have much looser views on exebtible nudity. Imagien Eli trying to fight a troop of naked magical girls."

"Well, I know they definitely have looser views on sexuality, absolutely--" Dacj broke into sniggers at the mental image, and eventually managed to regain enough control to wipe away her tears of mirth. "Oh, great mental image. But I guess that's why he's supposed to have the rest of us with him. No eyecandy'll be distractin' me!"

"Heh well I like the image any way, maybe set the invasion in winter might discourge Eli disableing tactics a bit he is supposed to be the trump card after all." Sorcha after a moment of assesment over her progress cleaning her furry lower half asked Dacj "Would you mind helping me with my tail it's a bit hard for me to clean it properly."

"Mmm, we'll see how the timing works out." Dacj moved forward at the request, gently taking up the longhaired tail in one hand while using her other hand to finger-comb and blast little bursts of water to try and detangle it sections at a time. "I think maybe you should avoid swamps in the future," the kraken noted wryly as she worked.

"Heh no arguments there I'd quite happily avoid them haveing mud all caked in my fur is most unpleasnt." Deciding she'd scrubed the worst of it off her legs Sorcha started on her upper body winceing once or twice when she went over a cut or scrape.

"I'll bet it is," the kraken agreed, starting to have more encouraging progress on her Sorcha-tail-detangling mission. She could even start to actually get through the base to the end with finger-combing alone. When she noticed one of Sorcha's winces, she placed a hand on the other Hyte's back. "You okay?"

"I'll be fine, none of them are very deep and magic zombies aren't infectious, though I'm still glad none of them managed to bite me that would have hurt." Aside from the scratches her upper body was comeing clean alot easier soon she'd be at the stage where soap and shampo would actualy make a diffrence.

"That's good to hear," Dacj said, still a little nervous at Sorcha's nonchalance on the matter. Maybe it was just that Dacj hadn't really been exposed to the kinds of dangerous situations Sorcha was used to experiencing...? She managed to finish up with the tail as far as detangling was going to get, and reached for some shampoo, figuring with tailhair this long, it was better to treat it like hair.

"So what's been happening over here while I've been stuck in the rear end of no where" Sorcha asked takeing some of the shampo and massageing it into her fur.

"Well, for one, I finished the treehouse," Dacj said, gesturing around--though the bathroom was a lot less inspired decoration-wise than the rest of the place. "Just before Christmas? Though I didn't really have anyone over until New Year's because of needing to get appliances and paint fumes and stuff..." Hmm, and New Year's. And the frogs. How did she explain what had happened...? She barely could follow the chain of events herself. "We got a few new Hytes in--Jovany and Liesel and Santiago around Halloween. Jovany's a green carebear Hyte with an axe, he's really quite adorable. Then the Christmas Hyte this year was a toad, Aubrey, and Melisande's already makin' eyes at him. He does rather look like he'll grow up to her type... And a bunch of us turned into frogs for a couple days, that was pretty fun. I kept my tentacles in froggy form! Eli had adorable little glasses and he still sparkled. Seth kept his cheetah eyemarks. And there were more than just us, but I spent most of my frog-time with those two."

"Frogs?" Sorcha asked "What turned you all into frogs?" new hytes where intresting and all but mass frogdom sounded like it was slightly more in her realm of intrest then the other news "Was it some thing Mena made up or some thing weireder?"

"No, it wasn't my mom's fault for once," Dacj said, grinning. "It was to do with Aubrey--there was sort of a contest, where we all had to pretend to be princes and princesses and, well, kiss the toad, but it was Femi who got him to age up properly, and...as punishment? The rest of us turned into frogs. Seth was really put off about it because he only got involved because Missy was threatening him with bodily harm or something, and then he refused to eat as a frog, so it was kind of a tough three days for him."

"Huh so it was the staff for once?" Sorcha asked as she started to wash the shampo out of her fur. "Ah that's too bad, OH! are things going better with Seth now? You still all twisted up about Noleie and Seth breaking up last time we talked about him."

It was a lot easier to talk about it when given an "in," a natural turn in the conversation. "Mmm. He acting a bit weird for awhile there--I was makin' him hang out with me on my birthday, and then we went over to his mom's house for Christmas dinner and elf kind of gave me a personality profile on him? She told me to memorize it, because it would help." And that had surprised her, that elf had approved. "So I took her a bit seriously, and then I had him over for New Year's--he was trying to move to his new place without telling anyone, the little sneak, and the only reason I found him was because his heater'd broken down and he was curled up all pitiful looking next to a space heater. And that night went...well, it started out well, and I kind of snuck a New Year's kiss on him and he didn't kiss back or anything, but he was flushing... And we looked at some of the sibyl's memories, since he had Mom's drugs on him, and telepaths are pretty good about ferreting things out of minds. And somehow that led into Noelani, and he dropped a memory in my head rather than explain it...she'd come to visit him fairly recently, to get her things, and that had been painful for both of them--she was crying, and saying things like she'd only broken it off because she thought that was what he wanted, but it was too late now to try and fix any of their misunderstandings..." She was probably going a bit overboard in detail, but the progression of things seemed important to Dacj; like things working out how they did didn't make any sense if she didn't explain the why behind things.

"Okay.." Sorcha said urgeing Dacj to go on given the long winded explination things had to have made a fairly big change though she wasn't able to tell yet whetether it was good or bad just yet.

"So I did what I could for him--mostly, hugs, and he didn't seem to care, so I didn't know if he was apathetic, or..." She shrugged. "And then after the frog thing, he had me over to his new place for dinner since he hadn't eaten in days, and we got to playin' drinking games and kinda getting a bit drunk, and, uh, I kissed him again, but this time he kissed back. And there was--all these other things, discussions, blame-games about which of us was being more selfish since he thought he was sort of taking advantage of me, being 'muddled' about Noe still but cuddling with me, and I said I was worse because I kept fishing for anything resembling affection, and..." She shrugged again, tucking her hair back over her shoulder. "And...he decided that since he did care for me...he'd like to date me."

"Oh so things have been going well eh? So how lonng have you two been dateing then?" Sorcha asked idlely as she started soaping up her torso.

"Ah, not that long. A week and a half or so, maybe? Eli managed to find out, but we've kept it pretty quiet. We both wanted to make sure you knew as soon as we could properly get ahold of you," Dacj said, using her water magic to rinse the shampoo out of Sorcha's tail. "You're okay with it?" Not that she figured she wouldn't be, but Dacj did like to be very clear. If Sorcha had concerns, now would be the best time to talk them out.

"Well at least you waited for my proverbial body to get a little cold before moveing in on him" Sorcha teased, she had planned to tease Dacj a bit more but her being so earnest kind made it hard.Oh well even with a response like that she could have a bit of fun with it.

"Hey, I knew you'd come back eventually," Dacj said with a chuckle. With now two partners who teased her quite unmercilessly, she was a lot better about not taking them too seriously. "I mean, hello, two furry Hyte bodies are way snugglier than just one."

Sorcha grinned "So already planning threesomes are you? Well I don't terribly mind but Seth seems like he might be trickier~"

"No, I don't think that's ever going to happen," Dacj admitted, grinning nonetheless. "But, you know, still. Regular sized couches do sit three, I sit in the middle, pet you both to my heart's content...everybody wins, right?" Well, mostly her, it seemed like. But hopefully Seth and Sorcha both figured the benefits outweighed the hassle.

"Well I suposse I could seduce him to move things along that way~" Sorcha teased "Though it rather sounds like you want to a quire a fluffy harem for petting~"

"Hey! No seducing him until I get to seduce him, and considering how I am on the general subject of seducing, that's a long ways off!" Dacj said, flicking water at Sorcha playfully. "And whatever is wrong with a fluffy harem? You have more fur, but he purrs, so...pretty much it's a tossup. We could probably use some more variety though, you know what they say about variety being the spice of life and all..."

"Heh well I obviusly would want seduce you first any way." Sorcha said twisting So she could plant a kiss on Dacj's lips. After she pulled she chuckled "Though a me first instead of a no is an intresting response~ hmm what would you suggest for the variety then?"

Dacj shook her head lightly as Sorcha pulled back, amused. "You'd better want to seduce me first. Besides, I'm the real challenge, aren't I?" Her question was a little wry; Sorcha knew well of Dacj's anxieties about sex. "And me first is more of a...hm, priorities thing? I think he'd likely resist you in spite of your charm, love, he's incredibly, absolutely monogamous. I don't think I've seen the full extent of it, since he's still worrying over Noelani a bit, but I assume it'll make itself clear soon enough." She moved to work on untangling the ends of Sorcha's hair next--the tail had worked out, after all, so maybe she'd have luck here as well. "And as for variety, wasn't the whole purpose of building an airship to steal away maidens?"

Sorcha smiled "I don't mind the challange, and I was mostly teaseing though it might be a bit funny to see how he'd react. And We could always find some one else to try the three some thing with." Sorcha said with a wink. "Ha ha yeah it's actually not that far behind since I now have all the materials in and managed to auto mate the simpler parts of the design before I left, most of the super structure is finished now."

"He'd probably react by being scandalized and trying not to let you know lest you be offended," Dacj said matter-of-factly, twining her fingers in Sorcha's hair to get to a rather tangled clump, working little streams of water through a patch of what seemed to be solidified muck. "That's good. I look forward to seeing it all together, and in the air."

"Huh that doesn't sound terribly fun, oh well your the one dateing the boring boy and not me. " Sorcha said as she finished rinseing off the soap aside from her hair she actually looked human now, well for a hyte any way. "Hmm you think this tub is big enough to fit two?" Sorcha asked

"Sometimes a bit of stability is appreciated, with the rest of the mad things going on," Dacj said, chuckling. She blinked at the question, but it wasn't entirely unexpected. "You're kind of a giant, love, so it would be a very tight squeeze. Wanting company?"

"Well the only thing that sounds better then soaking in a hot bath right now is doing it with my girl friend~ And I personally don't mind a bit of tightness~" Sorcha said, she wasn't really sure if Dacj could handle it but it would be nice if she could.

"Hmm, we could try it. No tickling though, I'm going to have to pile a bunch of tentacles towards the front," Dacj warned, gesturing for Sorcha to sit as the kraken leaned forward to switch the toggle from shower to bath and put the plug in. Once that looked to be filling up all right, she shed her skirt and shirt to one side of the room, slipping into the tub behind Sorcha and winding her tentacles wherever there was room to fit them. "Acceptable?" she asked, going back to work on detangling Sorcha's hair again. They were very close, but...well, she ought to be all right on the panic front so long as Sorcha didn't decide to get too playful.

Sorcha leaned back letting her head rest agienst Dacj's chest and let her self relaze into the warm water. "Mmm that's fine~" Sorcha murrmered enjoying the closensess and the warm water.

Dacj laid her head against Sorcha's, closing her eyes as she tried to relax as well. "Mmm. I really should've thought ahead and put something a little bigger in her, bathwise..." she murmured. But it would've been very strange to have an oversized bath and otherwise small "apartment" juxtaposed... It was after quite a bit more soaking that Dacj's eyes fluttered open, searching for the clock on one wall of the bathroom, and breathed a small sigh of relief when she saw she had several hours yet.

Sorcha felt Dacj stir and decided that they had probably spent long enough soaking as nice as it felt, she wouldn't want Dacj Tentecles getting all cramped up plus out of the bath they would be more room to have a bit of fun. Sorcha slowly stood up being careful to avoid stepping on tentecles and offered Dacj a hand up as well takeing a chance to enjoy the view while she did so.

Dacj took the offered hand gratefully, stepping over the edge of the tub and moving for the pile of towels, offering one or two to Sorcha balanced on one arm as she picked up one for herself...though, really, she could speed-dry them both. Though Sorcha would still be naked, and Dacj was pretty damn sure she didn't have anything that would properly fit the other...maybe they could drape together some kind of makeshift toga? "So, what are we going to get you to wear?" Dacj asked, voicing her thoughts aloud.

Sorcha took the towel and started drying her self off "Well maybe if you had a really loose PJ top or some thing that might work, other wise we might have to improvise with a blanket or some thing~ though that woun't really matter until we go out and I do remember so mention of food on the way over here~"

"I did say I was going to feed you properly, didn't I," Dacj mused, using the edge of the towel wrapped around her torso to dry the edges of her hair. "I've got plenty of blankets. And Missy's thirteen floors've got to have something that fits you..." She wandered into the living room, dodging the muck trail left by Sorcha earlier, and made for the small kitchen in the corner. "Is this a case of 'anything that's real food' or 'I have a preference I was dreaming of'?"

"Heh Any thing that's real food sounds good to me love" Sorcha said ploping her self down into a chair after she finished drying off "I suppose we should borrow some thing from Missy before seeing Eli about my hair, towels might be a bit much for the poor boy."

"You never know, with him," Dacj chuckled, searching through the fridge to get an idea for what to make. "Did I ever tell you about when he found me, when my seals broke? I was in the shower, and he just threw a towel at me and told me we had to talk. I was pretty surprised."

"Huh maybe it's all an act he's putting on for some sinister purpose then, He was trained by Shimy after all." Sorcha joked content to sit and relax for the moment.

"No, I think it was just the seriousness of the subject that let him focus in spite of everything," Dacj said, with a shrug, retrieving some ingredients and laying them on the counter beside the stove as she reached in one cabinet for a box of crackers and a plate, adding some slices off a block of cheese and offering them to Sorcha. "Here's a snack while I work on the rest of it."

"Thanks" Sorcha said earnestly and started munching down crackers and cheese, it had been so long since she'd eaten normal food that even some thing that simple was delicious.

Dacj nodded to herself at Sorcha's enthusiasm; she thought the other might appreciate it. She worked to prepare the proper meal, which wasn't much fancier--just a stir fry. Once that was done, she retrieved another couple plates (since she was hungry as well, now) and ferried them over to where Sorcha sat. "And your real meal, m'lady~" she said, making a show of presenting it.

Sorcha grinned broadly "I don't think I have ever loved you as much as I do a this moment~" Sorcha said with a dreamy sound in her voice and happily dug into her food

"Oooh, declarations of love, I like those~" Dacj said, wrapping a club around Sorcha's waist and lightly squeezing. "Let me know if you need more, there's some leftovers still in the pan."

Sorcha idlely patted the tentcle and smiled at Dacj enjoying the food "As nice as stuffing my self sounds it's probably not a great idea at the moment too much too fast would be a bit of a shock to the system." Sorcha said with remorse in her voice.

"Oh, I guess that's true," Dacj said thoughtfully. "Well, and now that you're rather cleaner, maybe Lear'll take pity on you and let you back home, and even feed you later on~" the kraken teased.

Sorcha grinned "Seems likely enough and I can always order pizza or some thing if I need to~" Sorcha gathered up one of the towels that hadn't been used and started and asked "You have any safty pins around? some how i think this towel might need help containing my bossom."

"Huh...I'll take a look around and see what I can dig up," Dacj said, pursing her lips thoughtfully as she went to rummage. Safety pins she did not have, but she did return from upstairs with several large, almost wicked-looking hairpins with 'sheaths' that would serve about the same purpose. "Like I said, Mom doesn't mind losing these towels, so feel free to poke straight on through with these pins," she said, offering them to Sorcha.

Sorcha took the pins and set about fasioning a wrap around her torso, once she felt her covering was resonably secure she asked Dacj, "So shall we go and see if we can aquire some clothes from Missy?"

"We can try~ If Missy is around, I'm sure she'll be more than happy to assist you," Dacj said with a chuckle. That might be an understatement--Melisande lived for this kind of thing.

"Heh well that should be an intresting expericace" Sorcha said as she started navigating her way down the ladder, thankfully it was a bit easier going down then up. "I don't think I've ever seen Missys part of the cottage, would you mind leading the way Dacj?"

Dacj went down the ladder second, and nodded. "Actually, we'll go to the main house, and I'll go check her garage apartment--there's a chance she's not home, which means we'll have to muddle around ourselves, but we'll figure it out." Once inside she moved for a door set behind the entrance to the living room, which led to a set of carpeted stairs. A knock on Missy's apartment yielded no answer, though the kraken tried again, just in case. "She doesn't seem to be home..." Dacj reported, with a small frown.

"Hmm so should we just go in, or maybe call and ask peremison first?" Sorcha asked she didn't really know her that well, but missy was her girlfriends sister so she should show her a little consideration at least.

"Oh, her real closets are downstairs, so we'll head down there, I think. The only reason she'd keep anything your size up here in her main closet is if she expects to use it soon." It did make her a little curious, given that Melisande and Seth were supposed to be working on something...but chances were it had nothing to do with clothes, and thus the closet would yield no clues to what they, and possibly Mena was up to as well. "Down the basement stairs we go then~ Did you have anything particular in mind? Something closer to what you normally wear?"

"Clean and fits sound good to me right now, maybe some thing that gives a bit of support since stealing your sisters underwear strikes even me as a little weird." Sorcha said idle as she followed Dacj along.

"Oh, half the stuff she keeps in storage isn't really hers. She has boy stuff and stuff to pretty much fit anyone who might possibly drop in asking for a makeover. Melisande takes her fashion emergencies seriously," Dacj quipped as they descended the stairs. Nah, the first floor or two probably wouldn't have anything, but maybe the third... Dacj couldn't remember where Missy stashed the corsets either.

Sorcha smiled "Well I guess that make it a bit more open ended then~ So she like dressing people up that much huh? Maybe I should let her dress me up for fun some time~" Sorcha said as she peeked into the clotheing racks as she followed Dacj along.

"She would be absolutely esctactic if you let her," Dacj said, chuckling, as she too paused occasionally to peer down the racks, trying to remember the order of them. "Of course, given permission, she'll do things like trying to stealth-raid your closets and replace them entirely with 'things better suited to you' and basically ignoring any protest."

Sorcha chuckled at the idea "Well given the ecentric nature of my house I doubt she'd be able to find my closets~ So what did she think was 'better suited' to you?" Sorcha asked mind swimming in rather steamy directions

"You do vaguely recall how she sent me to your house with an entire suitcase full of lingerie, don't you?" Dacj said wryly, moving down an aisle between clothing racks. This looked fairly promising... "Well, and after I yelled at her for that, everything else I ever wore at your house was basically picked out for me by her. She doesn't have bad taste. She's just a little overbearing as a stylist, that's all."

Sorcha snickerd slightly "That was hilarious, I should let her dress me up just for that~" Sorcha teased and thought for a moment "I wonder what type of clotheing she'd stick me in?"

"Oh yes, it was very funny," Dacj said, rolling her eyes as she started to pull a few hangers off the racks. "And I'm not really sure--you've got pretty strong coloring, with the red-orange, so I don't know if she'd go for stark contrast or try something else... She'd probably try a bit of everything, really, it felt like that was what she did with me." Ah, and here were the corsets. She looked back over her shoulder to eye Sorcha's bust, and then back to the rack. Sizing could be very tricky, and overbusts were the biggest pain to fit...

Sorcha smiled a bit at Dacj's tone and when over to look at the the clotheing she was looking through to see if she could help find one in her size.

"Here," Dacj offered, handing the hangers she'd grabbed so far to Sorcha. "See if any of those fit and are to your liking?" It looked like the kraken had raided the Renaissance-garb section, giving that most of the shirts were very white and billowy, with lacing around the neck and sleeves. Next she spied what she hoped would fit--a charcoal looking vest-corset that buckled in the front and laced tight in the back. "And I'll help you try this one on, once you've picked a shirt."

After trying on a couple candidates Sorcha found one that fit well and walked back over to Dacj "Well I know who to talk to if I want to go to a ren fair, she really does have a huge varity of clothes." Sorcha said as she lifted her arms so Dacj could fit the corset on her.

"You should see the bondage stuff down several floors," Dacj said, not even slightly kidding. Well, kidding about Sorcha going to have a look, not about the bondage stuff. She helped Sorcha's arms into each opening in the vest, ducked around back to unlace the corset part, and then around front to buckle it up. Then back to the lacing, to pull it in for support. "Let me know when to stop," Dacj warned.

"Oh maybe we should go play dress up~" Sorcha said with a wink completely serius but not really beliveing Dacj would go for the idea. After the corset got just a bit snug but not really tight Sorcha said "Thats good, thanks for your help~"

"Darling, I do believe my tentacles make for a pretty textbook definition of 'bondage'," Dacj quipped as she worked on the lacing, stopping when Sorcha indicated and tying the excess lacing into a knot or two. She moved back around front to survey the results, and grinned. "And you make for a lovely airship pirate, Sorcha." Okay, so maybe she'd had something in mind when they set off to find clothing...

"Oh but just imagne with some shiny black leather thrown into the mix~" Sorcha said with a grin. Sorcha survayed her self and then winked at Dacj "So this is the kind of stuff you like eh? I'll have to remember that in the future~"

"I solemnly swear I have not been having fantasies involving you stealing me away from my treehouse in your soon-to-be-a-reality airship," Dacj said, sounding particularly innocent. "But, you know, if that sort of thing is what gets the airship built faster..."

"Given that pirate kidnapings involve a fair amount of ravashing I think it might~" Sorcha teased, Well she had a good idea of how to show off the air ship when she got it finished at least.

"Hmm, well, manage to kidnap me first and we'll see about the ravashing," Dacj said, quirking an eyebrow. She still wasn't sure when she was going to get over her anxieties, but Sorcha did have at least a fighting chance... "So, Eli next? Or can I pounce on you for a quick bit of kissing before we have to call my stodgy brother over to fix your hair?"

Sorcha leaned in and gave Dacj a light kiss and then whispered in her ear "Oh I think you already know the ansewr to that questin my dear~"

"It's polite to ask first, you know," Dacj informed her girlfriend with a solemn face, looping her arms around Sorcha's neck as she leaned forward to do exactly what she'd threatened to.

It was rather some time later Dacj got around to calling Eli, who seemed amused enough by the plight of the hair he was being called on to fix, though Dacj had been forced to absolutely swear her brother was not going to walk in on yet another makeout session of his sister's. Honestly, so touchy...

"I see why you called," Eli said as he went to take a closer look at the rather matted affair that was Sorcha's hair, though they'd managed to clean it up considerably from earlier.

"Heh yeah I figured if any one could salvage this you could." Sorcha said earnestly for all she gave the boy a hard time now and then he definatly had his uses.

"I should be able to, I think," Eli agreed, paws hesitantly moving to touch Sorcha's scalp. "This is going to tingle quite a lot," he warned, gathering the magic to his hands. It played across each strand of Sorcha's hair, sparkling lightly as it set her hair to rights. When the magic had finished, the sparkles died away as Eli cautiously ran a claw down the length of her hair to check that it had indeed gotten everything. "Ah, that should do it."

"You're a lovely magical genius," Dacj said, moving to Sorcha's side to pet the newly unmatted hair. Ah, so soft, just as she remembered it~

Sorcha ran her her hand through her and smiled hugely at it's unmatted state and swept Eli into a hug "Thanks a bunch Bro!" She said happily. thinking to her self that maybe she should go a bit easier on the poor sap in the future.

"You're welcome," Eli said, a little surprised at the hug. "Um, and if you could put me down...?" he added weakly. Sorcha was much, much bigger than him, and his feet weren't quite touching the floor at the moment.

"I'm glad it worked out," Dacj said, amused at Sorcha's gratitude.

"Ah sorry" Sorcha said setting him back on the ground with a bit more care then she would normally give Eli. "Me to" Sorcha responded to Dacj swishing her hip length hair about "I've been growing this my whole life after all it would have been a shame to have to cut it."

"I agree," Dacj said, watching Sorcha swish her hair. "Though sometimes I do think of cutting mine. S'a bit of a pain, at times..."

"There's that superstition about magical girls cutting their hair," Eli said, shrugging.

"The power drop can't be any worse than the one you're supposed to get from losing your virginity, and I assume most magical girls get around to that eventually," Dacj retorted, oddly satsified at the pale tinge Eli's face took on.

"Please don't tell me when that happens," he said dryly, then glanced at his watch. "Oh--you have the gift already, right? It's ready to go?"

"Mmm," Dacj nodded, then turned to Sorcha with a light smile. "Seth's birthday's today, and Eli helped me with his gift. I need to head over to his place in a couple hours."

"Heh well I like your hair, but I think you'd still look very cute with short hair too~" Sorcha said figureing Dacj could play with her power the way she wanted to at least she seemed to be exepting it better these days. "Oh got some thing special planed?" Sorcha asked with a wink "Got a romantic date planned?" Sorcha asked teaseingly

"Hardly," Dacj said, shaking her head. "I don't think he knows I know it's his birthday, so I'm banking on the fact he'll probably be doing something very low key and boring and I can go surprise him."

"Heh Well good luck then~" Sorcha said with a wink, turning to Eli she asked benignly "So how about you, any progress with Kamiko? gotten that first kiss yet?"

"It's shameful. He forgot her birthday," Dacj said in a scatching mock-whisper. "And then, when we were frogs, he was letting Seth's mom cuddle him in full view of Kamiko..."

The kuppy sweatdropped. "Okay, okay, nothing's happened! I assume you caught Sorcha up on the rest of the gossip."

Sorcha shook her head in mock despair "Eli Eli Eli, what are we to do with you~" Sorcha stretched and took a moment just be exilirated by being compltely clean in clean clothes. "Oh well I'm sure you'll get there eventually." Sorcha said good naturedly

"I keep telling him, it's shameful. His little sister's gotten two partners and he can't even manage to snog the one he's got~" Dacj said, mercilessly teasing.

"Yes, yes, you're very talented," Eli said, rolling his eyes. "If that's all then..."

"Check in on Mom before you go!" Dacj said brightly, waving him off.

Sorcha smiled "So what now? Want me to help you get ready for your date with Seth?" Sorcha asked cheerily she really didn't mind Dacj's being with Seth as long as Dacj still payed attention to her too, and after today she wasn't terribly worried.

"What do you think I should be doing to get ready?" Dacj asked, reaching for Sorcha's hand as she leaned against her girlfriend. "I need prettifyin'?"

"Heh you always look fine dear~ so really it would be up to you~" Sorcha said easily

"I suppose since I got to dress you up, you might as well have a chance at me," Dacj said, grinning. "Though it has to look normal...ish, okay? No leather, no lacy slips. It's only been a week, after all."

"So I guess the bondage wear is out of the questin then?" Sorcha quiped as she l moved to look through the racks after a bit she Came back with a small pile of clotheing "You normally favor fairly fancy dress so I figured it might work to try some thing a bit diffrent , I got a blue tee shirt with a large union jack on the front with a black leather biker jacket and a ribion to put your hair up into a pony tail. I figure the diffrence from your usual style should leave an impression."

"An impression, huh?" Dacj said, fingering the t-shirt. "And since I do tend to wear bottom layers, unlike you...perhaps you have a skirt in there for me as well?" she quipped.

"Hmm I suppose I could find a denim skirt to go with it if you wanted." sorcha said wandering back over to where she thought she had seen some thing that might work.

Sorcha came back with a denim skirt a bit latter and handed it over so Dacj could finish the out fit. "So what do you think?" Sorcha asked when she had finished changing.

Dacj moved experimentally; the clothes Sorcha had chosen were rather more restricting than she was used to, between the denim skirt and the leather jacket. But they weren't too bad. "Dunno if I'll change my style completely, but it's nice to change it up. I'll let you know what Seth thinks," she added, with a wink.

"Heh I never said to change it altother but some thing diffrent every now and then would leave an impression, i mean imagigne me in a full length ball room dress~" Sorcha said checking out her handy work

"You'd look very pretty in a ballroom dress, I think," Dacj said, immediately attempting to imagine it. "Besides, the poof of the floorlength skirt would balance out your horns."

"Well of course I would~" Sorcha said with a wink "But since it's so since it's so diffrent then what I normally where it would leave a bigger impression then if I wore full length dresses all the time."

"Mmm~ I get your point," Dacj agreed, adjusting the jacket slightly on her shoulders. "So your impression of this style on me~?"

"It looks good the sporty look suits you~ Of course I'd probably say the same for almost any thing that doesn't look absurd so I might not be the best judge." Sorcha said with a shrug.

"It's good to know you're the type who thinks I'm cute even when I just roll out of bed with horrible bedhead," Dacj teased, moving forward to lightly kiss Sorcha, and then withdrew, holding out the ribbon. "I need help with the ponytail though."

Sorcha pictured the image and smiled slightly "Heh I probably would" She admited easily as she helped Dacj with the bow.

"Thank you~" Dacj said, wiggling away once her hair was done. "So? I've got an hour or two before I was gonna head over--wanna do somethin', or just head back home and sleep in a real bed for once? I promise I won't be hurt if you chose the bed over me," she added, chuckling.

"Mmm a real bed~" Sorcha said a bit dreamily "Well do have any ideas for what we could do? I haven't seen you for longer then I haven't seen my bed~"

"Hmm," Dacj said thoughtfully, tapping a finger against her lips. "We could kill two birds with one stone, and cuddle while you nap? The living room works, or we could go back to my treehouse if you wanted to brave the ladder again."

"I like the way you think" Sorcha said merrily "The liveing room should be fine I think." Sorcha said not really wanting to go up and down that ladder again today.

"Very well, squooshy sofas it is!" Dacj said, just as merry as she reached for Sorcha's hand, the better to lead her along with. Luckily, Phoebe seemed to have vacated her beloved console video games for once, and the room was mercifully empty. Dacj flopped onto the sofa, and threw her arms out wide. "Let the cuddling begin~!"

Sorcha plopped down next to Dacj and set her head on her girl friends chest careful not to poke her with a horn and settled down to relax.

Dacj stroked Sorcha's hair and also tried to avoid getting gored by a horn, though as long as she was careful the risk was not really that great. "I'm glad you're back," she said with a smile, kissing the top of Sorcha's head.

"Me too" Sorcha murrmered sleepily enjoying the petting.

[FIN]

"Are you looking for someone, then?" Dacj asked, brows furrowing in confusion. Someone she had promised to bring to this little girl? Well, she was all alone. Maybe she needed help... The kraken moved down on her tentacles, her equivalent to kneeling, to get on the girl's eye level. "If you're patient..."

"Patience is a virtue and I've only vices," the girl said glibly, waggling her finger at Dacj as if to scold her. "I lost my patience in the mist, just like I lost 'Vossy. Have you seen a smile?"

The scene warped and changed again. Before him now stood the sibyl, appearing just as he had first seen her that time in Dacj's mind. But the words she spoke now were not the words from then. "I had a hypothesis. I was correct." Such a bleak and terrible statement. she held her hands together over her chest, and when she pulled them away a fountain of red began to bleed through her blouse and through her vest, running down her front now in terrifying amounts. She paled and seemed to visibly weaken, but made no effort to staunch the flow of blood and save herself. There was a very subtle change as the sibyl became Dacj, but still the bleeding would not stop. Behind her he could see a shadowy apparition holding a long, gleaming knife. He tried to call out, to warn her, to get to her, but he could not move. He was trapped in place with no way to save her as the knife was raised...

***

"No!" Seth cried out, jolting himself awake with his shout. His heart was hammering fiercely in his chest as adrenaline pumped through his system, and it took him a moment to remember where he was, and that Dacj was here with him and uninjured. It was just a dream, it was just a dream...

She tried to concentrate on his question, putting words to the wordless fears she'd had as long as she could remember. "It's not that I'm so anxious that I can't--well, I can feel aroused, I can want more, but... If I let myself have even a moment to think beyond instinct, beyond just sensation, then I get paralyzed. It's fear, mostly, I think. Fear of hurting you, or Sorcha...fear of getting so lost in things that I don't even know I'm causing pain...fear that if I let go, I really won't be any better than all those tropes and stereotypes." Eli's primary fear of her tentacles might be related to a deep fear of rape, but if that was the case, then Dacj herself...was afraid of being a rapist? It didn't quite make sense phrased that way, but it was close enough.

It was sort of the same reason why she hadn't wanted her magic for so long--because she was afraid to hurt people with it. She had this deep underlying feeling that she was capable of terrible, terrible things, and she'd always sought to avoid even remotely giving herself the ability to cause harm, through magic, in her relationships... Though it hadn't worked perfectly, she'd still managed to muck a lot of things up nonetheless.

Seth listened patiently as Dacj explained her concerns to him, and once again he had to damn tv tropes in his head. "Dacj..." he said slowly, continuing the tail-petting. "I know you would never hurt either of us. And you know why?" He unwrapped the closest club and held it in his hand. "Because you care too much." He set to lightly stroking the top of the captive club with a finger as he continued. "You always take such great care with your limbs, and it is precisely because of your fear that I believe that, even if you let go, you would not hurt us. Worst case scenario? Perhaps a couple of light scratches, but honestly they're not even noticeable." He gave the top of her club a light kiss before looking back up at her with a smile. "You mastered your water magic, didn't you? You don't need to fear yourself so much."

Her club squirmed in his hold, and Seth's touch sent shivers down her long tentacle, as it the kiss--the skin almost seemed to tingle where his lips had been, even briefly. His reasoning--that she cared too much to ever hurt them--brought another's words to mind...

“Like the other, you love too much, I think.” Even Twilight had called her out on it. And if she was being compared to Haiaen Iok in that instance...textbook example of someone who was so selfless she'd died how many times now, in order to preserve others? Where did that leave Dacj? A martyr for martyrdom's sake?

So why did she get this feeling, like she had with the magic, and like she did now, even in Seth's arms--why did she feel like she was always on the verge of causing something awful to happen? "Why shouldn't I fear myself?" she asked softly. No, the water magic hadn't turned out awful in the end. It was possible that even physical intimacy would work out all right. But why couldn't she shake this ominous feeling? "I get this feeling, like I'm capable of terrible things--is it possible to feel guilt for something that happened in a previous life?" And what could she possibly have done as the sibyl, to paralyze her so now?

The cheetah Hyte considered her question briefly. "It may be possible," he agreed, especially considering that the sibyl was still a very real part of her mind and soul. But what the sibyl might feel such fear or guilt over that it seeped into her second life he couldn't even begin to guess. "If that's the case, then this may just be displacement..." he mumbled, mostly to himself. Of course, how to go about correcting such a thing when neither he nor Dacj had a clue of the real source of the guilt/fear would be an issue. Well, one step at a time, he supposed.

"Displacement?" she asked. That meant something like she was avoiding the real issue by transferring the anxiety onto other things, wouldn't it? So what did her issues have in common? Causing pain. A loss of control. Avoiding giving herself the power to even cause harm in the first place. "I hurt someone, or a group of someones, and I'm trying to make it for it by never letting myself even have the opportunity to repeat my mistake?" she theorized, guessing aloud. "Maybe that's what this choice thing is supposed to be about. I'll be in the same situation as I was as the sibyl, and either I'll screw up again and hate myself forever or I'll do the right thing, whatever it's supposed to be."

Seth didn't reply right away, thinking over the matter as well. This choice... was it somehow related to the sibyl's 'hypothesis'? And if so, what had been the results, other than her end? Would this future choice be the same, as Dacj suggested? In which case, one road would lead... His tail unconsciously curled up about her waist again, just a bit tighter than before. He wouldn't let that happen. "Whatever that choice may be, I will be right here with you," he said, with a sort of quiet determination. "Don't ever forget that." He would not let her go alone. He would protect her.

Seth was suddenly quite serious, and it took Dacj a moment to figure out why. Seth thought the sibyl had been murdered, had that dream last night where it had happened again--she could see how her guess would lead him to darker conclusions. But she was a little more hopeful than that--besides the fact she was quite sure it had been less murder and more something sacrificial that'd been the sibyl's cause of death...well, maybe sacrificing herself had been the wrong choice? So maybe she was supposed to live this time. She'd be okay with that.

"I won't forget," she promised, drawing him into as best a hug she could manage, with both of them lying down still. "Maybe that's why I'll choose correctly now--because you'll be there." He was such a strong presence in her life--steadfast, protecting. If she could get a little cheesy (not that he'd know)...he was like a shield. And Sorcha--that made Sorcha a kind of sword, maybe, the more reckless kind of protection. That, or a second shield with very sharp edges.

The unfamiliar faces moved around her, two on each side of her, placing their hands on her arms--ah, they were Voices, but not ones she knew personally. There were a thousand of them, after all, so she could hardly expect to know all of them... Sabra took up a position behind her, hands on the sibyl's head. "Let it begin," she said, sounding almost reluctant. The sibyl did not have long to wonder why.

The hands on her skin grew warm, uncomfortably so, and only continued to get hotter. The energy transfer was enormous, building higher and higher, racing throughout her body until she thought every tiny cell in her skin was burning--that was when she was conscious of her throat opening, starting to scream, though the sound was faraway in the face of the immediate pain that wracked her body, quivering, helpless. She'd known this would happen; it was why they needed the restraints. But the burning--oh, the burning...

But the power didn't stay in her--no, it went down, into the earth, magnifying itself not only through her as a channel, but through all the powerstones buried in the veins of this planet still...only to pour back through her, heading up...to Eltimion's blue moon. The energy was so concentrated aboveground it must've looked like a beam of light, penetrating the sky and into the vast black expanse of space surrounding their precious world...until it found the blue moon, snowy and slumbering.

She would be unable to slumber for much longer.

The sibyl's eyes opened, golden, as the constant stream to Eltimion reached its target, and the still-barely-sleeping Ti'ama reached for the only mind she had to speak through. "Please--please--" she pleaded. And then Eltimion and the sibyl's minds joined, connected by the tether of power Sen'nith itself had engineered.

It was overwhelming for the sibyl--a Ti'ama's mind, even sleeping, was a vast ocean--but they were united in one feeling--pain. That pain turned to wakefulness, as Eltimion stirred, and then came the regret--as the Ti'ama remembered her last waking memories, of being brought to Phanes by Phoenekeia and refusing to transplant, of Sen'nith's creation and the screams that had followed her into slumber--just as the tiny, not-quite-human girl she was now connected to screamed in agony. She could not save the souls that had sacrificed to keep the world below her alive, but Eltimion could save the child. She wrestled the sibyl's mind out of Sen'nith's hold, holding her mentally close as she shuddered, drawing in the remnants of the power the sibyl had channeled, was still channeling.

"Why did you wake me?" she asked, through the girl, not even knowing the identities of those who'd attempted...and succeeded...at the task.

"Because Elias will be born soon--and you have work to do," Sabra replied, and Eltimion flinched in recognition--no matter how often she changed her voice, the Ti'ama of the blue moon would always know Phoenekeia for whom she was.

The sibyl woke, crying.

The pain... such unbearable pain. Throughout the entirety of the dream his heart absolutely broke for her, and he wanted nothing more than to reach through and stop the pain. But this was a memory, not a dream, and nothing he tried to do now would change what had happened in the past.

And as the sibyl woke in the dream, he and Dacj both woke from the dream, the kraken Hyte crying just as she had been in her memory. Seth held her close, whispering soothing nothings as she tried to calm down. That... he didn't see how either of them could possibly fall back to sleep after something that vivid and horrible, but especially not Dacj. His heart still broke for her, despite this not even having been an event of this lifetime.

She felt hollowed out, the kind of numbness that hurt as it faded, her body feeling abused just as if she'd been channeling something while she dreamed--maybe she had been, to remember it so vividly. Dreams weren't supposed to hurt--and it had been a memory, not a dream, but still--had Elti's guardianship of her failed, and Sen'nith seen fit to channel itself through her, to show her...a warning? Punishment? She shuddered with sobs she didn't realize she was making until Seth, in the course of his attempts to calm her, asked her to stop crying. It took a long time for her to be able to, and her breath still caught in her throat on occasion as she slowed down her breathing, focusing on deep and calming.

"I think," she said slowly, her voice unsteady and ragged--had she been screaming in her sleep as well?--"that there were probably a lot of things in my previous lifetime I may have displaced into this one." She'd known, as the sibyl, what was being asked of her--though Seth might not have realized it, she had a deep feeling that no one in that room had even expected her to live through the process...and still, she'd insisted. Had she just not had any sense of self? Was her entire life to that point, her worth, based on the fact that she was the channel that could awaken Elti? "And if that's the kind of channeling I was created to do...I don't think I'll be training that aspect of my magic."

Oh, he had realized it alright. The atmosphere in the room was not hard to read, and that in of itself had only made things so much more horrible. It was a miracle she had survived at all. "Even try it and I'll have to stop you myself," he replied, gently brushing away some of her tears. After a scene such as that, he definitely couldn't blame her for any misplaced fears (though he doubted that particular scene was quite the source, horrid though it was). "Are you going to be alright?" Such a wretched memory to come to the surface... What had brought it about? Their earlier talk of her abilities?

Dacj'd been a little reluctant to leave a promising crowd, but Noelani did put a natural dampener on things, just by being there. And Seth had wanted out, so out they went...

She barely waited for them to get to Seth's car, casting a glance behind her just to be sure no one else had come out after them, before starting up the conversation she'd been wanting to have for some time. "So...any luck finding out what the hell Noe's problem is? I got ahold of Eli, and he said she was just as snippy with him. Something about how she was displeased about nothing changing, and then she went and said something about change corrupting a person? She put him off enough he didn't want to get near her today." And if the empath and twin-brother didn't want to deal with her, Dacj wasn't sure who would. Or if they should. Noe's problems were Noe's problems, right? Though Seth would likely find some way to make some part or another of it his fault...maybe. She'd be watching him for signs of blame-taking, definitely.

Seth had scarcely began pulling on his seatbelt before Dacj began asking questions. So Eli had spoken with her already, huh? A bit of warning would have been appreciated... "Unfortunately, no such luck. The conversation pretty much died right away when Aubrey and Lance showed up." Not that he held any resentment against the other two males, but Noe could be stubborn enough about these sort of things in private; he wasn't about to attempt to pry information from her with an audience about. "I'll have to try speaking with her again in private sometime." Seat belts buckled, Seth turned on the car and drove off. "Did we want to go to my place or your place?" he asked, remembering he didn't quite know where they were going. he had started off for his apartment out of habit, but that could easily be rectified. "Or other?"

"Well, probably just as well that Eli didn't want to come when I called him, then," Dacj said with a shrug, buckling in as well. "If you want to willingly subject yourself to such, sure? I know that you probably have the best chance next to Eli goin' all empath-y on her, but there's no guarantees..." She looked pensive at the question of where--their plans pre-Noe had not exactly been super well-defined either, just meeting up and hanging out... "Yours works." Especially since Noelani had no idea where Seth lived now--always a plus. Not that she seemed likely to seek out the Cottage, if her snippy mood returned after Aubrey and Lance left.

And what was her problem? More importantly, why was Dacj even bothering to care? It wasn't like the kuppy girl had ever done anything other than snark at the kraken. A bit of an excuse in futility, really, to even try and help her.

"Never said there was one," he replied. But if ever there was a chance to find out, it would be talking to her in private and praying that she was in a semi-cooperative mood. At Dacjs decision, he continued driving in the direction of his home. "I apologize for her rudeness toward you. I don't really have any idea what's going on with her." She was barely even the same kuppy that he knew anymore. What had caused such a caustic change in her? And what was it that she 'couldn't' tell anyone? And how or why was she even back in the first place?

"You really don't need to, it's not in any way your fault," Dacj said, crossing her arms. That had taken all of five minutes. Could just be a kneejerk reflex though...heaven knew he'd spent plenty of time apologizing for her when they were in a relationship, or so it'd seemed to Dacj. This time, it didn't seem like it was particularly personal--if she was snarking at Eli even--but there was no denying that Noelani didn't like Dacj much at all. Who knew why... "Mighty kind of her to drop in while she's in such a mood, huh? Though Eli did also say something about a 'more permanent basis'..." Dacj added, making a grimace. Like life wasn't complicated enough.

... His fault for suggesting they meet at Hytech in the first place? For not having made more effort to keep in contact with Noe before now? There were several ways in which he could see some blame for himself, but he was apologizing more for her rude behavior in general than any particular fault of his. "She's home for good then?" he asked, not quite believing it. Something else was bound to come up sooner or later... Guess they'd need to avoid Hytech for a while until Noe found herself another home. Unless she moved into her guardian's home again? It was certainly an option. "Well, I'm sure Mena will be glad to see her. Provided she's in any better mood than she was with Eli or us."

"Good-er?" Dacj said, shrugging again. She'd agree that something was bound to come up eventually, and Noelani'd be off on some adventure or another, most likely. "Yeah...I guess. Mom isn't very tolerant of bad attitude though, so it could end messy there as well." The kraken had firsthand experience--the times she'd fought with her mother had usually been on account of her own stubbornness. "Pfft," she said finally, expelling her breath in a plosive. "Let's not let her mess with our day, okay?"

The cheetah Hyte nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a plan to me." All things considered, that meeting could have gone much worse than it did. Of course, he hadn't exactly had the right chance to tell Noe about Dacj and him either, but still. "Anything in particular you felt like doing at the apartment, or just another lazy day at home sorta deal?" He'd invested in a couple of small board games and such, but honestly he was quite fine with the lazy day bit himself.

Definitely they still had news to impart to Noelani, but...well, she'd throw her hissy fit and she'd get over it. Now. Things to do. "A lazy day sounds excellent~" Dacj said with a smile. Frankly, she was about the cheapest date ever--let her pet Seth's ears a bit and cuddle and she was quite blissfully happy, thanks.

"Lazy day it is then," Seth said with a smile.

It wasn't too much longer before they arrived at his place, and once out of the car Seth took Dacj's arm to 'escort' her up the stairs. "After you then, my Love," he said with a smile, unlocking the front door and opening it for her. "Would you like me to set up the fireplace? or would that be a bit too warm?" The winter weather had mostly faded away by now, after all, so he could understand if she'd prefer to cuddle sans flame.

"Ohoho, feeling gentlemanly today, are we~?" she teased. Though she did half-wonder if it had anything to do with Lance's actions earlier...nah, probably not. Seth had his moments without knightly inspiration (or provocation?). "Probably a bit too warm with the fireplace. Though I'll compromise with a nice thick blanket if you'd like to be a little warmer?" she suggested. Lock in the warmth they'd have by snuggling together. Obviously there would be snuggling; they really tended to think along the same lines sometimes.

Perhaps subconsciously it had, though more as a reminder than anything else. "Nah, that's fine. I think we'll be able to stay plenty warm," he replied with a small smile. The fireplace was wonderful for the winter months (and for that last trip to Phanes), but the rest of the year was a bit warm to have need of it. Still, for any abnormally cold nights it'd be good... or if maybe he turned down the air really low next time Dacj came over. Higher electric bill, true, but might be worth it. "Can I get you anything to drink?" he asked, stopping by the kitchen himself for some water. He had forgotten to ask that in quite a while it seemed.

And here she'd thought she'd trained it out of him...not that politeness was a bad thing, but they were close enough they didn't need the standard protocol, right? (She suspected Seth's answer would be no, there was always need of the standard polite etiquette, that was why it was standard...though probably not in so many words). It was just personally vexing to her rather than a real issue. "I'm fine, thanks," she opted for with a slightly wry smile, sitting on the couch and stretching her tentacles absently. "Oh, I meant to say, nice save with your mom's house as an excuse. I really have been meaning to stop by there to ask elf for something..." She'd given the place a rather wide berth since Valentine's, but some temptations were too great for even that experience to dissuade her. Plus, she'd have to show her face around there eventually--it was where Seth worked, so she couldn't entirely avoid it.

"Well, it's a valid enough excuse, considering I spend most every day there anyway," he replied, slightly wry as he filled a glass with water. He paused to take a drink before setting it back down on the counter and walking over to the living room to join Dacj. "What did you want to ask my mom about though?" He hadn't figured she would be too inclined to return after what had happened the last time she came over.

"Just trying to source possibly embarrassing video and/or photographic evidence of your babyhood from her," Dacj said with a grin. She'd do all kinds of unpleasant things to get access to that sort of "data." Really, she had no idea why she hadn't thought of it much sooner, but it had only occurred to her recently... "I mean, fair's fair, you saw me as a baby."

'Possibly embarrassing' baby videos? The cheetah Hyte had to roll his eyes. "Once or twice, yes. Though I doubt images of me as a cub are terribly different from what you might see on documentaries." Of course, he'd also reached full-grown cheetah size before becoming a child, but he doubted it was that aspect of his baby-hood that she was overly curious on. Still, if anyone had the images, it would definitely be his mother.

"But they wouldn't be random cheetah cubs, they'd be you, and that makes all the difference~" she teased, snuggling up to him. "I am sure you were far more entertaining than regular cheetah--I mean, I'm pretty sure most squidlets weren't as entertaining as me. I'm guessing the human intelligence factor helps a lot with that." Most squid generally wouldn't have concerns beyond floating, eating, and maybe floating some more. Wild cheetah seemed to be about the same, only with running instead of the floating and a bit more active hunting and all.

"To be fair, I don't think most people are as entertaining as you either," he replied jokingly, wrapping an arm about her as she snuggled against him. "You're one of a kind, you know." And he was beyond lucky to have her.

"That is because they do not practice, which is an utter tragedy," Dacj said, leaning back into his hold. It was hard not to just beam at him, all silly-like, when he started veering in the touchy-feely-warm-fuzzies direction. It was a byproduct of a long unrequited affection now returned, she was quite sure, but it didn't stop the urges from striking her. The kraken was, after all, a hopeless romantic. It was more obvious at certain times than others. "As are you, love--and don't even try objecting!" she added with a grin, leaning forward and up to give Seth a light kiss.

Seth returned the kiss, vaguely amused. Jokingly, he replied, "And if I do?" Not that everyone wasn't unique in their own way, but he was rather bland all things considered. Still, he mostly only said that to tease her and see how she'd respond.

"Then I'll argue the point and prove you wrong. I'm very persuasive," Dacj said, smiling widely, reaching to stroke one of Seth's ears with a light touch. He could claim he was average all day long, but the kraken knew better.

"That you are," he agreed, ear flickering lightly under the touch. Of course, 'persuasive' and 'correct' weren't necessarily always the same thing. Still, he'd humor her for now. "It was a bit of a surprise to see Aubrey grown today, hm?" he asked, deciding to start up some conversation. That left only three non-adults now as far as he was aware, and really they should have all been adults long before Aubrey. He supposed they at least got to enjoy their childhood a bit longer this way though...

"Mmm, I hadn't been paying attention to timing, so I really was surprised. You'd think Missy might've been camping out to lie in wait though," Dacj said, amused at the mental image. The sad part was it was entirely plausible. At least Aubrey would likely handle any such hypothetical-scenarios-turned-reality with grace and charm. Toad after her own heart, that one--she'd been getting a little tired of being one of the few goodnatured troublemakers. Hunter couldn't really be described as "goodnatured" in any circumstance, and Cobalt...was Cobalt. "Looks like Hyte fashions have certainly taken a turn for the less clothed."

"A couple certainly have," he replied, able to think of another prominent example right off the top of his head. "To each their own, I suppose." He didn't entirely approve, but it wasn't particularly any of his business in the first place. "... Though Aubrey may want to hope that he doesn't run into Georgie anytime soon." That chameleon was a bit... there wasn't a good term for it.

"I suppose you and your warmth-needs wouldn't understand the freedom of the scantily clad," Dacj teased. She looked thoughtful at the mention of the chameleon Hyte. "I don't think I've ever met Georgie, or if I have, it was only in passing. I'm sure Aubrey can probably talk his way out of trouble if he needs to!" There really was no telling--the toad could be totally and completely gay and Missy might be devastated. "But I haven't shown you what I'm likely to wear in dancing performances, have I? Since I'm training primarily in bellydancing styles..."

"Staying fully dressed has nothing to do with 'warmth needs'," he replied with a roll of his eyes. And he hadn't ever properly 'met' Georgie either, but he had seen him before at an... 'interesting' time and had heard plenty on his antics prior to then. "And no, I can't say that you have." Though if it was anything like what she wore on Valentine's Day, he certainly wouldn't mind seeing it. Come to think of it, he'd never seen her do any solo dancing period... "How are your dancing lessons going?"

"Privacy needs then?" she said, cheeky grin pitted against his eyeroll. "They're going well enough~ Since things have been quiet I've been able to progress in my studies a little. Still kind of looking for a mentor to...sort of do an apprenticeship with? They'll hopefully be able to get me into venues and onto programs and basically help me build up a network of my own for when I start freelancing," she explained matter-of-factly. "I'm pretty sure I have a naturally unique pitch--squidgirl with ten legs and all--but there's still plenty of work to do for promotion in the meantime. And costume design. I can probably let Missy handle that..." Missy would probably pitch a fit if she didn't let the pig handle it. "But I should show you sometime. Costumes. Dancing. Both."

Seth decided it may be best to just let the clothing conversation go. "I'm sure you'll be excellent," he replied, lowering his head to give her another kiss. "And you should show me. When you're ready." He was admittedly rather curious as to what her dancing would look like, as he couldn't quite picture it in his mind. She was definitely determined in following this path though, and he knew with as much work as she put into it that she would be excellent.

"Ready?" Somehow it was phrased in such a way that it sounded more like...like a personal boundary to be overcome than a matter of gathering together materials and a bit of practice. "If I were slightly less scatterbrained, I'd be able to show you something right now~ But in return for your patient waiting, I'll work on something really special," she promised, with a grin. There were a couple things she could think of, off the top of her head, that might prove entertaining... "My first non-'school' related performance--it should be fun!" There was no doubt that Seth would prove an easy audience to win over...especially since he was already wholeheartedly on her side.

By 'ready' he had merely meant prepared, as he doubted that she was ready for such dancing at a moment like now for example. "No need to go through any extra trouble," he replied with a small smile. "Though I certainly look forward to it." Not that he was especially hard to please; any time spent with the kraken was quite enjoyable.

"Extra trouble can be fun though," she protested--really, it could almost be her motto. Dacj was never one to shun a little work if it meant a more satisfying payoff. "And you should! S'not everyday you get to see a kraken dance, after all~ Well. Until I start doing it as a real source of income and then it probably will be most days," she amended with a smile and a shrug.

"Whether it's 'most days' or once a year, it doesn't matter," he replied with a smile, lightly kissing her on the head. "I will always love to watch you move." The sentiment was playful, but entirely genuine. While some might have been put off by Dacj's rather unusual anatomy, for him it didn't remotely detract from the person inside. Thus he was able to appreciate its own unique beauty more fully. "We'll have to dance together again sometime."

His playful admission had her wrapping her arms around his waist and squeezing him tight in a rush of affection. If he would always love to watch her move, she would always love to make him watch--and certainly she had plans brewing to that effect...showing off both her skill and body to best advantage for this future private performance. "I'd love to dance you with again. More practice in private or are we going to brave a public venue sometime? There are plenty of classy dance clubs, if you know where to look." Or there was always sneaking back into Eli's apartment's sim room, which was a brilliant mood setter. Lock the room next time, maybe...

"Perhaps a bit of private practice before trying public?" he replied. He didn't exactly know much besides basic slow dancing, so some practice would definitely be helpful. "I would trust you more with picking the dance clubs. I don't exactly get out much." Not that he especially planned to change that anytime soon, but he could at least make an effort to get out more with Dacj if not on his own.

"That's acceptable," Dacj agreed, with a smile. "As for clubs, I'll ask around in my classes. I'm sure my fellow dancers ought to have a recommendation or two." She didn't really expect Seth to be something other than a homebody, though the idea of him randomly being knowledgeable about the hottest spots in town was a little amusing. Besides, for every night they might go out, she wouldn't mind several at either of their homes. And Sorcha alone was adventurous enough for two or three Dacjs, probably--if she had two partners like that, even the kraken was sure she'd get worn out before too long. "And you get out plenty...you just need a bit of motivation to do so, eh~?" It probably had been awhile, though...they really should go out, do an on-the-town date. Even if it was all-too-tempting to stay at home and snuggle away...

"Oh, I know of a couple of good clubs nearby," the cheetah Hyte remarked jokingly, holding one of her clubs in each hand. "But yes, I'll try to make more of an effort to go out." Pleasant though their time alone was, Dacj was sure to appreciate the occasional dinner outing at the very least. It wasn't as if he was any sort of chef after all.

"Is that so~?" she said, grinning, flexing her club-"hands" around his. "The effort is mine to make as well~ I've been lazy recently, really." There was the finishing the treehouse, and Jasper's party, and all the distractions of this relationship...well, they were probably getting to the point they could be seen in public without inducing cavities. Though NRE was always the fun part... (said she of a whole two relationships; she was well aware pretending to be an expert on relationships was a bit silly) "And there are advantages to staying in," Dacj added brightly, as she slipped a hand under Seth's shirt to lightly stroke his side.

"That there are," he agreed, quite liking where this might be going. He couldn't entirely return the favor at the moment given that she was wearing a dress today instead of a shirt and skirt combo, so he instead opted to draw her into a loving kiss. It was certainly as good a place to start as any.

No matter how the day had started, Dacj was rather liking it as of now. She returned Seth's kiss eagerly, tentacles crawling slowly across his legs as she moved to sit in his lap. Her clubs wrapped around his torso and back around again, as her hand on his skin explored restlessly.

That definitely elicited a pleasant reaction from her. Hands free of clubs now, the cheetah Hyte placed them on either side of Dacj's waist, continuing the kiss as she moved over. He definitely didn't mind staying in, and even began a faint purring as further proof. His hands too explored, despite the barrier of her dress.

It wasn't long before Dacj's slim fingers found the powerstone lying against Seth's chest, and she lightly batted T'gillan back and forth between two fingers. Her other hand brushed back into his hair, and her head tilted slightly to one side as they continued to kiss. Truthfully, with the purring, she wouldn't have minded simply laying her head against his chest and listening to the faint rumble, but kissing was rather fun too. Plenty of time to enjoy cheetah purring later...

Seth almost sensed an inkling of annoyance from the stone against his chest, but he was much too pleasantly involved at the moment to actually notice it. One of his hands moved up her back and into her hair while the other stayed down below to help hold her. His tail joined in, wrapping itself comfortably about her waist (as far as the tail could 'wrap' anyway).

Free of semi-dormant-psychic links to said stone, Dacj couldn't sense T'gillan's annoyance, and had no problem continuing to toy with the powerstone, as it made for an interesting tactile experience, touching the crystal and chain. The metal and stone certainly made a stark counterpoint to the warmth and feel of Seth's skin... Though it did have a very sharp point...would probably have to be taken off at some point. Before they got too distracted maybe--though it was a little hard to stay focused on anything other than the feel and sensation of the moment...

The irritated vibes continued, but so did the total lack of noticing from either party. ... They were idiots, both of them. [Flattered though I am to be included in this little impromptu 'threesome' of yours, if the miss would kindly stop feeling me up that would be much appreciated.] He addressed the message to both parties this time.

Seth blinked in surprise the moment T'gillan's voice entered his mind, more surprised to actually be able to hear the other than at the stone's words themselves. Had it actually gotten strong enough to project to other minds? Or had he himself only heard it because he was so closely linked to the stone? "Um, Dacj, you may want to stop messing with T'gillan a bit there," he remarked, not realizing that she had heard the stone too.

It wasn't surprising that Seth didn't realize she hadn't heard T'gillan as well, because she'd only pulled back slightly at the disembodied voice, still cupping the powerstone in the palm of a hand. She looked from Seth to the stone, and then back to Seth again with wide eyes. "I heard him too," she said, blinking, before giving the stone her best skeptical look. It felt rather silly, to be trying to act stern to a crystal. "And it's hardly a threesome, you're made out of Seth's thoughts and impressions," she pointed out wryly to T'gillan, assuming if the stone was active enough to project into her mind, he could probably read the echo of her audible speech in her mind too. Besides. It wasn't her fault T'gillan was all...self-aware? Though for something that had come from Seth...he didn't seem much like the cheetah at all. Then again, powerstones themselves were also dead-Phoenekeia-bits, so T'gillan was inherently a mix of Shimy and Seth...? Ick, did not want to go down that mental road...

"I'm not quite so sure on that," Seth remarked wryly, also glancing down at the stone in her hand. He hadn't had much conversation with it, but it was definitely nothing like him. Perhaps the blankness he had perceived in the beginning was merely an evil trick to lure him into a false sense of security. Yes, that was it.

[Ya don't get off that easy. I was as blank as your own head before,] T'gillan replied in answer to Seth's unspoken thoughts before turning its 'attention' back to Dacj. [Yes and no. I like to think of myself as more of... a reaction to his thoughts, so to speak. A balancing opposite force of sense, if you will.]

"... You know, I could always just go stuff him back in a drawer."

[Oh darn. And I was so enjoying this lovely chat.]

There was something ironic about a piece of stone "thinking of itself" in general, let alone having an opinion. And if there was anything it seemed T'gillan had, it was a lot of opinions. Clearly he grated on Seth's nerves--Dacj suspected it was likely due to a conversation tangent she couldn't hear. Seth had been pretty irritated with T'gillan the last time the stone had spoken (to Dacj's knowledge) as well.

"I'm not sure on the 'sense' part, but I'll give you the reaction and opposite," Dacj agreed...it was clear that in T'gillan's case, opposite sensibilities did not "attract" and probably if the stone was minded he'd bicker all the day long with Seth. She looked up at the cheetah's suggestion, shrugging. "You could? I suspect if you do it ingloriously he probably won't stop talking at you to get back at you," she said. Because if she were T'gillan, it was basically what she'd do. She had to wonder briefly what that said about her, if she was correct in predicting the stone's course of action. Well, she did know the stone didn't like being tossed about, from last time.

Oh, silly kraken. How little she knew of him.

"Possibly," Seth replied, though given how quiet the stone was on a normal basis, he somehow doubted it. As far as he could gather T'gillan preferred silence and only spoke when it felt that it must.

[What do ya know, you're not so dull after all.]

[Just shut up.]

[Put me somewhere safe and out of the way, then I will.]

The cheetah Hyte rolled his eyes. "I'll be right back, Love," he said, leaning in briefly to kiss Dacj one last time before pulling away so that he could put T'gillan in his room. He'd need to start finding a safe spot to store the stone for times like this where he had to take it off.

Dacj tucked her hands together in her lap, swinging her tentacle-tips lightly to and fro as she watched him disappear into the bedroom. It was one of the the hazards of living around magic, she supposed, interruptions like T'gillan. For all Dacj knew, Elti could be watching through her as well (as much as the kraken liked the Ti'ama, the idea of her spying on such moments was a little...mood-killing?). It was just par for the course. Especially when one's boyfriend was a pseudo-not-quite-permanent telepath and, in the case of Elti, one's soul was irrevocably tied to a world dragon (Contract or no Contract). Sometimes she wondered what it felt like to be a normal person, really...then again, normal people probably also did not have tentacles and twelve limbs.

There was another short and silent comment exchange as Seth put the powerstone in his nightstand drawer, but he returned to the living room quickly enough. "Sorry about that," he said apologetically, sitting back down on the couch with Dacj. "I tend to forget that he can talk now." Or rather, he hadn't known that he could still communicate with them even if his telepathy wasn't active. Learn something new every day.

"He has a very interesting voice," Dacj said, amused enough to let the apology slide despite the fact it really wasn't his fault. Dacj'd been the one to annoy T'gillan, or so it had seemed given it'd been her actions that caused him to speak up... "The fact that he can project even to me probably says you're working too hard though," she said, trying to sound lighthearted even though she really meant it seriously. He worked way too hard sometimes--to the point of dreaming about studying! Sure, the missions were serious business, but lightening up a teensy bit wouldn't kill him...probably.

"I would think that'd be more 'worked'," he replied with a wry smile. After all, he'd hardly been practicing his telepathy that intensely since before the detox even, focusing more on the healing instead. He really ought to practice more again, actually, considering that there had been enemies on both trips to Phanes now... If anything, he'd not worked enough, and he needed to get back on that.

"True enough," she agreed. "Just keep T'gillan in mind as an example of what happens if you're all study. It's like hallucinating from overwork, only more real." And presumably more annoying.

The example of hallucinations amused him, and he might have even considered it for a moment had T'gillan not spoken to them both. "He'd have cropped up eventually," he replied smoothly. After all, the talking itself could just as easily be attributed to their constant proximity and connection rather than specifically training too much. It was probably only the former, really. "Still don't get what he's supposed to be based off of though."

"Maybe," Dacj said doubtfully. As far as she could tell, it wasn't like the stone had originally been intended to hold a personality (like the famous Link of Aikatyrine's). Most of them weren't. Most of them didn't talk. It was a tough call, and Dacj was hardly an expert on powerstone lore or anything. "If I squint really hard and take him at his word as more reacting to you and your thought patterns, I can sort of see where he'd come from. I'm mostly going off what you've implied about him though...like the impression that he really irritates you." If they had opposite manners but somewhat similar thought patterns--that could explain the head-butting easily enough. "Though I guess he's not much of a bother until we start throwing him around or I 'feel him up' or something," she added wryly.

He still didn't see it. "Fortunately. I'll just have to be more conscious about remembering to take him off in the future," he agreed. Then there wouldn't be any issues in dealing with him. He was rather sarcastic for a stone... Maybe there was one minute similarity there. Lightly stroking a nearby tentacle, he asked. "Did you wish to pick up where we left off then?"

"I think remembering would go a long way towards preventing future interruptions, yes," Dacj said with a smile, which only grew wider at his question. "It could be arranged easily enough~" she answered, wrapping a club around his middle. She placed her hands against his chest, poised for button-fiddling if the mood just happened to require it. She had a suspicion that it quickly might. "Which is to say, yes," she added, moving in for a kiss.

Well good, he was glad to see that the mood hadn't been completely destroyed. He kissed her back lovingly, hands finding their way around to her back. The day might have started off a bit odd, but really the alone time now with Dacj more than made up for it. So long as they were there to support one another, what could really keep them down?