prismatica | text | un: konoha

[And that's the part that has Rey confused:]

Well, you had to have known what you were signing up for when you drank that tea. [Pause.] Why did you buy the tea, anyway?

[Rey has seen what selection the shop had when she purchased her own Bird Box and Revivify capsules, and had visited it from time to time as well. So she's familiar with what the upsell on those items were. She can't deny the appeal of some of them, including being able to temporarily change your appearance.

[For the sake of the conversation, she's just. Going to at least try to not stare at Konoha's... assets for too long.

[~~Ha. Haha. Assets.~~]

I didn't... !

[She's insistent on that, at least, even as she still doesn't realize she's rubbing her backside- Why would she want to be human shaped? She was perfectly happy being a jinba, thanks?]

I just stopped by a cafe near that weird shop and had a drink when I was running my errands, but after I changed in to this they said it was a "collaboration"! I just thought it was made with leaves grown in the Lystellus mountains, not- those leaves!

[This... is one of the downsides of not being fully literate. ]

[Why.

[Rey sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose (and totally not noticing that Konoha is still touching her own rump. Nope, not at all). Though Rey's pretty sure she read that that there's supposed to be some level of desire when drinking that tea, she can at least parse that Konoha didn't consciously intend to be bipedal today.]

So you didn't actually want to ever have two legs, even for a day? At all?

[While Konoha seems comfortable in her jinba skin, Rey's curious if there was some kind of hidden purpose. There are a few changes she could think of that'd make for an... interesting evening with a drink of that nature. She just tends to avoid purchasing items of status changing effects here.]

I mean, I don't want them... I'm a jinba...

[Even though in her world, it could be argued that it was easier to be a human, to be the species with the power and the numbers to dominate society and not be the one that had been enslaved not a generation past... Konoha had never really wished she'd had a different life. It seemed too ungrateful.]

I mean, of course I've been curious sometimes... I can't say I've never ever been...

[Not having been able to actually read the collaboration menu properly, Konoha had only caught words like "think" and "beautiful" and "feature"... and when it came to beautiful people that she knew and could envision (which she'd still obediently done despite not getting how that could be tea-related)...

Most all the beautiful women she knew were bipedal.]

[Interesting. Rey doesn't have the impression that Konoha actually wishes she wasn't a member of her own species, but she can relate to having a sense of curiosity about other experiences. Hell, she's still discovering new things almost every day.]

Doesn't have to be a permanent thing. It's just, you could've had a different hair color with that drink, but instead you got two legs.

[Her hand slips from between her eyes to slide down her mouth, eyeing Konoha for a moment.

[Fuck. Kimonos are really cute. Rey never thought of that before, mostly because she'd never seen them before coming here. Or most of the fashion tastes people have in this world. But it's definitely one reason she could imagine wanting to have a whole other appearance from the ones she's used to.]

Would be lying to say if I wasn't... curious about what it's like on other bodies. Well, ones that are different from my own.

[Rey's only ever been imprinted in synthetic constructs like the vessel she has now. Each of them are different in their own way, but none of them really compare to horse legs or a snake tail. Or the other crazy changes she's seen happen in this world.]

Who would want a different hair color...

[Occasionally... Konoha's 1620isms show, and her utter confusion over the point of changing your hair or eye color (fashion, honey, fashion) is just one of those moments. Without realizing her garment is being appreciated, she shifts her weight from one leg to the next, half stepping and flexing her knees to remind herself they were... there, and being bent weird. Well, weird to her.]

I mean, I grew up with more humans than jinba so I always thought I had them all figured out, but everything is totally different when it's you and not... you just watching other people... and everything feels different, too...

[Absently, she smooths down her apron a bit fussily, a bit of a blush growing on her face because of what she... may have noticed was different. Not that. It was hard to notice.]

[Shrug.] Sometimes people just want to see themselves different.

[Rey's own mid-22nd Centuryism has seen a lot of people doing crazy things to alter their appearances. Even genetic grafting to adopt new permanent eye colors and traits. Not much unlike the Prismals, really -- just that the modifications Rey has seen are usually a choice expression than a born feature.

[Hands falling to her sides, her fingers fidget against the hem of her pockets with nothing else to do at the moment. She did claim to come for work, but now she's preoccupied. How the hell did she end up this way? She's supposed to be focused and mission-driven, but she hasn't had a goal like that in a long time. Now she's just mulling over the implications of what Konoha says and her thoughts are wandering elsewhere.]

Mn, yeah, shit feels different being... half-snake, too. Can feel a lot more. [She shudders at the memory of her occasional sensory overloads.] Still, there's got to be some perks you're taking advantage of.

[Like the obvious one that's probably responsible for Konoha's blush as she messed with her kimono like that.]

[Once upon a time, Konoha had been friends with very few women, just as a consequence of being the only female jinba in her village, of working long days on a lumber yard comprised solely of men. Since coming to Lunatia she's made a few more lady friends, much to her delight... and even though lines sometimes blurred, (sometimes really blurred, like, sex toy and blood-draining and vibrators-stuck-places blurred), lady friends... it was alright to talk to them about... lady things, right?

Because the one thing Konoha was a bit worried about... is that Iris is rising and she's not. In her actual body. She's lucky enough that her body had never changed much for Iris beyond the color of her coat turning doe-y or her hooves splitting, but this? Could she do Iris as a human???]

Everything does feel a lot more... I can feel every blade of grass I step on...

[She shifts her weight again, swaying back and forth on the soles of her feet even though now she's found herself some simple sandals.]

B- But I don't know about... perks...

[She's still fussing with her apron a little, even though it definitely didn't need it, working up the courage to mutter-]

I don't think I should be around Gonta like this for Iris...

[Before, Rey never had what one would consider "lady friends" to consult with about personal matters. Always keeping to herself didn't improve her chances in having "girl talk" with anyone, other than what she eavesdropped on from time to time.

[And she was a curious little sneak.

[Usually wearing her boots almost all the time, Rey doesn't often feel the earth under her feet, either. But she could see the appeal. It isn't until Konoha mentions Iris, however, that Rey's other thoughts throw themselves out the proverbial window.]

Wait. You think you'll be stuck like this for Iris...?

[Rey doesn't know how long the tea's effects last, but knows what the moon cycle entails. She also knows that, based on what... minute details Konoha had previously shared about her husband -- more specifically, his size -- then her current form would undoubtedly restrict her from certain Iris activities.

[Now Rey is the one turning red, her eyes darting away as her other thoughts go fuzzy from just imagining the ways someone with a human body and a male jinba would go. Not very good.]

You... You know how to, um. Take care of yourself, though. Right? If you have to worry about Iris shit, that is.

I- I don't know, that's why I'm worried... !

[The moon was already rising, and it would be full in two nights... how long did this last? A day? Two days? If it was just a day maybe she'd be fine, but...]

I don't really want... Gonta to see me like this... i- in a bedroom way, I mean...

[So she's... actually not at all worried about tending to her wifely duties physically. She had a mouth, didn't she? And two hands! And... thighs! If she straddled his belly, if she rubbed up against- Okay, she's actually given it a lot of thought, but it's more to do with... what humans had done to her husband and his family that makes her reluctant to pursue their usual relations like this, even if she knew he'd probably try to ignore reluctance for her sake. But she didn't want him to have to feel it in the first place, but she got so awfully lonely down there then the purple moon was up...

And as she thinks she just blushes and stares at her new feet for a too-long moment before-]

I did um. Try to touch it.

[It.]

[So that confirms Konoha hasn't attempted to be with her husband while like this. Not yet, anyway, if she decides to change her mind. Possible.

[Rey's eyes return to Konoha as she puzzles over what she just said. Obviously, it's not as if she's never seen what a female human (or humanoid) body looks and feels like. Rey is all too conscious of her throat going dry, remembering that as a fact all too well. Gonta should be even more familiar with his own wife's bedroom manners, regardless of what current form she takes.

[That's probably not the problem here, though.

[Scratching the back of her neck, Rey's mouth tightens into a thin line after a huff of understanding escapes her lungs.]

Ah, well. Had issues doing even that, um. Stuff, too. Wasn't exactly... meant for it.

[Maybe some solidarity is helpful, even if their situations aren't quite the same? Yeah, that's how some people do it.]

Have anyone else that could help you with it? If... you think you need it?

[Rey isn't volunteering. She's not. It's just a question, that's all.]

Edited 2020-11-25 21:04 (UTC)

[The question... well, it’s a question, for sure. Was there? Over time, she’s said goodbye to quite a few people she’d been close to in Lunatia, including some human men that moon phases, strange aphrodisiacs, and chroma drain had led to crossing lines. They’d all been decent men, all (well, mostly all) treated her kindly and seen diligently to the extra effort it likely took to fuck a woman built so different than they, but... now most of them are gone. She’s never actually thought of it that way, “if I can’t be with Gonta then who” sort of way, because her answer would normally be their friend Mikuni...

And he was. Also a jinba in possession of a temperament that could be very easily riled by breeding pheromones and yet possessed equipment definitely no longer compatible with hers. Not in this form, noooooooo thank you.

So finally, Konoha kind of just lets out an awkward laugh, shifting her laundry to both hands and beginning to walk again towards the clothesline, inviting Rey to follow.]

I guess I should have kept that v- vibrating thing for myself, huh... ?

[But she’d given it to Rey... and kept the large dildo. Which is. Now also definitely too large. She’d checked! Everything was so small now...]

[Most people seemed to have a kind of "support" chain when it came to fulfilling the needs this planet put upon them. With Sanguis, it's easy enough to ignore the frustration and urges because it's a thing she's nearly dealt with already, anyway. Iris people... have other problems than the ones Rey is used to, that's for sure.

[But Konoha seemed to be friendly with a lot of people, if her help staff roster and the responses to her post have been any indication. So Rey just assumed it's a thing already taken care of.

[Judging by that response, though... Maybe not? She turns to follow Konoha towards the clothes line, keen on having at least something to do with her now restless hands, her face reddening at the mention of the vibrator.]

Um, y-yeah...

[Since The Incident, Rey wasn't sure Konoha would want to keep it, though she had considered it when they had enjoyed it together. But Rey hadn't thought of that as more than a one-time thing between them. Konoha had a lot of people to help. She doesn't need Rey.]

Actually, went in one of those shops recently, after we'd, er... [YOU KNOW.] They sell all kinds of crazy shit for... that. Not just for... stuff you can do by yourself.

[But there were quite a few "partner" options that had interested her as well, since it had been so good with Konoha.]

[Maybe not.

Konoha did try to think of it as a good thing. Despite the fact that she’d once been promised a return home by a strange power in a strange world only to end up here instead, she wanted to believe Lunar Scientia when they said that people who disappeared from Lunatia returned to their worlds. So Majima, Shino, Matthias... all the others who hadn’t been lovers, too- She hoped they were home and safe, even if she did miss them. (And being able to rely on them for. Things. Occasionally. Gosh, Doumeki was built perfectly but he definitely didn’t like women...)

Rey’s words are... of interest, though. Konoha can’t lie and say she wasn’t... way more curious about the toy things now that she’s had firsthand and very rewarding, relieving experience with them. She might be blushing, actually looks around a second like an idiot as if to make sure no one would overhear them before,]

What... kind of stuff?

[Just for. You know. Her education...]

[It always seemed like people were more eager to return to their worlds, but Rey wasn't. Not ever. She'd arrived with a nasty wound that went from her chest and out her back that she's fortunate she didn't bleed out when she first woke up in the crystal forests on an alien moon. Self-cauterization and an unrelenting will was all it took to survive, even if she had spent days evading the Moon Knights out there that had no intention of doing her harm. She'd went from one situation where she had been hunted to another and wasn't so quick to trust authorities at the time.

[Even now, she isn't sure she'd consider it trust so much as a mutual understanding. Long as she's here, she makes the most out of a shitty situation, but it also comes at the cost of not really belonging anywhere. But that's hardly anything new to her -- she'd always been alone that she got used to that, too. So much so that she surprised herself with the particular selection she'd taken interest in during her aforementioned visit to a "novelty" store.]

Well, ah...

[Rey pauses, rubbing the back of her neck at first before holding her arms out, offering to take the basket from Konoha. If they're talking about this now, then she wants to stay busy. Help!]

Th-there's a lot more stuff, for... for couples. That... That both women can... enjoy, at the same time. [Because she can't say that she didn't feel something when she had felt good while making Konoha feel good, but the harness didn't seem equipped for mutual pleasure. Rey hadn't expected that there would be kinds that are.

[Lunatia is a weird place. Everyone is so open about these things, and Rey is still getting accustomed to it all despite having been here for a year now.]

[They can both be members of the "been in Lunatia for over a year but still definitely don't get how people can be so public and open about sexual things" club.

For a moment, Konoha hesitates to hand over the laundry basket, because... then what's she going to do? But well, the clothesline is just in sight, she can pin when they get there... and also she needs her hands suddenly. So Rey gets the laundry basket and Konoha gets to give her thoughts away again fussing with her apron.]

At the same time...

[She had felt a bit guilty about needing to take turns... or, not guilty, because she'd been good and made sure to keep things even, but... things like that were just better when you did them together, weren't they? Konoha hasn't ever been inside one of those shops, though, and the image this conjures up for her is...

Awkwardly, she holds up both of her index fingers and sort of... holds them close together in a vague "v" shape, looking at Rey quizzically for confirmation.

Like that???]

[Considering it's Rey, there probably isn't enough time in the worlds for her to finally get comfortable with the idea. At best she's been adapting, if only out of necessity because she doesn't like the feeling of turning to crystal very much. She still remembers how close she's come to it a few times, and... Nope.

[Grateful to at least have something to hold, she takes the basket from Konoha with ease, carrying on like there hasn't been an exchange of weight or bulk whatsoever. It's clear Rey could do a lot more than just that and she's eager to do something with herself again.

[Squinting at the gesture Konoha makes with her fingers, it takes a beat before Rey interprets the unspoken meaning.]

Oh! It's... Kind of? More like...

[Okay, how would she describe this to herself if she were more technologically illiterate.]

They've got d... dildos, that go both ways. And, ah... harnesses, like the one you had, but with an... extra thing on the strap, for the wearer to... feel things, too. You know, during...

[You know.]

[Okay, that... helps...

Still blushing with ruddy cheeks, Konoha looks back down at her hands and tries to rearrange her fingers. Okay... she ends up with her index fingers now parallel to the ground, pointing in the opposite direction. So like...

...]

So like... you both get to be the girl at the same time?

[The 1620's didn't give her the most sexually liberated vocabulary, but. Surely the point still gets across? Don't make her say "you both get to be penetrated at the same time"!!!]

[Whatever kind of action Konoha is trying to depict with her hands, Rey isn't even sure anymore. Chalk it up to being something more for the other woman to work her way through it than for her.

[Fortunately, Rey gets the gist of it, even when Konoha is using a really outdated way of looking at it. She just sucks in a sharp breath at first.

[It's okay, it's okay, Konoha's just a product of her era or whatever. She doesn't mean anything, by it.]

S... Something like that, sure.

[Save the soapboxing for another day.]

Haven't tried anything like that myself, but it seemed... interesting. [Yeah. Let's go with "interesting".]

[She's... it's obviously a two-dicked dildo! Or... harness? Or something? Look, Konoha is trying, maybe fingers just don't work like that! It's hard enough just working with feet, now she has to think about fingers???

And at the very least... this is Konoha. It's pretty obvious she doesn't mean anything bad by her awkward phrasing, she's just used to thinking of gender roles a certain way, even when it came to relations between the same sex. ... And considering what had happened last time Rey visited the farmstead, well. She was obviously perfectly accepting of the deed itself, even if it wasn't her natural inclination.]

Interesting...

[Curiosity, though... She can't deny feeling that.]

Y- yeah, I guess- I mean... If you're going to do it... It's always better if you do it together, so... it's good those things exist, right... ?

[But no worries, because she'll surely turn back to normal by tomorrow, right? Right?]

[It's easier for Rey to accept some of the old terms and perspectives from the people here; she hasn't come across anyone else from her world here, let alone her own timeline. While she hasn't forgotten how things are where she is from, she's built up an acceptance.

[Besides, it's not like Konoha has an issue with Rey's apparent preference towards women. Not that she had ever reflected on her said preference towards women before, so Lunatia had been good for one thing. Gave her a lot of time to do some soul-searching with few convenient distractions.]

Guess so...

[Silence. In an awkward attempt to build up the backbone to speak what's on the tip of her tongue, Rey bites her lower lip. Her hands are occupied, okay?]

Well, didn't get any stuff like that when I was there but, um, if you need... [Goddammit.] If your... condition hasn't changed, by tomorrow... Just... if there's no one else you can ask, or would rather be with, or whatever...?

[Fuck. Now she's the one turning redder.]

Don't... really have anyone to try those kinds of things out with, is all.

[And she's become a little more open to giving those new experiences a chance, at least once.]

[It might be only allowed or encouraged in very specific circumstances in the culture and time she hailed from, (women with women barely ever spoken of outside of the context of nobles' harems or ladies in waiting, men in the world of samurai and monks, or theater actors), but at least it was still... a thing. Konoha hadn't started at square one when she arrived at the very, very sexually free Lunatia.

Now she's on square... like. Sixty. At least, it feels that way sometimes. Because Rey says... what she says, and Konoha regrets surrendering her laundry basket because now she can only keep smoothing down her apron, fixing the ties until they finally reach the clothesline and she all but dives for some of the laundry, quick to channel her nervous energy into pinning up freshly washed kimono, loincloths, and jinba versions of hakama trousers.]

You haven't... found anyone else you like?

[She knew Rey had expressed a lot of reservations, but hadn't she done some things? Or was it a matter like her, where the few human (or in Rey's case, lady?) partners she'd had ended up leaving the city?]

I, um- If Iris is really bad... I might sleep in the storehouse, so, ah. I appreciate the offer... !

[It's not a "yes"... but it also isn't a "no". The last time (first time) she'd been with Rey... her motives had been literally the worst. Would it be kinder or crueler to do it again? But Rey did offer... she had said she'd liked it, even with... the bloodletting...]

[Innocent and harmless as the question might be, Rey's expression turns crestfallen as she tries to occupy herself with some physical work. Holding the basket up for Konoha to start picking clothes out to hang up herself. Such an old school way of dealing with laundry, but Rey catches on enough to set the basket down between them and start doing her own share of the work.]

There was... someone. [She scoffs despite herself.] Stupid, though. Wasn't even here for very long, but... we got all those memories, from what's supposed to be years from now? And it was just-- That shit felt real, you know. Being happy, for a little bit. She... She'd even proposed?

[Rey's lilt in tone sounds like a question, but not one that can be answered by anyone. She knows a lot of people had their share of future memories, of seeing themselves happier after living in this world for so long. Something Rey could never have dreamt of before. That feeling as though she'd made a home for herself here still haunts her sometimes. None of that was actually real in the end, was it?

[Absentmindedly, she keeps her attention focused on her task than looking Konoha in the eye while she speaks.]

So, um, no. Haven't really found anyone else. Not like that.

[Konoka may be willing, but Rey has concerns about coming off as needy or pitiable that she hasn't been able to let down her defenses like she had with Konoha. For someone whose skin can't even burn, she might be playing with fire when it comes to setting herself up for emotional vulnerability.

[She just nods, taking the response for what it is -- as neither a yes nor a no. So long as Konoha knows the offer stands, Rey isn't one to press the matter.]

Edited 2020-11-26 20:04 (UTC)

[Numerous people have told Konoha that there are easier ways to do laundry in Lunatia... and she looked at them, but. She was happy enough being able to wash the clothes in warm water she didn't even have to heat up by fire and not the freezing river, that was enough of an improvement for her.

Plus now they can not look at each other and instead pin up clothes on the line.]

Oh, those...

[She'd thought it was just a happy dream she'd had until she heard other people talking about having them too. Visions of a potential future... and she'd been happy, in that "dream". It had been exactly the future she imagined for herself, the one that felt permanently delayed the longer she stayed in Lunatia... But it means she can sympathize.]

It did feel real, didn't it...

[Konoha can still remember the feel of the infant in her arms, the sound of the older children's laughter and the sight of their smiles... how happy Gonta had looked as he taught them the lessons his own father had passed down to him, generation after generation...]

But if Rey was happy then... It means Rey can be happy. Isn't that good... ?

[At least... there could be that?]

[Far be it from Rey to press anyone on what would be "easier" than what they're used to. She's often roughing it in the woods, and has found herself having to wash clothes in a similar manner when all she has is a pond or river. There are a lot of things she could be doing that's easier, but simply chooses not to.

[She grimaces, occupying her hands with the laundry as she considers Konoha's question regarding the future that so many of them shared. So she still has her own too, just like the handful of people Rey had spoken to about the subject.

[What made those memories feel more real was how wasn't all sunshine and happy times. Rey saw herself happier, sure, but she was also recovering from a series of mental breakdowns as well, and she remembers all of that just as vividly as her "fiancée".]

Guess so. [She shrugs, not feeling very persuaded.] Or it could've been just one cruel joke of something I could never have. That's... happened before, too.

[Better to be realistic than to get her hopes up. At least, that's how Rey has always seen it. Pretty sure her future therapist might've had some choice words about that outlook as well... Rey blinks hard, shaking her head.]

I don't... deserve those things... [The way she says it, it sounds more like something she's just convinced herself after being told such things for so long. After having it so ingrained into her system that she struggles to believe any different.]

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