2.17 – Misc

None prolly

Oof, ow, my back! Am I getting old, already?

That was Maple's first thought upon waking; that she'd thrown her back out, or whatever someone older than her might say, with sex. They hadn't even been gone at it all night, but did other things together afterward.

Thera and her team were leaving that next morning, so they had all ate and drank and hung out for a bit while discussing some of that. It made Maple worry for them.

Before the three of them had gone to bed together, Maple and Emma planted their seed baby and left it on the windowsill of their room. Names came up, but they were still, officially, undecided.

Maple had put forward Vin, and Emma had readily agreed—as she had with her own name which Maple had given her, and which had also been a quick letter rearrangement.

But Vin wasn't even rearranged, and had only a single letter removed from the end. Maple was hesitant to actually go with that. Maybe it'd be able to communicate like the original had, and could then tell them what it wanted to be called. They could make a Ouija board for it.

And well, that had begun. Soon they would be parents, with the oddest adopted child ever. Maple wasn't sure how to feel about it. At worst, it was a plant, and could just...chill in the window? Emma was happy, at least, and Maple would just have to deal with things as they came. She'd be a plant mom soon.

But Maple wasn't old, and it wasn't her lower back that hurt; the pain came from between her shoulder blades. She rubbed the spot now, and gasped. As a human back on Earth, feeling such protrusions would have immediately made her think cancer. Extremely aggressive overnight cancer!

But she wasn't on Earth, and she wasn't entirely human. She rubbed at the tender bumps, and plainly spoke the truth of the situation.

"Ow. My wings are growing in."

It felt weird to say; not something she'd ever imagined saying with any kind of seriousness unless she'd completely lost it. They were sore and still beneath her skin, two lumps the size of baseballs in diameter, with half as much depth.

How cool, though. Her body was growing wings. She'd be able to fly. She truly wasn't entirely human anymore. She wasn't sure why that last one was nice, but it was. Emma gently felt at her back with a curious look.

Maple rolled over to her stomach and onto Thera, her head perfectly aligned between two natural pillows. She smiled at Emma.

"Your Maple is evolving, cutie. Ow, they're sore."

Thera joined in on gently feeling the lumps growing out of Maple's back.

"You sure they're wings? Could be back boobs."

Maple chortled.

"No they could not be. Jeez."

"Maybe something went wrong in the transformation, you never know."

"Oh shush, you."

Maple kissed Thera, putting an end to her teasing. Back boobs. Emma soon tried to make the kiss a three-way, which didn't really work, it turned out. Maple giggled and pulled away.

"That was kinda fast though, I think. Maybe it's because I've been—been such a slut lately, huh?"

Maple looked at her two girlfriends, warmth filling her face. She was trying to be provocative, but they'd all just woken up and being so forward was a little embarrassing. Thera chuckled.

"Yep. She's our hot slut, isn't she Em? Come here, let me taste you before I leave."

Emma agreed that she was with a lewd smirk, and Thera guided Maple up her body until she was sitting on her face. Emma took care of Thera's lower half in the meantime.

It was a great way to start any day. Back in the Before, doctors had often asked whether or not she was sexually active as one of their routine questions. The answer now would be far different than it had been back then. If she shared too much, she might even get some kind of diagnosis out of it.

Jokes aside, Maple loved it. She was finally embracing her sexuality, and she loved it. If it might be too frequent—well, it was probably just a honeymoon phase. And it was kind of like food with her new physiology, anyway.

Her life wasn't being affected negatively by it, was the point, and Thera did leave with her team afterward. She was just making the most of their limited time together.

After breakfast, Maple left the Copper Butterfly and headed for the dorm where Bailey lived. She wasn't positive it was his day off, or if it was, that he would even be home. Either way, it felt a little awkward just showing up there. Life without phones was full of annoyances.

Emma planned to go to work in the evening, but stayed behind at the inn to do whatever an Em does; they weren't totally attached at the hip, and Maple had made sure she was still okay after yesterday. She seemed to be.

Maple avoided looking at anyone else navigating the dorm halls, and luckily there were only a few. She knocked on Bailey's door and shifted from foot to foot. After ten seconds, she knocked again, louder. After another dozen seconds, she assumed he wasn't home and turned to leave. The door opened right as she did.

"Hrr, Maple. Hi, what's up?"

"Oh, you're home. I wasn't sure if it was your day off or not, but I guess it is? I just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out today?"

Maple glanced down the hallway, more than a little awkward in the male's section of the dorm. A guard's dorm, on top of that. Both made her feel a little uneasy. Bailey noticed, and waved her in.

"Uh, yeah, I'm free today. What'd you wanna do?"

"I was thinking of going to that library. I still haven't been, and you talked about it before, so. I was wondering if they'd have any spellbooks or something I could learn from? But also, since I am already here either way, we could do something else if you wanted? And your roommate isn't here?"

Bailey was shirtless, and didn't seem to think anything of that fact. Maple could see some of his muscles through his fur. She was already getting distracted by him, and let her gaze linger. It made her implication clear, right? Bailey nodded.

"Yeah, it's his shift today. But oh, you still haven't been? I love the Sybrarium. We can go do that. They do have a few spellbooks, but I'm not sure how helpful they'll be. Are you going to try to become a [Mage] or something?"

Maple considered being a little more direct, just to make sure he wasn't interested in what she was offering—but no, the library had been her goal. This was fine. She hadn't told him about the erogel transformation yet, or even about Earth. Maybe she would once her wings were fully grown.

"Yeah, something like that. I've been gone for a few days, and some stuff happened. It's a long story, but my classes are gone, and [Mage] would be a good path forward for me. Oh but, I did keep all of my, uh, lewd Skills as Bound Spells. They got converted."

Maple smirked. Mentioning her lewd Skills was Bailey's second chance. If he asked more about them, and if she guided the conversation just right...

"Ah. That's, hrr, good?"

"Yeah! I'm really happy about it. I can give other people, um, dicks now...And the other Skills I had..."

She was happy about it, but Maple found herself blushing and clamming up before she could explain further. Bailey nodded again.

"Then yeah, that's great. I'm happy for you. It must have been a lot of stuff if it led to a class reset. Hrr, let me just get dressed and we can go."

"Oh, sure."

Maybe he simply wasn't interested. Maple focused her mind, but couldn't look away from his midriff as he pulled a shirt on.

"Welcome to the Sybrarium; Syber's library and planetarium. General admission is free, however certain areas may require the purchase of a ticket or library card to access. My synthetic knowledge base is trained to answer a number of keywords, as well as search through our full inventory of books by title. If you require directions, wish to obtain a library card, or need any assistance, do not hesitate to ask either myself or another staff member."

"Whoa, it's like a rob—uh. Golem?"

The thing had a human torso, but below that were four spider-like legs. Parts of its body were made of wood, metal, and even stone. Two black gems cut in a circular shape made up its eyes. Its voice sounded somewhat synthetic, and came from a mouth hinged like a puppet's.

"Golem is right, and it's pretty advanced. There's others like it throughout the library, and they're all linked together somehow."

"Ah, how cool. I've never seen one before. Does it have a name—"

"Wait, don't ask it that—"

Bailey tried to stop her, but it was too late. The golem's mouth moved rhythmically up and down.

"558 entries are registered as names. I will respond to any of the following: Sybra, Golly, Lee, Staff Member, Golem, Sally—"

"Hrr. I tried to warn you. That part of it has never worked very well."

"—Piece Of Junk, Stop Adding New Names, Your Highness, Tell Jim It's His Day To Buy Lunch, Library Unit, Cynthia Has A Crush On Xerir—"

Maple's eyes widened as it just kept going. Some of the names were gossip, while others were more...colorful. A member of the staff gave her a dirty look, and dragged the malfunctioning golem away. Bailey waved to him apologetically.

"Sorry, she's new."

"How was I supposed to know it's broken?"

Maple frowned, and Bailey pointed to a sign on the front desk that listed a few key rules of the library. Listed at number one was: do not ask the library golems their name. It was followed by another rule stating not to assign it any additional names. A rule that had, apparently, been broken 558 times.

"Oh."

"Don't worry, it's part of the Sybrarium's charm. It's actually fine to ask as long as you tell it to only give you a few. You can have it tell you a random one, for fun. And it's not supposed to be possible to add names anymore, but it's kind of a tradition to find a loophole that still lets you. They typically forgive you as long as it isn't too vulgar and you tell them what you did to get around the restrictions."

A cute enough tradition. He sounded proud while explaining this aspect of the Sybrarium, and it made Maple wonder.

"Did you ever add one, Mr. Rule-Abiding [Guardsman]?"

"Hrr. Yes, actually. But it's—embarrassing, so let's not talk about that. Look, I'll give you a tour."

Maple decided she'd tease it out of him sometime, and followed.

The Sybrarium was huge, several floors high, full of secrets, and easy to get lost in. Bailey was one happy gnoll to be showing her around if his wagging tail was anything to go by. Apparently most people didn't care for books—of the people he tended to meet, at least—so it was a rare opportunity for him.

Maple hadn't ever had a strong reading habit herself, but another world's collection of literature was fascinating as heck. Areas were separated by genre, with most of it being non-fiction. Skill and class glossaries were their own section, and there were of course history books in another section. The fiction section was small compared to the whole, but there were still more books than Maple could read in a year. Several years, probably.

Non-book areas took up a lot of the space inside, like little study areas and nooks. Reading was free, but taking books from the library generally wasn't allowed unless one had a library card, and one of those cost several gold coins. If someone damaged or lost a book, it would then be confiscated and used as the fine.

Bailey led Maple through each floor, explaining the contents of every single aisle. He seemed to think skipping any of it would be the travesty of a lifetime, but his enthusiasm was endearing. Some areas were almost like a museum, with shelves of trinkets and information.

"And here's the aisle with all the old material from back when there was an aquarium in the basement. Pamphlets with fish information, and such."

"Wait, there used to be an aquarium too? What happened to it?"

"Well, it was a funding issue mainly. And some of the older [Librarians] didn't like the idea of so much water being so close to the books, even if it was in the basement. They talk about bringing it back every year, but it hasn't happened yet."

Maple read a sign from the defunct aquarium. It was a description next to a diagram of a 'leech squid'. Each of its tentacles ended in mouth holes with sharp teeth, from which it apparently sucked the blood of its prey. She was kind of glad not to see such a thing in person, actually.