Nicorina slept fitfully in her bunk, and if not for the steady purring from Tulani might not have gotten any sleep at all. It was partly from lingering anxiety over the shadow just changing her like that without her knowing, and partly from still feeling tingly. It didn't help that changing back also felt really good. She still gets up early so she can take a bath before going 'on duty' as Nikky the Tail.
The first person she runs into upon leaving the officers quarters is Temis, who looks rather happy and bushy-tailed. "I had the most amazing dream last night," the Fnerf confides. "I'll tell you about it later, though!" he promises before heading up to the navigation deck. "Good morning!" Orca calls, also up on deck and stretching. "Interested in some breakfast?"
"I look forward t' hearing de details an re-enacting dem, perhaps!" Nikky teases Temis and waves to him as he departs for his duties. Upon hearing Orca call out to her she genuinely smiles as she feels an odd warm and tingly sensation; some the blessing, some, perhaps something else. She waves to Orca, then trots along the deck to reach him. "I woul' love sum breakfast wit you, handsome," she tells the other skreek.
The Skreek holds out his elbow to escort Nikky - even though there's no way to get below deck to the mess hall arm-in-arm. "This way, madame!" he offers.
Nikky slips her arm around his anyway and snuggles up close to him while they walk for as long as she can. "Lead on," she chirps to him.
There are still crew having breakfast, since the early shift got to eat first (which is just as well, as the entire crew could never all fit at the small galley table at the same time.. when it's folded down, that is). Gar and Gil are there, along with the Ballast Master. The cook serves stuff up in a very orderly manner - which is pretty necessary, since he looks at least half-blind from cataracts. Breakfast this morning seems to be scrambled eggs.
Orca can't pull out a chair for Nikky, of course, since it's a bench and the others are still sitting on it. He does shove them all down a few more inches to make room though.
"Haf a good night?" Nikky asks Orca as she slides onto the bench next to the rest of the crew. She also offers a playful smile to them, of course. "An' hello t' all of you, me fine clients," she teases them.
"Good morning, Miss Nikky," Gar and Gil say in unison, then punch each other in the shoulder because of it. "Mornin', Miss," the old Ballast Master says. "I slept like a rock," Orca notes.
"Not surprisin' since I wasn' dere t' keep ya company," Nikky teases Orca. Her tail flicks, then snakes over and lightly curls around his as they sit together. "A slept pretty good meself. So far, been having de time o' me life on dis ship," she claims.
"Want kyootcumber sauce?" the cook asks, waggling a bottle of green spicy stuff as he hands over plates of eggs. No telling what kind of eggs they are though.
Nikky figures it's probably a good idea to help mask the flavor of the eggs. She's at least passingly familiar with kyootcuumber from her days of tormenting Hexen. "Oh, sure, jus a little," she tells the cook.
A few drops are sprinkled about. Orca asks for considerably more though. "I want the sauce to finish cookin' 'em," is how he puts it. "Glad yer enjoying the trip so far, Nikky! Should be hitting the paquebot in another day. They got some nice bars!"
"Gonna take me to em an buy me de best drinks?" Nikky teases Orca as she swirls her spoon in her plate of eggs. She lifts up a spoonful then takes a bite.
"Of course! Mebbe there'll be dancing too!" Orca claims. Gar and Gil look thoughtful at the prospect. "Maybe there will be games too," Gar says hopefully.
"An don' worry, I be sure to pay yas back for every'ting we do on de paquebot," Nikky claims before downing another bite of the eggs. It's an odd texture and flavor, but not horrific. Perhaps a skreek's tastes help her eat it, though. "Ya name it an' I do it for yas," she adds to Orca as she waves her spoon at him.
The big Skreek's whiskers perk up at that, and he attacks his eggs. "I better start buildin' up my strength before that then!" he says.
"An mebbe you buy me sum nice clothes, hmm?" Nikky teases Orca as she leans just a bit on him. "An some pretty jewelry." Her grin takes on just a little bit of a devious tone with that.
"Gotta spend my money on something," the first mate replies with a wink. "I want some ice-cream," Gil claims.
"Quite righ', and dat somet'in should be a right pretty skreek like me," Nikky teases with hints of a cackle coming through. "Oooh," she adds to Gil's comment, "Ice cream is good stuffs too."
"Hard to make in flight, unless we find some stray isetis from down south," the cook comments, as he scrubs out a pan. "'Course, the tub might float away if you aren't careful.."
"So, now dat most of yas has gotten t' know me a little, are ya happy I be part of de crew dis trip?" Nikky asks the crew. "Anyt'ing I coul' do better? Any requests?"
"Can you still mend my trousers?" Gar asks.
"O' course I can," Nikky says to Gar, "Just get em for me an I'll get em fixed t'day." She eats another spoonful of eggs.
"Okay! I'm wearing 'em though," Gar notes. "They're his only pair," Gil points out. "And he ain't borrowing mine!"
"Oh, well, I can fix em while ya wear em, but I make no promises I won' tease ya some while I fix em," Nikky teases. "But we haf t' go to me nest for that."
"Temis looked refreshed this morning," Orca notes. "Maybe we should keep that nest for him. Seems to do him good.."
Nikky giggles slightly at that and resumes eating her breakfast, lest she say something incriminating!
After breakfast, Orca offers to help Nikky make up her nest. "Temis probably has is all squished and stuff," he points out. Of course, his idea of helping out involves finding any non-flattened areas, and then flattening them with Nikky.
Making a nest shouldn't take over an hour, but for some reason with her and Orca, is does. Granted a lot of time is spent bent over things or Nikky on her knees making use of a certain tongue stud, but eventually they do actually manage to get the nest cleaned up and 'smoothed out'. "I coul' get in such trouble wit' you," Nikky tells Orca as she taps her fingers on his chest lightly. "Good t'ing you haf a job to do too, eh? Or we may never see de sun again," she cackles.
"Aye, and I'd best be to it," Orca says, a bit reluctantly. "I'm needed when the birds are flying, to keep watch on them and call out changes and such."
Nikky runs her tongue over her lips slowly as she tips her head just so and flutters her eyelashes at him. "I really like yas, Orca," she tells him. "Any time yas need something from me, jus' ask. Or ... jus' take! I see yas later, I promise." she adds as she pats one of the crates, "We gots to keep testin' out the crates to make sure dere sturdy after all," she adds with a giggling cackle.
After the Skreek officer leaves, Gar shows up, looking nervous. He's brought one of the sewing kits with him (as common on airships as fire extinguishers). "I brung a needle and such," he says.
"Smart boy," Nikky says encouragingly as she plops herself down on one of the crates. She waggles her fingers at him as she says ,"Gimme de kit ... den remove yer pants."
"All the way?" the boy asks after handing over the kit, suddenly nervous.
"Ya don't have nothin' I never see before," Nikky points out. She opens and looks through the case, then selects a needle and a small spool of thread. She licks the tip of the thread strand and deftly threads it through the needle. Fixing clothing is something she did a lot with the gypsies, thankfully. "I don' bite unless y' want me to," she adds.
Slowly, the Eeee removes the trousers and hands them over. "Why would you bite my pants?" he asks, sitting down.
Nikky takes the trousers and giggles a bit at his comment. "Ah, y' so young," she teases as she looks over the pants to find the tear in them. Once located, she pulls out enough thread to sew it closed by her estimate, then uses her sharp teeth to cut the thread. The skreek licks the needle once, then goes about carefully double-stitching the tear closed. "'ow many days till we reack our destination?" she asks Gar as she works.
"Temis says we'll hit Zannara three days out from the pacquebot, but not how long we'll be in port. Might be some business the Cap'n has to deal with there," Gar reports.
"I kinna get de feelin' it some sort of secret business," Nikky notes as her bare fingers deftly work on the tear. "An because o' dat, I really don' want t' know more about it. Bit o' advice, kid. Unless dere be a huge profit innit, best t' not know about dangerous and secret jobs. Anyway ... ever been t Zannara? Wha it like?"
"It's.. quiet?" Gar says, scratching as his cheek. "Dull? I don't 'member any gang wars or nothin' like that. Just.. a port city. Pretty well off I guess."
"Wha' people make up most of de population?" Nikky asks as she pauses in coverage to make sure the double-stitch is pulled snug on the section she has mended so far.
"Oh, the usual," Gar says. "Groundies, Eeee, Fnerfs, Saskies, Kitties, Snakes.. a bit of everything. No Pinkies though."
"'Ow about skreeks? We are awesome after all," Nikky cackles, much amused. "An woul' it be a goo' place to spend some time, mebbe make a bit of coin?"
"I dunno about work there, unless you can farm?" Gar asks. "I think there were Skeeks.. but not a lot 'round the docks."
Nikky skews up her muzzle. "D' I look like someone you see on a farm?" she asks the Eeee. Satisfied the first part of the tear is fixed, she starts on the next segment.
"Well.. I've never been to a farm, so.. I don't know!" Gar says in his defense. "Maybe there's like.. a girl farm.."
"Oh yeah, us girls jus' pop out of the ground after a few months of bein' watered," Nikky says. She has to stop sewing becuse she's now laughing too much and she might stab herself! "Yer parents never taught you about how people are made, eh?"
"I guess they didn't get a chance," Gar notes. "I think Orca tried to 'splain it once, but he was pretty drunk so Gil and I didn't really believe him."
"Well, I prolly won't teach yas either. It's cute dat yer so naive," Nikky admits once she can resume sewing, "I might feel bad iffin I ruined dat." she takes a couple minutes of quiet and finishes sewing the last bit of the tear, then deftly ties off the thread just before biting off the excess. She tosses the mended pants to Gar and requests, "Try dat out. Fix good enough?"
There's a bit of wiggling once the pants are on, and lots of feeling around with his fingers. "Hey, thanks!" Gar says. "I can't poke myself now!"
"Ah, dat be de best feelin' in de world, de inability t' poke yerself," Nikky agrees as she nods sagely. "Anyt'ing else I can do for yas or are yas good now?"
Gar turns around and thinks. "Can see your.. uh.." he starts to say, then goes red in the ears.
"My what?" Nikky asks, ears flicking. "Jewelry? Cute ears?"
Gar just grins really big, and blurts, "I should go! I gotta help oil the ropes."
"Come back when yer off-shift an I might show yas everything," Nikky teases, leans forward, and rests her hands on the edge of her crate. The grin she has is extremely predatory.
"You are incorrigible," a familiar feline voice notes, from a different part of the room. A look up shows a certain Sphynx atop some crates, looking down with amusement.
"Me? I an entertainer!" the skreek claims and puts her hand to her chest. "Jus' what are you up to?"
"Well, thought I should let you knooooow," Tulani says, "that the Captain has invited me and Mave and Nicora to a Captain's Dinner tonight, since we're supposed to arrive at Little Rephidim West tomorrow sometime. I assume Gotrekis will be there too."
Nikky sputters, coughs, and falls off the back of the crate she was sitting on, leaving her to unceremoniously land on her back! "Mebbe my hearing is really bad, cuz I just 'eard you say the Captain wants Nicora, Mave, and You at a dinner? Who invites a Yodhsunala to a dinner?" the skreek asks.
"Someone who doesn't want to risk offending one?" Tulani guesses. "Anyway, going to attend, or do you need an excuse? Gotrekis was acting all squirrelly when I passed him earlier."
"Oh course I attend. I just, well, I'll need to mask my condition!" Nikky remarks as she pushes herself back upright. "I sure Mave has some stuff to do that. She better, anyway."
"And squirrely? Describe?" Nikky prompts.
"Twitchy," Tulani says, rolling onto her back and looking down at Nikky upside-down now. "Like he had stuff crawling under his skin, or was expecting to get poked with a branding iron at any moment. And why mask it? It'd make the Captain and Gotrekis all hot and bothered and afraid to say or do anything about it!"
"Cuz I don' want dat sort of attention from either of them," Nikky notes as she gets to her feet. "Mind if we go to de cabin? I could use a charge and I could ask Mave about my condition."
"Sure," the feline notes, and sort of drips down to the floor. Cats.. always showing off.
"Can you smell me? Or ... am I worried more den I should be?" Nikky asks Tulani as they head for the ladder to the deck.
"You smell Skreeky," Tulani notes. "And you're next to the Ptera pen to boot. I imagine a lot of it is sub.. sub-something, where you smell it but don't know you smell it, but it causes a reaction."
"Ah. Mebbe I won' mask it. Depends on if Mave also think it might be fun t' tweak the two wif it," Nikky notes just before she scurries up the ladder so that she can head back to the cabins.
Tulani is right behind her, saying, "Maybe you could get some underpants too..."
And Nikky baps Tulani's nose with her tailtip for that! On deck she saunters across the planks, waving now and then to the crew. "I be back a bit later," she promises before disappearing through the doorway to the cabins.
"I'm pretty sure the captain has the hots for me anyway," Tulani says, once they're inside the cabin. "I was just about to brew some tea," Mave notes. The Yodhinala is sitting on the bunk, next to an open porthole. The room smells very much of the ocean.
"Mind if I have some of the tea? And maybe a smoke from your pipe? It may help calm down certain things," Nikky requests once the door is closed and she can go and lean against the bunk. "Tulani tells me Nicora is expected for dinner tonight?" she asks, "Do you have any way to mask my condition from them? Or ... should we try to remove the blessing?"
"She was invited, yes," Mave notes, and takes out her pipe. As she starts packing it for Nikky, she says, "Do you think the blessing will cause you problems as Nicora? Even Yodhsunala still have mortal cycles."
"It might cause problems for them, but if you think it won't be a problem, I won't mess with it any more than I already have," Nikky says as she leans her bead back and looks up at the ceiling. "Plus I'm sure Gorphat will find ways to keep me occupied and unhappy anyway."
"It is best to not think of her blessings in that way," Mave points out, and lights her pipe. After taking a few puffs to get it started, she offers it to Nikky.
"Oh, well, I suppose I'm honored to carry her blessing," Nikky comments a bit dryly as she accepts the pipe. Between her lips it goes and she puffs away on it thoughtfully, curious to see if it calms her down any.
It is calming, so long as she doesn't puff to quickly - that leads to dizziness. "Tulani, fill the teapot, would you?" Mave asks the Sphynx, who raises an eyebrow but takes the kettle. "I'll get some hot water in the kitchen," she notes, before slipping out.
"So, why did you want her to leave?" Nikky asks as she sits on the lower bunk and puffs away softly on the pipe. "Something important and private to discuss?"
"I wanted hot water," Mave replies, and gestures to the stove that isn't there. "Have you learned anything from Gotrekis yet?" she asks.
"He serves Amena's avatar, and is afraid of her. He's also looking for some magical weapon that is dangerous to her," Nikky explains, "And can you give me a minute? I'm going to change to Nicora for a bit to ... test how I will feel tonight."
"Take your time," Mave says, grinning.
Nikky takes a long drag from the pipe, then sets it aside so that she can focus. "Kaira," she thinks, "I'm going to try and change back to Nicora for a bit. I may need your help doing it. But ... I would like to try myself first."
"Or .. should I let you do it to be safe?" Nikky thinks.
"You'll need my help to complete it," Kaira notes. "Nicora contains the Barsunala spirit in her tail, whereas right now it is contained in the dagger."
"Right. Okay, I'll get it started and once it gets uncomfortable, please take over," Nikky thinks as she closes her eyes. She relaxes to let the shadow cloak out and flow across her body. She takes it slowly and carefully so that she can focus on feel and get better at this. Now ... it's a matter of 'relaxing' and letting her 'true' form return to her. Well, as true as it is right now; the Melusine shaped form.
The pipe may have helped. At least, it makes the oddness a little easier to bear, as Nikky feels everything shift. Her bones and flesh seem to soften and melt before flowing again into a different form. When the wings grow out, it's like her back is splitting apart.. but not really painfully. It isn't until the tail sprouts that she feels Kaira take over, returning her momentarily to the black limbo before the shadow recedes.
"Is it wrong to enjoy feeling your body move like clay?" Nicora murmurs from the bunk she's now half-laying on. She lays there for a moment to regain herself before she sits up and searches out that pipe again.
"Is it?" Mave asks. "I suppose it would seem like getting a very deep and thorough massage."
Nicora reaches over to her right arm with her left and tries to gently, but firmly, pull the dagger from her forearm slow. "Okay, well, it does feel pretty good," she admits to Mave. "How do I look? Normal?"
There's a numbness as the dagger pulls out. And of course the tubes, which break away and retract with a small splatter of ichor. Then the chitinous forearm is ready to be disguised again, if Nicora wills it. The orb does seem a bit dim.. definitely need that recharge when Tulani returns.
"Well, aside from the bared area," Mave notes, and reaches out to press her fingers against Nicora's lower belly, where the fur hasn't had a chance to grow back in over the mark of Inala.
Nicora sets the dagger next to her on the bunk and looks at her right hand, then flexes her fingers. "Mm, best to not disguise this until recharged," she stays to say just before her stomach draws in from the very noticeable touch upon her stomach! "Caerful, you might encourage the blessing," she says to Mave. Still it does remind her of the artwork ... so she spends some time actually checking herself that yes, the tattoos are still beneath the fur of her chest and left forearm.
The cursory examination is enough to remind her that even in this form, the recent blessing is in effect - and it's a lot more acute than in Skreek form. Eeee have pretty strong passions, after all.
"Mmmmrrr," Nicora starts to say and stops herself by going quickly for the pipe to see if it helps mute it again! "I would fear any Yodhinala acolyte under this blessing," she murmurs, sounding very distracted. "I feel like ... need something, it's it's ... intense." She even leans over a bit, hunching.
"I'm sure the Captain would help you," Mave suggests with a smile. "He seems virile enough.."
Tulani returns, knocking once before opening the door, and carrying a steaming kettle. "I'm back.. oh, you changed! Why do you look like you can't decide if you need to throw up or not?"
Nicora rocks on the bunk for a bit, puffing away on the pipe. "Mave?" she says and hangs her head as she feels her ears flush red. "I finally understand what it feels like to want to be pregnant. I don't believe this ... but I'm feeling it right now."
"Really?" Tulani asks, setting down the kettle. "Is it a warm feeling?"
"Yodhinala undergo this as part of their training," Mave notes. "It is so they can summon up the desire as needed later."
Nicora nods a bit at that. "It is. It's ... hard to describe. I can feel sort of empty, I guess? A need to fill an emptiness within me with warmth and life; to carry and protect it as it grows within my body," she admits. "It's scaring me ... but at the same time it still manages to be a good feeling."
"You should lie back, and meditate on it," Mave says. "Once you can accept it, and make it yours, it will be less vexatious. The pipe and tea will help." With the kettle returned, Mave goes about brewing her herbal tea concoction.
"The tattoo seems out of place on black skin and fur," Tulani notes. "I don't think I could get one like that. It'd have to be white or something.."
"I feel like I should use the idol you gave me to go meditate for a bit while you prepare the tea," Nicora admits as she slides herself off the bunk. "I'll be back in a bit," she adds as she heads towards the back separate bunk area.
Mave tsks. "That is hardly meditating," she points out..
"No, but it may make it easier to think for a little bit afterward," Nicora remarks as she passes through the doorway and draws the separator closed. "Dinner is going to be a nightmare feeling like this," the tormented Eeee thinks as she goes through her belongings to find that idol. It also doesn't help that the idol is shaped like a pregnant Eeee, which only fuels the desire to bear a child even more. The blessing really was a bad idea...