goth_dropping_in

  Hyacinth returns to the Housepets’ Guild with a spring in her step and joy in her heart. Meeting Liath’s already made her day, not to mention her having her own basket in the guild. She wonders what the housepets’ guild serves at their cafeteria — hopefully something good!

  She finds Avaline waiting in the common room, half-curled up in her own basket, and waves hi to her with an uncertain smile.

  “Hey,” Avaline replies, sitting up in her basket. “I heard from Mica that you found a domme you clicked solidly with. That’s great to hear. You must be starving though if you’ve spent all this time having sex — plus I bet you have fluids to repce. Cafeteria’s down the hall on the right, nonperishable food’s served all day, with hot meals at seven A.M, noon, and six P.M. You’re just in time for supper.”

  Hyacinth’s tail swishes back and forth excitedly at the prospect of hot food, and she gives Avaline a thumbs-up. “Thank you, I’ll head right over!” And through the hallways of the guildhall she goes, until the sound of conversation comes up on her right and another archway opens up to what looks like a rather stylish lounge. Nude petgirls lie around on long floor couches, some stroking each other’s hair or scritching each other’s ears casually, some sitting cross-legged as they eat with their hands, or, oddly enough, with chopsticks. There’s not a metal utensil to be seen in the whole pce, though one or two wooden spoons are in evidence.

  At the far end of the hall, a standing buffet has been set up under what seems to be a set of crystal-powered heat mps, and busy-looking housepets are turning out a rather odd variety of meals. There’s hot chicken parmesana, california rolls, bowls of crunchy chocote-fvored kibble, charcuterie boards with cheese, meat, and crackers, a wide variety of fresh fruit and berries, yogurt drizzled with honey, skewers of mb souvki, what seems to be chicken nuggets but on closer inspection is beled as “mb nuggets”, a build-your-own-burrito station, and a wide variety of fancy breads, garlic bread not least among them. There are also several pitchers of juice and milk and coffee to drink. The general themes seem to be that almost everything can be eaten with only your hands, without needing any additional preparation, and that any dish with vegetables never has them as the main texture, but instead uses them more like a spice, to add fvour and depth.

  It feels like home. Somewhere in her past, Hyacinth remembers that she’d always had a problem with vegetable textures… The memory is tinged with pain, and she exhales, gd that she doesn’t remember the details. It seems such an experience is common with housepets; here she feels much more welcome.

  She crosses the room to the buffet, and puts together a burrito using some mb strips, some shredded bell pepper and tomato, some cheese, and heavy dollops of sour cream and salsa. That should do for the moment. She supposes she’ll take a wooden pte because otherwise it could be messy, but she suspects it’s not the end of the world if she drips on something.

  Grabbing a lounge seat, she settles in and starts to eat, resting her pte in her p as she munches away. It tastes delicious, and a little like home. She remembers she used to make her own with someone… The memory escapes her as to who, though.

  Though the room’s fairly crowded, everyone gives her her own space; she gets some sympathetic looks from other guild members, but no-one else tries to sit at her table with her. Which is good — honestly she’s dealing with a lot today and doesn’t think she could handle someone else interrupting her in the middle of her meal — but also not so good — she’s missing opportunities to network, probably. But honestly, in her heart, she can’t bring herself to care much. She’s already made plenty of charges today; she can rex now, and unwind and try to settle in a little more.

  After she finishes her burrito, she returns her pte to the buffet, and goes back to the common room to curl up in her own pet bed. Other petgirls she doesn’t recognize are still chatting and fucking in the room; she curls up with her bottle of orange juice in her pet bed, covers her ears, and tries to read. Not the pornography, the study books on the other magic systems — the production trades, Fucksmith and so on. But she finds it difficult to keep her focus on the page, and after a little while, she drifts off asleep in her pet bed, tired out by a long day with a decent amount of exercise in it.

  ~*~

  When she wakes, it’s the middle of the night; the stars shine in through the common room’s skylight. Other petgirls lie quiet around her, curled up in their own pet beds, snoring lightly or turning in their sleep.

  She blinks sleep from her eyes, and realizes that she’s completely slept through her meeting with Liath. Damn it.

  She sighs out a long breath - she’ll just have to go over to the Succubi’s Guild in the morning - rolls over, and tries her best to go back to sleep.

  It doesn’t work. Maybe it’s the unfamiliar surroundings, maybe it’s one of the other petgirls’ snoring, but she can’t seem to sleep.

  Sighing again, she pulls a guidebook out of her basket, and pads out of the common room on silent feet, heading for the cafeteria.

  To her surprise, not only is the cafeteria still open, but three other petgirls are there as well. One of them is meditatively combing raw wool fibers straight to make them into rovings suitable to be spun; another is reading “The Vixen and Her Maid” by a pink-tinged mp; the third is simply lying on her back on one of the couches, staring up at the stars through one of the skylights.

  Hyacinth waves with one hand, and gets a small wave back from the woman with the twisted metal comb.

  She really shouldn’t be up right now. But it’s hard to sleep, her first night in a new world.

  Silently, she pads over to the housepet who’s lying on her back beneath the skylight, a violet-furred woman with cat ears, and ys down on the next couch across the table from her, staring up at the night sky.

  The stars here are warmer than she remembers. Some few of them have a slight pink cast. It feels comforting, staring up at them.

  She curls her tail in her p, and brushes it gently as she meditates on the heavens.

  The other woman looking up at the stars looks over at her, and smiles slightly. Then she turns her attention back to the heavens, and they lie together, sharing their contemption.

  Slowly, without really intending to, Hyacinth falls back asleep.

  ~*~

  Hyacinth wakes in the morning with a hand on her shoulder. Sunlight’s starting to fall in through the skylight.

  She looks up at the person who touched her, and meets the gaze of the cat-woman who watched the stars with her st night.

  “Morning,” the stranger says quietly. “Sorry to disturb you, but they’re starting to set up for breakfast.” She runs a hand through her hair. “I’m Stel, by the way.”

  “Hyacinth.” Hyacinth sits up and extends her hand to shake. “Did you name yourself after the stars?”

  Stel shakes Hyacinth’s hand, and nods. “Yeah. I had another name, but it didn’t really suit me for this world. I was male, before, so…”

  Hyacinth nods. “Yeah. It works differently here, or so I’m told. I hope your new body is treating you well.”

  Stel csps her hands together before her and rests her lips atop them. “... You could say that it was a blessing,” she says. “I wouldn’t have known to ask for it, but now that I have this…” She gestures down at her housepet’s body, soft and feminine with a pussy between the legs. “It’s much more comfortable.”

  Hyacinth nods as well, and smiles. “Yeah. I… feel like I always was a housepet, before, it’s just that this world… knows what it is? And my old world didn’t.”

  Stel nods. “Everything is easier now. I don’t have to… pretend to be human.” She smiles. “It was nice to watch the stars with you. You’re new?”

  “Yes,” Hyacinth says. “I just transmigrated yesterday.”

  Stel taps her thumbs against each other. “Two months, here. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s worked out for the better, I’d say.”

  “Gd you’re settling in well,” Hyacinth says. “... Would you like to get breakfast together? I could use some friends in this world too, and Mica and Avaline don’t really count, being… guild officers and all.”

  Stel smiles. “I’d be happy to share a table with you. And since we’re already here…” She sits down on the couch with Hyacinth. “Might as well get a little cozy, right?”

  Hyacinth smiles. Yeah, it just feels right that she should get to cuddle up to someone like this, who she’s shared the stars with. “Yeah. That would be lovely.”

  Stel pats her p. “Put your head in my p,” she says, “And I’ll pet you. That’s traditional in the guild, seniors petting their juniors.”

  Hyacinth ys back and settles her head in Stel’s p. “There,” she says. “Is that alright for you?”

  “Certainly,” Stel says. And her hands come in, gently stroking and working at Hyacinth’s hair and ears. “You’re a good girl. Worried about the adjustment?”

  Hyacinth lets out a soft breath. “A little. My domme needs twenty-five steel in guild dues and I’m not sure how we’re going to get it together by the end of the month. It should be doable, but… It’s not comfortable, I guess I’m saying.”

  “Yeah,” Stel says. “I guess in any world you still need to earn your keep a little. It’s — uncomfy. But the guilds do their best to keep people off the street; they’ll let you be te on dues a few times when you’re just starting out, or so I’ve heard. But, well…” She shrugs. “It is what it is. I’m getting by okay, at least.” Her hands py with Hyacinth’s hair, stroking and scritching her scalp.

  Hyacinth nuzzles into Stel a little. “I’m gd to hear that,” she says. “Thank you for listening.”

  “Anytime,” Stel says. “That’s what seniors are for. Or so Mica’s been trying to teach me. I’m still a junior to most people in the guild, but…” She flicks her fingers through Hyacinth’s hair again. “I think it’s important to remember that you’ll be a senior eventually, you know?”

  Hyacinth lets herself drift in the soft petting, her mind only barely processing Stel’s words. “Yeah.”

  “Anyway,” Stel says. “Eventually I’m sure you and your domme will get your own cozy little pce, maybe with a few add-ons, and it’ll all work out for the better. You’ll see.”

  Hyacinth lets out a soft sigh. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “It’s nothing.” Stel draws her fingers through Hyacinth’s hair again, scritching softly behind her ears. “Can you tell me a little more about yourself?”

  “I don’t know a lot about myself,” Hyacinth says. “Um… I like pain? I woke up in someone else’s body yesterday, and most of my memories are very fuzzy. I feel like I should be more concerned about that, but it just seems… distant. Like it doesn’t really matter very much.”

  “Yeah,” Stel says. “The Twins do that to try and ease the transition for people. It doesn’t always work. But still…” She shrugs. “I think it’s more exciting to get to discover yourself for yourself. There’s a lot to experience in this world, and I hope you get your chance to have fun with it all.”

  Hyacinth hums quietly, and nods. “Yeah. I’ve definitely gotten to have a certain amount of fun already…”

  “Would you like to get some actual breakfast now?” Stel asks. “You could ask some questions about me if you wanted, and I could talk about what I’ve been doing over the st couple months…?”

  Hyacinth sits up, and stretches her arms, fighting off the clinging haze of watch and submission that’s washed over her. “Sure.”

  And off they go to break bread together.