Daylily (Synecdoche17 & frost rose)
<h1 id="title">Elliquiy Role Playing Forums</h1>
		<h2 id="linktree">Play-By-Post: Bondage, D/s, S&amp;M =&gt; Bondage: Exotic Solos =&gt; Topic started by: frost rose on 29-06-2013, 04:08:30</h2>
		<dl id="posts">
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>29-06-2013, 04:08:30</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The rain came down in thick, punishing sheets that stung her bare skin and plastered her long, furred ears to her head. Her slender frame trembled unceasingly as she stumbled through the night, her feet splashed with mud. Cold wind howled through the trees, raking icy fingers across her skin, raising goosebumps. Far from home, hungry, desperate, she clambered over a rocky ridge, scraping her hip against a cruel limestone protrusion, and saw a small light below, the dull yellow of a cabin window, a single point of defiance against the infinite darkness of the night.<br><br>The light stung her with painful memories – memories of carpeted floors and soft beds, of warmth and fresh meat, of playful children who petted her and tied ribbons to her tail – and memories of hard looks, as she grew older, stronger, and uncontrollable. She would look up and see her owner looking at her intently; his wife watched them disdainfully, a paranoid gleam in her eye. There would be arguments between them later. She did not want to remember what came next: the long, silent car ride, the joyful exploration of a meadow, the sound of an engine fading in the distance, the bitter realization of betrayal, the grief of abandonment, the harsh, unending struggle for survival.<br><br>She had come down the ridge, now, and fetched up against the side of the house. She had tried again and again to approach humans, but now, as a full-grown predator gliding out of the forest, she received a very different reaction than she had as a nekomimi kitten, when adults and children alike had clustered around her to coo over her delicate features, long ears, and mismatched eyes.<br><br>The porch proved a better refuge than the lee of the house, being mostly dry and walled on three sides. The lamp’s golden beam fell across her body; she felt terribly exposed, and curled up in trepidation, her tail wrapped across her trembling thighs, her ears high and alert, ever wary for the sound of a door unlocking, a brandished gun, an angry shout.<br><br>Her cheeks drenched with rain, the lonely alley queen huddled under the porch roof and waited for the storm to pass.<br><br><hr><br>There were certain advantages to working a job that was largely outdoors. Stephanie's was one of the few jobs where work was called on account of bad weather. Of course, in an office job she wouldn't have been expected to be out and about at 11 at night to begin with, but that didn't take any away from how much she was appreciating being inside and dry. And so unexpectedly at that, the storm season being almost over as summer started to dry them out. <br><br>It was honestly a nice change, the last winter being an especially fierce one, and the next one promising to be as bad or worse by the looks of the global patterns. Having a summer in between, no matter that it was a mild and wet one so far, was a blessing. And she only a few times had to put up with the last smirking holdouts asking her, "Some global warming, huh?" Although maybe that was mostly because she spent more time with her colleagues than anyone else. <br><br>She had been tempted a few times to leave where she had curled up on her couch, buried in a robe about two sizes too large for her in front of her fire, laptop on the footrest in front of her and a pot of tea large enough she was going to have to stay up till one in the morning just to finish it. The sound of the rain was hypnotising, the sound of it off her roof only barely louder than the dull roar it made on the pond not too far off in the swath of land that technically was her back yard. <br><br>The only thing nicer than that sound was the rain unmuffled by her walls, and it wasn't like she got much of a chance to go out and listen during the bulk of the rainy season. The night was unseasonably cold thanks to the rain, and probably would have made anyone caught unprepared out in it feel miserable, but it still wasn't the icy near-sleet they got a fair part of the year. This at least you could go stand out on the porch for without worrying about getting hypothermia in the first two minutes. <br><br>Inertia kept her in place. Aside from her robe she didn't have much more on than her slippers, and the panties and tshirt that served as her pyjamas, and besides she had another eleven open tabs of mixed journal articles to wade through, politics to be horrified by, and porn to finally get around to saving. <br><br>It was only after even that last couldn't hold her attention for more than a few seconds — and normally there wasn't much better than the sound of water for getting her in the mood&nbsp;— that she finally levered herself upwards, draining and refilling her cup of tea before she pulled her robe tight around her and padded towards the door. What did she have a porch for, after all, except to stare at rain for a while. <br><br>The last thing she expected when she finally got to opening her front door was to find herself being <em>stared</em> at. A genuine chill went through her as her heart doubled in speed, breath sucked in as the wide, mismatched eyes forcied her to take a step back, almost stumbling as she did so. <br><br>For a moment she almost thought it was a young woman on her porch, for god only knew what reason, although only till she spotted the ears. A cat. Well, that made a lot more sense than some vagrant ending up on her porch at least, lurking to scare her half to death. And fortunately the nekomimi typically weren't dangerous, and she would certainly have heard if there were a more aggressive or violent one in the area. <br><br>Instinct took over a scant second or two later as Stephanie forced her breath back to normal and sank down to crouch on the balls of her feet. Of course, even with her good instincts most skittish animals fled, but all the same she lowered her profile down to look a bit less like a hawk, even though she knew that the catgirl in front of her usually didn't make the same odd mistakes that actual cats did. It still felt less threatening as she reached out, her fingers outstretched, unable to get closer than a fair metre or two from where the girl was crouched. <br><br>She couldn't help but feel bad for the poor kitty —&nbsp;she looked drenched and freezing, apparently without shelter and without the coat of fur most animals kept. If there were ever an animal more suited to captivity than the wild, the nekomimi were it. <br><br>"Hey there, kitten," she murmured, keeping her voice soft and gentle as she looked for a collar or something similar. "What are you doing out so late?" 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>29-06-2013, 05:06:55</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				She was a tawny, scrawny creature, all skin and jutting bones. Her ears went flat against her head as the door opened, and muscles tensed under smooth skin. As Stephanie knelt, the stray rose up, half-crouching on hands and knees as if to bolt or bite. Her mesmerizing eyes locked with Stephanie's - one golden, one green. In the dim light, her pupils were impossibly large. Though it was hard to tell her height, she was probably about the same size as Stephanie.<br><br>Nekomimi with the power of speech were exceedingly rare, but as Stephanie reached out, the alley queen's black-furred tail began to lash back and forth, a clear warning sign. There was no collar around her slender neck, only dark, tangled curls plastered to her skin by the rain. The light from the window illuminated the scrape on her bare hip. Heavy, gleaming drops of blood rolled down her thigh to the porch, where they mingled with rainwater and disappeared.<br><br>She bared her sharp teeth in defiance and studied her opponent. The human looked well-fed, and smelled of smoke, like her house; the stray caught hints of detergent, fruit, ink, and all the other detritus of human life she had been intimately familiar with as a young thing. They were strange scents to her now.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>29-06-2013, 05:28:29</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The hand was withdrawn even quicker than it was put forward when the tail started lashing —&nbsp;Stephanie spent more than enough time around wildlife to know what that meant, and to be aware that she did not want to be on the receiving end of anything the nekomimi did to enforce her personal space, if she didn't just bolt outright. <br><br>On the plus side, she didn't bolt outright, at least not yet. She looked wary, to be sure, but apparently the downpour was weighing more heavily on her mind than any threat from Stephanie at the moment. <br><br>And Stephanie could certainly see why as the time afforded her a more careful inspection. Or at least she thought so. The nekomimi looked half starved, even more so than most wildlife, and while there was definitely the sort of muscle there you got from fending for yourself, it was thin enough spread that every angle stood out despite —&nbsp;Stephanie shifted a little redfacedly just thinking about this —&nbsp;a more generous endowment in the chest area than Stephanie herself had. <br><br>She rested there for a moment, unwilling to move forward again towards what was appearing more and more to be a skittish stray, but at the same time unwilling to back up or even look away out of worry that she would bolt the moment she was out of sight. <br><br>Then again, if the nekomimi were willing to brave the storm directly again there wasn't much Stephanie could do to stop her. <br><br>That made up her mind, and she ended up backing away, slower than she came to the door, carefully telegraphing her motions until she was out of sight, at which point she bounced to her feet and took the remaining ways to her kitchen in a few bounds. She even had the perfect thing, a tupperware in her fridge half filled with lemon pesto tilapia, the remains of her latest disastrous foray into dating. <br><br>Okay, so it was about four days old now, and starting to get to the point where she'd have just thrown it away, as she hadn't quite yet managed to bring herself to pull it out and eat it while the memories were still singing. But the nekomimi probably wouldn't care that it was maybe just a little past its sell by date, and it was better than going to waste, <em>and</em> she got to feel a certain moral smugness as <em>she</em> actually made something good come from the evening. Unlike anyone else who might have been involved in that night. Which as far as she was concerned they won't. <br><br>She spent just long enough to put the remaining pair of fillets on a plate before turning around, crouching down again and crossing her fingers as she crept into view of the door, hoping the stray hadn't fled in her absence. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>29-06-2013, 09:10:27</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The porch was empty when Stephanie returned. The cat-girl was gone.<br><br><br>Or – it seemed so. A glimmer of light from the window hit nekomimi eyes at just the right angle. Two shining orbs stared back at Stephanie from the tree line at the edge of her property. The barest outlines of her sleek form were visible as well, crouched like a predator about to spring. The stray was perhaps ten feet off the ground, in a low, heavy branch of a massive redwood tree.<br><br>She tensed when she saw the human holding something. It was not a weapon. It was... something pink? Food?<br><br>Hunger surged inside her, clawed at her like a living thing, but she made no move to get closer. She'd been offered food before, and had come away with pellet scars. She clung warily to the branch, her teeth starting to chatter.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>29-06-2013, 21:56:30</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				There was a touch of disappointment when Stephanie came back to an empty porch, and a twinge of guilt as it occurred to her that the sum of her actions was to push the cat-girl from the porch back into the rain. At this point it probably would have been better if she had stayed curled up on her couch. <br><br>She still stuck around for a minute just in case, and soon enough was glad she did when she managed to spot the brightly glowing tapeta that marked where the nekomimi had retreated to. It was actually rather impressive how far she had gotten, given that Stephanie had not actually been away for that long. Steph herself certainly couldn't have, especially in the rain. <br><br>She chewed on her lip for a moment as she considered. It wasn't as though she could make the stray come closer, and&nbsp;everything was pointing to her being as skittish as first appearances had indicated. All of which probably all meant Stephanie was going to have little to no luck enticing her to come any closer, and there was no way in hell now that anything but enticement was going to work. <br><br>Well then. Better give the kitty options than not, right? She placed the dish out on her porch, untied her robe and dropped the dark blue and green striped terrycloth garment down next to it. But she was going to have to go. Not being able to watch and feel smug as the nekomimi ate sadly took some of the self-righteous backpatting out of the action, but she would live without it. And more importantly so would the stray —&nbsp;it would be a pretty crappy thing if she let her ego get in the way of that. <br><br>She shut the door and immediately sat down in place with her back against it, listening intently even if she expected the rain would drown out any sounds a cat-girl might make. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>30-06-2013, 07:50:54</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				A predator must be infinitely patient. A single meal can sustain one for quite a long time, but a failed hunt consumes precious energy and, worse, exposes the predator to risky combat.<br><br>She sat, still and silent, in the redwood tree for a very long time, rain drumming on her head. Rivulets of water ran down her back and side, outlining each subtle curve.<br><br>Eventually, she dropped to the ground and creeped stealthily to a nearby bush. More time passed.<br><br>She crossed the yard in a bolt, a streak of tan motion, and huddled up under the edge of the porch. She peeped over, searching for the human, did not see her, and very slowly slithered onto the porch area proper, without so much as the squeak of a porch board.<br><br>She ate messily, ravenously, her face and fingers smearing with lemon pesto. She began to hiccup uncontrollably as she licked the empty plate clean; her body wasn't used to the rich food. She sprawled out on the porch to digest. Long fingers toyed with the terrycloth robe. As a general rule, nekomimi had little use for clothing. The stray pulled it close and smelled it. Smoke, herbal tea, a myriad of household scents and sensations – and, of course, its owner. She scrunched up her nose a little and let her tongue hang out so she could smell better. The human's scent was more complex than she'd initially thought, but it was...not pleasant. She sat up and wrapped herself loosely in the robe.<br><br>After some minutes her stomachache had subsided, though the rain kept falling down. She could not stay here all night, she knew, but the food in her belly gave her more fortitude. The neko disappeared into the night, dragging the terrycloth behind her. Her lair was still quite a distance away.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>30-06-2013, 09:32:48</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				If Stephanie had much better to do, she probably would not have waited nearly as long as she did, pressed up against the door, even her breathing shallow as she tried to prevent her own noise from drowning out anything from outside, as well as avoid startling anything with sharper hearing than her. And even as it was she was starting to wonder if she should regret this particular course of action as she was starting to feel chilly, pressed up against the door as she was, without her robe to insulate her. <br><br>She was rewarded for her patience, though, managing to make out the rattle of ceramic on wood. She smiled, but she didn't move, and certainly didn't open the door. No point in upsetting the stray after she had finally managed to get her to come down. This particular good deed would have to be its own reward. <br><br>And that actually did seem to be enough. Maybe it was how close nekomimi looked to human, despite the obvious physical and psychological differences. It was easy to empathise with them, even more so than most animals. Stephanie had always suspected that had a lot to do with their popularity as pets, with those who could afford it. Well, that and the obvious attractiveness. <br><br>That brought a faint pink colour back to her cheeks. Of course, everyone said they never really thought about cat-girls in that way, despite the usual nakedness, typically broken only when someone dressed up theirs. That was only because everyone lied their asses off. And this one certainly seemed to be a looker, with pretty hair and striking eyes, and breasts that were probably twice the size of Stephanie's despite the stray's otherwise rangy look. <br><br>She slammed down on that particular train of thought with a flush the moment she realised that her panties were starting to feel a little uncomfortably tight. Yes, in the abstract she supposed there wasn't much harm, given she was in the privacy of her own home and all, but it still seemed… unseemly. <br><br>Unfortunately there wasn't much in the way of distraction. After the first few bits of noise while eating the cat-girl had ended up fairly quiet, perhaps having vanished again already. <br><br>She spent long enough sitting there listening to the silence that she ended up sitting there an listening to the rain, and not long after that leaning up against the door drooling just a little as she dozed. It was only half an hour later when she came back to herself with a start, her cheek ice cold. She wiped her lip, blinking as she sat up, stretching out the stiff muscles she had managed to give herself. <br><br>It came back to her quick enough what she was doing there, and Stephanie glanced out the window. Not seeing her visitor at first appraisal, she opened the door, and found not only the cat-girl missing, but her robe as well. She sighed. That was probably to be expected, and it wasn't as though she couldn't afford a new one. And the tilapia had been eaten as well, so at least she could be pretty certain who had run off with her robe. Hopefully it'd keep her dry enough that she didn't freeze to death on the way to wherever it was that she typically waited out storms like these. <br><br>Stephanie closed the door, feeling good about herself. And feeling a few other things as well, her nap having done nothing but intensify the embarrassing problem she had drifted off with. <br><br>She spent the better part of the next hour back on her couch, keenly self-conscious of how much of her porn folder was of cat-girls.<br><br><hr><br>It was easy enough for Stephanie to put the night's incident out of mind. She didn't particularly want to — she <em>liked</em> feeling smug, and besides whenever she got cold and had to retrieve her new robe she was reminded of it —&nbsp;but other than the moments she was directly forced to face it, there was just so much else demanding in her attention it swiftly reduced itself to a lunchtime anecdote when the conversation strayed away from population equilibria and metal contamination. <br><br>She was more overloaded than usual at that, having intentionally swamped herself in the aftermath at her latest foray into having a social life. She wasn't terribly bad at making acquaintances and maintaining casual friendships. She ended up semi-regularly over at dinner or out to a restaurant with her coworkers. But anything more than that eluded her, and seemed to explode in her face whenever she tried. Enough that she had figured out that the less time she gave herself to brood afterwards the quicker she'd get over it.<br><br>So what time she didn't spend in the office churning through paperwork and preparing presentations and drafting white papers was spent out in the field, weeks passing without time to stop and breathe and realised how long it actually had been. <br><br>It didn't help any that the loftily named Sierra Nevada Environmental Research Institute she worked at was chronically understaffed, boasting seven full time employees, which left her, despite in theory being a director of some sort, spending a great deal of time ou tin jeans and a t-shirt driving through miles of wilderness. <br><br>Today for instance she had spent six hours on ill maintained roads and hiking through some of the lesser marked areas —&nbsp;technically she should have been with someone else as well, but with everyone else busy they bent protocol and she just took a GPS and sat phone —&nbsp;collecting, of all things, feathers. It actually made sense —&nbsp;the concentrations of pollutants in the feather was a fairly good proxy for a half a dozen things, not least of which was the health of the birds —&nbsp;but it didn't change the fact that she had spent the better part of a day driving around picking up feathers. <br><br>And she wasn't even ready to head home yet. Summer was starting to hit full on, and so she had at least another two hours of daylight left, enough to finish a set of well samples on her way back to the lab. Which is how she found herself trudging through the dust in the late afternoon heat with a backpack full of labeled feathers, filling up vials of well water. <br><br>Some days were just strange.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>02-07-2013, 09:08:42</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The day was hot and still, the wretched tempest now just a distant and forgotten memory.<br><br>The terrycloth robe was still bunched up inside her lair, alongside a bunch of other bits and pieces that had caught the cat-girl's fancy at one point or another. The creature herself had spent the better part of the morning lounging happily in the sunlight on a tiny rocky promontory nearby. Thirst eventually drove her to the creek, where, as she lapped thirstily, she spotted something raw and wriggly.<br><br>Its bloody remnants were left behind as she prowled down the side of the creek, looking for mischief.<br><br>Despite her fear of humans, human habitations and constructions were still where she found much of her food, whether it was rooting in trash cans for the fish thrown out by the supermarket or just swiping whole birds and lambs from local farmers, so under the heavy sun she wended her way downhill toward civilization. Occasionally she slid into the creek, the cold mountain water washing the sweat and grime from her, her tail held high and dry, going with the current until she grew bored and cold and stepped out again.<br><br>She left the creek behind where it bent sharply away, and prowled through the forest, pine needles crunching underfoot. Her nose twitched; a human walked nearby. She smelled sweat, birds, and dirt, heard the creaking of shoes and heavy breathing. The neko disappeared noiselessly into the vegetation around her. Where her dark hair fell against her golden skin, it seemed only dappled sunlight and shadow. She knew this scent, though it had long since faded from the robe she cuddled up in at night. Her eyes followed Stephanie's form as the woman came into view, walking up the winding, dusty path to the old well. She felt a reaction to flee, but Stephanie was alone, and in the feral's territory. And... she had been kind.<br><br>The cat-girl considered. Well now. This could be an interesting game. Her ears pricked up as she glided after the woman, a hint of a smirk on her lips as she stalked her unwary prey.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>03-07-2013, 03:01:39</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Sampling wells wasn't particularly hard, but it was mind-numbing work. You couldn't use a tap for fear of plumbing contamination, and while most houses had their wells close enough, not all of them did, depending on how they were placed on the local water table. Stephanie was fit enough that the five minute hike in this case wasn't so bad, but the prospect of hauling four litres of water on her way back led her to loitering. <br><br>A break once she had gotten to the nondescript white pipe sticking out of the ground, letting her pack slide to the ground and perching up on it while she drank and nibbled. Then after the bottle was filled she took another ten minutes before she considered getting herself loaded up again. <br><br>Half the reason she had taken a position at a rural environmental monitoring group instead of somewhere closer to civilisation was where she'd get to end up living. An academic post or working with a lobbying group would have left her with more of a social life, and she couldn't even count how many more conveniences. But it would have been hours of drive to anywhere as isolated as this, rather than a five minute walk. To say nothing of how hard it would have been to get as little light pollution as she did here. <br><br>Which is how she ended up straying from the well's pump, less encumbered now, hopping across the stream that ran a ways off from the well, following its course down just to see what was there.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>05-07-2013, 08:48:51</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The stray stayed hidden as Stephanie wandered away, her sleek form concealed in the shadows of the great trees. She stole around the edge of the well clearing and watched her walk to the creek. The heavy black backpack, abandoned next to the well, loomed large in her imagination. Humans kept food in backpacks. She watched a little longer and then, tail curved over her back with interest, bolted toward it.<br><br>Ah! It smelled of birds! She struggled to find a way to open it, her teeth tearing at the durable fabric in frenzied anticipation. She tugged - bit - scraped - clawed it. At last, and somewhat by accident, the zipper came loose, and she thrust a hand in and pulled the whole thing open. Feathers burst into the air; she pounced on them reflexively before realizing there was no bird there. <br><br>It was a long moment before she came to the bitter realization that the backpack only smelled of birds, and had none in it. Disgruntled, she poked at its other contents, the strange little tubes of liquid that burbled as they rolled around on the ground. Humans kept many different kinds of liquids in tubes - usually bigger ones than this. Some of them were very tasty.<br><br>She gnawed the top off a sealed beaker and drank the well water. It was tepid water, though cleaner than the water she normally drank. She tried another. It was the same. Frustrated, she backhanded a pile of them; they went flying, their contents glittering in the sunlight. Her tail thumped hard and repeatedly against the ground.<br><br>The stray rooted around in the backpack some more. She found a kerchief, old sunscreen, a battered map, scraps of paper, a broken pencil, all of which she tossed away - except the kerchief. She'd grown used to Stephanie's scent from the terracotta robe; it had become pleasant to her, associated with sleep and food and home. She held the kerchief in her mouth as she struggled to open the backpack's other, smaller pouches.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>06-07-2013, 00:50:36</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				It wasn't a long hike, mostly just an excuse for Stephanie to stretch and destress after a day of hauling around bottles and driving over bad roads and clambering up trees and the rest. Just walking without anything weighing her down was a relief, and it didn't take her more than a few minutes till she was feeling relaxed enough to loop around back to where she had left her backpack. She still had to get everything back to the lab and sort out all the labels and update inventories and everything else that really should have been done by one of the lab techs if they actually had a staff that measured up to their needs. <br><br>But they didn't, and so she ended up doing it. At least it really was just an issue of personnel —&nbsp;her assistant directorship really did mean something more than glorified secretary, and in theory someday when they managed to expand their budget or bring in a fantastic success during a grant cycle they'd get around to fixing that. Which come to think was another thing she really needed to get around to—<br><br>Stephanie froze mid-step as she caught sight of her backpack. And, for that matter, everything that should have been <em>in</em> her backpack. She almost missed the culprit for a second as she saw the feathers —&nbsp;previously packed and labeled by site —&nbsp;spread out all around the well. And in the middle the same cat-girl that had stolen her robe a few weeks prior. <br><br>That was enough to completely derail Steph's train of thought. There weren't <em>too</em> many strays in the region, this not really being within the usual range of the more wild members of the species, and the population was almost entirely lost, runaway, or abandoned pets. Stumbling on the same one twice in completely different areas was startling —&nbsp;either the cat-girl's range was huge, or… or obviously she had opportunistically hid on Stephanie's porch to get out of the rain, and this was closer to where she usually was, duh.<br><br>She crouched down again habitually. Had she been confronting a wild animal she probably just would have tried to run it off, but the cat-girl was almost certainly just a homeless domestic than truly wild. And significantly cuter than most deer besides. Anyway, she liked cats. <br><br>Even when she started creeping towards the stray Stephanie kept low, half to appear less threatening, half just to broadcast she wasn't going to be sprinting or suddenly moving any time soon. She didn't actually expect to have any better luck than last time, but you never knew, and worst case the cat-girl bolted and she could get back to salvaging her backpack. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>08-07-2013, 01:59:58</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The stray finally managed to open one of the smaller pouches; she rooted around in it, coming up with half a granola bar.She put it aside and continued to rummage, but found nothing.<br><br>Dissatisfied, she let the kerchief drop from her mouth and picked up the granola bar.&nbsp; Vegetation of any kind was not her preferred diet, but she could handle it in small doses. She wasn't going to pass up any kind of food, that was for sure.<br><br>She gnawed on it, surveying the scene of destruction. Her ears swiveled back and forth and suddenly pricked up. Her head snapped around, eyes wide, and she looked Stephanie square in the face, the granola bar hanging out of her mouth. Every inch of her went rigid with tension, and her tail spontaneously fluffed up to twice its usual size.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>08-07-2013, 03:23:47</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie had been under the impression that nekomimi were carnivorous, rather like the cats they so resembled in many ways, and it was something of a surprise to see this one eating her <em>granola</em>. Granted, she had grown up with a dog that couldn't get enough carrots, so maybe it was just a peculiar quirk on the part of this particular cat-girl? <br><br>On the other hand, she also looked rangy enough that it might just be opportunistic whatever she could get her hands on. Steph wasn't a veterinarian by any means, but she didn't need to be —&nbsp;she was pretty sure that if she were closer that she could do some rib counting. Most wild creatures were to some degree always kind of rangy, and feral domestics more so than usual. But even so…<br><br>She sat down where she was when the cat-girl fluffed her tail, not willing to creep any closer with that sort of reaction. Unfortunately it, along with her last encounter, suggested that she wasn't going to get anywhere, but that wasn't going to deter her. She stopped and cooed at other strays as well without ever expecting anything to come of it.<br><br>She wasn't entirely sure how to make herself look non-threatening from where she was, but she did her best to give out a I'm not going to throw rocks at you vibe. It was&nbsp;a pity that everything she might have had food-wise to lure the cat-girl closer was in her bag, and largely vegetarian anyhow. What she wouldn't have given just then for a pocket filled with pemmican. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>10-07-2013, 03:28:43</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				It is categorically impossible for a feline to feel guilt. It is, however, occasionally possible for one to realize that it has done something that, were the tables reversed, it would take swift and clawed revenge for, and, which is substantially worse, that it has been caught in the act.<br><br>The stray, having demolished the (utterly useless and profoundly disappointing) contents of Stephanie's backpack, and having been caught with Stephanie's food literally in her mouth, had a dim suspicion that this might be what had just happened. "Mrrw?" she offered, her voice muffled by the granola bar, as she inched away on all fours, her tail erect. It was a noise halfway between a warning growl and a guilty whimper. When this happened with chickens, this was about the moment when the farmers began shouting and throwing things; sitting was a novel reaction on the human's part but doubtless one that presaged some strange new form of violence. It was probably a good idea to take off running with her (tasteless) prize. With nimble tongue and sharp teeth she worked the rest of the granola bar into her mouth; it made her cheek puff up like a squirrel's. She crouched, ready to leap left or right or straight away based on Stephanie's next movement.<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>10-07-2013, 10:50:30</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The lack of bolting afforded Stephanie more time than she honestly expected to examine the stray. The last time they had come face to face it had been dark out, and it had only been for a few seconds anyhow, not really a good time to get a proper glimpse of anything. And here her first actions and glances had all been awfully utilitarian, surveying the damage, estimating how likely the nekomimi was to bite or bolt, and the other practical things you went to first when you were confronted with a wild thing. <br><br>With a few extra seconds she actually could see more of the contours and outlines and shapes that went into the stray. Her earlier assessments seemed to be mostly on the mark. Lean and rangy, with all the little scars and marks that came from living outdoors. And…<br><br>Well. You couldn't really think about cat-girls without the obvious coming up sooner or later. Stephanie's cheeks coloured just a little as she assessed <em>other</em> bits of the cat-girl as well. There was a reason they were sometimes exceptionally popular as pets, and this one seemed to be a very… well endowed example of the breed. <br><br>Honestly, Stephanie was a little envious. She'd never have tits that nice. <br><br>She pursed her lips consideringly. She could close the distance, but that would probably just cut things short. She could make noises in an attempt to lure the stray over, but that had more or less the same problem. Well, the view was nice, so why make it end early? She rested her chin on her hand, elbow on her knee as she let herself enjoy the view, ogling without shame for once.<br><br>It's not like the stray minded, not in that way anyhow, and there was no chance in hell Stephanie was getting this close to an actual person any time soon. A thought tinged with more than a little bitterness, but that made it no less accurate. The cat-girl would leave when it was spooked or bored enough, and in the meantime Stephanie could forget about the mess she was going to have to clean up soon enough.<br><br>Ooh, if only the feathers weren't scattered about over there. That might have been almost as good as meat as a lure. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>10-07-2013, 23:47:29</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The stray had been abandoned early in her life, with little conception of sexuality or beauty, and could find no explanation for Stephanie's steady gaze other than aggression, like the farmers and their dogs. Her tail lashing with fear, she began to sidle backwards, ears flat and eyes wide, until she reached the shelter of a nearby copse, at which point she took to her heels and fled.<br><br>She stopped running shortly after, just past a little hillock, and coughed up part of the granola bar, regretting her decision to dine and dash. She chewed and swallowed the rest, grudgingly, and lapped at a nearby creek to wash it down.<br><br>With a safe distance between her and Stephanie, her adrenaline receded and made room for more rational thought.<br><br>The human hadn't actually attacked her. Fuzzy memories of a house bubbled up; of soft carpeted floors that were so kind to her feet and a bowl that was just for her, a bowl always full of tender meat, sometimes on the bone, sometimes bloody; of human voices, high-pitched and warm, and little hands petting her hair, playing with her ears.<br><br>She shivered despite the hot sun, and her tail coiled around her. The misery of her current existence was forced down on her, a sudden heavy weight of hunger and filth, of cold, of loneliness. Stephanie appeared in her mind's eye; she remembered the taste of lemony fish and the smell of the soft robe.<br><br>The pellet scars ached sharply, suddenly. No. She could not think that way.<br><br>Her tail uncoiled, and she set off toward farmland, to find her supper for the evening.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>11-07-2013, 01:04:03</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The moment was broken soon enough and while Stephanie sighed as she picked herself up and meandered over to the scattered contents of her pack, this time she didn't feel particularly surprised by the cat-girl's behaviour. This time, after all, she had the explanation for it, or at least thought she did. While her gaze might have lingered on the more… inappropriate parts of the stray's anatomy —&nbsp;and she was still blushing as she realised what a perv she apparently was —&nbsp;it wasn't the only thing she had spotted. <br><br>A few scars were to be expected from something out in the wild. Nicks from branches, claw and bite marks from fights, a thousand other things could leave blemishes on the skin, and without bandaging, stitches, and the rest of modern medicine the scars were both more likely and more severe when they did form. <br><br>Pellet scars on the other hand were both distinctive and not in the usual list of hazards in the wild. From a farmer, perhaps? Or just some teenagers who thought it was funny. <br><br>That thought actually got her a little pissed off as she lowered herself to her knees, collecting the feathers, doing her best to match them up with the collected sites, simply discarding those she had any doubts about. There were countless better ways to manage the wildlife than shooting at it —&nbsp;that had always just seemed… needlessly cruel. Especially since the majority of those who did it simply were killing time. <br><br>At least it explained the skittishness. The sad truth then became that she probably wasn't going to ever get anywhere with the stray, even if she did stumble into her territory again. More mistrust than she could probably overcome, although at least she hadn't pointed any guns yet. <br><br>It was about ten minutes later that she finally stood up, having sorted about as well as she could and drawn a second well sample. It was a pity the cat-girl was so sensibly skittish, though, she really was a cute thing. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>11-07-2013, 04:06:04</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				It was late summer now, and the weather touched ninety degrees Fahrenheit on occasion. The mountain lakes had retreated from their shores, and the snowpack practically vanished on all but the highest peaks. Even the greatest lake, Tahoe, grudgingly warmed to a lovely seventy degrees.<br><br>For a nocturnal hunter, this was paradise. The air was warm and still at night, and plump little creatures - both wild and domesticated - were everywhere. The stray wreaked a massacre every night, her lips and hands and teeth red with blood. By day she sunned herself in meadows and swam in creeks to cool off. She rarely returned to her lair; there was little need. Her body began to fill out, and her sunbaked skin browned further, which made her scars stand out strikingly.<br><br>She found herself one day on the outskirts of civilization, in a place that seemed distantly familiar, with a tree and a house that she recognized dimly. The sun hung low, and the sky was a vividly surreal blue. The stray padded up to the porch; she sniffed around a little. Birds, lemony fish, soft terrycloth - scents and sensations chained together and coalesced into an individual.<br><br>The gifts of summer were more than merely physical; food and warmth had made her brazen - no, beyond brazen - in ways that the scrawny creature which had survived winter could hardly have believed. The source of her scars was now mostly forgotten.<br><br>The stray leaped into the great redwood and scaled it with ease, her long tangled hair still wet from the stream uphill. She reclined on a branch thicker than her thigh, a dozen feet in the air. She would dry herself in the sun, and lie in wait for this human, and see what would happen, confident that she could outfight anything.<br><br><br>Well okay. She could out<em>run</em> anything. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>11-07-2013, 05:42:43</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie would not have guessed in advance that expanding her staff would have led to more work, but in retrospect she probably should have guessed that it would have. If nothing else, the world loved irony, and giving her exactly what she wanted was usually the way to make her look back ruefully on her decisions. An eighth person sounded nice in theory, but for the first few weeks it meant for her that many more hours of training and supervision and correcting the flurry of inevitable mistakes.<br><br>At least it was still light out when she ending up heading home, the slowly —&nbsp;very slowly&nbsp;—&nbsp;dying summer providing afternoons that seemed to stretch on without end. It made it easier to miss the innumerable potholes and other navigational hazards on the less than perfect road back to her house. <br><br>All the while she let her mind wander, thinking about plans for smoothing over the rough spots their new hire had shown, wondering what in the world she was going to end up eating, for a while trying to visualise in her head exactly how a Banach-Tarski transformation would look in 3D space. <br><br>It was enough that for a moment she missed the addition to her yard as she hauled everything from her car into a pile for transport into the house. And when she finally did she ended up dropping her pack in surprise, having only managed to secure a shaky grip on it in the first place, as she stared up at the cat-girl in her tree. <br><br>There was no doubt this time as to who she was. A little bit older, with hair a little longer, and more of a tan. Not to mention that she had gotten fatter —&nbsp;still lean and rangy, but no longer scrawny either. And in her tree. There was the most puzzling part. A good summer could have seen to the scrawny part, but Stephanie had never really expected to see the stray again anywhere, let alone for the second time on her own property. <br><br>"Well hello there, kitten," she addressed the creature, despite the fact that the animal in question was quite obviously a fully developed example of her species. "Did you come back for the fish, or are you expecting it to rain again?" She idly retrieved her pack while she watched the cat-girl. At least she wasn't going to lose the light any time soon —&nbsp;a proper unpacking job was easy to put off till later at this point. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>11-07-2013, 08:45:10</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				She gave a long, luxurious yawn, long dark ears folding back against her head briefly, and if she felt a frisson of anxiety and second thoughts it did not show. Her mismatched eyes focused on Stephanie for a moment, then followed a passing bird. They scintillated in the fading light, bright gold and jade, full of inscrutable superiority.<br><br>The human was a long way off. The stray folded her hands on the branch and rested her chin on them, her legs gripping the branch. Her tail dangled languidly beneath her.<br><br>The sound of Stephanie's voice pulled that liquid, impassive gaze back to her. In response, the cat-girl blinked slowly at her.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>11-07-2013, 13:06:00</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The change in attitude seemed just about as drastic as the change in appearance, Stephanie decided. The two were probably not unrelated, as well, as even in the animal world everyone felt more confident on a full stomach. And if the summer had been that kind, there probably was fair reason to feel a bit more gregarious. Or what passed for gregarious for a stray at any rate. <br><br>Her eyes were pretty, too. Much more so now that she wasn't looking frantic or overly suspicious. Stephanie's mother had possessed heterochromia, but sadly that was not one of the things that Steph herself had inherited from the woman, much to her eternal irritation. Her own blue eyes were nice enough, but they lacked the exoticism that her mother possessed. <br><br>Stephanie smiled thinly at herself. And now she was feeling jealous of a cat-girl. Breasts and eyes, and who knew what else? Which was all just silly. Sure, she was aware of the stereotype of the nagging wife jealous over her husband's eyes wandering towards the family pet —&nbsp;and was aware that it actually happened on occasion at that —&nbsp;but for something similar to actually happen to her seemed absurd. <br><br>She stood around for a minute, staring at the cat up in a tree, pondering what did bring it out this way a second time. Probably happenstance, although the level of calm contempt the nekomimi displayed was on the whole a rather positive sign. Although certainly she would bolt if Stephanie decided to go and climb up after. <br><br>An idea struck, the obvious idea struck in fact, and abandoning her things by the car Stephanie skirted around the tree, vanishing into the house for a minute, gambling that the stray was too lazy to do much right then if unchallenged. She had looked like she was napping, after all. <br><br>Then she emerged from the house, sitting down crosslegged on her porch, placing the dish a few feet in front of her. Leftover chicken dumpling soup probably wasn't <em>quite</em> as alluring as fish had been, but you worked with what you had. And if food didn't lure the cat-girl out of the tree —&nbsp;even content as she was&nbsp;—&nbsp;then nothing she could do would in all likelihood. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>12-07-2013, 03:51:21</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Humans who went into houses often came out with guns.<br><br>&nbsp;As Stephanie reappeared, the stray rolled over and fell. She landed softly on her feet, crouched and ready, eyes on Stephanie, her tan body blending seamlessly into the dappled sunlight.<br><br>Food?<br><br>Her ears swiveled back and forth, and the tip of her tail twitched rapidly.<br><br>Food!<br><br>But the human was still close to it. Too close. Her ears flattened. She was familiar with the concept of bait.<br><br>She sidled up next to and somewhat under a large bush, her eyes never straying far from Stephanie or the food. She could be a patient predator when she needed to be. She settled into a relaxed position, and waited, motionless.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>13-07-2013, 02:17:57</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				For a moment Stephanie thought that coming out again would finally be what drove off the stray again. Their meetings never lasted more than a few minutes at most, and so it was about the right time for a sudden exit. <br><br>When the impending escape failed to materialise Stephanie allowed herself a moment of feeling smug. It was food the first time as well that got the nekomimi out of the rain, and apparently food that got her to raid the backpack. It was nice to have a reliable hook. <br><br>Or almost reliable. Knowing what she was looking for she could follow along with the cat-girl's progress, the sheer size of the creature making it easier than if it were a proper stray cat. And moreover allowed her to follow along to where the stray was lingering a fair ways out of reach, watching with, as it turned out, far more patience than Stephanie had. <br><br>It was a nice enough day, but there wasn't unlimited time left, and hauling in things in the dark would have been a bother. Stephanie cracked first, shifting her seating position so she could scoot the bowl with her toe up to the edge of the porch, to where it was out of easy reach of where she remained sitting. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>13-07-2013, 03:04:04</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Her strategy was bearing fruit. Excellent.<br><br>She stayed put, her face impassive, except for her tail, which curled around her in a C-shape. She noticed, irritated, a bit of sticky sap stuck in the tip of her tail.<br><br><br>Any semblance of regal feline superiority dissipated as she trapped her tail under her hand and began to gnaw and lick at it ferociously, sliding wary glances at Stephanie every few seconds.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>13-07-2013, 23:22:03</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie wasn't positive whether or not she was making progress. On the plus side the stray hadn't scampered off, and she still displayed a great deal of apparent interest. Well, she did her best at hiding it, but the fact that she was still carefully hovering around was hint enough there. <br><br>On the other hand, nor was the stray showing any sign of coming any close. Especially with this latest distraction, one that made it impossible to tell whether or not there was really some deeply bothering the cat-girl, or if she was just doing her best to pretend not to be interested. <br><br>A sigh. Well, each minute it stretched out was a minute longer than she had ever had before. And she could give a little more to keep it going. Stephanie backed up,&nbsp; scooching back from the bowl till her back bumped up against the door. Once she could go no farther she crossed her legs, folding her hands in her lap as she continued to watch.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>17-07-2013, 02:44:50</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The stray gave in, after a long moment. She slid forward, ears swiveling, tail held cautiously out. She made it across most the yard before stopping, some distance short of the porch, her mismatched gaze going this way and that, always returning to Stephanie.<br><br>Her face betrayed her anxiety, with wide, dark pupils and drawn lips, but nevertheless she glided forward, knelt, and took the bowl in her hands. Her eyes never left Stephanie as she began to lap at the soup with her long tongue.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>17-07-2013, 07:37:45</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The body language alone was enough to take a fair guess at what would happen if Stephanie tried to get closer. But this was the closest they'd voluntarily been together without a door between them, so it wasn't as though it wasn't progress. That the stray had shown up in her yard unprompted by anything like bad weather at all was probably a good sign all in itself. <br><br>And certainly she didn't want to waste all that effort knocking down any kind of trust she had earned. At this rate they might have actual physical contact before she was thirty. She didn't want to push it back even farther. <br><br>Besides, it was fun watching the cat-girl this close. Trying to guess what the scars came from, appreciating the kind of toned legs that she would have killed to have. She gave a wry smile —&nbsp;it was downright ridiculous how she ended up envying the nekomimi whenever they met. And a little stupid, seeing as she wouldn't really have given up all that thinking stuff for anything. <br><br>That didn't quell all the pangs of envy though. An animal ending up quite by accident with everything she would have liked to have, and had to work so hard at. She couldn't hold it against the creature, especially when it was as fun to look at as it was, but the feelings lingered all the same. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>18-07-2013, 09:49:58</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The bowl clinked softly against the porch as she put it back down. She licked her lips.<br><br>She was not used to being looked at, or looking at others. It made her shy; now that the food was gone, she slunk back down the steps.<br><br>She studied Stephanie's face – the straight line of her jaw, the soft curve of her cheek. She made note especially of the woman's body language, of her folded hands and straight back, relaxed and non-confrontational. <br><br>She should go. There was no reason to stay. There had been no reason to even come! Off now, away...<br><br>But there are needs other than purely physical ones.<br><br>She crouched nervously, looking this way and that, and then arranged herself into a cross-legged pose like Stephanie's, sliding her hands into her lap. Her tail thumped nervously against the ground.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>18-07-2013, 13:19:03</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Given the effort it had taken to get the stray to get even this close it was not terribly surprising that she retreated after the food was gone. It was a step in the right direction, Stephanie knew, but a small step. A step towards what she wasn't entirely positive and she had a niggling awareness that she was going to silly lengths to end up just scratching a cat-girl behind the ears. Whenever the chance came up it just kept seeming to be thee easy and right thing to do. <br><br>But that small step seemed a lot larger when the cat-girl hesitated before sprinting off, and even more of one after she mimicked Stephanie's posture, staring back as her tail twitched in a staccato rhythm against the ground. Stephanie couldn't help but lift her eyebrows in curiosity at <em>that</em>. Lurking was one thing, but mirroring? <br><br>She was hardly going to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. She leaned forward a bit, not shifting her position otherwise, letting one hand come to the ground in front of her, making circular motions with her fingers on the painted wood of her porch, then lifting it slightly to rub her fingers together. <br><br>It was probably a gesture that would be completely lost —&nbsp;she had known several animals that knew it as a come on over for ear scritches gesture, but almost certainly it was not universal, and would be taken more as a threat than anything else. <br><br>But it wasn't like she could do much else while sitting right there. She had to stifle a smile. This was more delicate in some ways that testing the waters romantically, and that always got stumbled upon an extremely awkward conversation regarding, well, her little Australia problem. And probably with a hell of a lot less potential payoff at the end.<br><br>Or maybe not. Given her past, ending up with five minutes of happy cat sounds probably was a considerably better outcome than most of her attempted dates were, if she were entirely honest with herself. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>21-07-2013, 23:52:55</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The stray tilted her head in bemusement. She didn't follow at all. But she recognized the smile Stephanie tried to hide. The thumping of her tail slowed, and eventually, after a long, long moment, stopped completely.<br><br>She advanced a little, slinking up the porch steps so that her feet rested on the bottom one and her hans on the top one. She was not frightened any more - only cautious - her heart beating with excitement, with the novelty of communication, however limited.<br><br>A hint of a smile grew on her face, revealing surprisingly white, sharp teeth, her impassive façade cracking.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>22-07-2013, 10:30:58</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The cautious optimism was slowly being replaced by a sense of giddiness as Stephanie watched the stray slink forward. Any previous satisfaction at the 'well, it could have been worse' sort of reactions she had gotten was nothing compared to actually making progress. Progress towards what, she wasn't entirely sure, but that didn't make it any less satisfying. <br><br>She didn't try to hide the smile then, especially when she found it matching the one the stray was getting, even if hers was probably a bit more enthusiastic than the one the nekomimi had. "There we go, kitten. See, absolutely nothing to worry about." She kept her voice what she hoped was soothing and her hand out encouragingly, fingers outstretched wiggling suggestively of scratches and nuzzling. <br><br>It was actually a bit of a chore to do only that. With the sudden reversal, although in retrospect maybe not overly surprising one if she gave it enough thought, there was a sudden urge to simply scoot right over and pull the cat-girl into her lap. She knew how that'd turn out, though, and she really did not want to start all over again, if she were even given the chance to. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>25-07-2013, 23:21:19</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Kitten.<br><br>She froze.<br>Her eyes went wide with recognition; her lips parted slightly in surprise. Though language was not her strong suit, it was a word she knew very well - a word she had not heard in a very long time, not since she had been a tiny thing, pampered and petted, surrounded by family.<br><br>The stray had difficulty, as a solitary creature, with the concept of intimacy, but just now it seemed she could grasp its dim outlines. This stranger knew something intimate about her. Her tail fluffed up in anxiety as she tried to digest this strange revelation. Emotions warred in her head, their struggle playing out across her sharp features.<br><br>Eventually, the good memories won out - the memories of being held, of laughter, of play - not the cold, sudden betrayal, not the weeks spent, hungry and cold, crouched in bushes by the side of the road, hoping for a familiar car to return, until hope guttered out.<br><br>Trembling, she slid forward, and pressed her tan cheek into Stephanie's outstretched hand, mismatched eyes shining with wary anticipation.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>26-07-2013, 07:10:57</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				It was a struggle to avoid grinning like an idiot at the stray finally started venturing closer after the long moment's hesitation. And after some thought, she decided why not, and grinned like an idiot. It wasn't as though her coworkers were around to see, and the cat-girl undoubtedly didn't care. <br><br>The stray's cheek was smoother than she would have expected, more like she had spent a lot of time tanning rather than the gnarled leatheriness that Stephanie had half-anticipated, something more like how her grandmother's skin had felt. Then again, no matter how much time the nekomimi had spent outside, she wasn't 73 yet, so she supposed that wasn't too surprising in retrospect. And she certainly wasn't complaining. The feeling was rather nice. <br><br>Very nice. Nice enough that it sent a little chill up her arm and down her spine, all the more so when she ran her fingers gently over the proffered cheek, then back into she was stroking the cat-girl's hair, pausing only to scratch the scalp behind her ears. <br><br>It was another monumental task to avoid running her other hand down lower. This one she did manage to restrain herself from, not at all sure how the stray might take to being felt up, and not willing to endanger the goodwill just quite yet. <br><br>"And what a pretty kitten you are, sweetness," she continued to murmur, relying on her tone more than her words to give her a comforting edge. "I find it hard to believe that you aren't lazing about on a pillow in a mansion somewhere, cute as you are." 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>26-07-2013, 10:39:47</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie's hand smelled of car leather, and very faintly of chicken dumpling soup. There were hints of paper, printer ink, handshakes, and a dab of perfume. Her scent had a unique, oddly masculine note.<br><br>All this the stray registered before the woman's hand finished running over her cheek. The gentle warmth of her touch was a strange, lovely thrill. The stray's eyes unfocused as Stephanie scritched her scalp, and a smile blossomed on her face to mirror Stephanie's. It was a slow smile, as though she had to learn how to do it again.<br><br>Stephanie's voice was a soothing babble; by the time she was done, the stray was prone, her scrawny length sprawled out in front of Stephanie's crossed legs. There was a touch of hesitation, and then she turned belly up, the picture of feline submission. The sinking sun was warm on her skin; the smile did not leave her face.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>26-07-2013, 12:23:57</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				It of course made perfect sense that a happy cat-girl would behave a whole lot like a happy cat, and so would sprawl out and demand more affection when she got the opportunity. And there was a certain innocence, an ingenuous charm to the act that made it the sort of picturesque adorable thing that was one of the principle reasons they were so popular as pets. And they had become common enough by now that few people thought much about it anymore, not without some reason to, reason more than just being exposed to some random stray<br><br>Which meant that the blush that spread from Stephanie's neck to the tips of her ears was entirely her own doing. And probably the doing of her long neglected libido, having taken a mind of its own that fully ignored the pleas for reason and moderation from the rest of her. <br><br>She had never actually been with anyone of a female persuasion before — and barely anyone at all, for that matter — but she had been long aware she wasn't exactly discriminating as far as that thing went. The best she could guess was that her sexual wires were naturally just so crossed that no one had bothered to fit them together in any sensible order as far as attraction went, and she was left with twice the number of people to quietly pine for.<br><br>And yet despite that she didn't hesitate for long. After all, the stray didn't seem to mind, and would undoubtedly let her know if she did. One hand stayed up by the cat-girl's ears, alternating between scratching and simply running through her hair, smoothing it out and gently bringing a little order to the, well, appropriately wild mane. Her other hand trailed downwards, or sideways she supposed from this perspective, skimming along the undeniably well toned sides, feeling the layers of muscle stretched over still distinctly feelable ribs, despite that she could no longer make them out quite so distinctly by sight. <br><br>Stephanie managed to avoid squeezing anything too indecent, a nagging worry in the back of her mind that somehow the stray would have human morals to be outraged or otherwise become offended somehow, but it didn't stop her from somewhat shamelessly feeling up her side as she stroked her way downwards, finally settling her hand on the cat-girl's stomach and hips and outer thighs. Even the occasional scratch and scab and scar didn't do much to break up the rather delicious feel of smooth and taught skin, if anything just adding character to the athletic build. <br><br>Her blush only deepened as she ended up rather suddenly squeezing her legs together, trying to do it in such a way as to avoid upsetting her attention too much. Yes, very definitely interested in the female form. Indecently so, even. <br><br>And yet she couldn't bring herself to care, not really. This had turned out better than she ever would have guessed, the time and effort spent over the months carefully coaxing the stray whenever they stumbled across each other rather suddenly paying off in so completely that it left her a little short of breath. <br><br>Every time they had met Stephanie had not been quite sure what she wanted, after she finally managed to get the stray to stop being so shy, and then afterwards hadn't really given it much thought, distracted by this and that, so never had come to a conclusion. Of course, given how long it had taken to get the stray to open up just this much, it might be ages till she could actually get her to consent to be adopted and redomesticated, but you never knew. Perhaps it would be quicker after this wall had come down. And even if it wasn't, Stephanie was suddenly feeling very patient indeed as she cooed soothingly, her hands working with a calm confidence that was completely at odds with the nervous giddiness she felt in the rest of her. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>29-07-2013, 08:00:15</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				She'd forgotten how much she loved to be touched.<br><br>Stephanie's hand on her side re-awoke that hunger. Her sun-kissed skin tingled where the other woman's fingers trailed; the stray lidded her eyes, long dark lashes fluttering lightly, blissfully unaware of why the woman's fingers, trailing down her side, dipped shyly away from the curve of her breast or the inside of her thigh.<br><br>The hand in her hair, though - her curls were knotted and tangled; even a gentle touch tugged unpleasantly. She bore Stephanie's initial touch with what she deemed to be impressive grace, but eventually seized the other woman's hand with one of hers. Her hand was bigger than Stephanie's, her fingers longer; she had callouses and dirty nails, and she grabbed Stephanie with unnecessary force, being more used to killing other creatures than holding hands.<br><br>In fact, she was blissfully unaware of the reason why people might hold hands to begin with, or why Stephanie's hand had dipped away from her breast as it ran down her side, or stayed exclusively on the outside of her thigh. Her pleasure at being touched was entirely innocent: the long absent sensation of, if not friendship, at least acquaintance.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>29-07-2013, 21:06:24</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie wrinkled her nose, smiling ruefully as she took the hint. Not that she at all minded holding hands with the stray, but it didn't take a genius to figure out why the cat-girl had done so. "You really need a bath, kitten," she said, glad for an excuse to continue murmuring on. "My mother would die of shame if she saw anyone with hair that unkempt." <br><br>That would have to be one of the first things to happen, once she could figure out a way to do it without having the cat-girl hightail it and never look back. Although come to think, while dogs and cats and the like hated baths, it was largely because they didn't like getting their fur wet, or so she understood. She wondered if the same held for cat-girls. Good chance, since you could still die of hypothermia even without being furred, and it was such a stereotype it was hard to imagine anyone that cat-like without it. Then again, some cats liked swimming too. <br><br>But the point remained that a bath and good conditioning was in order. Stephanie wouldn't really call herself a hair <em>fetishist</em> per se, but it was certainly one of the more attractive parts of a girl. Although not the only one. With the stray holding her hand, lazed out naked before her… it felt rather like she had an exhibitionist girlfriend.<br><br>It was really a heroic effort on her part, Stephanie decided, that she held out as long as she did, telling herself she didn't want to scare the poor nekomimi off, that really this was already way more than she ever could have hoped for, and she really should be taking small steps here, making sure she didn't shoot herself in the foot and lose the cat-girl's trust. And it actually was a fair while, gently stroking the lazy kitty, unable to not smile as she watched her sun herself. <br><br>But it couldn't last forever. She never had had before a naked girl quite this close at hand, nor as seemingly inviting despite how she knew it wasn't at all intentional. Almost without noticing her hand slid up to cup one of the cat-girl's breasts, squeezing with an experimental gentleness. And then her breath caught. <br><br>Oh.<br><br>Oh, so <em>that</em> was what they meant by pillowy. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>29-07-2013, 23:03:42</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Mismatched eyes flickered open as Stephanie's hand closed around her breast. She had never been touched <em>there</em> by someone else. She felt a curious heat stir inside her, a tingle that ran up and down her spine playfully. Her thighs opened slightly in unconscious response, and her nipples perked up.<br><br>She sat up, tangled curls falling around her shoulders, an alarmed expression on her face. The stray was no stranger to self-pleasure - there were precious few other entertainments available to her - but that someone else should stir those feelings in her was a surprise. Her hand rose, as if to swat away Stephanie's, but hesitated.<br><br>They were not <em>unpleasant</em> feelings, after all. Uncertainty flickered across her face.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>30-07-2013, 06:27:14</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				It took a moment for Stephanie to process what was going on, having difficulty as she was tearing her focus away from her hand. It wasn't a totally alien sensation, of course, seeing as she did possess a pair of her own breasts. Hers, however, were hardly anything to write home about, and the best you could say about them is that they were well-shaped, perhaps even perky. What they weren't was anything even close to handfuls. Soft and sensitive, yes, but with only so much there it was hard to really get a grip on it. <br><br>The cat-girl by contrast… Stephanie's tongue flicked over her lips. She had always had for some reason the impression that once you scaled up to a certainly degree they'd stop being so soft, that the added mass would make them less compressible or something. No, they just made a lot more soft. <br><br>Idly she realised she would have made an awful girlfriend just that moment, as self-absorbed as she was acting. That she was getting this way with a nekomimi only had her more embarrassed and it wasn't long until she withdrew her hand. It wasn't like she was doing anything <em>wrong</em> especially as the stray in question looked… not deeply offended? Mostly. She had neither bit nor scratched in retaliation at the very least.<br><br>Perversely, that made Stephanie feel <em>more</em> self-conscious. She gave an embarrassed smile as her hand moved upwards, returning to the somewhat safer option of scratching behind ears again. That had been well received. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>30-07-2013, 09:29:59</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The human moved her hand, and the dilemma went away. She still wasn't sure how she felt about it, but she was a very pragmatic creature, and right now there were scritches to be had.<br><br>The stray flopped back down, this time with her head in Stephanie's lap, her hair scattered in disarray over the woman's thighs, completely oblivious to the other woman's internal prattling. Her bronzed body stretched out across the porch, her slender ankles hanging over the edge of the stairs. The cool breeze swept in from the mountains - cool for summer, that is, but a reminder nonetheless of the waning sun. The stray contemplated the night - usually she was out prowling, but right now she was full and lazy, and - for once - not alone. Perhaps she would stay here for the night. Her eyes flicked back to Stephanie's embarrassed look. She did not quite understand the interplay of emotions visible on her face, but knew enough to understand she would not be chased away.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>30-07-2013, 20:33:36</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The smile returned to its basal, more pleasant state as the stray relaxed. If anything, it on the whole worked out better than Stephanie could ever have anticipated, ending up in a sort of casual intimacy that suggested a great deal of comfort, even more so than the previous lounging. And comfortable not only in the lacking suspicion sense as well, given how sprawled out the stray was. <br><br>Honestly, Stephanie wished she had a camera just then. And was more than just vaguely competent with one as well, as she was fairly certain she could have gotten something tremendously artsy and attractive out of that pose. A sort of mixture of laziness and cute that seemed to fit the cat-girl rather well. <br><br>It took Stephanie forever to work up the motivation to move, and even then it was only with great reluctance that she finally tore herself from lavishing affection and started to shift, neglecting to stand up until the stray had moved her head. It took a while after that for her to stand up, the long time spent still leaving her legs half asleep. And then another minute to regret wearing pants that day as it took her a while to properly sort out that particular problem, or at least make it a little less obvious, letting her finally get to actually dragging in everything from her car into her house. <br><br>She hesitated when she was finally done, standing on the stoop with her door open, doing a quick scan of her yard in the dying light as she tried not to be too hopeful that the stray had decided to stick around for a little bit longer.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>31-07-2013, 05:36:58</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				A flicker of disappointment crossed her face as Stephanie left the porch; the stray lounged there for a bit longer, but without either the sun or the human to pamper her, she had little reason to stay. She rose to her feet in a fluid, rolling motion and padded off into the forest, hips swaying.<br><br>She reached her lair around midnight, soaking up the moonlight with gleaming eyes. Her path had been terribly meandering; she'd walked easily double what she needed to if she'd been beelining it home. It had been a rewarding trip, though - some fool had left her laundry drying outside, and the stray had made off with a thick, fluffy coverlet that was only slightly damp. She tossed it onto the pile with the rest of her odds and ends, and flopped onto it. A puff of dust and hair floated up. <br><br>There was some scrambling, and burrowing, and general twisting and turning, and after a while only mismatched eyes and a stray curl of dark hair stuck out from the mound of blankets, towels, and clothes, watching the entrance to her lair. <br><br>Hours passed. The eyes closed sometimes, then slowly peeled open again. The pile quivered and churned as she moved restlessly inside. No good. She was too agitated to nap, too full to hunt. Clothes slid down her slender frame as she stood, discarding her impromptu bedding, and set off again, running downhill, seeking mischief.<br><br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>02-08-2013, 09:39:41</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie wasn't sure whether it was the food or the company that was the bigger draw in the end, but whichever it was it was working. Not very quickly, admittedly, and she hadn't seen the stray for a good week after the first time she'd actually gotten close enough to touch the cat-girl. That itself, however, was faster than ever before, and had gone similarly well. A later afternoon visit, smoothed over with leftovers and ending in an even longer time spent out lounging on the porch, Stephanie having this time thought to bring out her laptop so she could actually work while she spent time with the stray. <br><br>Not that she ended up getting all that much done, but it made her feel like she was being productive, and it was only when the mosquitoes starting coming out in force that she finally ended up retiring inside to retrieve her tiger balm tin and actually get down to finish the work she had mostly been ignoring in favour of the cat-girl. <br><br>And it hadn't been the last time. It wasn't quite a <em>frequent</em> thing, but it happened regularly enough that it was something she could reliable look forward to happening sometime within any given week or two. Enough so that she ended up changing her feeding habits to accommodate. She knew that cat-girls were entirely happy to eat many things other than fish, but it seemed reliably popular, and gave Stephanie herself an excuse to eat more fish, so it turned out well all around. <br><br>And then, seemingly all at once, summer died. It had been dying for a while, slowly shortening evenings and nights that actually got properly chilly during the late parts of them, leaves of some of the trees starting to change colours. It was all very gradual and pretty, and then it rained, almost non-stop, for two days. In some places Stephanie ended up having to wear wellingtons for fear of sinking knee deep in the mud, and the rain which started as a chilly drizzle ended up a freezing cold torrent some time during the first night. <br><br>Not, really, that Stephanie minded. For all that it was inconvenient, and even a little dangerous, she always did like the rain, and a wet year was a good thing. If nothing else it would reduce the rate at which every reservoir west of Colorado dried up. She'd regret it later, of course, when the strained infrastructure couldn't handle a month's worth of rain in 36 hours, but even that had its hidden upside. Not being able to get to work until repairs were made, she had ended up out on her porch, legs tucked under her with a blanket wrapped around her, laptop on an end table she had hauled out. <br><br>The rain had reduced to a drizzle, although it had been doing that more than a few times, only to start up harder after a while, and the sky suggested it probably would do so again by the time what passed for evening rolled around. Which really was just an excuse for hot chocolate while she listened to the rain come down. Even paperwork didn't seem so bad, when the atmosphere was this calming. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>03-08-2013, 05:15:37</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Rain is an awful, hateful, horrid thing. Rain is chattering teeth and numb toes; rain is cold wetness sliding down your long ears; rain is freezing water in the eyes and ears, and trickling into places where it is terribly unwelcome.<br><br>Rain makes it impossible to smell, to move silently without splashing, to find outdoor diners who leave their food unattended. Rain means chicken coops and barns stay locked up.<br><br>The stray <em>hated</em> rain.<br><br>She hated everything about it - everything! - and she hated most of all that it meant the return of winter, and horrid snow, and starvation.<br><br>She tried to wait it out at first, burrowed in her lair, but after a day hunger forced her out. She went first to McKlatchen's, a diner off the highway, but between the rain and the usual Monday downturn the dumpster was practically empty. She retraced her steps in the opposite direction, to a family farm, but the chicken coop had new chains and a padlock that didn't give way under a strong tug. The neighboring place had its guard dogs out and about; each of them was about her size and ferocious. The hotel two miles away had an event; cars were coming and going, and people were everywhere - no chance of sneaking up to the dumpster or kitchen at all. A security guard walked by with a pistol on his hip; she felt a twinge of remembered pain and snuck away.<br><br>She was trembling by the time she finally made it to Stephanie's doorstep, bereft of other options, covered in mud to her knees, her arms wrapped around herself. Her hair was plastered to her skin, her furred ears were flat and dripping - she was a picture of sodden misery.<br><br>There were no coy games, no lounging at the periphery until she condescended to notice Stephanie's offerings. The porch boards creaked under her brown feet as she flew into Stephanie's lap, squirming into her blanket and then throwing her arms around Stephanie's shoulders, and if she was not sobbing with relief then it was a near thing, her wet cheek pressed to Stephanie's collarbone.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>03-08-2013, 08:10:40</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie didn't have more than a second or two to panic, her eyes snapping up as she heard the sudden noise through the background patter of raindrops. She was halfway through sucking in a breath —&nbsp;not to scream, anything but that she was sure —&nbsp;when she realised who it was that was barreling onto her porch. Just in time to let out the breath in a startled and unhappy yelp as the frigid and soaking cat-girl burrowed into the warm and pleasant nest she had built for herself, getting mud everywhere and introducing an icy trickle of water down the back of her collar. <br><br>"Bad cat!" she squeaked the moment she had her breath back, but there wasn't much in the way of venom behind it, and she didn't, not just then, move to throw the stray off her lap. Especially as she recovered her wits and it struck her just how much the stray was shivering —&nbsp;of the many things Stephanie was, hard-hearted did not make the list. It didn't even come close. <br><br>And so she grit her teeth, sucking back her breath between them as she let the stray cling to her. She was going to need a change of clothes after this, so a little longer wouldn't make much of a difference, and she was pretty sure just then she couldn't have pried the cat-girl off of her with a crowbar. <br><br>She wrapped her arms around the stray, tugging the blanket properly around them as she did so. "See there, kitten, you're all right now," she said, trying to be a little more reassuring this time, continuing on with the usual stream of comforting nonsense. A few minutes and the body pressed against her wasn't quite so much like hugging snow, although she herself was starting to feel a chill coming on. <br><br>"Come on, love, we need to warm you up properly," she said as she started to move, shifting to lever herself up from where she was seated, ready to carry the stray if it came down to it. She added as an afterthought, "And make sure you don't give me frostbite either. Your fingers are like icicles."<br><br>Fortunately it wasn't all that far to the door, and once inside it was only a few more steps to crank up the heat, warm air flowing through the house. After that, she felt more comfortable prying the stray entirely off of her so she could make her way to the kitchen more comfortably. <br><br>"Now, let's get you fed." 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>04-08-2013, 07:07:37</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The stray hesitated as Stephanie moved indoors. She had not been indoors - well, except for breaking and entering - in a very long time.<br><br>She vacillated on the doorstep a moment, her trust in Stephanie warring with her fear of unfamiliar, enclosed spaces, but the warmth inside won her over and she stepped over the threshold, her tail twitching.<br><br>Indoor smells were so old they might as well be new again, the smells of treated wood, food, dyed fabric and especially soaps and detergents. Humans used those constantly, scented ones, and every house the stray had ever been in had been full of their cloying scents. Her nose twitched in irritation.<br><br>She knelt next to one of the hot air vents as Stephanie went to the kitchen, pressing her fingers to it. She looked up through a tangle of dark curls at the woman, her eyes wide and wary, as she disappeared around the corner.<br><br>The stray looked around, unwilling to move from the vent. There was another one just down the hall; she laid down and stretched out, and succeeded in parking her muddy toes over that vent while her hands stayed on this one. Well, this was much better than being out in the cold, she thought, though her hair and the rest of her body were still quite wet. She tilted her head and took in her new surroundings with childlike wonder.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>05-08-2013, 09:07:00</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				It didn't take long for Stephanie to put something together, despite the uncharacteristic lack of leftovers. She had intended to eat the tuna in question raw, after all, albeit with rice and pickled vegetables, so it wouldn't do any harm for her guest. Who probably mostly ate things raw in any case, when she wasn't scavenging. And who in the world cooked fatty tuna anyways? You might as well get something cheaper if you intended to do that. <br><br>She hesitated, plate in hand, as the thought skipped from that to, what in the world am <em>I</em> doing feeding this to a stray cat-girl? But it wasn't as though she had much else on hand this close to a shopping trip, and it wouldn't kill her to skip sushi once. <br><br>And her reservations were swept away when she made it back to the hall and spotted the stray stretched out so that she'd manage to catch two of the vents. She couldn't have forced the smile off her face if she wanted to, She slid to her knees beside the cat-girl, placing the plate down and running her hand down along the stray's side. "There, eat and be happy," she said as she got back to her feet. "I will be right back." <br><br>And she wasn't. The cat-girl had been weighing on her mind progressively more as the summer had rolled by. It became clear pretty quick that she had nothing even like a temporary or sorta kinda home, but roughed it out on her own. Which certainly made her adoption scheme easier from the human side of things, but probably a fair bit harder from the getting the stray to accept it side of things. But that certainly wasn't going to stop her from trying. <br><br>She didn't really believe that she'd make that much progress tonight, at least not on this front, so it was mostly for herself that she returned with the collar after retrieving her laptop from the porch, running her thumb over the soft leather and metal of the tag. And certainly she wouldn't even think of trying while the stray was eating, so she flopped down beside at a polite distance and contented herself with watching the cat-girl.<br><br>"So, I was thinking that it's probably a bit demeaning just calling you kitten all the time, especially seeing as I intend to be seeing a lot more of you." She paused, tilting her head. "Not that I'll stop calling you that, I suppose, but <em>only</em> calling you that, I mean, as though you haven't any other name. But then the problem is you don't, so I was thinking Ivy, so soon as we can get you to keep a tag on."<br><br>Another pause until she leaned in and added in a conspiratorial tone, "Just don't you dare go telling anyone that you got named after a character out of a furry webcomic, m'kay?"
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>06-08-2013, 04:35:30</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The stray fell on the tuna like Ghenghis Khan's ravening hordes, oblivious to Stephanie's hand running down her wet, sleek skin.<br><br>She ate so quickly she almost choked, coughing wildly as the woman returned. Even so, she noticed the collar in Stephanie's hand, her ears twitching to alertness. She was familiar with the concept, in the same way that she was familiar with the concept of clothes, but was equally oblivious to the significance of both. A cat, after all, chooses her owners, not the other way around.<br><br>She sat up and cleared her throat. She planted her bottom on a hot air vent, the warm current running up her back into her hair. She put the plate in her lap and ate with her fingers as Stephanie baptized her.<br><br>Ivy emptied the plate, and then licked it clean, her wide eyes peering out over the plate. She put it down carelessly and licked her fingers as well. She was warmer now, and somewhat fed, and the vent felt very good on her backside, but a carnivore her size could not be satisfied with one serving of fish. She cocked her head and sniffed. The kitchen still smelled of fish.<br><br>Ivy stood and stretched, which was marvelously entertaining for anyone interested in the female figure. She stepped past Stephanie and meandered into the kitchen, her wet tail held high and pointed, still dripping rainwater onto the floor despite the vent.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>07-08-2013, 00:38:57</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie was of the mind that she had shown remarkable forbearance in how little she had been noticing that she had a naked cat-girl at first plastered all over her, then lounging on her floor. It helped that it was not the first time and all, and there was a certain familiarity now that was indeed breeding contempt. Or at least apathy. The stretch was too much, though, and when she got up to follow along she did so with her cheeks decidedly pink. <br><br>And as much as the stretch did very interesting things to Ivy's outline, there was something to be said for following behind as well, outdoor living having given the stray an impressively toned back and legs and derriere. A sort of feral femininity that inspired envy as much as it did arousal. <br><br>She let those thoughts wander through her mind as she put the plate away to deal with later. Then she decidedly she'd probably better take the hint and take care of Ivy's stomach before she decided to start fixing that problem on her own. Given that she was dripping and all, Stephanie figured it probably had to be a pretty fearsome appetite to drag her away from the vent, even if the house was starting to warm up a bit. <br><br>Which sadly probably meant sacrificing the rest of her tuna, given that everything else was frozen at the moment. Putting the collar on the counter for the moment and transferred her chicken breasts up to the fridge to thaw overnight, assuming that there was no way in hell the stray would be leaving a warm house to head back into the rain, or even just the cold and damp if it let up sometime soon. "I hope you realise you're not going to be eating like this all the time if you stay," she said as she retrieved the rest of her fish. <br><br>A moment later and she had a cutting board and knife out, working the blade with deft, practised motions and handing each strip of tuna over as it came free. She really didn't want to see what Ivy would do with it in large pieces if she wanted to keep her own appetite, and anyhow it couldn't hurt to remind the cat-girl where exactly the food was coming from. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>07-08-2013, 02:53:16</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Personal space, like all etiquette, is a concept that can only be defined by those who live with others; to a savage alone in the woods it is meaningless, because all space is her space.<br><br>So from the very moment Stephanie opened the fridge, Ivy was all over her, and the only reason she did not simply shove Stephanie out of the way and take what she wanted was Stephanie's documented history of giving her very tasty things. Even so, her long hands reached for those chicken breasts, fingers opening and closing in a physical manifestation of greed. She made a noise of frustration as Stephanie pushed the door closed, but her eyes and nose zeroed in on what she was holding and the whining subsided immediately. The fish was much tastier than any chicken breast.<br><br>She crowded Stephanie against the counter as the woman cut the fish, the length of Ivy's body pressing against Stephanie's back, and snatched each piece of tuna the moment it was offered - indeed, after the first few pieces she became familiar with the routine and, more than once, Stephanie's fingers would close on thin air, the designated slice having already disappeared in a display of superhuman dexterity.<br><br>Soon enough the fish was gone; the stray licked her fingers. She began to purr uncontrollably, a rumbling, happy noise originating somewhere deep in her throat, her slender frame vibrating with happiness as she leaned against Stephanie, her bare breasts against the woman's body. She had been saved from the cold and wet, and given delicious, delicious food. Ivy was happier in this moment than she could remember being in a very, very long time.<br><br>In one of her few remembered human habits, she wrapped her strong, wiry arms tightly around the other woman's waist in affection and - her feline instincts kicking in - Ivy spontaneously began to groom Stephanie. She bent her face to Stephanie's neck and ran her warm, wet tongue from Stephanie's collarbone to her earlobe in one long, slow, joyous lick. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>08-08-2013, 00:57:58</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie had been prepared to have to defend the tuna, guessing that Ivy would have happily taken the entire thing and happily scarfed. Cat-girls were not, typically, known for table manners, and Ivy seemed even less concerned than most about being overbearing and assertive. Really in retrospect that was probably half the reason to make her wait, at least a little, at least some of the time, to prevent her from riding roughshod over Stephanie whenever she felt like it. It was a good idea. <br><br>And one that wholly unanticipated the way Ivy would react. Stephanie's breath caught as she felt the stray cuddle up close, breasts and hips and everything else rather noticeably squished up against her back. It was—&nbsp;She swallowed. Okay, so it wasn't really a bad thing, just... unexpected. And wasn't that hard to work with, just a pleasant —&nbsp;very pleasant —&nbsp;distraction as she worked.<br><br>By the time she was done it had been joined by another distraction, this one decidedly more uncomfortable, but in its own way no less pleasant. Which only became more... pressing as Ivy turned up the affection, Stephanie's breath catching again as she felt the vibrating purr roll through her. A catch that turned into a gasp as the tongue ran along her neck, sending little chills and prickles through her, sparking off a full body shiver. <br><br>She knew, of course, academically that it was a reaction to be expected, that the cat-girl was showing how pleased and happy she was. That really she shouldn't read anything more into it than she certainly had just won points towards getting Ivy to stick around, if only to shamelessly take advantage of Stephanie's willingness to feed her and keep her out of the rain.<br><br>All of which didn't stop her body from pointing out that she had just been licked by an overly affectionate and very naked girl, and that it was entirely up for a repeat performance and more. It was almost painful how much she regretted being unable to—<br><br>Stephanie blinked, staring forward for a moment. Well, why not? If had been someone she was dating she'd expect someone to be bent over the counter soon at this rate, and while the signals were different, it was hardly as though most cat-girls had all that many hangups in this regard. <br><br>So she tilted her head and returned the favour, her tongue running along the cat-girl's neck, up from her collar to the edge of her jaw, pausing there to nuzzle as she squirmed around in Ivy's embrace, one arm looping around her waist, the other running up along the curve of her waist, upwards till she could caress the side of her left breast. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>08-08-2013, 05:24:38</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Ivy made a startled noise, her tail twitching in surprise. No human had <em>ever</em> licked <em>her</em>.<br><br>Her memory jumped back to the creché, long long ago, when she had been a tiny kitten, cradled in her mother's hands, mewling as her mother licked the unruly fur of Ivy's tiny ears into place. Her memories of the creché were fuzzy and indistinct - she had been taken home by her owner early. Many years later she had tried to lick him, in a moment of happiness; he looked pleased, but then his wife entered, and there had been shouting. She had run away; the woman had chased her, and hit her.<br><br>Ivy came back to the present, Stephanie's mouth just under her jawline, the heat of her breath driving away bad memories. Ivy tilted her face away, baring her neck to Stephanie's teeth, a gesture of pure trust and submission. Her mouth curved into a smile again, a smile so wide it almost hurt. <br><br>Entranced, Ivy took a surprisingly long time to notice Stephanie's other hand on her breast, but - well -that was fine, she decided, ignorant of where it would lead eventually.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>12-08-2013, 01:36:35</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				There was a current of tension to Stephanie's movements, one that even she barely noticed as she cuddled up close to Ivy. A held breath as part of her waited for the other foot to drop, for Ivy to act more like a human, or at least more like most of the people Stephanie had been with, to rebuke her for her forwardness, or at the very least pull away. She only really noticed it in full when it vanished, dispelled by the enthusiastic response to her affection as Ivy nearly bubbled over with pleasure. <br><br>Stephanie let out a ragged breath, her eyes wide and staring for a moment as it sunk in, really sunk in, what she had gotten herself into. And that more surprisingly Ivy didn't seem to mind. She was blushing furiously again, her breath coming short as thinking about it seemed to slam her into inaction, her hand on the cat-girl's breast, arm around her waist, entangled in what was a decidedly intimate pose, and with no one stopping her but herself. <br><br>And that was going to get her nowhere. Stephanie forced a breath, one deep enough that she no longer felt like she was going to faint any moment. Then she threaded their legs together, leaning back against the counter so she could balance Ivy straddling her thigh. It also coincidentally made... certain parts of her a little more obvious than she'd like, but there wasn't any real way to avoid that unfortunately. <br><br>And was, for once, surprisingly easy to ignore in favour of everything that was in front of her. She moved down, her lips again brushing Ivy's collarbone, moving across laying kisses while her hand moved centrally, cupping Ivy's breast directly this time, gently squeezing before she started running her fingers in gentle circles, spiraling inwards around Ivy's nipple.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>12-08-2013, 10:03:50</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				This was not grooming.<br><br>Ivy didn't quite have any idea of what it actually was, this behavior her friend was engaging in, pushing her thigh between Ivy's and tasting Ivy's skin. Her skin tingled under Stephanie's circling finger; Ivy gave a little shiver as it drew closer and closer to her areola. This was much the same pleasure she gave herself sometimes, when she was alone and comfortable in her lair, but different - the touch of another made it more sweet, more surprising, when her body reacted so pleasantly.<br><br>Virginal anxiety bubbled up in her. This was a dance Ivy did not know, nor one she could really guess at. She held herself still in uncertainty, her arms still around Stephanie's waist, her smile replaced by a small 'O' of surprise, as she waited for some cue that would show her how to react. Her tail flexed through a number of shapes, displaying her confusion, before settling, quite unintentionally, into something that closely resembled a question mark.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>13-08-2013, 15:58:45</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie wouldn't have thought it possible for her to get harder just then. Certainly she didn't want to, the tightness already uncomfortable physically even before all the awkward thoughts it conjured, and still it only took the subtle vibration of a tremble to do it. She pulled her arm closer around Ivy, drawing the cat-girl up her thigh and balancing her weight. <br><br>She took a breath, the hand at Ivy's breast moving to the counter, feeling about till she managed to pick out where she had set aside the collar. Another breath and she rotated in place, shifting Ivy about as she went, guiding her with the leg she had thread between her thighs. <br><br>It... wasn't as fluid as she would have liked, halting and with pauses to keep her balance, and hampered by her attempts to alleviate the tension in her jeans while at the same time pretending that she didn't need to. It worked, though, reversing their positions and letting Stephanie push Ivy up till she was perched on the edge of the counter. And positioned at just the right level to—<br><br>Stephanie swallowed, her chest feeling tight as she resisted the temptation to lean forward and bury her face in Ivy's breasts. "Well then, kitten," she said, her voice soft as she forced herself to back off just a little. "I can't think of any better time for this than now." She let the back of her hand brush up Ivy's side as she brought the collar up, hesitantly moving to loop the slender leather band around her neck. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>15-08-2013, 12:32:02</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Ivy placidly allowed herself to be manhandled. She observed with some surprise the difficulty Stephanie had in placing her on the counter - were their situations reversed, she realized she could easily lift Stephanie. Her self-image was still that of the little fuzzy-eared kitten she'd once been - in a night full of surprises, discovering that she was stronger than a human being - any human being - was perhaps the strangest.<br><br>As Stephanie lifted the collar to her neck, Ivy recalled what it was. Her generous mouth turned down in a frown; her ears went flat. Collars got stuck on branches and fences; they choked you and made noise so you couldn't hide. Slim brown fingers closed over Stephanie's, and the cat-girl pushed her hand away. Her tail lashed violently, sending a plastic bottle flying from the counter. Those mismatched eyes narrowed in displeasure as she tensed, afraid of a confrontation.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>20-08-2013, 12:59:53</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie's expression turned apologetic as she backed off, raising a hand placatingly. "Okay, okay, not if you feel that way." The collar got placed back where it had been left the first time. THere would, after all, be plenty of time for that later. Especially if Ivy were indeed willing to spend at least some time inside, it boded well for future visits. Assuming Stephanie didn't fuck it up now by pushing too hard. <br><br>Which she would have to make up for. She did take the opportunity after she had lost the leather strip to catch the hand Ivy had pushed her away with, interlacing their fingers. She ran the back of her other hand down along Ivy's side, starting from mid-way along her chest and caressing downwards till her hand rested on the cat-girl's hip. "You are a bag of weasels, you know that?" she said, although she kept her tone as soothing as she could. "Just having one of those extends your lifespan considerably, even if you don't take into account things like access to medical care and lack of starvation." <br><br>She leaned forward, laying a kiss on Ivy's collarbone, then up along her neck as her hand lingered where it was, caressing Ivy's rather pleasantly lean thigh. "And it'd look cute on you," she murmured, hoping that sufficient kissing and making up would smooth things over, rather than aggravate the issue.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>20-08-2013, 21:35:06</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The bag of weasels remained wary, her posture stiff and her tail twitching. Gradually, the kisses and caresses had some of their desired effect - Ivy's ears unfurled, the tension left her shoulders, and her tail slowly stilled.<br><br>The kisses on her neck were exciting, but not as much as Stephanie's wandering hand had been earlier. If kisses were exciting, what would kisses there feel like, Ivy wondered. It was an interesting thought, but did not compel her; she was discomfited by the attempt to collar her. She had never disagreed with Stephanie on something before, and after years of solitary life even such a small confrontation rattled her. <br><br>Ivy slithered off the counter, the length of her body sliding past Stephanie's, and stepped away, her tail brushing up against the other woman's hip. She stood in the middle of the kitchen and looked around, ears high and alert. Now that she was fed, her goal was to remain indoors, away from the awful rain, and preferably to stay very, very warm. The stove radiated an appealing heat; she stepped toward it, and held her hands above the elements. Ivy remembered enough of indoor life to avoid touching it. The cabinet above it smelled of stale spices and microwaveable noodles.<br><br>She looked over her shoulder at Stephanie, wondering what she would do if the human woman tried to put her outside again.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>25-08-2013, 09:54:17</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				A little needle of fear slid in through Stephanie's ribs as Ivy brushed her off, a moment of panic as she wondered if she had pushed even farther beyond the line than she had thought. She almost sighed with relief as that fear proved to be premature, Ivy being standoffish, but not bolting either, simply pointedly giving Stephanie the cold shoulder as she explored the kitchen.<br><br>Well, Stephanie supposed she could live with that. If the cat-girl were still comfortable with sticking around, after all, things could work out in the end. And in retrospect Ivy didn't even seem to mind too much the touches afterwards, either, at least she hadn't mangled Steph for it, which hopefully meant the brushoff was mostly just an expression of general disapproval. <br><br>Stephanie breathed out a sigh, watching the stray as she stalked around. "Well, I suppose I deserved that, for treading on your oh so independent tail," she said, uncertain if she was being sarcastic, or ironically and self-deprecatingly sarcastic. "Or something like that," she added out loud to herself, "As they probably took away my hipster card when I got a job in industry." <br><br>Although that could have been worse. At least she was working for the part of industry where she actually had to report real numbers, lest the EPA get cranky. She could have been in the part of industry that invented numbers to show that smoking was unrelated to cancer and that whales loved oil spills. <br><br>Ivy staring at her again pulled her back to the present. She probably should patch things up before they started festering, a challenge when she couldn't actually just apologise verbally. And... she vaguely remembered something about how cats couldn't taste sweet, but cat-girls? She wasn't sure. Which meant chocolate should probably wait for a less sensitive moment. And she was out of meat till things defrosted. She chewed on her lower lip for a moment while she wrestled with this dilemma. <br><br>The answer was so obvious she actually blushed it took her so long. While she didn't have catnip, her herb garden <em>did</em> have valerian in it. "You stay here, I'll be right back," she said as she retreated, breaking into a run as she got to the outside, making it around to the side and swiftly harvesting about half the first plant she could positively identify, making it back in only slightly soaked, and bearing the leaves rather proudly before her as she returned to the kitchen.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>26-08-2013, 09:46:41</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				By the time Stephanie returned, Ivy was stretched out on the floor again, her brown feet on top of a hot air vent, little toes wiggling happily over the jet.<br><br>Her mismatched eyes flickered to Stephanie then, briefly, to the vegetation in her hands, which she dismissed out of hand.<br><br>A moment later her eyes darted back to the valerian. What was that <em>smell</em>? She rolled over onto her belly in a sinuous motion, propping herself up on her elbows. Her nose twitched.<br><br>It was - difficult to describe. A sensation of sweetness, like honey or fresh fruit, tickling her sense of smell, drawing her close. Ivy crawled toward Stephanie, then rose up on the balls of her feet, her eyes alight with interest.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>27-08-2013, 00:17:21</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The giddy smile was creeping back, utterly resistent to any attempt at suppression with the way that Ivy was staring. That was the the response she was hoping for. She was aware that valerian had some kind of feline euphoric in it, and what better way to smooth over tension than with drugs and altered mental states? It really was the basic idea behind going out and drinking with friends, wasn't it? <br><br>She took a half step back when Ivy got to her feet, raising the leafed stem over her head, out of reach of the cat-girl, even while she jiggled her hand, letting the leaves shake. Backing up as necessary to keep a little out of reach. <br><br>It was nice to know at least that was one more similarity between feline physiology and... felinohominid physiology? It suggested there was a lot more she could get away with, too, treating the cat-girl like any other cat, with a bit more mass to her. <br><br>She only stopped back up when she bumped into the counter herself, still holding the valerian up so high as she could, even though she had no doubt Ivy was far more athletic than herself in that respect.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>28-08-2013, 10:09:26</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				To describe the scent of valerian to a human would be to describe shades of blue to a blind man. It bit into Ivy, into the scruff of her neck, and pulled her forward, like a kitten. Resistance was unthinkable. Layers unfurled inside her mind - sweet and bitter scented notes curling away with each breath she took.<br><br>She was on top of Stephanie now, Ivy realized dimly, the other woman's back pinned to the counter, her own tan frame scrambling upward, trapping Stephanie with her thighs as Ivy tried to climb her like a tree. Her bite was not meant to be cruel; long canines pricked the skin of Stephanie's forearm, but only to guide - perhaps a touch forcefully - her hand downward. Stephanie smelled of valerian; Ivy could not resist licking her skin, her teeth sliding away clumsily, leaving a thin, accidental line of red blood - another intoxicating scent to the hunter, perhaps, but in this moment she could not have felt less like one. Her limbs felt soft and useless; she gripped Stephanie hard in the mistaken impression that her hands were like soft wax, in danger of falling apart. This fear loomed larger and larger in her head, and her mouth curved downward into a concerned look as she wobbled.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>31-08-2013, 16:12:53</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Stephanie actually squeaked, a genuine legitimate squeak, as she felt teeth puncture skin. It didn't hurt that much, somewhere between a nicking herself with a knife and a bee sting on a day it didn't send her into anaphylaxis, and mostly ended up making her giggle as the cat-girl ended up licking and rubbing herself all over Stephanie's body. <br><br>That... that Stephanie could get used to. The arousal was coming back fiercer than ever, making her cheeks turn as pink as her undies. And while the cat-girl didn't herself seem to be aroused, euphoric was a pretty good substitute in terms of how much Stephanie was having boob squished up against her. <br><br>The second squeak was just just about squeezed out of her, Ivy holding tight with muscles hardened by years of wild living. She looped her free arm around the nekomimi, taking a guess at what the sudden squeezing meant when attached to the look Ivy was giving her. "No worries, kitten," she said, reverting to her calm voice as she started to slide them both down from the counter till they were splayed in a pile of limbs on the floor. <br><br>A thought gripped her, and she pushed off from the cabinets till she was stretched out on on the ground, reclining on her side. One hand stroked Ivy's side, still comforting while she reached out with the other and twitched the valerian stem on the floor, a little ways beyond Ivy's nose. "See? We can have fun down here too." 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Synecdoche17</strong> on <strong>03-09-2013, 08:44:14</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Ivy went down without resistance, clinging to her new owner as she reached for the valerian. Once they were on the floor, she crawled over Stephanie, straddling her, shaking off the hand that caressed her. She reached out and dragged the woman's arm back toward her. Sharp teeth bit down on the valerian; its juice squirted into her mouth. She bit off part of it, barely chewed, and swallowed. Her pupils dilated tremendously, practically hiding her irises. After a long moment, the catgirl gave a goofy grin, and keeled over, her limbs like cotton, onto Stephanie. Ivy's pert brown breasts pressed directly onto Stephanie's face, then shook with something that approximated drugged laughter. <br><br>She slid off, into something like a spread-eagle position. The kitchen lights were blinding. She closed her eyes. The floor seemed incredibly distant. It hadn't before. Maybe it stretched. Yes. The floor stretched. She was floating now, flying in the darkness. Her ears swiveled, and her tail twitched, steering her this way and that. Ivy was flying, yes, she was alive, bursting with energy, invincible. She was smiling uncontrollably, and drool ran from the corners of her mouth as she tripped hard on Stephanie's little treat.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: Daylily (Synecdoche17 &amp; frost rose)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>frost rose</strong> on <strong>05-09-2013, 10:28:28</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				It was one thing to see a cat —&nbsp;an actual cat — go into absurd convulsive euphoria after being dumped into a pile of catnip or something similar. It was, well, it was similar to see it happen to a catgirl. The reaction itself was the same, Ivy gripped with the madness of the very happy and the very high, but at the same time it was hard to see nothing but the playful kitty there. There was too much... breast. Ivy's curves might have been feline, but only metaphorically, the expanse of toned flesh reminding Stephanie again exactly what it was that she had on her hands. <br><br>She wondered for a moment as she slid up next to Ivy whether or not she was an awful person. If Ivy were a human she'd probably be obligated to get her into a bed, made sure she didn't hurt herself till she had come back down to Earth. She... had actually done similar things for friends in the past. Not since college now, but she could still remember clearly the proper vigil. <br><br>None of it included snuggling up next to Ivy on the floor, arms looping around the catgirl, nuzzling and fondling to her heart's content as she hoped to god that it was <em>that</em> sort of euphoria. Or at least not one that would rapidly switch to paranoia at the slightest provocation. That would... end badly. 
			</dd>
		</dl>
		<div id="footer" class="smalltext">
			
			<span class="smalltext" style="display: inline; visibility: visible; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?action=credits" title="Simple Machines Forum" target="_blank" class="new_win">SMF 2.0.19</a> |
 <a href="https://www.simplemachines.org/about/smf/license.php" title="License" target="_blank" class="new_win">SMF © 2021</a>, <a href="https://www.simplemachines.org" title="Simple Machines" target="_blank" class="new_win">Simple Machines</a>
			</span>
		</div>