"Whoa sorry, I uh, I'll—"

"Agh, don't open the door again, just—don't look. And give me a second. I didn't know you were back."

Maple had barged in and shut the door behind her faster than she'd looked with any of her eyes. She turned her back to Rachel—who was naked, and who had clearly been touching herself—and covered her eyes.

Their room was minimal, with Maple and Emma's bed, and Rachel's futon-thing piled onto the floor as the main pieces of furniture. There were also a couple of dressers and shelves, but otherwise it was just a square room. And Rachel's area was closest to the door.

She'd accidentally gotten a full look and couldn't help smirking with mild mirth. All of her friends were attractive, she was realizing, and that was a bit weird wasn't it? Usually there was at least one friend who—wait, did that mean she was the ugly one?

Before worry could overtake her, Maple laughed and went back to her initial thought.

"Usually it's me getting caught in a situation like this. I'm glad it's on the other foot now. Or no, the—the dildo is in the other hand now, huh? Or in the other—"

"Wow, stop. Maple. Are you drunk, or something?"

Maple stopped and considered the question. The rustling sound behind her mostly stopped, and she guessed Rachel was covered. Maple moved her hands behind her head, and made one large eye form on the back of her top hand. It winked at Rachel.

"A tinnyyy bit. Maybe. But look—I can look, with more eyes than any one person could ever possibly need."

She stumbled while standing still, literally seeing double. Rachel jumped upon making eye contact with Maple's phantasmal eye.

"What the hell did you end up finding? Anyway, I'm dressed. You can turn around. Not that you need to, I guess?"

"Yeah, I don't need to, because I'm a totally awesome—uh, it's somewhat a secret but I'll tell you the whole story sometime. I'm back, though! Did you miss me?"

Maple turned around and smiled. She wasn't that drunk, but just in a silly mood. Rachel now wore what was basically a large sweater, made to extend down and cover the private parts just above her spider-half.

"A little, actually. It felt quieter without you two around at night, but I've just been working like usual. How'd your thing go? Where's Emma?"

"Aw, I missed you too. She's with her boss, spending the night."

Maple wiggled her eyebrows, adding emphasis to what likely had enough of an implication already. She approached Rachel near her floor-bed, and vaguely gestured for a welcome-back hug. Rachel took a step back.

"Uh—let me wash my hands first, I guess. There's a letter for you, too. From Mother. But yeah, be right back. Sorry..."

"Oh, it's fine. And I tried not to look, but—you know."

Maple did the eye-palm-finger-wiggle technique for Rachel and got an only-somewhat awkward laugh in response before she left.

Maple flopped onto her bed after that and decided that when Rachel came back they'd both pretend this never happened. She did just that when the door opened a couple of minutes later.

"Rachel, you're back! How'd your trip go? Did you splice your genes with another species so that you can grow an infinite number of eyes?"

"No, but I'm guessing that's what you did?"

"Yep. I'm half erogel now, and can use sex energy, and will grow wings, and yada yada yada. Oh and, I have souvenirs! I wasn't totally sure you'd want one, but since I just accidentally walked in on—I mean, the place ended up being this weird abandoned sex spa, and there was this gift shop full of sex toys, so, if you did want a souvenir..."

Pretending it never happened didn't last long, but Rachel just sighed and shook her head before going over to her dresser. Maple watched through eyes on her feet as Rachel dug through the bottom drawer and then came over holding a letter. In her other hand was one of her fancy smoking devices; what looked almost like a tiny, enclosed glass vase with a hose attached to a mouthpiece.

Maple jumped up to grab the letter and then quickly hugged Rachel before she could get away. Not that she tried to; Rachel happily hugged her back, carefully holding her device off to the side.

"Thanks. I'm back!"

She was back, and repeating herself. Part of it was to reassure herself and maybe just to play it up a little. Besides Emma, Sasha and Rachel were—her closest friends. Who else could welcome her back?

More than that, she'd gone somewhere and come back, and this was her home—as much as it didn't fully feel like it—she needed to reassure herself that it was her home.

Because she'd actively committed to staying here, in this world, when she could have asked Lili about a way back to Earth. Instead, she actively chose not to ask at all. Between that and giving up some of her humanity—she was in deep. Had it been the right decision?

Rachel, falling right into Maple's plot, patted her twice on the back. Reassuringly.

"You sure are. Wanna tell me about it? We could go for a walk if you skip the top secret parts."

Rachel gestured to her contraption, indicating they would perhaps inhale something on this walk of hers.

"Sure, I could go for a walk. It's dark out, but you're—uh, strong. My body is a little stronger now, too. It feels rude to say you're good at fighting, for some reason. But, what are you smoking tonight anyway?"

That'd been another thing against joining Emma and Marielle; any city was some level of dangerous at night. Rachel used to be something that totally wasn't some kind of assassin, though. Her thumb stroked the glass as she explained.

"It's a comfy blend, mildly psychoactive. Uh, mostly made up of Golden Moonbloom, which has an empathogenic effect. Blue Moonbloom pairs with it well as an anxiolytic, and—yeah, it has a few other things in it too."

Rachel smiled and cut herself off, careful not to go on about it overly long. Maple wasn't disinterested, but felt like it might just go over her head anyway, so she just nodded and put her shoes on.

Rachel led the way down the stairs, and Maple found herself staring. Her spider-half was pretty in a way; a mix of violet and silver colors, and with sharper, more angular shapes than Charlotte's more rounded features.

But it was her eight multi-jointed legs that Maple stared at. If she'd thought Sylla's slithering might be kind of tricky, surely that would get confusing.

Sasha nodded to them from behind the bar on their way out. She did tend to lock things up at night, meaning they would need to wake her if they stayed out too late, but they had a few hours before that became any concern.

The early night air held the lingering warmth from the day. Lamps were already lit and lined the streets. Maple could detect now that many of them were enchanted, rather than using actual flames. The enchanted ones were a little brighter and mostly only used on the main streets, while the less-trafficked areas used flames and were lit by people like that dwarf Maple had once met.

Rachel stopped on a street corner and took a puff from the mouthpiece of her apparatus before offering it to Maple, who happily accepted.

"What are ya feeling? Riverside, top of the walls, or?"

"You can go up there?"

"Yeah, you've never been? It's a good tourist spot. Kind of better during the day, though. River it is, then."

Maple got a solid two puffs in, and felt...yeah, comfy was a good word for it. Rachel took a street Maple knew could lead to the river and, as they walked, she told Rachel about how their adventure went. She kept her voice low when describing certain aspects of it, but didn't hold too much back. She did politely pause the story when others walking along the trail passed them by, as it was not a tale for innocent ears.

A lot of it sounded absurd, even as she told it. She'd met an actual goddess, used her parting words to hit on her. She left out most of the actual sex that'd happened, and only described the 'horny field' since talking about prana in public may not be very wise.

Rachel reacted appropriately, but was perhaps a little more giggly about it thanks to her mix of burnables, which made the telling all the more fun for Maple, in her similarly affected state.

"So then we stuffed her full, like, you should have seen her Rach—she was as big as...four of you! But she clearly wasn't enjoying it, and I told her to stop—but she was determined to loot all of it. All of it, I'm telling you! And, of course, it was all friggin—sex toys."

Maple whispered the last part as Rachel laughed. They reached the river trail by now, and the sound of flowing water now drowned out much of their conversation from would-be listeners.

"So now the hoard is in Sasha's basement while they figure out how to get rid of it. Anyway, what have you been up to? Just work? Top secret stuff? What do you actually do, anyway?"

Rachel flicked a lock of hair out of her face. Maybe Maple shouldn't have brought up work, because some of Rachel's joviality seemed to vanished. Which was—fair. No one liked talking about work.

"I've never mentioned it? I do contracted work for the city, mainly. Defense type stuff. Even alchemy is susceptible to magic sapping, but not plain ol' chemicals."

"Oh, like—warfare stuff? Wait, you're like—like a defense contractor?"

Maple had heard that term before back on Earth, probably used negatively, but she'd never really had an opinion on such a thing beyond war being bad, and maybe necessary. Which was a feeling that would hold, but—Rachel actively made things that would be used for war?

The feeling was different. And she'd even given Rachel that chemistry textbook, if that had helped with anything.

"Yeah, basically? It's necessary. You're at least a little aware of Syber's position by now, aren't you?"

Her tone was defensive, making Maple worry she'd sounded too hostile. She didn't care that much. Or at the least, didn't want to make Rachel feel uncomfortable about it. Rachel took another puff of her thingy while Maple answered.

"Um, am I? I don't know...It's fine, though. I didn't mean anything."

"Oh, huh. Well, Syber's one of a kind on this continent. A true melting pot, with a fully democratic government. To the far east you've got the human kingdoms, ruled by the Church, and before that are places like Nebet, governed entirely by a single species. Syber has its walls, but they alone wouldn't be enough to deter an attack. That's where strong defensive measures come in."

Maple nodded, and gestured for another puff of her special blend of herbs.

"Fair. I wasn't—judging. Just don't go making, uh, agent orange, or uh—white phosphorous, or anything, haha. But wait, so, the weapons the guards used on the...sex zombies. That gas and stuff, was made by you?"

Maple remembered her being upset about that, and it was all coming together now. Rachel grimaced.

"Partially. Like I said, I didn't condone that use even if they were non-lethal. Not that I have too much say in how anything I make is used. I'd just decide not to sell to them anymore, and they're not going to find another high level [Chemist] like me. Anyway, yeah. That's what I do. I can't go into too much detail, for obvious reasons. I did take today off and ended up making, let's say, a fun chemical?"

"Oh?"

"A strong psychedelic. The dosage is so small that you have to dilute it significantly. I got a good batch of it that I'm saving now."

Maple shook her head. Her spidery friend was a silly drug enthusiast.

enjyanai

Emma and Marielle were enjoying dinner at the vampire's home.

"Tell me, Emma, are you liking your noodles?"

Emma grinned and gave Marielle a thumbs up. Marielle's lips curved into a smirk as she did some vampire magic.

"Oh my, but those are worms you're eating, dear."

Emma made a shocked 'o' face, and then, full of delight, she slurped up the illusion of a worm. Marielle laughed as the meal now got two thumbs up.

"Bleh, bleh. Thanks for reading."

Edit: Taking a week or so break from writing. Back around May 6th