"Do you think those people are really going to show any long-term improvement?" Lisa asked, in between mouthfuls of salad. She had been finding that her altered deer body demanded a pretty steady diet of greens, in addition to what her human half needed; planning meals was getting kind of interesting. "I mean, if they switched sides after just one lecture, and even that they probably bought because they thought it was a message from God..."
Jay shrugged. "Good question," she said. "People can be fickle, all right. I'm sure they'll at least be less giddy about the affair in the morning...or, uh, evening. But then, people can surprise you, too, so who knows. Hopefully this Robert can give them something a little more concrete in the way of positive reinforcement, talk to them in a way they'll really get. Lucas did an alright job considering, but you could tell she wasn't used to religious-folk talk."
Lisa chuckled. "She did seem a little more at home with whatever it was she was saying to Duke afterward. Wish I'd caught that. Speaking of...shame we can't use more of the material, really. I know it's going to be enough of a blow to him just having had all that happen, but if we could just put the whole event on the air, it'd probably speak for itself..."
"I s'pose it would," the little fox-woman said. She sipped at her soup as neatly as she could manage...that was the problem with fur, it was a great conductor of liquids. "But we don't exactly have a three-hour block to work with, after all. As for trying to put more of a spin on it, we just got out of being the media hit-squad for a certain exec who shall remain nameless; I'd like to try being a news reporting agency for a while. Besides, at the end of the day, all I really wanted was to see this crap stop, or even take a break, without there having to be violence. Turns out we got that, so I really can't complain."
"True," Lisa said. "Count our blessings, I guess. This is good salad, thanks for taking me here."
Jay smiled. "You're welcome. Consider it my thanks for all your help with things. Especially the outfit advice, too; I was looking over Mike's footage, and I do have to admit that this is a lot better look than the pantsuits." She stared down at her dress, the jacket now hanging off the back of her chair. "Not something I'd want to go for a jog in, but definitely a better professional look."
Lisa grinned mischievously. "But of course. Wish I were as easy to shop for, though...I still feel kinda weird going around without anything on my bottom half, but I still can't find anything to put over it that wouldn't look stupid."
"Hey, I wouldn't worry about it," Jay said. "It's like with centaurs; it seems like a quadripetal body just doesn't even get considered in that context, at least not without a real reason. Nobody sees a pantsless horse and goes 'hey, lookie there!' Besides, it'd be a shame to cover up such a nice fur pattern."
The deer-taur smiled. "Aww, thanks."
Lilly kept sniffing at the air as they went deeper into the woods, trying to see if there was anything that would help them. Nothing smelled all that different to her; she could tell a lot of different scents, the acrid smell of damp oak, mildew under piles of leaves, things like that - but that was all stuff she could normally tell.
Or...was it? She couldn't remember whether she could tell that stuff before she became a squirrel-girl; maybe that was what Jenny was talking about. What had this stuff smelled like when she was human? She couldn't remember. That scared her a bit...what if some day she just couldn't even remember what it was like to be a human boy anymore? What if...what if she even forgot she was one?
Lilly shuddered, and Jenny looked at her with concern. "Are you OK?" she asked. "You look kinda sad..."
The squirrel-girl hung her head. "I...I don' wanna...I'm scared I'm gonna grow up an' then forget things an' jus' be a...a girl. I don't wanna be all weak an' scared..."
Jenny hugged her. "You're not weak!" she said. "'member? You almost won that race, if you'da known t' hold back a little. You only lost 'cause you were goin' too fast! An' you don't hafta be all scared just 'cause you're a girl! My mommy's a girl, an' she's brave enough t' be a police lady!"
"B-but I'm sc-scared," Lilly said. "It's dark an' I feel like someone's watchin' us, and..." She trailed off. Why did she feel like they were being watched? She wondered, was this the kind of thing Jenny was looking for? She turned and got down to the ground. There was a scent, distinct from the other smells in the woods...
"I...I found somethin'," she said. Jenny hunkered down next to her. "What is it?" she asked. "Where'd it go?"
"I...dunno," she replied. "I dunno what some of these smells are, 'cause I never smelled 'em before. I...I think it went..." She thought for a moment. "Uh, that way, maybe?"
Jenny grinned. "Then we'll see what's there! C'mon!"
