linger longer / dual joining

[Soleil]

Calypso, too, was less than pleased with the weather. There was a reason that she'd left her old home, aside from the yelling and barrenness and awful crime rate, and that reason was the heat. The sun on her ass made the fur there feel like it was burning, and there was an uncomfortable humidity beneath her backpack. Her cap shielded her eyes from a lot of the brightness, but the scolding sand beneath her paws reflected a bunch of it right back up at her. By the time Samel stopped at the border, she was tired and panting, falling defeatedly into the sand beside him. Every breath felt as if it only filled a third of her lungs, and she brought up a scarred paw to rub at the tense muscles between her ribs. She knew she was getting more oxygen than her body told her she was getting, but that didn't stop her from being thankful that the trek was over. She took a while to relax her breathing before glancing back at Samael, metaphorical brown wrinkling with worry. "Me neither," she responded, voice still breathy despite the time she'd taken to recover. "I guess we could always just leave though. If they're not friendly." She grimaced a bit at the thought of travelling back through all that sand, but her brain told her that it was better than suffering ridicule or exclusion.

The feline shrugged her backpack from her shoulders, lying it on its side so her beloved pet could crawl out from within. Cinnamon's movements were slow, sluggish, only half emerging from the bag to bask his front half in the sand. Calypso smiled and cooed gently, bringing a paw down to pat the red tegu affectionately. Unlike her companion, she was getting herself pretty worked up about this whole 'joining' thing. Meeting other animals, especially big groups of them, was definitely no strong point of hers. She very much wanted to be liked, to make friends, and every bad scenario she could think of was barraging her brain at once. Being someone that people wanted to befriend was just so hard, she didn't understand at all how some people had it come to them naturally, how they found the right words or expressions to fit the situation. It was a concept that was completely alien to the malnourished succubus.