“A few more hours,” Rayak said. “The doctors tell me they can keep her stable for a day or so. I’m going to let her sleep until everything is ready. Then we’ll wake her up. If she agrees, we’ll transfer her mind into a Phylactery and get her into a Form-Locked Vessel.”

RAYAK, MY BELOVED!

She best take this deal.

They're delusional though if they think she's gonna wanna stick with a form locked vessel after she gets used to it. Not when she'll have thousands of years to get good at TOP matter manipulation and be able have Mamachi's back.

And if they get lucky and the war does end before it gets to that point well then I doubt she'd pass up a chance to have the built in function of a fursuit (scalesuit?) to get the full range of uhhh affectionate options with Mamachi...

“If you marry her, you’ll have plenty of time to get to know her. She can be whatever species you want her to be. And how do you know she’ll outlive you? She could be dead tomorrow.”

I'm learning that Rayak is that friend who lowkey ships their friends with people. Unclear yet if he does it to the level of making his friends uncomfortable to around the people he ships them with or if he has some chill. It was funny with skychi and its sorta funny with jakayami but dude. You're going to freak her the fuck out, and marriage with a human she's known for like a week is probably not the best way to help your friend get back on the proverbial horse.

Hayami is gonna be fucking stressing over this.

Kinda laughing at how he just has the argument lined up though.

“I don’t have much of a basis for comparison,” he said. “I’ve reviewed the medical literature on human sexual interactions, but honestly, it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to breaking down levels of intimacy.” “Right,” Hayami said. “Of course it does.”

Ah, looks like Hayami is still desperately trying to get a gauge of just how big of a line she crossed last night with Jakari. Ya know, whether what she did for more akin to an ill-timed unwanted kiss, or more like full on rape. It's good that she's taking this seriously so she can figure out how best to make amends, even if all the gadan she's spoken to so far (which tbf is just Mamachi and Rayak) have been making light of it. Which implies its not that serious, or rather it kind of is but they know how things go with navigating social norms with new species so they're very forgiving.

Jakari really isn't gonna have a damn clue what to do in response to a heartfelt apology for having her boundaries crossed though.

Looking forward to that blue-screen and how she tries to recover from it.

“Yes. That was the point,” he said as he started stirring his tea. “Rudeness usually makes you humans leave me alone.” “Well, I’m not your typical human,” Hayami said.

Damn Rayak, is not out to play today. Dude does not wanna be talking with humans this morning (or ever arguably). Or possibly just not with Hayami, but considering he doesn't have much reason to be mad at her (tales of her "proposal" gave him plenty of entertainment yesterday) so probably just not with any humans.

“You didn’t choose to become a monster. You chose to survive. You chose to fight back. And deep down, you know that. You don’t feel guilty because of the things you had to do. You feel guilty because you survived when she didn’t. That’s what you can’t forgive yourself for. Everything else is just an excuse.” Jakari stood up and took a deep breath. “That’s bullshit,” she said before she turned and walked out of the room.

Classic Jakari, someone says something that hits waaaay too close to her emotional core and runs counter to her monstrous self image and BOOM, she is Out Of There.

In other news; I might be willing to die for Dr Rayak.

“No, it wasn’t,” Rayak said. “I know, because it happened to me, too. You were a gardener, and you were helpless, but I was a doctor and it didn’t matter. I was just as helpless as you were. I watched my wife, my daughter, my son-in-law, and my grandkids die that first day."

I said I love Rayak for how he can metaphorically flick Jakari behind the ear when she gets too emo, but then the man stepped up to fucking body slam her.

Rayak, my Beloved!

“That human you work with. Hayami. Her pheromone levels spike a lot.” “They do?” “Yeah,” Rayak said. “Pretty much any time she’s around a female human form. You, Gomez, Skylar, Kida. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was in some kind of mating heat.”

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Oh holy shit. Hayami cannot catch a break, when it comes to her thirst.

I would pay real money to see Rayak have like brunch or something with Hayami's parents and just have them end up gossiping about everyone but especially just trading stories and observations about Hayami since she's been on base.

“Any others?” Jakari asked. “Why do you want to know?” Rayak asked. “Just trying to understand them,” Jakari said. “I think Gomez has a thing for Napati,” Rayak said.

Rayak has ALL the tea!

I am absolutely loving this! We need more scenes with Rayak between big action-y plot stuff. I would 100% read a book that was just Rayak gossiping with friends.