Chapter 197: Interlude 43 – Day Date

=::= Cass's PoV =::=

"This is kind of nice," Kaylee commented as we took our time walking hand in hand along Main Street.

As usual our girlfriend attracted plenty of stares. Shop owners, other people wandering past, even cars going by on the road, everyone had to stop and gawk at her for a bit. Fortunately that still didn't bother her. In fact when she noticed people staring she'd grin and swish her tails around, or flick her ears at them. Basically she'd show off the fact that they were real and not just some costume props or something.

We were in the 'downtown' part of town, with all the little shops and boutiques and things. About half of them were closed since it was Sunday, but we weren't actually shopping so we didn't mind. Although we did wander in and out of a couple that were open, just to take a look at things.

Like a posh little place that sold fancy soaps and essential oils and scented candles and stuff like that. It was interesting but we weren't shopping and nobody bought anything, we just looked around. And there was a funky little second-hand store that had all sorts of curious odds and ends, we spent a good twenty minutes browsing in there. We even visited the thrift shop where my mum worked, although she wasn't working today.

As we emerged from another of the little boutiques our girlfriend commented, "Thanks for doing this with me Cassandra. It's nice to get a chance to spend time with you."

"Of course," my other self responded. "I would have suggested it sooner, but I wasn't sure how either you or Cass would feel about it."

The tiny kitsune frowned, "Is she ok? Like she doesn't mind that I wanted to spend some time with you, does she?"

Cassandra shook her head, "Cass said it was ok."

Kaylee glanced at us and sort of hesitated before asking, "What's it like? I mean, what's it like for the one who's not 'here' right now?"

"It varies," my other self replied. "Right now Cass is awake and aware, she sees and hears and experiences everything the same as me. The only difference is she's not actually in charge of things."

She added a moment later, "I believe the most common analogy we've seen is like being in the back seat of a car? You can see out the windows and hear what's playing on the radio, but someone else is driving. The driver and passenger can communicate, but only the driver can steer the car."

Our girlfriend frowned slightly as she thought that through. "Is that what it's like for you when Cass is around?"

"Not always," Cassandra replied. "And that's not always what it's like for Cass either."

She grimaced slightly, "Sometimes as a passenger you can fall asleep in the back seat? In that case you have no idea what's going on around you. Or you get bored so you pull out your phone and end up being distracted by a game or a book or just surfing the web and social media. It's easy to lose track of time, you can get lost in your own little world that way. Although do keep in mind this is still just an analogy, but it's the best way I can think to explain it."

Kaylee nodded, "I get it. So it's not so bad? But doesn't it get boring for you? If Cass is the one driving the car ninety percent of the time, what do you do to keep yourself occupied?"

Cassandra lowered her voice slightly and leaned closer to our girlfriend before responding, "I listen to the prayers of my followers, and I even answer some of them. I also keep watch over Cass and yourself, and our other friends. Not non-stop, I'm not constantly spying on everyone. But I do check in on occasion, to ensure everyone we care about is safe and sound."

By that point we'd reached the east end of the downtown stretch. Main Street continued on all the way out to the highway and the south end of the conservation area. It was a lot less interesting to walk along that stretch though, unless you had an actual reason to be there. So instead we just crossed over to the south side of the street and began walking west again. That way we could visit any little shops that caught our attention on that side of the road.

As we resumed our casual pace Kaylee asked, "Instead of you having to check on us all the time, couldn't we all just pray to you if there was trouble?"

"I honestly don't know if that would work for you," my other self replied. "I'm confident that if the wolfgirls prayed to me I'd hear them. I could probably hear Willow's prayers too? Despite being a sorceress and being blessed or touched by whatever lurks in that cave she's still a mortal human. But I honestly don't know if I could hear prayers from yourself or Nina, or even Sasha. As far as I'm aware, gods cannot draw faith from demons."

Our girlfriend pouted, "I'm going to try and pray to you tonight, so we can find out for sure."

"All right," Cassandra smiled. "I will be sure to listen for you."

A moment later my other self slowed to a stop and asked, "I know you don't need food anymore, but how would you feel about stopping for a drink? Or a late lunch, if you do feel like eating?"

We were standing outside one of the little independent restaurants. It wasn't quite fancy enough to be the sort of place we'd go to on our big date nights, but it was a little too posh to be the kind of place where the club would stop for lunch or drinks or whatever.

"Sounds good," Kaylee smiled while her tails swished around.

It was a bit late for lunch so the place wasn't too busy, there were less than a dozen people inside. Most of them were staring at our girlfriend as we waited to be seated, and a moment later a waitress came over to take care of us. Except she sort of froze and stared too, but unlike everyone else she was staring at me and Cassandra rather than the tiny kitsune next to us.

The other thing about the waitress that made her stand out was her curly canine tail and her big pointed puppy ears. The fur on her ears was a sort of pale red, same with her shoulder length hair, while her tail was a mix of red and white fur. Her eyes were dark, and she had an attractive face. Except right now she was just kind of staring anxiously at us.

I assumed she was one of our plushie users, but I didn't actually know who she was. And I was wondering if she somehow knew us, or maybe she'd heard of us or something. She was about average height, and looked the right age to be a college student, but I couldn't remember seeing her at school. Either high school or during our first week of college.

The doggirl finally spoke up, but she kept her voice quiet. She asked us, "What are you doing here?"

Cassandra just smiled politely as she replied, "Hello Rosie. My girlfriend and I are here for a late lunch. We'd like a table by the window, if you don't mind?"

"Oh," the waitress seemed to relax slightly. "Of course. I'm sorry. This way please."

She led us over to one of the small tables for two next to the window, and once we were seated she placed menus in front of us and Kaylee. Then she asked, "Can I get you something to drink?"

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Kaylee ordered a lemon-lime soda while Cassandra just asked for a glass of water. Then after the waitress left to take care of that our girlfriend leaned closer and asked, "So who is she? How do you two know each other?"

My other self seemed to hesitate for a second or two, as if she wasn't sure whether or not to answer. Then she lowered our voice and responded, "We knew her at her last job, where she worked under another name. I don't want to mention her old name, but she used to work at the high school library."

Our girlfriend's eyes widened and her expression reflected the shock I suddenly felt. I had no idea what happened to Ms. Sutton, only that Cassandra promised not to hurt her. And that she gave the old librarian a plushie.

"Did you know she was here?" Kaylee asked quietly. "Is that why you wanted to stop here, to check up on her?"

We shook our head as my other self replied, "Not exactly. Not check up on her."

She lowered our voice even further as she added, "I wanted to find out if the council actually use mundane spying techniques, like bugs or tampering with our phones and computers. And considering how long she worked for them, I assumed she'd know."

"So you read her mind?" our girlfriend asked.

Cassandra nodded, "Yes."

Both of them dropped the topic as Rosie returned with the drinks just then. She set them down and asked if we were ready to order, but neither Kaylee or Cassandra had even opened the menus yet. So the doggirl went to take care of another table while my girlfriend and my other half figured out what they wanted for lunch. They were both ready when the waitress returned, then after she took their orders she headed away again.

As soon as they were alone again Kaylee asked quietly, "So? What did you find out?"

"Let's save that conversation for when we're back at home," Cassandra suggested.

"Ah," our girlfriend nodded. "Of course."

The two of them were both quiet for a minute or two, then Kaylee asked "So um, maybe this is a strange question but do you have any hobbies or anything? What sort of stuff are you into?"

My other self smiled, "It's not a strange question Kaylee, it's actually a very good one. The problem is I don't have a good answer for you. I don't have a lot of free time available to me for picking up a hobby or exploring other interests."

"Part of that is because Cass is the one occupying our body most of the time," she explained. "So even when I'm not busy, I'm not in a position where I can do whatever I want. And the other reason is I actually spend most of my time focused on my divine responsibilities."

I felt bad after hearing the first part of Cassandra's reply. Ever since I first found out about her I'd been sort of viewing her as an interloper who was living inside my brain and who could borrow my body. After meeting with Miss Fuller a couple times I'd kind of accepted that me and Cassandra were sharing and our body didn't just belong to me. But I hadn't actually considered what it was like for her, or the fact that with me being the one in control almost every waking hour meant that she didn't get to do any of her own stuff.

And thinking about that reminded me of how I felt uptight about the possibility of my other self using our body to do stuff while I was asleep. That only made me feel even more guilty. Like that was probably the only time she got to do things, and I still wanted to keep it from her.

It made me realize I owed Cassandra an apology, and maybe we needed to share more or something. Assuming she actually wanted to spend more time using our body to do her own stuff.

Meanwhile our girlfriend was frowning as she responded, "I'm sorry you don't get much time to do your own thing Cassandra. I'm curious though, if you're spending so much time doing goddess stuff, how is it Miss Hawthorne has time to be a full time school teacher?"

"May Hawthorne had at most a half dozen of us providing her power through acts of worship," Cassandra replied quietly. "Keeping her true nature a secret meant there was no belief or faith, we were merely performing her rites. Which in turn means that she didn't receive prayers from any of us, or from any other Club Luna alumni either."

"Isn't that the same for you and your plushie users though?" Kaylee asked.

My other self nodded, "It is, for now. But they're not the ones praying to me. I have over thirty-five hundred followers actively providing me with belief and faith, and sending me their prayers. The roughly two hundred and fifty plushie users help, every time they use their plushies they're performing a rite in my honour, but they actually take very little of my time right now."

"Oh," our girlfriend responded quietly as she stared at us in surprise. "That's a lot."

"It's not bad," we replied with a little smile. "Cass is embarrassed, she thinks I'm bragging. The truth is, we are significantly more powerful than May. I'm fairly confident we're well beyond Amethyst as well."

Cassandra added a moment later, "Having said that, we are still very small compared to the more familiar names. Like Violet's patron, Artemis? I wouldn't be surprised if she eclipsed us by at least one or two orders of magnitude. And we're utterly insignificant compared to any of the mainstream gods."

My other self was right about me being embarrassed, and at that point I finally realized that I didn't actually have to pay attention their conversation, or their date. I wasn't sure how to 'focus on my phone' the way Cassandra was talking about earlier, but I was able to sort of lean back and close my eyes. Not our body's eyes, it was more of a metaphorical thing.

Using that car analogy I sort of stopped paying attention to what was going on outside and just focused inwards. I let my mind and my attention wander, and ended up thinking about a sci-fi web novel I'd started reading recently.

It was about a trans catgirl in space, and it was a bit spicier than the stuff I normally read. But it was a fan fiction based on another sci-fi web novel I really liked, about a trans foxgirl in space. That one had been on hiatus for a long time but I enjoyed the setting and premise, so I decided to overlook the spicy parts and give The Captain's Pet a try.

I ended up daydreaming about a tabby catgirl going on space adventures with her tough space mercenary girlfriend, while Cassandra and Kaylee continued their date. At some point I must have drifted off to sleep, and my daydreams became actual dreams.

Next thing I knew it was Monday morning and I was a bit groggy and disoriented as I woke up back home in bed with my girlfriend. Our alarm clock was beeping, telling us both it was time to get up and get ready for school.