Not a Couple; Just Partners (Private, future MH, NSFW)

"I'd definitely like to," he said, nodding, "It's why I said that you should call if you needed me. It's because I want to help. Last time was a lot of fun, all in all."

She laughed a little at this, shaking her head at this, "Nothing to do with the kinship thing of it being part bird?"

"Well, I'd have helped with any creature, but..." Jay said, shrugging, busying himself them with eating after that.

Phoebe left him to eat after that, doing the same for herself before taking her dishes to clean them. Looking for another drink, she focused on that for a time, waiting until it was finished to go back to her work. She was too worried about spilling things on her notes.

Once Jay finished eating, he went over to get his own bowl clean before getting that glass of water he decided on at the beginning of his meal. He then decided to snoop, looking over Phoebe's shoulder. At least to check if it was about the Griffins, in which case he could use the information.

She moved enough to allow him to read, where there were multiple news articles regarding the area in question that she was going to investigate. A lot of her written notes were just regarding the species in general, but her current links were clearly on one specific area. Apparently, there'd been reported sightings of something large in the area, as well as the various comments of it being "just a bird." More conspiracy-related ones mentioned Gryphons specifically, as well as a few things that came from more official, Academy or Institute related sources. The news was out well enough that they might not be the first ones there.

Reading through the notes, Jay seemed to be thinking on what he could do. After some time, he spoke up, "I can whip up some weather that would help ground most flying animals while leaving us entirely safe. If we got one in that sort of weather, others wouldn't be able to come in to help it."

"It would help," she said, tapping the corner of her lip with a pencil while she thought and read things over again. "This has gotten a lot of popularity for some reason... we could use a quick way in."

"I can fly, but you weren't all too eager on the idea of me carrying you when we caught Lady," Jay suggested. That was always Jay's 'quick way' to get anywhere.

Phoebe shifted in place at this, poorly hiding her discomfort. "I... if you want." There were, after all, few ways to get across the world, and fast, that didn't involve flying, and she couldn't teleport.

"You'll be just fine. I can actively control the wind so you won't even feel it," Jay assured her with a gentle smile to boot.

Another shift said that she still wasn't quite comfortable with the idea, though no further protests arose on the matter. Instead, she set about sharing the data she had with him, showing him the region that would be their destination. If he was flying them, rather than them taking more mundane transport, then it meant that they could leave much sooner than she'd anticipated. Honestly, she had been going to invite him to spend the night so that they could leave in the morning. Now, instead, she would leave the timing up to him: "When do you want to leave?"

Jay pondered over the information and the map that she had shown him at her question. "We can leave even this moment, and I'm about as ready as I need to be. I'd rather have my usual clothing for something like this, but preferences and what I really need are two different things. I have my quiver and I have my goggles."

Phoebe blinked several times, having not expected this. With this new knowledge, she nodded and stood, moving to walk towards the bedroom once more. On the way, she muttered her mantra, dropping her soul protect temporarily to switch to her normal form. She'd rather not get locked in any of her forms, for any reason. It could cause too many problems that she simply couldn't afford. The dress appeared longer, now, reaching closer to her ankles than her knees, as they had previously. It also held her curves less, as there were less to hold in this particular instance than they were in her Extinct body. If it weren't for her spells, she'd much prefer to stay how she had been, but that option was not one that she could afford. Having switched, she looked to him, soul protect back in place for the moment. "Do I need to pack?"

"Well, the issue with myself carrying you is that I will have to be in my animal form and you are going to have to be small enough for an eagle to carry," Jay said, not explicitly stating that he wouldn't be able to carry any extra baggage either but hinting at it nonetheless. "If you really need something you can put it in my quiver, but it has to be able to fit inside the opening at the top."

He had a point she hadn't entirely considered; if they were going by animal form, then she'd best be prepared with nothing more than they could carry on their persons. By that logic, it meant that they would likely be relying on their magic for the duration of this particular hunt. Thinking things over, she opted instead to start putting away the remainder of the food in the kitchen before just casting him a nod. They could transform and leave outside. It would be safer, then.

Jay said nothing more as he checked he had everything that needed to be strapped to his person, on his person for a final time before he headed out ahead of Phoebe. He would wait outside of the apartment building.

Cleaning up the notes, she put everything away before locking the abode. Outside, she could switch forms and then shift again to her animal persona. Making her way out of the apartment complex was boring and uneventful. Meeting him outside, she cocked a brow as if to ask him if he was ready to go.

He gave her a nod before dropping his soul protect, transforming into his animal form quickly. He stood by, waiting for Phoebe to complete the process of her own transformation.

She shifted first into the human form of her Covert spellset, following it up almost immediately afterwards by altering her shape into the chameleon itself. Once as such, she looked up at him, nodding, trying to keep her eyes focused on a single direction as she let him know that she was ready to go.

Jay clumsily moved along the ground towards Phoebe and turned around and stooped down as best as he could so she could climb on his back. It was a good thing that chameleons were a species that were simply amazing at hanging on to stuff; even if he was going to make it as easy as possible.

The chameleon did her best to cling to him without hurting him, directing both eyes towards his feathers and stubbornly looking nowhere else. The last thing she wanted was to look down. Well, actually, the last thing was to fall to her death, but the two felt synonymous, right now. She'd remain this way until they landed, once more.

Soon as Phoebe was in place and holding on, Jay took off. As soon as he did, he started to control the wind over his back so that Phoebe wasn't blown away; instead, it was little more than a calm breeze. Of course, a straight path to their target location wouldn't take too long. He landed on the ground once again, so that his passenger could get off.

Calmer than she thought she'd be, though still shaken, Phoebe opted to just roll off of him, landing before she realized that she probably wasn't meant to be on her back. Groaning, she rolled as she shifted back to human, appearing the slightest bit queasy but no worse for wear. Looking over at him, she shifted to her normal form as she waited for Jay the human, rather than Jay the magnificent flippin' eagle.

Jay transformed back as soon as Phoebe was in her normal form, evidently having found her dismount amusing if the smile on his face was anything to go by. "The obvious aside, I trust the ride wasn't too unpleasant?"