Click!

Clack!

Click!

Under the best of circumstances, navigating down a flight of stairs in high heels is tricky. Descending while being led on a leash is trickier. Doing all of that with your ankles tied together and your hands behind your back? It’s lucky that Rose from the River is in control right now, because silly little Rose would have had to scoot down on her butt, or even be carried by the handmaidens swirling about her, all of them ready just in case that characteristic Rose clumsiness kicks in. And it looks like it will! Rose might not have laser claws or power armor, but she knows how to get some attention, doesn’t she just? What with her thighs flexing with each hop, her jingling top bouncing along, her veil flying up and showing off how firmly she’s gripping that scarf between her teeth... Rose from the River loves to show off, and if she can’t do it with a glaive and a flourish, she’ll do it one hop at a time.

She’s being led to a pillar that Keron had set up all along. Really, incredible work from her; she knew how all of this was going to go down, and knew that Chen would need a visual reminder of what she’s fighting for. Rose happily wiggles her way over and lets her friends (yes, that’s what they’ve been to her over the course of her training) free her wrists just to secure them over her head, which really helps emphasize her hips and stomach as she wiggles them in turn, dramatically tugging on her wrists as she looks out over the battlefield: at Chen (beautiful and spunky and achingly cute) and at Yue (who is shining with a very inauspicious but familiar love of battle, one that the monk knows she should quietly condemn, but the slave feels free to gasp at) and Keron (who she treacherously hopes will win, or at the very least, will try to distract Chen by, oh, shredding Rose’s top with her laser claws, for a start) and the squire (who is herself, whether she knows it or not, attuned to the Way).

Her job is to be the prize. To be fought over. To sink into the bliss of not having to make a choice between Keron and Chen— to simply accept whichever outcome unfolds. (Not that she’s going to entirely be neutral. If Chen wants to win, she’s going to have to prove her mastery of the self and her enlightenment of not being distracted by Rose’s squirming, grunting, jingling, and muffled calling out of her name. Consider it a challenge, [i]girlfriend.[/i])