“Dolly, listen very carefully. This is what you’re going to say, and this is how you’re going to say it.” Jade takes Dolly’s free hand by the wrist, pushes her fingers together, gleeful. She tilts Dolly’s chin up imperiously even as she pushes Dolly forward, clamps Dolly’s bare palm over Angela Victoria Miera Antonius’s mouth, and shivers to feel the warmth of those lips on Dolly’s skin.

[i]”You talk too much,” Dolly says, acting like the villainess from A Weft In The Yarn, one evil laugh away from complete camp.[/i] It’s adorable how she can’t act. She’s just so sincere, so aware of her own performance that it’s tripping her up. And even Angela can probably tell. [i]”You sound much cuter like this. We enjoyed listening to your pathetic, garbled, helpless complaints on our way back from our hunt.”[/i] Keep your grip firm but not tight, Dolly, no matter how she squirms. [i]”You’re so [b]cute[/b], in fact, that we’ll give you one chance. If you beg us in your best simper, Princess, to let you go… we’ll do it? We’ll do it! We’ll unwrap you at the end of our walk. If you sound pathetic enough.”[/i] There is your out, Angela Victoria Miera Antonius. A small bit of amusement for a goddess. A disappointment, but… important. Dolly would be disappointed in her if she pushed this gorgeous, indignant, helpless warrior too far without an out.

(Please don’t, Angela Victoria Miera Antonius. Give Jade her satisfaction. Show the goddess you want to worship. Be feisty, be a fire, make your noises, the ones that make Jade’s immaterial breath hitch in her throat like a stone. How magnificent you will look, your mouth swaddled in Hybrasil cloth. All the better for when Dolly leaves nips all up and down your neck. All the better for when you meet a goddess.)

[i]”If you say anything else— if you bluster, if you sneer, if you defy us— we will treat you like you deserve for humiliating Dolly—!!”[/i] Dolly’s tail swishes in the dust and her voice trails up into a high squeak. Jade strokes her fingers down Dolly’s throat: down, girl, down. Present strength for your goddess. [i]”We will carry you as our trophy, again, and you will sing the hymns of Smokeless Jade Fires. Your voice is so beautiful for that.”[/i] The villainess slips for a moment; Dolly’s register is instead sincere, a compliment. Jade’s teeth nip at her ear, tug teasingly. Stay in character, love.

“Lift your hand. Now stroke it down, like this. Lift your fingers here, at the swell of her chest, drag your claws just a moment longer— good girl. [i]Good[/i] girl. Ksharta Talonna is watching you, too.” The word serves as Dolly’s string; she glances back over at Ksharta, a victorious huntress, and Jade feels Dolly’s flustered excitement when she locks eyes with the kitten.

But beneath her, panting, catching her breath, is Angela Victoria Miera Antonius. What a prize. What a trophy. What a wild mare. Jade licks her lips, and awaits to see how the battle of hearts unfolds. Will you fight, Princess? Or will you grovel and beg for an end to the game?

[[b]11[/b] on an Entice, if Angela is interested in what Jade is offering, which is being gagged by a cute Hybrasilian who thinks that your voice is pretty, and then being thoroughly appreciated by a goddess.]