[b]Dolly[/b]

You slip from the dressing room wearing your new shirt. It’s a little long, but tight, close enough for your purposes, it outlines your body nicely. 

When you come out of the rooms from the back, you find yourself in a tall aisle. Clothes on clearance are stacked up on both sides almost to the ceiling, older outfits and loose sweaters in bins on high shelves above the main racks. It’s a very confined shopping space, which might make you a bit uncomfortable as a Hybrasilian. But you just have to go through here to get to the main area and then you can take the lift up to the headdresses and scarves section, which Jade would love and that isn’t sacrilegious, probably. 

In front of you, though, is a heavy Terenian woman with long black hair who was pushing a big shopping cart. She’s clearly not paying attention, as she’s pushed it down the narrow aisle and parked it sideways, totally blocking the whole space. It’s full of bags of clothes of all sorts, just kind of tossed in there without folding any of them. She’s busy digging into a line of dresses and hasn’t even noticed you. It would be rude to just barrel through her stuff, so of course you have to stop and say something to her.

But as you open your mouth, you feel the sudden soft press of a wad of cloth pushed tight against your tongue. “Shhhh” comes the voice of Valynia Bander, the Leopard who had so suddenly tackled you before. She whispers it into your ear, so close that you can feel the hot breath from between her sharp teeth tickle your ear. 

Next she pulls the gag tight around your mouth, and then over that she passes a wide soft scarf of deep red, then loops it over your face and then down around your neck and behind your back. “I’m buying you a gift, priestess.” She gestures to all your bags, now dropped and scattered by your side. “Some of which you like so much that you just can’t help wearing it out of the store.” The hand on your back pulls firmly, the scarf tightening, pressing the gag into the wadded cloth she’d stuffed in your mouth further until you feel it against your cheeks. “And in gratitude, you’re going to come visit where my sisters and I are staying. Doesn’t that sound fun?” A hand slips around your waist, holds you close so you can’t go anywhere as the Terenian woman comes and helps pick up your bags for you. She’s grinning a wicked grin at your predicament as they march you through the store and towards the exit.  

[b]Jade[/b]

[i]Such is the nature of power. The goddesses laugh at the game that was well-played. Some gossip to each other as they walk past the apple tree on their way to and from the Dreadful Houses, some look upon you with pity. As she is departing from the Houses, Irtana leans in close and says, just for you, “I hope you have learned this lesson well. The lesson of cunning if you wish to challenge stone.” [/i]

***

[b]Solarel[/b]

Ivy takes the papers, looking less perturbed than you might have hoped. She comes in then, stepping past you to put the pile down on a table near the door so she can leaf through it properly, which she is of course permitted to do. She looks over the cover sheet, flips through a few sections, skips to near the back of the documents and reads the closing argument. 

“An interesting argument” she says, looking up at you with that glowing blue eye and her regular Terenian brown one. There is the sound of amusement at the back of her throat. “Personally, I think the emotional distress line of argument is overplaying your hand though. The people of Styx aren’t going to be particularly sympathetic to that given how many of them have suffered at the hands of Zaldiarn raiders before this arena was established. We’ll chalk that one to differences between species though. And of course, the Boatmen are happy to forgive your debt, no need for months of blowhards shouting back and forth to sort that part out. 

We had assumed, you see, that given your previous arrangements with us that you would have found yourself unable to secure a new mecha for competition, which was an obvious mistake on our part. Not mine, to be sure, I’ve read all about you and I had no doubt that you’d find a way into your match.” She laughs, a deep musical laugh, putting her cybernetic arm up to her mouth to suppress her chuckles. 

“What a surprise though! I don’t think anyone has seen a Zaldarian mecha like the one you were piloting against the Antonius girl. The Kathresis, according to the registration information. Truly interesting. Which brings me to my proposition. You see, we can put this matter…” she gestures to the lawsuit “...behind us entirely, and you can secure additional support for any weapon retrofits that may be of interest to you. We’d simply like our technicians to be allowed to do the installation.” 

Unspoken of course is that any installing technicians will also be able to get up close and personal to the Kathresis and will surely leave with pictures, schematics, and everything they can store in their memory, likely including cybernetic memory if Ivy is any indication. Still, this is a very good offer on her part. You’d have a crew, you’d have flexibility, and they’d be perfectly fine with any kind of trick or stratagem. 

[The boatmen will spend their string here. What would it take for Solarel to agree to work with them and give them technical access to the Kathresis?]

***

[b]Mirror[/b]

Matty scampers off with a squeak and a blush, heading for the cockpit. You don’t see, but Slate does, that she turns around before diving in and looks back at you. It’s not disapproving, or really any emotion. It’s just looking, taking in the situation, trying to gauge how you’re feeling. It’s a look that says that she knew how rough you were feeling, and that she’s still trying to get to know you better, and maybe that she’s a little worried. She only looks for a moment though and then she’s in and pulling readings for Trosta.

The rest of the crew gets to work as well, looking over the spots that were burnt or melted, the dings of the metal, any scouring near the tails from the repeated energy discharge. It absolutely wouldn’t do for one of the key components to give out during a match and they know it. 

Once she’s surveyed that everything is in motion, Slate takes you to the breakroom. “Goddess, that was a hell of a shot. I know it’s probably eating you up inside in all sorts of ways and that’s fair. But at least take it from me, that looked godsdamn spectacular and I know, more than anybody, what kind of reflexes were needed to take it. Absolute hell of a shot, boss.”

She’s here if you want to talk about the ‘I told you sos’ and the ‘oh fines’ but she’s not going to push it. If you want some alone time, this might be a moment to just think about dresses without anything else pressing on you for now.

***

[b]Isabelle[/b]

No sign of Asil. Not that this is top of your mind, but out of the whole receiving crew and entourage, she was missing. She hasn’t had time to do custom work on your new mecha either. But when you get to your own room, there’s a little circular projection drone, not much bigger than your fist, set on the bed for you to inspect.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. You have to situation Quar first, who is not talking at all. She’s definitely more reserved than Solarel as well. She barely tests her bonds, takes in her new room without moving an inch, just stony silence. Her hands are bound, so she can’t sign to you either, not that you’d know much of them without an AI assistant, so that’s something to work on as well. Still, she doesn’t seem unhappy if that makes sense. She’s in enemy hands, she’s surrendered, her room is nice and spacious, and she settles in to take a seat on the bed without saying much of anything. You can untie her if you want, the door can be programmed to lock from the outside. You could also just give her run of the space, have the external staff told to keep her within a perimeter though that really is starting to risk a breakout if she decides to stop being so docile. 

You’re going to need to think about how to get her to teach you though, especially as she does not appear to consider this relationship to be one where you’ve become an insider. At least not yet. Maybe that’s something to ask her once you have sign-language help. 

You also don’t have much time. Your post-match afternoon is free for rest or relaxation, but once you’re up the next morning, it’s back to the grueling schedule. Indeed, given how close this match was, in your mother’s view at any rate, the training schedule is about to get even heavier, not to mention that she insisted that this new thing with Quar not allow for any deviation from that training. Hope you weren’t too attached to sleep.