[b]Mirror and Isabelle[/b]

Adriana Teresio, held up again, a breeze cutting across her dress and ruffling the flowers, looks at Isabelle first.

She says nothing though, not at first. First, she slides a hand up your arm, Isabelle, to the control device and tap taps expertly, causing all three drones to gently float back and withdraw themselves. 

She looks up at Isabelle’s face then, conscious despite her swoon that frozen on the dance floor, she’s garnered quite an audience, including a Hybrasilian who’s slipped among the dancers to come up close and inspect them.

“I am…more than okay. I thank you for your concern, Isabelle, though you’ve misconstrued what I needed. Even so, your preparation is damn impressive. If those are in production, I’ll take a hundred thousand of them, and if they’re not, where would you like your factory located?” she smiles, showing you her teeth, and she is not joking.

“Bold of you to show them off in this party though. I see our new guest has taken a keen interest. You there…”

Mirror, she turns to look at you, using Isabelle’s weight to move herself safely down to be level with your eyes. It’s clear that even though the nectar was briefly kept away from her head, the effect on Terenians is lasting and so she didn’t so much sober up as hold steady there for a moment. Her eyes don’t look clouded though, in that the effect is somewhat different from drunkenness. It seems instead to have affected her balance and her inhibitions. Perhaps some indication of the Terenian brain structure that it offers her clarity of speech rather than the unique vision that it offers to Hybrasilians. 

“Mira Fisher, yes? The one who goes by Mirror, an undefeated pilot, hmm, I think at least, you expressed discontent with your last match. It seems I’ve attracted quite a few experts with unusual control structures tonight. But I have a different question for you. You’re the first Hybrasilian who’s approached close to me tonight. Might that be because my dress has as much of an…unusual effect on them as it does on me?”

There are several people listening to this with curiosity. But you can see in her eyes that what she wants to know is the intention behind this dress, not merely a passing curiosity of differing cultures. She wants to be sure that the challenge wasn’t simply a mistake so that she can fully enjoy herself. 

The lights flicker as movement and violence play out beneath your feet, in a wider arch of the crystal spiral, but here the dancers are hanging on you. 

***

[b]Solarel and Angela[/b]

There’s a crash when the table goes, and the lights flicker as other Zaldarians slam into the walls and unleash a cascade of energy. The room shakes, but the fighters still. Even Angela, who’s about to gleefully throw a punch at a royal retainer notices the changed expression and stops. 

Voctine and Nialkai both stare, recognizing you instantly. Then they both turn to each other.
“Usurping bitch, did you put her up this?!” 
“Fallen Queen, what game are you playing?!”

They speak at the same time to each other. Voctine sweeps a hand past her ear, letting her short cape flare and stretching her glowing shoulders in the flickering darkness. Nialkai raises herself up, gathering all the substance and height her lavish outfit can offer her. 

Around them, their retainers are looking to them for a cue about what to do, and looking to you to see what you’ll do. At first, it seems like with all the posing and posturing that they’ll fall back into bickering. But after the first round of insults spoken at once, they’re both looking at each other. 

Then they look at you and there’s a different sort of greed in their eyes. “First one to bind her will be crowned an imperial knight!” yells Nialkai, and “whoever seizes her will be first of my house when I reclaim the throne!” shouts Voctine. 

Angela is smiling gleefully, her opponent cast aside as she looks for an opening to take a swing at your herself. And above you, blurred through they crystal, a crowd of its own freezes to hang on the words of Mirror and the most powerful Terenian woman. 

***

[b]Dolly[/b]

You’re in a private side room in an inner swirl of the crystal ammonite shell. 

This is without a doubt one of the most overwhelming experiences you’ve ever had, but the thing that you may, perhaps, be remarking on, is that this is working. 

Valynia does not purr, but she has a quiet roar, a deep-throated rumbling within her as your hands make their circles. She revels as she takes the gags from Jade and shares that feeling back into the circle, pulling on Dolly even as she herself is touched and pressed in all the right places. There’s a shared feeling of relaxation and joy and Valynia herself is like a furnace, taking in fuel and outputting more and more heat. 

Outside of you, the light of the stars and the lines of empires converge, but before you is nothing but gray and black speckled fur and a long tail wrapping around and around your legs as all hands are too busy to hold. 

And blessedly, joyously, underneath it all is an undercurrent of relaxation, the release of tension, as someone ducking under a table Ksharta feels Jade’s touch as well and relaxes and lets herself enjoy the show.