[i]If the eye of the goddess was elsewhere, she could cut off the flight of the Zaldarian. If her attention was on Angela, she could shut a door, pen the knight in, give her a chance to catch up. She could read how Angela slows down, keeps an eye out for traps as she follows in the knight's wake, remembering the mine that ended their last battle together. The underhanded ploy, the trick that wins the battle. But her eye is drawn elsewhere. It is focused, entirely, on Seven Quetzal reaching up and patting her mouth, asking for permission to speak. Permission that the goddess grants her high priestess.[/i]

Dolly licks her lips as her gag turns to smoke, fades away by the magic of her goddess. The goddess perched on Valynia's shoulders, trying very hard to look casual, staring intensely at her. The goddess who is trying to give her a space pirate despite the roiling emotions in her heart, who is [i]trying[/i] to find a way to incorporate Valynia into their play without melting down so that she can... carry out a plan? She never asked Jade about Valynia's plan, about her offer to incorporate Jade into the pirate gods. She opens her mouth, lets out a pathetic little huff, tries to find her words even as the pirate undoes her finger by finger, nibble by nibble.

"What do [i]I[/i] want? I... I want the adventure," she admits to herself and to her goddess and to Ksharta Talonna and to Angela who is cursing at the receding back of [i]Solarel[/i]. "That's why we're out here. The stars, and the aliens, and the [i]pirates[/i]. But I want everyone to see Jade, too. She picked [i]me[/i]. Out of everybody on Hybrasil she picked me to help her show the universe her glory, her divinity, and... when you kidnapped me, I. Well. [i]Well.[/i]" The inquisitive vibrates through her flesh.

She wants Valynia Bander. She's dangerous and takes what she wants and is the star of Dolly's teenage fanfics come to frustratingly sexy life. But there's a dangerous edge to being with her, too. The loss of control. The way that she wants to use Jade. There was tension and worry in that kidnapping, even while she got memories she'd only just started to blushingly share with Jade. Worry that she was going to be used to blackmail Jade, to make her serve the Banders, to be married off to a hot handsy pirate who saw her as a pawn. Jade is watching her intently. Is this all part of the plan? Valynia is tugging at the sensitive spot on the back of her neck.

What can she even say? I want you to teach Jade how to be you? I want to be your captive queen, since Angela is my rival and Ksharta is my student? I want you to pin me down and tie me up, to smuggle me out of the party in luggage, to show your Red Band how easy it is to kidnap me? I want you to be my villain, but safely, but dangerously, but in a way that won't hurt Jade? The heat of you, the smell of you, is driving me wild? I wish Jade had a body like this? No, I don't, I love her as she is, but your body makes me weak in the knees in a different way?

"If you promise," she says, as serious as she was piloting the idol by herself. She pushes back, dares to try to assert herself. "Promise me that she will be [i]your[/i] goddess. That you'll make her your patron, and when you rule the Red Band that Jade will be the first one in your temple, the highest idol, the, the goddess of the Jade Band. You'll rename the entire pirates. The entire! You'll be the Jade Band! And Ksharta Talonna gets a free pass through your territory forever! Then..."

She swallows, dizzy, giddy. What she's getting from Jade is shock, but she's committed. For you, Jade. This time she won't fail. If this is what you want, then Seven Quetzal will perform miracles for you, too. As thanks. As a promise. And because she's very, very horny right now, and that gives her courage, too.

"Then I will fight as hard as you want," she says, and shoves Valynia Bander backwards, as hard as she can. Only a step or two, but it's enough. She pushes her hair back out of her face, lifts her chin, tries not to melt. "I will be a worthy conquest. You'll have to do your worst. Your [i]worst[/i]. I'll scream. If you want. I'll try to escape. I'll use everything Angela taught me." (She should not have blurted that out.) "And. I'll [i]enjoy it.[/i] Especially if you let me out for a chase every now and then. Planet to planet. A sacred hunt. My chance to see the universe with her again, your chance to catch me again, to take what you want, to... make me a prize. A trophy. Your [i]Dolly.[/i]"

[i]"Dolly, you don't have to do this," Smokeless Jade Fires says, stepping between them, small again, flustered, her hologram-body fuzzy at the edges. "We're going to win the tournament anyway. You don't have to sell yourself to Banders just to glorify me!" Just to glorify her. Her heart's tearing. She steps forward, interlaces her fingers with her high priestess's gloves, even in front of the Bander, because she has to touch. She has to touch, as much as she can. She has to hold her beloved's hand. The high priestess who would do anything for her, and so it's up to her to look out for her sweet, vast-hearted bride.[/i]

"I can do this," Dolly whispers back, loud enough for Valynia to hear. "Like you wanted. I [i]want[/i] to do this. Like in [i]"Nine Parsecs Deep."[/i] The lodge back home will be... disappointed, but you'll have more worshipers than ever, you'll be able to change them, you and me and Valynia and Ksharta and maybe even Angela. That's why you told me to, you know... to seduce her."

[i]"I what?!?" The goddess's jaw hangs open, without her even telling it to do so, moving on its own. A strange miracle that just adds to the shock it cannot help but express.[/i]

"You... when I was kidnapped... I thought you were ordering me to... that's why I..." Dolly's eyes flicker between her goddess and the pirate who she wants to pin her to the floor. She's overheating. "Did you not?! I could feel you being all [i]seduction[/i] and [i]want[/i] and... oh [i]goddess[/i]." She slumps to the floor, and she can't even hide her face because Jade's still holding her hands. "...I really hope it worked?" Her look to Valynia is pleading, mortified, hopeful, insecure, vulnerable. "I still... mean it. About. I'll make that trade for... it's not even a trade. Everybody gets what they want. You get Jade's blessings. And Jade gets all of you. And I get to discover if... well... I... you know? And you get me. You get [i]me.[/i] I want to be. gotten. Even if, I, and the seduction, and... do [i]you[/i] still want me, Valynia?"

[i]Jade turns to look at her rival, her potential cult leader, the impudence of Mu Ysha made flesh. The only person in the tournament who could really, truly take Dolly away from her. Angela Victoria Miera Antonius plays games, and Ksharta Talonna wants to be cherished, but Valynia Bander wants to challenge her for Dolly, to give Dolly the kind of special pleasures that only Jade could give her before, and to make Dolly a captive queen. Fear roils inside of her; fear of losing the ball game. Of being hung on the tree again. And if she lost Dolly then nobody else could fill her. Not Angela Victoria Miera Antonius, not Ksharta Talonna, not Whispered Promise. A memory not her own surfaces from within her, hugging a beloved bird-doll so tight that part of her worried that it might pop, nuzzling it like it was the only thing in the whole world.

Her whole world, sitting on the floor, looking up vulnerable and hopeful at Valynia Bander, the way that she'd looked up at her that first night.

And she can't even grab Valynia Bander and shake her by the front and toss her up and down in the air.

[b]"No,"[/b] she declares, before Valynia Bander can answer that dangerous question. The sudden sharp sting of disappointment from Dolly hurts even more. "As if I would need the worship of this, this scum! This pathetic bandit trying to take what the gods have not allotted for her! It is an insult to you and to me that she even thinks herself worthy of touching you! Why doesn't she keep her hands to herself, or better yet, why doesn't she go and hide under a rock somewhere? You, you handsy, stinking, reeking, oversexed, presumptous thief! She doesn't need you! Go keep your temples and your brands and your musk and your ion cannons and go fuck yourself with them! And then you can--"

Everyone feels it at once. Ksharta, curled up under the table. Angela, almost caught up to Solarel making her way to her mecha. Jade, phantasmal, up in Valynia's face. They all feel Dolly burying her face in her gloved hands, sobbing in embarrassment and shame and the backwash of Jade's overwhelming fear and the shock of betrayal.

And Valynia Bander gets to see, face to face, a goddess's world come crashing down around her ears.[/i]

[[b]Insecure:[/b] take rash action to confront the object of your jealousy. [b]Harmony[/b] drops when: one of you feels neglected or scorned by the other.]