Anarion

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Yuki gasps. Air. Sweet air not choked with honey. And then she back kicks in a silver heel, sending Walking Elm stumbling away from her before falling into stride with Aadya. It’s nothing truly damaging, not even a harm to her dignity with all eyes turned to the dark dragon. But it is a reflex, and perhaps a warning. Walking Elm will meet only ice from Yuki the next time she sees her.

But there isn’t time for reprisals or for the sort of shiver that Yuki might have run through her to shake off her lingering feeling of drowning in her own body. Not when Aadya is pulling her so urgently and so suddenly into the melee. Not when she’s suddenly part of the five against one fight against the dark dragon in the flesh.

At first there’s instinct. Paladins are sent flying, the dark dragon flings a sword across the room to pin someone else, and so before she knows it, Yuki’s heartaxe, the weapon that cut Aria Thendragon, is in her hands and she stands before the dark dragon.

Perhaps she ought to strike at once, make such a great cut that it must be met to offer an opening for Aadya to bring her own great glaive to bear. And to give the other knights a chance to recover. Instead, she hesitates. Her hands tremble, and her eyes stare at this strange woman dressed as Heron dressed as the dragon. Why had she done that? Why had she fought at Vespergift? If she had just left Aria alone, Yuki couldn’t have held her off. And neither could the suitors.

She stares up at the dragon, even as Aadya circles for an opening. Even as Yuki still holds her ace up high. “You…you saved my life” she says, loud enough to be heard even over the rattling of chain and the murmur of the crowd. “…why?”

Return to Thellamie

A heartaxe starts to take shape in Yuki's hand, only to fizzle and fade when the cool touch comes to her arm. Yuki had been ready for a fight if she needed to fight, even if that wasn't supposed to be allowed at the ball. She had been ready for that, but not for Walking Elm to appear by surprise. Not for this. Not for the feeling of honey swamping her mind, filling her heart, covering her senses.

She feels like she can't think. Can't breathe. Was this what Hazel had felt? Did he like this? Yuki liked many things. She liked Purnima flexing her strength, she even liked when Purnima pushed the limit and she felt the tight coils around her chest pressing on her skin. But not this. Not this. This was losing herself. This was hammering at a prison that nobody else could see or hear. She wanted to scream. She wanted to wretch. She wanted to stab. The vine pulls at her back, and her body is not her own.

Then she sees Aadya. Her distant rock right there before her. So strong, and so physical. Yet the only words she can form are "Aadya, a pleasure" as she and Walking Elm begin to pass by. That and she takes Aadya's hand in greeting, the traditional greeting between Kel knights. And in that moment, her whole being, everything that is Yuki is in that hand.

[Overcome with heart 2+6+2=10]
She holds the grip of her dear friend, her paladin. And she squeezes. And in that squeeze is everything wrong in a way that Aadya can feel. The tremor in Yuki's hand, and the desperate strength that says more clearly than any words: whatever you do, please don't let go

Return to Thellamie

Yuki is gazing at Suli, dress still, glitter trail halted. She’s preparing to go talk to her friend, to show off her outfit with Suli’s house symbol and make sure she did it right. She’s busy trying to figure out how to get there without Purnima turning it into a scene before they can properly chat.

So, when the sweep comes, she’s taken almost completely by surprise and there’s no mind in what happens. Instead, her reaction is pure instinct. A cat losing her foot twists almost automatically. Her tail flips up, her tassels all fly up and spin, and her shoulders twist faster than her fall. She finds herself not on the ground, but in the arms of Aria Thendragon.

Only then does she hear the warning hiss behind her and, mind rapidly catching up, says loudly enough for even Purnima to hear, “my lady, it’s only proper for a knight to kneel after she’s sworn herself in service to a new lady. And yet you haven’t even proposed terms for your court before wrapping me in your embrace. Surely, you have more to say than that?”

[defy disaster with heart: 3+2+2=7]

Return to Thellamie

A few days after the capture by Purnima, while preparing for the ball
>[.snowkitten]
>@familychat, sorry I disappeared again, kidnapped by Purnima Karn-Pana. It's okay, she's taking me to the ball, so I'll be there. Kind of turned into a thing anyway, I'm trying to redeem her I guess? Anyway, no need to try and rescue me, we're both fine and I can use my tablet.
>[.realsuloarju]
>...wat
>[.snowkitten]
>It's fine, I promise, it will be fine. Anyway, I'm trying to come up with my ball gown. Purnima has asked me to theme it around silver.
>[.realsuloarju]
>She asked you to THEME it?!
>[.snowkitten]
>yeah, she's doing gold, we're going to be color matching.
>[.realsuloarju]
>She asked you to...COLOR MATCH?!?!?
>[.rockamt]
>Silver armor. Chainmail. Sparring gloves, go all out Kel knight, get a cool new pair of starglasses!
>[.praxispacksis]
>No, you gotta go with something loose and free. Nice gloves, very fitting. Purple is super in, Yuki, so you need silver with a purple highlight, maybe a flower in your hair. Here, like this. Photo:SilverAndPurple, Photo:Orchid, Photo:HotFox, Photo:HotterFox, Photo:HotterFox2, Photo:GlovesAndTailFloof, Photo:LivinItUpOnBottomAestival
>[.realsuloarju]
>No. No. Here. Photo:HouseArjuPattern. Photo:CrevasiStyle. You're going to wear this. You can modify for the ears and tail, but you need to keep the tassels and the pattern to show that you're loyal to my house. You cannot, CANNOT show up with Purnima dressed any other way while...color matching. Do you understand, Yuki?
>[.snowkitten]
>I'll take a look at all of these. I get you though, Suli, this is like a house thing, right? I don't want to accidentally give Purnima some kind of political favor.
>[.realsuloarju]
>...yes

At the ball

Purnima Karn-Pana is arrayed entirely in gold. Except for the purple orchid that Yuki (courtesy of Juniper) bestowed on her as a favor. Purnima was going to refuse it, but Yuki pouted for an entire hour, and so ultimately Purnima gave in and pinned the flower just above her left breast. A single splash of the season's color amidst all that gold. It actually makes Purnima pop much more than if she were purely gleaming bright. Oh and Yuki might have leaned a bunch on her in the palanquin while fixing her hair and gotten a bunch of silver glitter onto some parts of the gold, especially around the tail and the waist. Just to spice it up a bit...by accident of course.

Yuki herself is mostly wearing the dress that Suli requested, with a handful of accents and modifications around the periphery. The main dress is a tight-fitting silver shoulderless dress made with tassels running in five layers top to bottom that flutters and sparkles when she walks. It's full of silver glitter that mostly makes the dress shimmer when the tassels shake, but does lose just a little bit with each flutter, leaving a small glittering trail to mark Yuki's passage. The center of the dress around the belly has the symbol of house Arju in a small space free of the tassels, and there's a belt around the waist keeping the dress tight with small pouch with little accessories also showing the symbol of house Arju. Purnima was not pleased, but what she found in this instance she had no ability to make Yuki undress at the eleventh hour.

Yuki wears an amethyst necklace around her neck, a nod to the purple highlights of the season, and over her shoulders is a narrow fur shawl in white that makes the silver of the dress and the purple amethyst stand out against it. The rest of her upper body is bare, and she wears no hat, instead wearing her smooth black hair up in a braided bun at the top of her head (which Purnima helped her do).

The fur shawl is the only thing covering the various marks on her neck from her tussles with Purnima, and not particularly well at that, but she holds herself up straight with a smile as she enters first, guiding her lady inside from the palanquin as any knight would.

Return to Thellamie

Yuki doesn't cough right off the bat, but she also doesn't pace herself, and so after a few sips there's too much spiciness in her mouth and she has to stop and cough. They're cute little coughs, and she smiles in chagrin and to let Purnima know that she's enjoying it even though it's making her cough.

Once she collects herself (following a very hoarse "I'm fine...no really") she slows her pace to drink the coffee, she gives Purnima a thoughtful look. "See, I'd kind of like that because you'd be the one building a statue of me. And even if it's a little statue, it's pretty special to think that you'd want to build a statue of me because of tonight, y'know?"

She takes another very small sip, thinking about how to say this. "Back on Earth, Yukisworld, there are lots of people who build...statues of themselves. Or stuff like statues. Sometimes they make stuff, like clothes with their names on it. And...so I guess I understand why you'd want to do that. But, well, my friends and I all make fun of those people on Earth. Like, it's actually kinda lame to want a statue of yourself. Kind of...uh...well...it makes people think you're insecure. It's like, if you get a statue, it should be cuz somebody else thinks you're worth a statue. And if you're so rich that you can build statues of yourself, you should use your riches to do cool stuff for the people that really need help instead. So then they'll think you're cool enough to build a statue of."

Return to Thellamie

Poor Sulochana. It's not...it's not that Yuki isn't thinking about her. She knows that Purnima is Suli's rival and obviously it's a bad look to roll up to a friend's house and be like "hey, I'm dating your arch-nemesis." But also, that happens sometimes and while Yuki might expect it to be one of those everybody awkward at the dinner table moments, it really doesn't feel to her like a betrayal. And when that comes up in conversation, everybody is going to get hurt. Because Suli is going to learn that Yuki never thought they were girlfriends, just good friends. And that Yuki is a lot older and isn't prepared for someone to put hard limits on who she can see and experiment with as a condition of keeping a friendship. It's definitely gonna suck.

But that's a problem for the future. The question now is how far they go. Which is really a question about newness. The thing about newness is that it's fundamentally hot in and of itself. It's the unknown and so all your senses get attuned, your awareness is heightened, you're thinking about everything, you're deeply in the moment. And a lot is still new for Yuki, she's just starting college! She didn't even really know she was gay the first time she arrived in Thellamie, though she was pretty sure by the time she left. But it's not like...well she's had like, three girlfriends since then. Two and a half really? Depends how you count, senior prom had been after a breakup and that date was really kind of a mutual bounceback thing and it didn't take them long to figure out it wasn't healthy even if it was one really good night, and like...that's not what you want running through your head at this point anyway.

But here's the thing, Yuki's self discovery this time around isn't really about the sex, or even about the sensualness. It's about who she wants to be. She came to Thellamie and decided she was going to be a knight. She hasn't figured out what that means when she gets home yet. Maybe an environmental justice job? Whatever, point being, in Thellamie knight is a job all to itself, and she picked it because that meant something to her. She wanted to just be with all her friends, but she didn't know how to do that. She still doesn't. But she's learning something about the people she meets, about how she wants to meet their needs, about how she likes learning their needs and trying to balance them. But also how she likes directing things to meet those needs. She likes being an active force, she likes the way that her hands and her tail can do things for Purnima. And sure, that means she's getting bitten and pressed too and learning about where that feels good, but that's secondary because her focus is on what moves Purnima, and that's as far as they're going to get before everyone is tired and needs some water.

Remember, she got into this because she felt there was something worthwhile in Purnima Karn-Pana, even if it's deeply buried in there. And so Yuki's not just flattering the worst parts of the snakegirl, she's looking for what actually makes Purnima relax and let down her guard, even a little.

By the end, Yuki won't need to be restrained, she's not going anywhere while they lounge. And Purnima might not have the energy left to restrain anyone anyway, with how languid those coils feel.

But...as far as that is, it's not nearly far enough for Purnima to learn anything deeper about Yuki than which spots are the right ones to press on. And at the end of the day, that's not nearly as much as you'd think.

Return to Thellamie

Yuki breathes in as Purnima's teeth press into her neck. A shudder passes through her, and her legs press against against the strength of those coils hard enough for Purnima to feel it and strain in turn. The flush spreads through Yuki's whole body and she makes no effort to hide it when Purnima finally lets go.

Oh yes, that was good. Will Yuki wear a turtleneck, or is she going to show up at the ball in a shoulderless gown? You'll just have to wait and find out later. In the meantime, she offers a smile that there's no need to fake and runs her hand along Purnima's scales gently, back and forth.

"Poor thing" she says, watching Gemes march out with a long-suffering look. "I hope getting us coffee won't be too hard on him, the city's mostly deserted, so there aren't many places to go for it." She's not judging this time, just observing, and her hand doesn't stop gently massaging those scales while she does it.

Yuki grins at Purnima's question. "Oh, he'll look at whatever you make the flashiest, then blush and look at quite literally anything else. The clouds maybe? You'll need to take his chin and point him at where you want to look. Which I think is up here," she says as Purnima bends closer. Yuki runs her hand up from the coils and along Purnima's side up the chest and all the way to the cheek, where she rests it for a breath to show what she means and then slides gently back down.

"I think the bigger problem is how skittish he is, especially with so many girls vying for him. You'll want to get rid of the mirrors, I've told him the stories of my first visit to Thellamie a lot and I think they'll make him nervous. Mm, and we should really try to figure out what the rot star and its minions are up to, huh? Out of everybody that's supposed to go to this ball, I think they're the mostly likely to cheat, like how they tried to drug Hazel at the cafe."

She gives Purnima a serious look when she says that because she's still not feeling good about what she saw happen to Hazel. And after all, it served everyone's interests if Purnima's household staff helped gather intelligence on Aria Thendragon and Walking Elm, right? Yuki still thought of them as the problem. For everyone else, well, she trusted that anyone close to her friends winning wouldn't be the end of the world, at the least.

So she goes back to massaging Purnima's scales and lets the smile come back to her face.

Return to Thellamie

Yuki is taken into the DEN OF EVIL (did she get the lilt right, she doesn't think she got the lilt right). Gold was pretty, and so were tapestries. It wasn't even that Purnima had a bad eye for beauty, she was just very very self-centered. Yuki clicks her tongue once, sighs softly at herself, frowns because she signed, and finally offers Purnima a large bow with the upper half of her body nearly sinking into the coils around her. "My apologies, I fear I have already offended your hospitality" she says formally.

She lets herself remain down because it's easier. Head resting on one soft arm resting on strong but pleasantly springy coils all around her. Purnima indulges in her size in a way that Sulochana doesn't. That's good, Suli's self-conscious because she worries about how she impacts others. But Purnima is proud of herself and Yuki can quite literally feel that strength pressing into her. And while Purnima may have taken that pride to an extreme, that core wasn't a bad thing. No, there was a lot to think about. And she did have the mirrors covered at least. There was that.

"mmm" she says as Purnima runs through the options. "Mmm, neither. Everybody keeps asking me like I know the answer to this question. But you're framing it wrong for Hazel. Maybe this is why the giant weird crow picked him? Like, he's just really not someone who can be bought or...uh...seduced that way." She does not say it out loud, but neither can she entirely keep out the raised eyebrows that say and even if he could, you wouldn't be up to the job. Not just because that would be rude to her captor, but Yuki's legit mad at herself for jumping to that conclusion. But jump she did, for better or worse.

"Like, look, you...the perfume you're wearing is the best thing I've ever seen you do for Hazel. It's not perfect. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger are good, he likes pumpkin spice, but I'd suggest you add a little scent of vanilla and maybe tone down the nutmeg a little. I think Hazel is...well I don't know if he's ever told me his favorite coffee, but if I had to guess it wouldn't be pumpkin spice, it would be a small latte with oat milk and vanilla. Small because he wouldn't want too much caffeine. Oat milk to go easy on his digestion and because it's a little sweeter and mellower to balance out the acidity, which I think is a bit much for him. And then vanilla because it's simple and sweet and just a little elegant."

Yuki flicks her ears, twists herself a bit to pick herself back up without the help of her lower body. "If you have no idea how much I just helped you, I'm sorry, but I think that's actually more insight to tame your faun than anything I gave Suli or the Serigalamu if you understand it."

"Hazel's not like me. I'm a lot easier to tame than he is actually. He likes pumpkin spice more than me, but he likes simple sweet flavors even more. Me, I like pumpkin spice just fine, but I like a little more on top, maybe a little chili with my pumpkin spice. Do you follow me?"

Yuki looks right at Purnima. Right at that face, right into those Nagi eyes and dares Purnima to take her up on her offer for something spicy. [Entice: 2+6+2=10. One string and one option please.]

Return to Thellamie

Before the heartblade can strike: "Indeed, I surrender!" Yuki shouts. Stopping partway through the elbow strike that would have resulted in the guard holding Yuki doubling over just in time for the incoming heartblade to hit his head instead of Yuki's breast.

The action freezes, the guards uncertain. Yuki relaxes in the grip of her new captor. "I surrender to you, Purnima Karn-Pasha." She says the name with emphasis. "I am the prisoner of Purnima Karn-Pasha" again, she emphasizes the name. Purnima, not anyone else. Only Purnima. "Through willing surrender in a duel of heartblades. I will provide my service as the prisoner of Purnima Karn-Pasha as agreed upon in battles of heartblades, until I complete the service demanded, until I am rescued by my allies, or until sufficient time has passed that I may fairly escape. This I swear to Purnima Karn-Pasha"

A knight's oath, and a maiden's, and oh Yuki is staring at Purnima and the guards, and she is this close to kicking that piece of shiny armor under the table if need be. But she will not need to because they will, of course, accept her terms.

Return to Thellamie

"Are you kidding me?!" Yuki ducks the butt of the blade, noticing that the two guards are not actually stopping their assault while she dances around. "Why would you...a-any of this?"

She kicks one of the guards in the face, though she still hasn't drawn her heart axe. This isn't the right kind of threat and she doesn't want to hurt these people in the way it hurts to get really hit with a heartblade. She could probably just run, should just run, really. There's just something...she feels like Purnima actually needs help. A knight doesn't abandon someone in need that way.

"No they do, those decorative necklaces" she shoulder slams the second guard while the first is recovering and flicks out her food knife, quick cut to pull off the gorget and hold it up, then tossing it to the floor below Purnima's decadent table setup, shadowed from the evening sun. "Too polished, too dangerous. Whatever I did, you can't kill a star. Do you understand? Same deal with whatever's powering up Hazel, or the Rot Star that attacked here. Can't kill a star."

Yuki's looking at Purnima for a moment, while the two guards collect themselves from her acrobatics. She's looking at the smug smile, the face, a glance at whether her face moves or twitches. Does she get it? Is there any flicker of doubt at all?

Yuki's price is both very low and very high, you see. There's no bribe that Purnima could offer that would get Yuki to give herself up. No magic sword or pile of gold. But can Purnima Karn-Pana actually be persuaded? Is she open to the kind of advice that isn't just telling her the best way to get what she wants? That's it, that's all Yuki wants to know. Show her even a sliver of real doubt crossing Purnima's face. If maybe Purnima will really think about what Yuki has to say, then she'll come along now believing she's fulfilling her knight's duty. But if Purnima is so petty and self-centered that she can't let anyone in...then, then she's an enemy to be fought, and Yuki will not give up.