A Space Reserved, and Forgotten.

Amidst the laughter and enjoyment of snacks, Lyntael fanned at her cheeks and blinked a few times as she watched Eternalis apparently enjoy his own peculiar-looking selection. Aurora had said he never seemed to show much interest in food outside of being polite, but these really seemed to take. she found herself grinning at Aurora's remark almost at the same time as her own thought. A few moments later, however, she squeaked and shuffled in place a bit as Aurora got more adventurous, player card in one hand and climbing on top of Eternalis with surprising determination. She clapped at the antics, though by the time aurora had achieved her optimum perch, her claps had turned into mildly embarrassed giggles.

She was sure it wasn't' intentional, but she couldn't stop herself seeing the position that her friend had climbed into as a very naughty one. She felt her cheeks flush with more than the warmth from the alcohol and turned her eyes down to the board as she bit her lip. Once they had both returned to a less precarious state and continued playing Lyntael shrugged and looked about the space as she rolled her next turn.

“Not all of them.... I want to, but I got a lot... like, lots and lots, and some of the really serious ones I have to read carefully, or I won't understand them properly, and then I get to the end of a chapter and I realise I didn't get it at all, and so I've got to go back and read it again... and it's really kind of ironic and funny when you think about it, because the last book I was reading like that was one about different cultures' and religions' conceptions of time and time flow, you know...? So having to go back and re-read chapters was kind of... you know... like... ummm... it was making its own little meta-point, you know? It was ironic.” She nodded to herself, then pouted as she looked at the board. Her piece had to move back, or else she had to lose her piece's special skills for the round. She bit her lip, then left the piece where it was and drew another player card.

“This one says.... Oh. It says 'If there are more than two teaspoons on the table, put three of them in your freezer. That's all for now.' That's... strange... There's no benefit or penalty, just... that.” She shrugged and collected three of the spoons, standing up and tottering a small step as she steadied herself, then followed the instruction. By the time she returned and resumed her place, Lyntael caught herself plucking at the front of her top again to fan it a little.

“The fridge feels nice and cool, hehe...” She reached for another chocolate, letting her eyes flutter closed as she rolled it around her mouth, unaware of the way her body rocked and swayed for the first few seconds. “Hey, do you think those things are, um... made from, like real bug fragment thingies? I find them sometimes and Rogan keeps them all in a quarantine. It says for non-humanoids, but were there, um, warnings and things? Do you think they're safe to try? What're they like..?” Lyntael shifted as she spoke, drawing her knees up and rubbing the soles of her feet against the carpet. The sensation felt so nice, but she hadn't recalled it feeling quite this amazing before and she kept doing it as she watched the game progress, sliding her feet back and forth with a vaguely blissed out expression.
"Heh, heh... what a handful," said Eternalis as he got back up, watching Lyntael roll for her turn on the game. "Ahaha, I don't think I could read any of the more serious books. It's hard for me to even analyze my own books, honestly—I just go with the flow and file away any weird inconsistencies to look up later. People have really long discussions about this kind of thing, apparently—specifics of a silly wish fulfillment series can get really heated. It's funny to read."

Looking at the other two game pieces being stuck at the starting point, it seemed that Aurora had neglected to even roll for her turn when drawing the earlier card. It didn't look like she was up for correcting her mistake either, being perfectly content with wiggling about on the carpet. Lyntael didn't seem to notice either, moving her piece further up the board, and then back again. "What are these even for? Do we need to balance eggs on them or something?" he quipped to himself, picking up one of the spoons to examine them while Lyntael collected three from the rest to put them into the freezer.

He poked at Aurora's cheek with the spoon. "Hey, are you going to move for your turn or what?"

"Don't wanna moooooove," Aurora murmured in return, shaking her head away from the cold metal prodding at her face. Eternalis snorted slightly, and replaced the spoon on the table. Taking the dice, he then rolled for Aurora's turn twice over in her stead, and once for himself, though both of the pieces ended up landing on areas that didn't require drawing a card. With the new positions, it seemed like he would only be slightly behind the other two, with Aurora's piece just catching up to Lyntael within a couple of squares. He doubted she had it together enough to notice, though, as Lyntael returned to the table with three spoons less. He reached out for the frag chips just as Lyntael asked about them, stopping just short of tossing one into his mouth.

"I don't know, they look real enough. For me, they taste kind of... warm. Though if I had to say, it tasted like getting a light shock from Aurora," he chuckled, turning it around to see how it reflected in the light. Certainly, he had never thought of eating them, since he thought they were exclusive for Support Program use, as he had read about. With Aurora using them in her executable container, however, he had second thoughts when he saw it in the listing, and figured it was worth a shot. "Should be safe, probably..." he mused, picking up the name card that the chips came with to look at it. On the back end, there were some guidelines written in fine print. "Recommended for taste-deficient non-humanoid Navis, the Spicy Bug Fragment Chips are one in a series of new experiments to those who have not been built with taste simulators. Taste modules may report a starkly bitter taste. Warning: do not consume more than 100 servings in a six-hour period: may produce undesired glitch effects," he recited.

Turning it around didn't divulge any more information than what he had read out, and he narrowed his eyes. "It doesn't say how much a serving is..." At the very least, there was nowhere near 100 slices on the plate when he took them, so he figured he was at least prepared for the worst case scenario. In fact, there was barely less than a dozen left. Looking back at the board, he realized that the dice were still on his side of the table. "Oh, it's your turn, by the way; I rolled for myself and Aurora when you were in the kitchen," he said, handing over the dice.

Turning to Aurora, still spread out on the floor, he noticed her midsection starting to liquefy onto the carpeting as her expression started to blank out. Immediately, he reached out for her arm and shook it. "Hey! Don't melt out in someone else's house!" he called out, causing Aurora to shoot up into a sitting position, restoring her body. "I'mwake, I'm awake!" she yelled out, with her eyes wide open, before she listlessly leaned on Eternalis's shoulder. He pulled her closer together as she murmured, "I'm awake..." a few times, her eyes fluttering into a close.

"Sorry, I'll play for her," apologized Eternalis with a small smile. He reached out for one of the cheesecakes in the small glass cups, filled with a swirl of yellow cream atop a smooth-looking cake bottom half. "They put a lot of effort into making these look too good to eat," he mused.
A small giggle followed Eternalis' last remark as Lyntael pulled one of the small cheesecakes towards herself while she resettled herself.

“They look so pretty, hehe, but that's not enough to stop me...” Her efforts at the little desert were rewarded with a similar citric flavour to her first experience with proper taste, though it wasn't quite the same. the texture was a little different ,and the flavour wasn't quite as sharp, but it was still a very pleasant experience. She looked to Aurora as she finished the cup quickly and took her turn. the other woman had taken the first couple of drinks very hard, and seemed like she'd hit a wall just as quickly. Lyntael shook her head with a faint grin. She wasn't going to do well at any party games like that. She wondered why aurora had been hit so hard, while patently she hadn't been affected by the drink at all. Not at all. Minor running together of her words and overly talkative rambling aside, and the slight way in which she found herself stumbling any time she tried to stand or walk. Other than that. Completely unaffected.

Only one draw on her turn, for her piece, and it was a negative one. That was silly. After a moment, though, her features brightened and she grinned.

“It says to go back three places and if I pass over any traps to pay the penalty as though I'd landed on them, but, but, but, the scholar's piece skill is 'foresight', and that means I get to ignore any additional penalties that come up because of a card pull once each round, so I don't. I think. I think I still go back, but, the thingie there doesn't do anything.” She pointed to the trap square in question, a small illustration of black sludge miring a hapless adventurer just to the side of the tile itself.

As she sat back and looked about the room at her friends with a shrug, she thought about the other things Eternalis had said, and her eyes settled on the odd bug-chips again. She flickered her eyes up to Eternalis and poked her tongue out playfully for a moment.

“You should feed one to Aurora, hehe, it says they're really bitter. I bet that would wake her up more!” She reached out and picked one out for herself as well, holding the odd purple snack close to her face so she could examine it more closely. Cautiously, she inhaled the scent of it, and, getting nothing, slipped the chip into her mouth.

The taste was quite immediate as it settled on her tongue, and Lyntael felt her face scrunch up on reflex as her fingers and toes tensed and curled up. She barely managed to keep one eye open as it hit her. It was more than just sour and bitter, though; there was a heat to it as well. Something that filtered out of the chip as her first reflex action crushed it in her mouth, flooding odd, spiky warmth into her mouth but more prominently through her tongue as it went.

The girl wriggled in her place, squirming at the strange sensation; it wasn't specifically unpleasant, just very odd. the face-scrunching taste began to fade, but the crackling, tingling warmth remained, and spread. Her already warm cheeks flared hot and red and she gasped a quick breath through her nose, unable to really unclench her teeth yet. the heat spread down her throat, fanning out into her body as it went, but the tingling core of stayed prominent as it moved down through the middle of her body.

“Hahh... that's... ahh... that's really... really....” she struggled to return her face to a more normal expression, still squinting a bit. “They weren't wrong, hehe... ahh... ooohhhh... hahh...” she shook her head again, trying to shake it off, and reached to pour herself another drink to wash it away with. The heat hadn't faded. If anything it was growing more intense, and she could feel it in her chest, and now in her middle, like a warm building tension. She took a sip of her fresh glass, barely noticing the cold shock of the alcohol and panted a few breaths. Her toes curled and flexed and curled again and she rubbed them on the carpet. The heat was tingling and prickly; a tense sensation low in her gut and lower still. She finished her drink then fanned at her face, rolling the cool glass across her cheeks as she breathed more heavily. The pink flush had spread further and Lyntael bit her lip for a moment, suppressing a small gasp as the sensation built in her core. Her eyes went wide for a moment and she glanced up at Eternalis, then swiftly back down at the table top to break eye contact almost as soon a she made it. The sensation had taken on a familiar edge, and one that was not very appropriate. She tried to take a couple of longer breaths, but the tension grew and she fought the urge to press her thighs together more firmly.

“T-that's really something... Um... I-I'm okay, it's not bad, I don't think. I-it... it's just very, um... um, very bitter, and, ah... ahh, strong.” She made an effort to keep her composure through the growing sensation, but it still wasn't fading away again, even though she'd finished with the chip entirely now. Thin trace lines of electricity had started to dance under her skin, and small snaps began to jump in her hair. She glanced about the room, but found no immediate solution. “I'm... I'm just, just... going to, ah... I've got to. Going to...” She started trying to stand up, the internal heat making her legs weak. “Just... Just going to get a drink of water... won't be long!” Unsteady, she darted across the room, and ducked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her with a solid click.

As soon as the door shut, Lyntael leaned against it, panting, and let her eyes squeeze shut tight as she curled in on herself, arms hugging tightly. She shuddered, rocking as the building heat claimed her completely and broke, sending tiny, thin arcs of electricity from her to the various metal fixtures nearby as she convulsed. The rippling sensation released her a few moments later, after a series of shorter aftershocks, to slide down the door and sit on the tiles, catching her breath. After a several long seconds, Lyntael regained something of her senses and moved quickly to ensure that no mishaps made their way to her pyjama bottoms, though her arms and legs still trembled. This was so wrong.

Her thoughts raced as she cleaned up and washed her face in the sink quickly. It was vaguely her own fault for trying something clearly not made for her, she guessed, but a better warning than 'probably a bit bitter' would have been good. Not that it was a bad thing, she had to admit. Not the fiercest or most satisfying example of such an event she'd ever achieved, but it was hardly the right setting or time for it... but maybe something to try in a more private condition some time later? She wasn't going to complain about such a food, not exactly.... Looking at herself in the mirror, Lyntael could see she was still flushed and a little out of breath, but it would have to do. She patted her face dry with the towel quickly. Not complaining, not exactly... just unexpected.

About a minute or two since she fled the room, Lyntael returned, still idly fanning her cheeks and took her place again, apologising with a sheepish grin. Her skin still felt alive with energy, but a check in the mirror had shown no visible evidence at least.

“Sorry about that. Just, very unusual taste and sensation. Just needed to wash my face and have a drink of water. I'm... I'm fine now.” She found it difficult to make eye contact properly as she spoke, and instead studied the board with a show or more immediate interest.
Despite Lyntael helping herself to the cheesecakes, Eternalis was content to just examine the confectionery, turning it about in his hand to examine the glass that it came in as well. With how solid the whole construction looked, the cake nearly fell out of its glass when he tipped the glass over to look at its underside. "Oops!" he fumbled, catching the spilled cream and cake on his hand. Putting it back into the glass seemed a little unproductive, so he scooped it up into his mouth. As usual, the most he could get from it was its smooth texture and cold temperature—pleasant by itself, but also in no way interesting.

Watching Lyntael take her turn and explain some of the effects that she had to abide by, Eternalis nodded to the explanations, at times glancing towards Aurora, who was clearly not getting much into the game, given how she was passed out on his shoulder. It was her turn as well. Lyntael seemed to be a bit more interested in the bug fragment chips that he had been helping himself to now, though. He chuckled at her suggestion to feed one to Aurora to rouse her back to consciousness. "Maybe. She's probably used to bug fragments, since they're used to strengthen the link between a navigator and a support program, but I don't think I've seen her eat one," he said, imagining how she would look munching away on the gleaming purple rocks with amusement.

Then, he watched as Lyntael took the challenge on her own, and concern quickly colored his expression. With how much squirming she was doing, it didn't look like the chips being described as "spicy" certainly wasn't in error. Maybe he shouldn't have recommended it to her after all? "Um, you okay?" asked Eternalis, placing the cake glass down. Even just watching her weather the aftereffects of the chip was making him a little bothered, and he was made a little more aware of Aurora's weight sliding down on his side for some reason. A glance down made him note that despite his earlier warning, Aurora's midsection was still continuing to deform into its fluid state, melting slightly into his own body and causing her height to decrease somewhat. "Ah, crap," he blurted out, trying to adjust his position to stop the process. He was interrupted by Lyntael describing the fragment chip's effects in the middle of trying to stave them off. The brief moment of eye contact they made said something else about what the chip did, and a couple of conclusions came to his mind once she unsteadily excused herself to her restroom.

The slam of the bathroom door roused Aurora from her unconsciousness, her eyes lethargically fluttering open. "Hey, you're finally awake." Eternalis nudged Aurora slightly, as she swung her head up to look at him. Blinking a few times, she flashed a lopsided smile before wrapping her arms around him and letting herself fall back onto his side. "No, hey, wake up! We're not at home, come on," he said, trying to push her off lightly, to no avail.

"Nooooo! Don't wannaaaaaaaa!" groaned Aurora, clinging on Eternalis even more tightly right as Lyntael reentered the room. Thankfully, she seemed to be fine, though she still seemed to be fanning herself to stave off some lingering heat; most likely, the water she drank didn't quite clear out all the spiciness. "Glad you're okay," replied Eternalis, giving up on trying to pry Aurora off for the moment. She seemed to be interested in what Lyntael had just said, however, as her half-open eyes widened slightly more. "Mmm, unusual taste...?" Aurora murmured, her eyes wandering over towards at the snacks on the table.

"She ate one of those BugFrag chips I got," explained Eternalis, "and it was a bit too spicy, I think? Something like that. My bad, I didn't think it was that bad." He bowed his head slightly, or about as well as he could with Aurora drunkenly clinging onto him.

Aurora raised her eyebrows. "BugFrag... chips?" she murmured, narrowing her eyes as she rested her head against Eternalis's chest. Her hand unsteadily reached out in a grabbing motion. "Gimme one, I wanna try!"

Eternalis hesitated slightly, wondering if it would affect her as badly as it seemed to do for Aurora. Lyntael's suggestion to give one to her to rouse her seemed like a good idea, if it really was that stimulating, and as a Support Program, she most likely wouldn't be too affected by BugFrags in the first place. Perhaps it could help in sobering her up off of him? When he reached out to pick one up, Aurora immediately swiped from his hand, and wasted no time in shoving it into her mouth. Immediately, the chip disintegrated in her mouth. Though its taste was, true enough, a little bitter, the heat rapidly spreading out from her core was the main event.

Aurora's eyes widened as her body slid down onto the floor. Her fingers tried to dig into Eternalis's body to prop herself up, breathing heavily as she did. However, her clawing seemed to be a little too effective, as they sank far too easily into his side, causing her to stumble onto Eternalis even more. A look at Eternalis himself made it easy to see why—he had also been somehow affected by Aurora eating the fragment chip. His breathing was equally as labored, and his eyes appeared unfocused.

"What..." he breathed out, confused as to what was happening. The heat he was experiencing was unlike the one he felt when he ate the chip himself. It was not an unfamiliar feeling, but it was exactly because he recognized it that he dreaded it. To that end, he tried to push away Aurora more seriously now to distance himself away from her. Strangely, his body seemed to disagree the more he tried, and fluidly began to wrap itself around Aurora's body where he touched her. His right side began to deform into a mass of tendrils, and a hazy sense of panic took over as Aurora seemed to be opposing his efforts even more through her drunkenness, clambering atop him with that half-lidded look that he saw on that day, filling his mind with her emotions.

Suddenly, his body then vanished from the room, causing Aurora to land with a thump on the carpet. He rematerialized moments later on the other end of the room, collapsed in a lean against the wall. His body was now back to normal, as he tried to catch his breath. Aurora's body began to convulse about on the carpet, which Lyntael would see to be quite similar to what she had just experienced herself. Sprawled out on the floor, Aurora's body was curled up as she tried to recover through the aftermath, her breathing quieting down to a small whisper.

Suddenly, Eternalis scrambled across the room over towards the coffee table and snatched the plate of chips up. "W... We'll make do with the rest of the food." Sounding very exhausted, he made his way over to the kitchen, right as Aurora picked herself up off the floor, grabbing one of the legs of the coffee table for support.

"That... that was great..." she murmured, sounding very much still out of breath, with her cheeks looking very rosy. She looked at the snacks on the table again, trying to look for the purple plate without success. "Oh... No more?" Her eyes lingered over to the board game that they were playing.

"Haa... Is it my turn? I'll... I'll move now," she said, reaching out for the dice before tossing them. Her piece was pushed somewhat unsteadily forward, onto the same square that Lyntael's piece had landed on earlier. "Okay, I moved... Do I win now?"
The familiar nervous worry of trying to work out if her friends knew that something was off occupied Lyntael as she took her place and listened to Eternalis attempting to cajole Aurora into sensibility. She really needed to know if he knew what had happened just then, but there was no way to be certain, and asking would defeat the purpose. Instead she tried to move past the lingering awareness of past events still filtering through her body and focus on the game before them, and it was moments too late that she heard Aurora's sudden interest and realised what was about to happen.

“Ah, wait, maybe—” her head snapped up with a brief look of panic flashing across her features as she lifted a hand as though to stop Aurora, but she was much too slow to prevent aurora from snatching the dangerous food in her eagerness. Before she could really stop herself, Lyntael winced. Maybe it wouldn't be the same. Maybe Eternalis was right and she'd handle it better... Mild panic was already rising up in her chest anyway.

Like some kind of terrible out-of-control vehicle, Lyntael found herself unable to look away completely as the effect started to hit Aurora. She cringed back, peeking over bunched up hands that had pressed themselves to her face. The feelings of apologetic sympathy and embarrassment tuned to a sudden mortified desperation as aurora's response to the effects clearly assaulting her turned her aggressively towards her partner.

“Ah... um... Sh-should... um...” She needed to not be here. This was too much. Something was happening with Eternalis as well. She had to go... not stay in the same room if this was... this. She shuffled back from the table, trying to look anywhere other than the movements between the two as Aurora tried to push her intentions.

“I... I should, um... I—” She stood and backed off, grabbing one of the empty glasses as an excuse and moving away into the kitchen. She should have stopped her from eating it. This was so.... Aurora was going to be so mad when she recovered... She turned her back from the living area, and turned on the tap in the sink hard and loud, just in case any uncomfortable sounds followed through. Her hands made a show of refilling the kettle and busying themselves else-wise as she dithered nervously. Were they really going to... to do... it? Right there? She knew what she'd felt but, surely... Aurora hadn't drunk that much, surely she would realise... the warm feeling in her own body and the traitorous curiosity was still urging her to turn her head and peek, just a little. She wanted to know what it was like, didn't she... it wasn't really... proper, but here they were... would it be wrong to just glance a little? It was her home after all... she shouldn't... but...

Despite her best intentions, Lyntael turned her head just a little, looking back through the archway from the corner of her eye as she set the kettle on its stand and clicked it on. What she saw caused a brief rush of relief, and a much smaller one of mild disappointment. Eternalis had separated them from each other, and was across the far side of the room now. Things seemed safe.

Nervously, she stood in the archway properly, casting an uncertain look towards Eternalis, before cautiously slinking back into the room and sitting down again.

“I, um... I... I put the kettle on...” she mumbled, mostly at her own feet. One the floor somewhere between them, aurora was still recovering from what Lyntael had to assume were the same consequences she'd had to deal with already. A moment later it was Eternalis' turn to make a brief exit, snatching the hazardous chips away and moving them off the table swiftly. She met Aurora's look as the other woman sat upright again.

There was something a bit... surreal, she supposed? Something that made it a bit hard to believe that they were both sitting in the same room, and knew what the other had just experienced. It was a very private kind of thing, and not really appropriate, but at the same time, now that they all knew, there was less immediate embarrassment or regret and more... it was strange. Like there was nothing to ground the facts to, in relation to anything else. Surreal really was the only word she could think of.

A nervous grin crept across her face, followed by an equally nervous giggle. Was laughter really the right thing here. She didn't know, but it was happening...

“That was... ah... um, unexpected..?” As Aurora moved her piece, Lyntael tentatively glanced to see how Eternalis was doing in the kitchen, then leaned in across the table a little. “Sorry... I tried to say something, but...” She shook her head, overcome by another small giggle. It didn't seem so bad, since they were all on the same footing now, more or less. “They should market those things to us too. With a better warning, hehe... Were you really trying to... you know...? I'd have died of embarrassment!” The game had just about reached the point where the tower was in play, and Lyntael glanced at it, wondering just how long it wold last between her nervous, excited shaking and Aurora's unsteady hands.
Holding the plate that he had brought to the kitchen in his hand, Eternalis listened to the running kettle as he stared at his other hand--the one that had just gone wild moments ago. Even after he had extracted himself from the... situation that had just occurred, he could still see the arm undulate wildly, still trying to find the person that it had just anchored itself to. His thoughts were still quite clouded as well, and it was getting difficult to keep himself together. It wasn't too much of a problem if he was in the privacy of his own home--Aurora certainly didn't see it as one--but being a guest, embarrassing themselves wasn't quite at the top of his priorities. He slowly lowered the plate onto the nearby table, trying to collect himself a little more before heading back.

"Heh heh heh, warning for what? Those chips? Ehehe, I don't know what you're talking about. What's there to be embarrassed about?" said Aurora, her swaying body and half-aware look showing that she was still somewhat inebriated, though her slurred speech was now gone. For all she knew, she had just had some very interesting food, and, for some reason, she had fallen on top of Eternalis a little earlier? A little slip was silly to get embarrassed about. They were just drinking and eating and playing a game, there had been nothing more than that.

Then, the sound of approaching footsteps on the carpet signalled Eternalis's return from the couch, though oddly enough, he sat on the other end of the table, next to Lyntael and directly opposite of Aurora. Some part of Aurora thought she had to object to it as she saw the arrangement, but she was feeling a little too fuzzy to get angry at the moment for some reason. Instead, she simply rested her head on the table, lightly rolling it to and fro.

Eternalis sat cross-legged, and bowed his head to Lyntael, so much that he nearly placed his head on the table in front of him, before raising it back up. "Sorry about that, that was my bad. I'll, uh," he hesitated slightly, giving Aurora with a sidelong glance. "I'll try to keep myself together." Looking about the table, he reached out for the dice, and took his roll. His expression brightened up a little as he obtained a pair of sixes, and leapfrogged ahead of both of the girls, up to the tower. He picked up his knight piece with an uncertain expression, as he hadn't quite paid full attention to Lyntael explaining the rules earlier.

"Uh... what were we supposed to do at the tower again?" he inquired sheepishly to Lyntael.
Across from her, Aurora's cavalier response caught Lyntael off balance a little, and she glanced down at herself to break eye contact as motes of embarrassment returned. Was that sort of thing really... okay? She felt more than a little flustered and adrift as she tried to process the recent events and her friend's reactions to them. They were good friends, after all. It wasn't like there was specifically anything wrong about anything that had happened, it was just... everything she had learned in her earliest memories about proper social cues told her that things like that... things to do with their physical sexuality... weren't proper to be expressed in company.

As she thought about it more, it was hard to pin down in her mind exactly why it was inappropriate, except that it would obviously run the risk of upsetting, offending or otherwise making other people uncomfortable... but if they were here in a private home, and just amongst friends... and no-one was actually upset by it... did that mean it was alright? Her head felt like it was swimming and the thoughts ran together in a muddled way.

She looked up to Aurora again; her friend was a mature and sensible woman, capable and competent and able to look after herself, and more experienced in the world and its ways than she was... but even so, the introduction of alcohol to their gathering had really affected her behaviour... far more than her own, she thought. What to make of it? It was too hard to think about fully, and aurora's own amused behaviour brought a grin back to the younger girl's face again before long. She set the thoughts aside and decided to relax more.

Eternalis, when he returned, seemed to be the one taking the events the hardest. Maybe they had made him uncomfortable, and that was why she felt bad about it? Lyntael tried to smile in reassurance and waved her hand, though her cheeks were still somewhat flushed. Whether from the drink, her previous exertions or lingering nerves was too hard to pick apart at this stage.

“It... It's okay, you didn't know... and, um, I guess it was kinda fun. Just... really unexpected. Um...” she wondered how to diffuse her companion's tension and glanced across at Aurora briefly. “I'm kinda sorry for, ah,” she blushed brighter, and looked down, though there was a coy, playful smile on her lips as she swayed slightly to the background music. “For... being in the way of... you know, um... whatever it was, you two might have been, um, interested in doing, after the snack, hehe...” She really wasn't sure if giggling about that was the right response, but the spontaneous laughter escaped anyway, all on its own, and she put a hand to her mouth to quiet it unsuccessfully.

“Oh, yay! So, that just means you have to start climbing now. See how all the marks on the exposed tiles are coloured like board squares? Only, now you've got to pull a tower card too, each turn, and it can make things change.” The first such card, when it was revealed, instructed the player to remove two blue blocks from the tower and add them to the top; the tower itself was coloured in its initial state so that the bottom third was green, the mid section was blue, and the upper section was red, but it seemed clear that if the tower was reconfigured a lot during play, those distinctions would quickly dissolve.

Lyntael playfully poked at Aurora again, giggling at the other woman's seemingly sedated posture, then took her own turn. The tower card moved more blocks around, but it wasn't too challenging or risking a topple yet, while the player card she drew made her frown briefly, then giggle.

“Another strange one, hehe... It says 'Half fill a glass of water an place it somewhere safe and easy to reach. Then do the next part without reading it aloud.'” There was clearly more text on the card, but Lyntael pressed it to her chest and hid it with another giggle, then stood up. She fanned at herself again as she slipped back out to the kitchen and prepared a glass like it said, then paused and took a small sip. It really was too warm in here... but the lure of hot chocolate was too tempting. while she was there she got out the things they'd need for it, but the kettle was still humming away and wasn't ready yet. Instead, she checked her card again, then went to the freezer and pulled out one of the teaspoons before returning to the living area.

“Kettle is almost ready. I'm making hot chocolate when it's done.” As she spoke, she reached across and slipped the freezing teaspoon down Aurora's back, then shuffled back quickly, laughing aloud, and held the card up between them as though it was some kind of defence.
With how flustered Lyntael got from the situation, Aurora watched with a fuzzy sense of amusement, quietly giggling to herself. Her body was feeling a little warm now, even with her suit providing her with ventilation. Unlike Lyntael, however, she wasn't exactly able to fan herself with her own clothes, so she was only able to flop lazily over the table, while Eternalis was talking to Lyntael. Apparently there was something about keeping himself together? Lyntael seemed to be quite distraught over her having apparently interrupted something between them.

Had Eternalis wanted her to something for him? There probably had been something, but in her state, her head didn't seem to be in the right spot to do much deduction, and she was feeling a little less energetic now. Whatever it was, it probably didn't really need her. Probably would be better if Lyntael did it for him instead, she thought. Before she could suggest it, however, Eternalis took Lyntael's attention away towards the game they had been playing.

"Oh, we were playing, right," she murmured. Looking at the pieces in front of them, she recalled that she had taken the barbarian piece. However, she seemed to be the furthest behind, with Lyntael moving forward past her position. This was unacceptable, she thought, as she searched around for the dice on the table. Unfortunately, she repeatedly missed them due to the dice being already in Lyntael's hand, by virtue of it being her turn to take after Eternalis. Eventually, she rested herself back on the table with a pout, watching the game go on.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the table, Eternalis listened to the explanation intently, his mood slightly lifted by his newfound interest in the game—mainly due to his lead. The card that he picked up instructed him simply, as he recited, to "pull out one of the blocks from the middle, then replace one of the blocks on the bottom part by pushing it out with the first block—easy enough." The first part of pulling out the block was made easy by how loosely the blocks were arranged, but the second part was trickier, having to align it perfectly as well as being careful not to wreck the whole thing.

"Whew, okay, made it. That bottom block wouldn't budge for a while until I forced it, that was scary," he said, extracting the green block from the other end while Lyntael took her own turn. The card she drew made her leave the room once more, leaving the two alone. Eternalis watched Aurora warily, noting the pouty expression she had on. Was she mad that they had been "interrupted" by his action earlier? Certainly it wasn't at all appropriate to do something like that in someone else's house, he thought, and Lyntael's flustered reaction confirmed that. Drunken as she was, he felt he had to at least keep the situation out of things they might regret later. Lyntael was taking a while on her card action, making him wonder what exactly was written on the second half of the card.

He didn't have to wonder for very long, however, as she reentered the room, talking about some hot chocolate, which was of little interest to him. Aurora seemed to perk up slightly as well, but wasn't keen on parting with her position of resting her head on the table. "Hot chocolate... ehehe..." she murmured happily, before being suddenly assaulted by an icy teaspoon down her back. "Hyaaaah!?" she yelped out in shock with a strange high-pitched yell, shooting up from her seat as Her sudden shot up caused her leg to knock into the bottom of the table, causing the tower to predictably collapse in turn. Mirroring Lyntael's mirth, Eternalis snorted out into full-blown laughter as well at the unexpected attack.

"What was that?! No faaaaaair!" Aurora drawled out, balled-up fists lightly raining down on the laughing Lyntael, with her held-up card offering no defense at all. Holding back his laughter wasn't going well on Eternalis's side, either, though he was mercifully spared the playful(?) beatdown. "Oh, dear, heh, heh, heh. Well, heh, that was pretty short-lived," he said, in between his bouts of laughter. "Maybe, ahaha, maybe we could find another game to play. Something that doesn't need as much dexterity—I think Aurora's pretty much shot on that."
The sudden upset of the table and the following crash that sent wooden blocks spilling across everything went mostly unheeded by Lyntael as she burst into another series of mad giggles, fending off Aurora's indignation gleefully. The assault drove her to fall back onto her back on the carpet where she curled up a little bit, drawing her knees back as she playfully pushed the other woman back with her feet and hands. Aurora's own mildly fluid midsection made fending her off harder and rather that pushing her away, Lyntael just ended up with her feet sliding off to either side while she flailed and tried to block the other woman's hands with increasingly breathless laughter.

Eventually the retaliation eased up and Lyntael caught herself, panting a little more than was probably appropriate, hands floating in the space between her face and chest, and where Aurora was pressed in above her. She became acutely aware of the position her knees were in, pushed back with Aurora between them. She felt too warm. she bit her lip, laughter subsiding again as she caught her breath and looked up to find Aurora's eyes properly. Was this... okay? Her mind was supplying ideas, but they weren't really doing anything... it just looked a bit questionable... right..? Her thoughts were loudly and she wasn't really sure how she felt about the moment of stillness that lingered. It was just Aurora though, there wasn't anything naughty about that, another thought suggested, and internally she accepted it.

The breathless moment was broken by Eternalis' own response, enjoying their mirth, and Lyntael giggled again, freeing herself from the confusing thoughts as she pulled a face and gently pushed Aurora off her, sitting up. She grinned and shuffled some of the spilled bricks around.

“Oh well. Hey, that means you win!” She tilted her head, looking across to Eternalis with a brighter smile. “You were furthest up when it fell. I'm not sure who loses though... Hmm...” She shook her head. “It was technically still my turn, but Aurora knocked it down. Guess it doesn't matter, we're not doing forfeits, hehe... unless you want to!” The giggle that followed that remark was immediately chased by Lyntael putting hand to her mouth. She wasn't quite sure how the suggestion had gained voice – it wasn't unusual for a thought that she might have had, but she would never normally have said it aloud, and that time she hadn't even thought about it. The click of the kettle made her perk up straighter.

“Drinks?” She climbed to her feet quickly again, adjusting her top which had been a little displaced from the tussle, and moving back towards the kitchen again. “I'm making hot chocolate! It's minty!”

Beyond the arch, she paused again to fan the front of her top. Maybe the hot chocolate wasn't such a good idea; she was feeling hot all over now, and her cheeks felt like they wee glowing... but the lure of milky, chocolatey, minty drinks was too tempting and she set about filling mugs and mixing the drinks swiftly. The steam from the kettle made her lean back and she passed a tea cloth over her face briefly and ran a hand through her hair. Absently, at a mostly unconscious level, one hand plucked at the buttons on her top while she made the drinks, slipping open the top two to let more air in. The bottom two buttons, just above and below her navel, were still holding the top closed. Sort of. The cosy flannel was warm and comfortable when it was cool, but she was beginning to think it was a bit much now.

The girl returned briefly to the main room to collect the tray that had held their other glasses; she picked them up and set them on the tray, clearing off some of the scattered blocks in the process and grinned as she cleared up.

“Pick another game, if you want! There's lots there! Eternalis, do you want anything else instead?” Lyntael herself was largely unaware of the loose upper half of her top, beyond the fact that she felt less like she was overheating now, and hummed to herself as she took the tray back, including the bottle. It seemed like they'd had enough of that for now, probably.

As she finished the drinks however, Lyntael found her eyes drifting across to the remaining collection of bug chips that Eternalis had removed from the living area. It would be bad to try another one quickly. But the thought was there and made her grin anyway. But it would be naughty. She shook her head and finished pouring and stirring, then, as an after thought, poured a small dash of the creamy alcoholic drink into her mug and gave it another good stir. That done, she took the tray back out and set it down on the table, handing out the contents, then sat down again, sprawling on the carpet a little more this time, with her legs outstretched and rocking lazily back and forth while she sipped. the taste made her eyes close and roll back, like it usually did, but the extra little threat of sharp flavour from the spike made it a new and interesting sensation.

“Mmmm... Hey, so... who wants to do what now? I don't want this evening to end yet. This is nice.” Along with the rocking of her heels, her upper body swayed a little as well to the chill background music as she enjoyed the atmosphere.
After some time of relentlessly "assaulting" Lyntael, Aurora started to let up a little to catch her breath, and caught Lyntael's eye in the process. There was a brief moment where she noticed the odd lingering expression that Lyntael had, and she wondered what was exactly going on in her friend's mind. Eternalis's response caused her train of thought to be derailed, however, and she was pushed off of Lyntael while the latter sat back up properly, cleaning away some of the collapsed blocks.

"Hey, I was playing against a handicap, you know," laughed Eternalis, picking up one of the blocks that had fallen off the side of the table to examine it, though there wasn't much to examine beyond the acronym of the game being engraved into the side of the block. The mention of forfeits made him look up from his idle examination.

"Forfeits, huh," he mused, thinking about what they could possibly be forfeiting. For some reason, most of what he came up with had to do with continuing what Aurora had been doing earlier, which was both embarrassing and didn't sound like much of a punishment to begin with. Was it the atmosphere of the gathering? Shaking his head to clear it, he perked up at Lyntael's observation of the kettle boiling in the other room.

Aurora clearly took notice as well, as her hand shot up at Lyntael's offer. "I'll take all the hot chocolate you got!" she exclaimed, grinning all the while. To the side, Eternalis chuckled, enjoying the pure radiating enjoyment that Aurora seemed to be wrapping herself in. He realized, as he leaned against a nearby wall, that he probably didn't want to bother Lyntael with making one for him, but she had already disappeared into the kitchen.

Aurora had made herself familiar with the carpeting again, rolling around in absent-minded bliss. "Feels warm..." Her body felt like it was getting warmer than ever before. Was the temperature regulation malfunctioning? She couldn't exactly take it off, though. None of her graphical overrides were suited to cool off in casually. She could probably change into the swimsuit she had, but that didn't feel quite right either. Her mind drifted back further, wading through past memories.

Her fingers drew themselves across her body, as if trying to pull and scratch at the suit, as she briefly considered tearing parts of it off. Just as her fingers caught on something, however, Lyntael reentered the room, mentioning that there were plenty more games to choose from. "Oh, another game..." she murmured, rolling around to lay on her stomach as she lazily scanned across the colorful boxes that housed the rest of the games.

Eternalis, meanwhile, was amusedly watching Aurora's antics when he noticed Lyntael's reentry. The increased slack in her clothes didn't go unnoticed either, as his reply to her question briefly caught in his throat. "Er, uh, no, nothing for me, thanks," he stuttered out, while Lyntael cleared out the table, including the bottle that they had put out. While he wondered whether to notify Lyntael of her clothing's predicament, Aurora yanked out a rather colorful-looking box from the selection of games.

"Ultimate... Twister?" she murmured out.

While she was examining the curious descriptions on the box, Lyntael returned with the prized drinks that she had called for, and she cried out in glee, tossing off the box to the side. "Hot chocolaaaaate!" she said, clamoring for one of the mugs, before recoiling at the heat. "Ooh, ow, hot!" she said, before re-approaching slowly once more.

Taking in the scent of the cocoa slowly, Aurora's body tensed up as a pseudo-shock ran through her. Chocolate was definitely a weapon to be feared as a sweet, with how much it did to her mind already. "Smells goooood..." she said, before taking a small sip, causing the previous electric sensation to be amplified throughout her body once more. She nearly dropped the mug as well, fumbling for a moment; thankfully, Lyntael's mugs were large enough that none spilled out.

"Come on, now, that's hot," Eternalis chuckled, trying not to look in Lyntael's direction as his eyes met on the game box that Aurora had discarded. "Add a twist of fun into any party or family night with the game that ties you up in knots..." he read off the box, before showing it to Lyntael. "How about this one? Aurora picked it out."
As she sipped the hot drink in her hands and enjoyed the minty, chocolate flavour, Lyntael's eyes lingered lazily on the way Aurora was absently plucking at her suit. Heh. She didn't have buttons she could just undo. She'd just have to take the whole thing off, probably. The thought made her giggle into her mug quietly. She bet Eternalis would like that. He might get flustered again. That was cute. The playfully improper thread of her thoughts didn't really register too strongly to Lyntael as she let them meander. Parts of her in particular were still feeling over warm, and it was too much effort to suppress the feelings properly. Much easier just to relax and enjoy it, really. She sipped her drink again and sighed with a happy grin, looking at her friends.

“Oh! I've not tried that one yet! I always thought it would be really fun. And I'm really flexible so I'd be good at it and win, hehe...” She didn't mention that she hadn't tried any of the games at all before, of course. Was that sneaky? Probably not. She smirked into her drink. The minty flavour made the chocolate feel richer in her mouth, and the sharper spike taste of the other drink she'd added made her appreciate the creamy, thick flavour all the more. She sighed again then set the mug down and clapped her hands.

“Open it, open it! I read the back before and it's really simple. You just do what it says and if you fall down you lose the round! I think it has an auto-thingie too, so we can all play together, hehe!” She bobbed in place, eager, while she ushered Aurora to open the box up. The excited motion was making her all the more aware of warmth in her lower regions, and the urge of some muscles to quiver and tighten in response to her enthusiastic jigging, but Lyntael let it be for now. It wasn't bad, and no-one had to know anyway. She fanned her top again, enjoying the cool sensation of air moving across her chest and face.

Upon opening the box, Aurora would find a neatly folded floor mat, made of a soft fabric material, and a smaller square frame that lit up with a flat holographic display inside if she touched it. The display was of a five-coloured circle, as well as a smaller secondary circle divided into four, marked with hand and foot icons. A button icon in one corner was marked with an icon for spinning while one in the other corner was marked with an icon for speech and a language selector.

Lyntael stood again and looked about the floor space to make sure there was enough room to set the mat out, still bouncing eagerly on her toes.

“So, so, so... are we all playing? I think I read you can make it do the turns just by speaking, so no-one has to sit out. It's really clever, hehe. I don' think the ones you can buy in human stores do that!” If Aurora was already laying things out, Lyntael swiftly bent to help, otherwise she dived into doing so herself, smoothing edges and tugging corners to get it all straight on the carpet.

“Hey... this one is always a party game... we need to do prizes and things! Like... every story I've read about playing this game, it talks about prizes for winners and penalties for losing. I don't think the rules say anything like that, but it's always a thing, isn't it? I think...?” She tilted her head for a moment, looking back and forth between Aurora and Eternalis, then reclaimed her mug and took another sip, washing the chocolatey taste around her mouth and letting herself sway happily for an extra moment.
Being the only sober person in the room—or at least not in any way tipsy—Eternalis wasn't quite sure of whether he wanted to play the game with the girls or not. He had been planning on simply letting them to their own devices, and perhaps steal away to the kitchen for another round of those chips he had taken away from the other two. Aurora was busy squirming about with her hot chocolate, lost in her own world of sweet drinks, and though her bouts of shivering made him a little concerned, she seemed to be perfectly fine for the most part.

Her trance was broken by Lyntael excitedly getting up in her face with the box in her hands. "W-Waaaah! Okay! Okay!" The onrush almost caused her to spill her drink again, but at this point she had already downed half of the mug. It hastily ended up on the coffee table, while she fumbled the box open. With her state of mind being more than a little fuzzy at the moment, the contents made her a little confused with what to do with them—Lyntael's explanation of how the game worked was simply "do what it says". A staggeringly non-descriptive explanation, but nonetheless, their host was happy to lay out the game implements out proper for them.

While she was content to watch intently from the side, the hot chocolate seemed to have exacerbated the warmth suffusing throughout her body. It wasn't unpleasant, however, and she stole away to grab the mug that she had set down just a little earlier for another sip. Oddly enough, however, her drink seemed to have changed slightly. The familiar feeling of rapidly spreading warmth, mixed in with the minty flavor of the chocolate, notified her of exactly what had changed. While she didn't exactly dislike it, she was being overwhelmed enough for the moment, and put the mug back down.

As Lyntael invited all of them to play, Eternalis reconsidered how to turn down the invitation appropriately, as it didn't quite feel right to bring down the mood of the evening, especially when it had just lightened up quite considerably from what it was just a few minutes ago. "Yeah! C'mon, hic, play with us!" persuaded Aurora, though her swaying body and mid-sentence hiccup seemed to lessen her charisma just a little. It was getting a lot more stuffy in her suit, and there was a lingering need to do something about it. When Lyntael mentioned rewards and penalties for the game, a switch flipped in her mind, and her hand shot up. "Oh! I's getting super hot, so whoever wins gets to strip off!" she yelled out.

The other half of the two guests went blank-faced in shock at the sudden suggestion. Aurora didn't seem to catch it, however, even as she turned to Eternalis. "Wait, hic, heh, you're already naked. No fair," she said.

Eternalis shook his head to clear out his startled reaction, before raising his hands, trying to reason with the clearly now very drunk Aurora. "R-Right, so, let's pick something else? Okay? I'll play with you guys just for fun," he said, stealing a look at Lyntael to try and enlist her help as well.

Aurora wasn't quite as receptive, though. "Eeeeeh, but it's a good idea..." Her eyes lingered around, before she saw the doorway to Lyntael's bedroom, and shot up standing. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "We can borrow some'a Lyntael's stuff!"

"Wait, what? —Hey, wait!" Before Eternalis could stop her, she was already making a beeline for their host's room, causing him to scramble after her while she went through the door, and threw open Lyntael's wardrobe. "Oooooh, there's so much pretty stuff in here!" she marveled.
Lyntael stifled another giggle at aurora's indelicate slurring, and turned to glance at the other woman poking her tongue out at her while they tried to cajole Eternalis into playing the game.
“Hey...” She covered her mouth as she giggled again, rocking forward and back as she steadied herself on her knees. “I think you're drunk, Aurora, hehe...” Some of the words took longer to say, and came out with more teasing emphasis than she might normally have given them, but Aurora was being silly, after all. Lyntael herself barely seemed aware that her swaying to the background music contained a great deal more sway than she realised, nor just how wide she'd actually spread her knees on the carpet to feel steady. “I think...” she raised one hand and waved a finger at her, still smirking. “No more, or you're just going to lose all the rounds, hehe...”

She glanced back towards Eternalis to make sure that he would agree with her obviously sensible suggestion for Aurora. she was fine, of course; it hadn't ended up affecting her after all, she didn't think, so it was okay that there was an extra splash of it in her drink. It was mostly Aurora. Before she could actually ask him to agree, though, Aurora's own excitement for the game distracted her and she looked back, grinning broadly again and nodding along while her friend suggested some prizes. Her eyebrows drew in for a moment, briefly confused. Was that right? She wasn't quite sure that what Aurora was saying was the right way.

“Heey... I don't think that's how it normally works... is it...?” The bigger problem ,obviously, cut her short as aurora stumbled on it. at her blunt exclamation of the other navi's pre-existing nudity, Lyntael couldn't help herself suddenly bursting into full laughter. She put a hand to her mouth but it wasn't any use and instead she ended up curling up briefly then rolling over to wriggle on the carpet a little as she laughed.

“Yeah... haa... Eternalis is... hehe...” She gasped between breaths and the mirth shook her. She wasn't sure why it was so funny, but somehow the way Aurora just blurted it out like that struck her as particularly hilarious. “He's already naked, hehe... so rude! Haa!!” She subsided into giggles, panting on her back for a few extra moments. The remaining button on her top held together valiantly, but the upper part was well askew already, and her panting only drew the eye to where the slightly darker circle of one nipple was easily exposed; lying on her back as she was, it was only really the visibility of that point itself that showed how much of her was showing, but the pink flush of her skin drew the eye to the area all the same.

After a few longer seconds of getting her breath back, Lyntael pushed herself up again; natural gravity made the pyjama top fall more or less closed again, without the younger girl noticing it. As she sat up, she caught Eternalis looking to her for assistance, but didn't quite understand the expression her was now wearing. Maybe they had been a little mean. It wasn't nice to laugh at people. she frowned,and opened her mouth to apologise, but before she could settle on something to say, Aurora spoke up again with another burst of inspiration. In a moment the other woman was getting to her feet.

“Hm..? Oh!” Quickly, Lyntael clambered to her feet as well, giving chase across the living area as a smirk spread back across her features once more. She caught up to Aurora just inside the door and clapped her hands before looking back to Eternalis, her eyes dancing with fresh glee.

“Yesss, hehe... We can dress you up! come on, we'll find something here!” She waved for him to come over and stood beside Aurora as they inspected her wardrobe contents. Most of the garments inside were hung as full outfits, on multi-layered hangers, but quite a few other pieces seemed to stand alone as well. The warmer, bulkier pieces of her winter outfit was hung up at the end, followed by a couple of sets of her usual vest and skirt, hung together. After that, a series of dresses, starting with the summery one they'd already seen, and followed by two of increasingly gauzy, sheer fabric, which they had not seen her wearing, perhaps to Eternalis' relief.

Beyond that, a dress was hung that looked more at home as formal evening wear, with a halter neck design and an open back, and a skirt that would reach almost to the ground if Lyntael were to wear it, split to the knee. After that, the contents were more individual pieces; a selection of different skirts of a few different designs and length. Mostly Lyntael's design choices favoured yellow, but several of the outfits and individual pieces were in other light pastels as well, or in a few special cases, a richer red. As well as her usual vest design, the hangers also contained a small variety of other tops; there were two formal-looking blouses, one with a high neck, and one with a much lower cut, as well as a handful of fitted t-shits, some with patterns or symbols, some with small frills at the ends of the short sleeves. Only a few of them were not midriff tops, and Lyntael's predilection for outfits that left her middle bare, at least for casual clothing, was borne through a a further long-sleeve shirt, designed to be worn with the sleeve rolled up and the lower half tied high – it was like that on the hanger.

Further down, a single pair of denim jeans was hung beside a garment that started as a denim skirt that appeared too short, but bore ragged cut-off shorts that would reach to the knees loosely, underneath. The next few hangers after that held simpler wraps and sarongs, of different patterns and degrees of transparency. For a young lady who didn't manage to get out or relax very often, Lyntael appeared to have a fairly broad selection of leisure wear all ready to go, just in case.

At the bottom of the wardrobe, a few different hats were lined up neatly, taking up space that might normally be reserved for footwear, and spiting the single pair of white sneakers tucked away in the back corner. There was a broad sun hat, a neatly folded head scarf, in pastel yellow, and a more securely fitting visor cap, in white, with an elastic band, such as one might wear for sports. Also laid neatly with the hat wear, Aurora might also see a soft pink face mask, in masquerade style, made to cover the eyes and partially disguise the wearer's identity.

Fortunately for Lyntael's own sense of decency, or what remained of it, the lower drawers, which likely held her undergarments and other small articles, remained closed for the time being. The girl herself put on a thoughtful, contemplative expression, though her giddiness to play dress-ups with Eternalis still shone through underneath.

“Hmm... Only some of this will fit... where should we start?” She glanced across to Aurora with a grin.
Fortunately for Lyntael, in Eternalis's rush to take control of the situation, he hadn't quite noticed neither her state of undress, nor her perceived slight of his own state of undress. Aurora was in full swing, rummaging through the various dresses, skirts and tops. With how she had basically barged into their host's private wardrobe, he had expected Lyntael to protest somewhat, but was greeted with an equally enthusiastic response from her. Seems like he couldn't count on her to stop Aurora for the moment.

In the midst of Aurora's excitement, Eternalis watched, unsure as to how to deal with the situation, as various clothes were pulled out of the wardrobe at a rapid pace, with most of them ending up in a pile of discarded assets to the side. Some unfortunate articles of clothing ended up on him in the process, however, as Aurora seemed to take a liking to them in her drunken frenzy.

"Wha—hey!"

A large halter-neck dress was shoved over his head, though with it only loosely draped over his front. Over that, a large sun hat found its way atop his head at a lopsided angle, partially obscuring his sight before a large woollen plaid scarf was wound loosely around his neck, and draped across his shoulders.

"Heh heh heh, that, hic, and—that, and this! Hahahaha!"
"Hold on—Aurora?!"

When he tried to move the hat out of his face for a moment, Aurora took advantage of his arms being held up, and a pair of denim jeans was suddenly fit snugly over them, somewhat restricting his movement with how small their intended wearer was compared to him. At the very end, his hands were topped off with a pair of white sneakers that Aurora had dug out from a corner of the wardrobe.

With her topsy-turvy makeover finished, she stepped back with a slight drunken sway, snorts of laughter already escaping her. She looked like she was about to say something, but the words escaped her as the laughter took over instead. Aurora clutched at her sides with tears running down her cheeks in uncontrollable mirth.

Buried within the pile of Lyntael's clothing, Eternalis sighed to himself, with his face somewhat obscured by the scarf and hat. With how much fun he saw they were having, it didn't exactly feel right to interrupt the merriment. Aurora's laughter was getting a little contagious as well, as he turned to look at the full-length mirror next to the wardrobe, getting a good look at how silly the ensemble looked. He couldn't help but smile a little.

There wasn't much harm in this for now, he thought, and Aurora's strange idea of the main prize being able to strip the clothes off oddly helped him. All he had to do was win the game, and he could take off the hodgepodge of fashion. The girls could have their fun falling over each other, and keep some form of dignity as he would be the only person to lose their clothing. The little blurb on the game box he had read earlier showed it to be a game depending on flexibility, and he definitely had the edge on that.

"So, how do I look?" he asked Lyntael. "I bet I could walk down a runway right now."
While Lyntael hesitated on where to start exactly, warring between her glee at dressing Eternalis up in a silly manner, and a slightly more conscious concern about fitting her own clothing over him, Aurora had no such reservations and got right to work. Lyntael stood with her, flicking through the different garments on hangers, though unlike her friend she wasn't throwing them madly out of the wardrobe. Aurora's fervour drew an infection continuation of giggling from her as they worked all the same. By the time the masterpiece was finished, Lyntael couldn't contain her gales of breathless laughter and she paused to sit on the bed as it bent her double with mirth. The arm-jeans and shoes, in particular, were just too much to keep a straight face over.

“Hey, Hey... hehe... Hey... It's perfect, but... he still doesn't have any undies on!” She struggled for another breath as the ridiculous situation continued to amuse her, arms wrapped about her middle as she laughed. A further thought occurred to her as she managed to reduce her laughter to more contained giggles..

“I guess, hehe... I guess that's okay. I'm the same anyway!” For some reason the admission felt even more hilarious than the image of Eternalis in his 'outfit', and she burst out laughing again, half rolling over onto her side on the bed as she gasped for air. After a little bit of recovery time, Lyntael rolled off the bed and onto her feet, then scooped up all the discarded clothes and dumped them back onto the bed behind her to rehang later.

“Hehe... you look perfect, come on, let's play, let's play!!” She bustled back out of the room, trying to pull her friends with her, then darted to the far side of the mat, springing over it and turning to face them both with only a small wobble.

“So, so, come on... so... we start...” She paused, then stopped talking altogether to retrieve her mug from the coffee table and take a drink, mostly finishing off the minty-chocolate beverage. The heat flush in her skin was making her feel like she was going to start sweating. Maybe Aurora was right about taking off the warm flannel she was wearing.

“Hahh... we start...” she bounced back to the mat and planted her feet on the nearest blue and yellow circle at her end. “Like this!” After a moment of grinning at her companions, she realised the problem. “Oh, wait, wait... hang on! Referee! Three players!” The girl raised her hands in the air, as though she was making a big point, and looked at the small colourful spinner to the side. It lit up with a soft ping and a blue light, then the mat shimmered as well. A brief shifting of shapes and colours, and the mat reformed itself into a hexagon instead, each side bearing four colour points with a pattern that worked inward. Lyntael clapped her hands at the array of multi-coloured spots, then resettled herself to stand with the balls of her feet on one set of outer-edge yellow and blues again.

“Right! Stand on the spots, like this! But, those ones! Then when it says, we all go at the same time!” She bounced on her toes more, faint excited cracks of energy making occasional tiny snaps in her hair. “You can't touch the mat with anything but hands and feet, and only on the right circles when ti says! Otherwise you're out!” Somewhere in the enthusiastic motions, the last button on her pyjama top had slipped open; they were only loose buttons anyway, not designed for physical activity. The top stayed closed on its own as she stood straight, but about a centimetre of pale skin was still visible all the way down the centre where the two sides didn't quite meet. After a moment or two she noticed and frowned before absently pushing the middle button back closed again. She didn't really pay too much attention to the action though; it was too warm anyway. Once everyone had squared up on the opposite spots, Lyntael cheered and clapped her hands again.

“Referee, start game!” She called, and the spinner lit up blue again, then chimed and made a spinning noise. Lyntael bounced, rocking back and forth with anticipation and generally jigging with an inability to stand completely still. Lights flashed on the dial before it settled, calling out in a playful feminine voice for left hand, and blue. Lyntael bend low quickly, stretching the required hand across her body to the nearest blue dot from her start position, then lifted her head to see what the others were doing. She wondered how Eternalis was going to handle his jeans-hands and the slightly reduced mobility they gave, but the thought wasn't articulated quite as clearly in her own mind – mostly she was amused by how silly it looked. As each hand went down, the mat spots lit up, but nothing showed when Eternalis put down a sneakered left hand. Lyntael frowned from her bending position, the loose sides of her top dangling op.

“Aww... rules say to take socks and gloves off before you start. You've gotta take 'em off. Shoes are silly anyway. They're dumb. I never liked them." She giggled, then looked down at where the loose openings of her top dangled down free, then wiggled the rest of her body in a playful, predatory motion as she waited for Eternlis to fix his hands and move onto the next round.
Lyntael's observation only served to make Aurora's laughter continue on. "W-Wait, you're right! Ha, hahahaha! No pants! Oh no, hahahaha!" she laughed, while Eternalis made a few flamboyant poses, albeit restricted somewhat with the denim jeans on his arms. It had been a little difficult, but he was actually having a bit of fun now, instead of feeling like a chaperone for two very drunk girls. Laughing along with them made his heart feel a little lighter. His flaunting about halted briefly when Lyntael off-handedly mentioned her lack of underwear, thought there was no awkward pause to be had with all the laughter in the room.

He hadn't much time to dwell on it either, as both of them were dragged out of the room by their host into the living area, where the playmat had been set up. "Let's go, let's go, come on!" cheered Aurora excitedly, dragging him along as well with Lyntael in the lead and nearly pulling off the jeans that she had just put on his arms. "Okay, okay, I'm going, I'm going!" he yelled, almost tripping on the way out. Once they were all gathered proper, Eternalis waited for Lyntael to start at the side of the mat, passing the time by seeing how far he could stretch the denim fabric without accidentally tearing it. He wondered how exactly they were meant to start the game, and glanced over to the odd-looking accessory to the side.

Meanwhile, Aurora was already on the mat itself, playfully testing how to step from circle to circle. It seemed that even with her swaying, the circles were somewhat large enough that she could at least hold her own for a few rounds. Lyntael showed up again after finishing her mug off, enthusiastically showing them how to start playing. Aurora was quick on the draw, jumping onto one side of the mat with similar gusto. "Let's go!" she called out. Eternalis was about to do the same, going towards the nearest pair of colored circles, before noticing the empty fourth corner of the mat. Before he could bring it up, however, Lyntael realized the problem with the current setup, and activated the game's "referee" to change the mat's layout.

"Oooooh!"
"Oh, that makes more sense."

Both of them stepped onto the opposing ends of the now-hexagonal mat, listening to Lyntael's short explanation of the rules. While Aurora cheered for the start of the game, Eternalis averted his gaze downwards once Lyntael's top started to malfunction. Focus on the game, he told himself. It didn't quite work out as he thought, unfortunately, as the first move he made was apparently invalid. Both Aurora and Lyntael were already out on the mat bent over, which didn't do much good for his mental fortitude. Aurora was one thing, but Lyntael was definitely not cognizant of how her top was now dangling onto the mat.

"Okay, okay, let me get them off..." Once the shoes were off, he reassumed his position, and continued the rounds, trying to focus his sight more on Aurora than Lyntael—since, for the most part, she was fully clothed. It did cross his mind briefly how Aurora's bodysuit registered correctly on the mat, but he decided not to dwell on it. Through a few rounds, Eternalis's malleable body allowed him to be able to sneak into some spots that would normally snap regular limbs backwards. Surprisingly, Aurora was also holding her own quite well throughout most of it, steadying her wobbling limbs with comical war cries, followed by peals of laughter.

Inevitably, the scramble to the nearest circle eventually led the three to be tangled up in layers. Lyntael was closest to the mat, stretched out diagonally across the mat; her right side was facing the floor and her front side was bent up towards the ceiling, facing the rest of the mat. Eternalis was in the middle, with one of his hands stretched to one of the circles directly underneath Lyntael's flank, and the other arm was on a panel underneath him. His legs were across two ends of the hexagonal mat. The end result was his body twisted facing downwards towards the mat, and towards Lyntael. The jeans on his arms strained dangerously with the stretching as the pant leg brushed up against Lyntael's front side, and he tried not to let his face go towards Lyntael herself, as embarrassed as he was.

Finally, Aurora had the easiest position out of the three, with her body essentially draped over Eternalis's, her arms tucked in between the two, one of her legs in between Eternalis's, and the other leg behind him. The position was prime for her to harass Eternalis by pushing her body weight down onto him, mostly on his lower torso, which was immensely distressing. "C'mon, hic, eat dirt! Heh—let—me—win!" taunted Aurora, while Eternalis was stuck between trying to keep his composure from Aurora's rather "soft" assault, his proximity with Lyntael, and trying to win the game in the first place.
Once the game resumed, Lyntael found her eyes darting back and forth between each of her friends and the mat below them, giggling with barely contained anticipation as the colours were called out. While Eternalis moved with a fluid efficiency, stretching out to reach points that were limited only by the restrictions of his borrowed clothes, and Aurora wobbled and leaned, easily the most vocal of them, Lyntael found herself grinning and panting for breath as she reached and twisted.

The heat suffusing her as she moved about her friends made her want to move in ways that some faint tickling whisper in her mind said she ought to be more aware of, but the thought was mostly dismissed amidst her mirth. Aurora and Eternalis, if they watched the smaller girl, would catch her moves and twists shifting with an increasingly sensual grace; one hand slipped out to a spot while her back arched smoothly and her head rolled back a bit, letting out a long heated breath in between short laughter.

Breifly she realised that ending up as she was, with her body twisted back and facing away from the mat, her position wasn't very mobile or flexible for the next calls; Aurora and Eternalis had both managed to keep mostly face-down positions and she thought they'd probably have an easier time of it from here out. She glance across to them, finding each of their faces after a moment. Eternalis wasn't watching her, but Aurora caught her eye and grinned back as she tried to push down on her partner and encourage him to give up. Lyntael's eyes slid to where she was leaning on him. If their positions had been reversed, it might have looked more... naughty... but even so, she found her eyes resting on the place where Aurora's midsection was pressing into and almost looking like it was blending with her partner's all-over slime form. She blinked as her eyes lingered on the almost-merging connection between them, and a hot blush joined the existing sense of heat and warmth in her cheeks and down her neck and chest. Was that... was that, intimate? She wasn't sure... the idea of the pair being a bit naughty on the sly made her want to giggle now, and she was only distantly aware that the same thought had made her nervous earlier.

As Aurora pressed harder down on him, reaching to make sure she pressed her hand down properly, the whole mass of both players shifted and Lyntael let out a sudden gasp as a cool sensation pressed against her chest. Amidst the earlier laughter it came out as a short, high-pitched sound, carried on a catch of breath that made her eyes open wider as it happened. The sensation was cool on her skin, and felt nice against the warmth that was filling her. She was aware of it on the particularly sensitive parts of her chest and felt her body wobble, unstable in response. That she was supposed to still be wearing her pyjama top didn't manage to occur to her buzzed and hazy thoughts.

A glance down revealed that Aurora's push had forced the side of Eternalis' face more directly against her body, right against her upper chest, where the unbuttoned top of her pyjamas was hanging open. His cheek was rubbing against her breast... like, right against it... Was that... okay...? Aurora was still laughing.

Lyntael didn't have any more time to process the chain of events as the spinner called out a new move. Hot and flushed thoughts were displaced almost immediately again by the glee of racing to the new pose. Lyntael lifted her left leg and twisted to slide it over to regain some measure of control and get herself out from underneath the lowest point, but movements from the others came at the same time. She squeaked aloud, one hand slipping slightly from the position, and felt her weight press down more firmly onto what she guessed was Eternalis. Before she could stop it, her other hand lifted free of the mat and her balance wobbled.

“Eee! No, Ahh!” With a last cry she tried to get the raised hand back down, but the tangle had already moved and she ended up shoving it down onto Aurora's leg instead, pushing on the back of her knee. A moment later two distinct tones sounded from the spinner, and the places where Lyntael and Aurora were touching the mat glowed red. She wasn't on the right circles any more, and she'd pushed Aurora's knee to the mat in the process as well, accidentally putting them both out.

“Awww...” With a sigh, Lyntael rolled over and let herslef tumble out of the mess of limbs, lying on her back and panting for breath briefly. Unnoticed, the final button on her pyjamas had come open, leaving her top cast wide while she caught her breath. “I thought I had that...” She rolled her head to look at Eternalis from her position on the floor. “Hey... I think you win the round! Yaayyy!” She raised her hands above herself to clap briefly, then let them fall to the sides again. Aurora was right; getting out of her flannel would have been a good prize, given how overheated her skin was feeling.

“I want more chocolate...” She wriggled on the mat for a few moments then sat up and turned about the face the others properly, letting her top fall more or less closed again in the process. “Eternalis wins, what's coming off, hehe!” She leaned back on her hands, legs outspread and her ankles rocking back and forth as she watched him.
Eternalis's response to his proximity to both of the girls in the rather entangled situation he found himself in was mostly to keep his eyes shut until the spinner called out the next move. Despite Aurora's rhythmic assault making parts of his leg dangerously close to the ground, he wasn't quite as moved by the physical force of the attack. His gelatinous body had absorbed blunt impacts much greater than his partner's drunken thumping. Rather, the physical contact of his body and the half-slime part of Aurora's midriff was causing a forced mental synchronization that was much more detrimental to his state, given that it was flooding him with Aurora's current half-drunken, half-aroused mental state, threatening to break his resolve.

He became gradually more aware of Aurora's body warmth, in contrast to his colder temperature. What was he fighting against, again? It was starting to get very difficult to remember why he was being so reserved in the first place. It had something to do with Lyntael, but he couldn't quite focus on what it was with all the primal instincts that were threatening to overtake his mind, courtesy of Aurora's unconsciously forced synchronization. A creeping feeling snaked up his body, and there was a brief moment where his body's structure began to melt.

There was a yelp, and all of a sudden, things cleared up for a moment, and he regained his sense of movement. He unthinkingly moved his head to ascertain his control, when something soft pushed up against his face. His eyes reflexively shot open to find pale flesh in front of his face, at the same time the spinner called out another move. When Lyntael accidentally knocked out Aurora with her fumble, his mind blanked out as the round ended, and Aurora collapsed on top of him. His arms were pinned underneath his own chest, his head was face down against the carpeting, and at that moment, there was nothing being processed in his mind except the pile of warmth on top of his back, and the hard panting he could hear next to his head, interspersed with bouts of laughter.

The sounds of breathing went away as Aurora pushed herself off of her impromptu water bed, face entirely flushed as their bodies separated with a sticky sound. Lyntael then declared a winner for the round; unfortunately, she neglected to mention who it was, and there was one person ready to claim the prize. "Yaaaaay! -hic, I wiiiin!" cheered Aurora, raising her arms in the air before immediately falling backwards onto the mat. As Eternalis heard the declaration, the earlier tense energy dissolved rather quickly, and he was a bit disappointed in himself, with how confident he was at winning earlier. In his disappointment, he did do a small bit of reconciliation in the fact that, at the very least, Aurora's body wasn't anything either of them hadn't seen yet, and he simply laid down in place, secretly waiting for the final reveal.

On Aurora's side, her hands went to the less solid parts of her midriff and she began to fumble about for a few moments. Eventually, a couple of fingers sank through her semi-solid body with a squishy noise, and got underneath the fabric. She began to tug at it from inside, and the suit appeared to part vertically up across her chest, revealing the flesh valley that the suit had been hiding. At that moment, however, Lyntael finally clarified who had actually won the round, and her hands stopped as she sat back up. Similarly, Eternalis's face turned up, as both of them blinked at their host.

"W-Wait, I won?" said Eternalis.
"Awwww, really..."

Aurora's disappointed murmur caused Eternalis to turn to her, only to stiffen up at her suit's "redesign". The front of the suit was now frayed significantly, with bits of cream-colored fabric sticking onto a mix of pale flesh and white slime. The tear spread up and down her front, with the top part of the tear revealing a good bit under her breasts, and the bottom tear dangerously snaking down her torso. After a stymied couple of seconds, Eternalis redirected his focus on to the spinner to the side. Above it, the spinner showed a small sprite recreation of Eternalis with little bits of holographic fireworks above it, indicating that, indeed, he had been designated the winner. "Oh, huh," he muttered, looking down at himself. Around his neck, the scarf that had been wound around it was pretty much already mostly on the floor, while the hat and the jeans stayed surprisingly secure.

"Okay... I guess I'll lose the scarf." He wiggled his neck about to allow the long scarf to fall free, before turning back to Lyntael. It was now that he realized that she was also still also dangerously dressed, and he frantically scrambled over to the mat in response, nearly tripping as he fumbled with the jeans on his arms. "R-Referee! Start round!" he yelled out.

In response, Aurora rushed up to take her spot on the mat as well. "I'mma--hic, I'm gonna win this time for real!" blurted out Aurora, swaying onto two of the circles. "Lyn, le's go!"
As she rocked her heels and rested, Lyntael grinned and swayed a little to the quiet background music. her eyes were mostly fixed on Eternalis to see what he'd drop, but she was distracted by aurora as the other woman started getting a bit ahead of herself. Lyntael's own first instinct was to smother another laugh, putting hands up to her face and half-covering her eyes in a way that failed to really do so.

“Hey, no fair!” She giggled and pointed as the other woman physically tore at her outfit to begin freeing herself of it, but relaxed again once they were all on the same page. Things didn't settle down until after Lyntael had been delivered a decent glance at her friend's under-layers, or lack thereof, but though her eyes lingered a bit, nothing too naughty came to light before Aurora relented and gave up.

“Why are you tearing it!” She was still giggling as she leaned over far enough to poke Aurora in the mid section with one hand; the other woman might feel that her fingers were very warm to the touch, and the expected static jolt was more of a soft, persistent tingle that didn't actually feel unpleasant. “Doesn't it have, like, a zip, or something? That's silly! How are you meant to get out of it?” She giggled again. “What if you're out somewhere and you've gotta go!?” This question, it seemed to her, was particularly hilarious, and she was incapacitated again by another brief gale of laughter.

After a few more moments to collect, both women manged to turn their attention back to Eternalis and appreciate his removal of a relatively minor forfeit. On the bright side, it meat he was still struggling with the ridiculous jeans. A distant thought murmured that she hoped he didn't stretch the seams, but it was ushered away by remembering that he was mostly made of jelly, and that wouldn't really matter. For someone who had won he seemed pretty nervous, she though. Oh well.

With the forfeit done, Lyntael pushed herself forward onto her hands and knees and began crawling towards the kitchen in a lazy manner, her thoughts on finding more chocolate before they kept going. As Eternalis called the new round and Aurora was just as quick to scramble back to the mat, however, the younger girl made a defeated sound and flopped over onto her side, flailing on the soft carpet for a moment, then turned around and picked herself up properly, tugging the band of her pyjama bottoms back up as she did; they'd slipped a little at some point. She came back to the mat and jumped the last couple of feet to place her toes on the two start spots, arms swinging side to side and a relaxed, unfocused grin on her features.

“I'm going to win this round, and then more chocolate before the next, okay?” She stretched as she spoke, closing her eyes and flexing her fingers as she reached outward. The room felt stiflingly hot and her skin felt like it was positively glowing. A cold drink, and then chocolate maybe. As she waited for the first call, Lyntael was aware, briefly, of the rise and fall of her chest. She felt... not out of breath, but close to it. Her heart was a rapid thump in her breast that felt unusually insistent. No more nice-girl, she found herself thinking, and giggled again. The sooner she won, the sooner it was time for drink breaks.

The first few moves began simply enough, but a couple of awkward calls in a row swiftly drove all three of them towards the central circles and having to race each other for the more stable points. As she leaned forward trying to stretch her hand out for the yellow circle just past Aurora's shoulders, Lyntael felt the tug of her pyjamas sliding against the other woman's hips and paused, reaching back to tug them back into place again; the elastic band was firm enough for most things, but it wasn't made to be tugged on and still stay up. As she reached forward again, however, a slimy blue hand had crept in underneath to occupy the spot she was aiming for and she hesitated, three limbs down and her hand searching about as she kept her balance and tried not to lean too hard on Aurora.

Her body rocked back and forth with a playfully aggressive agitation. The movement of her hips felt kinda nice in a way that she felt tempted to keep up to the music while they played. There were no good spots, until she looked down and back, and stretched to reach around and underneath Aurora to get to it. A mischievous though slipped in underneath the others in her mind, and as she reached for the spot her wrist turned over, pausing on the way to tickle and stroke suddenly at Aurora's hip and thigh.

“Come on, hehe... move a bit, hahh... I can't reach!” A masterfully executed fib, she had to admit to herself, even if she sounded out of breath, but she kept it up just to see if it would be enough to make the other woman falter or weaken.
"I'unno how to take this off otherwise, heh, hic," slurred Aurora with a lopsided smile.

Her hands hung limply to her sides as Lyntael crawled over to her to poke at her exposed midsection. A small squeal escaped her lips at the unexpected warmth from the poke; her whole body had been feeling quite warm, so it was definitely strange. The tease was repaid by a similar poke to Lyntael's cheek with slightly more force, accompanied by a bout of laughter. "No! Tha's dumb, whad'ya mean, go? If you gotta go, hic, you just go wherever you want, right?!" she said, having misinterpreted Lyntael's humorous concerns as she fell over on her left side from her laughing. The carpeting felt good on her cheek as her laughter died down slightly into small giggles.

As Eternalis called for the second round, getting back up quickly to get onto the mat made her head spin slightly. After her declaration of battle, she fell onto the nearest thing she could reach, which happened to be Eternalis. The cold difference made a jolt radiate out from her hands towards her core, as she was propped up with Eternalis holding her upper arms. The latter was mostly silent as he quickly helped Aurora back up on her feet. What was left of the top half of her suit seemed to now be strained slightly as Aurora stared blankly towards him, unconsciously holding her breath.

Her brief lapse was interrupted by the sound the mat made when Lyntael jumped into her place on its third corner. That shifted her attention towards the game, and she pumped her fist upwards with gusto. The sound of fabric splitting drew attention to the fact that the tear in her suit was widening horizontally, though Aurora herself paid it no mind, bellowing out a loud "Bring it on!" in response to Lyntael's challenge.

Eternalis was starting to wonder why he had suggested the game that Aurora had innocently pulled out not a few minutes ago. Mid-game, all of them had been clustered mostly together, this time with him being somewhat to the side in a comfortably stable position. Aurora was precariously positioned opposite to him, her swaying looking like it was moments away from her tumbling in towards the middle of the group, where Lyntael perched in between them. Aurora's drunken movements mostly caused her to sidle up against Lyntael, unintentionally causing her pajamas to slide about, which Lyntael thankfully(?) seemed to be quick to fix.

Trying to keep himself mostly "sane", Eternalis mentally repeated to himself that he was going to win, but every time he opened his eyes to track where the next closest circle was, he kept getting an eyeful of things that made this rather difficult. The latest one was a glimpse of Lyntael's rear end, on account of Aurora accidentally pushing up against it. He immediately tried to redirect his attention to the circle that he was meant to go for. However, in his haste, the lunge for the circle dislodged the hat on his head, blinding him momentarily as the brim slid forward to cover his eyes.

Meanwhile, Aurora was on the receiving end of an unexpected attack from Lyntael, in the form of a sneaky tickle. The tickle elicited a surprised yelp, and she reacted in the same way she had as the round started, falling towards the closest thing she could find for support. This meant that she bowled over Lyntael, causing her to fall backwards onto the lower half of Eternalis's body, startled cries coming from both Eternalis and Aurora. Of course, game-wise, this meant that Eternalis was out, but Aurora somehow managed to precede Lyntael in touching the mat, as Lyntael's body was small enough to be entirely land on Eternalis. With his slime body being what it was, the two were relatively unhurt from the collision, but Aurora didn't seem too pleased with Lyntael's sneak move.

"Why, you...!" she muttered through a clenched grin. Perched on top of one of Eternalis's legs, Aurora immediately went on the offensive, her hands immediately going to tickle at Lyntael's exposed waist while keeping her pinned against Eternalis's body. "He--hey, get off me!" Throughout this, Eternalis was somewhat panicking from being made into a makeshift mat while also being blinded to the recent developments. Unable to reach up to his hat to push it back up, he attempted to roll away from the two, but Aurora's weight pinning down both of them was surprisingly effective. In the struggle, he was only able to roll halfway away, but as luck would have it, a part of Lyntael's pajama bottom—the elastic band which Aurora had slid down earlier—caught on his leg, and it was shoved down quite a bit!