A Space Reserved, and Forgotten.

Aurora didn't seem to pay much attention to Lyntael not wanting to put the music higher, as she seemed to be happy enough to dance by herself. On the couch, Eternalis was a little surprised by the suddenness of Aurora's propensity for dance, but it was soon overtaken by amusement at her rather uncoordinated moves. With how the trip had mainly been just looking around the place, it was good to see her enjoying herself more visibly, rather than in the more polite engagements she had with Lyntael earlier. A wide grin appeared on his face as he tried to hold back his laughter, suppressing it to some small giggling. A look to the side showed that Lyntael had much of the same reaction to her friend's somewhat inebriated antics.

Once Lyntael took out a board game to try out, Eternalis moved off the couch onto the carpeting below to get a closer look at her unpacking the pieces. Judging from the cover on the box, it appeared to be something related to fantasy adventuring. He cracked a small smile at the stone tower depicted, recalling that the last time he had been to one before had been less of a pleasure trip. "Sure's a lot of stuff in it. What's it about?" he asked, taking a seat next to Lyntael to see what it was all about.

The explanation that followed seemed simple enough, though he lingered slightly on Lyntael saying that she had never played a board game before. Thinking about it, this was the first time that she had had friends to do things with, in a sense. When Lyntael moved away to pick up some spoons, required for some reason for the game, he picked up one of the pieces in his hand and examined it; the white armored figure he held was meant to be the knight, according to the listing. Something he would most likely prefer.

As he put it down, Lyntael came back, and he picked up another, meant to be the sorceress. He turned towards Aurora, only to find her sprawled out on the carpeting with her limbs outstretched and moving around. "I's so comfy..." she murmured with half-lidded eyes, lost in her own world of soft padding. She seemed to have gotten tired of dancing already, or perhaps she had already been tired of the day's activities in general. It was probably best that she didn't drink any more though, he thought, with how slurred her speech was getting.

Lyntael was still explaining things to him, though he was only somewhat half-paying attention. Once his name was called, though, she caught his attention, addressing his strange-looking arm. Looking down at it, the mutated-looking half of his body certainly looked grotesque, even for someone already as monstrous-looking as him. "Does it hurt..." he repeated to himself.

"Not really, I guess. It just kind of..." Eternalis interrupted himself by shrinking the left arm into something more human-like. For a while, his balled-up fist was at the end of a perfectly normal looking arm, albeit made of blue slime. He then relaxed his fist into a normal hand, and the arm gradually bubbled back up into its previous form, topping out with a lazy eye-shaped blob emerging from his upper arm, which rolled around without any particular focus. "... Yeah, it unfurls itself into this if I don't focus. I guess it's kind of like... flexing a human muscle? In one sense? Kind of moves around sometimes if I let it, but it's more in the sense of like, it just kind of wriggles around." Looking down at the arm, he relaxed further, showing Lyntael how it undulated and folded in on itself, almost like breathing.

"So, yeah, it doesn't really hurt or feel foreign or anything like that, if that's what you're curious about."

"Feels good is what it does."

Suddenly, Aurora poked her head in between the two of them, her body swaying somewhat as she grabbed Eternalis's arm with a clearly uninhibited-looking grin. The bewildered look in Eternalis's eyes lingered for a few moments, before Aurora's head fell forward, and he barely had time to catch her properly. However, she then seemed to be suddenly unconcerned with the close proximity, merely using Eternalis as something to lean on with a satisfied look. Eternalis seemed rather stunned, but Aurora had something else that caught her attention now, as she eyed the game that Lyntael had laid out. "Oh, wha'shis? Somekinda game? Wer' playing a game now? Le's play it," she said, her words colliding into one another more often now.

As she set up, Lyntael sipped her glass a second time and paused to blink and breath out through the sensation before continuing. She had almost finished by the time Eternalis answered her questioning and she found her hands pausing and drifting halfway across the board as her focus fixed on the arm in question. Seeing it in a more 'normal' mode was reassuring, but in a way it was also a bit odd, since the eye-bearing mutated style was all she'd ever really known him to have, except in the memories they'd now shared.

She nodded along to his explanation, her eyes drifting away to settle instead on Aurora, who was enjoying the carpet. A grin split into a giggle and she dropped back onto the carpet as well, sprawling a bit and wriggling with another amused laugh. The fibres of the carpet tickled at her mid section and lower back as her relaxation rucked her top up a little and it made her laugh more.

“I know, isn't it? Hehe... I like to dry off after a shower and then roll about on it sometimes, hehe!” this was a softer murmur as Eternalis finished explaining; she was listening, and looked back at him with a nod, but her attention was pulled back to Aurora suddenly as the other woman added her own assessment. Lyntael's eyes went wide for a moment. She wasn't quite sure if Aurora had meant exactly where her mind had gone with the comment, but it was too late for her not to interpret it that way and she put both hands to her mouth, still clutching two of the wooden blocks that she hadn't yet placed, and giggled into her hands while her cheeks went from a light pink to a fiery blushing red.

Without really being conscious of the reaction, she curled up a little bit on the carpet, rolling back and forth in embarrassed glee at the comment before turning in towards Aurora and mumbling eagerly past her own obscuring hands.

“Really? What's it feel like...” she could barely believe that she'd asked the question, once she had, and found herself mostly trying to hide behind her own hand after she did.

Eventually, the three of them were seated, more or less, at the table again. Lyntael had sidled in to snuggle up beside Aurora on the floor, still lightly swaying her head to the background music as she finished putting the last pieces in place and telling herself she should probably be resisting the urge she had to rest her head on the other woman's shoulder. Lyntael finished her glass and set it down, then absently poked Aurora in the cheek with a giggle.

“I think that's enough for now maybe, hehe... I feel... happy. I like being with you guys, it's nice. This is nice.” After a moment of contentment with that statement, her attention came back to the board in front of them all, with its odd pieces and tall block tower and she clapped her hands. “Okay, so, everyone pick a piece!” A few minutes of rules explanation later, Lyntael nudged the piece representing the scholar – a mousy-looking lady with an armful of books and scrolls – up to its start point.

“Hey, so... so... so should I make some other drinks or something? I was going to make some hot chocolate before... but it's gotten really warm in here. Maybe something else? Do either of you want things? I should have gotten snacks of some sort. Snacks are important for parties, I think. I don't think I've got any snack food.” She frowned at the table top as she pondered this remark.

With Aurora's sudden forwardness being dropped just as abruptly, Eternalis felt increasingly flustered with the situation. The situation was only made worse with an exceedingly giddy Lyntael picking up on Aurora's stride and asking her what she meant. The uncontrollable giggling seemed to be contagious as well, with Aurora not even managing to answer the question through her mirth.

"Honestly, I swear, you two!" Eternalis came to be infected by it as well. Locking his arm around Aurora, he playfully constricted her in a hold, causing Aurora to roll about in mock struggle through her laughter.

"Noooo! Let me goooo! She started iiiiit!" laughed Aurora, batting at the arm locked around her torso as she kicked about. Due to her midsection being partially made of the same material as Eternalis's body, the hold was not at all restrictive, and Eternalis found himself almost slipping on his hold several times—though with how Aurora moved back into his body, it didn't look like she actually intended to free herself.

Thankfully, even as they were both making idiots of themselves, Eternalis managed to keep both of them away from the board set up for Lyntael's game, and at some point, they were both tired out enough that they re-took their original spots next to each other, with Aurora breathing heavily throughout. She reacted weakly to Lyntael's absent-minded poke with an exaggerated "Noooooo," shaking her head with a light giggle.

The introduction to the game had both of them perking up slightly, with Aurora being a little fuzzy on the uptake. "Huh, what, piece?" she mumbled, looking at the board, then the selection of pieces. "I'll take this one, then," Eternalis said, reaching out for the knight that he had been looking at earlier. Aurora leaned in a little, narrowing her eyes on a few before picking up the piece that represented the barbarian and setting it next to Eternalis's with a wide, almost childish grin.

Then, Lyntael mentioned something about more food and drinks, causing her to sit up straight in excitement. "Oh! Hot chocolate sounds great! And snacks! I want snacks!" she exclaimed, bouncing in her seat with newfound energy.

Next to her, Eternalis wryly smiled. "I could go get it from the kitchen if you could tell me where things were, since I haven't done much. You two can get started on the game then," he said, readying himself to get up from his seat.

As much as Aurora was too far gone for the moment to embellish further on her suggestive comment, Lyntael didn't quite have the courage to press the question. At least... not while Eternalis was around. Maybe later. Instead she adjusted her top as they picked their pieces and shifted in it a little. The idea to unbutton it for cooling down occurred to her and she had started to reach one hand in that direction before her eyes glanced at the bottle on the table, then at Aurora. Maybe that wasn't a good idea. She wasn't sure. A bit inappropriate, probably. She watched on with a relaxed, happy grin as her friends got more playful, swaying idly as she did. It was cute. Another small giggle mirrored Aurora's more plaintive protests.

“Youngest first, it says so in the rules!” Lyntael poked her tongue out at Aurora with a grin and a wrinkly of her nose, pleased at springing such a decisive surprise on the others, then immediately started to roll her turn. She was momentarily absorbed in reading a card out that she just nodded to Eternalis. It only occurred to her afterwards that she ought to still be acting as a proper host, but she'd already let him go and it was too late. At lest, that was what she reasoned as she settled back again. Another thought occurred as she did and her shoulders dropped for a moment.

“Aww... but I don't have any snack food. Oh! Wait! You can just ask from the controls, in the pantry and on the fridge! I hooked them up to stores that make stuff for navis to eat. I haven't really tried them yet, except for the tea and a few other things. Oh! Get... get... Get chocolate! Oh, and, um... and... cheesecake, the, um, the lemon flavoured type that's all creamy... And, um... um...” she looked across to Aurora quickly. “What else...?” A moment later she was more distracted by the fact that Eternalis had moved out to the kitchen, and instead leaned in to her friend with an extremely overblown conspiratorial hunch to her shoulders, hands up close to her chest and eyes bright.

“So, so, come on, come on... tell meeeee. What's it like, what's it liiike!” Her furtive whisper was half words and half giggle, and Lyntael could feel her cheeks blushing with heat as she stole quick glances to the kitchen to check for Eternalis returning.

Out in the kitchen, Eternalis would find that the process of acquiring snacks wasn't as complicated as mit might have been. True to her warning, it seemed like Lyntael didn't have anything in either her pantry or her refrigerator that might qualify as snack foods, but small touch panels on the left door of the fridge, and the outside of the pantry shutter allowed for a shopping-style interface; several strobes were linked up to both for immediate orders, and they didn't seem to have any cost. The stores linked were parts of international real-world brands, and the digital fronts supplied the representations to navis as a form of advertising their physical products - banner texts proudly proclaimed their authenticity to taste and texture for navis, and encouraged navis to let their operators know what brands were really best.

The order process was equally quick and simple, and closing the door on either the fridge or pantry after requesting something saw it beamed automatically to a specifically set aside arrival shelf.

"Mmmm... I want something, too," murmured Aurora softly, as Lyntael rattled off her snack choices next to her. She closed her eyes, rocking herself from side to side as she contemplated some choices. In fact, she was contemplating it for a little too long, and her movements were slowing down to the point where Eternalis was wondering whether she was falling asleep.

"Aurora? Hello?" he called out.

Feeling that Aurora had nothing to contribute to the order, he went to get up, when her eyes suddenly shot open, causing Eternalis to stop awkwardly halfway through getting up. "Oh! Get me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!" she exclaimed. Eternalis blinked for a moment at the absurd order, while Aurora flashed a childish-looking grin.

"Okay, if you say so," he said, chortling as he headed off to the kitchen. Looking about the place, he found the controls relatively quickly, and browsed through into the "Food Reproduction Repository", as it was called. The short amount of time it took to retrieve the girls' orders took him by surprise. Due to the food costing nothing to get, he was left wondering about what he might get for himself.

Contrary to more humanoid Navis, when it came to simulated food, he apparently had less of a sense of taste and more of a sense of texture and temperature. Browsing through the storefronts, he came across some more niche areas, which depicted a few more "experimental" cuisines.

A few selections later, and he saw the arrival shelf shine brightly, before revealing a small selection of food. A plate of several tiny glass cups was at the front, containing masses of golden cream and cake, topped with little berries and a slice of lemon on top. "Cœur Gourmand des Alpes's Lemon Mousse Cheesecake", proclaimed the little card beneath the plate. Another plate next to it announced itself as "Coveted Chocolate Cornucopia" with an assortment of differently-molded bite-sized chocolates in varying shades.

Yet another plate a little further back contained three unassuming-looking peanut butter and blueberry jam sandwiches, neatly stacked on top of each other and sliced diagonally across; its card said "Dad's PB&J". Lastly, in the far back, a final plate hid away with a stack of thinly sliced purple-colored chips, speckled with strangely glowing violet and yellow dots... entitled "Spicy Bug Fragment Chips".

---

In the other room, Aurora watched Eternalis scurry away, before being pounced on by a very curious Lyntael. Her face started to redden as she tucked her hands into her lap, giggling all the while. She then leaned in with a low whispering voice. "I dunno, it's like... this, this big blanket, that's like, wrapping all up, and i's kinda cold at first, bu' then starts like, moving, and getting warmer, and i's really weird," she whispered, mentioning the last words with a breathy voice.

Then, pausing for a moment, she lowered her head down before continuing, this time with a lower volume, but at the same time. Unfortunately, she was unable to keep it that way, and her voice gradually sounded more and more excited. "And then, like, 's like, every time you try to move's like... like it's trying to wrap you up more, you know? And you can feel it! Like, brushing up, and rubbing, and, squeezing, and pushing, and----!"

Towards the end, Aurora was squirming around with her hands against her scarlet cheeks, pressing against them as if to make the blush subside. "Then it goes less gooey and stuff, and then it's like, like, you're kind of trying to pull it together back to being solid, but then it just wraps you up more, and then it stops pushing at you, and starts pushing in--"

"Um! Is there like, a tray I can put all this on?"

Aurora's excited squealing was suddenly interrupted by Eternalis calling from the kitchen, when she immediately shut her lips, and turned towards the kitchen's doorway—to find that nobody was there. "Oh, never mind, found one!" Eternalis's voice called out again, and the clattering of plates preceded him walking in, carrying a set of four plates precariously set on a tray.

Oddly enough, he seemed to be avoiding their gaze as he walked in, keeping his eyes set on the board game that Lyntael had set out. The tray was set down on the coffee table, and he continued staring at the board game, picking up one of the cards to read off of it—the game's acronym printed on its back only served to make him freeze up more, and he quickly set it back down to move to the plates of food that he had brought back.

"Uh, anyway, snacks!"

By the time Aurora had started talking again, Lyntael was listening with a nervous energy that was far too reminiscent of a young girl doing something naughty. The fact that they were both a mess of blushing giggles within moments of getting into the topic didn't really do anything to calm the situation down either.

Even if the exact descriptions weren't anything too salacious, Lyntael could feel her heart beat faster as she applied the thoughts of things her friend was describing to herself. Her pyjamas felt altogether too hot and thick. She didn't have anything but a handful of educational texts and romantic fiction stories to really compare Aurora's recount to, but her imagination ran wild enough on its own, fuelled by the warm, relaxed buzz flooding her. She swallowed, barely noticing the slight nervous tremble spreading through her core.

Without really realising it, the younger girl had pressed hands down into her groin as she leaned in, unconsciously both pointlessly covering and also pressing firmly on herself with the same motion. As much as Aurora was giggling, Lyntael herself was more caught up in the flashes of self-applied imagination as she listened, wide-eyed.

Just as her friend got to the raciest part, the sound of Eternalis' voice made her breath catch and she sat upright sharply. Her head whipped around to check, and her posture relaxed again when she saw he hadn't actually returned yet. The rest of her body didn't seem to get the message, though, as her pulse raced and adrenalin surged at the thought of being discovered. It never really occurred to her that there wasn't anything much to 'discover' – it just felt that way.

A moment later the slime of the hour made his way back to the living area and Lyntael swiftly moved to shift a few coasters and the bottle so that he could set the tray down. She moved perhaps just a little bit too quickly and sharply, then poured herself another glass without really thinking about it too much; her throat felt parched suddenly. As she took another sip and spent a moment breathing out through the sensation of it, Lytnael looked over what had been brought forward.

“Oooohhh....” She cooed with newfound excitement at the brightly coloured and shaped offerings, anticipating them as other, naughtier thoughts more or less fled her mind. “These look amazing! Hehe... I want to try a blue one....” she quickly snagged one of the small chocolates and transferred it to her mouth with a gleeful haste. A low moan escaped her, though she held one hand across her lips while she sucked on the confectionery. Unaware, her eyes rolled back a bit and she rocked in place as she took the time to appreciate the smooth flavour gradually dissolving on her tongue. between a quickly inhaled breath she moaned again. Chocolate was still something very new for her and the taste was overwhelming in ways she didn't have words for. Below the line of the coffee table, her toes curled tightly and her thighs pressed together hard. After along few moments she recovered enough to finish the sweet and catch her breath.

“Those are goooood!” She immediately started to reach for another, but stopped herself and looked to Aurora and Eternalis first, hesitating enough to make it obvious she was wanting them to try things as well. Her eyes caught on the purple oddities on another part of the tray. “What are those... they look strange! Hey, Eternalis, it's your go! Good luck, hehe!” She set her glass down to clap her hands briefly, then resettled, shifting with a more luxuriant stretch on the thick carpet. she really should have changed into something lighter, she felt like she was going to start sweating in her pjs...

By the time Lyntael's turn came around again she had tried a second chocolate piece and was humming quietly to herself around it as she drew a new player card. Her eye rested on the acronym and she giggled to herself. She'd never noticed that... After a quick read she frowned, then shrugged and finished her chocolate.

“This one says, 'Do a handstand: if you can hold it for five seconds or more, advance an extra space.' I can do that! Easy, hehe!” The girl immediately sprang up and jumped back from the table, then took an extra step to steady herself as the room twisted slightly. she paused, then cast a questioning look at the bottle on the corner of the table. The concern lasted only a moment before she turned to the side and stepped forward into her hands, stretching upright with more or less her usual ease. Maybe not quite the same complete grace as usual. There was a slight wobble, though Lyntael herself didn't notice.

About a second into her count, the unsecured top half of her pyjamas acquiesced to the call of gravity and dropped to bunch up around her her shoulders and cover her head, making the girl splutter and giggle, and wobbled a little more for the remaining few seconds. As much as she knew what had happened, there was some kind of fuzzy disconnect in Lyntael's mind that left it just at that simple statement of fact. The girl herself didn't appear to connect the dots between the slip, and the expanse of pale skin from waist to shoulder that it showed off to the room. There was an obvious warm flush to her skin that seemed to have spread across her shoulders and down to the middle of her chest, for the few seconds that it was on view before she dropped back and stood upright again, giggling louder as she pulled her top back into place and moved her piece.

“Yay! I hope they're all that easy, hehe!” she began to eye the cheesecake as she sat back to the carpet. “Hey, so, Eternalis... do you read much? I know all about what aurora like to read, hehe, but what about you? I think books are nice. I like having a home that's so full of them... It's so much nicer now.” She dropped back to lie out on the carpet, arms spread and looking up at the ceiling with a happy grin.

With how efficient the ordering system was, it hadn't taken Eternalis very long at all to retrieve the food. Taking it out two plates at a time seemed inefficient, and thus he had looked for something to place it on. He had been about to poke his head out to ask Lyntael where they were, when he had heard the excited talking coming from the living area. The bits that he could hear hadn't been very understandable, but as soon as Aurora mentioned something becoming "less gooey", it was starkly clear as to what she was recounting to Lyntael. Without thinking, he had called out to break up the conversation before Aurora could drunkenly divulge any more of it to their friend. It seemed effective enough, as Lyntael had been sufficiently distracted towards trying out the snacks that he had brought back from the kitchen.

"Mine!" Aurora seemed to follow her lead as well, and rushed to grab one of the sandwiches that she had requested. Taking a large bite out of it, her response was a little more muted than Lyntael's full-body experience, but she let out a happy little squeak of approval nonetheless, finishing up the remaining bit before she even swallowed the first bite. Her chewing was also a bit slowed down, watching Lyntael react to her own choice from the snacks. Her mouth full still, she held down her giggles before swallowing.

"Well, if ya say so, I'm taking one, too!" she called out, as her hand shot out to pick up a bright pink piece of chocolate and toss it into her mouth. As soon as she bit through the hard chocolate shell and the strawberry-flavored filling erupted forth, the sweetness caused Aurora's body to curl up hard, and her eyes to clamp shut. She sharply inhaled and moaned audibly, drawing her balled-up fists to her chest.

"No way, i's really good!" she exclaimed, not missing the opportunity to pop another one of them and continue the reaction.

To the side, Eternalis was somewhat conflicted as to where to direct his gaze with the two girls' reactions, and decided to go for the last thing that he had taken for himself. Apparently, the shop advertised it as "a new experience for non-humanoid Navis", which certainly looked eerie next to the displayed picture of the alien-like glowing chips. Taking a bite, the purple fragments instantly disintegrated and dispersed inside of him. "―Whoa." The effect was instantly apparent, as heat accumulated inside of him, radiating throughout his body like frenzied static.

The intensity of the sensation dropped off rather quickly afterwards, leaving him feeling somewhat warm and short of breath. Worryingly, the sensation was definitely familiar to him—it was at a much more body-wracking intensity when he had been taken over by the infection not a few days ago. However, this time, it was brief and controlled enough that it somehow felt... pleasant? The burning heat still lingered somewhat inside of him, but as he picked up and ate another one of the chips, it renewed once more. It surprised him to find a food that he actually liked out of the more "human" cuisines that Aurora had liked, and gotten him to try.

"Not bad," he grinned, though the speed at which the chips were disappearing said more than his brief review.

His reaction didn't seem to go unnoticed, as Aurora stared wide-eyed at him consuming the bugfrags. "Never seen you actually eating that much," she said. Lyntael's declaration of the next card took their attention quickly, however. "Oh, a handstand!" clapped Aurora, as both of them watched her wobble her way up to a reasonable upside-down position. At least, it was reasonable enough until her shirt decided that it wasn't going to be doing much more to hold itself up. At the sight of the unbidden exposure, Eternalis spat out what he had been eating, while Aurora's earlier giggles broke out into full laughter.

"Your shirt's down, your shirt's down!" she called out.

Once Lyntael came back down and adjusted her top back in place, Aurora was on the ground collecting herself, while Eternalis exhaled in relief. The question made him perk up a little—it was relieving to get some normalcy for a bit. "Oh, my books? I guess I like adventure fantasies a lot... Like, I like reading about big constructed mythological pieces and stuff like that," he said. "How many of the books you've got have you read so far—wha, hey, Aurora?!"

He felt a weight push down on his shoulders, before some legs locked around his neck. Above him, Aurora was wobbling about and balancing herself—or at least, attempting to—on his shoulders, while reading from a card from the board game in her hand. The only real problem was that she was facing backwards, so her legs were draped on his back, and her crotch was pressed up against his face.

"Climb on top'a someone else's shoulders—if they can't hold it fer more'n five seconds, they lose their next tur--whoa, whoa!" she read out, at least until she lost her balance, sending Eternalis tumbling over backwards in the process. Thankfully, his gelatinous form made the landing more than manageable, save for Aurora's weight pressing on his head. He took haste to push her off of him, and she rolled over on the floor next to him, laughing all the while. "Hahahaha! I win!" she exclaimed, spread out on the carpet.

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.