A Space Reserved, and Forgotten.

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!

The brief tease and trick set off far more of a chain reaction than Lyntael herself had been anticipating, and the sudden lurch and tumble of Aurora's body away from the tickle and towards her and Eternalis caught her off balance as she desperately reached for the intended circle. Her fingertips touched it just before Aurora overbalanced entirely.

“Ah-heey! Eee!!” A small startled shriek was the smaller girl's contribution to the sudden cacophony of shouts and laughter than ended in a tumble of bodies. After a moment of weightless falling, Lyntael felt her fall cushioned by a cool, softly giving shape, softer even than the carpeted floor, which was still wood boards underneath. Her shout faded into a quieter intake of breath, only for it to be pushed out again by Aurora coming down on top of her as well. In between giggles and breathless gasps for air, she tried to fend the other woman off, hands and arms flailing with a degree of uncoordination that almost rivalled Aurora's own efforts.

“Hey, no, hehe... ahh! Stop it, Eee!!” Lyntael wriggled in place, more focused on trying to get her hands to where Aurora was furiously trying to tickle her that she was the angle and position of the rest of her body. Somewhere in the background, the game declared the various fouls with its tone, but Lyntael wasn't really aware of it amidst the squirming and arching of her body to escape Aurora's fingers.

“Ack...! No fair, ahh! Hahh, hahh... St- stoppit!” Any time she manage to grasp or pull one of Auroras's hands away from her exposed skin, the other woman pressed the assault right back again, making up for her lack of coordination with enthusiasm and fervour. A moment of respite came as Eternalis shifted underneath, and Lyntael felt her back slide down to the carpet, pulling at least part of her away briefly. Aurora still seemed to be everywhere, with her fingers tickling all over. What had started at her waist and midsection had spread to most other exposed areas that could be reached, and Lyntael tried without success to roll to one side or another to escape the onslaught. Her eyes weren't overly focused, save blurred flashing of hands and arms at war; that her top was spread wide by this point didn't really register, except in that it was giving Aurora more exposed pale skin to attack.

As Eternalis tried in vain to extract himself further, Lyntael felt the cool sensation across the small of her back slide around more of her body, pressing against her hips and her thighs, and creating a contrast that made her eyes open wide and drew a longer, sharper gasp from her as it pressed against places that were far hotter and more intimate. The tugging of her pyjamas went unnoticed in the moment as Lyntael's fingers clutched more firmly on Aurora's forearms. Despite Lyntael's sudden shocked grip and startled reaction, the moment presented her friend had a new stretch of skin to assault as Eternalis tried to extract himself; this time further below where the band had rested previously, all the way past Lyntael's hips and part way down her thighs. The shift of fabric had pulled her legs together, more or less, but the stylised lightning bolt of soft blond hair was clearly on show from her position, even if what it pointed to wasn't.

Eternalis might have had a better view if his vision hadn't been obscured, with the smaller woman's legs still held up and over his own body; rather than seeing, however, he could almost certainly feel that same warm hum of energy where his jelly form was pressing against her thighs, buttocks and especially against a palpable feeling of body heat in that same area.

Lyntael swallowed, trying to catch a breath, wide-eyed while she panted. Something in her mind had broken through to suggest that there was something very serious about this moment, and the things she was feeling; her body felt hot, like she wanted things that she should be alone for... but these were friends, people she trusted. The thoughts were fuzzy and her eyes darted from Aurora, over to Eternalis and back again. At last they moved down to the tangle of legs they were still all mostly caught up in. Friends like that? Was that... okay? This wasn't how she though about.... this being. If it was that... was it? Her eyes came back to Aurora again, face blushed bright and the red flush covering her neck and chest and most of her breasts down to her midsection. There was a scent in the air that had risen since she'd been exposed; like fresh perspiration and the way Lyntael's own hair or skin smelled, but different; sharper, and somehow more intrinsically her particular scent. The thoughts broke away and vanished into the haze as the game board made another tone, declaring the round's winner.

It was enough of a distraction for Lyntael to relax again, the momentary uncertainties gone, and she rolled over, sliding out from under Aurora in the process so she could look and see what the game had declared. Unaware or unconcerned for the moment or two that her bare behind was still visible, she perked up and grinned at the result.

“Yay!” She didn't have breath for more than that at first, and wriggled out further, pushing herself to hands and knees as she tried to exit the body tangle. For a moment there was a clear view of her from behind, the light reflecting off a glistening slickness around the tops of her thighs and the rosy-skinned line of her intimate areas above, before she awkwardly tugged her pyjama bottoms up again and straightened them. After another moment she managed to stand up fully and turned back to her friends, putting both hands in the air.

“I win! Drink break! Chocolate!” While her top had fallen closed again as she stood, the open buttons still afforded a view of flushed skin that seemed all the redder compared to the strip of pale midriff that showed at her belly button, between where the two pieces of her pyjamas weren't quite meeting.

With these declarations made, Lyntael made her way back to the kitchen, pulling open the fridge and taking a long drink from a water carafe that was there, then paused to roll the chilled glass against both of her cheeks for several seconds and moan over it. That done she briefly attacked the tray of small chocolate snacks that had been removed from the living area before, and claimed several more in each hand before making her way back to the game mat.

“So, what's next?” She looked around the room before her other thoughts caught up. “Oh, right!” she reached down to start undoing the buttons on her top, only to find them already undone. It really was too hot to be wearing flannel. As she took hold of the sides, however, the girl paused and looked up again, towards Aurora and Eternalis.

“Wait... If I take it off, you'll see...” Hesitation set in and she rocked and twisted a bit in place. Eternalis was usually naked though, and Aurora didn't seem to mind. She was mostly taking her things off already, wasn't she? “Um... that's okay, isn't it? It's... It's fine, just at home, like this, with you guys...” she hesitated another moment; something in her mind was saying that she was making a deal about nothing. “Hehe... I mean... I guess... you've both seen me before already, right, so, it's not like it's rude or... or... um... and I think It's okay... if it's just you guys....” After another second or two Lyntael bit her lip, then grinned and giggled again, before slipping the top garment off her shoulders and dropping it beside the mat. She turned about for a moment, stretching her arms above her head and swaying her hips in a way that would have been mockingly playful if it hadn't also ended up taking on an erotic, sensual rhythm, fuelled by the music and her buzzed, hormonal state.

“There.. Hehe... don't stare too much!” Without really thinking about it, she posed once more, then rand her fingers down over her front, sliding across the reserved swells of her breasts and down to her middle. One hand slipped out to rest on her hip, while the other teased delicately at the small sunburst piercing at her navel. “Hey... does this count as a piece? I didn't think about it...” She flicked the little charm again and looked to see the opinions before they could begin the next round.

Throughout her assault on Lyntael, Aurora laughed in excitement, though her tone was bordering on something out of a cheesy villainous cackle. With how vulnerable Lyntael's choice of flannel sleepwear was, it wasn't difficult for Aurora to spread her tickling attack all over her victim's body. She hadn't quite registered that the bouncy blue mat that they were busily wrestling on top of was a blinded Eternalis, and was more occupied with keeping Lyntael in her grasp to prolong the tickle torture. All the while, Eternalis was trying to extract himself from the two, while also being made unusually aware of warm, sweaty skin smacking and grinding against his lower torso. His attempts to get himself freed from the weight of the two atop him only served to exacerbate these movements.

At some point, he managed to wedge in one of his arms in between the two, separating them as they rolled away from each other on the carpet. With the other two off of his body, Eternalis laid on his back with his eyes still obscured, unsure of whether to push it away. He could hear some heavy breathing to his sides, with Aurora to his right and Lyntael to his left from the voices that he heard. There seemed to just be no escaping the railroad tracks that they had been set on, he thought. From the two games that they had just been playing, Lyntael's taste in games seemed to gravitate towards this sort of outcome in the first place, so he couldn't try to simply select another one from her collection. Was there another way of spending the evening? It was getting a bit hard to think with the exhaustion as well, what with the slow lull of the background music making him a bit drowsy.

Next to him, Aurora panted as she caught her breath, her laughter from earlier dying down quickly from the exertion. She heard Lyntael get up and exclaim her victory, and turned her head in time to see their host get up into the kitchen. The warmth she had experienced earlier was now a little more subdued, and she started to get up. Her torn suit brushing against her midsection made her start slightly as she began to sober up. There was a sense of fuzzy indistinctness in her mind, such that it was a bit difficult to focus on something. Perhaps getting drunk wasn't such a good idea, she thought, as she ran a hand through her hair and scratched at the back of her head, still trying to recollect herself.

As she blinked a few times to look around the room, the memories of what they had been doing through the day slowly came back, and she clamped her eyes shut in embarrassment. It was all her, of course, but it definitely didn't occur to her to do something like climb on top of Eternalis's shoulders, front-facing. One look at Eternalis still lying on the floor, though, caused her to giggle slightly. It was still a good time, and the sense of liberation felt odd, but not entirely unwelcome. Maybe it wasn't so bad. As she was mulling things over, she idly began to poke at Eternalis's cheek. "Hey, wake up, sleepyhead, we've still got a few more rounds to go through," she said.

"Nooooo," Eternalis shook his head to try to push her finger away, but to no effect, so he opted to sit up instead, with hat still over his eyes. At that moment, he heard Lyntael came back in. "Are we going for the next round?" asked Aurora, noticeably with less slurring in her voice now. Her question was stopped briefly once Lyntael began to take her top off, and Aurora realized what game they had been playing. "Ah, I mean..." she started, before turning to Eternalis, who didn't seem to be adjusting his hat from covering his eyes. Eternalis raised his hands up. "Can't see a thing!" he exclaimed, waving one of his hands in front of his face.

Aurora creased her eyebrows a little, especially with how hesitant Lyntael seemed to be. "Well, you don't really have to--" she said, but Lyntael didn't seem to be having any of it, and started off on her own. Once it was all off, Aurora shook her head and exhaled slightly. It was her house, she thought. Earlier, Lyntael had been bathing with her in her PET area, so why was this any different? The question about Lyntael's piercing made her tilt her head slightly. "I don't know. Might just take it out just in case," said Aurora.

"What piece?" said Eternalis, making an exaggerated gesture of looking around in his blinded state. Aurora shoved him playfully in return.

"You don't have to know," she said, before a thought came to mind. "Are you even still playing like that?"

In a played-up shrug, Eternalis replied, "Well! Since I can't see, that means I can't play. Oh, well! Looks like I'll have to sit out! Too bad!"

Aurora looked over to Lyntael, then back to Eternalis. Now with her thoughts a bit more clear, she realized that Eternalis had been at least attempting to keep both of them in check through their drunken state. She felt a little bad, but at the same time, she did want to continue the fun with the game. Then, an idea came to mind, and she cradled her chin in thought. "Maybe we can fix that," she said. Closing her eyes, she began to focus her mind on the link between her and Eternalis. When she opened her eyes again, a small holographic panel appeared next to her face, and she turned to look at Lyntael. At the same time, Eternalis began to twist his body around and clawed at his head, crying out.

"Wait, come on! Using the heads up display is unfair! What the hell!" he exclaimed, shaking his head around.

"Well, I'm your eyes on the battlefield; there's no reason I can't do the same here, too," giggled Aurora. "Should we start the next round, Lyn?"

For a few moments, Lyntael continued to fiddle with the small charm, tapping it with a fingertip while her expression grew thoughtful. After a moment she shook her head and looked up again with a grin.

“Nah, I don't really want to take it out. Doesn't count.” She shrugged and bounced on her toes, again, though the expected following movement was barely visible even if either of her friends had been watching. “Though that means I've only got one piece left, hehe... gotta play smart!” She giggled and moved back to the mat. As she took up a fresh position, Aurora teased her partner and Eternalis, in turn, decided that the increasingly skin-bearing body tangle was better off without him being in the mix.

“Aww... getting tired? It's okay, it ends when someone has to take off a piece but they're all out, I think.” She caught herself humming and swaying her hips along to the music whenever she wasn't speaking. Her breathing was heavy still, even though she wasn't actually out of breath, but there was a strange sense of comfort and freeness to it all. This was fine, even if Eternalis was making abig deal of it. His antics made her giggle again. Lyntael put her hands on her hips and pouted, leaning forward to pull a face at the holographic display that had popped up, rather than at Eternalis himself.

“What... am I that gross an unappealing to look at, really?” She gave an exaggerated huff and folded her arms in a judgemental pose. “Rude.... Here we are getting our things off all cute and sexy, and he doesn't even appreciate it.” She glanced across to Aurora, mock frown fighting hard not to break into a smirk. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the thought that this was a bit improper, even if it was a joke, didn't quite manage to come up with a reason why. The feigned stern expression didn't last much beyond meeting eyes with Aurora and she broke into a fresh peal of giggles and relaxed.

“Really though...” she rubbed at one arm with another flash of nerves. “I don't know what I'm doing, so, um, you know, any tips might help... I don't really know how to act...” She shrugged awkwardly. “You know... like that. Just what I read, or imagine sometimes...”

After Aurora had finished chiding her partner's reluctance another round began and Lyntael let her other worries drift away again in the face of trying to topple her one remaining rival with increasingly sneaky moves, leaving Eternalis to watch on. From his side-lined position, there was the opportunity for the harried house-guest to take over calling the spots for the girls, though amidst their increasing states of undress and intermingling, it could be considered a heavy responsibility.

Aurora was less wobbly now, even if Lyntael could feel herself still being... more relaxed than she thought she would normally be. It felt fine, though, and that was all that mattered for now. She went for spots that let her stretch limb across and under the other woman, reaching low and then lifting up to try and upset her balance. Increasingly she stole moments between moving a hand of a foot to flex and twist herself into a position to rub or tickle somewhere hopefully sensitive on the other woman. Her opponent wasn't taking the sneaky play unanswered though, and for every sudden upset she achieved, a sly move from Aurora elicited everything from squirming giggles and laughter to the occasional far more suspect gasp or moan.

Despite her best intentions, the next round went to Aurora, and Lyntael found herself lying on her side under a pinned arm as she looked up at the other woman.

“Awww... I thought I had you. Silly squishy middle...” she rolled a bit on the mat, then waved a hand, blowing a gust of cooler air that ruffled the other woman wile she sat up and scooted back to the edge, sitting and waiting for her friend to slip out of her remaining things.

“You know... now I'm thinking... I think we're doing this the wrong way around...” She shrugged as she mused, lifting one hand to rub at her emblem briefly, then massage the spot just under her left breast where she'd landed awkwardly.

Slowly, she was starting to get an idea of just how spaced out and disconnected her thinking had been for the past hour, but the warm feeling, along with the substantially hotter feelings weren't going away with the clarity, so much as spreading into a comfortably desire to do... something... Maybe this could be something, if they both wanted to make it that way... she liked them, and it felt safe... Her clearer thoughts turned her eyes to Eternalis, however, and an element of reservation crept in. Maybe she could... and maybe it would be okay... but it didn't seem like he was as willing to let things evolve as it seemed like Aurora was. Maybe not...

Aurora's eagerness to play back didn't do much to calm her own desires down, however, and the next round got progressively heavier as they both ended up spending as much time trying to distract or shake each other as actively finding positions. With Aurora out of clothes to shed, it left her with more places to be mildly inappropriate towards in her efforts to get the other woman off balance. Her head was clear enough that she avoided the naughtiest opportunities... but there was nothing wrong with the occasional surprise of fingertips dragging up a thigh, or playful slap on an all-too-exposed buttock. At least, it seemed okay. Between the laughter and giggles, she couldn't ignore the effect the play was having on her, though she mostly ignored her own breathy panting and gasps... Aurora was another woman, so, it wasn't really real, not like that... right? She didn't think of women, that way.... right?

At the end of the second round, she found herself lying on top of Aurora, poking a tongue out at her friend as the game declared her win. After an extra moment to bask in the victory, she pushed herself up and shimmied back to a standing pose at the edge of the mat.

“My turn, I guess... last piece, hehe...” Even so, she hesitated. her skin felt hot and tingling, occasional cracks sounded in her hair and she could feel the comforting glow of her charge humming beneath her skin. She let her hips rock to the slow music for an extra moment, taking her time; the urge to make a show of it, now that she was committed, was teasingly strong. Slowly, she rand hands down her waist and to her hips, tucking fingers into the band of her pyjama bottoms, then turned to the side as she made a play of running her fingers under the elastic and pulling it outwards. It was easier if she closed her eyes.

Humming quietly and biting her lip, she let her body lean forward and with an arch to her back, bushing her behind out just a bit as she slowly slid the fabric down over it first. Before they could get a good view of anything more than her profile, she turned forward again, still holding the band of the garment above her waist and toyed with the elastic further. She let herself sway and bent again, sliding the fabric down further only once her pose obscured her groin. She let go once it was past her knees, but turned to the side again as she stood straight, giving them just her profile again as she lifted one foot out. She turned her back to them as she kicked the bottoms up with her other foot, glancing back over her shoulder to where she knew her friends were; she still couldn't quite open her eyes and look them in the face. With a last flick she let herself turn around to face them fully as she tossed the removed garment over to where its match rested. With a final long breath she let her hands slide over her body in one more slow pass, sinking down to her knees and letting them fan apart on the carpet before she opened her eyes to see her friends' reactions.

“All done....” The sultry attempt only lasted a moment before nervous laughter took hold. What in the world was she doing? Was this really what they were doing now, after everything else today? It was silly! She put hands to her mouth, smothering her giggles, then pointedly corrected her sexy pose to a much safer one, folding her legs to the side as she sat down on the carpet properly. More than anything else, she was feeling self-conscious now about the obvious flushing across her skin, and the even clearer effect the evenings activity had been having on her groin; it wasn't sweat and she knew it. The chips were to blame, her memory suggested... it had been the chips that had started this, and made her... she blushed and fanned her face through her giggles.

“Hahh... So.. um... heh... Game's supposed to have one more round, I guess, but... I think maybe... um...” The atmosphere in the room was making this all a lot more serious than she'd planned. In her mind, it had just been play-sexy, between friends having fun. She hadn't meant it to feel this way. Her own eyes were lingering in places she knew she shouldn't be letting them.

“So... what's next?” She glanced between them. Eternalis still looked ridiculous in her clothes. She should really put those away...

Having his sight proxied through Aurora's eyes had been a normal occurrence for Eternalis, having experienced it many times in battle, when Aurora's battle analysis allowed him to view enemy-ridden fields from a second perspective. This situation of being blinded himself and relying on her visual feed alone, however, was new to him. He could clearly hear Aurora giggling mischievously as the holographic display's viewport zoomed in slightly on Lyntael's midriff, where her piercing was, allowing a cropped, yet dangerously view of the underside of her very modestly sized chest, down to the elastic of her pajama bottoms.

The teasing view was broken quite fast, however, as Lyntael herself leaned forward into the display, causing Eternalis to fall over on his back to the side and Aurora to burst out in laughter. "Someone's getting a little too confident!" Aurora called out, poking Lyntael away on her forehead with the tip of her finger. She then cut off the visual feed, and crawled over to Eternalis, using the same pointed finger to gently tip up the brim on his cap. The slime Navi's surprised face greeted her, and she grinned impishly.

"You can just sit there and call out the game. Make sure to appreciate me, okay?" she said, turning around to flaunt her own body in a sensual sway to the background music. Was she still drunk? Even Aurora wasn't quite sure herself, as much fun as she was having, leading Eternalis around with her teasing.

When Lyntael expressed her uncertainty over her little tease earlier, something seemed to flip a switch inside of her. Perhaps it was the earlier alcohol, but she really wanted to see more of that reaction now. "Well, you sure don't look like you don't know what you're doing!" she said, shoving Lyntael on her arm, before turning to Eternalis. "Start it up!"

To the side, Eternalis seemed to be unsure as to where to where his hands should be; should he be going along with this, now that Aurora seemed to be even teasing him with something other than herself? Another part of him reasoned that the time to be hesitant about the entire thing had long since passed, and that he should simply go with the flow. His mental sync with Aurora was also much clearer now, indicating that she was perhaps even sobering up. Unfortunately, this also came with a clearer transmission of Aurora's current lustful state, a state which he did not particularly want to expose to Lyntael. Was it right to?

His thoughts went up in smoke as the spinner beeped loudly to indicate the start of the next round, and Aurora yelled over at him. "Come on, Eternalis!" Jolted into action, he scrambled over to take manual control of the spinner, and hesitatingly called out the first of the moves while the two girls got into position.

Now being a lot more detached from the increasingly physical party game, Eternalis watched with glassy eyes as the other two twisted and wrestled for dominance over the other. At some points, he somehow forgot that the spectacle before him was that of two half-dressed girls, before a yelp or a moan from either of the two caused him to be acutely aware once more.

Aurora herself was having some good fun taking some sneaky pot shots at her opponent, now that it was just the two of them. Her half-slimy midsection allowed her to get away with more than what she should have, until finally, one laughter-filled tickle exchange led her to triumph over Lyntael.

After the latter admitted her defeat, Aurora grinned widely at her. With her back facing Eternalis, she turned her head just enough to steal a glance at him. "Well, if it's the wrong way around, it's no skin off my back," she said, before she stood up, and began tracing lightly down the middle of the tear that she had made down her front with her fingers. When it caught on the bottom, she traced the tear back up along its edges up to her chest, and pulled it up to expose her top half, leaving the torn suit hanging around her shoulders.

She crossed her arms over each other and pulled the material off of her arms before seamlessly shifting to her hips, pulling open a gap with her thumbs around the edge. Aurora then bent over and slowly pulled down the thoroughly ripped suit down her legs, before peeling it off of her feet and stepping out of it. With the suit under her feet, she stood over Lyntael with her hands at her hips with a triumphant grin, though her face betrayed a slightly flushed expression.

At the side, Eternalis seemed to be clutching the spinner device tightly at the brazen display, unconsciously wrapping it in tendrils. Without his input, the device called out the next round, while he stared ahead at Aurora's bare figure. She mischievously giggled, before going back to the mat as instructed by the game.

The next round had Aurora's attacks focus more on garnering responses from Lyntael, rather than actually attempting to make her lose. She wasn't quite sure herself as to why, but each little moan Lyntael made was exciting her, she was chasing after it without really thinking about it, and her head seemed to be filling itself with clouds.

In the middle of it, she snapped out of her dreamy state, and abruptly lost her balance; her back found itself on the mat as Lyntael stuck out her tongue on top of her in victory. The sound of the spinner device declaring Lyntael's win was oddly muffled for some reason, gurgling as if it was in a pot of water. At the same time, she found herself stuck staring up at Lyntael's face, until Lyntael moved away on to the edge of the mat to extract her own piece of clothing.

She glanced over at Eternalis, and was surprised to find him rocking along by himself next to the wall, breathing heavily as he hugged himself with his silly jeans-wrapped arms. Wriggling blue slime tendrils were snaking in and out of the surface of his body, as if he was fighting the urge to have his body go out of control by redirecting the tentacles into himself. Inside his body, the spinner device flickered its lights erratically as his face showed a half-lidded spacey smile.

"Heh, heh, wow..." said Aurora, breathing heavily herself from exertion as she dragged herself over to his side. He seemed unresponsive, only looking ahead at Lyntael, which Aurora turned to as well, both being transfixed by the second half of her striptease. At the end of the show, both of them were silently leaning against the wall, with the only noise they made being the heavy breathing from Aurora.

"One more round, huh, heh heh. What do you think, Eternalis?" Aurora turned her head to her side towards Eternalis. The Navi seemed to at least have enough lucidity to turn to her. His right hand weakly reached over to her left, and gently grasped it. Her fingers felt the tendrils snake around them as he did so, and they felt as cold as he usually did, but for some reason, her hand began to warm up.

"I want... I want... want..." she could hear him breathe out, unable to complete his sentence as his smile earlier became more of a pleading expression. "Want to let go..."

Aurora giggled slightly, and she held up Eternalis's hand, pointing it towards Lyntael. "Sorry, Lyn, I think Eternalis got a bit too much out of that last bit. Might be best for him to go home. Unless you want to join in?" she teased.

Lyntael's chest felt tight; she needed to breathe harder than she was, and at the same time felt the urge to control it so she wasn't visibly panting. Her head felt strangely light... not quite dizzy, but the roar of heat all over her face and skin was set against an almost cool shudder as she tried to work out exactly what was happening, and if it should. A part of her felt detached, disbelieving, questioning, wondering what was going to happen, and wondering if, or when, something would break and return them all to more stable ground.

Another part of her ached. Ached in a way she'd rarely felt before, and as she sat on the carpet opposite her companions, knees and thighs pulled together on one side in an effort at modesty, it took far more willpower than she felt like she really had to spare not to do something to take care of that need. Her mouth was parted slightly, breathing quick and shallow and making her chest rise and fall more notably as she stared back at where Aurora and Eternalis had watched her performance in seemingly rapt attention. They seemed as overcome as she felt... Had she caused that from them both? Lyntael swallowed, trying to work moisture into her mouth again; it had gone dry since she last spoke. A hum of current tingled across her skin and faint lines of light were growing visible all across the now thoroughly exposed pale expanse of her form.

Everything was too warm and none of it mattered. Her eyes moved back and forth between them as she tried to martial thoughts into an order that would let them move forward somehow. She was all too aware of muscles in her groin growing tense and then trying to relax again as her body made its borderline painful demands.

“I... Ah...” Her eyes were drawn more towards Eternalis as she fumbled for something to say that would break the tension of what she was feeling. She'd asked 'what next', but too many possibilities, wild and improbable, exciting and frightening all at once were filling her imagination. She had no answers, no idea how to answer if it any of those things were suggested. the visual of gooey tendrils and tentacles rising off him and sinking back again conjured another catalogue of thoughts and Lyntael clenched her teeth. A part of her wanted to think about it, and began doing so feverishly, while the rest of her tried to thrust those thoughts away. Eternalis... didn't look... well.

As her eyes lingered on the roiling tentacles, a thread of worry crept in amongst her other sensations. He barely seemed responsive now. Surely that wasn't just the way he... her mind flashed briefly on the fragments of memories she still had of her friends' more intimate moments. Sort of, but something or as well. Hesitant, Lyntael dropped forward onto her hands and knees and crawled forward across the distance until she was closer to the pair.

“Is.. Is he... A-are you okay?” Closer, she could see the way he was looking at Aurora, hear her breathing as well. There was a link they shared, she knew that, but while Aurora looked almost as turned on as her own body felt, this close, Eternalis looked... almost animal in his state. Like he was holding something aggressive and hungry back. As he gave a response, more to Aurora than her, Lyntael's eyes went wide and she felt another spike of adrenaline flood her. He really was... her thoughts jumped to half a dozen different words, some more tactful than others, some more terrifying than others, and she found herself sitting back on her heels again, oblivious to her pose as the realisation caught her by surprise. It was hard to really think of Eternalis... like that. Memories said he could be, but, she hadn't seen it, until now, and there it was, wild and hungry just beneath the surface. This was going too far... Like this, he wasn't really himself, was he...?

Her eyes darted across to Aurora as the other woman lifted their hands together and reached out to her; whether she'd intended it or not, Lyntael read a coy, drawing desire in the other woman's words. Less of a joke, and more of an eager invitation. Her eyes went back to their raised hands, the blue goo rippling with smaller tentacles that could potentially do any number of things to both of them. Now she did feel dizzy; a surreal, detached sense of wavering, on the edge of a decision. One hand rested down behind her for support, fingers curling in the soft carpet, as her other hand pressed against her emblem; just below she could feel her heart hammering.

“I... I-I um... Is... Should...” words fumbled as she felt... weak. Like her limbs had no strength. the play of light under her skin accompanied tiny cracks in her hair. “I... I don't think... Um... I mean... I-it's... it's not, um, not that I don't want... I... Eternalis, he's ah...” For a moment, she thought about how he seemed, trying to create the words she needed. Her mind flashed on images of him as a wild beast, monstrously hungry. He was holding it back, he wanted to let go... the mental image made her flinch suddenly, drawing back a bit, and her eyes squeezed shut as her shoulders hunched and she turned her face away.

“I'm sorry... I... I don't think I'm...” her shoulders shifted from side to side for a moment as she looked for a way to avoid the story-book cliche, and failed. “I'm not... not really, um... you know, ready for something this... ah... this... ah, um... f-full-on? You know?” She knew her body wasn't matching her words, flushed and panting as she was, with a dampness about her thighs all too obvious already, and she struggled to make another apology.

“I-I just... I think I want...” unthinking, her raised hand dropped down first to politely cover, then rest against the indecent heat at her groin. The contact alone was enough to force her to stifle a groan. “N-not, um, you know... so... so... I-I want it to be um, ah... gentle... slow... and, um... I mean...” She couldn't think of any way to delicately say that Eternalis seemed to be on the edge of ravishing whatever he touched. That wasn't what he was like, normally... Her cheeks were about to burst into flame, she was sure of it. There was no way she was trying to have this conversation, surely. Her hair sparked and cracked as she tried to find somewhere safe to look.

"I'll be... I'll be fine... Just need to... calm myself down," breathed out Eternalis, in response to Lyntael's worried query. His left arm was a little hard to define as looking like an arm for much longer, with its mass of tendrils and wild deformations, but at the end of it, his hand was clenching intermittently over his chest. He closed his eyes, and tried take some deeper breaths, but with every breath sounding more like a restrained grunt, it clearly didn't seem to be working.

Despite her own daring invitation, Aurora was somewhat confused with her own actions. Of course she knew what was going on with Eternalis, as she herself had been providing him with her own lurking desires, and she could somewhat tell how close he was to his boiling point. She was even toeing the line by taking hold of his hand and making physical contact; her hand sank further into Eternalis's liquefying arm with every moment. But besides that, she was also entranced by how Lyntael looked at that moment. The desperate look in Lyntael's eyes was mirrored by the other person in the room, and Aurora wanted more. So much so, that before she knew it, she had asked the question off-handedly.

She immediately started regretting it as the words left her mouth, and Lyntael began fumbling with her response, sparks under her skin looking like a rippling pool at this point. Part of her stuttered response made Aurora's eyes widen, however, as Lyntael teetered on the edge of actually accepting her sudden prompt, while also backtracking repeatedly every time. "Ah, well, you know, it's okay! It was just a thought, ha, haha. My bad!" she blurted out. At that point, both of them were stumbling about, while Aurora was getting more acutely aware of the increasing volume of Eternalis's breathing.

Aurora shot up to a standing pose, and clapped loudly in an attempt to break the awkward air. She then paused for a moment, before turning her head about, scanning the room. Her eyes stopped upon seeing her discarded suit in the middle of the room. "... Oh! Right," she exclaimed, before looking down at her bare self. She closed her eyes, and moments later, a brief shimmer went down her entire body, reapplying her suit and causing the discarded one on the floor to vanish in turn.

Opening her eyes again, she looked down and tugged slightly at her rear, as if to check the fit, before audibly sighing. As she did so, she spotted the beeping spinner device inside of Eternalis's wildly deforming body and winced. "Oh, dear, I didn't notice that..." she said, turning back to Lyntael with an apologetic smile, while scratching idly at her cheek. "Um, I guess it'd be a bit hard to pull that out right now without, uh, setting him off... Do you mind if I brought it back after this, at some point, maybe?" Then, clasping her hands together in front of her legs, she made a little bow. "I'm so sorry we cut this off so suddenly, on such an odd, uh, note, but I had a lot of fun. If you'll have us again, I'd really like to come again!" said Aurora, her smile a mix of apology, joy and slight sadness.

The moment twisted and frayed as they each fumbled on the edge of desire, caution,care and eagerness. Lyntael knew that if her friends pushed, she'd probably give in; another part thought she'd get scared; another said she'd enjoy it; another said she'd regret it in the end; another said it was just what she needed. Aurora pulled back more firmly as she tried to explain, and Lyntael found herself nodding along as her friend withdrew the offer and tried to move away from the tense crossroads.

Even as she nodded, and a sense of relief made her sink back on her heels, the danger passed, another part of her writhed and groaned internally. She couldn't keep the distressed conflict from her features as she nodded more firmly and looked own at the carpet, taking longer breaths herself as she tried to calm down. She wanted what was offered; she wanted it so badly right now that her body was aching for it. It was all right there for her to try, truly and properly for the first time... why hadn't she just said yes? It was too late now. The moment was gone. It was probably for the best. Eternalis wasn't himself. He'd regret it too. But if she'd just said yes... If she'd just been more assertive, wouldn't it have been fine? Light, she needed to take care of herself...

The war of thoughts was somewhat visible to Aurora and Eternalis as the smaller woman tried to visibly relax herself and breath more evenly. The play of light under her skin danced and her hands shook; the politely covering ward before her groin had balled into a fist and it was easy to see the twitches and shudders as the girl fought the urge to do something more inappropriate with the hand, rather than just covering herself. She rocked slightly, holding back a frustrated groan.

“Ah... Yeah... right... M-maybe later, some... some other time, um, when I'm... ah...yeah, maybe... some... some day...” She swallowed nervously, still panting and trying to even out her breath. “We shouldn't... do this... now.” This time the disappointed groan did manage to slip between her teeth before she could stop it, and she curled over on herself slightly in her efforts to quell the physical frustration that taking the offer off the table more firmly was causing her.

The matter decided, Aurora was swift to move on, though Lyntael just found herself nodding in a somewhat distracted daze as her friend perked up and tried to drag some normalcy back to the atmosphere. As Aurora dressed, Lyntael nodded to that idea as well, and turned about, back on her hands and knees as she retreated to her own bundle of clothes, and inadvertently giving her guests one last clear show of her behind and intimate areas as she shuffled her top back on and finally managed to pull her pyjamas back up as well.

The distressed spinner drew her attention as aurora pointed it out and Lyntael gave a rueful glance at the open box, then nodded as she carefully got to her feet as well. Her body still felt weak and lacking strength, and the strong physical sensation of need was drowning out most of her other tactile responses. She swayed slightly.

“'s okay... I... um... you can get it back... um... whenever...” she swallowed again, fingers flexing and twitching unconsciously as her eyes travelled the room. “I should, um... I need to... clean things up and put things away. It's okay. It was really fun. I... I hope we can hang out again soon!” Another couple of moments passed as they sorted out quick goodbyes and Lyntael watched Eternalis with a mild sense of apprehension and a small sliver of regret, before she moved to the panel near the main screen and made a few quick adjustments to it.

“I, um... I can monitor the out-link from this side, while I'm here, so, getting you guys home again should be a little smoother, hopefully... Sorry to be so abrupt...” The flush in her cheeks, and down her neck and chest hadn't faded at all, even though Lyntael herself seemed to be getting her breath back a little. “If you're just going right home, it should be fairly stable... I'll, um, I'll count you in, so you can brace for it... sorry he's so harsh about security... Ready...?” As she gave a count in to the transition with the fingers on one hand, Lyntael spared a last quick glance for each of them, smiling properly. “Thank you. Thank you both so much for all of this! Um... have fun!”

----

After the pair had gone, Lyntael leaned back against the wall and vented a long groan while sparks danced in her hair and she hugged herself tightly, thighs pressed tight together. It might have been the right choice, but that hardly made the growing feeling of discomfort as her arousal began to fade any less unbearable. For a short few moments she made an effort at starting to clean up, then growled in frustration again and darted from the living area, shoving the door to her bedroom mostly closed behind her. Within moments, the crack and flash of electricity started to creep around the crack in the door, and for the second time that evening, arcs of lightning began to fill one of the rooms in the small home.

Even with how much Aurora herself was fidgeting about, she noticed how much Lyntael was being hesitant about the entire thing. Part of her wished she had just pulled Lyntael along for the ride, but her own sense made her think better of it, especially since she had retracted the offer on her own already. In the middle of dressing, she had felt something familiar weakly wrap around her feet as well, causing her to sharply inhale in response. She had resisted the urge to turn back, and simply put her foot down on the insistent blue tendrils with a weak electrical charge, in order to dissuade Eternalis from going any further. Despite her efforts, the slime continued to wrap around her ankle, though it wasn't quite enough force to trip her over. I'm sorry, please hold on a little longer, her little heart thought.

As Lyntael went over to the administrative panel, she recalled the fact that their trip here hadn't been as smooth as a normal PET transfer, and that they were about to go through the static-filled emulation tunnel again. This time, however, she somewhat welcomed it; the pain could be a respite from the aching heat that seemed to be rising from inside her, and maybe briefly shock Eternalis out of the arousal feedback loop that she herself had started. "I-It's okay! We'll get through fine," said Aurora, giving Eternalis a quick glance; his body was steadily getting more out of control, and had already taken in her entire foot, working its way up her legs. She nodded quickly to Lyntael's query, before blurting out a final bit right as she vanished into the link. "You too!"

[>> Harke's Homepage - Homepages.]

The days that followed saw Lyntael keeping to herself for the most part, but the discomfort that had lingered and the uncertainty, seemed lighter and more distant. She carefully stored the strange packet of chips that Eternalis had left behind on a shelf in the pantry. A part of her debated simply getting rid of them, but warmer, redder thoughts stayed her hands, so they ended up hidden away instead. She caught her thoughts lingering on the evening that she'd spent with Aurora and Eternalis; any time other important matters didn't take precedence, her mind drifted back to linger on the unexpectedly heated encounter.

She'd almost done it... She probably would have regretted it, at least a little, but she had almost gone all the way through with the idea. She didn't really think that she thought of Eternalis in that way, not when she was calm, and sober, and... not being influence by strange arousal-inducing chips. Aurora was very pretty as well, and it had been a surprise to find herself contemplating the other woman in similar ways. She'd never considered other women as a possible... interest. She'd never looked at another woman that way before, but being close to Aurora, and seeing her behave like that had been strangely comfortable. As she washed up her mug and turned it over on the draining board, Lyntael looked out the window and frowned to herself as she watched the river go by.

Evening thinking about it now... it didn't particularly stir any... responses, for her. Aurora was beautiful... sexy, if she was going to use adult words about it... and she didn't mind seeing her in an erotic state, and she thought she might be comfortable enough being in such a state herself in her company in future, even without alcohol or... chips... but even so, it didn't exactly 'do' anything for her, not in the way imagining how she wanted her first actual intimate encounter to be, usually did. It was strange. Her mind had dwelt on the thought often, since that evening, and she felt fairly sure that she'd be comfortable and even able to enjoy... being intimate, with Aurora, if the other woman still wanted to do something like that, but her thoughts always came back to the idea that she'd be 'okay' with it, that she'd be 'comfortable' with it... not that she desired it personally. She would want to do nice things for her friend, and make her friend feel nice, though. She could be certain of that much.

Eternalis was a more difficult series of thoughts. Mainly, after she calmed down and regained her senses, it was still very difficult for her to think of him in a directly erotic sense, despite everything they'd done and the memories she'd seen. She could imagine herself in Aurora's positing, in those memories, and enjoy those thoughts, but it was just thinking about what she might feel, not about the person, and that wasn't right at all... but Eternalis wasn't really... like that, at least, not in her mind...

Her musing continued as she wandered back to her bedroom and retrieved the book from her bedside, curling up on the living area couch to read, and soon enough her thoughts were lost in philosophical theory instead of confusing romance questions.

It was almost an hour later that outside sound cut through her reading, and Lyntael looked up at the sound of Rogan's voice, standing quickly and setting the book aside. Unthinking, she smoothed her skirt, even though she could see that the screen was still asleep on Rogan's side.

“Lyntael. We have work to do. I have acquired what I need to get what we came here for, and we have a few days to make preparations. There are several things I will need you to do, and much you will need to know to do it.” The screen lit up as Rogan picked the terminal up and she saw a spinning glimpse of the hotel room before it settled looking at a patch of ceiling; he'd likely placed it on his work desk. A sense of ominous dread crept over the girl as she took in his words, but she pushed it down. With a brief acknowledgement, she stepped up to the large screen and raised a hand to it, slipping out of the device to speak with her operator face to face.

----------
((Heading to => The Next Mission))

((Eternalis/Lyn get: 65 FXP, eeeeverything in this thread up to this point is graded))

[Frelia bookkeeping: 273 + 65 = 338 FXP]

((From => Rogan's Room))
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Sparks scattered and danced across the various ground points in the otherwise cosy bedroom while a small figure screamed into her pillow. It lasted for a few long breaths before the dancing lights died down and the laboured breaths tapered into shuddering sobs instead. The girl seemed even smaller than she was, curled up in one corner of the bed with her knees drawn up and her head down while she hugged the pillow tighter. She certainly felt small.

She'd done it again. Just like every other time. She'd just gone and picked a fight, for no reason at all. What was wrong with her? It wasn't fair of Rogan to say those things... but... what had he really said, and why had she heard it differently? Her chest felt tight and she sniffled as she scrubbed her face against the fabric. It had felt cruel, and mean. And the look in his eyes – the pain, and the hurt, and the things he wouldn't say – and it just made her so mad, and he'd said that Aurora an Eternalis... Lyntael swallowed and stopped herself, sniffling again and taking a deeper breath. No. He hadn't. She'd heard it that way, but he hadn't. This was her fault, again.

Even acknowledging that didn't help as much as it should have. Even if he was just worried, even if he was just trying to look out for her... the anger and frustration still simmered inside her, twisted and uncomfortable. What as the point of him keeping her close, if he just hurt more every time he looked at her? Why try to lock her up and keep her on a chain... he'd treated her like a thing, before, but at least he'd trusted her to help him. Not wanting to put her in danger was no different from imprisoning her, if it meant she couldn't leave. She didn't want him to hurt, didn't want to upset him... but she was tired of crushing herself just to fit the shape he wanted. He thought he was being nice now – or as close as he could move himself to it – and he didn't understand that he wasn't.

Lyntael let her body roll over weakly, without uncurling, until she was lying on her bed instead of sitting. How could she stay here, when all they seemed to do, since the incident, was hurt each other more and more... but at the same time, she had to stay; wanted to stay. He did need her, and she wanted to be with him... just not like this. Was there even an answer? Eventually, exhausted, the girl's thoughts spaced out and she drifted to sleep.

For a little while, Lyntael didn't open her eyes. Morning had arrived, somehow, though she didn't recall falling asleep, or any of the time in between then and now. Somewhere along the way, she had unconsciously snuggled under the bedding, but her clothes felt scrunched up and uncomfortable. Soon enough she roused and sat up and scrubbed at her face. Falling asleep in her clothes had been a bad idea and now she felt grotty, rather than refreshed. She clambered out of bed and shuffled towards the bathroom.

A few minutes and a quick shower later, Lyntael emerged wrapped in a towel and feeling much better as she made her way towards the kitchen, and the kettle. She stretched as the appliance began to heat, and looked out the window to the river beyond. She did actually feel much better; some sleep and some distance made a lot of difference, in the end. A quick check told her that Rogan was already awake and working – he had found something important to focus on, and it seemed to be helping him get back to his normal self, somewhat... even if that meant he was back to keeping unnaturally long hours. Even amongst all the other problems, she was glad that he seemed to be coming back from the 'spending hours staring into space' place he'd been in a week previously.

Lyntael fixed herself a light breakfast in between making the tea and ate it just as quickly, mostly still at the kitchen counter so she could wash and drain everything she'd used at the same time. The process was mostly unconscious and soon the girl pulled the towel undone to slip it over her shoulders instead, heading for the newest door in her home. Now that she had a proper place to train and practice, finding time to do so as part of her morning routines had been easy, and it felt good to exercise early and get herself awake for the day.

As she descended the stairs, she wondered again if she would need to put a modesty screen on the back garden as well, or start wearing something – but a small half-smirk accompanied by only a very mild blush was the only real outward sign she gave to the thought – if Rogan was going to insist that she not leave unless It was with him, then he'd just have to deal with her using her own home as she pleased... and training with just a towel to hand was much simpler and made more sense, when there was a shower and pool to wash off in right there in the garden with her. At least, that was her reasoning... Lyntael wasn't entirely sure if she was trying to over-justify something that still felt a little bit naughty in reality. Oh well.

The mountain air was cool on her skin and bracingly fresh as she stepped out into the new space, and she threw the towel onto the porch railing and began her warm ups.

The space itself had been designed to look like a moderately-sized garden, formed of a flat shelf of rock and land naturally worn out of what looks almost to be a mountainside. The view, all around, fell away into mountain slopes at the edge of the garden, looking out over a wild, natural space; mountainous, with green forests cladding the valleys below the rocky, misted peaks. The actual limits of the space only went about a dozen feet down the mountainside, unfortunately, but the scenery was nice all the same. To one side, the river from the higher front garden fed by waterfall into a gravel-bottomed pool that then flowed out further and away down the mountainside. The pool itself had a small section of wooden decking set around the near side that ran under the waterfall as well, but otherwise had been left natural and untouched.

The main area of the training space was occupied by a large, flat space covered in fine, smooth gravel that now held a variety of abstract targets and stands, intended for several different styles of martial training and each reinforced with a metallic core and heavy-duty earths to disperse her charge as she trained. A small console in one corner let her change the settings on the equipment easily. At the outer edge of the ring, the gravel gave way to soft moss that continued out to the edge of the garden before it fell away to mountainside. There was usually a cold breeze circling around the high peaks, which the setting of the upper garden was spared, and it was perfect for working up a sweat.

Lyntael was mostly done with the morning's practice when she stopped suddenly and winced. She hadn't written back to Aurora and Eternalis when she'd gotten home last night – she'd said she was going to do that. Still panting and sweating, her eyes flicked over to the small terminal control that she used to change the settings on the training equipment – it was connected to the main terminal in her room that she used for everything else. Her eyes wandered around the training garden, and then briefly down over her own body and a playful thought crept its way into her mind. Once it was there, it wouldn't leave and Lyntael finished her drills quickly before activating a small recording camera from the terminal and setting it hovering about her person. Small gestures controlled where it flew and she checked the zoom and scope of its view carefully to make sure she wasn't being too racy, then set about composing a message.

Later, once the email was sent, Lyntael splashed back into the pool and lay on her back for a moment, looking up at the morning sky. She'd mostly cooled down but her cheeks were still very pink. That might have been a little bit too much. Oh well. It was far easier to do playful things like that, when it was just to a camera, rather than in person anyway.

“Lyntael,” Rogan's voice made her start, and she splashed upright, sinking to her neck in the flowing water just in case.

“H- Here, sir. Good morning!” Her heart thundered, only partially from the sudden shock, but she didn't dare climb out or dart for her towel right away. She heard Rogan change what he had been about to say after her greeting.

“Yes... good morning, Lyntael. Before you ask, I took a break and had some food a few hours ago. I'm fine.” His voice had softened somewhat after the initial serious call, and he got back to business almost right away, but she still appreciated that he was making an effort now. “Now... I have not heard back from Varda yet, though I don't suspect she'll leave this hanging for too long. Long enough to try to make me worry about whether they're going to bother with giving me work any more, though we both know that's no danger. Either way, we have an opportunity to pursue something else of importance. Or at least, to prepare for it. Properly this time, using our own intelligence, not Varda's. There's a excursion I intend to make, and it would be easier if I could rely on you working with me, network side. It's...” she heard the pause draw out for an extra second before he pushed one. “Not entirely necessary. It would make things smoother and faster, but it's well within my normal skill set to handle. You do not need to assist in his case.” The statement caught her off guard and Lyntael frowned to herself. Lately, it had been easier to have sensible conversations with Rogan when they weren't directly looking at one another, as much as she didn't like doing that. She glanced to her towel again and slipped from the pool to retrieve it.

“So, where are we going then? I said I wanted to help you, Rogan, and I do.”
“I know... It's not far, I just need-” his voice cut off suddenly and Lyntael froze first, before instinct made her dash the rest of the way to her towel and wrap it around herself in a hurry. Sure enough, Rogan's next words came to her as an exasperated exclamation.

“Lyntael! Are you aware that there's no censor on that room? Why are you...” He didn't finish the question but instead she practically hear him pausing to look away. He would have chosen that exact moment to look in, wouldn't he? Seemed like her usual luck with such matters was back in strength. Oh well.

“I was training! There's no point getting my clothes all sweaty first thing in the morning.”
“You can just... refresh them, in a second. Ah... can't you?” His exasperation was tinged with a moment of uncertainty. Truthfully, Lyntael hadn't really thought about that herself, all things considered. She couldn't elsewhere, but at home, when she had access to all of her outfits, she certainly could, technically speaking.

“I know... It's the principle. Anyway, I'm going to my room to dress. No peeking.” The warning, she knew, was entirely unnecessary with Rogan and at least a small part of her wished that wasn't the case. She pushed the thought aside as she headed back inside.

“As I was saying... It's not far from here. The work shouldn't be too hard, just a bit of masking to make sure everything goes as seamlessly as possible. I'll have you jacked in normally, I suspect. I'll be leaving in... about twelve minutes.” Lyntael nodded once as she finished drying off and started to retrieve fresh clothes, then remembered to answer verbally as well, though her thoughts had already drifted back to wondering if she'd over done the email.

----------
((To => Covert Reconnaissance))
((Lyntael Branch To => Shopping))

((From => Covert Reconnaissance))
----------

Steam drifted in small eddying puffs from around the crack in the en suite bathroom door, while the sound of running water muffled and hid any other sounds in the comfortable little home. Flickers of erratic yellow light danced and crackled from beyond the doorway in pulsing, repeating waves until they slowly settled. Eventually, the rush of water shut off, leaving only the low hum of a fan swiftly clearing the remaining steam from the room.

Lyntael emerged from the doorway, scrubbing a small towel through her hair roughly with one hand as she gripped a much larger one around her form and stepped onto the carpet. A few light steps across the bedroom became a slightly less graceful unravelling tumble as she let herself roll out onto her bed, casting her main towel open while keeping it under her and settling the small one beneath her head to keep any errant drips of water off her bedding. She took a long breath and let it out slowly again, eyes closed as she relaxed into the softness and felt the cool air across skin that was flushed pink with heat. It was good to be home again.

After another few moments, she shifted and resettled slightly, spreading out a bit more and lifting her hands behind her head. Her eyes opened to play across the patterns on her ceiling.

There was too much to make sense of. Too much, and too little at the same time. It was getting hard to brush off, or ignore, and every now and then she was starting to notice thoughts, feelings and memories that some part of her mind was avoiding. It had been unconscious at first – even in the middle of her confusion and frustration about the things she knew she couldn't remember... there were other things. Things she hadn't noticed because that silent, determined part of her had avoided them. It was easy to miss, but she knew she'd felt this before. Something told her that, before, she'd known what it was about and just hadn't wanted to face it. She'd found friends to help, but her recollection was sketchy; her head rolled to the side and looked across the room to where her terminal rested on one side of her workspace. Still no message from them. She brushed the thought away.

She was different. There was no avoiding it. Ever since that day, and that mission, and that fight... She didn't feel different, didn't think she was, but there were too many things that weren't lining up, and now, she was starting to realise, too many things that some part of her mind was purposely glossing over. It wasn't just the missing memories – it was something deeper, but it felt like scrabbling at the edges of something smooth and flat on a counter – she couldn't get at it, no matter how she tried. Lyntael took a longer breath in and held it, then lifted on hand up into her line of sight. She clenched the fist and focused on the warm pulsing glow of her charge, drawing it up until her hand began to crackle and glow with energy. The feeling was there – something that could easily become pain, if it grew too strong, but something that felt good to release as well. Before... Before she had been afraid of it, of the pain it brought, but those times seemed like strangely warped recollections; she wasn't afraid of it – cautious, excited, nervous at times; a tool to be grappled, a power to be used, dangerous as it was – not not afraid. She didn't... feel... like she ever had been, and yet, she remembered all the days and nights where Rogan's requests had paralysed and terrified her, and the fear of what this power could do to her had driven her to tears. She let the charge fade away again, and her body shed a small cascade of dancing sparks about her room as she exhaled and relaxed once more.

Then there was the anger... that rebellious, challenging feeling that she felt sure had always been a part of who she was – that determination not to be bested, that grit that drove her to strive and push through the hard moments. It had always been with her, or so it felt... but she could look back, and feel her mind trying to slip away from the comparison; her memories said she had never been so quick to ire, as she was after that mission. She'd barely ever gotten angry at anyone ever, before, or so she recalled when she really focused on thinking about it.

Her hand dropped to rest lightly on her midsection, where her fingers began to pluck and play absently at the small sunburst charm that pierced her navel. So much felt frustrating, and sad, but there was no focus to those feelings, and she always got distracted when she tried to pull the thread taught. Little things – little things that weren't right, or that had been right and were somehow off now, in a way they hadn't been before... and yet, she knew, knew, that the things themselves hadn't changed.

Slowly, Lyntael sat up, then stood from the bed and reclaimed the towels, hanging them up in her bathroom again before returning to the middle of her room. The carpet felt soft and welcoming under her toes. She began to stretch slowly, and then, between one pose and the next, to let her body dance.

The way she'd behaved, in the mission just gone. That had been... crazy. Not wrong, she didn't think, but wild. Driven by personal excitement and lust, to the point of compromise. She'd never been so eager to act like that before, as nervous as she'd been. She hadn't been that excited about the risks before. Graceful turns guided her slowly through the open floor space, arms raising and stretching without thought to compliment each shift in ways that felt right. What were her thoughts avoiding? What was related to this, that it was all too easy not to think about? Her steps faltered and she paused, holding still for a moment on the ball of one foot as she stilled her balance and drew a careful breath. Something dark, but it was missing. Something horrible, perhaps... but there wasn't anything to tie the sense to. She tried to focus and relax, and gradually began to move again.

What was the core of it; the thing she wasn't seeing? For the longest time, it felt like, thought of intimacy had become mixed and tainted in her mind; excitement and eagerness, fantasy and desire to explore it... but also, fear, discomfort, memory of... violence and threats, she thought, but, nothing distinct. It was just there, in her memories; the fear and trauma, but without a cause... and now, after that mission, and that missing space, whatever had scared her certainly wasn't looming now; it didn't seem real – just a construction of memories before that gap.

Her slow dancing fell into a softer, gliding movement and Lyntael made her way out into the living area of a home that felt like it should have been perfect, but just so subtly... wasn't. Absently, she turned back to a control panel and activated the privacy screen on the main living area; she'd had more than enough fun at others' expenses today. The movements of her slow dancing exercise became more broad and expansive as she shifted into the wider open space, picking up more rhythm as she did; not enough to raise her heart rate or break a sweat, but a little more energetic.

If she had still felt that fear and trauma, she would never have felt excited by what she had done today; maybe she would have always been a little bit excited by the risk and the exposure, but that worry and fear would have prevented her recognising it. That was one big difference between the times before, and the times after; it was hard to focus on, but she could see that now – see that it was. Where had it gone, or had it been real in the first place? If there were gaps in her memories, did that mean the things she did remember might be wrong as well? Her brow furrowed. Something had changed, but underneath it all, she was still herself – still here, still healthy; she still felt the same as she always had, even if some of the things she remembered didn't seem to line up. Only... her thoughts hung and wavered around the uncomfortable possibility. Only... how reliable were her feelings?

“Lyntael,” Rogan's voice cut into the air nearby and Lyntael stopped mid step. She moved to cover herself on instinct, then relaxed; the screen was up. “...Lyntael, if you're still trying to make me uncomfortable, you should probably know that the censor is active, so your efforts aren't achieving anything.” Whatever he had been about to say was replaced by a tone of wry amusement and Lyntael glanced towards the view screen, hands on her hips. The screen still showed a streamed view of a misty netopian coastline, but it was somewhere to look.

“I thought you didn't want to see me like this?” Despite the chastisement, she shrugged to herself and darted quickly towards her own room to begin getting dressed. Rogan coughed softly.
“Indeed. Regardless, you may wish to get yourself presentable... I've assessed what we retrieved, and I think you should know our next moves.” Lyntael nodded as she pulled on her vest and opened her drawers to pick out fresh undergarments.
“Yes, sir. I'll be out in a minute.”

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((To => Offensive Plans))