Clarence Gupta's House of Mysticism

Clarence managed to calm down since Ariel wasn't as freaked out as he was (about any of this, really). She brought up a pretty good point: that even if his grandfather hadn't been passing on his magic, he'd still been trying to help Clarence, in a different way. "You're right. I just wish he hadn't gone on about rituals and passing on techniques and so forth. If he'd been a little more up front I could have avoided a lot of undue tension," he murmured, crossing his legs as well as he could to hide said undue tension. The distraction by Ariel's PET was welcome relief to him, as it took the topic of conversation off of both his condition and the failed ritual they'd undergone. "I'm sorry to admit that I'd forgotten about Seer and ZephyrMan entirely. It pains me to think they might have been similarly misled. Seer is such an innocent and devout servant of the studies of mysticism that she surely would have been lured into the same sort of practice as myself. Although... why would Grandfather program foreplay instructions for my navi? For me alone is strange enough, but to give them to Seer as well..."

His eyes lit up again as he stood over Ariel to try to get a look into her PET screen. "Could it be that they have the actual magical ritual secrets, being read to them on their side?!" he interjected, getting too close again given their positions. "No, probably not... But really, what are they doing, exactly?" It'd probably be best if he just went and checked his own PET.
"Yeah, I see what you mean." She agreed, his grandfather probably should've made it sound less like a magic ritual...but at the same time, if he knew from the beginning the whole thing was about sex, would he have gone through with it? Her guess was 'probably not'. So in that sense, it was understandable.

But all that aside, they still had their Navis to be concerned about. Well, Ariel wasn't actually too concerned. "I wouldn't worry too much about them too much. It doesn't look like they did anything too bad." She might've continued with that thought, but since Clarence was standing over her like that, she could feel his 'magical projection' on her back. "...Um, you can check all this on your own PET, ya know..." All the goop on her was making her want him to actually just stay right where he was, but she resisted it as best she could.
The magician finally got his magic wand out of Ariel's business, withdrawing to his own PET. "Right, yes. Let us see... That's quite an outfit she's wearing. Certainly my grandfather didn't mislead her into 'Ritual C' with your navi, did he? What purpose would that serve?" Clarence wondered. He seemed vaguely aware that his grandfather had been trying to help him get his feet wet with this Ritual C business, but it was a valid point: why would the elder Gupta have cared about assisting his grandson's navi in that fashion? "Who's instructing them? Is it also my grandfather's likeness?"

It wasn't, of course; no one would mistake a giant, purple, sprawling cloud face for any relation of his. "That must be my father's navi, if he was occupying that PET we used to start the process. Or, at the very least, a navi hired to assist in the process," he ventured. He hesitated to say more, because Ariel had told him nothing too bad was happening, but he noticed definite tension between the two familiar navis and the supposed instructor.

"Oh, also, we should probably dress back into our clothing," he mentioned, as off-handedly as possible. It probably wasn't that important for Ariel, but it certainly was for him, given that he was half naked and she was dressed up as one of his apparent sexual fantasies. "We souls probably towel off first. I brought some with me, since I figured that goo could get messy... although, not this messy," he admitted. He went into the darkened costume room and reemerged with towels in his hands, one ordinary and white and the other pink, dappled with purple stars. He extended them both to Ariel, keeping his own back to the closet door.
"Huh. Hadn't thought about that." It made her wonder...but only for a moment. She didn't bother listening to the details, but ZephyrMan seemed to be handling things himself, and not in a particularly stormy way, either. She'd leave that part up to him.

"Why, thank you!" Grabbing the fancier of the towels, Ariel immediately stripped off her gloves and shoes, and started wiping off her arms and legs. For the latter, she sat down, and raised her limbs high as she removed every last inch of the pink slime from them. If Clarence was a leg person, his 'condition' would probably not be helped.

"All right, if we're done, I'm going to go change back!" And back into the darkened room she went. She took a few wipes at her back, before removing her headdress, and subsequently dropped what little clothes she was wearing. She readied her towel, but Ariel looked down at her chest for a moment. She kinda wanted to keep it on, to be honest...so, she only removed it from her belly, leaving her chest covered. Okay, now where was her own stuff...ah, there it was. Underwear, on. Bra, on, and ooh, that felt nice. Jumpsuit, and subsequently becoming acceptable in public, on. Socks and boots, on. Vest, on. Gloves, on. Pilot's goggles, on. Earpiece, on. She still could feel some sensation all over her...must be from her clothes rubbing against her and the residual goop.

"Okay, I'm all dressed! That showgirl get-up was cute and all, but this is definitely more my look!" Ariel placed a hand on her hip, and the other into the air, posing to show off her usual attire...like a showgirl. A little late to the party, but whatever.
Clarence tried to watch as little as possible as he went about gathering his own things; he didn't have a costume to take off, but unlike Ariel, he was much more concerned about the goo that coated him, either from a sense of hygiene or because the unfamiliar sensation was so unsettling to him. He grabbed up the costume quickly, then sat down and began toweling off with the ordinary looking towel. "I can hardly imagine that my grandfather used this substance every time he wished to engage in intercourse. The preparation, not to mention the expense, would be prohibitive. Or perhaps he wasn't as much a spontaneous person as a thoughtful one," the magician theorized, until he realized that theory-crafting aimed at his grandfather's foreplay technique was highly awkward, and thus quieted down. He watched Ariel come out, realizing now that he should have had a pretty good sense of her eroticism when she'd entered, just by looking at how she wore her suit. It wasn't a flawless rule, but you'd generally be safe guessing that people wore clothes that fit them in a way that was intentional. He wore clothes that wore baggy, flamboyant clothes to hide his ordinary, scrawny body, and she wore form-fitting ones because she had a form worth fitting.

With her finished now and him only starting to dry his not-at-all voluminous hair, he realized that she was probably about ready to leave and didn't necessarily need to be subjected to him meticulously cleaning himself and then putting his ornate magic Sultan outfit back on. "R-Right, your reward. As the Divine of Diviners, I bestow to you the following: zenny and a rare chip, which I hope will serve you well in your travels," he announced, picking the rewards out from beneath the case where he was keeping various jewels and trinkets. It was a little funny to think she could have just gotten them out from there the whole time. Not the type of security one was used to seeing on a mission such as this. "We weren't able to discover any leads on the mystic arts, but... the pursuit of magic is dangerous. And you certainly made this search a little less dangerous than it might have been with another companion, with your cool-headedness and pleasant company," he announced, trying out some more fancy speech. He didn't mention the other reasons she was desirable as a partner for this sort of expedition.

*Ariel received FlashBomb2 and 3000z!*

"I hope that will be agreeable. Perhaps you'd also be interested in assisting me further?" he asked, still with his arms raised to bury his hair beneath the towel. "If I need the assistance of a magician's aid again, that is! I'm sure there are other adventures to be had that will be more productive and far less scandalous. Although, well, scandal and magic may always go hand in hand."
"Thank you!" With a big smile, Ariel accepted her reward. ...FlashBomb? That didn't sound overly magical, but since it had a 2 next to it, it couldn't be a bad chip, right? "Too bad the magic thing didn't work out, though. I really was hoping it'd actually be something all mystical and stuff!"

The pilot took a look at her PET, which was now once again occupied by a Navi. "All set, ZephyrMan? Said your goodbyes and everything?"

"Indeed. Leave at will!"

"All righty!" She pocketed her device, and turned to Clarence. "Well, I need to get going. I've got work tomorrow, so I need to get back to Electopia ASAP. Bye now, and good luck with your magic search!" She waved as she proceeded to the entrance...only to end up walking right into the door. Fortunately, her 'airbags' helped keep her from being particularly hurt. "Ow...oh, right, locked door. Silly me!" Door unlocked...and open. Now she could walk through it without hurtiness. No hurtiness was good.
((ZephyrMan received 25 Seer FXP, 5 IllusionMan FXP))