"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!

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!"

"Feeling threatened by an unknown invader in its inviolable territory, the aerial ace warily regards the newcomer, shaking off its arrogance in exchange for vigilance," announced the old man, as Mach's engines began to recover from the unexplained slowdown, and put up a barrier to prevent any further interruptions. The cyan sphere that enveloped him rippled repeatedly as soon as it went up, intercepting the malicious signals that seemed to be coming from the crowd of robots around him. Each of the skeletal frames' cameras retracted slightly at this development, with all of them beginning to slowly hover outwards from him to increase the radius of their encirclement.

"Its efforts are repaid twofold, as the newcomers were unable to stare down the foe that was, moments earlier, far outnumbered by their ranks." Mach's partner proceeded to lock its sights on two of the bots with a pair of incendiary Magnum rounds. Both of them were unable to avoid the shot in time and sustained a decent amount of damage. As the smoke cleared, it appeared that the first of Shrike's targets had entirely vanished--the other receiver still stood, albeit somewhat injured. The last shell found its way screeching down towards the ground, erupting in a brilliant explosion that resulted in a small crater.

"The predator tests its claws, and they indeed prove to be quite sharp," the old man continued to comment, in the same slow, unchanging tone. It seemed like he was unaware of Shrike acting separately from its master, who immediately repositioned himself towards one of the cambots with a fearsome war cry. As the bots rapidly swiveled their camera heads in his direction, his ramming attacks crashed into the ones that had lined up before him, replicated by the two decoys that matched his appearance. "And then, a dive!"

"Such speed proves to be vital in the fight for air superiority."

Being on the receiving end of both Shrike and MachMan's attacks, the cambot was left with only half of its lower body now, with the rest ripped into shreds. The others tried to move away from his replicas' attacks, but when they dissipated into the air, their evasive maneuvers immediately halted.

MachMan himself wasn't quite done yet, however, and teleported yet again to extend his attack, while the bots began to pepper him with some attacks. Only one of them managed to bounce off of his strong barrier, and even then it only barely scratched it.

The second charge blasted through two more of the bots, but this time, the first of them was able to barely scoot out of the way of his strikes, while the second he collided into didn't feel quite as solid as his first attack; it reacted with a strange electrostatic response. It was when he ended his blitz that he could see the robot's figure crackle in and out of vision, before disappearing into thin air. The part of the old man's voice that had come from it also faded out, yet the others continued to project his commentary.

"In the midst of its frantic charges, the predator notices something odd about its pursuers. Perhaps they were more than what meets the eye."

As Shrike had detached itself from its master, it was free to contribute an attack of its own power; its one-eyed Optic Blast ripped through the air with its red-hot gaze. Unfortunately, its target swerved away from the attack just in the nick of time, unaffected by the laser. MachMan's attack was far more impressive, with the Sunshine attack immediately following tearing through the bots' ranks. Oddly enough, the path of the Sunshine beam immediately shifted away from his original target to one on the opposite end of the bot group, punching through its torso. His original target flickered out of existence again, as would a holographic image that had lost its projection source.

"Nevertheless, the pursuers carry on, with a newcomer to assist them."

With the last of the attacks charging, MachMan heard the sound of a helicopter propeller somewhere above him. Another one of the cambots had appeared, though distinctly different from the others. It had a propeller and wings attached to its back, along with a large minigun strapped to its arm. Raising the minigun up, the bullets started to fly, and MachMan was unfortunately not quite prepared to avoid the hailstorm. Thankfully, the minigun wasn't all that accurate, so the barrier he had up absorbed all of the damage quite easily, but it was definitely slightly worse for wear. The Synapse he charged up was a good counter to the damage, hitting true on one of the bots--the one that had been receiving the most damage so far. It hung on by a thread, but it was clear that it was on its last throes.

"They are undeterred in their chase, as indomitable as their foe may be, calling upon more of their comrades."

Three of the bots began to flicker slightly, before splitting into two identical-looking copies of themselves, damage and all, replacing the three that had been outed as projections earlier. No doubt, these new additions were also projections, but would Mach and Shrike be able to differentiate them now?

-- Paparazzi Posse --
Broadcast Bot Collective A: 400 HP (Flying over Grass) [High Altitude, to the right of the center of the clearing] [Stun1]
Broadcast Bot Collective B: 400 HP (Flying over Grass) [On the rear, to the left]
Broadcast Bot Collective C: 10 HP (Flying over Soil) [Middle of the clearing]
Broadcast Bot Collective D: 10 HP (Flying over Soil) [Middle of the clearing]
Broadcast Bot Collective E: 320 HP (Flying over Soil) [Ahead, to the right]
Broadcast Bot Collective F: 320 HP (Flying over Soil) [Ahead, to the right]
Broadcast Bot Collective G: 400 HP (Flying over Grass) [High Altitude, to the right of the center of the clearing]
Broadcast Bot Collective H ( AirRaid3HP: 100
Properties: Normal, Omnishoes, Mobile
Object Damage: 50 + Impact
Damage Method: Telekinesis
Gun Attack Damage: 10 x 20 Shots
Accuracy: A
Description: Summons a fighter plane to strafe your enemies.
Duration: 3 turns or Until destroyed
Element: Null
Trader Rank: B): 100 HP (Flying over Grass) [Directly to the rear]

-- Focused Fliers --
MachMan.EXE: 640 HP (Flying over Soil, near Bot C/D) ( Barrier200Protection: Combined Damage of 200 HP
Accuracy: S
Description: Defensive field that prevents damage up to 200HP.
Duration: Until Destroyed
Element: Null
Special: Status Guard: This chip blocks debuffs.
Trader Rank: B: 140/200) (Scramble: 1 Movement, 1 Feint)
Shrike.SP: 100 HP (Flying over Soil, near bot E/F) (Reloaded: Magnum1Damage: 120 + Break + Panel Break x 3 Targets
Accuracy: A
Description: A triple barreled gun that blasts through defenses and terrain alike. Rare
Duration: Once
Element: Fire
Trader Rank: C)

-- Surrounding Stage --
35% Soil

• Wood Elementals get +10% Evasion.
• Wood attacks: +100% Source Damage, change terrain hit to Grass.
• 100 Damage Aqua attacks: Change terrain hit to Mud.
• 100 Damage Fire attacks: change terrain hit to Coal.
• PanelShot: Imbue Wood.

(Clearing)
5% Broken

• Not bottomless.
• Reverts to Normal after a time, if no one is inside.
• Doubles dodge penalties for bad RP.
• 1-4 Movements actions to climb back out depending on method.

(Single panel in the middle of the clearing)
60% Grass

• Wood Elementals get +5 HP/action.
• Fire attacks: +100% Source Damage, change terrain hit to Soil.
• PanelShot: Imbue Wood.

(Surrounding forested area)

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.

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."

Being the only sober person in the room—or at least not in any way tipsy—Eternalis wasn't quite sure of whether he wanted to play the game with the girls or not. He had been planning on simply letting them to their own devices, and perhaps steal away to the kitchen for another round of those chips he had taken away from the other two. Aurora was busy squirming about with her hot chocolate, lost in her own world of sweet drinks, and though her bouts of shivering made him a little concerned, she seemed to be perfectly fine for the most part.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Wait, what? —Hey, wait!" Before Eternalis could stop her, she was already making a beeline for their host's room, causing him to scramble after her while she went through the door, and threw open Lyntael's wardrobe. "Oooooh, there's so much pretty stuff in here!" she marveled.

After some time of relentlessly "assaulting" Lyntael, Aurora started to let up a little to catch her breath, and caught Lyntael's eye in the process. There was a brief moment where she noticed the odd lingering expression that Lyntael had, and she wondered what was exactly going on in her friend's mind. Eternalis's response caused her train of thought to be derailed, however, and she was pushed off of Lyntael while the latter sat back up properly, cleaning away some of the collapsed blocks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Come on, now, that's hot," Eternalis chuckled, trying not to look in Lyntael's direction as his eyes met on the game box that Aurora had discarded. "Add a twist of fun into any party or family night with the game that ties you up in knots..." he read off the box, before showing it to Lyntael. "How about this one? Aurora picked it out."

With how flustered Lyntael got from the situation, Aurora watched with a fuzzy sense of amusement, quietly giggling to herself. Her body was feeling a little warm now, even with her suit providing her with ventilation. Unlike Lyntael, however, she wasn't exactly able to fan herself with her own clothes, so she was only able to flop lazily over the table, while Eternalis was talking to Lyntael. Apparently there was something about keeping himself together? Lyntael seemed to be quite distraught over her having apparently interrupted something between them.

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

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

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

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

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

"What was that?! No faaaaaair!" Aurora drawled out, balled-up fists lightly raining down on the laughing Lyntael, with her held-up card offering no defense at all. Holding back his laughter wasn't going well on Eternalis's side, either, though he was mercifully spared the playful(?) beatdown. "Oh, dear, heh, heh, heh. Well, heh, that was pretty short-lived," he said, in between his bouts of laughter. "Maybe, ahaha, maybe we could find another game to play. Something that doesn't need as much dexterity—I think Aurora's pretty much shot on that."

SP registration approved.

Holding the plate that he had brought to the kitchen in his hand, Eternalis listened to the running kettle as he stared at his other hand--the one that had just gone wild moments ago. Even after he had extracted himself from the... situation that had just occurred, he could still see the arm undulate wildly, still trying to find the person that it had just anchored itself to. His thoughts were still quite clouded as well, and it was getting difficult to keep himself together. It wasn't too much of a problem if he was in the privacy of his own home--Aurora certainly didn't see it as one--but being a guest, embarrassing themselves wasn't quite at the top of his priorities. He slowly lowered the plate onto the nearby table, trying to collect himself a little more before heading back.

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

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

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

"Uh... what were we supposed to do at the tower again?" he inquired sheepishly to Lyntael.