“Would I ever…? Oh! Thank you so much!”

The server slides the breadsticks onto the table, ears politely flat and tail low. (Not garlic breadsticks, of course. Not many Hybrasilians thought the taste in TC cuisine was worth the vomiting afterwards, so you don’t get garlic in any Hybrasilian restaurants. Just meat gravy for dipping.) Then she’s sliding back down the cable connecting this private shelf to the kitchen far below. Dolly returns her attention to Ksharta, squeezing her hand assuringly through the mesh glove.

[i]Jade is leaning on Dolly’s shoulder, in full view of Ksharta Talonna, with all the potential menace of a crocodile basking in the sun. She doesn’t speak, ostensibly because she is letting Dolly answer, but also because she is orchestrating the spread of this information with the aid of an engineer-cultist, who— as she is explaining, must have a conversation about Dolly’s date within earshot of Angela Victoria Miera Antonius, wondering idly out loud if Dolly and Ksharta Talonna are having an enjoyable dinner as the honored guests of Keoni’s Tower, and how Smokeless Jade Fires hasn’t decided which fight was the better one, which will be an irresistible lure to that deliciously proud woman…[/i]

“Why would I?” Dolly continues, trying to grab a couple of breadsticks before they all mysteriously end up on Ksharta’s plate. “Jade— [i]Smokeless[/i] Jade— my goddess is a caretaker. She wants so much to take care of us.” Her tone suggests she is talking about the children of Hybrasil; the look she gives suggests she is talking about two specific daughters of Hybrasil. “I don’t expect her to do everything for me— it’d be beneath her dignity to make me brush my teeth, a failure of my responsibility to do my part— but why would I want to disobey her?”

If she thought, for some reason, it would make Jade happier. That’s the thought that would strike Ksharta as she watches Dolly turn her head and kiss Jade on her stiff cobalt hair, then give that hair a loving lick, as Jade’s long tail lazily swishes and she flashes her wicked teeth. Sure, maybe if she was surprised with sudden danger, she’d take action even if it meant breaking rules, her body making decisions for her. And if she was convinced that Jade was going to get herself hurt, she might take drastic action. Or if she was just exhausted and Jade was focused on something else and wasn’t paying attention to her. But the best way to desync these two sillyheads would be to dangle something in front of Dolly that would make Jade even happier than being obeyed.

[i]”My turn,” Smokeless Jade Fires says, suddenly, gracefully moving. She places one hand on the table and flips herself over, impossibly, her spine fluid as she lands on the table next to Ksharta Talonna. One foot presses against the young pilot’s breastbone, pins her to the seat, as Jade gives her an intense, intent examination from where she sits. “Tell me of your faith, Ksharta Talonna. Do you honor your ancestors? Do you give thanks for your food? Do you know what it is to worship a living goddess?” She reaches out, and a goblet unfolds from one of the shining strings of the universe, filling with star-clotted wine for her to sip as she listens. All artifice— she is still trying to decide what wine made from the dregs of stars would actually taste like— but it’s for Ksharta Talonna, so that she can feel appropriately awed, so that she can feel like a great and powerful and classy goddess is giving her personal attention.[/i]

Dolly dips a breadstick in the meat gravy without breaking eye contact from her goddess and her date, eyes wide, heart dripping, thighs clenched. Jade is so [i]hot, mmffff.[/i] Her appearance is lithe, but her presence is so powerful— and sometimes it’s like she has the strength of her idol-body, but she has such fine control that she could pick up an egg with its fingers, let alone touch a girl’s jaw and stroke it so gently. Like that. That’s how she can make you feel when she touches you. Like she’s invincible and all-powerful, but she’s too controlled to hurt you. That there’s no point in struggling against her, unless she wants you to struggle (and she does, she does~).

[Smokeless Jade Fires slams an [b]11[/b] on Figuring Out Ksharta. So— what does Ksharta Talonna love most, and how can Jade make Ksharta Talonna obey (such as, say, obeying a command to ambush Angela Victoria Miera Antonius)?]