Anarion

Sunshards

Chen (kitty):@Princess Kyoo oh that's perfect! @Jessic, no no no, not kidnapped. I'm freeing the foxes! =D
Chen (kitty):it's gonna be great, there will be so many fox wishes and so much to do! also I promised Cyanis I'd do it don't tell Keron till later!
Chen (kitty):the monks and gods think it's not the best though and there's like a thousand of them all waiting on shore
Chen (kitty):oh and one just backflipped onto the ship and he's giving Petal a maid challenge!
Chen (kitty):omg, this is so good, let me take a picture
Chen (kitty):[maidchallenge.jpg]

Okay, look this was all very distracting, but Chen also needed to talk to her sun and rouse it a little. She figured that was sort of a personal thing. Like how her ancestors got to know the wind or the way it had all happened when she was dueling Hyra. Like, she could just start talking out loud to her circlet gemstone and that would kinda do something, but she understood in the way she understood sword dueling and maid contests that you had to live it, not just say it. If you wanted to rouse a Big Spirit you had to put your whole self into it. That meant different things for different people. Like maybe for Qiu it was all about the big dramatics, like why she'd done the organ on a pyramid and the helicopter chase when she was on top of her game. And for Jessic it was the training and the joy of flight, that feeling of a body whose power was not only innate but intensely built up through skill and practice so hard that you could feel it just by being near her.

So for Chen, that was flow. It wasn't always the same flow, but it was some kind of flow. The dance, the duel, the act, it was always something. And actually, talking to it wasn't a bad start if she needed to find that here. "Hey" she said, phone still in one hand, the other tapping her circlet. "So like, you're in there sleeping huh? One of the suns in the sky. You got me these ears and this tail cuz of how right it felt to be this when Hyra and I were living out our dreams there. That was like super cool."

Chen looks up at the sky, vast and distant, full of faint twinkling stars set on purple velvet, washing along in their own rivers of light. "This world, it's too beautiful for all these folks to be cooped up and running along just one route. I mean, you know not just running, but flipping and squirming and dashing and getting tied up, but like it can't all be one big precept of The Way like that. It can be a way, just like everyone can have a wish but there isn't just one wish. I want them all to get to feel that. Like what happened with me, kind of like the foxes do but softer, more personal, more lasting. Not that sort of helpless coercion (e-even if some people want that) but more like getting to see what's in their own heart and make it real. That's what I want from a sun, is for each of them to get to be a little bit more of what they want than they could on their own. To have the body they want, the clothes they want, to show people the heart and soul and beautiful little light shining from inside of them just like all those stars up there. So...think you could do something like that?"

And you know, come to think of it, Chen hadn't painted anything in a while. And of course she shouldn't really be painting right now. She was going to get kidnapped by foxes any second despite what she'd told Jessic. Or beset by monks now that Petal was occupied. Maybe both, which sounded exciting! But sometimes the time was now and you just had to do something. She was in the eye of the hurricane after all, best not waste it. So, she ducked into a cabin and got out her art supplies (because this time she'd brought stuff since they had a whole ship!) and she pulled out a little canvas that would be easy to move around, just like the size of a big book. And she started mixing a little color. Some purple mixed with just a bit of white to lighten it up and get that purple velvet sky, lighter at the edges where the one shy sun loved to hang out and watch the world peeking over a counter. It didn't matter if she finished right now, or what happened next, it just mattered that she started. Everything else would flow from there.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

A frown furrows Giri's brow as she catches the shadows upon Kalaya's face, but she returns the hug with force enough to make it difficult to breathe, expressing an urgent need for a different sort of human contact than what Red Wolf was offering.

When she lets Kalaya go a moment later (hopefully with no bruised ribs) she lets out her own breath that she'd been holding and her shoulders relax just a hair. Her collar jingles with the movement and she meets Kalaya's eyes as she asks the question.

"Both? Neither?" Giri shrugs and the bells tinkle merrily again. "I was accused of wrongdoing in front of all the gathered guests and Piripiri, the girl from the teahouse who it seems was a dragon-blooded servant to Agata, showed off her injury, inflicted by me. What could I say against that truth? I consider it a fair punishment all told. And then again, this is something Agata gave me, something she put on me herself. I would be lying if I said that I did not want it, did not want her even still."

The way Giri says Agata, it's casual, you haven't heard anyone refer to her like that, none of her servants or staff, certainly not anyone trying to curry favor. You get the sense that even Giri hesitates over it a little, like she's sharing something in private with you, a stronger and truer sense of how she thinks than she would behave in a group.

There's an awkward silence then. Giri stands still so her collar doesn't ring and looks at Kalaya. Then she sighs and jingling takes the girl into another hug, softer this time. "We put too much on our shoulders, princess." This time she doesn't hesitate, it's how she remembers you Kalaya, and she's more free with it in this moment, speaking softly for just you to hear. "Neither of us ought to bear it alone, you least of all considering how much you've already lost."

[Giri rolls to comfort and support and gets a 13. If Kalaya opens up to her, they both get to pick an option. Giri will heal a condition if so.]

Sunshards

Chen takes a breath and is still.

The initial run of foxes had been fun. Lots of twirling and dancing, some tail twisting and flinging, and a bit of pool tossing. Chen loved the way she and Petal worked together, strength and motion and mixing as they danced in time. It never got old either. Sometimes one or the other could lead, and Petal could change her cadence so well, shifting her size and her coordination so that Chen might have to step in different ways. That was one of the things Chen really loved about swordplay and dancing. You got to mix training and instinct in all these amazing ways. All the work with feet and core balance gave you the kind of knowledge to understand how your body could move, it opened up possibilities. Then on top of that, you got to make the actual choices about what felt right, what felt strong or weak, agile or slow, what made your heart beat fast and your face grow hot. That was special. So, even though foxes didn't put up much of a fight, rounding them all up and just vibing with Petal made it incredibly special.

Then it had gone quiet and she had started to really understand what Keron's life must have been like. Tails flitting down the end of corridors. Whispered giggles, always distant. Locked doors and empty hallways. Never peaceful though because everything was on her and Petal to be ready to respond, to not let their guard down. She started to understand why Keron might have trained an entire castle worth of handmaidens and really spent that time working with them. If she hit just that right spot where she was molding them to her own vision but at the same time molding them the way they wanted to be molded, they'd be loyal and see into all the places she couldn't be. That was really smart. Also something that Chen did not have time for right now.

Then she strolls out onto the deck and her moment of delight at being near enough to the shore to make out distant figures is instantly quashed when she realizes that they're a giant monastic order there to stop her. Or well...orders. She can see a whole mixture of outfits and colors, only a handful wear the same uniforms, a lot are just in casual clothes. So, her plan must have gotten out. She wondered who the leak was (Cyanis), who could possibly have revealed all of this (Cyanis) just to make things harder and more fun (Cyanis did it).

So, as Rose settled herself on the deck in a waiting maid's pose, Chen simply watched and took a breath. Then, she settles her sunglasses over her eyes to reduce the glare of staring into the sunset, walks a few steps behind Rose to one of the top deck refreshment booths, and grabs an already prepared drink in a pineapple, which she begins to sip in one hand as she flips her phone out in her other hand, tail swishing as she leans back and begins typing.

Princess Connect
Chen (kitty): hey
Chen (kitty): can anyone get me up to speed on how to do a big sunshard thing in like five minutes?
Chen (kitty): like, a really big mobile magic zone centered on a cruise ship in the waters near cutie fox island
Chen (kitty): asking for a friend

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

There are many ways someone can carry themselves with a jingling collar. When she was done with Agata; and had stretched, taken a few breaths, brushed her hair, and composed herself; Giri had selected a combination of delicate and dignified. She walks gingerly, each step drawing attention to the fact that she is wearing a collar, that she knows she is wearing a collar, that she cannot move without a jingle but she can try to keep the swaying of her body to a minimum and the associated jingles soft. Yet at the same time, her stance is straight and her gaze steady, without the flinch of embarrassment that seems to be Han’s signature of late. It’s not relaxed, but it is dignified. It challenges the watcher to dare tell her that anything about this is worthy of shame.

Thus does she approach Kalaya on the garden deck. There is only a light tinkle as she steps nearer to her. “I hope you were treated well?” she asks, and there is sincerity in her voice and worry in her eyes. She’s away from Red Wolf now, and less intoxicated. She did remark that Kalaya wasn’t at their luxurious dinner, even if she hadn’t said anything at the time.

“I…never did find the Rakshasa who disrupted your tournament. If I can assist with that still or with…anything else that may benefit from a witch’s talents, I am at your service p…my lady.” You can tell at the end that Giri was going to call you princess but thought better if it and settled on a neutral title of respect. Have you told her what you think your role is here? Do you know yourself?

Sunshards

If you were ever in doubt, Petal, it vanishes the moment you touch your Chen's shoulders and you feel her tension melt into you along with her weight. She's always going to be a mix, your little Chen. She obviously loves being in charge of you, but she loves being held so much and there's no way you can ever get tired of how good it feels to wrap her all up and feel the way she nestles into you.

It makes her stronger, too. You can feel that in the way she breathes, just taking in your body, your scent, her nose close against your skin, and her breaths become stronger and calmer. She looks up and grins. "No you're right, six thousand foxes on this boat, and not a one of them could tie me up and pamper me as well as you can, Petal. Not with every fox wish in the world because I'd just wish for you to do it." She smiles and kisses your arm without turning around, her teeth nibbling playfully. "And besides, what good would my promise be if I stopped the second we got out of port just because it turned out that every fox in the Nine Kingdoms is Cyanis?"

Chen turns properly now and gives Petal a kiss on the lips and stands all the way up on her tippy toes so she can whisper "Love you, Petal" and be heard over the yells of foxes aboard the ship. Then, she draws her new crystal sword (finally replaced from the Sky Castle) and raises it up towards the sky so that the sunlight above the water glitters and glistens as though Chen were holding a bar of molten gold up to the sky. "Listen!" she shouts and brings the sword down with a crash upon the deck, sending out a wave of radiating magic that booms across the deck of the ship, from the prow where she's standing with Rose all the way to the stern, giving the foxes pause.

She grins then, in the way she always seems to grin when she's making demands, like it's all fun but also like she's going to eat you. Her tail flicks behind her eagerly and she starts to speak like she's the ship's captain. "You're all going to calm down and be good girls until we reach the shore. The far shore, where we'll let you off to go make the world a little more chaotic and happy. Won't that be fun? Also, anyone who doesn't behave will be bound, gagged, and tossed in the pool."

Chen's ears twitch, and she twirls and sends Cyanis (who was climbing at them from the outside rail of the ship for an ambush) flying across the deck with a swipe of her sword, flying after her to demonstrate her point with a rope that she trails over the completely innocent fox as quick as she can, pulling her hands tight and then quickly gagging her before she can talk her way out of it and, with a bit of effort given her size, rolling the poor fox into the swimming pool.

"I mean it!"

Before she goes into full on fox whapping mode, however, Chen has a glance back to her Rosepetal. Well more than a glance, something like a long soulful gaze with a warm smile. Because she wants you to know, Petal, that she's getting all this strength from you, and she wants you to know too that she's always paying attention to you and wants to make sure you're having fun on this trip too (also her eyes are devouring you, one piece swimsuit and all. It's very clear that there is no place she'd rather be looking).

[Chen will accept Rose's comfort and support, taking an XP and +1 forward. She will spend that +1 on enticing the foxes:
2+3+3+1=9. Either she gets a string on them, or they pick from the options. She also gets an XP for accepting Rose's faith in her.]

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

No. No and no and no. Giri's a mountain girl! She grew up in simple places. She ran off with one of the local shepherd's girls who had the prettiest brown hair that was soft like moss and rolled in the field at 16 and called it wondrously comfortable. They even parted amicably! Fun times, hope to see you again, knew it couldn't last and all.

Of course, she's been to the city, stayed in inns and slept in nice beds. But Giri is a traveling witch. She can't stay in one place for long and even in a noble's mansion she gets the guest bedroom and simple treatment. Enough coin to go about yes, but not near enough to lavish like one of the daughters of heaven upon her own pleasure barge!

And there's something about this. It's been a day of beautiful learning. Of safety and the jingling of her collar as Red Wolf moves her fingers about, and of taking what she wants and breaking all the taboos to get it. But this, too, is new and special. The poetry fills her ears and her mind in a way that all the physicality of earlier can't quite do on its own. It's like it carries her away. She imagines herself atop Mount Meru receiving a garland of flowers even as her mind lazily dwells on the metaphor. It's not hard to attribute conquest to Red Wolf, but to be the subject of it and compared even lightly to such grand things fills her with a giddiness all its own.

Her own mind races too as is her wont. The mountain was the symbol of strength and of endurance, the pink mountain flower holding the meaning of gentleness or kindness arising in a rugged place. A symbol of hidden beauty and unexpected kindness. It was also one of the symbols of the N'yari. Which is what led Giri to whisper "I could take you to the mountains. To the hidden trails and the valleys. The N'yari, at least the ones that aren't divine spirits in disguise, would accept you there with me. I've helped them too, wandering the Flower Kingdoms. They see you as a challenge you know, a romance not just a conquest."

She smiled and traced her own finger across the Red Wolf's shoulder and down the arm, slowly and gently, and lay on those comfortable sheets hoping the night would last forever.

Sunshards

"We could just let them crash the ship." Chen brushes a stray tail out of her face as she stands with Rose at the prow of the giant cruise ship they had commandeered for this purpose. She's got her hair tied back in a short ponytail, a pair of aviator sunglasses perched on her head just below her leopard ears, and a light blue Hawaiian shirt with little pineapples on it above her short skirt. Her tail flicks nervously behind her, and she puts a hand on Rose to hold herself up as she stares off the prow at the distant shoreline and tries not to look at any of the nearby foxes.

When she'd made the promise to Cyanis, she had figured cutie fox island was going to have thirty, maybe thirty five foxes. Something reasonable, maybe a few would have lots of tails, a few would be like Cyanis, they'd cram them all on a little yacht or something and be back across the water in an hour, then they could all scatter and grant wishes and the kingdoms would be a bit more chaotic and happier for it.

So, imagine her shock when Cyanis had said that the little yacht she'd initially brought in wasn't big enough and they'd need to ask at the port for a cruise ship. Imagine, if you will, the moment when Chen's fluffy new ears drooped in time with her tail and she just stood there for a moment and sighed deeply. But how could she say no as Cyanis wagged her two fluffy tails fast enough that it seemed like she might shoot into the air at any moment and wiggled her whole body with joy? She couldn't, and thus they found themselves on a proper cruise ship.

Now, when they'd arrived, the foxes had been cooperative. At least, they had all flooded onto the ship, which was kind of like being cooperative. They were smiling and crinkling their eyes and some of their were little flufferdoodles racing about and laughing while others were walking very cutely and beautifully in their fancy kimonos. But they one and all got onto the ship because it was new and exciting and of course they wanted this. They just couldn't keep their focus for more than ten seconds, so chaos had broken out the second the board ramp pulled in. Okay, actually, it had broken out when the second to last group had tried to kick out the boarding ramp from below the last group and then they'd all jumped for it and Rose had been buried in three foxes and seven tails among them while Chen tried to catch two tiny floofs at the same time without dropping anything or getting her clothes all chormped. We'll call that one a mixed success.

So now here they were and the ship was in chaos and there were problems. Chen sighed again.
"Okay seriously. Dear sweet Rosepetal, you actually know how to deal with this, right? Do we use Keron's playbook and try to force all the foxes in line? Do we just run around putting out fires and hope we make it back to shore in one piece? Or do we just relax, let them tie us up, and wait for the inevitable sunk ship?"

Sunshards

Chen smiled. No no no, Chen beamed. No no, that’s not it. Chen takes over for the setting sun and lights up the world.

This was a gift to her. A special sort of gift. It was sort of like the gift that Yue had given Qiu, but Qiu was in a dark place and so she didn’t believe she’d received it until she was done. Chen knows what she’s been given here, and it only took her one sequence from Hyra to lock in. This is the duel in its purest form, a chance to be completely free. Hyra’s offering something special here, mixing in a new style with her tricks, and Cyanis is laughing as she draws her katana with that special fox laugh, and Chen smiles because a little angel came down to earth and turned it briefly into heaven just for her.

Can you see it from your bound little perch, Yue? The way your dear friend’s face just lights up, the way that even up in the air and far away you can tell her eyes are shining and sparkling?

For a moment, the world hangs frozen. It’s like a droplet of water poised to fall from the tip of an icicle. Then Chen burst forth in a shower of sparkles glittering past the outstretched rays of the twilight sun and they were all dancing.

Every night, every night
We’ll be forever
Every night, every night
Time ceases to be

Fly, twirl, press, step, laugh, caress!

Cyanis hasn’t finished brandishing her katana and laughing when Chen’s inside her guard and they dip together, sword guiding Cyanis’ helpless arm, one of her tails involuntarily twirling about Chen’s leg as the momentum carries them in a dance away from the rushing Hyra.

I dream of wishes
All I see are foxes
Come dance with me
I’ll set you all free

There’s a brush of fluff and a thrush as the lace of a maid skirt flows over a fox’s bare leg. A flail and a breathless hug as the rush of the sword blows past the fox’s cheek, so close she gasps as Chen pulls her in. She whispers “I promise to free them too” and there’s a giggle. They dip and a thrown shuriken passes overhead like a shooting star in the twilight, hot and furious. Then Chen pushes with no weight and Cyanis is falling, falling, falling like a fluffy shooting star all her own. Tails twirling in freefall until they touch the grass not far from the little shrine, the tree, and Yue.

Dancing alone
Just the Northern Wind
The swirling snow and ice
Finding our own Hyperborea

Hyra throws another shuriken and rushes behind it. Blades meet like lightning and there’s a flurry of strikes through the air as the two duelists clash and part. Blades whistle and sing as they compare technique: sight against speed and bluff against reaction time. They’re dancing through the air and a storm begins to swirl around them. Faster and faster until…

Dance together
Join hands within the wind
Our joy is just beginning
All new worlds to live

They’re flying past one another, swords catching and swirling in the storm above the temple. They strike like falcons on the dive. Swoop and dive, talons extended as they deflect with a loud clang. Armor flashes and apron skirts flap as they fly apart and up, gain altitude and dive again. They soar and they weave, and always there is the clash as talons meet and part. The partings become longer, the weaves more complex, the flights faster and faster until…

Laughing wildly I call
Chase me, come catch me
Come on, come on
You can’t run that fast on two legs!

Light flares from the sunshards and the two are running on the grass across the hilltop right past Yue, Qiu, and Cyanis, diverting around Rose, Kat, and the Pyre as they come up parallel. Hyra barks and bares her fangs and Chen growls and swishes her new fluffy gray and black tail behind her for balance! It becomes wolf vs. leopard as the two vie for an opening, racing back and forth across the hill! The wolf is stronger, but the leopard’s more agile and so they bound back and forth in long looping circles. They leap higher and higher until…

Fly with me
You don’t need wings
I hear you calling me
Don’t let the world hold you

There’s a flash and they’re back in the sky, wolf and leopard running in the wind. They clash in the sky like little deities of this new shrine, unbound by any laws of the world. Tooth and claw etched upon lighting and silhouetted by stormclouds.

This one passes beyond sight. Higher and higher in the clouds. Why shouldn’t it? When you’ve stopped caring about time, when the hearts of stars want to see your performance, it’s going to carry into the heavens and dance before the last light of the last sun on the horizon. They’re not wolf, nor cat, nor girl anymore but wearing forms exactly of their choosing, swords in hand, sparks flying with each blow as though the god of the forge were reworking the night sky.

There’s a magic there that Chen would paint if she could double herself and watch her own performance. It’s the same magic she keeps seeing, the way that the sun, the moon, and the light and the shadow all merge together to make such beautiful colors. The way those colors reflect off swords and armor, fur and fang, the most perfect reds and oranges, blues, and purples that she could ever imagine. She’s so completely immersed in it that she never wants to stop.

Hold the world instead
Hold love close
Make but one thing
And you make the world

For a time it seems like it might be that way. Chen would lose herself in the joy and Hyra in the performance. They could carve themselves into the stars as new constellations forever. But there are people waiting for them down below. And besides that, it is the nature of duels to end.

In the end, it is not Hyra sitting atop a sunshard as they descend to earth, but little Chen, sword in one hand resting over her lap. As she descends, she’s busy smoothing down the fluff of her maid skirts, which are now being sent every which way as her extra fluffy snow leopard’s tail flicks from side to side experimentally.

Hyra rests beside Chen, exhausted and panting, but not sent hurtling back down to the hilltop. Her armor still gleams in the moonlight and her hair, now loose and scattered, somehow looks even more gorgeous.

In the end, the difference was that Chen had promised after the sky castle that she wouldn’t hold back anymore, that she wouldn’t insult her opponents by hesitating. So she refused to give up and a lifetime of training for this thing she loved had let her hold out past Hyra’s endurance.

As they come to the hilltop, Chen has a special glance for Qiu, equal parts pride and embarrassment. This duel had been planned for her originally. It hadn’t been needed, but Chen wanted her to know that she was ready for that too. That she had been ready if Qiu and Yue hadn’t already worked things out. Even after having her whole body thrown by her foe’s mouth, she had come back and she wanted to fight Qiu when the time was right. It wouldn’t be like that again. It never should have been, and she was embarrassed that it had.

When her feet finally touch starlit grass, she runs first to Rose to show her what happened, what’s she’s done with a new shard! But of course, she finds her with the Pyre utterly lost. She humphs and straightens up her dress before licking her fingers and pinching out the candle.

“Who said you could take a break, maid Petal?” Chen’s finger is under Rose’s chin, lifting up those eyes to look at Chen’s new fluffy speckled triangle ears as she towers above the prostrated Rosepetal. Chen is shaking her head affectionately, that smile on her face that she can never manage to keep off when she’s having fun. “Your job was to distract an army and, obviously, to protect your mistress and instead I find you napping! You’ve been terribly naughty, Petal. I’ll expect you to make it up to me later.” Chen picks up the candle and slips it into a pocket of her apron. “I imagine this might be useful for that too~” she says, offering her most convincing kitty smile. “Now apologize properly to your Lady as well.” And here Chen curtseys to the Pyre of Meaning and bows her head. “Apologies for the inconvenience my lady.” If she weren’t grinning so hard and with such a feral grin in all of this, everyone watching might even believe her prim and proper act.

Last of all, Chen pads her way over to where Yue is tied up by the tree, near Qiu and where Cyanis so gracefully landed when she was pulled out of the sky. “I know you put them all up to this” Chen says to the tied up girl. “Not to mention whatever happened between you and Qiu first. And uh, whatever you all did to Yin.” Chen flicks her tail appreciatively…probably at least. She’s still working on figuring out the tail, but she flicks it and she means it to be appreciative, plus she accompanies it with a smile to show what she’s getting at.

She stares for a moment, and then bends down and gives Yue the biggest little hugs she’s ever gotten! “This is the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me. I don’t know how to repay you, Yue, but by every right you have claim over that sunshard there, if you want it. Even though I’m having a lot of fun with it so far.” Chen flicks her new fluffy snow leopard’s tail in front of her for emphasis, brushing it past Yue’s face so she can feel how soft it is.

“Oh, there is one little matter though.” Here Chen’s wearing the same face she usually has for teasing Rose, though she’s taking a bit more of a chance with Yue. “There was something about sending a fox army to assault my handmaiden and threatening to conquer Ys, I think? So, I’m not sure if I can untie you just yet. No, I think we’ll have to march you back into the city just like that first. Don’t you think?”

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

The funny thing about a collar is how freeing it can be. All this pressure Giri had been placing on herself and now it's outside of her. Red Wolf has pronounced her punishment and it's a fair one all things considered. More than fair really, though Giri hasn't yet been challenged by having service to the Dominion pit against her beliefs. So far, Red Wolf has been cunning and careful.

Here, it's like a weight has been lifted off Giri's shoulder and moved to her collar, to her captor. That's a good weight, a pleasant weight. She lifts a finger and jingles the bell experimentally. It's tinkling sound is bright and cheery. It's nice. She smiles openly and freely if Cathak Agata is happening to look. She might not be though, not with her hair pulling and her breath on Giri's neck so warm and thick.

It's funny though, the way that freedom feels. She's starting to feel a bit recovered, a bit more energetic than she has since the series of portals to hell. She stretches her shoulders, a slow, thoughtful lift up and release. Giri's a big woman, and Red Wolf can feel herself rise an inch as those shoulders flex. In Giri's eyes there's a feral gleam all her own.

Only then does she answer. "You seem to be the only here, Agata." Of course that was intentional. It's practically over the top and cliche to leave off the title like that. It's like holding up a big sign making her choice and also a bit of a test. Does she tense atop Giri? Does she grow angry? How sincere was her offer?

To Giriel's delight, the Red Wolf does not go stiff and cold at her name bereft of its titles. And so Giri rolls over, flipping her host to the floor with the inevitability of an avalanche and turning all her bulk upon her. Giri is warm too, but differently from Agata. Giri's is the warmth of strength and substance, of being able to envelope someone in an embrace that covers all of them. She takes in Agata now, burying that heroic face in her chest, her sturdy arms fully surrounding Red Wolf's shoulders as they squeeze with an urgency that sends a shudder running through both women. Then Giri's hands begin working down her host's back, pressing and massaging, searching for the right spots to make even the Red Wolf moan with pleasure.

All the while, Giri's collar jingles merrily, each shift of her arms and her chest sending it bouncing anew, lest anyone forget who's the master here. Of course, Red Wolf could move any time she pleases, but she offered to fulfill the role of the attendant and Giri has so much want built up in her. Enough that she can no longer wait, enough that when her burden of guilt was pulled from her she leapt at the chance, enough that for a moment the two women are one. The whole world is the touch and the smell of each other as Giri pulls Red Wolf's lips to her own and kisses her urgently, deeply, passionately. She breathes in the Red Wolf and presses herself into her, tongue and teeth and breath, pressing until she can feel a tiny dribble of blood from Agata's lip.

Only then does she release for breath, still holding the Red Wolf tightly beneath her, satisfied with herself for the first time since the hells.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

If you'd taken Giri out to tea (or perhaps a lot of sake) and asked her how she imagined this going, it was not this. She certainly had not imagined answering for her wrongs and the wrongs of her profession tied up with a scion of the dominion held close to her. But even if you'd posed this exact scenario, what she'd have told you over drinks was that she wanted to be strong, stoic, willing to accept what fate had dealt her and face her fate with dignity and grace.

Which makes the deep blush coursing its way through Giri's whole body all the more difficult to bear. She can speak but she has no words as Red Wolf drapes herself over Giri's body. The weight of her and the warmth, gosh it's so much! Red Wolf is far more than mortal and the blood of the dragons coursing through her makes Giri's heart flutter. It's heat and touch, pressure along her back and shoulders, almost like a stone massage. Her muscles loosen and the sound that escapes her mouth is a sign of pleasure.

It almost hurts. In her head there is pain and apology, and more than a little indignation, but her body wants only to relax into the ropes and the grip, for Red Wolf to dig those talons of hers deeper under Giri's chin and stroke the neck just shy of drawing blood. She wants Red Wolf to hold her whole head and bury it between her thighs. She wants it all, and she can't even move or see.

"I'm sorry" she says and through her pleasure it barely sounds like she means it, but she does. Perhaps Red Wolf is so experienced in such matters of physical pleasure that she knows what it sounds like when someone sincerely means what they're saying yet sounds silly because of the pressures their body is putting on them. Or perhaps she expects the impossible out of Giri and wants dignified respect even as she drunkenly wraps herself about her captive. If so, she will be disappointed.

Through her sighs and her cuddles, Giri does eventually manage to get out a few sentences though. "It was the only way I could think of for a spell to get such a big group out of the hells. I didn't want to hurt Piripiri but it was the only way I know. I wasn't strong enough to do better, please tell her I'm sorry." And then a moment later, after she's had a chance to just breathe and can speak again, "I finished your first request. The spirits are calm, and Peregrine, the witch who was doing that spell, she's busy elsewhere now."

That's as much as she has to offer. Even getting that much out through the teasing has her panting, and it's obvious she's at war with herself not to simply moan and beg Red Wolf for more. She wants more. She wants it bad. If Red Wolf would just massage her back and work one of those hands further down and down she'd lose all thought entirely.

And here's the thing: she's letting Red Wolf know it, her body responding to every touch and pressure with sharp breaths and moans she can't hold back. That hand works its way so carefully along her back, first lightly, then harder, pressing on the muscles and pushing against the knots. Giri lets out a low moan of pleasure and leans in as much as the ropes will allow her. That hand keeps moving down, down over the lower back and to the butt squeezing her cheeks tightly and then lower still as Giri lets go of all words and relaxes into the Red Wolf's ministrations.

[Giri is rolling to entice the Red Wolf. 4+2+2-2=6. A miss.]