Anarion

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For Yuki, when she remembers this later, the scene at the Welcoming Plaza splits into two distinct moments. The first is the sight of the maid. The second is everything else.

The sound of the skateboard was so unexpected. She’d told people about skateboards of course! Several people when she was here last time. She liked skateboarding. Yuki was a motion girl, she liked anything that got her moving. The stomach drop on rollercoasters, the wind in her hair when running (even before she had fluffy triangles that could sense every change in the air!), the sudden swift shift of a fencing stance, and for sure the ground rolling away from her when she got on a skateboard.

So, when she heard it, it snapped her head to it, and before her eyes was a maid knight. She’d only met the one, Eclair, last time around. Yuki still remembered her. She had lost her notepad and was looking for it the whole adventure, they kept running into each other. Only, at the end, well, Yuki thought the victory had really been Eclair’s. Sure, Yuki had the sword of legend, infused with light and all that. But she had thrust it exactly one time into Azaza, a single strike that infused the star with so much light that she could not maintain herself and was imprisoned within the mirrors she so loved. Yuki had no expertise, no particular skill at the time. Eclair had taken that duel, had moved like a blinding flash of violet hair and black and white robes. Faster than Azaza. Faster than Yuki could follow. It had been so unexpected. So incredible. It had been like watching a person fly. Azaza had been so utterly occupied, forced to bring all her powers to bear, to use the magic of her star to cheat because she was going to lose to the maid! And so her defenses were lowered, and Yuki was free to thrust the sword of light into her side and consume her and all her reflections in the blinding glare.

So, now Yuki stares. At a new maid with a halo of curly light orange hair and a black and white mask over her face to match her outfit. Well…no, the mask didn’t match the outfit. The maid outfit called for a friendly smile lighting up raised cheeks and sparkling eyes. The mask may have color-matched, but it felt flat by comparison, black and white with no emotion and a sinister curl to the smile painted upon it. Yuki stared as the maid came over the roofs with her skateboard, stared as the “tails” of firecrackers flared into colors. Stared as the maid’s sword fluttered undrawn at her side.

A part of her mind is thinking hottest villain, 100%, gotta see what’s under that mask and kiss it. The rest of her is reacting to the firecrackers, jumping towards Juni and realizing that Olesya is bigger and closer, and is going to get there first.

The second part of the scene is the chaos after the sight of the maid, who hangs still in Yuki’s mind’s eye. The firecrackers going off were like time suddenly going from slow motion to warp speed. Like the orcs flooding past Grond into Minis Tirith (later, it would occur to her that the way the view changed also made her think of this, like a gate having been broken to show a different world past it from which everyone comes flooding in).

Yuki acts on instinct. Realizing that Olesya has swept up Juniper, she pivots so hard her foot slides on the stone tile and her tail whips up into the air for balance. Her other foot steps and pushes, causing her to spin towards the crowd. And she she spins, her heartblade is already forming in the air. A great crescent axe glowing with the cool white of Kel moonlight at the end of a long pole with a sharpened end. Yuki grips it in both hands, her right hand near the base, her left just below the center. And as she completes the spin, the axe forms into a wide sweep already occurring, taking a Nagi and a member of the pack completely off their feet in the same sweeping motion.

That sweep creates the space that Yuki needs to sprint. Not out of the crowd, but into it, coming at it from the side and cutting through at a diagonal. Though her axe is no sword, her fencing training carries her forward, each sweep matched by advancing footwork, the momentum of the heavy axe pulling her into the run to keep up with herself, and the spinning blade either scattering the crowd or dropping them before her.

“Hazel!” She calls, as loud as she can. But her voice can’t carry above the deafening explosions. And no matter how fast she goes, she can’t cut down a whole crowd by herself, nor outsprint the fastest Nagi and Serigalamu. Not with her short little legs. There is no amount of puissance that will let her catch up to Seli and Keli (of all people!) dragging Hazel along and out the gates. Instead, she’ll have to let the crowd dictate where she goes until she cuts her way free. “Hazeeeeeel!” But her voice is even further away. She should never have left him alone.

[Yuki attempts to defy disaster through the crowd with daring: 3+1+1=5]

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“You’re laying the traps, not the…uh Baygum?” That one kind of slips out, pure surprise. Didn’t quite seem like it matched up with the relationship, especially the whole ritual life is forfeit thing that Juni had just gone off about. If Olesya was the one marked by light, wasn’t she supposed to lay the trap for capturing the faun so that she could tame him? Or was there a transitive property thing where anything that her captive did was to her credit no matter what? If so, that didn’t seem particularly fair, especially if Juni…no, no it was clear Juni was fine with it. Moving on.

She walks around the Welcoming Plaza. This place she knows. They start parades here sometimes. Open stones laid out in a circle that leads you to the street into the city proper, and cool stone walls. Crevas had a style and lived it. She watches Juni putting the net down, trying to set it up, wondering how she was going to camouflage it into stone of all things. Maybe she had some kind of magic? Or maybe she could just color match it with some loose gravel.

Her mind spins over the last conversation as she watches the pack move about as well, climbing the walls and spreading through the city at impossible angles. Wondering if the Nagi had anything to match that. Winged Lamia guards maybe? Or jetpacks. Had she ever told Sulochana about jetpacks, as a concept? Nagi would probably love jetpacks, they’d be able to pounce someone tail first with them. Maybe powered by magic crystals or something.

But anyway, she was pondering what Olesya said when she saw all the mounts, “also, if she knows what? I’m sorry, but I never really met the Serigalamu when I was here last time, so if there’s something with the goblin mounts and the Khatun, can you spell it out for me?” A guess, maybe a dumb one, Yuki wasn’t even sure what the She was, but Olesya only seemed to care about the Khatun’s opinion, so that was where Yuki was starting with her guess.

A little time passes. Yuki is fretting and checking her tablet. No answer from Hazel, but also no visible Hazel. Could mean he was hiding and unable to safely pull his tablet out. But that could mean somewhere dark, which would mean the whole cut off the entrance plan might not pan out. Did she even want to catch him in a net? She had been hoping that he’d willingly join her despite Olesya’s presence and they’d be able to sort things out more quietly after that. She was ready to heart duel for Hazel’s freedom if she had to, but hoped it wouldn’t come to that, especially if it would make Juni mad.

Yuki taps her foot on the stone streets, and then her ears twitch. What was that sound? That sounded like a skateboard. Distinctive wheel scraping on stone sound. Sensitive cat ears don’t lie about that kind of thing. It was an Earth sound, not at all like the big wheels of wagons or carts, the sound that only came from small hard wheels spinning quickly over an equally hard surface. Her head whips around to look for it.

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Juniper is lucky her tail is wagging and she can't hide her glee. Well no, Juniper is whatever. Olesnya is the one that's lucky that Juni is lucky. If Juni wasn't into it and was getting that look, Yuki would have been in Olesnya's face so fast. Like blink and you missed it fast.

Even so, Yuki's tail flicks just once, in irritation. Tails were good for that. You hardly get to give Yuki the same look because she's new and doesn't have the words for it. And if Juni is that sensitive about it, maybe there's something to be sensitive about. Whatever, this train of thought wasn't getting her anywhere.

In a different moment, being asked for her tracking skills would have had Yuki panicking. That wasn't something that she'd learned. She wasn't a girl scout, and her summer camp and after school stuff had been sports related. Thellamie made her fall in love with swords and fantasy. She thought she'd been smart to live that out and get in good shape, and she had. But that didn't magic up a super sense of smell or the ability to know what signs a fleeing deerboy would leave in the middle of a city she hadn't visited in over half a decade. Assuming any of those signs weren't immediately trampled by a hundred racing wolfgirls and snakegirls.

But now, well, Oleysnya had gotten Yuki's goat, so to speak. A challenge, a withering glare that she didn't deserve, and a useful reminder on top of that. ...we track naturally, even in unnatural places. Yeah, okay, she was up to that.

"You're right, I've been going about this wrong. Money bet is Hazel's not smart right now. He's overwhelmed. So...even though he could have lost most everyone by doubling back, he's not going to think about that. He's going to be in flight mode. We saw him turn down that way, and then turn a corner and go out of sight. Let's follow from the roofs, we've got better sight than the pack this way. So ignore the pack, they weren't close enough to see any better than we could and it doesn't matter where they are. Look for the closest clear line of sight the way he ran. We'll either see him, or that tells us that he hid somewhere between where we are and where the view clears up."

And then for good measure, she quickly pulls her tablet out and starts a DM.
>[.snowkitten]
>Hazel, you okay? Know where you are?
>I'm with one of my friends and... a hunter 🙃
>...better than the alternative I think, we can sneak you out of the city, figure it out from there

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"Tame?" Yuki hadn't really thought about that part. Everyone had been so intent on the hunt part. She had been too, the Golden Fawn (i.e. poor confused Hazel) was the chosen one, everybody wanted him. Yuki had been focused on protecting him, it hadn't really clicked that there was something about taming him.

That was really different than her experience. She'd drawn the sword from the stone, so to speak. Not...literally, but really close! Her hand patted the weathered blade she wore. A keepsake. Apparently it had been hung up after she left and since it had been a powerful glowing legendary sword, nobody had thought to oil it or sharpen it, so it tarnished over the years, became dull and a little rusted. A good metaphor for how things changed, but she loved it for that, had immediately taken it from Kel on her return, no questions asked, no time to try and fix it up, and she didn't even really want to.

She follows to the next rooftop. It was a good question, and she was glad to have her mind elsewhere. It felt like the city was bewitched as far as directions go and the easiest thing there was to stop trying, let Olesnya decide their route based on what she knows about her pack, and maybe buy a city map later. And some other maps for that matter, she was going to have a different journey this time around, she could tell.

"Hazel is...uh, kind of a sweetie, I think? He's really shy. Like, not about everything. He loves good food, especially sweet treats, he's got a sweet tooth like he's a five year old honestly. Oh man, and one time, we were out and he tripped and spilled ice cream all over his shirt and pants like he was five too. I mean, honestly it was super cute though. And he's not uncoordinated or anything normally! He loves games, especially rhythm games, he's really good at them. I think he's good at learning rules and timing and has good hand eye coordination, that sort of thing, and he tries to be a good boy and do everything right, so he gets really into games until he's super good at them! He just, kinda gets distracted by stuff sometimes when he's out places, so he can make mistakes or mess something up, y'know?" That hadn't come out quite how Yuki meant it to, but with the running and the thinking, her brain was just on gush as far as the part she was supposed to talk about. She was saying out loud and thinking at the same time here, not enough mental energy left for the filter.

"Kind of makes him hard to tame though cuz he's already really tame. Like with everyone pretty much. How do you make someone who's shy and tame and tries to be really proper and polite more tame, y'know? Like, if you caught him, he'd totally just do whatever you told him to. I mean, like, he'd try to escape if you put him in a cell, but if you were just like 'hey, please, this is really important and it'd be rude if you didn't respect my culture' I'm pretty sure he'd just do whatever you asked. At least for a while until he was somewhere safe and could leave with his friends. Though, like, well, maybe not everything? Some of the stuff you've been telling me about, Juni, he'd probably be too embarrassed to do. Far as I know, he never dated anybody in high school, like, not even casually. I don't think he's had his first kiss ever, not that I've heard about. And like, I dunno if I've ever seen Hazel hug anybody who's not his mom, which I shouldn't laugh at him about, he tries so hard to be nice and not offend anyone. But, so like he'd probably be kinda traumatized if you tried to make him a...er...like a slave for you? Um, I mean, I'm not saying you practice slavery, I just don't know the right word, but like, the thing where you catch him and force him to do stuff, like you were kinda saying, Olesnya" (whoops) "like making Juni tutor him whether he wants to or not, I think he'd get really embarrassed about that stuff. But like, I dunno, we're waaaaay off from taming here, not sure I answered your question?"

Yuki blushes, brushes her pigtails back with her hand, resets her footing, keeps moving, staying close to Olesya (ya, bad girl!), tries to see how close they're getting to the city walls, or if the types of roofs are changing or anything. Something, anything that would situate her in Crevas.

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A moment to think. Blessed, blessed moment. Yuki looks to where the golden antlers faded. She's breathing rhythmically. Not hard, steadily, her body still ready to keep running. The lightness of the Kel armor is wonderful in this moment. She knew some Kel paladins went for full plate, but she'd picked something that she could wear regular clothes over. Running and jumping like this, she felt that was the right call between protection and agility. Plus, armor vs. heartblades was a super weird thing. She'd wanted it for...well she wasn't sure exactly, but there seemed to be a range of hazards in Thellamie beyond heartblades, and even then there was something to enchanted armor that might at least slow a heartblade down or let her move herself around someone's heartblade. It would at least soften a punch if nothing else. There was also the aesthetics, Yuki wanted to be a knight of Thellamie, not a chosen queen, and not just a random person either.

When she looks back up, it's to glare at Juniper and Olesnya. ...ya, whatever. She shouldn't be mad, but Juni assuming that she knew the way around here. The first time through had been in chains, the second time as part of a festival and it was over six years ago! Maybe if they put up different colored party streamers across all the roofs to direct people between the food vendors and the perfume vendors and the souvenir stands, then she'd know where she was going. Big emphasis on the maybe though, six years was a long time to remember which way to turn without stopping in the middle of a chase!

She blinks. Glaring wasn't going to help, and as the seconds tick by, the hunters and Hazel are getting further away, and who knows what's happening back at the plaza! "Okay what are we...even trying to do here?" Yuki scratches her head, tilts her chin up. She'd started thinking about Hazel chasing plans, but then mentally backpedaled. She didn't have a specific place to be, dinner obviously wasn't happening, and she had at least three different groups she wanted to be with at the moment (Hazel, Suli, and Juni. She could come up with more if you gave her a minute). "If you catch Hazel now, you need a plan to get him out of here super fast or the entire mob is going to drop on top of us, right? And if he's racing away like that, he must already be totally freaked out. So...so, we don't need to catch him, right? What we need is for him to get away from the big group and then we can contact him and figure out what's next. I dunno if he'll be willing to meet up with you all right away. Track him maybe? I haven't seen that many other people here that look like him, maybe there's a unique scent we could follow?"

She looks at Olesnya more than Juniper, doesn't hold her gaze for long, looks around again. Maybe there was something, some landmark that would give her a hint of the best way to go to do this?

[Rolling Been Around for this part of Crevas to see if Yuki recalls an adventure here that's helpful. 2+2+1=5.]

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Getting out of here was happening. Good, good! Yuki looks as Juniper goes first, and blushes intensely. Juniper! Gosh! Wear an underskirt or something! She was going to introduce Thellamie to bicycle shorts after this. Gosh, gosh gosh. But, focus, jump. Her feet scuff the pavement, and her armor jingles below her shirt as she hits Olesnya with a solid running start and vaults onto the roof. She's never done this, but there's a practiced ease to her movement. The ease of feeling her center of mass, of hundreds of days spent moving and shifting her weight and being sure to always know how she can move. And the ease of having triangles and the reflexes that go with them. Her whole body was itching for something like this and she leans into it. It's almost perfect as she starts sprinting along the rooftops, pigtails whipping back as she runs.

Almost perfect. It's just, too much was happening is the thing. There was a fight, and the wolf pack vs. snakegirl guards thing was huge and chaotic. The Khatun had moved off away from Juniper and Olesnya, and by the time they rounded back into view, Yuki couldn't see the ceremony anymore. Couldn't see what was happening. Everyone else must have jumped down or off, or gotten mixed up.

She wanted to get her tablet out, start something up in the group chat. Check in with Sulochana and Juniper together, and maybe get Aadya's take too. She would soon, as soon as she could stop and focus.

Poor Suli, poor poor Suli! Yuki had only meant to jump over and ask questions. There had been risks, sure, but, the risk in her mind had been switching who kidnapped her from whom at dinner! Not a giant melee over Hazel! God sake. Suli was going to be so upset about this. It's why Yuki had snapped at Juniper about it initially. She knew Suli, and Suli was kind of uptight. If she wanted special time and didn't get it, she was going to mope about it for days! Or worse, she'd secret mope about it! [Need marked]

But then, the Khatun had relished the fight, Yuki had heard it in her voice. And on top of that, she'd heard how excited Sulochana had been about the crown of light. If anyone else thought like Sulochana did, then they were going to go all out for this too. Which meant that Hazel was...

Yuki nearly trips and falls on her face as her thoughts get ahead of the shift in roof layout to a smaller building with a diagonal A-frame roof as they move away from the market square.

"Where are we going?" she manages as she recenters herself and kicks extra hard on the jump to catch back up with Juniper and Olesnya. "I don't know this part of Crevas! When can we stop?"

She wants to stop. Wants to try and catch up, ask questions, get in touch with people, hit up the chat group, reach out to Hazel, both DM and new group chat. And she doesn't even know the half of what's happened!

And yet, she doesn't want to stop. This is good. Her body is sending her all the good signals, all the endorphins running on rooftops with Juniper and Olesnya. She could do an entire course, run all night until she's sweating and tired and needs to gulp down an entire pitcher of water.

She doesn't...she doesn't know what she wants. Well no, she doesn't want to fall. She starts counting in her head. Feet in rhythm. One two three, one two three, one two three. Like a dance, like a match. Just the counting and listening to Juniper and Olesnya. Run, learn what's next, go from there. One two three, one two three.

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Oh, that was totally the Khatun, wasn't it? The one Juniper said was into surprises. Yeah, yeah, Yuki could see it. Surprise like a shot through the heart! A heartbow was really an interesting weapon if you thought about it. In a world where it took time to draw a heart weapon and a hit to the head or the heart completely ended a fight, a bow fired by someone who would not miss their first shot ended a duel before it had even begun. Could you even call it a duel at that point? More like an ambush, or a kidnapping, right? Or, she supposed, like a hunter catching her prey. It was impressive. Though it did make Yuki wonder. How did she fare in an actual duel? She must have had some to become Khatun. They hadn't really interacted with the Serigalamu during the Azaza incident, and while Juniper had been very forthcoming about her hunting and clothing and now her lovely girlfriend, she hadn't bothered regaling Yuki with a history lesson of the Khanate. Somehow, Yuki didn't think the Khatun just crumpled if someone got close to her though. She probably knew how to backflip or something, and fire on the move while she was doing it. She had that badass cool vibe.

Okay, hold on, rewind a bit, a lot was happening and wondering about the mechanical constraints of heartbow dueling wasn't important. After receiving the answer about competition, Yuki looked thoughtful. She was going to say something else, maybe ask why the interpretation was competition and not cooperation, but she could admit to herself that the idea of competition got her heart beating too. She didn't have the chance though, with the Khatun's dismissal, so she settled on managing a brief curtsy with her t-shirt before Juniper and, Olesya was her name, Olesya the Baygum pulled her aside. Fine, fair enough. She hadn't had a plan for after this, she just had that moment of realizing that of everyone watching events, the Khatun had been special along with Yuki in observing the multiple contestants ahead of everyone else and that deserved a chat.

So, she was going to ask Juniper what was up, and ask the Baygum how she felt about things (because, let's be real, she came across as the sort of girl that was enrolled in one activity too many and really wanted some time to just run around without any rules). But then Crowey McCrowerston showed up and like, holy shit things started happening really fast.

First, everybody's heads turned with the wet slap because that is not a sound you expect to be hearing in the middle of a solemn ceremony and it carried. Everybody distracted by Crowey, which he was obviously going for. Then the golden fawn thing. Sulochana was shouting over the crowd, but Yuki was mentally a step of ahead of her because she'd arrived with Hazel and he was the only deer person she'd seen, and it wasn't that much of a stretch to put two and two together. Gah, stupid, she'd sent him to run off. She was looking around, then caught what Crowey was saying and was tracking him as fast as she could and yep, yep there's Hazel.

Ooh, and all wrapped up with Purnima no less. Had Hazel already found a Nagi girlfriend? Wow, good for him! Gosh, she was going to have to explain the politics of this one to him, and maybe let him know that Purnima had been kind of thoughtless when she met Yuki? Nagi were usually pretty good about paying attention to their coils, but she'd given Yuki the distinct impression that she was so preoccupied that she might crush Yuki by accident, and she'd better let Hazel know about that before he got too involved. But she could probably smooth things over with Sulochana. Or well, that thought was true up to like three seconds before she had it because no way was Suli going to let the prize for the whole crown of light thing fall into her local rival's hands.

Also huh, the Khatun had been right about the contest. Good call on her part. Wonder if she'd seen something like that before, gotta remember to ask her later if there's ever a later that involves actually chatting with her.

Oooh antler glow. There is...a moment as the magic flows into Hazel, that Yuki feels a little jealous. Juniper might notice if she's not totally distracted. Just that feeling of Yuki changing her stance, letting her head droop, curling in on herself a bit. She's thinking, oh, this one really is for Hazel. It's not just that she got to return, it's because Hazel is the chosen one this time. And very quickly she thinks that she didn't really want to be the chosen one again anyway, and it was super awkward being a celebrity here, and this was extremely cool for Hazel and she should be happy for him and she would be happy for him. But it's never easy to suddenly imagine yourself sharing a stage that had been all yours until just that moment. She buried that deep down just in time to look back up and see the arrow loosed.

Which brings us back to heartbows and Yuki contemplating them as Juniper and Olesnya, no no it was Olesya, no N Yuki, come on, but oh she was definitely going to mess that one up with how cute it sounded to say it cat style. Anyway, with Juniper and Oley holding her and the whooping of the pack, there wasn't much to do but think about what had just happened. Poor Purnima, taken out in the first instant. From what Yuki had gathered, she was not going to live that one down, and she'd probably never let it go. Blood vengeance on the entire Khanate probably. Whoof.

As the pack and the nagi begin to mix and press, Yuki does look up, almost upside down as she cranes her neck, to Juniper and Olesya. "So, he's from my world. Friend of mine from school. His name's Hazel, really nice guy, like super polite, a little shy I think. I sent him off to go explore the festival when we got here. Maybe instead of this madhouse, we all get out of here and I can introduce you? I've got his chat set up." She gives them a big smile, though there are butterflies in her tummy too. Poor Hazel, was he going to be all right with this? She hoped it didn't overwhelm him.

Return to Thellamie

Yuki winks at Juniper as she walks away. Because, well, maybe she does want her to come and get her. She's not sure, exactly. The idea of it made lots of different scenarios bloom in her mind. Heart duels with the Serigalamu. Standing back to back with Sulochana holding off a group of foes as they cover each other. Epic last stands in the middle of a restaurant. But at the same time, imagining being tied together with Juniper, squirming uncomfortably as the Baygum picks her up. Being sat on her lap with Juniper on the other leg. It sounded like fun whichever way it went, and she had lots of things she might want to try. Maybe not everything, she wasn't sure. But Juniper seemed to be having a lot of fun, and that tail wag still stuck in Yuki's head. Whatever other silliness she had going on with the Khanate and their flair for crashing events, she was enjoying herself.

But then there's a show. Yuki hurriedly joins Sulochana on her bench again, lying on her left arm this time so the right still has a chance to have some bloodflow without falling asleep. She doesn't want to block anyone's view of the special event, so she lets her head rest sideways on the edge of the raised bench, flexes her legs, flexes her arms, shifts her weight from arm to shoulder so it's not pressing on her elbow, flips her pigtail behind her so it doesn't get in her mouth. She's still getting used to her body in this world, it's a grown catgirl, come off her own work in fencing and track and lots of other things. She feels strong within herself, though so far most of everything that's happened has just been startled reflexes. But if she wants to jump or run, well, she feels that strength inside her. But for now, she saves it and lounges, and only the curling of toes tells you she's still got tension running through her.

She doesn't jump when the lightshow starts. No, far from it, she's enraptured. First staring at Civelia and Heron, the light rushing through them. At the beautiful purples and pinks. She goes to a fireworks show every summer, they do one at the baseball stadium. There's a band there, they play classical music and new stuff and sometimes they'll go for a whole hour. Bright sparkles and all sorts of colors in the sky. She'd go with her family to the baseball game together, and they'd usually invite uncles and aunts and buy out a whole row along the third base line for that one day. Watch the game, watch the fireworks, everybody would get hotdogs with lots of fixings (or no fixings when she was younger and pickier). This feels like that if the world were full of faeries. If the fireworks came down to you and played around the heads of your friends mere feet away.

Her gaze follows to Sulochana, and to the yipping Khatun in turn. She realizes that it's at least two, maybe more than two. And it sounds like this wasn't supposed to happen. It's Yuki and the gray-haired woman who are thinking it at the same time. Different plans, Yuki's excited, curious, wondering what it means that the crown is split, wondering if this relates to her being here, to Hazel being here.

The older woman is calculating. Look at that face. Yuki's got her eyes trained on her, half rising already. If she actually tries anything, Yuki will pull Sulochana down before the shot goes off. But she doesn't think the woman will do anything quite that brazen. Not yet at least. Does she want the crown for the Khanate? For herself? Will her ire turn towards Juniper's girlfriend or is it only to Sulochana?

Yuki's up in a flash. All those muscles tense from her interaction with Juniper ready to burn some energy. She's up and she's over and she hasn't drawn a blade or raised a hand. But she's in front of the silver-haired woman, fearless. "You know what this means, don't you? Or you have some idea?" Her eyes are eager, her face is open, but she's making sure to stand in a line that puts her between the woman and Sulochana. "Can you tell me what you're thinking?"

[Rolling to figure out the woman. What can Yuki tell from her movement and language? What is she hoping to get from the ritual? 4+5+1=10, so Yuki gets her questions.]

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“Juniper?”

Yuki’s eyes are saucer wide as her friend suddenly steps into view. At Sulochana’s high bench no less, striding among the well-connected or wealthy Nagi who have the best seats with only the barest concern for not blocking their view too long. It’s bold, but then everything about Juniper screams bold at this moment. Except the tail wag, and the glow. That screams happy and it’s that tail wag that sets the mood for Yuki. Because hey, if this was Juniper’s true heart and living every second of being the pet puppy on display for everyone was making her this happy, then it made Yuki happy too.

She lifts her head up, one pigtail dangling below her, one swing past her ear to floor into her face. She rolls a little, groans when she realizes that her elbow had fallen asleep where she was lying on it, and swings out legs first instead, using her momentum and weight to send herself standing without needing to push with the asleep arm. Then she moves into the hug, ignoring the pins and needles as feeling comes back to her.

Juniper is…gosh. The furs have the scent of wolves. Yuki doesn’t have a dog at home, and she’s more of a cat person (maybe that’s why she’d been sent to Kel, come to think of it?). But she likes dogs, and Juniper has the right feel. The furs are soft, and the smell on them, it’s powerful, covering her, making her feel like the Serigalamu feel as she envelopes Yuki. She was taller than Yuki before, but as they both grew up, the gap there only widened, and Yuki feels her face close to Juniper’s chest as they embrace close. It’s warm and it’s not just her arm that tingles as her face presses close.

And then there’s the lick. It’s timed perfectly. She had just shifted herself, started to bring her head up to speak up for when Sulochana had been cut off when the lick pushes past her left pigtail and brushes her cheek. She lets out a distinct meep! and manages not to jump or hit her head on Juniper’s chin.

This wasn’t a Thellamie thing, and sure wasn’t an Earth thing! At least, she didn’t think it was. She’d had one boyfriend (oops) and two girlfriends, only one of whom had kissed her and nobody had every licked her! She blushes, turning her skin dark, and starts to bury her head into Juniper as a hiding reaction before realizing what she’s doing and blushes even hard as she tries to look up without pushing Juniper or doing anything even more awkward. In her head, she’s considering the merits of trying to summon a hole to the Outside to swallow her up right here with how much of an idiot she’s making of herself right now.

But then, a few things start to catch up. The string, meaning Juniper is taken. The maid knight. She had said that maid knight. Did she mean Eclair, the one from last time? That was The only one they both knew. That maid knight. If she’d blessed this relationship, it was serious and Yuki should support it. But a glance back at Sulochana also showed her a snake girl who was not well-pleased at having her plans disrupted and was wearing a face that said both how dare you and poor Miette at the same time.

“You dummy!” Yuki punches a fist into Junipers side, though not hard, more a play punch than a real one. “You said you couldn’t make it! Or at least I thought you did!” And now she has a glare in her eyes. “Surprises are great, and I am so, so happy to see you, but we could have coordinated on the restaurant instead of both of you trying to make me a local dignitary at two different restaurants at the same time. …Oh my god this is why all the famous people on TV have secretaries isn’t it? Never mind, that’s a rhetorical question.”

“Juni, I will…come by your dinner at some point. I do want to meet the Baygum. Sulochana is going to be the one to decide when we go over and if she wants to come. If you want us earlier than whenever that is, you’ll have to come to us.”

She hmmphs like she’s heard her mom do sometimes, a strong exhalation of breath with a finality to it. It’s not something she’s done much herself, high school plans were always so chill and she’s always been careful since starting college not to double book herself. Not a lot of chances with mostly chill friends to hmmph at anyone. But even so, she rather enjoyed it. It felt powerful and a little bit more grown up than she expected and she understood a little why her mom did it when she got exasperated with someone.

Yuki wasn’t a fool. She understood that telling the Khaganate to come get them wasn’t just a figure of speech and it might happen. But she rather thought that would be fun and a fine enough introduction to the Baygum if that’s what happened. And if not, then Juniper would have to settle and Sulochana would have to be just a little flexible but still in control. It seemed like a good compromise to Yuki.

Return to Thellamie

Yuki looks at her tablet, reads it over carefully, listens to Sulochana. She nods as her friend is speaking. Nods again when there's the undercurrent of I won't let her hurt you and looks right in Sulochana's eyes and smiles. An act of particular intimacy with a Nagi, to gaze straight into their eyes, particularly if they're feeling jumpy.

But then, Yuki wasn't feeling jumpy anymore. She had been startled, of course. She wasn't sure if there was danger, or if Azaza's presence might have been related to her and Hazel being called back into the world. She might be, but the way Sulochana wrote "STAR" in the chat, that said something about Thellamie, about what people thought of Thellamie and it sounded like Stars still being around in various forms over time, that was normal. It was part of the world, even if it was risky too. So Yuki was reassured, even though Sulochana obviously wasn't.

Yuki pulls her tablet out to reply, lowering her face before she can give away anything with the impish grin that's spreading on it
>[.snowkitten]
>No need to apologize. It's part of the world, right? So that's normal and I'll learn how all these things work. Now that I'm here the second time, now that there isn't such a rush. Well...probably, we'll see if somebody makes a rush. But I think it won't be MY rush this time. It's not the same, I'm not the same, and everybody has gotten older and knows how to do things differently. I mean, heck I even learned fencing, and maybe I'll have some good heart duels while I'm here without any extra help!

Yuki furiously types all of this and then sends in one block, causing Sulochana to look down at her tablet as it beeps at her to read Yuki's message. There's a light sound, the softest swish of silk, no more than a breeze blowing in from the palanquin curtain. But when Sulochana looks up, she's find Yuki's face in between Sulochana's arms and face, as Yuki's hand gently extras the necklace and fastens it around her neck, then looks up at her friend. She pulls the silver up, blows on one time with her breath so it fogs and lets the fog naturally fade so it remains just a little cloudy.

"There, beautiful." Yuki looks again right in Sulochana's eyes. "Listen, Suli..." she uses the short name she'd used all those years ago. "I'll be excited for you if...you know" she inclines her head toward their destination without saying the whole crown thing out loud again. "But whatever happens, whatever power you have, it doesn't mean you have to do everything, okay? You can relax sometimes, and not just because you've already arranged everything just as you want it and are taking a break before a new problem comes out. It's okay to accept help when you need it. That's what you told me once and I didn't forget. So many people helped me in Thellamie, and then more when I got home so I could focus on studying and sports. And even then it's not like I've decided what I'm going to do with my life. I'm not a princess at home, I don't rule anything except a medium size collection of stuffed animals, and they're very easy to deal with. Except for Pink Bunny, who's terribly uncommunicative." Yuki blushes, lets herself focus on Sulochana again. "Promise me that if you're having a hard time, you'll say that you need help. Okay?"