[The Norkari Mtns.] Chalet du Sommet Minuit

“Hey now, she likes the bunny outfit! I presented it as an option, and she hasn’t said a peep about it. I bet Francesco likes it too. I don’t think anyone can argue that she doesn’t wear it well.”

As Kate dives beneath the covers, Naoki raises an inquisitive eyebrow. But as the series of lumps in the sheets make their way down to the foot of the bed, and then back up in the direction of her feet, Kate’s intentions become clear.

Naoki lets fly a short sigh and shakes her head, still smiling. There’s no way. Skarlet’s a vampire; her senses are massively enhanced.

As fingers begin to pry at her adjacent feet, Naoki sighs again and adjusts herself into a position to better facilitate the deception, spreading her legs and sliding up to lean back onto the headboard.

There’s still the matter of the door, though. The outer door of the suite is locked eighteen times over. For as capable as Skarlet is, the door wasn’t designed to be possible to force open. However, there is a solution. One that doesn’t involve getting up.

Though the telepathic capabilities granted to her by the earring, Naoki reaches out to make contact with the rudimentary consciousness of the door. By imbuing the door’s internals with some of the same magical constructs one might use to animate a golem, Reese had managed to give the door a manner of consciousness. Consciousness enough, at least, to accept commands and act on them. Though this is the first occasion she is attempting to interface with an artificial consciousness, Naoki manages to will the door open. Over the course of a half minute, the locks disengage one by one, and the thick door creaks slightly as it swings inward, admitting Skarlet to the common room.

With the heavy door out of the way, Naoki calls out to Skarlet, “Come on in, and shut the door behind you.”

Figuring it a reasonable idea to at least start the conversation with some semblance of decency, Naoki pulls the blanket up over her chest and holds it in place under her armpits. She takes a deep breath, likely the only one she’ll have for the duration of the conversation, and mentally prepares for this trial.

Her face concealed in a cupboard as she searches for some sugar, Artemis allows herself a smug smirk at Arya's bashful silence and awkward response. A heterosexual, virginal paladin to corrupt, and a Duchess's double-stuffed tortellini for breakfast. This was shaping up to be an excellent morning.

"I've got a few outfits I look better in, I assure you," she remarks over her shoulder. "Mmm, I suspected as much. Holy orders tend to have exceptional armorers, from what I've seen. I'd imagine it's practically a necessity."

Locating the jar of sugar, Artemis sashays back to the stove, and begins mixing a batter.

"Could you do me a favor and cut some slices of bacon?" she inquires, gesturing to the slab of meat to her left. "Enough for three light portions and however much you want."

Her spoon makes several rounds of her mixing bowl, then, "So, tell me about yourself, Arya." She subtly emphasizes the name, adding a layer of impact to the syllables beyond the common conversational use of the word.

"Oh-ok, Well... I need help with these books. I'm trying to find information on um..." Skarlet is flustered. "I'm looking for the information about how children are usually conceived, and I can't find the appropriate page to look at."

Arya nodded and briskly made her way over to help Artemis prepare things, it was better than just standing there awkwardly so she was thankful she had something to do. Grabbing a knife she began cutting strips of bacon into three small portions, making a fourth portion that was slightly larger than the others, Arya liked bacon. Her concentration was interrupted as Artemis posed her question, her name rolling off Artemis' tongue in a way that could only be seen as unsettlingly mischievous to Arya, Did she see me staring before? Oh god...

"About myself? Er... where do I start?" Arya seemed to pause then to think about what she should talk about, she supposed she could tell Artemis about her past, but that was always a touchy subject to Arya, "Well, I have been a full fledged paladin for about... four years now? I completed my training at seventeen, it took me seven years. I only recently met Lum'valia, before that I was just traveling alone. I learned a lot from her ever since I became her apprentice, much more about how to use holy magic than the order ever taught me actually..." Arya's voice trailed off as she finished speaking, and moments later she would look up from her current task,

"I finished cutting up the bacon by the way."

Skarlet blushes, she knows what's going on but she isn't going to say anything. She listens to Naoki's advice and nods. "Thank you mother, I'll go do that."

Skarlet bows her head and heads to the study to wait for Naoki. She looks in the back of the book and finds the index she spoke of. She'd scan the pages until she found the words mentioned and would then flip through to the pages to the number that corresponded to them.

Artemis watches Arya out of the corner of her eye as she mixes the batter, listening intently. Her answer was fairly non-informative in terms of actual information, but rich in implications and inferences. Some sort of traumatic past was quite likely. No one starts becoming a paladin at the age of 10 simply because they felt like it. She seemed quite fond of Lum'Valia, which boded well. The dragoness seemed to be cut from a quite different cloth than your normal quasi-angelic beings, and rather accepting of unusual things, as evidenced by her romance of the demon lord of Wrath.

Artemis analyzes the situation. Arya was rather eager to cut the bacon - clearly feeling awkward, and glad to be doing some action to alleviate that. Her trail-off indicated painful memories. Best to get her train of thought away from those. Artemis silently laments the fact that the other woman was wearing armor. Touch was an extremely effective tool, but the tin can surrounding Arya meant that Artemis would have to rely primarily on the other senses.

Dropping the spoon, Artemis turns to the paladin and moves closer, infringing ever so slightly on her personal space. A slight lean forward leverages her bralessness and the strategic buttoning of her shirt to accentuate her cleavage, while making it appear to be nothing more than a side effect of her motion. Green eyes stare intently into Arya's.

"Interesting information, yet I find my question has gone unanswered. I find that a person's past is little more than an explanation as to why they are who they are in the present. What matters most to me is who someone is right now, and who they are going to be. When I asked you to tell me about yourself, I didn't want to hear your biography, I wanted to hear about you." She further emphasizes the word with a light poke to Arya's belly.

A flare of satisfaction passes through Artemis's mind as Arya's eyes flit downwards. As the paladin responds, Artemis divides her attention. Never breaking eye contact, she listens to Arya, while simultaneously evaluating the situation.

The lean backwards was expected, if slightly unwelcome. She would have to be careful making her final approach to not make Arya feel cornered. The stumbling answer and pause followed by more coherent speech indicated she was trying actively to regain control of her faculties. The content of her answer was promising. 'Finding myself' and similar journeys of self-discovery usually corresponded with a more flexible set of values, and a mindset conducive to trying new things. The thought given her answer and her manner of presenting it indicated that the content was something she had told to few people, was not in the habit of volunteering, or was otherwise somewhat personal. Excellent, a subconscious perception of intimacy was invaluable.

Now, how to proceed? Arya's ending statement provided an excellent opportunity to make her move now. If she misread the situation, however, coming on strong could hurt later attempts. Pulling back was also an option, and likely the safer one. She could keep the pressure on with small flirting actions, laying the groundwork for future encounters. That approach did risk wasting the turbulent emotional state generated by the novelty of their current situation, though. Sometimes, in the heat of a new interaction, people will do things they wouldn't do when emotionally sober, as it were. If that energetic barrier is breached, increasing intimacy with subsequent interactions becomes much easier. Decisions, decisions... A trickle of adrenaline enters Artemis's bloodstream, setting her heart beating just a little faster, as the thrill of the most challenging hunt in the world fills her.

Her choice is made.

Artemis steps forward, closing the remaining gap between them. Her arms slip around Arya, left hand going to the small of her back, right hand to between her shoulder blades, subtly halting any small attempts to pull away as she draws close to the other woman, barely making contact between their torsos. Her face hovers mere inches from Arya's. "Make a connection with me, and you'll learn a lot of things about yourself," full lips whisper invitingly. Emerald orbs peer into ruby quizzically, searching for a spark of permission.

Naoki opens her mouth to respond, but is cut off as Kate abruptly changes the subject. For a moment, she pauses, with so many words on the tip of her tongue. So many things to say, so many feelings tumbling about inside her, waiting to be given voice. She sighs, and adjusts to lean more comfortably into Kate.

There will be other times, she supposes. Best to pace things a bit. Naoki resigns herself to the change in topic and responds simply, “Artemis is probably watching the pot.”

Thoroughly unmotivated, Naoki remains as she is. Skarlet is waiting, yes, but the bed is warm, and Kate is comfortable. In Naoki’s prioritization, the force compelling her to go inquire as to why on earth Skarlet is suddenly interested in the medical processes behind reproduction are not higher than the combined forces of the magnetic bed and the immovable object of Kate’s head on her shoulder.