[The Norkari Mtns.] Chalet du Sommet Minuit

But… Naoki supposes that Skarlet isn’t just going to go away, and it wouldn’t do to have her around when Artemis gets back with the pasta. Logically thinking, it would be a good idea to go deal with her now, so they can really enjoy themselves with the Duchess’ Tortellini later.

That would mean extricating herself from the current situation, though. This incredibly warm and comfortable situation, partially covered by the bedsheets, with Kate’s head on her shoulder, sharing body heat, simply being close. To be completely honest with herself, Naoki would like nothing more than to remain exactly like this.

But again, Skarlet isn’t just going to go away. Speaking gently, Naoki does her best not to ruin the moment while ruining the moment, “I should really go help Skarlet with her issue. I’ll be right back; keep my spot warm.”

Carefully, Naoki extricates herself from Kate’s embrace and from the bedsheets, scooting across to the edge of the bed. But there’s an issue. The clothes haven’t arrived yet; all of the wardrobes are empty. She considers using the garments that litter the floor from yesterday, but those are all… wrinkled. Wrinkled and sweaty. Naoki doesn't consider herself too much of a neat-freak, but she’d like to avoid putting on dirty clothes, if it can be helped.

She sits on the edge of the bed for a moment, and considers. The suitcases are still either out in the carriage, or somewhere in transit. She could call for someone to bring them up immediately, but it’d be awkward opening the door again and having one of the attendants hand her the suitcase around the door.

But wait - a thought strikes her! There should be robes in the bathroom. Standing from the bed, walks over to the door of the bathroom and proceeds inside. After taking a moment to locate and open the linen closet, she spots a fluffy white bathrobe, and pulls it out

Sliding it on, one arm at a time, Naoki finds the robe to be exactly as warm as it looked, if not more. She suspects that some manner of magical effect is in play, either to pre-heat the robe within the closet, or perhaps to bestow an additional warming effect to the wearer. Regardless, Naoki finds the robe to be a truly excellent piece of clothing, and after tightening the belt to achieve a reasonable level of modesty, Naoki gives Kate one parting smile before slipping out the door and shutting it behind her.

From the common room, Naoki takes a few steps over to the door of the study, and enters. She raises a hand in greeting to Skarlet, and moves up to stand over her shoulder at the desk.

“So how are you faring? And, if you don’t mind my asking, what’s with the sudden interest in this subject?”

Artemis enjoys a feeling of smug satisfaction at Arya's shell-shocked expression. With that sort of reaction as an indicator, she considers betting Naoki that she could get Arya to pass out tonight. A few Suns worth of extra incentive might make the evening more enjoyable for both parties, at any rate, even if she ultimately lost the bet.

Such thoughts, however, are quickly brushed aside. The pasta is finally done, and after draining it and putting it in a covered bowl, Artemis wheels the cart up to the suite. A set of levitation runes enables the cart's ascent up the stairs.

At the door to the suite, Artemis pauses, connecting mentally to the door construct. This is her first experience telepathically opening a door, and as such, it bears most of the usual hallmarks of a first time - awkwardness, unfamiliarity, and lots of fumbling. After some finagling and muttered curses, the door finally opens, and she enters the suite, fastening the door behind her manually.

She picks up on Skarlet and Naoki talking in the study, and so, not wanting to leave the cat lady out of either of their breakfasts, she waits in the common room with the cart until they finish. The insulation on the room service cart was quite excellent, if the ones in the Sun were any indication, so why not?

"N-no... I'm sorry Mom..." Skarlet felt bad. She hadn't felt like she was in trouble since she was a little girl, which she doesn't even remember that well. "Y-you're right, Mother. We've only been together a few months. I WOULD like you to talk to him, I love him very much and I actually want your approval. I can't have a child, with how my body is. I'm just curious on how one is made. I wanna know so maybe when me and him ARE ready, I can manipulate my body somehow to make it possible to bear a child."

From her position behind the chair, Naoki extends an arm to pat Skarlet’s shoulder.

“There you, go that’s the right attitude. I’m not angry, but I want to do everything in my power to stop you from making a decision without enough information to properly identify and understand the ramifications of your actions. Remember, you have all the time in the world. Always take things as slowly as you need to; take all the time necessary to do things correctly the first time. It’s better to do things slowly and properly, and have no regrets, than to make lots of poorly deliberated mistakes that you will regret later. To help with that, it’s always good to do research before you embark on any large undertaking, you can’t make an informed decision without information. I’ll always be happy to share my accumulated knowledge with you.”

Reaching over Skarlet’s shoulder to reach the book on the desk, Naoki flips around some, attempting to locate a particular page.

“So, judging from the noises you two make, I think I can skip the portions related to sexual intercourse; you seem to have a handle on that. That’s the first step in the human reproductive process, the intercourse. You should note here, that all of these things I’m about to say, they only apply to the traditional, human method of reproduction. The process is very similar with some other animals and races of humanoid individuals, but this information is only fully applicable to humans, as they do their business regularly. Additionally, there are other ways of going about reproduction. Ways that utilize magic, work between different species, don’t require a second individual. There exist lots of wacky and wonky non-traditional methods of reproduction and creating sentient beings that I’m not going to cover- just be aware of that.”

At this point, Naoki has located the page she was looking for. It contains a really excellent diagram of the human female genitalia, labeled neatly with small numbers that correspond to medical terms in a key on the right.

“Anyway, this book you’ve chosen, this is a really excellent book. It contains essentially the sum of all modern knowledge as it pertains to medicine. Very thorough, very up to date, this is a brilliant source. This here, this is a diagram of the female genitalia. You figure, the man enters like this…”

Naoki uses her finger to overlay the diagram with a crude representation of the male genitalia.

“And he does his business, and expels that sticky white stuff right into here, this area. As it turns out, surprisingly enough, the sticky white stuff actually has a purpose, beyond just being there to provide natural lubrication. A properly functioning set of female genitalia will take that substance, known medically as ‘sperm’, and pull it into here, around through here, and use it to fertilize the egg.”

As Naoki continues to explain the process, she gestures around the diagram and to the corresponding terms in the key to illustrate.

“You see, eggs aren’t limited to birds and such. Humans use eggs too, but they keep them within the body. The sperm heads up here, and usually just fertilizes a single egg. If it does more than one and nothing untoward happens, that’s when you start to get twins and triplets and such. Over the course of a short while, the fertilized egg is moved from here, to over here, and then up into the womb. In the womb, a lot of rather complicated processes take place to change and grow the egg into an infant, which is then birthed. Then you’ve got a newborn baby.”

She thinks back over her explanation, and thinks if there’s anything to add.

“That’s an extremely simplified explanation, but it’s accurate to the best of my knowledge. To be honest, I haven’t read extensively into the subject myself, and am not sure exactly how all of the processes work. I’ve obviously never been pregnant myself, and also can’t speak personally to that experience, however, I know that it’s an extremely taxing and stressful process. If you have any further questions, we’re pretty much going to have to refer to the book together.”

Arya looks up from her food as the twins approach, when she notices it is them she smiles warmly, "Hello girls," she says cheerily. When they ask for pancakes Arya seems to be in a favorable mood towards them, although she was slightly creeped out by the synchronous voices. 

"Sure you can have some pancakes," she said, before pausing to think for a moment, "Hmm, let me get some more plates actually."

Arya walks back into the kitchen adjacent to the small dining room where she at, searching about the cabinets until she found a couple plates and brought them back in. She would put a single pancake on each plate and give them to the twins, and also provided utensils and syrup and butter.

"There ya go, I hope that's enough for ya, I don't know how to make more. Well, I could try but it would definitely not be as good," Arya shrugs.

“I hear a lot of things.”

Naoki smirks, and waggles her ears before returning to a neutral expression.

“I don’t mind, though. I can’t reasonably expect you to do your business out of my earshot. Make sure to take good care of the book and put it back where you found it when you’re done, and I’ll speak with Francesco soon enough, whenever we both have some spare time. At some point, I’ll have to introduce you to Kate, as well. She’s really quite nice…”

Naoki trails off. Really? ‘Nice’? That’s it?! Those are all the words you have? Pitiful. Absolutely pitiful.

“... Yeah. Maybe over a meal, or something, I’m not sure. In the meantime, have a read at this, and understand what there is to know about the process of reproduction. I’m hardly an expert on vampiric body manipulation, so I can’t help you much personally in that regard, but if you have any more questions you’d like answered, I will always do my best to help you or direct you to the appropriate resource.”

In the common room outside, the noise of Artemis with the cart signals a very well timed ending the conversation.

“In the meantime, though, let me ask you in the most polite and loving way to scoot on out of here. Artemis is back with our breakfast, and I can tell you right now, we’re not going to be adhering to any sort of table manners.”

Another smirk, along with a funny, intentionally awkward sort of wink carries a lot of implications that Skarlet ought to be able to pick up on.

Madame Naoki turns, slightly puzzled, to watch Skarlet leave. Interesting that she’d choose to go for the ear-scritch, over the light hug or perhaps the handshake. Strange, but not disagreeable. 

Dismissing the matter, Naoki follows Skarlet from the room, and meets Artemis in in the common room, where she notices the fully stocked cart. Filled with Tortellini, no doubt. An awful lot of it, though. That’s… one, two three… eight covered trays.

Taking a pair of quick sniffs, Naoki utilizes her (apparently pointy) nose to attempt to discern the contents of the extra trays. The most prominent scent is bacon. Good-smelling bacon, too. Artemis had the forethought to prepare a proper breakfast, as well as the Tortellini required for the Duchess.

Naoki nods to Artemis, adding small signals to indicate satisfaction and affirmation, and inclining her head in the direction of the bedroom door, with connotations of suggestion.

Arya is a little bit more creeped out when they both turn their heads simultaneously and also talk in unison once again. It's almost like they are robots or something, Arya thought to herself.

"My name is Arya, and I am a paladin. What are your names?" she asked, her voice still holding a friendly tone. To Arya, most kids were somewhat weird so the twins, while slightly more weird than normal, were still just kids to Arya. Arya took a bite of a strip of bacon while she awaited their answer.

The twins look up at Arya, and speak in turn for once.

"I'm Lorelei."

"I'm Lucia."

After that brief moment of desynchronization, the twins go back to talking and moving as one.

"Nice to meet you, MIss Arya."

She seems nice.

Yes.

Mr. Maelik will be cross if we bother her.

So will Miss Artemis.

We'd best not do anything, then.

Either that, or we'll have to avoid getting caught.

They eat their pancakes happily.

"Your armor is very shiny, Miss Arya."