>>5474506The Novice looks like she just ate a bad batch of bug-meat, however. You speculate if it’s jealousy of some sort—and maybe it is—but honestly her expression turns even more acrimonious when the Duelist seizes her and begins to do the same, shouting the command sat you to translate for the Novice’s benefit even as she roughly manoeuvres the much taller Reptilian female around the makeshift dance-floor.
You each take turns dancing with one another, as Karz’s thrumming continues unabated, reverberating throughout the cavern. Each time you and the Novice make a mistake, the Duelist shoves you apart and takes one of you in her harsh, firm embrace, guiding you through your mistake and through to a clearer understanding of the necessary movements. Slowly but surely—more slowly for the Novice, more surely for you—you begin to get it. The dance speeds up, the moves grow flashier and more impressive, but as you establish a rhythm and rapport with your newest recruit, you REALLY begin to grasp the flow of it.
>+1 Dance“You’re really starting to get it,” Azonia murmurs softly, with some admiration, as you engage in one round of a rather intimate waltz. “Good to see you can do more than throw your weight around, after all.”
“I have an… Adequate teacher.”
The Duelist laughs her barking laugh, and trips you deliberately, only to deftly, swing youa round and lift you back up with momentum.
“Easy now,” she says. “You’re a fast learner, but you’ll need another CENTURY to beat me.”
The dark elf smirks.
“Two or three centuries for your girlfriend.”
The Novice Fleshweaver stands off to the side, turned away, tail tapping the stone impatiently. She’s improved, but not much, and is plainly feeling humiliated by her performance and, yes… Maybe a little envious, you’d wager. However… She’s not in heat, and romance is utterly unknown to pure-blooded members of the Master Race. Not for the first time, you wonder if you—with your growing understanding of love and friendship, affection and community, can ever really understand the mindset of the purebloods… Or if they, if SHE, can truly understand you.
This is the longest you've been among mammals who weren't enslaved to your will and part of it feels... Natural.
“The Fleshweaver is…”
>Not your ‘girlfriend’, and you wouldn’t mind learning a few other ‘moves’ in private [seduction attempt, lowers Novice affection]>A valued colleague, and smart beyond her years—she’ll grasp this, if you have to give her private tutelage everyday until the Ball>Deeply important to you… And, if only in Dark Elven that she can’t understand, you must admit that it was for sentimental reasons that you chose her to be your ‘date’ to the ball [raises Novice affection, approaching the threshold for <TRUE LOVE>] 