Heartthrob

Esthrielle's face lit up, the Italian barely barring the door against outright elation. Her neck seemed fit to snap with how quickly her head snapped to EJ, then to Luca, then back again, lips held tight so they wouldn't form a grin. Her heart was a furnace, and it was eating dopamine as fuel - dopamine which was readily and steadily provided by her adoptive brother. Further kindling was added in the form of the mother abbess's frustration with the whole scenario.

Her arm around the pair of women to her right was given a flex, squeezing them both, reminding them of her presence but also informing them of her roaring mind and heart. She didn't want to influence EJ's decision... or rather, she wanted to but knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't keep herself from giving the little blonde a sign of her approval. A vote of confidence went a long way for big decisions like this, and knowing how indecisive EJ oftentimes was? A gentle push might be all she needed.

Where Est was excited, raring to go like she'd been injected with a fresh dose of amphetamines, Purity was falling apart. The pink-haired princess was a ruined chapel in the midst of a tranquil forest, forgotten yet still holy, surrounded by a tranquility which picked apart every brick and crumbled her mortar. The very relief and serenity she felt in that moment was the same thing sending her to pieces, having spent so long keeping it together... The bliss of dissolution was incomparable, and she welcomed it.

The pinkette fell, slowly and carefully but without apprehension, against EJ, and by proxy, Esthrielle. She couldn't find it in herself to make even the most meagre sound, but she couldn't help but rest her entire weight on the women she loved. Being given this sort of release was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and she intended to let it last as long as she could. She returned Est's brief, forceful squeeze with a longer, firmer, but less forceful one of her own.

Esper James, by contrast, felt a bit like when she had drained that blood soup: her head was woozy, her stomach was roiling, her eyes seemed as if in a misted dream. She did her best to focus on Luca, or at least keep him in her vision - her thoughts drifted aimless and carefree, the burden-bringing yoke of fugitivity lifted in a great many senses. There needn't be any more running, any more hiding... Luca was willing to vouch for them, keep them fed, keep them clean and healthy...

...and with the resources the Knights had at their disposal? It finally, genuinely, felt like she and her nestmates stood a fighting chance. It felt like there was something more for her, for Purity, for Est, than a life on the run. It felt like there was a second-life yet to live for her, even with everything that was stacked against her. For the first time in a stretch of countless, monotonous years under Tsang's bootheel, Esper James dared to hope for something better than what she had been given. All she had to do was reach out and take it - and say yes.

She had done so much crying tonight. She had cried for enough hours to span a stretch of weeks, if not months, in her time in Vitus - and recently, even more than usual. Her eyes were tired of tears, and with everything she had, she fought back against them; in her moment of salvation, she would have hated to taint the memory with tearfall.

Slowly at first but picking up speed, like a piston beginning its toil, EJ nodded. Her blonde hair swiftly began to fly, back and forth and this way and that, her enthusiasm blocking out any semblance of grace or restraint. Whereas Esthrielle withheld her own joy, EJ flashed her ghoulish dentistry like she was getting a new license from the DMV. From Luca's smirk at seeing her, he would've laughed had the moment not carried such weight for all of them.

"Y-Yes! Yes, Luca- err, fuck- oh, no, fuck- gah! Screw it...! Yes, uhh, Mr. doge of Venice, I accept your terms! I'll help you all out in any way I can, a-and I promise to mind my manners and try to be a presentable little nun while my companions and I stay here under your patronage! Thank you, my doge, for this most gracious of offers!" The words couldn't come quick enough, it felt, and once they were spoken, the women at her sides both gave her a full embrace: Purity first, leaning her head on EJ's shoulder and deigning fit to raise up the tears which the ghoul had rejected, with Esthrielle following suit moments after.

Luca's smirk filled itself out into a grand beam, but his lips were drawn back down into a tight, thinned state as he remembered his place. An arm went across the table, palm facing the horizon, to offer a shake. He didn't need to insist upon it: EJ's took his hand in the both of hers, shaking emphatically. That handshake felt like it meant everything and more.

Zofi was wiggling like a worm searching for a meal, watching the proceedings with a mixture of glee and wonder. She looked as though a million different things were clawing at her mouth's gate to break free, but like crabs in a bucket, whenever one rose to clutch at freedom it was dragged down by its kin. Left with nothing to say, her only recourse was to positively bare her fangs in a horrid approximation of a smile. It was the least she could do, though from the way she writhed, she wished she could get away with more.

The mother abbess, in spiteful contrast to the others, looked sick. Sick, and also enraged. Her own stewing syllables were not so borne of enthusiasm as Zofi's were; no, theirs was a venomous breed, tainting her very being into nausea through their repression. She stood, then, rising to her full height in a single motion and lifting her right leg to swing it over the bench. Wordlessly she excused herself, making her way out of the room without any pause - not that anyone in the assembly would give her a reason to pause, anyways.

"Good, good. We're happy to have you and yours, EJ - despite the mother abbess's behavior, I assure you, she will see the benefits of this arrangement sooner than later. Now... You three have had a long beginning to what was supposed to be a fairly pleasant evening. My apologies for disrupting that. Please, take all the time you need to unwind..." His paternal smile lingered, the handshake broken but without haste. Once his arm had returned to his side of the table, he used it to push himself up to a stand.

"Whenever you three are prepared, Esthrielle, please alert Zofia to your readiness. Arrangements can be made for testing to begin thereupon. If you'll all excuse me, I need to go have a word with the mother abbess..." Their acceptance of his excusal was assumed, and rightly so - no one at the table said anything to stop him. He swung a leg out over the bench and took a moment to stretch, before giving the assembled women a wave, and heading to follow behind the absent abbess.

As Luca left, the hem of his purple robes drifting and trailing behind him, Zofi slid over to take his spot. She squealed aloud, now, no longer needing to hold it back in the presence of her superior. "Oooh~! I'm so excited, you three! I, ahem, I'm getting a bit worked up, but...! I've always wanted to meet a second-living and work with them, you know? All the stories they tell in church, I don't... I've never believed them. I don't think your people are monsters, EJ." Her smile faded but only out of self-restraint, not from any dwindling of joy. She sat up a bit straighter in her seat, clearing her throat authoritatively, trying to seem a bit more presentable despite herself.

It struck Esper James as pretty forward of the Wayward to just directly admit that she held no ill will towards the second-living... But, in spite of Zofia's creepiness and overeager nature, EJ felt some sort of comfort from it. Est was there to witness Zofi's admission, so surely the other woman was willing to hold to her word; and furthermore, that sort of dedication was a mark towards Zofia's genuineness. She wouldn't have been so forthright and so adamant if she didn't mean it, right?

Right?

Esper James let out a deep sigh, breath she hadn't realized she was holding sending a gentle gust that made Zofi's hair waver in the minute wind. Better to make allies than enemies, she figured, and besides - Zofi, for all her weirdness, seemed to want to see the ghoulette and her lovers safe. She wanted to work with them, and in a way born of genuine interest, rather than any sort of theopolitical malice. That, at minimum, was worth acknowledging.

"Zofia... Thank you. I a-appreciate you saying so. I... I've learned a lot about Easterners since I've met Est, and even more since I came here. I'm glad to hear that not everyone hates me just for existing... That, despite everything I've been told, y'know..." The rest of her sentence was left to implication, but Zofia understood regardless, nodding her head with closed eyes. When they opened again, she continued to speak, her words more addressed to EJ's partners than EJ herself.

"So, Esthrielle, Purity... Would the both of you mind if I spoke a bit more privately with you, about EJ, and the city at large? Some of my questions may be disconcerting, but... I promise, they come from a place of academic intrigue, not malintent." She folded her hands and cast a glance towards both women, her smile becoming tight-lipped and formal. She seemed to be getting more into the formality of her presentation as she continued with it, rather than letting earlier excitement breach through.

Purity was snapped from her own dreamlike haze, eyes focusing in, head lifting from EJ's shoulder. She looked to Est first, for but a moment; the tan tomboy returned the glance, shrugging her shoulders. That was all Purity needed. "Erm... Yes, Zofia, that would be fine with us. Given the terms Luca put forth, it would be, er, rude for us to deny your request, so... So of course we'll answer your questions." She nodded to cap off the question, but to EJ, it seemed that the gesture was more for herself than for Zofia's benefit.

Est mirrored Purity's own answer. "Yeah, Zofi, we can answer some questions. I, uh... I've only been here a little longer than you have, but still, that's... fine. I'll tell you whatever you wanna know, if I can." Short and sweet, much like herself. Well, not EJ short, but still. Zofia gave a single bob of her head in affirmation, before going to stand.

"Perfect, perfect... thank you, all three of you. I promise, this will be for the best for all of us. For too long have East and West been divided, and our information sharing completely strangled. Getting to know more about one another in all senses is the best way for us to proceed as a whole, I feel. I'll leave you ladies to relax; like Luca said, Esthrielle, message me when you're ready." And with that, Zofi was off, her own habit drifting in much the same manner as Luca's robes.

The three lovers were left alone in the dining hall. Purity leaned her head back down onto EJ's shoulder, and Esthrielle took the opportunity to do the same. Behind EJ's back, the arms they had been using to support one another found their way together to hold hands. It was nice. Just three women, each with their own hearts ablaze but frosted over with love's delicate chill, the earlier furnace of passions cooled to a more gentle tempo. Everything, for once, felt right with the world.

They sat like this for moments untold, and uncounted; there was no reason to not while away the time, just sharing warmth and touch, pressed to one another in a display of wordless affection. The scent of dinner lingered, but in their closeness, it was overwhelmed by the clinging aroma of detergent and fabric softener on their habits, and for EJ, the scent of her lovers' skin.

Purity's scent was that natural sort of humanity, oil of hair and body, with memories of her pink-candy perfume and the shampoo from the bathhouse. Esthrielle's own was more foreign: there was the humanity beneath, and further down, her blood, but those paled in comparison to silicone and that hot pseudo-scent of warm electronics. Foreign, chemical aromas EJ could only imagine were the lubricants in Est's limbs... And, if she really focused, she could pick out the slight sting of nutrio-fluid.

As much as these things inspired love, they inspired comfort, and familiarity. They were scents she had encountered time and time again, in each and every session of lovemaking; they greeted her whenever the three went to sleep together, or when EJ drifted from consciousness beside one of them at all; they were omnipresent at all gatherings of the trio. And this familiarity, this level of knowing one another, was a downy pillow and warm blanket for Esper James's heart to rest upon.

Slowly but surely, after allowing their togetherness to continue for what could have been mere minutes or entire days, the three stood. Esper James stepped over the bench, then taking Est's hand to help her over, then the two of them helped Purity cross the wooden barricade. Est spoke up first, daring to shatter the silence like so much glass. "Let's get a shower in, yeah? Cleanliness is next to godliness!" She couldn't suppress a smile at that, turning her head down to look at EJ before looking up to Purity, gauging their reactions.

Purity rolled her eyes and let out that sigh one does when someone makes a joke so bad it's a little amusing. "Yes, fiiine, I suppose in the house of the Lord we had better strive for 'godliness', yeah? C'mon, lead the way, Est. EJ and I don't have any fucking clue where shit is in here." EJ smiled up at Est, then at Purity; she had nothing to add to the club retiree's sentiment. Est cackled to herself at Purity's feigned exasperation, giving a thumbs-up with her right hand.

"You got it, babe. Just stick with me and I'll take you two beauties wherever you wanna go, hahaha~ Oh, except like, the mother abbess's room. Or Tsang HQ. Don't, uh, don't ask me to take you there, haha!" Esthrielle's levity made sure that Puri and EJ had their smiles stapled firmly to their faces. The three began to make their way out of the room, then, with Esthrielle dutifully leading the way.

Out into the hallway they had first entered from they went - then, immediately to the left. Further down the hallway, a right... then another left... then straight for a while... Honestly, it was a fucking miracle that Est knew where she was going, EJ thought, because the blonde was already lost. If someone had pointed a gun at her and told her to run back to the dining hall or she'd meet her true-death? EJ would've just told them to shoot her, so at least she wouldn't die exhausted and confused.

Eventually, however, the scent of myrrh and frankincense began to be tinged with more floral, artificial notes; the dry, temperature-controlled air began to heat up and take upon itself motes of humidity. They were getting close to their destination, and as they neared the showers, EJ found herself more excited than she had expected she would be. The bathhouse was nice, yeah... Or at least, as nice as a dive like that could be, given the crowd it attracted. A proper shower, though? In a place that they had been assured they were safe?

God, it sounded so nice... Getting to wash away not only her own filth (of which there was little to speak of in the first place), but also the worries she had accumulated at dinner? Getting to get into those warm waters and just turn her brain off, especially with two cute ladies to keep her comfy? Esper James was taken back to her time as a normal citizen, daydreaming in her bed just before sleep, imagining a world where she could have a comfy shower with a fictional girlfriend... Washing each others' hair... Embracing, while still slick from the water...

Oooh, that sounded nice. A brief imagining of herself, Esthrielle, and Purity forming a little triangle and all washing one another's hair put a gay little grin on EJ's lips. Ooh, and they could all kiss... For the first time since she'd become a fugitive, the old dreams of sugary affection returned. She'd thought these thoughts before, for a long time, but never had a chance to act on them. Now that they were safe, at least for the foreseeable future? Now that she had lovers who would actually let her live these dreams?

It made her heart flutter like an origami crane in a strong wind, wings flapping to fly away. She squeezed both of the hands she was holding, her smile widening to show off every front-facing fang her mouth could display. Purity looked down at her with a smirk of her own, gentle laughter pouring out of her split lips. "Oh~? What're you thinking of, cutie? Oh, I bet I know..."

Est turned her head to look at them, her own smug grin forming, brows furrowed in mock outrage. "Hold on, no no no! No shower sex, you two, they're communal! Luca might be vouching for us, but once one of us gets our back blown out in front of the other nuns, we're on the street for sure!" The feigned scolding was followed by laughter, the sound half-akin to the barking of a dog. Esthrielle had that sort of energy to her, EJ thought - an attack dog, but a good-natured one when the hunt wasn't on. It suited her.

Purity waggled her eyebrows and pursed her lips, a saucy expression taking hold of her face with an iron grip. "Oh-h-h~? Communal, you say? Well, when we're done, it's gonna be a cum-munal show-" Esthrielle let go of Esper James's hand to give Purity a playful slug on the arm, and like that, the three of them were falling about themselves with laughter. If EJ's heart was an origami crane on gale-force winds, hearing Purity and Esthrielle laugh transformed it into a real bird, its wings catching the current to fly even higher.

Once their laughter had subsided, they walked in silence for a few minutes more before they reached a set of double-doors, still that same sort of hardwood as every other door in the place, but etched with a singular diamond shape on each door. Within the diamond shape sat a water droplet, a lonely but apt indicator of what lay beyond. Even without the pseudo-signage, though, the heat and humidity in the air, and the sound of flowing fluid from the other side, told the trio everything they needed to know.

Esthrielle gave pause before they went in, turning to look at her lovers one final time before the fated entry. "Alright, so: we take a super long shower, maybe a nap if we feel tired or whatever, then I let Zofi know we're ready. Okay?" A two-note chorus of "okay!"'s were the given response, and she nodded to acknowledge them. "Alright, ladies, let's head in. Oh, and as a heads-up, it's kinda weird to like... Talk to each other in the showers, yeah? At least, to girls you don't know. Don't, uh, don't do that."

That was fine by EJ. She had all the women in her life she felt like she'd ever need.