Shimmer, Glimmer, & Gleam - A Quest of Loss & Gain

You vaguely tell Jill that you'll think about it and lose most of the rest of your afternoon thinking about it. You end up missing your shift on the Eternal Soup watch, though blessedly Jack covers for you when no one can find you; you have, as is your habit, found a roof to think about it from. Sasha calls this 'goatcore behavior'. It's cute when she says it. Is this something you want to try with just...somebody? But Andrea isn't exactly just somebody either. She's someone safe, someone interested and interesting, you've adored listening to her stories while you learn to sew even though you always stab your fingertips...

You check the roster for the uh, private rooms, of which there are currently a paltry three (yet more reason to get the space and homes that Harrow Park could provide) and find, blessedly, that there's an hour later in the evening open, in the sweet spot just after shift change when people are usually going to bed. So you reserve it in advance, figuring you can practice with the toys Jill found for you if nothing else, and you go looking for Andrea. She's not hard to find, sitting in the rec area assembling a jigsaw puzzle while her phone plays an audiobook. You sit down next to her, and she smells like lilac again...

...

"Orchid dear, are you with me?" Andrea asks gently, and you snap back to yourself with your face burning up. "There you are," she says with rather more delight. "I do hope this is a social call?"

"...Mostly," you squeak. Squeak. Like a mouse. You clear your throat. "I um...business can wait until the morning, I..." oh gods why. Andrea reaches over and gently cards her fingers through your hair, as so many of your friends do now, and that just makes it worse so your hide your face in her chest. "...I wanna ask something and I think I have to be me about it. Is that. Okay?"

That laugh she does, she has such a delightful laugh. "I think I might be insulted if you were someone else. I won't be upset."

"...So Jill sort of maybe kinda implied and by implied I mean outright stated that you might, possibly, maybe, be. Willing. To have sex without like. Dating. And if Jill's right I would like that? So. Is. Jill right?"

"Ahhh, I see." Surprisingly strong hands cup your chin and lift your face so you can look into Andrea's eyes; her glass hand is warmer than her flesh one. "My dear little flower, I hate to answer your question with a question, but I'm afraid I must: why are you interested? I don't doubt your interest, don't mistake me there, but you've never been the most forthcoming with your reasons."

You try to breathe in and just FUCKING SQUEAK AGAIN GODS ABOVE - "I - um. I..." Why is your mouth dry. Why is your heart pounding. You feel like you're entering mortal fucking combat. "...You're safe," you manage, at last. "And interesting, and, and handsome, and so confident, and...I think...I see people sometimes and they've just gotten out of the rooms and it's like they're glowing. Walking on air. Nothing bad is in their world, and I. Want that."

"I see." Oh. Oh fuck, you fucked it up, she's gonna say no, she's leaning in to say no in your ear - nope she's just nibbled your ear and you are making sounds you have not made before in your very short life. "Do we have a reservation for the evening, my Elector?"

You really hope the squeak you made was 'yes'.

"Then I believe we both have some washing up to do. I'll see you there, shall I? Your name will be on the list?" You manage to nod. "Excellent."

* * * *

"Hng - wh-why'd you stop? Andrea?"

"Orchid. Dearest. Did you ask to lay on the bed so you can take notes?"

"Y-yes? I - I...I don't want to forget again." Silence, in response to this statement, so you plow forward. "...I woke up with nearly nothing. And if, gods forbid, that ever happens again, if someone else has to live in this body...they should have the advice I didn't get. F-from. From someone who understands. Who'll write down how it all feels and looks and...where are you going?"

"I'm getting you a pencil, Orchid."

"...Why?"

"Because if I still have it, you're going to need to erase some very illegible scribbles. Here you are - now, where were we? Ah, yes. Discovering that you're a screamer."

"A wh-Andreeeeaaaa warn me first!"

* * * *

You vaguely remember the two of you getting back to Andrea's bunk (it had been collectively decided to save the good beds for when better housing situations were handled, though by the gods everyone is struggling through the interim) and falling asleep nestled into her. It had been your first rest without nightmares in awhile, helped, you think, by the bit where your body was drained, cored, and then wrung out for whatever was left. You hadn't wanted to say to Andrea that part of why you felt safe around her is that you could snap her like a twig but evidently this was not her first time in that situation and porn's tales of youthful stamina either have a learning curve or are lies. That grandma fucking destroyed you.

You hurglrughl awake in the morning slowly, at least until Andrea bites your ear again and you are very awake, immediately. She gives you a coy smile, and asks if you might like to join her for breakfast and coffee, and you agree with indecent haste. You have to put on yesterday's clothes, a failure in planning on your part. That's gonna go in the notebook.

After you erase some inchoate scribbles and fill them back in with useful words. Which will happen when you figure out where your brain got off to after it leaked out of your body.

Most of the actual eating is pretty quiet as you process last night, though you take Andrea's hand when she touches yours, and you smile, and you know it's a goofy, stupid smile and you do not care. Some other people eating are giving knowing looks, and you grin goofily at them too, which seems to make them feel weird about the whole thing. People. They're so godsdamned odd.

But, once breakfast is done, and the two of you huddle around a soupfire in the early morning near-dawn, you clear your throat and say: "So um. Business?"

She laughs. "Why yes Orchid, it was good for me too."

You hide your face in your cup of coffee. "...I kinda figured you being amazing was self-evident..."

"It was, dear, but there are courtesies to be observed which adult filmmaking generally leaves out of its proceedings." She pats your hand fondly. "But, very well. Business."

You explain haltingly at first, and then confidently when she leans in. Andrea nods thoughtfully as you verbally sketch out the need to start opening up a trade corridor in the roads that lead out of town which will give your new community access to the central hub that the Captain's people are slowly clearing out and building up in order to be a logistical center and civilian population for its various projects such as the power plant and, well, Project Throwback. "...So I feel like you and your peers could be a big -"

Sasha comes skidding in. "Orchid I just heard the wildest - oh hi Andrea. Oh. Uh. Hi Andrea, um, I'll just be -"

"What'd you hear, dearie?" Andrea prompts.

"Nothing, nothing at all, it's -"

"Sasha," you plead. "It's too early, come on, just tell me." And you make your eyes all plead-y, and she buries her face in her hands. "Sashaaaaaa ..."

"That the two of you um. Reserved a room?"

"Oh." You blink. "Yeah we had sex it was really, honestly amazing, Andrea did this thing -" Andrea's hand goes over your mouth and you fail to notice for a couple seconds of muffled infodumping. Sasha looks mortified. Andrea is on the verge of laughter and her eyes shine in pure delight.

"What have we learned, Ms. Miller?" Andrea prompts.

"...Don't ask Orchid questions unless I want the answers?"

"Very good. Don't let us detain you."

* * * *

Having secured the assistance of the old people, the next step is going to be introducing the former Inmates to the party people. Kayleigh is shadowing you on this one, and for once you have adopted a fashion someone else came up with; every one of the survivors from Durance-on-Bay has taken the patch that once held their prisoner number and colored over the number in black and yellow, the colors of the Wasp. You wear yours sunk into a glass bracelet; others use it as a jacket patch, as parts of collars, or in one case as part of a hairpiece. Kayleigh liked your bracelet idea, so you made her one too.

Mm. Bunch of Inmates in the common area again. You coulda thought that idea through more. The party people are identifiable mainly by their pastel fashions and strange attraction to polo shirts for the breastless ones. Well, that and they aren't strapped with knives, though a few have been cleared for short, glass gladii. You and Kayleigh arrive last on purpose, and you clear your throat. "So," you begin, clapping your hands together. "...I need some volunteers for heavy labor, but at the end of the heavy labor in a few weeks or months there might, maybe, possibly be milk."

'Heavy labor' wars with 'milk' and milk wins. Must be the strong bones. Sunset raises its hand and you nod at it. "What kinda labor, your um, Count-ness?"

"Oh, gods, no, please, Elector if you're gonna do the title thing," you plead. "But it's just Orchid. I did my time, same as you." This is met with general nodding by the former Inmates. "But excellent question Sunset - moving cars. It's not complicated, and they don't have to go far, for now, we can't really competently salvage them at the moment. But they need to be out of the road, and I figured someone had to have gone in for carjacking or something and might be able to easily move ones with fuel but no keys."

And you figured correctly, several people immediately indicate by Various Means that they qualify and are also interested. But one of the party people, a blonde in one of those polo shirts, raises its hand. "Why are we here?" it asks, a little confused.

"You own arms and backs," you say flatly. "And legs, legs will be helpful. With so many people leaving our little settlement for the moment, the gofer thing ain't gonna cut it. So we're looking for volunteers on something that needs doing."

"...With these convicts -"

You're on top of it in a moment, and at the last second you manage to remind yourself not to grab its shirt or make any physically violent actions. You don't even come up to this person's chin, but it quails back away from you. "I'm one of them," you tell it, in a low voice.

"That's not," it stammers, just digging this hole deeper, "you're not the same, M-erm, Elector, sorry, it's. Different."

"It's the same," you tell it, and you turn away and walk back to Kayleigh, breathing out slowly. "...If you make me shake y'all down for volunteers I'm gonna start talking like I did Inside and you do not want to meet that Orchid. That Orchid says things that are hurtful and accurate. Everyone's got twenty-four hours before the work starts, there'll be a list on the community board." You snap your fingers as if you've just remembered something; this is a lie, but you turn on the university students anyway. "Oh, and that reminds me - the sewing circle needs a hand today with moving some materials, if you 'fine young people' would be so kind?"

It's an easy out for them to take. The students leave with indecent haste, directly into your grandma-based trap. Heh.

Kayleigh scratches at her arm and says, "Is that how you usually do things?"

And with the serenity of a living saint, you tell her, "No, that's my first time trying that. Did I do it right?"

* * * *

Ah, the kids. They're a little out at sea with Marie gone, but the tea parties have continued. Which actually puts you in a bit of a spot, as you'd like to invite Kayleigh to one, but she'll need a plush friend, and she'll need to be accepted by the gender apprentices as one of their own the way you were. You need, you think, an excuse to introduce her to them.

Kayleigh will need a stuffed animal
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[ ] Show up when everyone's at the sewing circle Andrea runs
[ ] Simply approach the council of children and explain the situation outright
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