Never Ever (open RP post)

[ordainedbarkeep]

This is some kind of place between places. A land where anyone can meet anyone else, and friendships can form between people who would never have reason to meet each other.

At the moment, it's the resting place for the Laughing Toadstool, the bar that Iren owns and runs. Don't think about it too hard.

The place is closed for business tonight, as a more private gathering is occurring. At Iren's urging, the furniture has arranged itself into a rough circle of seating. In the center of the seating area is a snack table covered with various bits of finger food which Iren, being the priestess of the god of hospitality, spent all day making herself. It's all delicious. There is also an open bar for those who want a drink, alcoholic or otherwise. The seats are an eclectic collection of couches and stools and chairs and cushions and blankets. The whole setup is really very cozy and intimate.

A chalkboard has been propped up along the edge of the seating area, on which the rules of the game have been written:

STRIP NEVER HAVE I EVER
1: Each of us take turns listing something we have never done with the phrasing "Never Have I Ever _____".
2: If someone lists something they have never done and you HAVE done it, you must take off an article of clothing.
3: Socks, shoes, earrings, and other items that come in pairs must be taken off in pairs. No taking off one sock at a time.
4: We keep playing until everyone is naked (or we get bored).
5: Don't feel limited to only taking one turn, if things feel like they're slowing down too much.
6: There are a few spare beds upstairs, should anyone need them, for whatever reason. =)

No one who is invited to this gathering is a stranger to everyone else (If nothing else, feel free to assume you have met Iren before.). No one was forced to come against their will. Everyone was aware that this would involve naked people. Everyone invited is an adult. Iren prides herself as a hostess, and has gone to great efforts to ensure that only people who are actually interested in such an event were invited.

IN SHORT: Let's learn a little thing or two about each other while getting sexy in here.

Comments

[2mao]

[ He doesn't strike her like some noble lad, more like a soldier, given his... body. But then again, she supposed a number of nobles went into the military. He still didn't act like any noble she'd met, though.

But she supposed that wasn't the main issue here. The main issue is that she was down to her inner shirt, her underwear, and the bandages on her arm.

The bandages weren't going, though. So instead, she casually took off her inner shirt, trying not to look embarrassed as she bared her entire upper torso to the party. Yeah, breasts were out, not that they were much to look at. ]

Arranged marriages aren't uncommon, for the upper tiers of society. You had me fooled, though, I had no idea I was dealing with one of them at all, sir.

[preventedmurder]

[She gets a sympathetic look from the now-totally-naked bird girl sitting primly with her legs crossed.]

You doing good over there? Need a snack or anything?

[2mao]

I could use a shirt, but clearly you don't have one to lend. [ Said as a... joke? It's a very dry tone though. ] I'm regretting my decision not to wrap today.

But the situation is what it is. [ At least she has underwear on her bottom half, as well as the bandages around her arm still. Unlike the bird girl.

Hm. She kind of wants to go over and see how the wings are connected. Scientific curiosity. ]

[preventedmurder]

I could have worn something a lot more formal myself, but that seemed like cheating. And we're all checking our boundaries here, right? No need to feel pressured if you want to put something back on.

[The wings do flutter a bit where they're carefully draped over the top of her chair. Anand herself isn't sure if she's repressing the urge to cover herself up or offer them as a makeshift coverup...although that would be very awkward with another mostly-naked woman.]

[2mao]

No, it's fine. I was raised in a brothel, so this isn't nearly the worst I've dealt with. And I do want to participate in the customs of these other worlds.

I suppose I'm just not used to taking part in anything. But I'll just think of it like... taking a large group bath. Or something like that.

[preventedmurder]

Heh. I thought I lost all shame after living in a dorm but this is a little more than usual for me, too. I should take the team out to a public bath some time, though, now that you mention it...

...raised in a brothel, huh? Is there a story there, or...?

[2mao]

[ A Complicated expression. ]

Not an interesting one. Born to a courtesan who got too sick to raise me herself.

[ Got sick because Maomao had been born, and was forced to sleep with the dregs of society as a courtesan who'd lost her value. Then she was raised by the same brothel who'd forced that on her mother.

Yeah, it was complicated. ]

[curse_of_boy]

I ain't in the upper tiers of society. I'm just a martial artist.

My dad is old-fashioned and an asshole. He promised me to one of his students of the same master. He also promised me to the father of a childhood friend of mine just to steal her family's food cart.

Didn't hear about any of this until I was a teenager.

[2mao]

[ Blink... blink. ]

That's... not normal. That isn't how things work at all.

[ ...At least he's not staring though. ]

[curse_of_girl]

You mean the two marriage contracts? Yeah, my old man is a bastard and a cheat. Wish I could shake him off, but he's pretty insistent I stick around to fulfill the first marriage contract.

[2mao]

An arranged marriage for a warrior caste isn't too odd. Not necessarily the norm, but not outside the norm either. But multiple? You'd be cast out once it made its way to court.

[ It's a little weird how thoughtful she seems when half-naked. But the thoughts help her forget the lack of clothing for the moment. ]

[curse_of_girl]

Oh, they're more like business agreements now. So he could be forced to give the cart back, which of course he sold off.

Either way, he skipped town as soon as he got what he wanted. I was too young to understand what was going on. I only found out when the girl in question, Ukyo, tracked me down as a teenager.

[2mao]

Business arrangements.... marriage contracts. I can't say I like the sound of that much. Too transactional.

Though if you don't mind my saying, it does sound like your father saw them as such. [ She's pieced together that this boy doesn't like his father much, but propriety means she has to allow him to save face by coaching it in language like that. ]

[curse_of_girl]

I appreciate you're probably sayin' it nicely for my sake, but he's an awful person. The only good thing he did was teach me martial arts.

[Ranma gives a shrug.]

Either way, that's how he saw it. Yeah. He thought he could swindle a girl and her father and there'd be no consequences.

[2mao]

If he taught you how to fight, and how to fight well, you could certainly make a living for yourself as a member of the military or as a guard of the Palace or somewhere similar.

I wouldn't recommend the Outer Palace, though.

[curse_of_girl]

Problem is, I've tried running off, and my dad knocked me out and brought me along anyway.

It's a complicated problem, if there was a good way out, I would've taken it by now.

[2mao]

I see what you mean. But if you took shelter under a noble's house, surely they could get rid of him if he came for you?

[curse_of_girl]

The only rich people I know, is exactly one of the people trying to get me to marry her. Can't blame that one on my dad, though. I saved her life once, and she just decided I was her knight in shining armor.

She has kidnapped me more than once. Used Blackmail, paralysis powder, all sorts of stuff. I really don't have any options here.

[2mao]

[ She can feel his pain over being kidnapped - she was kidnapped, too. Sold into the service of the Imperial Palace, even. But before she can express her sympathies over a similar situation, he mentions the other stuff. ]

Paralysis powder? What did it look like? How did it paralyze you? Was it ingested or contact?

[curse_of_girl]

Huh? Oh, um, a fine powder too fine for me to pick up a color before she spread it around. If I had to guess, though, it's probably black to fit in with her other tools.

I think it was from breathing it in? She uses some gases with similar effects too.

Why? You familiar with this kind of stuff?

[2mao]

Wait, you inhaled a paralysis powder? And you're still alive? How?

Inhaling a paralyzing agent is the easiest way to shut down your lungs and suffer a grueling death, unable to breathe, suffocating just because your lungs can't draw in any oxygen.

[curse_of_girl]

I'll take that as a yes to my question.

[Yikes, having that explained was not a relaxing party activity.]

Not sure how it works, but she's used it on me more than once. Seems she made it with not killing people in mind, since she wants me alive and all.

[2mao]

I mean, yes, but you can't just make it bypass the first major organ it's being introduced to! If it's getting in through the lungs, the lungs would be the first thing paralyzed. A more full-body paralysis would be skin contact or otherwise injected into the bloodstream in order to get spread to the muscles. Ingested tends to affect multiple organs before muscles, and inhaled should affect the lungs first.

Honestly I'm really curious how she managed to get around that.

[curse_of_girl]

[Ranma considers it for a moment.]

Oh! I remember she slipped it into some tea once. So maybe it's more generalized contact, and gets absorbed before it hits the lungs.

That... doesn't really explain the gas, though.

[Sorry Maomao, this is 1980s manga logic.]

[2mao]

Does it make your entire body seize up? Does it trouble your breathing at all? Heart rate? Could you move your eyes? Talk?

[ 1980s manga logic, meet ancient medicine-based Columbo, ]