Like a moth to the flame.
I knew Diz was intense, crazy even, when involved in combat, but I didn't expect her to go at her friend like she did. Clearly he expected such from her, as he returned it in kind and eventually came out with victory. It was especially weird to see the two fighting after having seen them entwined in sex the night before, but I think if there hadn't been a gaggle of children watching, they would have likely fallen back into the sex as they finished the combat. Very weird to watch.
What was weirder was when Noelle and the Lieutenant Commander showed up as Blue helped Diz up off the ground. Noelle made a comment about wasted energy, and this bristled Thil's feathers, resulting in a challenge. To my surprise, and probably a few others, though not Diziara's, Noelle accepted the challenge, and even shunned the need of a weapon. Having no idea what was going on, when Diziara offered a bet on the outcome of the fight, I blindly agreed. I now owe Diz some very expensive, and hard to get, 2309 vintage Bloodwine.
Thil didn't take kindly to losing to Noelle because of some zen ninja tricks, and while I'm impressed, I did also feel kind of obligated to follow her and soothe her, since everyone just took amusement from her loss. She departed in a hot headed stalk, down the stairs we entered from, I think the only reasonable entrance/exit to the place, though I must admit that I've never been one to inventory exits, other than when I knew I was going into a potentially hostile situation. Diz would say this is stupid of me, and I suppose she is right. What is it with me surrounding myself with hot headed women?
At any rate, it didn't take me long to catch up with Thil, as she'd only started down the stairs a minute or so before me. She was still fuming, but she had elected to slow down and brood instead of continuing to storm off at high speed. Knowing what hot headed women are like when startled in the middle of a good brood, I elected to let her know long before I reached her that I was in pursuit. The way she turned when she herd my voice told me I'd made the right choice to keep a few meters between us. When she saw it was me, she started spouting off about the duel, how humiliated she was to lose to Noelle, and how stupidly she'd acted in the process of losing.
Once I'd reached her side, we continued down the stairs and she kept talking. She slowly transitioned from the humiliation at the hands of Noelle to her pending bond. By the time we found somewhere to sit, she was going on about the zhen of this future bond. Thil went on about her artwork, and being enrolled in the art academy, and mentioned that she didn't care about the low match rating she had. When I admitted I wasn't familiar with whatever that was, I got one heck of a lecture. Apparently people are so worried about producing as many offspring as they can, they rate each person based upon genetics, family and career path, and try to compose bond groups based upon this rating system.
I was curious what would make such a fascinating person a low match, but I wasn't sure if I should ask, as it might have been rude. Like the weather, apparently the politics and details of this match system were a serious enough and large enough topic to make it justified for Thil to go on about it. I had a little trouble following some of it, but one of the things that made this soon to be zh'yi of hers such a low match was having Aenar blood, of an amount larger than the Andorian society seems to think proper. When I indicated a lack of familiarity with the Aenar, I got another lecture about this subspecies which has much fairer skin, and a tendency towards being blind and telepathic.
She keeps calling me pinkskin, which from most of the other people here is intended as an insult, she seems to use it in reference to me in a more friendly term. She's more of a wild flame than Diz, Diz is more like an oxyacetylene welding torch. It feels odd for me to compare these two women so much, especially since I did have sex with Thil, and Diz and I are completely platonic. With Diz, it was almost like watching a sister when I saw her at the festival, but since I get so detached about sex I'm not actually participating in, I could still watch. I still don't understand it, but oh well.
Thil and I talked for a good long while, well, she talked to me for a good long while. Once she'd gotten everything out, she looked at me. After that silence, she thanked me for listening to her, muttered something about going off to think, and left me alone. Left with nothing better to do, I found my way back to the space that'd been set aside for the away team to sleep in, and played with my pocket space for a bit. I've set up a temporary anchor point that I can use in these pants I'm borrowing during my stay, and in the future have an easy way to anchor the pocket space to whatever pocket I happen to be wearing at the time. Something that will be useful in the future, especially if we end up in another Andorian keep during this mission and I have to hand over my pockets again.