[Nexus Standalone Plot] Triangulation

[Beans]

Nike's smile slips.
Um... y-you, uh... what?
She blinks, confused.

Uh oh.

[Lix Lorn]

"Oh, I guess you don't have them outside the Unity." she says, blissfully unaware.

[Lady Serpentine]

Dessa doesn't seem to mind, taking the position that Arianna wasn't with them at that point, so there's no reason at all she shouldn't have done so, and looks confusedly at Nike, wondering what's bothering her.

[Beans]

You didn't w-wait? But...
D-Dess, you waited, right?
She seems to shrink a little, looking down at her lap.

[Lady Serpentine]

Dessa reaches over to lay a hand on Nike's cheek, smiling softly at her.

"Pretty much... There was a little bit of messing around, but nothing that got this far. Either one of us didn't want to get that serious, or we got interrupted."

[Beans]

That makes her feel a little better, kind of...
Somewhat surprisingly, she snuggles closer to Ari, her breath warm in her ear.
B-but... why didn't you wait, Ari?
Did you not like what you heard about me?
((I think the girls would have at least been told about each other, if not having had text contact at least.))

[Lady Serpentine]

((I had been going on the assumption that while they may have been told about each other before the wedding, learning about all this in the first place was rather sudden; that this was more the culmination of a series of fairly recent negotiations than an 'arranged from birth' type thing. But it looks like Lixie has the deciding vote on that, so no real way to tell right now, I suppose.))

[Lix Lorn]

Confusion radiates from her, and worry too, a veritable wave of questioning azure.
"But I hadn't heard anything about you..."

Spoiler

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I'd figured that maybe they found out at different times. Perhaps Nike's tech people (We really need official faction names. You two need to write infodumps. :P) came up with the idea months or even years ago, and suggested it to Dessa's people months or weeks ago, who managed to persuade the Unity weeks ago, and Ari has known she was chosen for days, or a week at most. That way, Nike can have been waiting for this for ages, and ari and dessa can be all like 'well this is sudden'.

[Beans]

W-what do you mean?
She holds herself tightly against Ari, sniffling.

[Lady Serpentine]

Dessa shifts over to the other side of Arianna, going to gently hug Nike, if everyone's relative positions would let her do so without dislodging the synthgirl.

"I don't know about you, Nike, but I didn't learn about this until a week ago, and even then I wasn't really told all that much about who I was going to be marrying; I'd guess Arianna had something similar happen to her..."

[Lix Lorn]

She hugs back, nodding, moving through to concern now.
"I didn't know there was going to be a wedding until... I think it was a month ago. But I didn't know it was going to be me until..."
She pauses, and thinks.
"Four days."

[Beans]

Nike frowns, laying her head on Ari's chest.
Oh.
I-I'm sorry...
What she thinks she has to be sorry about is a bit of a mystery.

[Lady Serpentine]

Dessa frowns as well, stroking Nike's hair, and going to kiss her cheek.

"Nothing for you to be sorry about, dear... When we were told isn't your fault, and since you didn't have all the information you can't be blamed for being confused."

[Beans]

Nike nods, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand and snuggling closer to both her girls.

[Lix Lorn]

Arianna snuggles them both tightly.

[Beans]

Nike sniffs, nestling into Ari's chest.

[Lady Serpentine]

Dessa snuggles them both as well, rubbing Nike's back.

"You know we both love you, right, Nike?"

[Beans]

Nike turns to look at Dess, her expression alarmingly serious.
Do you? Do you really?
She bites her lip; she takes love very seriously and doesn't like the idea of the term being used casually.

[Lady Serpentine]

Dessa thinks for a few moments, not wanting to risk giving the wrong answer when Nike is that serious about it, then nods.

"I really do."

[Beans]

Nike blinks.
That was quick... but I trust you. She smiles gently and kisses her cheek.
She turns to Ari, nuzzling her questioningly.

[Lix Lorn]

Ari blushes, stammering, and worry flashes in her head.
"I... um... I..."

She considers lying, very aware that unlike everyone else she's met, she can. (Well, she'd be bad at it, but she doesn't know that.)
But she doesn't want to hurt them.
"I... no... I'm sorry... you're sweet and pretty and... this was wonderful, but we only just met. I need more time..." she says, apologetically.

[Beans]

Nike gently tries to slip an arm under Ari and snuggle her close so she's laying front-to-front on top of the synth.
I understand, sweets. It's been less than 12 hours, after all...
If I'm to be honest, I'm still in the process of falling. In terms of falling in love and all.
She smiles at Dess.
It won't be long before I splash down in the waters of love.

[Lady Serpentine]

Dessa smiles, and nods.

"It was faster than I expected, I admit... I hope I'm right. Hard to tell when you have no experience, y'know? But even if I am wrong right now, I think I'm at least in the same boat the rest of you are."

She sounds somewhat unsure of herself, not having really gotten beyond good friends or quick relationships before, as well as hopeful that she isn't wrong, since she really doesn't want to disappoint the synth.

[Beans]

She giggles and leans over to kiss Dessa.
Alright, honey!

Hey, it's... like... only a little past lunchtime, so we have lots of time to do more stuff today... want to go out somewhere tonight?
We could have more fun when we come back if you want...

[Lix Lorn]

Arianna blushes, surrounded by the two.
"Sure, I guess?"

[Lady Serpentine]

Dessa nods again.

"Sounds like a plan to me. How soon are you thinking?"

[Beans]

Tonight? I hear there's a lowgrav nightclub nearby and they have a silent disco tonight.
That is, instead of playing music through speakers, everyone hears it through wireless headphones. Reduces noise pollution, lets you have conversations without having to YELL OVER THE MUSIC WHAT I CAN'T HEAR YOU and it exists in real life.

[Lix Lorn]

"Disco?" blinkblink.
...
"...nightclub?"

Spoiler

Show

Pretty sure her guess at nightclub is a stick of wood painted midnight blue with stars on it.

[Beans]

Nike giggles and will explain to her what a nightclub is, unless Dessa does so instead.
((I think when she saw how adorable Dess and Ari were during the wedding service that morning, she thought "Aww, I wanna take them home with me! ... Wait, I am taking them home with me! Yay!"))

[Lady Serpentine]

Dessa helps with the explanation, smiling happily, and also indicating that that sounds like a perfectly good plan to her in the process.