Aire is of the opinion that hugs are very good, and also that Tanthe is very good.

At the moment all four of the things she cares about are taken care of. All of the people she cares about are alive and well. Tanthe is trying to make herself think of Aire as a friend. Something in Aire unclenches.

She will have to let Christa know what kind of person she is in the future, but spending too much emotional energy dreading that wouldn't be productive. And for now, in this moment, everything is good.

And then the hug is over, and Aire goes back to thinking about preparing for that future again. Probably Tanthe could meet Christa in a couple of hours, if she wanted. It might be a bit longer or shorter, but that's around how long it will take her to properly wake up.

Awwwww. Yeah, hugs were a good idea.

Tanthe would like to meet Christa in a couple of hours! What should they do until then? Maybe Aire could explain her relationship and history with Christa in more detail, if she thinks Christa would be okay with that?

She's quite sure Christa would be okay with that. She hasn't really noticed Christa having substantial privacy intuitions, just a general desire that people not know things that might make them hostile to her, and Aire doesn't think there's literally anything about Christa that might cause Tanthe to feel hostile towards her. However, she does have really strong instincts about other people's privacy; she's incredibly bad at controlling her telepathy, she's just sort of always receiving information, so she developed a principle wherein she was very careful not to even accidentally spread any information she picked up from someone else's mind. So, given Aire's new "treat people well" thing, it would probably be best to elide over anything that touches on anything that would be private for other people. Which is actually somewhere north of half of their history, actually, as Aire said, rather a lot happened. And, Aire doesn't think she can manage that with her shields fully down. So, maybe really broad strokes, for now?

Under the circumstances, really broad strokes seems reasonable, then!

Then on to broad strokes! Or, well, broad except for the definitely-not-private bits.

Well, their interactions started with Christa freeing Aire from her prison, and Aire taking advantage of this to, unbeknownst to her temporarily, melt Christa's brain with massive amounts of pleasure. This isn't private, so Aire mostly just lets the thoughts of what happened float through her mind, with a bit of forcible distance from her own arousal and the physical sensations involved. It took Christa around a full day to recover, and during that time Aire impersonated her and snuck into Arcadia. At this point Aire had approximately no information and didn't realize precisely how stupid that was. 

Also, some of this is going to be not-private by virtue of everyone in Arcadia already knows it, like the dragonfucking incident, but not the- nope, not thinking about that, thinking about that, chickens, think about chickens, they have so many feathers and Christa's family used to own some-

Anyway, infiltrating the city and realizing Christa was actually fully present. She only actually realized during seducing- nope, private- after realizing Christa was fully present, Aire did a similar technical-truth thing with Christa to get her to think the entire brainmelty encounter had been basically accidental. She also gave control of their body back over to Christa, and mostly restricted herself into nudging Christa into doing what she wanted.  Due to Aire's pheromones, getting her to do what she wanted was pretty easy.

The efforts to preserve people's privacy are appreciated and also very cute. Chickens do have numerous feathers. Correct chicken facts.

Christa is coming across as naive—not that Tanthe is one to talk, she somewhat self-consciously observes—but also a total sweetheart. And pretty cute. Aire clearly has a type.

Aire is also realizing the thing where she has a type. And Tanthe is absolutely correct about the naivete, Christa was really rather gullible. Although, in her defense Aire is good enough at wielding her shields that she let Christa see that she was telling the truth about a bunch of stuff without letting her see that it was misleading. And she spent all of her time interacting with Aire under the effects of a lot of pheromones, and also Aire's various seals and tattoos which all impair stuff like that at least a little, although some of them are under Aire's control and can even be used to counteract the others. But Aire shouldn't think about that stuff for too long, it's distracting, so back she goes to explaining.

The main non-private thing that happened next was Christa going on a date with a Dragoon that she ended by fucking his dragon. Which is when everything very suddenly went very wrong.

Actually, some of the rest is private for "possibly some powerful people will want to kill you for knowing it, but probably not" reasons, rather than privacy reasons, but the people involved are all very far away. How does Tanthe feel about that, should Aire deliberately elide over some things?

Tanthe is kind of unsure about that! Is this related the cult Aire thought about earlier? It's sort of hard to guess how best to proceed without already knowing who the powerful people are and why they might want to kill people for knowing their secrets most of the way across the continent. Maybe safest for Aire to elide over that sort of thing for now, and she can always get into it later if it seems relevant?

Not rally about the cult, but about some people who don't get along with the cult, and perhaps an additional very dangerous person who is something of a wildcard. She doesn't know why they might want to kill Tanthe except a general sense that at least one of the people involved seems almost absurdly paranoid.

Anyway, as requested, Aire shall elide.

So, the cult grabbed Aire and Christa from there for mostly good reasons, with the end result was that people thought the Dragoon, a boy named Alard, had had his dragon Yui rape and then eat Christa. Christa was mostly unconscious during this time, overdosed on pleasure and dead to the world. While Christa was unconscious, Aire engaged in a complex scheme involving framing someone for framing someone for framing Alard, to hopefully prevent dangerous people from looking too closely at Christa in the aftermath of her disappearance, since Alard was very obviously not the kind of boy to do something like that to anyone who knew him. Christa woke up just before she could properly put her plan into action, and Aire explained the situation and reassured her that she had a scheme to fix most of their problems, although not the details, which Christa still doesn't know.

The most relevant piece of information from here is that Aire's scheme didn't clear Alard, and Christa was displeased with this. So she escaped from the cult and turned herself in to the Inquisitors to clear Alard's name.

Such a sweetheart. A sweetheart with perhaps a looser grasp of tactics and strategy than would be optimal, but a sweetheart nonetheless.

Indeed. She's very lucky they didn't get a telepath in to rip the knowledge of the cult and Aire from her mind, or just torture the information out of her. But, they didn't do either of those things, so all the city knows is that a group rescued Christa from what they thought was rape-by-dragon, that group read to Christa's telepathy as well-intentioned, and apparently Christa had sex with some of the people in it. Far worse than if they didn't know they existed at all, but not the worst possible disaster.

Ah, additional information that probably matters to Tanthe, the cult reads as confused but genuinely under Aire's thumb to her, with only one possible exception, who is only an exception due to being very devoted to Aire's safety and a tendency to favor quick action over consulting with Aire first. She's never known the exception to kill except in defense of another's life, but Aire's known her for very short period of time and is also sure that's mostly due to caution rather than ethics. The exception is also of vital importance for protecting the lives of all of the members of the cult, making things rather delicate.

But, back to Christa. Her interrogator had truesight, and noticed Christa was sort of dancing around some things. In response, he dug up an old law that would allow him to exile Christa from the city for the crime of deviant-promiscuity for fucking a dragon, and threatened Christa with exile unless she cooperated and gave him more information about her rescuers, the cult, in which case he would "forget" to file the paperwork. Rather predictably given who Christa is as a person, that didn't work. Also, the Lord-Commander of the Dragoons, Alard's father, happened to be in need of an informant out here who would be able to cope with the sex-filled nature of the Pink, and who could also be relied upon to be loyal. And so, he offered Christa a deal; she serves as his eyes and ears out here and checks in with him regularly, and he gets the charges dropped. She agreed. Aire broke into her cell to rescue her a bit later, and ended up deciding to follow her out here. She also came to a rather important realization in that cell, part of why she's so sad, about the rarity of genuinely good people, but as much as Christa doesn't have very strong privacy instincts Aire's mental model of Christa starts to object if Aire goes into more detail than that without her express permission.

Tanthe really appreciates Aire protecting Christa's privacy!

Their time together really has been very eventful, hasn't it. Well, hopefully things will be a bit calmer now.

Hopefully. But, given the thing where they're in the base of the resistance against a threat to the entire world that the gods themselves seem concerned about, she isn't very hopeful.

That is a fair point.

Still, at least maybe the three of them can look out for each other? That would be nice. And they can try to avoid having any of them end up kidnapped or imprisoned again in the near future. And then if they join the resistance and go off and do dangerous things they will at least be doing the dangerous things on purpose for a really good reason, which seems better than tripping and falling into them by accident.

Looking out for each other seems like a good idea, yes. Aire can spot problems coming from certain directions by virtue of being approximately innately evil, Christa by virtue of having experience living in a large city, and Tanthe by virtue of her innate people-reading skills, in addition to just being very impressive.

Aire agrees that doing dangerous things on purpose is better than by accident. If it's by accident, you never know exactly what it is you're getting into. Much more dangerous.

Although, all that said, if they do join the resistance, and Tanthe and Christa are predictably going to want to, she thinks, they'd probably end up split up. While Tanthe seems like, what with the regeneration and Metal Magic, she would be very capable in direct combat, Aire and Christa wouldn't be as useful- wait, no that's not true. Christa would plausibly be rather useful as a telepathic relay, if Tanthe's busy fighting. Even if she doesn't have too much range, not having to yell during combat would be an advantage. And even though Aire is used to thinking of herself as not particularly capable in a fight due to a lack of offensive options, Protect Magic would mesh well with Christa's support role. She wouldn't be fighting alone, after all, so her lack of offensive options wouldn't matter as much.

Although, given Aire's position as a highly renewable supply of Portal Magic she might end up primarily used for that. They might end up all together filling a similar role to one of the ways the Dragoons were used back in Arcadia: a mobile strike force with a lot of offensive power that's very difficult to put down. They'd need a few extra people to fill in the additional firepower, and all of that does depend on the doctrine the resistance ends up using while fighting its war. Imitating successful militaries from around the world makes sense, but who knows, perhaps the Pink already has its own system of war developed that doesn't resemble what's used in the Untainted and the Wastes.

Much as Tanthe expects to hate being a front-line combatant, she acknowledges that it's probably where she fits best. But it would be really nice to get to work with Aire and Christa. Maybe they can keep an eye out for more people who seem like they would complement their group well both personally and tactically?

That seems like a wise way to do things! Probably one of the better ways to do that would be to actually sign up properly with the resistance. Tanthe was indisposed for the announcement of what precisely is going on, but the Tentacle Princesses in charge here have already divided things into a number of primary goals they're seeking to accomplish and an approximate order of importance.

Actually, Aire was there for that, why doesn't she just bounce her memory of the announcement to Tanthe?

Sure!

And she bounces it! Her memory is very good, it's nearly like Tanthe was there herself. Including the bit where there she was participating in an orgy, actually. Although Aire is focusing her recall on what was said, rather than physical sensations, some of the remembered physical sensation still comes through. When Aire realizes this she sends a vague sense of apology and manages to steer her focus enough that only what she saw and heard the Princesses saying enters her mind, although it's clear that that involves quite a bit of focus on her part.

Aire herself didn't volunteer to help with anything, and Christa was out of it enough that she didn't manage to parse the actual words enough to want to volunteer. 

In retrospect this was an obvious failure mode of asking to hear about an announcement being made at a gathering of Tentacled. She appreciates Aire adjusting her focus to omit the parts that give her trouble.

It sounds like Aire is thinking of their group as best suited to a direct combat role, either in the push to the Spire or more likely in raids to free the Red Queen's subjects, does that sound right? That's, well, terrifying, but so was coming here at all and that has managed to turn out all right so far. Tanthe would also like to check in with the psychic barrier people, both to find out if she can help with that and to see if anyone has suggestions for how to avoid grabbing people by the brain when she gets intimate with them. Particularly if she intends to get intimate with Aire again, she would like to be able to be in telepathic contact at the same time and not have that turn into a disaster.

Aire was mostly thinking that direct combat was what it sounded like Tanthe would be best at, and then realizing that Aire and Christa could support that rather well. And as far as their role in the war effort goes, mostly she was thinking that they would be really good as a rapid response team to Red Queen attacks on either the Palace or the infrastructure of the Barrier. They could get around very quickly with Portal Magic, and Aire has the type of memory that would, in fact, allow her to memorize a hundred different [Skim] routes out to positions that might need defending. Tanthe's probable vulnerability to magic or aphrodisiac based attempts to incapacitate her via arousal and then carry her off to use her as a power source for the Red Queen makes Aire sort of leery of participating in raids, or even the attack on the Spire. That said, she predicts that the Spire attack is probably important enough that Tanthe will want to participate despite the risk.

Actually. If Tanthe wore Aire, well, one of Aire's seals in an Arousal Seal, which she could use to dull Tanthe's libido to the point that she would be pretty safe from incapacitation-by-arousal. Not that Aire is suggesting they try something like that soon, Tanthe doesn't have enough information or a strong enough foundation of trust with Aire for that, the idea just happened to come to mind, and, well, Tanthe's getting all of Aire's thoughts, right now.

Tanthe's first reaction to the thought of the Arousal Seal is academic interest and curiosity. This is the closest she's ever been to someone who could actually tell her how such a thing works. And then Aire goes on to remind her that they shouldn't actually try it anytime soon, and she agrees immediately; but she's still pretty curious about the mechanics. On second thought, though, Aire might not be familiar with the details of her own construction and function? It's okay if she's not; it makes sense given her circumstances and Tanthe will try not to be disappointed.

Aire in general has an understanding of how her various features work from the perspective of operating them, but none from the perspective of creating them. So, no, as much as she'd like to, she can't help Tanthe too much.

In general, her many, many functions tend seem to all work together on the theme of, essentially, inflicting Tanthe's post-several-opened-wombs state on her wearers. It just also happens to be the case that Aire can negate part of that with the use of her Arousal Seal, but even that feels to Aire like it was probably added to be used for its ability to increase arousal and heighten libido, and it just happens to be a tool that can be used for the opposite purpose as well. Aire should probably be thankful that her Arousal Seal can be used that way at all, from the rest of her suite of features she has the sense that if her creator could have removed that ability, they would have. 

Well, if Tanthe is very curious they could try exploring -no! It would be dangerous, she has very vague memories of her creator or modifier, she doesn't actually recall which, suggesting they were a very capable and also very unethical fleshcrafter. But, actually, proper trust probably includes finishing that thought, instead of cutting it off. They could look around where Aire was imprisoned. She recalls that there was a hidden entrance to some sort of facility or something like that behind where she was imprisoned, possibly making Aire the world's oddest and most extravagant guard dog. They hadn't interacted with Aire in literal decades, and also hadn't used the entrance Aire was imprisoned in front of, so who knows what's going on back there. Aire's strongly suggests against investigating a very dangerous and very unethical fleshcrafter, even if they might have useful information. 

...Yes, investigating there seems like a very bad idea. Tanthe is still really curious, but even if they do someday go and have a look, it should be after the Red Queen crisis at minimum, when they'll have more experience and a better understanding of their powers and maybe even a few more allies to bring along. Definitely not anytime soon.

Maybe, with all these Tentacled around, they'll end up meeting fleshcrafters who can explain how Living Clothes like Aire are made, enough to get a start on understanding the theory behind Aire in particular even without her specific creator's notes?