"Oh my gosh you're cute. How are you so cute."

She. Did not mean to say that out loud.

Ruby is not blushing. But she looks like she really would be if she could. She squirms and flails a bit and hides her face.

"Aleeethiiiaaaaa~~~!"

"Really, by getting even more adorable when I compliment you you're just incentivizing me to do it more. An adorable cycle."

Oh no her only escape is to quickstep across the distance, stop just short of actually impacting Alethia so as not to break her, and then gently bury her face in Alethia's shoulder. This is where she lives now.

Cute! Absurdly, illegally cute! 

"You're adorable and I am pleased by this. Highly cute. Five stars, would recommend."

She will hug the Ruby close.

She will quite happily hug their mate. This is pretty great, honestly. All it cost was turning her into an embarrassed mess, and now she gets to hug their mate first. She sticks her tongue out mentally at her headmates.

It turns out Alethia was kind of incredibly touch starved? And thus this hug is the Best Thing Ever.

Hugs good.

So much hug! Alethia deserves All The Hugs. Gentle hug and stroke her back and smiiiiiiile warmly.

Well, since Ruby seems happy to engage in Much Hug Alethia is going to just bask in this for a little bit. It's really nice.

So Much Hug. She has a wonderful mate and she's not letting go until she's asked. Basking is very much The Plan.

Hug good, hug nice.

However, eventually, due to her squishy meat body, hug uncomfortable. So, she says, "Sadly, I am not yet made of rocks and superpowers, and so I cannot hug forever without becoming somewhat uncomfy. Shall we- sit down on the picnic blanket, maybe? I can put my arm around you. It'll be nice."

She giggles and nods and sits down, smiling up at Alethia.

And Alethia will sit down next to her, and drape her arm around her shoulders. Give her a little squeeze, even.

Ruby is not soft but she remains very good.

Ruby wiggles happily at the squeeze. This close, Alethia can see that there is a ring of gold just around Ruby's pupils. On reflection, the other four Pirates looked like they might have the same.

Oh, that's pretty. 

"I hadn't noticed the gold rings in your eyes before now! I, uh, am not the most observant person in the world. They're pretty! And, if that pamphlet was correct, probably come from consuming animal blood?"

Ruby nods eagerly. "Mhm! Maya's witchcraft does eye colors too, but the way vampires' eyes change based on our diet is important, so the magic found a compromise. Gold ring and true color if we're well-fed on non-human blood, black ring and much darker true color if we're hungry but have been drinking non-human the past couple weeks, and the colors are just as normal for soulshaped vampires who've been drinking human blood."

"Oh, I hadn't quite been thinking of magic as the kind of thing that would be- finding a compromise like that. That's interesting. I'm glad it, uh- preserves the ability to tell important things like that at a glance, though. That's important."

Ruby nods seriously. "It really is important. Empress Bella has one vampire in the coven whose job is just periodically checking the eyes of all vampires remotely using their witchcraft."

"Oh? How do they do that? Some sort of remote viewing witchcraft?"

How could something like that be leveraged? Would vampiric vision and memory translate to being able to, say, read the pages of a closed book, despite the precipitous zoom required for such a thing?

"Mhm!" Ruby nods. "They can check everyone without leaving their house or their office!"

She rests her head on Alethia's shoulder. Lightly. Because vampires are heavy.

"Incredibly convenient! Means they don't need to have an entire department with offices all over the world just for that. And makes people rather a lot less likely to give in to the temptation. I recall reading that certainty of swift punishment was in fact the most important thing for deterring things you want deterred, and severity is effectively not involved at all."

She gives Ruby another little squeeze.

Suddenly Ruby gets a bit of a sheepish expression. "Aaand Neo just bonked me in the face in mindspace with a sign that says 'Alice does the checks, you adorable dork.' Which, um. Apparently I'm too distracted by snuggling our Very Pretty Mate to remember that the person doing the eye checks is the woman who can see the future? Oops? Heheh."

A few embarrassed giggles spill out of her lips.

"Oh wow. Future sight. I didn't expect something that gamebreaking was on offer, honestly. If the Golden Coven has something like that on hand no wonder they're in charge."

"Aaalso." She gives Ruby a little squish, "Cute."

She squeaks in embarrassment at that, but rallies and nods! "Yeah! They've got a lot going for them in terms of running things! But getting there was a closer call than you'd think, from what we remember of the history."