I tilt my head. "Suuuure... As long as it doesnt involve another fall quite yet."

"Uh, think i need a quick break IRL. I'll be right back."

Little bit of water, stretching, etc, will do her mood good. She's been sitting still for too long. And indeed she is only a couple minutes.

Eelesia has a suspicion about what Vanessa is planning and hopes that suspicion is true.

Vanessa will also stretch a bit and get some water. Doing this really is a lot of mental labor but it's very fun.

Once Lenora is once again seated, Vanessa rewinds a little bit and repeats Dapple's last question.

"I've had lifetimes upon lifetimes of pleasure," Dapple tells you earnestly. "And so will you. Nobody here owes anyone anything. But if you want to contribute, even if there's nothing to pay back, you can always pay forward instead. How would you like to visit one of the places where new Flowers incarnate?"

"That sounds lovely."

It hasn't escaped my notice that Dapple is - stronger in some way I don't clearly understand yet, in how she handles pleasure, in the absurd strength of the erogenous sensation when I was fucking her. It might be nice to have some lower points of comparison, even as much as such comparisons are silly. And it might be nice to meet someone else who is out of their depth, too.

"Okay! I can show you the way whenever you want," Dapple affirms. "There, or anywhere else you want to go."

The stranger seems to take this as her cue to un-hug. She slips away, patting you comfortingly before leaving. A short distance away, a strange wind seems to hit the grass and moss around her, and almost as if by coincidence, the ripples form a mandala pattern around the Flower, like a magic circle. Green and blue tentacles erupt from the ground between the Flower's legs, flowing up and over her hips, twisting around all of her limbs and yanking her body into a lewd pose while more tentacles form light blue petals around her, framing her in her bondage like a living piece of art.

Dapple gives you an affectionate squeeze as you witness this.

"That's pretty cool. I'd do the thing where it increases my Craving again but it's already pretty high."

I suddenly put on a little bit of an affectation. "Do lead the way to this place of new Flowers, noble Dapple, with prudent haste if you might. I find myself enticed by the prospect. And perhaps as we go, what was that great tower I saw a glimpse of, earlier?"

Giggle.

"The tower is actually still totally visible and the central feature of the skyline from where you are, if, you know, there was a sky to line. Giant pink space tree line. Point is, you can definitely still see it. That very view is a strong possible explanation for why this meadow is so popular."

Dapple snickers. You get the sense that whatever your affectation is referencing, its going over her head, but she still finds it amusing.

She takes your hand and stands up, ready to lead the way.

"That's the Pillowshade Cultivar," Dapple tells you. "It's kind of... what's the mortal word... capital! 'Capital' city! Of the Fairy Garden. The Radiant Hollow is on the other side of it, so if you want I can give you a tour on the way. It won't be much slower to go around, if you think that'd be too overwhelming for now, though."

"...It does seem like it'd be rather a lot. I'd rather enjoy the sights on a hike I think."

"Out of character, I wanna get E in here with us."

Dapple leads you by the hand vaguely in the direction toward the tower in the distance, but soon veers to the right toward what you can now see is a much-closer standing archway. Actually, not an archway. A full ring of white wood, suspended around a braid of branches, marking a well-traveled set of paths. Cords of thick white wood draped in smooth cyan moss twine off into the boughs.

"Closer is relative, though. It's like, four miles away from where you cratered, so I'll say you've got... an hour and a half of walking. You can ask Dapple any questions that would occur to Lisara during that time, and then your Satisfied status will fade before you get there."

"Hmm!" She looks over her sheet. "...I think that's long enough after Satisfied fades for my Satiation to creep down to my Ardor? Even though I have - three fatigue now? Since it's been about two hours. Which means satiation creeps down from max uhh... Call it ten minutes of talking and wiping out, two hours of walking, so thirty four minutes after I'm no longer locked at max? So Satiation decays by eleven. I'm feeling my hunger for more lust recover unnaturally fast..." 

Lenora wiggles in delight about this, IRL, a little bit.

"...Anyway, conversation during the hike."

Along the walk, mostly I enjoy the hike and the sights I'm seeing; I look out for more rooted Flowers and make a little game of spotting them. Occasionally I ask Dapple some questions- About how she's gotten 'stronger', about the uses of ichor and euphoria and, once I learn about it, of numinosity. About the goddesses- plural, apparently. And about tree-surfing! Are there any good spots to learn, where wipeouts won't cost an Ichor? Is there theory or fundamentals on how to stand and move that she can tell me about?

"Sure, thirty-four minutes. I was totally keeping track of that. And yeah, that would be three Fatigue. I'll adjust Dapple as well..."

Dapple's Satiation... doesn't move, because its less than her Ardor, so it stays at 11. Arousal drops to 0. Sensitivity... also drops to 0.

At least here and now, in this idyllic meadow with a view of the city, every person-sized flower you examine does seem to be a Flower. There aren't any non-person flowers of that size and texture in evidence anywhere that you've seen yet, but you haven't seen much yet, so you don't know how much of a conclusion you can draw from that.

As you walk, hand in hand, Dapple does her best to sate your curiosity.

She explains the five features of each gender, that can be gained in any order by using one's Euphoria. And yeah, as part of that, she explains how, by creating a symmetrical simultaneous loop of making-the-other-person-generate-Ichor so that you both get Euphoria at the same time, that symmetry also creates Numinosity, which is sort of like... magical significance in the broader sense? It can warp reality to improve your soul, or create other persistent alterations to the environment.

When you ask her about the goddesses, she tells you about the Mythos of the Five-Pointed Star, which is basically the religion of this realm, and gives you a short summary.

Lilith, the Innocent Seducer, is the jungle goddess of soft hearts and natural joys, who's presence invokes Salvus Weald, the dream of the safe woods.
Venus, the Thoughtful Romantic, is the sky goddess of enduring passion and ambitious planning, who's presence invokes Venereum Consilium, the invention of the romantic plan.
Sade, the Beautiful Monster, is the ocean goddess of dangerous kinks, who's presence invokes Mare Veritatis, the perversions revealed in the sea of truth.
Valkyr, the Valiant Challenger, is the volcano goddess of bravery and competition, who's presence invokes Virtus Apicem, daring the peak of bravery.
And finally, you, the human goddess of your own soul, who's presence invokes the self-telling story that a person is.

Once the topic returns to tree-surfing, Dapple gets even more animated as she explains the basic stuff that you really shouldn't have tried to tree-surf without knowing.

Gravity, in the Fairy Garden, is unstable. It changes as the world tree orbits its two companions in the Void Cradle, altering which tree-surfing routes and courses are viable with the seasons. In places like cities or popular routes, gravity has been stabilized and made permanent by multiple people all expending the Numinosity in cooperation to make it so. However, if you are outside the consensus gravity zones, or, say, if you fall out of a consensus-gravity zone, you can use your Numinosity to lay down a temporary gravity-shift zone to change 'down' to whatever frame of reference you have in mind. You can get the Numinosity back afterward, too, if you remember to release the effect before you get out of range.

"So yeah, you can practice pretty easily out in any bit of unoccupied wilderness, once you're a bit more Numinous."

I'm struck into thoughtful silence as I ponder the implications of numinosity, of reality powered by soul, of soul powered by mutual pleasure... And maybe a little bit of fantasizing about said mutual pleasure. I don't really understand the goddesses or their domains, but it doesn't seem especially urgent to me- I'll get used to it in time if it's important, I'm sure.

"Oh, come on!" Eelesia laughs. "You're seriously not even going to acknowledge the thing where you, you, you Jaune Arc'd that shit? What's a landing strategyyyyyyyyyyyy~ hehehe."

"It was a fun idea but I think I was imagining something else when I ran out of the mushroom forest? A shallow ramp, or something. Not a perilous slide. This- You know I'm an idiot-"

Headshake. And a small sigh.

"I'm being moody and thinking about implications and stuff now, and ruining things. Sorry."

Headshake again. "Whatever. Moving on!"

Frustrated at the thought of my own impulsive failure earlier, I suddenly growl deep in my throat and reach forward to grip Dapple's other hand as well, lustful intent in my eyes.

"And starting an Encounter with a firm pairing attempt there."

Vanessa is feeling a little wedged between being a good GM and being a good friend, actually. Lenora... is definitely a tiny bit upset.

"...Dapple is totally here for that but is going to gently resist just enough to make you spend that one Stamina---"

"Hang on. That really wasn't because you're an idiot, Lenora. Er. I mean. You're not an idiot. But even if you were that's not what the problem was! Um."

Okay that didn't quite come out right. Eelesia rallies, and holds up her index finger.

"Okay, that didn't come out right. Let me start over. My Jaune Arc impression wasn't supposed to be literal! It was supposed to point out that you, your character, Lisara, metaphorically tried to become a huntress without knowing what aura was. You tried to tree-surf before you found out what gravity-shifting was or even that it existed. And even once gravity-shifting got explained in-character it didn't seem like you noticed that gravity-shifting's existence recontextualized that whole event and that's what made it reminiscent of Jaune's ignorance of aura?"

Eelesia holds up a second finger.

"The problem with your fun idea wasn't ever that you imagined the wrong thing. It was because you tried to imagine something yourself instead of asking for the information that would be available to Lisara's senses? It's actually really important for maintaining a shared theater of the mind that everyone at the table is on the same page about who is responsible for imagining what. That's why the role of Dungeon Master, or Game Master, or whatever you call it, exists at all, because the world outside of each of the player characters that they're all interacting with can't function unless it is centrally coordinated by only one imagination at a time. It's definitely not about who's imagination is better or clearer or more clever."

Eeleisa grabs her pinkie with her thumb so that she can hold up a third finger, then gives Lenora an apologetic smile.

"It was really funny and in a way that didn't break our immersion or the verisimilitude of the fiction. It made the story better. I wanted to share in the happy accident with you. I really didn't think you'd feel bad about it. Role-playing games should have moments like that, I think. Moments where, like, a player's above-table mistake is reverse-engineered into an in-game action that sparks joy and makes the story more entertaining. That was great."

"Yeah. I guess I just assumed you were... in on the joke. I didn't mean to actually make fun of you."

"-Okay, yeah, timeout. I think - I was getting frustrated about that, yeah, but I couldn't - name it or put a word to it. And by 'that', I mean, 'the unexpected in-character fall' and 'not having a clear mental picture of what's going on'. I think it's - overall a fun and good moment? 'I am a genius! Oh no!' But-" vague wave. "You're definitely getting at something there, E. I'm not - daydreaming here. Or I'm not the only one doing that. I've never really done this kind of thing before, in sports and video games you can see what's going on. I even almost forgot we were already holding hands until I looked at these little papers," she indicates the organ cards. "So I should - pause and ask what's going on more often, maybe?"

"Yeah... That would definitely help me do a better job too. I need to know what Lisara is looking at or paying attention to so I can tell you what she's seeing go on, y'know? It's kind of my job to be the video game that's showing you what's going on, like that, so yeah. Like Lee-zee said. Not asking me stuff like that is like playing a video game when you can't see the screen."

"Hehe, what does this button do? KABOOM!"

"...Quick hug?" She leans towards Eelesia first, Vanessa after.

GLOMP.

Any excuse for a hug.

Yeah, Vanessa gets up from her seat and comes around to add herself to the hug.

Yay, hugs!!

"So, Vanessa, do I see any convenient spots in the meadow to push or carry Dapple onto or against? We're nearly 'across' the valley, right, and that's sort of side on to the big spire city? I'm reconsidering doing things to her right now - I think it was frustration making want to do anything I immediately understood - but I gotta know my options, right? Also I was maybe a little bit rushing because - I feel a little awkward with Eelesia just watching. In the interest of clear communication and all."

Vanessa settles back into her seat and takes a few moments to find her groove again.

From four miles away, the 'archway' ring that Dapple led you toward looked small, but now that you're up close and nearly passing through it, you can see that this 'archway' is actually a small town. Down here, upon the edge of the mossy meadow where it narrows into corded branches, you find yourselves at a well-traveled crossroads, from which you can gaze upward at the domed roofs of the mishmash of small buildings on the ring's wooden inner surface, and see dozens of nude figures walking between those buildings, on that surface. Nothing you recognize as clearly homes or shops, but definitely a similar energy.

Closer at hand, as you approach the cords of mossy world-wood that cross through this ring like the axle of a wheel, you see several Butterfly-Flower couples, still nude, but with conspicuously coifed hair, each lounging upon a circular stage surrounded by concentric descending terraces of shiny black rubber, each about two-and-a-half feet high. You can see three such stages from your vantage point, one almost directly in your path, another two off to either side, tilted away from you on the increasingly tubular terrain.

As you approach, you see a passing Butterfly, one without visible wings, stride up onto the stage to your left, where the coifed Flower embraces her. Looking upward, the coifed Flower reaches out with a hand, and somewhere within the ring town, tentacle vines erupt outward, crossing the space between wheel and axle like a temporary spoke, to seize the coifed Flower and haul both her and her passenger up, and then down, onto the surface of the ring. A few moments later, floral tentalces erupt from the stage, and pull the coifed Flower back down from the surface of the ring.

On the black rubber steps of the platform directly ahead, which would indeed serve as an excellent surface to push someone down against, another couple is demonstrating that very thing. You see a tanned Butterfly with blue eyes and a wild mane of golden hair, and a pale curvy Flower with tousled lavender hair, on the bottom step, the lowest largest circle. The Butterfly is reclined against the lip of the step, and her Flower is throating her cock, serving as both foot-rest and cocksleeve as she wiggles her ass at passers-by, but both of them seem relaxed, like they've been there for a while.