Meet the Family

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Tempest"]


"No need to be shy, Purity. I'm glad you're making friends...especially one as pretty and nice as this lady here," Elpsis said cheerfully, probably embarrassing poor Purity even more. Being blind, Elpsis could not see the blush. However, she was a good enough mentalist to feel it. Purity was being so adorable.


She took the extended hand and shook it. Elpsis' hands were somewhat callused from holding weapons a lot. "Nice to meet you, Penance. Name's Elpsis, this is Tempest." Since Penance had offered, she took a seat. "So, Penance, what brings you here?" And what was she doing Penance for?

 

[Tempest]

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]
“Charmed, Elpsis, Tempest,” Penance said with a smile. Her own hands were quite calloused from using weapons as well.

“I’m currently working as a bodyguard for a visiting VIP. She’s off doing VIP things so I have the night off.” She tapped her empty scabbard. “Got to leave that behind, but this town is pretty safe, different from when I was here last.”
“When was that?” Purity asked, trying to sound collected. It was not entirely successful.
“Years ago now.” She looked at Tempest for a moment, then made a curious gesture. Tempest returned it and then made a second gesture which Penance gave a different symbol to. The two nodded and carried on like nothing had happened, leaving Purity and probably Elpsis confused about what was happening.
“Uhh…?” Purity began.
“Don’t worry about it,” Tempest said thoughtfully. “We’re just part of a…uhh…group. I’ll explain later.”

Purity, feeling her date was getting sidetracked, coughed.
“So…did you want to order something to eat?” she invited the rest of the table. She gestured over a waiter.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Tempest"]


Elpsis could see their hands moving, but not identify the exact gestures. Her blindness got in the way. She could sense that there was some sort of connection. Old flame? she whispered into Tempest's mind. She was not jealous. Elpsis did not care about how many women Tempest slept with or dated. After all, she was the one the amazon wanted to marry. Levity aside, if they were sleeping together they better invite the young firemane to join them!


"Sure, I'll have...uh, what's on the menu?" Elpsis asked awkwardly. Again, being blind got in the way. She genuinely could not read what was written on it. She coloured slightly. In all fairness, it had been her decision to forego cybernetic or cloned replacements. She considered her special form of sight to be a gift, but sometimes it got in the way. "Tempest, love, could you look for me please?"

 

[Tempest]

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]
When the waiter came to take the orders Tempest gently took the menu from Elpsis.
“Two spiced nerf steaks with sides, please. Also, I will have a red wine, and the fair lady here will have a beer.”
The other orders were taken and the waiter vanished. Purity had opted for a local dish whilst Penance had gone for the spiciest meal on the menu.

‘It’s complicated, Elpsis. We’re part of a secret society for Dahomians who escaped slavery. We know each other quite well, but we were never an item.’

Hopefully that put Elpsis’ mind at ease for now until she could explain the rest.

Purity seemed like a shocked deer in the headlights still. “So! Tempest and Elpsis here are great heroines. I’m sure you’ll get on together great!” she said, trying to seem chipper. She was clearly feeling a little inadequate though, confident in nothing except that Penance would be lured away from her company by her more exciting friends.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Tempest"]


'Oh, ok. I wouldn't mind if you had been.' Always good to have a gentle, understanding girlfriend who was totally down with free love. Even if she remained adamant in her belief that you secretly fantasised about marrying her and knocking her up with lesbian space magic babies. Either way, onward with the plot, before someone brings up babies.


"Purity, sweetie, if Penance wanted to have dinner with you, I'm sure she doesn't intend to drop you at the first opportunity," she said warmly. She felt a bit bad about dumping Purity earlier. In her defence, she'd been very horny...as usual. And she'd gotten Tempest to say the magical three words. "Why don't you tell her about your studies a bit?"

 

[Tempest]

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]
Tempest certainly appreciated having a girlfriend who was into open relationships. It made everything just that little bit less awkward the morning after. She did not bring up the babies, she never wanted to bring up magic babies again.

Purity meanwhile nodded her head, smiled shyly at Penance. “I’m sorry, I’m not great at this whole people thing,” she said.
“Whilst your friends are very interesting, I’d love to hear about you, Purity,” Penance said with a warm smile.

Tempest took a sip of her water to cover her smile. Penance was certainly a smooth customer, she hoped it wouldn’t end up hurting Purity. That would be very bad, because Tempest did not want to see her cousin hurt by a one night stand.

Purity meanwhile launched into a detailed description of her academics which soon had Tempest glazing over. Penance meanwhile nodded, smiled and murmured encouragingly so that Purity continued.

Tempest though was getting a bit bored and slipped a hand under the table and onto Elpsis’ leg….

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Tempest"]


Would Tempest be more inclined to talk about lesbian science babies? It was already being talked about in the real world...


Regardless, naturally the two lovebirds could not keep their hands off each other. Feeling Tempest getting bored and frisky, Elpsis smirked and spread her legs slightly. Her own hand stroked down Tempest's back and stroked her butt a bit. Can't get enough of me, huh? she asked teasingly. Will you warn Purity about magic babies?


Meanwhile, Purity had launched into an elaborate discussion on her scholastic achievements. Elpsis had some trouble following her words. It was not that she scorned academic achievements. They just were not subjects she was knowledgeable about. She had been sent to the Jedi Temple while she was still a little child and her Jedi career had ended before it began.


After running away, she had other things to worry about, such as survival. She'd tried to improve her education a bit after joining Firemane, but had a bit of disastate for book learning. Besides, few books were written in braille. Nonetheless, she said encouraging things and here and there asked for clarification to reassure Purity a bit.

 

[Tempest]

@Tempest [member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]

Tempest couldn’t contain the grimace at the telepathic comment. Whist she had needed to discuss it with Elpsis, she sometimes regretted sharing it with her. Her girlfriend could be such a troll at times, but then so could she.
She realised that someone had been speaking. They were all looking at her.
“Sorry?” she asked.
“I asked if you were alright, you looked like you were in pain,” Purity commented in concern.
Tempest coughed, looked down. “Just…an old injury…nothing to be worried about,” she muttered.
“Oh…alright. Well, as I was saying, Purity, the new repulsor motors operate by cycling the magnetic initiators….”
‘A certain redhead is going to get punished for that,’ Tempest replied a bit grumpily through their bond.

Finally though the meal was delivered and Tempest was glad of the distraction and so set to work eating. Penance also looked quite pleased as Purity had stopped as well to eat…if only briefly.

“So Elpsis, how did you come to know Tempest and Purity?” she finally asked.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Tempest"]


Elpsis was not just jesting. If Tempest had watched the news, she'd know that an increasing number of lesbians were suddenly waking up to find that new life was growing inside their wombs, even though they had not lain with a man or used scientific means to get a bun in the oven. Experts could find no explanation for this bizarre, thoroughly illogical phenomenon other than space magic. If Tempest was not careful, her girlfriend might one day show up at her doorstep with a round little baby bump. Ah, well, it was likely that Elpsis would consent to their little one getting a Dahomian name. On the plus side, some alchemy companies were advertising psychic protection against unwanted preternatural pregnancies.


'I hope so,' Elpsis responded cheerfully. "I'll take care of your injury when we're home," she promised sweetly, stroking Tempest's knee. "I'm really good at soothing her big and little aches," she added. "Well, I, um, met Purity yesterday at a wedding. I ran into Tempest a few years ago while fighting pirates a couple thousand lightyears away from here."


She tactfully left out the fact that she'd only really been fighting the pirates because a deal had gone sour. One might note that Elpsis was not much older than Purity. "Was cornered by a bunch of scum, then she swooped down with jetpack, fried them all with lightning, gripped me tight with her strong arms and shot up. Lots of stuff happened after that, we blew up bad guys together, hooked up, her bosses adopted me."

 

[Tempest]

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]
Suffice to say that Tempest was not really someone who kept up with a great deal of news, at least where it didn’t concern her directly. The lives of politicians, celebrities and human interest stories on distant worlds did not interest her. Instead she had other real concerns. Concerns like trying to stop her girlfriend trolling her!

“Sounds like quite a story!” Penance said with interest. She smiled. “I’m glad you’ve found a family network which serves you well. We all need someone,” she added. A brief pause, then she nodded.

“So what are your plans, Tempest and Elpsis? Are you leaving the planet again soon? For me, I’ll likely be here only a couple more days until my client’s business is done.”
“We’ll probably spend another couple of days here, yeah, then head back home.”
“Where’s home, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Tempest didn’t want to give a full answer because as nice as she was, she had only just met the other woman.
“Our job has us travel around a lot, so I guess home is wherever we stay for more than a few days. My ship is my home a lot of my time.”
“Mine too. So, Purity, when you’ve finished your studies, what are you planning on doing?”
“I don’t know, become an engineer I guess? Build things?”

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Tempest"]


"Oh, Firemane can always use those. Sio likes big stations for her to strut around on," Elpsis interjected. "What kind of stuff would you like to build?" She furrowed her brow slightly, glancing from Penance to Purity to Tempest. The expression on her face was unusually pensive. We've been...really daft. I think your cousin's may be a Force-user. So is Penance, she communicated to Tempest.

 

[Tempest]

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]
Tempest nodded fractionally. ‘I assumed as much because she appeared in that desert Force vision thing. You’re right about Penance.’

Purity waved a hand. “Anything I can! I’m learning a lot about engines and ships so that’d be nice to make I think!”

The dinner was coming to a close and Penance produced some credit chips and placed them on the table.
“Thank you for a lovely evening, all of you. Allow me to cover Purity’s tab too,” she said with a smile.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Tempest"]


Are you gonna tell Purity? Was it rude to have silent conversations about people who were sitting right next to you? Clearly this was another example of how unjust the Galaxy was. Penance doesn't bad. Wonder what she's doing penance for. Presumably she was not that kind of penitent. "You're very sweet. I'm sure Purity would love to spend more time with you."

 

[Tempest]

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]
‘I’ll take her aside later,’ Tempest replied telepathically. What she was paying penance for…Tempest didn’t know. She did know that it, like all Dahomian names, were taken by the person, therefore there must be a reason for it. She didn’t speculate, and it wasn’t polite to ask…not until you knew someone better.

“I…I would!” Purity said with a little flush. “Are…umm…are you available tomorrow for dinner?”
“I should be! Here’s my comm number. Call me when you’ve picked a place and I’ll confirm.”
Tempest rose to her feet. “I think our work here is done, dears. Have a good night. Elpsis, fancy joining me for a bit of a…dip?”
Purity was smiling shyly at Penance and so didn’t wince at the barely veiled innuendo.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Tempest"]


"Just a little dip? Sure. It may become a plunge though," Elpsis responded cheerfully. Her innuendo was always corny. As the party broke up, she passed Purity. "Congrats, sweetie. Penance seems nice. Look, if you want advice on, you know, girls and don't want to ask your cousin, I got tons of experience." She'd gotten top marks in the Third Pillar's examination.