The evening was filled with drinking and amusement, with the warmth of the evening punctuated by Bertra's finest efforts at amusing them. "...So then Queen Zesshi says, 'No, but check the size of his ears and you can usually guess the rest'." The table was silent for a moment.
"Wait, so can you really tell the size of…" Entoma looked at Inta's ears and then lower, "from those? How does that work, is it the ears side by side, or one ear, or…?"
Inta covered his ears, "That only works for elves!" He exclaimed and scooted his chair further beneath the table.
Bertra roared with laughter, and took the liberty of pouring another round of the runepress wine.
"I don't think it even works for elves." Bertra pointed out and a very sheepish Inta slowly drew his hands away from his very human ears.
They grew steadily more intoxicated as the evening carried onward and the total empty bottles in the center of the table went from one, to six.
Bertra slumped backward in her seat, one arm limp at her side, the other holding on to a goblet like it was a rope that would pull her out of a stormy sea and into the safety of a boat.
She let out a deep, deep sigh and put on a stupid grin. Her head lolled to one side to glance at Inta, "I hope," she hiccuped, "that you don't mind but I prolly should just stay here, if you're okay 'thit."
"Shure. Friend of my best bug won't none bother me. Wait… said that wrong." Inta said and looked down at the empty cup. "Runepresh wine for the win…!"
Entoma's shell could not blush, but she would have, if she could have. 'I'm fairly sure he meant to say that it wouldn't bug him to have her…' If she could have rolled her eyes, she would have done that too.
"Good, good… thas good." Bertra said and flung her head back then brought her wine to her lips and drank the last of it. "Haven't had a vacation in… a long time. Long, long time. Burned a candle for Raymond a few weeks ago, hard to believe he's been gone this long, nobody left… I'm the last… it's hard to be the last." Bertra lifted her head as Entoma got up from her chair and approached.
"That's the last wine for you, at least." Entoma said and put Bertra over her shoulder.
That did nothing to stop Bertra from talking and pointing toward Inta. Bertra hung ass up, legs over Entoma's front and torso over the back, and held her pointed hand shakily toward Inta. "You be good to her… be good, she's my first, means the world to me, don't ever do anything to hurt her, she's delicate… really delicate…"
Bertra stopped rambling when Entoma laid her down on a couch some paces away against a far wall. Her head slumped to one side and her eyes closed, Entoma looked away over her shoulder to where Inta was slowly standing up. He held his hand on the table to steady himself.
"Do you have a blanket for her?" Entoma asked, then looked back down at the shapely sleeping elf that rolled onto her side to face the door. "Little idiot." Entoma murmured sweetly and brushed a little golden hair away from her face.
"Yes, I do, just a moment." He said and disappeared into his bedroom, he returned a moment later with a blanket of black bear fur and handed it to Entoma.
The heteromorph covered the elf woman who, drunkenly sleepy or no, was able to grab the blanket and tug it against herself.
"So you and she… you were a thing?" Inta asked, raising a brow and looking at Entoma with surprise.
Entoma brought a hand up to her maw and covered her laugh. "No, by Lord Ainz, no. I wasn't her first time, she means I was her first friend, after she… well, let's just say after she 'lost' them all in the closing days of the Theocracy."
"Oh. So Raymond… I did see the trial, she was one of his rescues, was she? Like that wild elf woman who drew a knife on the executioner?" Inta asked.
Entoma reached up and brushed a hand through the shell-covered imitation purple hair.
"Not exactly, but you could say she was a rescue, in a manner of speaking. It's classified, so don't ask too much, but she has been through a great deal that she'll never ever let go of." Entoma explained without explaining anything, and kept her eyes down on the sleeping elf.
"So… the rest of what she was saying, then?" Inta asked. "Given the way you handled me in the exhibition, I don't think she meant you were 'delicate' the way someone usually means it."
Entoma didn't say anything in response, though she very much had the urge to chew out her nosy friend. 'Berta… you little…' She wished yet again she could roll her eyes to add a gesture to her sense of exasperation.
"She means well, ignore her. But if you must know, Inta…" Entoma looked over to him, "look at me."
He did, he glanced down at her, unflinching at the curling little finger-like appendages that surrounded her head that bent in and out, the multitude of scarlet eyes that met his own. "I am a heteromorph, a creature created by ancient immortal beings, one not unlike my master in order to serve. But for reasons unknown to me, the base design for my body was human. I am imbued with the same… inner life, as like the others. But do I look like I fit in anywhere?"
"I've never seen anyone like you… ever… not anywhere in my long, long life." Inta said with reverence.
Entoma's eyes sparkled, pleased with his answer, her pulse raced, "Very kind, but only a half truth, because you know what that means. Outside of my home and with the sisters who are like me, there is nowhere I belong. I was created without a companion and yet I also want a companion. I'm content with friends like Bertra, but yet…?" She opened her hands at her sides, "It isn't enough, and yet I'm so inexperienced that I'm not really ready for more… I fell in love with a doll, I tried things… with her." She glanced down at the sleeping Bertra again, "I have no idea what to do or what I'm doing. I can only assume my drunken friend here was trying to play matchmaker."
"In retrospect that would explain a great deal." Inta swayed a little, "I didn't mind, don't mind…"
"But I do." Entoma replied to him, "I also don't, but I do. Because… because I don't know what this is, or what it could be or where it might go or… I'm easily jealous, I'm sensitive, I almost bit your head off over your question-"
"Metaphorically, right?" He interjected with a little smirk.
Entoma did not immediately deny it.
"Don't come see me for a while, look after Bertra for the night, but give me some space, let me think… I need time to think." Entoma said, and then without waiting for an answer she brushed past him to the table where she took up her bug mask and put it back on her face before leaving the room faster than she'd charged at him during their exhibition.
Inta could do nothing but watch her leave.