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Girls night is going well. And by well, Eudico really means not well at all but nobody’s died yet so better than the worst one she’s had. It’s still not great. LD is glaring across the table at Ticker, who just looks very confused, and Zuud is just quietly putting down card after card and getting to a concerningly low amount of cards left.
Eudico probably should be worried about Zuud winning. She settles for playing a red bursa card (Zuud wordlessly draws four cards) before looking between her girlfriend and the rail agent that’s basically her kid at this point and asking, “So… did I miss something, or…?”
“Eudi, love, I have no goddamn idea,” Ticker blurts.
Little Duck audibly huffs and puts down a red 2. “Scrap it, you. You know exactly what you did.”
“I really don’t, Duck!” Ticker studies her cards, almost picks one, then thinks better of it and puts down a red 4. “I haven’t even talked to you since the last girls night! Or anyone, really, besides Eudi. Been busy!”
“Oh yeah? Not mucking busy enough, huh.”
Eudico plays a blue 4. “No, she’s been busy…? We all have.”
“Not too busy to gossip, mate. And now—“
“All the Tenno think she’s straight,” Zuud supplies mildly, putting down a blue moa. “Scrapcard.”
Eudico, formerly ready to play a yellow moa, stops. “What?”
“Scrapcard. I have one card left. That’s what you’re supposed to say, right?” Zuud suddenly gives a look to a spot of empty air directly to her left and mutters something inaudible under her breath. “Yeah, okay, definitely is.”
“No, that’s not what I—what?”
Eudico’s second what is directed more towards Ticker and LD. “How did you even… what?”
“Your girlfriend,” LD hisses, “decided to make some comments about Biz and I taking me tractor somewhere for Star Days. I was trying to get that idiot laid. Successfully, I might add. Won’t be seeing him around for a few cycles."
“Wait, I…” Ticker looks even more confused. “I… I literally just said you two had some history?”
“And now literally all of the Tenno think I’m straight. So thanks.”
“It’s not my fault that…” Ticker frowns, trying to remember who she even mentioned that too. She snaps her fingers suddenly and says, “That Pride completely misinterpreted what I said! Although it does explain why she left rather quickly after that…”
“You told her that I was straight?? Ticker, you mucking—“
Eudico clears her throat awkwardly and puts down a yellow moa. “I don’t know how any of the Tenno can think you’re exclusively attracted to men. If I didn’t know you, I’d peg you for bi at best.”
“I know you’re not straight,” Ticker says as Zuud draws a card and plays a red moa. “Just go tell the kid you’re crushing on that you’re not straight, it’s not that hard.”
“Oh, you’re one to talk,” LD fires back.
“No, no, she actually is.” Eudico puts down a red 3. One card left. “Scrapcard,” she adds after a moment, though absolutely nobody seems to be paying attention.
“Only reason Eudi beat me to it is because…” Ticker hesitates, considering this. She puts down a yellow 3. “Actually, that’s personal, no hard feelings, Duck.”
Little Duck, instead of playing a card, buries her headpiece in her arms. This does a rather ineffectual job of muffling her spoken, “Hey, I’m great at picking up girls, I’ll have you know. Fuck you.”
“Do it yourself.”
One of her hands extricates itself to play a green 3. “Nah, that’s Eudi’s job.”
Slowly, leisurely, Zuud plays a green moa. “We win.”
“Okay,” Little Duck says. “I’m just… ugh. Do you realize how mucking stupid it is to have people be this far off?”
“Given that Tenno have assumed on multiple occasions that Biz and I were dating,” Eudico says mildly, “yes. Another round?”
“Urrrrghhhh. Sure.”
(Little Duck wins the next one, as she usually does. Eudico catches her later that night painting something on the side of her headpiece: five horizontal stripes of color, in a pattern Eudico doesn’t recognize. Red, orange, white, pink, purple.)
(“Suda says that Cephalon Simaris says that this was a flag women loving women used to identify themselves in pre-Orokin times,” Little Duck says without being asked. “She also said that he said most muckers these days wouldn’t recognize it—I’m paraphrasing, let me mucking live—but if someone asks about it I will so be telling them immediately.”)
(“…that’s… neat?” Eudico says. “Good luck.”)
(LD merely nods, and returns to her work in earnest.)