"In which case" Larran leaned his face nearer to hers, to ensure she would look at him, and spoke as though she were having trouble understanding anything "you will go inside and bring them here."

Oshana turned her face away and hung her head "yes, my guide." She moved aside when Larran brushed her away to fasten Chiana's corset bodice with impatient distain. "That's too tight" Oshana placed a hand over the back of the corset bodice.

"She's not here to object" Larran sneered, taking Oshana's hand and throwing it away from Chiana. "Enough of your fumbling and stalling, you pitiful creature" he snarled at Oshana, holding Chiana's body up above the couch by the lacings and then contemptuously dropping her to fall into a seat on the floor. "Dress that miserable Crichton and have them ready within half an arn. And find my Glassan pens!" he ordered, walking toward the door.

Oshana struggled to get Chiana turned upside-down, struggled at something then went crashing backward into the foot table in front of the couch, breaking the glass cover. Larran looked, his black hair swaying at the sides of his face from his abrupt stop. He saw Oshana in the wreckage of the foot table, holding up the two missing Glassan pens while Chiana's rear fell from facing her to fall on the floor. Oshana ran the pens up to him. "They were right where you left them" she studiously told him.

Larran delicately took the pens with two fingers. "Yes. Well. Replace them with something larger but cheaper" he barked a single laugh and walked out of the room.

"Then why are you leaving?" Oshana remarked after the door shut, quirking her head. She slapped her palm against her forehead. Chiana had brushed her mind and spoken with her lips! Oshana tried to reach Chiana again, but couldn't grasp the fleeting presence. She ran to get Crichton dressed where he lay in bed and get them ready as Larran had ordered. "I'll be-there!" Oshana urgently told Chiana's body while running out the door.

John was shaken alert from his blissful doze by Chiana calling his name. He noticed the lap that had been hosting a very warm maid Chiana was now empty. He looked around but she'd seemed to disappear.

"Hey Crichton" Chiana scurried into the aisle.

"Hey Pip!" John stared at the jewel encrusted belt. What looked like silver jeweled necklaces were attached to the belt at either side, their slack hanging to partly cover her impossibly lean hips. "There are fashion designers that'd probably kill for that look. Seen Harvey?"

"Yeah he's...." Chiana's eyes widened, seeing the giant centipede Harvey. "Frell me!"

"Thought of that" John couldn't help himself from saying. "Allot. Yeah he's a giant centipedia now."

"Whhhhho are you?" the Harvey centipede demanded of Chiana.

"Nnn-not Harvey" Chiana shook her head. A cloud of its opium smoke hung onto her head. She swayed her head, jerked it one way then the other. "Whoa. Ah Oshann-na's, I think we're sort of some of the way in her and you and me" she pertly told his confused face as though he was understanding it. "Was just checking her, I think we're okay. For now." Chiana's eyes widened again, looking at the librarian. "He-hey- that's-"

John gawked at Chiana a second before snapping out of it. "The chick with the load of really red hair is the librarian in my head" he gestured to the lady eating a large cake with obvious delight. "The other snooty chick with the load of weird red hair is the....chick with the weird red hair" he introduced the lady adjusting her party hat and making an acknowledging nod down her nose. "And the black haired lady over behind the Romeo & Juliet is...." the lady looked over the giant book and narrowed her eyes in a hard look at him "I don't think you want to mess with her."

Chiana's eyes darted between the others at the table. "N-no that's Sputnik-" she gestured to the one he called the chick with the weird red hair.

"Oh look" the cake eater looked Chiana up and down "who let the alley whore in the librarEEEmph!" her insult was cut short by a huge multi-layered cake meeting her face.

"That's my Pip" John patted her shoulder. "If you can't eat them, join them."

"Gotta talk to you" Chiana handed him the now empty cake tin. "Inn-n private."

"Then why" Sputnik asked annoyingly "did you pick his head?"

"You want some cake, unbirthday girl?" Chiana reached for another cake.

"I want" she said, assuming everyone cared "another book." She picked one up from a stack on the table. She stared at the spine and read out loud. "Random House."

Pulse fire erupted from the Romeo & Juliet reader. Despite wearing a cake facial, the librarian scrambled from the table with Sputnik, running around and through each other in a panic, screeching "next aise!" John took cover under the table, using the back of a chair as more shielding. The black haired Rome & Juliet reader barricaded herself behind her giant book, taking shots at attackers John couldn't seem to see.

Chiana simply stood where she was and watched the spectacle all around. Noticing everyone was running for the next aisle, Chiana knelt behind John and tugged John's heart covered boxers. "Next aisle, come on."

"What's wrong with this one?!" John backed to the corner near the central aisle, using the chair for a shield.

"Nuuh!" Chiana looked upward, exasperated. She pushed John to one side.