Chapter 1 - A Temple in the Sky

A groan, audible this time, escaped Iris at Shossk's... er... well meant words. He really, really, really, really at all in any sense of the word know what was wrong. "Shossk... that's not it...," Iris tried to find the right words, tried to not write him off as a pervert or any number of other conclusions that pressed on her mind, "Um... So... Where I come from, at least, humans always wear clothes, and it's embarrassing for us to be seen naked... so... I've noticed that it doesn't look like you see it the same way, but it's really not okay for boys to see girls without clothes and vice versa. Honestly, back in my world, some people would slap you silly for running around naked in a group of girls even if you're just flat down ther. Even more so for walking in on a naked girl."

"I haven't been wearing clothes because I was afraid to break some laaaws," Iris was possibly having a harder time attempting to explain to Shossk than with the whole idea of being thrust unwilling into the middle of a death game. Granted, he made a good point. Aside from the laws she was born and raised with, why else would she be too embarrassed to show her own body? Still, that was that and this was this. It didn't change the fact that Iris did feel incredibly uncomfortable regardless of whether the cause for that embarrassment was still a factor or not. That aside, the idea of simply tossing away civilization sounded unpleasant to her, something she would rather avoid if she could. Keeping her civilized way of thinking had embedded itself as a way of keeping her pride and standing staunch against all the mind-blowing changes. "It's... It's like I said, Shossk," Iris tried explaining again, not sure if she was just parroting herself or making a different point, "Where I come from, this is kind of embarrassing. Maybe it is because, under our norms, I was raised to feel embarrassed about nudity, but that doesn't change that I feel uncomfortable in a... a situation like this... I just wanted to let you know so you don't think I hate you or anything."

This entire time, Iris was trying desperately to get her underwear dry, but no matter what she did, it clearly wasn't going to get any dryer than moist but not dripping, at least not without a fire. She sighed and changed her plans, setting the underwear aside on the nearest branch or otherwise clean surface and beginning to rapidly fan her outerwear instead. Even with the girls, Iris would feel uncomfortable being the only one completely naked. At least something to sort of cover her body would make her feel better with sitting in front of the fire with everyone.

Iris hadn't meant hate... quite that seriously. The word was serious, no argument about that, but she had simply thrown it out without much thought as an easy way of expressing dislike. When she heard Shossk's response, though, she could hear that he had taken her words with much more thought than she had intended. "Um... Well... No. No, it's not that strong. I don't hate you," she struggled to amend her own sentences without making a fool of herself, "Something like that wouldn't make me hate you. It was just an... example. No, not even that. I was just saying that the last thing I want you to think is that I'd hate you since the way I avoided you could have been mistaken as hate. I wouldn't want you, or anyone else, to think that I could hate over something so small. Hate is... Real hate would require a bigger reason."

<Like what kind of reason?> was the natural bend of Iris's thoughts after saying all that, and she could think of at least one. However, it was a reason she was embarrassed over and when she was trying so hard to overcome. Feeling those unpleasant emotions rise once more now that she was reminded about them, even the good memories of Light's success at reaching the fruit faded.

Iris returned Light without a word, something Shossk might notice considering the laser-light-thing that Pokeballs did when returning Pokemon.

Although, Shossk wasn't entirely wrong with what he said. While Iris wouldn't go so far as to hate him for it, she certainly would rather situations like this in the future. "Ahem," Iris coughed to create the start of a new topic, "That being said, I would prefer if we could avoid seeing each other without clothes again. I can completely sympathize with the desire to shed wet clothes in this ickily wet weather, though, so I'm not going to make you wear clothes if you really don't want to. At least not until we run into a time when we need to. I mean, you look more like a Pokemon than a human, so I guess that's another reason why I didn't scream and slap you on instinct when you suddenly burst out of the bushes without pants. Ahahaha... In exchange, I hope you can respect my embarrassment at revealing my naked self."

Seeing that Layl was more focused on getting to know her new creature friends better, Yoko quietly takes her leave (or at least attempts to) and heads towards the river, where Shossk and Iris should (hopefully) be.

Upon arriving at the river, Yoko was greeted by the sight of a naked Shossk standing in the river, hard at work washing Iris' sleeping bag, and almost immediately she averted her gaze elsewhere. In the short time she was looking, however, she noticed that Iris wasn't in or by the river. "Um, Shossk? Where's Iris?" Yoko nervously asked Shossk, still avoiding looking at the lizardman.

"Her clothes wwould dry faster near the fire," Shossk adds, "but she would expose hersself to us. I understand this is unacceptable, annd I have agreed to avoid seeing her without clothes again." A thought occurs to Shossk, and he holds up Iris' sleeping bag, interposing it between him and Yoko. "Doess nudity discomfort you, as it does Iris? I would offer yyou the same agreement, and avoid baring myself to you as wwell."

"Yyou may," Shossk affirms, wading out of the water. He steps up to Yoko, looks down at the sleeping bag covering him, then back at Yoko. "Look away," he says simply. Assuming she does, Shossk passes her by, pressing the sodden sleeping bag into her hands.

Finally, Shossk makes his way back to camp to put on his dried clothes, regardless of Layl's presence. He had not come to agreement with her yet regarding being clothed.

Layl mumbled an answer to Yoko, and seeing that she had left, Layl assumed Yoko had heard her confirmation. Lay was trying to deal with Umbra's eagerness and it was honestly a bit tiring. She tried to scoop the little one up, it's constant running starting to grate on her nerves a bit. Normally she'd be fine with it, but the near scare they had had just a bit earlier may have set her a bit on edge.

Some time later she saw Shossk coming back, he seemed to be putting back on his now dried clothes. She would normally be concerned at a naked person running about, but well, it was like dealing with Donald or Goofy, except Shossk actually wore pants sometimes. Layl should probably be concerned about her own clothes, but she was wearing an explorer's outfit, surely it was made for this kind of nonsense, and even if it wasn't, they were probably going to get wet again, she'd disrobe when they actually properly settled for the night.

"So....Shossk, we were planning to ambush them, if I remember correctly, any idea to when we'll head out for that?" She wasn't about to waste time getting clean and proper for a trek through this place, Layl had no clue why they wanted to clean up, they were just going to get dirty again...well Iris was a bit more understandable, she was sticky.

Layl nodded at Shossk's plan, it was solid, well, as solid as it could be with limited information. This wasn't a city, so she couldn't just skulk around the place in hopes of overhearing a conversation. Regardless of that, he ability to fly, or at least glide them down, would be very useful, and even if they can't do that, more numbers on their side never really hurt either. "Sounds good to me, sneak attacks are my forte, at least when I can pull them off" Heartless being able to sense her put a damper on her sneak attack plans, though sometimes they were distracted with other prey.

"Oh... Did you?..." evidently, Iris did not. The words had probably been lost while Iris was swinging her clothes as much as possible. Flapping clothes sounds were loud. "Umm... Then...," She just... sort of slowly handed the sleeping bag back, "Ahaha, sorry again."