“Fuck. Why would you wear a bra? ” Jack cursed, not realizing she would have underwear on. “And how did I not notice?”

“Ha! Light, comfortable, and unnoticeable. Not every woman is as shameless as Hound!”

“Bullshit. You could have just bought one of those shirts that were created a couple decades ago. It would have provided all of that. That’s what Hound did. That’s what every woman does. That’s what every man would have done, if technology would just create decent shorts to stop our penis from splashing all over the place!”

“What?! why do you even know any of that?” Raven said, and after a short pause added “And ew!”

“Hound talks to me, Raven, We’ve been together for a couple decades.  We’ve spoken about just about everything.”

“B-but why would you ever talk about underwear, especially bras?”

Jack looked away “We’ve spent quite a bit of our time outside the capsules.”

“That’s...so weird,” Raven began, perplexed. "In addition, a massive waste of time you could have allocated to gaining XP and gold. If you even spent a single hour on the outside, it’s four for everyone else. Why would you even do that, sex is much better in Dive mode than-”

“We like doing it with real bodies, Raven, and how would you know that?” Jack said, his eyes raised in suspicion.

Raven’s face turned even redder. “I’ve done some research! And stop distracting me, I want to ask my next question without you misdirecting me.

Jack clicked his tongue. He thought he could get this to go on further. “Sure, sure, but you haven’t answered my question. Why would wear that type of underwear? That shit’s been obsolete for a very long time.”

Raven shrugged, tightening her hold around her chest. “You’ve always attempted to get me naked, so I figured you would try something today, too, especially before the operation. “

Jack frowned. “No trust.”

“Good thing, too.”

“Well maybe if you did trust me, I wouldn’t have done this.” Jack reasoned.

It was not very good reasoning. “What you just said...was so...stupid,” Raven said, arching her brows in a mix of disgust and confusion.

“Not quite,” Jack began, a slight smile creeping at the edges of his lips. “If you had trusted me, your behavior would have changed towards me, which in turn, would have also changed my behavior towards you, thus changing the course of the future.”

Raven starred back, her tongue unresponsive in the inside of her mouth. It sounded utterly bogus, but on the other hand, it did sort of made sense.

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“In addition to that,” Jack continued, “Don’t you see all, have seen all? That means, if you didn’t see that I would be doing this, I would not have done it; as you, as the person who sees everything, did not see it.”

“What? No! That’s not right! That’s not how the world works! I only saw you doing this...because you were going to do it! If that was true, then I wouldn’t be able to change the future. And I don’t see the future. It’s not a future! Me seeing you doing this does not impact-” Raven paused suddenly, biting her lips sharply. She glared at him.

“Stop misleading me, that’s foul play,” Raven said, her eyes narrowing in accusation. Her stony response was not because he was getting off-topic, far from it, but rather because both parties had previously sworn to not fish for each other’s abilities in any shape or form, and it was no secret that Jack had an unnatural knack for getting people to talk.

And talk did she. But because she was the first to nudge the oath by indirectly asking, she could not blatantly call him out on it.

Jack could not object to that, so he instead he answered a question she asked from a while ago “It doesn’t have to do with anything with processing power; the neck plug is sufficient enough in that regard” Jack replied, his voice once again detached and unconcerned.

His act prodded Raven into feeling a whirlwind of raw contempt. She dropped her hands, and even went as far as to pretend to think about her next guess, simply to prove that she felt no shame, neither in her mishap or in her skin.

At that time, Jack was inwardly jumping across flying rainbows in a miniskirt and a large pink blouse. He never stared directly, but his peripheral vision was in unabashed in its euphoria.

Raven knew this, too, as she was Raven, and Raven sees everything, but an act is an act, and the act must go on.

“Then,” Raven started once again, staring intensely at Jack's face. “Each plug pertains to a different specialization of the brain. The plugs would allow the separation of mental attributes…” Seeing that she was correct, Raven began to slow down, which was odd when considering that Jack’s body was as still as ice, betraying no information. “...that would otherwise conflict with each other…because...” Raven said, pronouncing each syllable as slowly as possible.

“Say all of it, Raven, and stop probing me for the answer,” Jack said, somewhat nervous. What she was fishing for was what those 'mental attributes’ truly contained, and she was slightly too close. It wasn’t all that difficult to get on the right track, combined with slight intelligence and a rough understanding of how Dive Initiation functions, once someone sees the Dive plugs on Jack’s backs. Raven also had the benefit of knowing that Jack was one of the few people in Dive history to be able to multi-cast different spells simultaneously, something utterly unheard of.

Raven glared at Jack, warning him not to interrupt her again, and went on “...because...each mental attribute...is specialized in different processes…” Raven paused. “Damn it, what the hell! One more guess!” She said.

“Pants off, dear,” Jack said with a smile.

Raven scowled back at him, which, unfortunately, only served to amuse him further. “You’re getting quite good at scowling, Raven. I see you’ve had some practice.”

“Scowling, frowning, crying, and suiciding are one of the many things people naturally become skilled at when in your presence, Jack,” Raven said, her tone dripping with venom. At first, she began to reluctantly pull down her pants, but upon realizing that it would only pleasure Jack further, she instead began to pull it slowly and at comfort.

Just as she had decided to do that, however, she realized that Jack then became even more jolly, as now the show would go on further and in a rather seductive manner.

Raven cursed her predicament. This was one of the reasons why Jack was a natural bane to Raven-- whatever she did to counter what he did, the reversed situation would somehow still end up benefiting him further, regardless of what the truth was before Raven reacted to it.

Finally, Raven bent down and slipped out of the cloth. “There, happy?” she said, her face cherry. She found the effort of hiding her embarrassment was far too taxing, and something that Jack also enjoyed, so in between Jack enjoying himself regardless of what she did, she had decided to do what was least difficult for her.

“I’ve never seen those pants before,” Jack said in fake wonder. “What are they?

“They’re called yoga pants, Jack,” Raven replied as she began to put them back on.

Jack’s phlegmatic disposition shattered like glass. He jumped off from the table, a turbulent whirlwind of emotions passing through his face, none of the least being despair. “What! After all that? I worked hard for those, why are you putting them back on!” Jack yelled.

“Because,” Raven began, her shirt over her head, “Our deal was I would take off, not keep off,” she said, shaking her head. “You know Jack, sometimes you’re just plain stupid.”

Jack froze, the realization slowly making its way onto his self. “Oh,” he said, and quietly settled back on the table with a sad look.

Much to Raven’s surprise, but not sympathy, a tear slipped down his face.