Ingrid seeks out a mage's help with the Box.

On any other day of the calendar, Ingrid would never rush off and leave her prized Pegasus in the care of someone like Sylvain. For now, however, she felt an imperative to get both herself and the Boom Box as far away from the stables as possible. Anyone who saw the look on her face knew to keep out of her way: it was the same face the long-suffering knight trainee regularly wore when she was **** to clean up Sylvain's messes with women, only even stormier this day. That was because this was the rare day where she needed a good apology from Sylvain, and there wasn't a second Ingrid around to apologize to her on his behalf. "The nerve...! As always, it astounds me that the man can be so dimwitted, such a slack-jawed boor, so immaturely boyish, so stupidly inept...! So ungrateful and tasteless, so..."

As she continued making her way to the library, where she hoped to find the person she expected could help, her steps slowed. She shifted from muttered curses to an internal dialogue. "Ungrateful and tasteless...? Well, yes, those are as true as the rest I've rattled off. Sylvain's always been insufficiently appreciative of what I do for him, and he has a shallow and shameless taste in women. Honestly, it makes me wonder how he ever plans to find a wife and be a proper Marquis..."

Ingrid found thinking about Sylvain was only making her more exhausted with him. Luckily, she had no more need to be alone with her thoughts: she'd reached her destination. Carrying the disruptive Boom Box into a place of silence and learning felt like desecrating that place, but she pressed on, nonetheless. She could only imagine the consequences if she set the thing down for someone to find.

No, her duty required her to put this in the hands of someone hard-working, clever, and industrious. When she thought of those traits, there was no one who fit the bill better than...

... Lindhart von Hevring, the green-haired mage of the Black Eagles house, was seated at the first occupied table she saw, only the tip of his dark green ponytail visible around the huge stack of books before him. It was impossible to tell if he was studying or asleep, which was as good a summary of his general condition as his current behavior.

... Ingrid continued looking left and right, determined to find the one she'd actually come there looking for. Finally, she found her: Annette Fantine Dominic, a Blue Lions mage around Ingrid's age and another noble, of House Dominic. Despite being nearly the same age, Ingrid thought of Annette (and guessed most of the others did, as well) as the little sister of their group, due to her short height, clumsiness, stubbornness, and general silliness. However, the woman was a bonifide graduate from the Royal School of Sorcery in Fhirdiad and a mage of extraordinary talent, with an infectious positive attitude and hard-working character.

At the moment, the student was at the top of a rolling ladder, struggling even still to reach the highest point of a bookshelf to clean it, probably wiping out a cobweb that had been in the library for a century. Ingrid saw the young woman's tongue working at her lips from the exertion, and thought about telling her that precarious shadows were the only thing protecting a view of Annette's leggings-clad bottom from anyone down on the floor. Then again, who was there to see? Whether he was asleep or not, Lindhart was clearly indisposed.

This put Ingrid in an uneasy position, however. If she shouted to get Annette's attention, she'd be bothering Lindhart and breaking library etiquette. She figured she should wait, but found she was feeling unusually impatient. She wanted the Box out of her hands as quickly as possible. "Well... it's Lindhart's fault for sleeping in a library, in the first place." She cleared her throat and then hissed out to Annette as quietly as she thought she could while still getting her attention.

Anette didn't seem to hear. She'd finished on the top shelf, but instead of coming all the way down, she had just moved down a rung and began dusting that level. As she worked, she whistled and wiggled with her typical, bouncy energy, her orange hair loops bouncing along with her.

... Ingrid felt like she was having uncomfortable flashbacks watching the display, despite the fact that the ass-shaking was modest and that Annette, while certainly both cute enough and mature enough, had only a modest hump to shake. Ingrid was losing patience. She tried again, finding no success. "How can it be she's whistling loudly enough to drown me out, but not loudly enough to wake up Lindhart...?"

"Oh, that explains it," a voice came from behind her. Lindhart was peering over his stack, making only his sleepy, uninterested eyes and clear forehead visible. "You both thought you were being quiet? Have you no notion of what a library is for? I'll happily share the space with the spiders if it means peace."

Any other day, Ingrid probably would have apologized, but on this particular day, she was out of patience for her male peers. "You can sleep in your room, Lindhart."

"Spoken like someone who's never given enough thought to the best place to sleep at a particular hour of the day." The young man yawned, then rose with an unamused frown, although the frustration had already left his face. He just looked done with the conversation, and, as it turned out, he was. He grabbed only a couple of books from his pile and made his way out, leaving the two women to the library themselves.

Ingrid paid him no more mind, until his voice came from the exit. "By the way, Ingrid, interesting new look. None of my business, though."

It took a second for the blonde to realize what he meant, but when she did, she let out an audible shriek and drew the curtain of her jacket closed around her breasts. "For love of the Goddess, how many people did I pass on my way over here?! Why did nobody-"

In response to her shriek, another one quickly rang out. Ingrid was too caught up in her own problems to do anything about Annette falling from the ladder in response to her cry. The redhead was in luck, though, having worked at a quick pace so she was already half-way down the ladder, and having not yet gotten to tidying up a pile of books next to the bookshelf, leaving it present to break her fall.

While Ingrid apologized and prepared to help Annette out, she had to admit that the other woman's appearance, coughing at the dust and splayed in a pile of damaged tomes, wasn't inspiring her that she'd made the right choice. Realizing that was a mean-spirited thought for something that was basically her fault, however, she kept it to herself, offered her hand, helped dust Annette off, and tried to think of how to start the conversation.

"Your butt?!?!" Annette's loud yelp reverberated through the entire library. "It forces you to shake your butt?!"

Ingrid nodded, gesturing downward with her hands to have Annette lower her volume. She supposed it was her fault for building up suspense by introducing the Box as an incredible magic artifact, then describing each of its functions just as Sylvain had for her, all the while dancing around what exactly it did. "Well, I phrased that awkwardly. It doesn't **** me to shake my behind, it forces us to shake our behinds... us meaning women, in general. It forces other behavior, too, but that's the most prominent and notable outcome."

Annette looked at the device with wide eyes, a flush forming on her face. "Wow... I've never imagined anything like this, and I'm pretty proud of my imagination! And you have no idea who made it, or how it works...? Actually, Ingrid, I have a question. How did you even get this?"

The blonde student coughed, crossing her arms. "I rescued it from a shady sort who no doubt intended to use it for evil."

"Hmm..." Annette stared at Ingrid with a curious look, her big, blue eyes drilling holes in her. "Uh huh. And how did you find out how it worked?"

"I had the unfortunate experience of having it used on me."

"Someone used it on you, hmmm... But they released you from it?"

"No, Annette, I released myself from it and gave him his due punishment."

"Him, huh? Hmmmmm..." Annette was no longer hiding her interest, putting a free hand to one of her red cheeks and wearing a grin. "But you said it's really tough to break yourself out of it... If you used it on yourself, I can picture it. But you said there's a guy involved, and if a guy was involved, it's hard to imagine a baddie or stranger freeing you out of the goodness of his heart. Was it, maybe, a friend? A guy friend?"

Ingrid's face told Annette volumes, but the blonde herself told Annette nothing. "You're off the mark, but more importantly, you're not taking this seriously. I came to you with this expecting a lot out of you, Annette! Please don't make me second guess my choice."

"And I'm really thankful, Ingrid! It means a lot to me, and I'm excited to help!" Annette gave her classmate a friendly smile that quickly turned mischievous once again. "But I want a name."

"How should I know what the student's name was?"

"So it's a student now?" Annette teased, holding her grin and rocking on her heels. "Sure you don't want to just give me the name? I'll get it one way or another."

"You are in a mood today, Annette! What sort of devil has gotten into you?"

"I can smell romantic tension, Ingrid, and on someone as ordinarily dry of it as you, it's easy! But, if you aren't going to tell me, I guess I'll move on to studying this thing right away."

Ingrid sighed wearily. She'd forgotten Annette was the type to have a bit of fun herself, but at least she was serious when it counted. "Yes, please do get to studying it... Wait. Studying it how?"

Too late, Ingrid realized what Annette meant. A low, otherworldly thrum had begun blasting from the Boom Box, filled with strange droning noises that vaguely reminded Ingrid of the aftermath of lightning magic. There wasn't one identifiable instrument in this one, and no lyrics to speak of either. There was, however, a very fast bass line, one that immediately sent Ingrid's hips wiggling at a faster speed than any song she'd heard so far. Before Ingrid could reach out in an attempt to reclaim the box, her hands had defiantly placed themselves behind her head, and her rebellious legs had started stomping to the music, turning her away from Annette and towards the opposite bookshelf. "Annette, turn it off! Or at the very least, down! Someone's going to hear it and come looking!"

"Ingrid, I'm sorry! This isn't good!!" Annette shouted to her. Annette's arms were occupied with the Boom Box, and it was all she could do to keep them from putting the device down so her body could join Ingrid in the same position. Instead, she ended up stubbornly clinging to it where she'd placed it on the ground, her ass twerking in the air at an unbelievable pace. "It's not just good, it's... incredible! It's amazing!!"

Ingrid wished she could see the look on Annette's face so she could tell if she'd gone mad. "Pardon?!"

"It's awesome! N-neither you nor I know the first thing about this kind of dance, but look at us! If the knowledge remained after the box was off, just imagine! It almost feels like cheating to get so skillful so quickly... L-look at us go!"

"No, I'd rather not, thanks! You've studied it, all well and good! Turn it off, please!"

"About that... Ingrid, now do you feel like giving me the name of our classmate, the rogue who made you dance for him?"

Ingrid tried to hold her tongue, unable to believe she'd been **** into a situation like this for the fourth time in a day, and by a woman her own age and gender, no less. "I'm clearly a poorer judge of character than I thought...!" Her hands pressed against the bookshelf in front of her, and she began to feel it creak dangerously under the strength of her push and vibrations. She thought she heard a book fall onto the floor on the other side, barely audible in comparison to the blasting music. She was completely exhausted (emotionally, not physically: it turned out she had a strange capacity for this particular type of exercise, as though her body had a second set of muscles just for twerking). As such, she quickly caved. "It was Sylvain! Please stop, Annette!"

"Sylvain?!" Annette shouted, shocked. "Sylvain... Ah, actually, I don't know why I'm so surprised. Sylvain makes sense, although it doesn't explain how he got it..."

"Annette...!" Ingrid cried, her hands slithering down the sides of her waist and positioning themselves at the edges of her own skirt, flipping it up and holding it there as if to form a frame around the tight ass she was moving for Annette's benefit alone.

"Okay, last thing! Makeup. Promise me I can show you some makeup tips, and we have a deal."

"Anything at this point, Annette. Please!"

"Hehe, score! Although that one's really a favor from me to you," Annette giggled with a grin, before letting out a sharp cry as she gave a smack to her own raised haunches with one of her dainty hands. "Ahah, I guess now would be a fine time to end it!" She hurriedly pressed the pause button.

In time with the end of the music, Ingrid collapsed on her knees and Annette crumpled onto the floor. Both ladies lay panting for a moment from exertion. Ingrid turned around to shoot Annette a judgmental glare; Annette clutched the Box to her chest, as if reminding Ingrid she could start it up again at any moment.

Neither lady believed she would do that, though. As excited as Annette was, she needed time to process what had just happened. "What amazing technology... It's like it's from another world, or from the future! Such strange music trapped inside, and it lets you dance so skillfully-"

"Forces you to," Ingrid reminded her.

"Imagine if a similar box could be made that taught people how to sing, or how to bake! Or... how to wield weapons, use magic!" Thinking about the larger possibilities, Annette went quiet.

Ingrid could see the gears in her friend's brains turning, which just barely convinced her she hadn't made a mistake putting the power in her hands. "That's it, exactly. I nearly destroyed the thing after what Sylvain put me through, but this magic has too much potential to just demolish it." She lowered her voice, fixing Annette with a serious gaze. "That's why I need you to study it. Think of what this could do for the world, Annette... Think of what it could do for the Kingdom and his Highness, specifically."

Annette gulped and nodded. She understood Ingrid was referring to the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, their home territory and that of the Blue Lions in general. Ingrid wanted to put this power in the hands of their king-to-be, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, specifically. She understood the implication: if the Kingdom had the incredible power they were now speaking of, it could be the thing to tip the balance of power in their favor versus the Alliance and/or the Empire, should it ever come to that... In negotiations or, heaven forbid, in war.

She understood... however, she didn't want to think of it that way. Even if it had implications for the world at large... until that time came, wasn't it just a fun thingamajig that played incredible music and let you do unbelievable dances? While they were at Garreg Mach, the three houses were all supposed to be friends and equals... Withholding a discovery like this felt like a betrayal of that contract.

Fun was fun, though, and duty was duty. When Annette graduated from the Academy, she would presumably be a mage in the Kingdom's service. She didn't have the luxury of treating something so powerful as a game. So, she found her conviction and gave Ingrid a more serious nod. "It's going to be tough to study something this, um... noisy... without catching attention. I'll do my best, though. And I'll do all I can to keep it within the Blue Lions."

"Thank you," Ingrid replied. "I'm counting on you."

"And makeup lessons are tomorrow night, after I get things together. I'll find you, so make sure you're available."

"... Very well..." Ingrid started to leave before pausing, thoughtfully. "Now that I think of it... once you're studying it, I want this thing to stay in your sight, and I'll leave you to it. Believe me, I want to stay away from it as far as possible. However... If you were to happen to find a song about 'Cherry Pie' on it, and found a way to access that particular song reliably, would you mind letting me know?"

Annette gave her a friendly smile. "Sure, sounds like a fun song! Does that song mean something special to you, hm, I wonder?"

"I'm not doing this again," Ingrid announced definitively, turning around and walking. "It's just a song about pie! Thank you and goodbye."

Annette giggled and waved goodbye, then picked up the Box from the ground, turning it so the face was towards her. "What am I going to do with you... Slutronica?" She read the name on the front. "Is that your name? Well, Slutty, you and I are going to spend a good while getting to know each other... Just as soon as I figure out where to start. I can't remember ever reading a book about this..."