"There's only the one of Dad, though, so far, so you'll have to settle for some other variety of fascinating child. Depending on how it works, anyway, maybe there's more than one way to make Kerrons."

"I don't really want one."

"Sure. Not all of you become mums, I'm not reading your palm infallibly over here. Whatever you wanna do."

What he wants to do is... pet his poof some more, apparently. Fluff fluff.

Kerron relaxes, maybe not enough to notice. "It's pretty impressive they manage to be that cute without, like, eyes."

"They're fluffy," he says, snuggling it. "Little and round and fluffy."

"And they make the best noises."

"Harley has one too but his is sort of purple."

"Does it try to run him over? Mine does sometimes."

"I wasn't filming a nature documentary, 'and here we observe the animal's reaction to this environmental stimulus as it attempts to run over the Harley'. Just saw him with it at the party yesterday."

He giggles.

"One of the non-Elspeth princesses floating around in the relevant social circle has one too. Hers is green."

"And I guess you didn't see it try to run her over either?"

"Nah, she kept it in her pocket, took it out occasionally, it wasn't rolling around."

"Pocket poof," he snorts. (Fluff fluff fluff.)

"I was kind of surprised when it turned out the dress had pockets, actually. It was a really princessy dress."

"I guess she needed somewhere to keep her poof."

"Suppose so."

"Mum sews. Do you know how?"

He shakes his head.

"Want me to teach you? My sister would be better for anything advanced - she's very arts-and-crafts - but I know the basics."

"Sure, why not."

"Right then -" Kerron materializes a square in his mum's colors, spends it, and has a little sewing kit and some squares of fabric. He threads a needle, without recourse to licking it - "You'll probably find it easier to do this if you stick the end of the thread in your mouth first but if I did that the thread and maybe even part of the needle would dissolve" - and knots the end and picks up two squares. "So, there's running stitch, which is the simplest thing. Up, down, up, down, steer it all around for decorating a quilt or whatever, any length of stitches but shorter ones are stronger." He hands over the twice-stitched squares and the threaded needle attached thereto.