"I was - sort of trying to argue the case for why it should count as part of me. Is that in the right direction, or am I just - wandering off completely?"

"Oh. Yeah, it's... there's nothing listening to your arguments except for you," he says.

Giggle.

"Pity, they were good arguments. All right. So it's more visceral than that?"

"Mm. Yeah, I think so."

"All right. Literal, physical extension of my own body, like - I have a ribbon shaped limb and it has miraculously found its way home to me. Right. Okay."

She snuggles him while attempting to get a feel for this. The ribbon is an extension of herself, she can physically feel it like it's her hand - it's an extension of herself, she can physically feel it...

After a while of this:

"Try again now?"

Poke!

"No." Sigh. Lean. "This is hard."

Hug. "Yeah."

Hug.

Okay. Clearly she is thinking about this too hard. This does not seem like the kind of thing for thinking. How about if she just - lets her thoughts fall away, and focuses on feeling. She has learned a hell of a lot about this (damnable) ribbon over the past - however long she's been trying to accept it. Forget arguments, forget justifications, forget thinking about it at all. It is hers, and that's all that matters. It is part of her. Like an arm or her hand or her nose. She doesn't need to think about something that's a part of her. It's just - hers. Hers hers hers hers.

"... Try now?"

Poke?

"—That's unsettling." She smiles anyway. "But it worked!"

Hug!!! Hug hug hug!!

Hug!

(With her attention no longer actively on it, the connection to the bit of ribbon starts to fade.)

She notices this quality. Well that won't do. Hers. She can hug Zekanare while also informing the ribbon in no uncertain terms that it is hers.

"So now it's just a matter of - practicing from there?"

"Yeah. You get better at it - it gets easier to 'pick things up', easier to do things to them once you have them, easier to hold onto them without having to concentrate..."

"Makes sense." (Before the ribbon gets any funny ideas: hers.) "How does doing things, uh, work? Is it just - moving it like I'm moving a limb?"

"More or less! And then from there you can figure out how to reshape it instead of just moving it around, and after that more complicated stuff like making things glow."

She nods thoughtfully, then starts trying to - uh, what can ribbons do. ... Wiggle? She is going to attempt to wiggle the ribbon. This sort of thing would be great for cats.

The ribbon moves slightly. She's very clumsy with it, which makes sense; she was probably just as clumsy with her own limbs the literal first time she ever tried to use them.

It's kind of funny; she giggles a little. The ribbon is still going to be wiggled. "This is weird. I suppose to get really good with this I'll need to practice with different sorts of things?"

"Yeah."

She nods. Yes, this is an excellent snuggling activity. She can teach a ribbon how to do tricks and snuggle a dragon, that sounds like a pretty good use of her time.

The dragon is very snuggly.

He is!

... But snuggles do not actually stave off all of the requirements of a mortal form. Unfortunately. She's very focused on her work, so it takes her a little while for her to notice. But soon enough, she abruptly sits up.

"I," she announces, "need to go to the bathroom. Uh, where...?"

"Oh - the closest is attached to the sky room," he says, waving vaguely back in that direction.

"Thank you," she says, and away she goes to handle that!

When she returns, she wryly wonders, "How long have I been playing with ribbon?"