"I mean, uh, snug!" She squeezes Strawberry. "Sorry, that was probably not a fun time for you!" 

"It was more embarrassing than anything." She runs her fingers through Eva's scalp. "Have you heard of Crucible? It has these purple bonfires, I respawn at the last one I rested at."

"Oh, yeah, those. I've heard they take a little every time, though... So it's not one that you want to use continuously for a long time." She touches her chin with her knuckles. "I wonder what else is out there..."

Also, she is enjoying being petted.

"The Rim has these ancient techno fortresses that, among other things, have clone tubes that take a year in Rim time to grow a backup body. If you aren't connected to the Rim it will only work while you are on the Rim, otherwise it works everywhere." Her fingers run gingerly down from her scalp to her neck, and then to the back of her ear.

"And they retain your memories and everything? I've got a save point in my Bevin that respawns me when I die, but it only "loads the last save I made", so I need to keep it updated and also if I die I lose memories, so in a real sense I actually do die if I die. It's not a very good immortality, as I said."

"Huh, so that's how Bevin does it? With Rim clones you retain your memories, I'm pretty sure. In Arbor, a forest world, you can be regrown over a period of months if you die, but I don't think it has any other downsides." From the ear back to the scalp.

Eva shivers softly at the gentle pets and lets out a little pleased noise, shifting in her seat to get a little more snuggly with Strawberry. "Rim clones would be better, then, I think..." 

She smiles. "I also think you're good at petting."

"They do sound better," Sable agrees over her shoulder as she continues piloting, "but if I remember correctly, Rim affinity accumulates in normal time, despite time in Rim being accelerated. We'd definitely want to bring a lot of projects and books and the like, to make it easier to fill the time, if we were trying for a connection."

"Mmmm." Her ability to hold a conversation is degrading. "You're soft." She breathes. She keeps stroking her, trying to elicit more good noises out of the girl.

Eva sighs softly, nuzzling into the petting. "Yeah..."

Then she blinks and giggles. "Fuck, I'm doing the cat proximity thing aren't I."

Sable laughs sharply at that. "Hah! You are."

She just holds her, drunk on physical contact. "Mm? Cat proximity?"

"As nearness to a cute object nears zero, inanity of statements approaches infinity."

She thinks for a second. "Girl cat cute. Eva is cat. Cute softie kitten girl blonde soft."

She hugs tight, nestles her face in her neck. "Safe."

Sable lets out a quietly fond sigh as she drives onward, smiling.

"Safe..." Eva cuddles Strawberry closer and smiiiiles.

"Mmmmm." She was perhaps, actually a little fuzzy in the head. Whatever tension had found its way into her mind and body had melted away. If she wasn't being held she'd be in danger of just flopping down onto the cabin floor. Her hair was in her face, only a little light filtered in between strands of blonde hair. She drank it in. "You are good to sit on."

"You are good to hold. Like a big fuzzy shark." 

A chuckle escapes her even as a tear rolls down her eye. "Rawr."

"Rawr..." 

Eva snuggles her close and lets out a shaky breath.

"... fuck it's good to hug someone else from Earth."

"Hm?" She's not exactly sure what she wants to ask. And she is absolutely not in the right frame of mind to think hard about it. "Are Strawberries in short supply?"

"People I care about are in short supply, and it's damn good to have that number go up by one."