"And you can adopt, it's not like we have any shortage of parentless children."

"...yeah I guess if their parents are dead I can do that. I have like, weird feelings about adopting kids if their parents are not dead."

"I don't know why we'd let you do that, there aren't enough parents to begin with."

"That's really weird," she says. "Like, coming from a place where there's bitoxiphosphene. I haven't put Catherine down since she was born except when people here borrowed her so I could sleep, 'cause people kept telling me it would be better to give her up for adoption so she could have two parents, and stuff."

"But she's your baby!"

"That's what I said!"

"I promise you, no one here is going to take your baby."

"Good!" She snuggles Catherine, who has fallen asleep. "Also everyone here seems super invested in me getting enough sleep."

"People who don't get enough sleep tend to bliss. Eros takes sleep very seriously. You can talk to the other moms about cycling baby care so you get eight uninterrupted hours every night."

"Awesome."

"Do you have any more questions?"

"Um, where do we stay and how do I get stuff we need and who do I talk to if I think of something I need to know?"

"The other moms live in F block, I can get someone to take you there when we're done talking. Meals are in the dining room, you can go there to get a snack when you're hungry. --You don't have clothes, do you?"

"Just what I'm wearing. These nursing pads have been better. Uh, also the postpartum pad."

"Okay. I'll send you to Rebecca-- she's a pharmacist, she does all our medical stuff-- to get that sorted, and I'll send someone to ask around if there are any clothes in your size. If you need anything, you can write it with your name on the whiteboard outside my office, or use paper if it's private."

"Does Rebecca have a last name? I'm Rebecca Gardner."

"Rebecca Summers. I guess if you're going to stick around one of you will have to pick a nickname."

"Do you have a Laurel? I can be Laurel."

"I don't believe we have a Laurel."

"I can be Laurel, that's my screen name on Tumblr, 'restlesslaurel'."

"...They still have Tumblr in 2040?"

"I don't think it's that old?"

"...I guess they're alternate Earths but it's really weird that your Earth has a Tumblr and my Earth had a Tumblr and apparently they were founded decades apart? Social networking site, blue, extremely poorly maintained, allegedly an image-sharing site but mostly people used it for arguing about really dumb shit?"

"That's the one! It's a Gileadite art site, but I got an account when I couldn't make Testimony work and just do text posts complaining about stuff."

"I don't know what Testimony is or what a Gileadite is, but I did the same thing on my account. Also reblogging fanart and effortposts about math and arguing about politics."