She goes through the rigamarole of setting up two new accounts and getting Ruan to verify the Quoteme and declaring that DraakBloom on Fiction Closet is indeed the alien who's practicing spring-reduction magic.

And then she thanks her tutor for walking her through that and finishes the lesson. And then she posts her review.

Quoteme starts with person-to-person messages turned off and Fiction Closet only allows messages to story authors by default, so nothing exciting delivers itself to her unless she goes looking.

She is unaware these options even exist. She reads more highly-rated Draak fics on Fiction Closet.

There are some with more approves than the one her tutor picked but they are two erotica fics, four crossovers, and one that's both.

It's all very strange. The work of deciphering words into concepts is entertaining enough by itself to keep her doing it. The crossovers might be interesting despite her near-total confusion - she understands the concept at least, stories that borrow from other stories. And the erotica is a little interesting in a weird alien-thinking sort of way, unless it gets repetitive. What are these popular works about?

The porn is in fact less repetitive than most porn, a fact she might not appreciate without a background in other porn, because everyone is separately inventing what they think or hope Draak mating habits and anatomy might be. They are about:

- What if a Draak OC appeared instead of the canon monster of this erotic novel?

- WHO WOULD WIN: a not-particularly-characterized Draak or this sea monster cyborg? What would the canon characters of the sea monster cyborg's movie series think of all this?

- Seeker and this OC Cenemi biologist fall in LOVE which Draak can do now because they're telepathic and Amentans can love, right? It could be communicable! Also everyone has SOUL AURAS like in this fantasy franchise. Seeker's is MAUVE and the biologist's is TEAL and this has SO MANY IMPLICATIONS but the author is not trying to be canon-compliant so don't ask about why he's ignoring season 4 episode 17 of series 2. That was a bad episode anyway. And stop asking the author when they're going to fuck, he writes for an all-ages audience! Maybe there are three year olds who want to read about aliens learning to love!

- What if the Draak had found the planet in this novella instead of Amenta? Military science fiction would happen, apparently!

- What if the Draak had landed 45 years ago and met characters from this historical fiction series? Could it be comedy of errors social drama?

- Seeker is River's dad, right? Let's imagine all her brothers and sisters and speculate in detail on their conceptions for some reason!

- What if Bloom tried to de-spring somebody and instead the result was sex pollen!?

She Quotes each one (except the historical drama) with a link to the story in question:

This one is not very unrealistic, even if the Draak is a background for the rest of the story.

Draak combat abilities vary wildly. I think the Guardian of the Great Green would surely defeat the monster but I would probably die.

I think I could understand love as Amentans feel it if I wanted to for some reason, but I don't know if it could become part of me.

It's impossible for any one person to know the full resources the Draak as a whole could use to fight a war. Still, I think we might have just fled our world once again in this scenario. That is safer than fighting, if it's an option.

A clarification: Usually two or three eggs are created at once.

I wouldn't know how to do that if I was trying!

She gets a lot of approves and curations and comments on all her Quotes!

Wait what? What do these numbers mean? Does she reply to these, is it a conversation? Why are so many people doing this now when it was silent before?

What?

...She opens Fiction Closet again and looks for more stories.

There are lots!

- What if this character from this story about fictional aliens showing up on Amenta were a Draak instead?

- Five Ways Amentan/Draak Hybrids Could Work

- Various attempts at slice-of-life Draak-hanging-out-on-their-planet-doing-Draak-stuff stories

- A Draak OC meets a little purple kid and takes him flying!

- The Draak demand payment for getting Amentans off the planet. The payment is sex.

- A fic clearly begun in winter with thoughtful explorations of how the Draak developing a government could work that takes a sudden turn as of its first springtime update into the V-romance between an Amentan ambassador and two Draak OCs.

These are increasingly silly and decreasingly novel. The Draak who don't act like Draak are disconcerting, though it's vaguely flattering that everyone is excited enough to try. It's downright irritating that the last one turned into a romance when it was thoughtful and interesting before.

She does Quote, Flying under your own power is truly one of the greatest joys of life, about the one with the purple kid.

She pauses her reading to email Ruan asking if there are volunteers for a second attempt at de-springing, preferably a female this time? Who won't be receiving magic power, hopefully. And to remind him that this is the non-hereditary version. After a few hundred successes with it, she might be confident enough to attempt a hereditary version.

A second volunteer, an orange woman, is presently available.

Hello. Thank you for volunteering. This is the second time I have done this, so it will be less painful and much less dangerous. Still, there is a non-zero risk of side effects, especially a reduction of your sex drive. Would you prefer I aim for a sharp reduction to mild springs with slightly more risk of side-effects, or a moderate reduction to average springs?

"...side effects like the magic powers?"

You will almost certainly not gain magic powers. That was a result of me exhausting myself to prevent a catastrophic result. With the experience from the first time, I can keep it from coming to that point in the first place. Side effects like changes to your sex drive, or less likely what temperatures or textures feel comfortable or what foods you like or minor physical alterations like your eye color are also unlikely, but cannot be ruled out.

"I guess lower chance of side effects."

As you wish.

It still takes about twenty minutes, but it's barely painful - though still strange-feeling. Bloom takes her time nudge-nudge-nudging the one thing along while trying to keep everything else in the same place.

Done. That was much less precarious than last time, excellent. Wait a few minutes and then take Ruan's spring survey, please?

"Okay. Gosh, that was odd."

Yes. It's a change of your very nature. It would be odd if it felt like nothing, would it not?

"I don't know, I could have seen it either way."

I suppose there is always more to discover, and many things I myself do not know... Well, Enkindling feels like something. That truth is apparent to all who have experienced it.

She nods.

She takes the screen and scores 21 out of 50. "I used to get 46," she says.

I hope you are happier this way. Ruan, I can do this work several times a day without exhaustion now. My study and your support are now showing buds, if not yet bearing the heavy fruit of success!

"That's wonderful! I'll get batches scheduled, how many a day?"

I think I should do this for six people tomorrow and see if that's too slow. I would not want to schedule more than is sustainable and then turn them away.