Escalation it is.

Ruby's ability to hold in her screams does, eventually, fail, around the point she starts getting burns where Ellie touches.

Her Ruby is tough.

She plays at that level for a little bit, then lets up.

She's shaking by now, throat raw and voice hoarse, screams catching on hiccups in her throat.

She keeps quivering even after Ellie lets up, whining.

"Are you okay, pet?"

Whine -

"Lemme - tiger?" She's hurt and okay yeah ouch this is why making sure you have safe words and similar you can communicate even while overwhelmed is important. Still good. Soooooo good. But she should maybe stop being all burned and muscle locky for cuddles, which is what she wants now.

"Yes, do that."

Floppy tiger!

And then healed but still floppy and slightly shaking human.

Gentle pets.

She pushes herself up a bit, angling to crawl into Ellie's lap.

Ruby is welcome to her lap.

"Was that- too much?"

Snug.

"Liked it. But - " She presses her face into Ellie's shoulder and whines. "Talk later?" Words are hard like this apparently. She mostly just wants to sort of mentally float.

"Mm."

Pet pet.

Mmmmmm.

"Love you."

"Best pet."

Nuzzle. "I am. Got a best Ellie."

"Yes, you do."

Heeee. Kiss!

Kiss.

And, after a good bit of cuddling:

"Mmmm think am brain enough to talk now."

"Welcome back."

Heh. Quick kiss.

"So - after action. That was really fun, and I super enjoyed being pushed that far, but - once we were backing off I crashed a bit? And wanted to - switch what we were doing, but was also overwhelmed and apparently you take my breath away and my words with it."

"Mm. So- nonverbal cues, slower ramp-down, more planning in advance...?"

"Hm, yeah to nonverbal cues and slower ramp-down, though the advance planning is... Less my thing? Not knowing what you're going to do next is really exciting. We should also... Have an awareness that if we're doing high injury risk stuff I might need to suddenly tiger, and I won't be able to focus enough to be a small tiger, and I shouldn't be confined in a way that'd make this hard. And I think we need explicit nonverbal safe words, more than cues - or, well, not words, but close enough." Mischievous grin. "And obviously a lot of practice with them."