I'm not as happy about it as I could be, but yes.

Why not?

She blasted Lance and I reacted without thinking, always a bad idea, and hit her with a force blast. Which accomplished the goal of getting her out of the air, but more harmfully than I would have chosen if I'd been considering the bigger picture at the time, and also if Lance hadn't caught her before she hit the ground she'd probably be dead.

And for some reason I'm not allowed to personally apologize to her, which is frustrating.

Oh. I'm sorry *hugs* Is there anything I can do to help?

I don't know. Part of me wants to do a bunch of intensive weapons testing focused on things I can actually take out on patrol instead of things to kill Endbringers with, but that wouldn't actually have helped, I still can't knock an unprotected flyer out of the air safely without my own damn pair of wings.

Any brilliant ideas for how I can get my wings in the next week?

I'm still somewhat fuzzy on the exact details of what counts as sufficiently amazing and such.

It's a pretty fuzzy subject. If I weren't such an overachiever, capturing two supervillains in my first month with the Wards would probably have done it, but I'm finding it hard to congratulate myself under the circumstances.

In that case I'm not sure there's anything you could do that'd count short of actually killing an Endbringer.

I actually think even getting a solid hit in would do it. And that much we can certainly accomplish. But not until the next Behemoth or Leviathan attack. In the meantime I'm torn between not wanting to go out on patrol at all since it seems to do nothing but waste my time and encourage me to lose track of my priorities, and wanting to get back out as soon as possible to protect my teammates. I like my teammates.

Do you even have a choice on the matter? I thought patrolling was mandatory.

I don't go out again until I write a report on how I intend to correct my mistake.

That's terrible.

I mean, it would be almost reasonable if it weren't for the underlying attitude... it's hard to describe, but I did not feel like I was in a cooperative discussion with someone who wanted to help me improve.

Well, they're probably used to dealing with typical teenagers, which you're clearly not.

Aren't I?

Not in all respects, at least!

I seem to be more interested in saving the world than the average teenager, it's true. Although I suspect Lance feels similarly.

You also seem to actually look into ways of doing it instead of just playing that role.

Well, yes. I don't know, I think other people could do that too with a little encouragement.

I'm pretty sure most teenagers do not think in terms of 'being in a cooperative discussion with someone who wanted to help you improve.'

Don't they? Why not?

You'd have to ask them, but my best guess is that they don't think of themselves that way, as people-who-improve, or something along those lines. I mean, that's true of people in general, but teenagers in particular seem to want to fit molds and play roles and even 'being a superhero' is a mold that has specific things that should happen and such.

Well, that's silly.

Isn't it just.

Anyway. How have you been? Catch any supervillains while I wasn't looking?

I didn't! My life has been pretty uneventful, no superpowered shenanigans as of yet.

Uneventful in a nice way, I hope.

Uneventful in a not-awful way, at the least.

Acceptable.

I hope I'm in a better mood by Sunday; I'd hate to show up and then hide under a blanket all day. That would be totally contrary to the spirit of the enterprise.

We could cuddle under the blanket and drink hot chocolate.

That sounds wonderful.

Yup! And I'd pet you and your adorable fluffy tail and we'd kiss and talk about how we're going to save the world and that'd make you feel better about stuff.

Okay, you're winning me over.

Good!

I'm glad I know you.

It was surely auspicious in several ways for you to suddenly appear in my room.

Of all the people whose rooms I could have suddenly appeared in, I'm definitely pleased with the one I got.

Mmhm, I'm definitely pleased with that, too.

I suspected you might be.

Anyway, I wanted to ask earlier but forgot, and if you don't wanna talk about this subject anymore that's fine, but why don't they let you apologize to Purity?

Apparently no one's supposed to talk to her? Which sounds cruel to me, but it might just have been an excuse concealing some other, less cruel reason.

Oh. It makes sense, it's probably to protect her civilian identity.

That sounds stupid. Can't they just give her a mask?

Well, maybe? That's actually a good idea, but if it's not the civilian identity thing then I dunno. Maybe they're just evil or something.

I don't think they're actually evil. I do think they're neither as smart nor as good as they like to think.

That's probably true of most people.

Not me, though.

I sure hope you're right ^^ You'll never see me saying that, though.

No?

Nope! I'm already too overconfident for my tastes, saying I'm exactly as smart or as good as I think I am won't actually help.

But if you think you're less smart than you think you are, don't you end up in fact thinking you're less smart than you thought you thought you were...? Where does it end?

Well, in theory the feedback loop could be dampened and it'd end at a finite specific quantity, but in practice I basically just consciously keep all my unconscious thoughts about my smartness and goodness in check.

As long as it works for you, I guess.

Not very well, actually! But it's better than the alternative.

That'll have to do.

Yup!

Do you have the new weapons to try, by the way?

I've been doing a lot of design work to distract myself from my real problems, so yes.

Your real problems?

Not being able to apologize to the person I nearly killed, that sort of thing.

Well. Allowed. Not being allowed to apologize to the person I nearly killed. I'm sure I am technically able to manage it if I try.

Yeah. I mean, she didn't actually die, she might not even know there's something you should be apologizing for.

She will have noticed that I hit her with a staff-sized force blast. That's not the sort of thing that's easy to miss.

Well, yes, but she doesn't necessarily know she almost died of it.

It's still worth apologizing for on its own, by most people's standards. At least when the people involved are Aluvai. Do capes who hospitalize each other just go about their business afterward with no hard feelings?

No more hard feelings than otherwise, more or less. In fact, if a cape who hospitalized another came back to apologize I'm pretty sure the other would assume that was taunting and there'd be more hard feelings.

That seems stupid.

Well, think about it from her perspective. Someone just literally almost killed her, and then they go and say, 'I'm so sorry I was powerful enough to drop you in one hit,' not bound to help, yeah? And of course you won't phrase it like that but capes are selected for liking conflict and drama.

Seems like a cultural difference, then. If I was almost killed and woke up in the hospital and the person who did it had the capacity to visit me and apologize but didn't, I'd be tempted to send a strongly worded letter, depending how I felt about the incident. If they did show up, I'd expect to be able to tell the difference between gloating and a sincere apology. And even gloating I might accept if it came with good-faith observation of the principles of reconciliation.

That's probably true among normal people anyway. It's just, capes.

I still would prefer to at least try reconciliation. Capes can't be that bad, at least not unfailingly. My teammates are capes and they mostly aren't.

If you say so. I mean, they did go through horribly traumatic experiences to get powers, and then went ahead to join an organization dedicated to basically fighting other people.

Hasn't anyone tried being nice to villains? They haven't, have they.

Define 'being nice to villains'...? Most interactions with them seem to follow the general script of "Hey, you, stop doing that illegal thing you're doing!" "Make me!" *fight*

Finding out why they are doing illegal things. Encouraging them to pursue alternate forms of income/entertainment/etc. I can't be the only person who's thought of this. Maybe everyone else was too cynical. Or picked the wrong villain to befriend and got themselves killed.

You'd have to actually get one to stay still and listen to you. You can't just come up to one and talk because secret lairs, and when you do manage to talk you're still aligned on opposite sides so they don't want to listen. That said, there have been some mysterious villain disappearances followed by mysterious hero appearances that had suspiciously similar powersets to the disappeared villain's. Also yes to being too cynical and probably to getting themselves killed.

I would absolutely do this exact thing if I hadn't just spent my first month as a Ward pissing off successively more powerful and highly placed members of the biggest local villain organization. I mean, they're E88, so that doesn't necessarily burn any bridges with anyone who isn't a racist, but it does sort of set me up a public reputation that would get in my way if I tried to come over all diplomatic on somebody.

Yup, you are correct. Also homophobic and transphobic, don't forget those things, if they found out you were bi they'd be even more annoyed.

Yes, I was oversimplifying. I'm actually keeping that in mind in case it's ever tactically useful for them to suddenly want to kill me more than they already do.

What, are you gonna shout 'By the way I'm bi!' in the middle of a battle?

I'd find a way to be slightly more subtle about it than that, but yes, potentially.

Like how?

I don't know, it would depend on what opportunities I saw. I'm a pretty clever speaker, though, I'm sure I could come up with something less blatant than "Hello! I am a bisexual!"

A bisexual. That sounds so funny in my head.

It was meant to!

I keep imagining the reactions, you arriving with your hands on your waist all superhero style announcing, "I am a bisexual!" and the E88 just looking at you, unsure of what to do, looking at each other in confusion.

Perfect.

I mean, realistically they'd take the opportunity of you stopping to talk to attack or something.

Not necessarily a bad thing. In any situation where I'm using this option I already want them to attack me.

You have quite a bit of offensive power but can you actually defend against any of them?

I'm really good at getting out of the way. Better than I have yet had a chance to demonstrate, for sure.

If you say so.

I do say so!

Just make sure you don't die, we need to save the world first.

I have absolutely no intention of dying before the world is good and saved. Yours and mine both.

It'd also be nice if you didn't get too hurt or maimed.

I'll do my best.

Good.

I'd hate to disappoint you.

Yes, we have a date on Sunday, you should be in one piece then.

I will, I promise.

And Ashras shows up at Sadde's place around nine in the morning.

That's late enough that she's in fact awake!

"Good morning!"

"Good morning!" Kiss. "Given that the horrible sphere of fire is up in the sky, what do you want to do?"

"The horrible sphere of fire is pretty horrible. Let's snuggle and watch movies or something."

"Okay! Any preferences?"

"Not especially."

"Okay, then, let's see, how about a musical? I like musicals."

"Sure." Hug.

Eee hug! She hugs back. "Hmm, do you have movies in Aluvanna? And do you prefer an animated musical or live action? If no one's introduced you to Disney yet I might just have to do it."

"We don't! We don't have, like, electronics. No one has introduced me to Disney. I mean, I've heard of Disney, I've read plot summaries, I've never actually seen any."

"Well, then! Let's see, my favorites are The Lion King and Mulan, do you prefer Hamlet with talking animals or Chinese misogynists being shown their place?"

"Let's have Hamlet with talking animals to start. I like Shakespeare."

"Okay!" So she grabs the right file on her computer, then full-screens it and turns off the light. She presses play then pulls Ashras onto her bed.

Cuddles! Lions!

And singing! Sadde may have to stop herself from singing along a couple of times.

That is adorable and he must snuggle her more.

No complaints!

Good. Snuggles are important.

Ooh. Kisses. Kisses are excellent.

And they are still snuggling.

Ooh. Kissing. Gosh.

"Tough choice. What's your opinion?"

"My opinion is that I really like snuggling with you and also I want to see you naked again but if we start we won't stop for a while and I also kinda wanna see another movie."

"So let's watch another movie and then do things that involve me being naked. We do have all day."

Mulan is so great! And Sadde cannot but sing along 'Be A Man'.

Sadde singing is adorable.

It's such a great song!

And Sadde is so cute!

"This is very distracting," he points out.

"I'll stop," she says, and does.

"Thank you." Snuggle.

Snuggle snuggle movie snuggle snuggle end of movie snuggle snuggle kiss.

Meh, who cares about food when there are kisses.

Kisses! Delicious kisses!

A veritable myriad of those, accompanied by pleased noises and hands making their way under Ashras' shirt.

(Click here to skip the explicit content.)

Yes! Yes it was the time for that! Sadde believes his shirt should be the first thing to go.

Ashras agrees!

"You," she accuses, "are unfairly attractive."

"I apologize. I'll stop immediately."

Kissing! Whee!

And in the meantime, Ashras' pants can go away, too. Shoo, pants.

Kisses! So many of those, on Ashras' lips and face and jaw and neck and shoulders and chest and shoulders again!

Mm, kisses. Sadde can also have kisses. Lots of kisses. Is she still wearing clothes? If so, what'd she go and do that for?

Well, she was too busy undressing Ashras, who's actually still wearing underwear so that can stop being a thing, too.

That can totally stop being a thing. Kisses. Kisses instead of clothes.

Yup! Those. Instead of her clothes, too, which she will eventually remember to remove after playing a little bit with various parts of Ashras' anatomy.

Sadde is so good. And kissable. Sadde is so kissable.

Mmmm, naked kisses, she's really been enjoying these frequent naked kisses she's been getting, Ashras is great.

Mmmmmmmm naked kisses. Yes. Excellent. This is delightful. Sadde is a delight.

But in addition to a delight, Sadde is also Sadde, so it's terribly unlikely that the naked kisses would remain just kisses. Watch her hand prove her point.

This was a predictable outcome.

It was, wasn't it? But well, why should she even care about being predictable, is Ashras at least enjoying it?

Absolutely.

Good! "So, is there anything in particular you want to do today?"

"Anything in particular in - context, you mean? Because I have a very specific weapons testing schedule for this evening but before that I am entirely without plans."

"Yes, I do mean in context. There are several things we haven't explored yet, even when it comes to vanilla heterosexual naked shenanigans."

"Well, then. Suggest me some vanilla naked shenanigans. Heterosexuality optional, that part being entirely up to you."

"We-ell, I haven't actually topped you yet..."

"Hmm?"

"...did that expression go over your head or was that you expressing interest in the idea?"

"The expression was ambiguous, I'm curious what you mean."

"Hmm, before I tell you why don't you explain to me what hypotheses you came up with so far?"

...He blushes. "What if I don't want to?"

"...you're too adorable when you blush. And well, I'll tell you what I meant if you don't want to, but why don't you want to?" she asks, and starts nuzzling his neck.

"I - it's - I can deal with shyness and I can deal with running up against the limits of my command of this language but I find it hard to deal with both at once."

She reaches behind him with both hands and squeezes his butt. "Oh, well. Can you at least tell me what your general feelings about the hypotheses you generated are?"

He giggles. "My general feelings are positive!"

"Well, then! The two options I considered for now were using a certain toy I bought so I could," she squeezes his butt again, "in this shape, or switching to my other shape and using my natural parts and doing it with them."

"I have positive feelings about both of these options." Snuggle.

She starts nibbling on his neck. "Any preferences?" she tells it.

"Not really!" Snuggle snuggle.

"Well, then, I suppose I should go get that toy, shouldn't I."

"Suppose you should." But first: kiss.

Ashras welcomes her with snuggles.

All of these are good things!

They're great things! Sadde will continue doing them for a while longer, there's no rush.

Snuggles and kisses and hands. And Sadde being great. Sadde is so great.

She likes being great! And eventually this greatness will consist in starting to apply the lube generously on appropriate parts of Ashras and then maybe starting to explore that area with a finger.

This is an interesting, novel, and positive experience. Happy snuggles for Sadde.

Eeee, snuggles! And of course she can continue doing this thing while snuggling, and since it's a positive experience: second finger! She's slow and careful about what she's doing, making sure he's comfortable with everything.

Doing this thing while snuggling is an excellent combination. So excellent.

Excellent! And there'll be some neck nibbling. And... what does he think of a third finger, perhaps...?

Positive thoughts!

Good! She likes positive thoughts! Three's quite enough, however, and then she'd like to try something else.

Ashras is in favour of trying new things.

Good! So she should probably get that toy and prep it up. While pausing every now and then to kiss him.

Kisses are so good and Sadde is so good and everything is so good.

Everything is great! And then Sadde positions Ashras just so, lying on his back so she can look at him when she... starts...

Sadde is so good.

Sadde is very something about Ashras, but she'll need to unpeel and study that something at a later date. Preferably when he's not looking so edible and doing such faces.

He does do faces. Faces are a thing he does. He can't help it, Sadde is just too good.

Good. She reaches down and uses her hand on him to continue encouraging this opinion at the same time as she leans forward to kiss him.

Mmm, kisses. Mmm, Sadde. What a beautiful amazing wonderful person. She should know how amazing she is. Perhaps if he kisses her enough she'll get the idea.

That's a pretty great suggestion. Ashras is in favour.

Good! She slooowly slides out, kisses him some more, then grabs condoms because he still has claws and that's an insurmountable problem of course.

Yes, excellent, Sadde is excellent, everything is excellent. Cuddly affectionate kisses. Cuddly affectionate sex. That is what should be happening right now.

It is! It really is. She snuggles up and kisses him and nibbles on his neck and shoulder and lips and makes soft whimpery noises and louder moans and eventually bites down on a scream, arching her back and shuddering, curling up her toes and squinting her eyes shut.

Yes, those. Those are great and fantastic and Ashras is great and fantastic and there'll be snuggles.

There will be such snuggles.

"Mm?"

"Yes, that." Pause. "I need to prod my brain about something a little bit but I have a tentative conclusion and I'm not sure right now's the best time to talk about it."

"...I am slightly bewildered but okay?" says Ashras.

"Well, the thing is I think I may be in love with you."

She blinks, too. "Oh. Well, that works out nicely, then, doesn't it?"

"Yes!"

"Good!" She hugs him.

Hugs!

"...do I get to call you boyfriend? I want to call you boyfriend."

"You can absolutely call me boyfriend."

"Awesome!" More hugs! So many hugs. And kisses, too.

Hugs. Kisses. Snuggles. Nuzzles. All of the affection.

So much affection!

"We're going to save the world together."

"Yep!" Stomach growl. "But for now, how about lunch?"

"Lunch. Yeah, good plan."

"Given that the dread sphere is still out, I could cook you something or we could order."

"The dread sphere," he giggles. "Yeah, either one of those, I have no strong preference." But he must kiss her. Because of the dread sphere.

So she kisses him back, because of the dread sphere. Or something. She's not clear on why the dread sphere is a good reason to be kissed but hey, she's not complaining.

Sadde is adorable and her phrasing is adorable! That is why the dread sphere leads to kisses.

"Perfectly," says Ashras.

Ashras interferes with this process by hugging her a lot.

She giggles a bit but manages to place the order anyway.

Snuggles!

"You're too cute!" she accuses.

"I am exactly cute enough!"

"Nope! You are excessively cute. Every time we see each other I risk cuteness overload! The cuteness police should arrest you, with a tiny little handcuff for your tail."

He flicks his tail and giggles and hugs her.

She hugs him back, giggling, too. "...I love you," she tries, and giggles more. "Yep. I definitely do."

"I love you too! You're beautiful and amazing and adorable and we're going to save the world."

"Right back at you! We're gonna be the best hero couple since Flashbang and Brandish."

"Who?"

"They're part of this team of unmasked superheroes, independent from the Protectorate. They advocate more stringent policing of capes and not hiding identities and such."

"Oh, interesting."

"Yeah, and they're two families, Flashbang and Brandish are Carol and Mark Dallon who are married."

"Huh. An interesting concept. How's it working out for them?"

"No takers so far," she shrugs.

"I guess we'll see. That's the sort of thing I might want to think about after we save the world - whether or not it would be good for more capes to reveal their identities."

"Depending on how complete your definition of 'save the world' is, that might be a moot point."

"Oh, you know. The Endbringers all dead, the Enemy likewise. That's the point at which I start seriously dealing with lesser problems."

"That sounds like a good definition for having saved the world!"

"I thought so!"

Snuggle.

Snuggle snuggle. Adoring snuggles.

She squirms a bit. "Did you always look at me like that?" she wonders.

"I don't know, did I? I haven't been keeping track."

"Mmm." She kisses him some more. "I wonder what I can manage to do to you in the time it takes for food to arrive."

"Let's find out!"

Yes. Yes she will.

Yay, hug! She rests her head on his shoulder a bit and scritches his hair. "Hmmm, you're too tempting but I'm hungry," she complains.

"We can have food and snuggles at the same time."

"How would the logistics of that even work?"

"We... sit next to each other and eat food?"

"That's insufficient snuggling for my current needs!"

"Well then, we can have food and inadequate snuggles at the same time, and move on to adequate snuggles after we're done with the food."

"Alright," she sighs in mock unhappiness before planting a kiss on his cheek.

And now: food! Inadequate snuggles! Adoring gazes!

Awwwww! Aaaaaaawwwwwwww! There will definitely be kisses between sushi.

Good. That is good. Kisses are good.

Time for adequate snuggles.

Eeee adequate snuggles!

Snuggles are important.

They very much are. So are kisses. Snuggly kisses on Sadde's bed are among the best.

Snuggly adoring kisses on Sadde's bed.

"I loooove you," she says, giggling. "You make me feel all warm inside when you look at me like that."

"Good, that's exactly what should happen when I look at you like that."

Hugs! "It was a very good coincidence that you mysteriously appeared in my room."

"I am very happy that I mysteriously appeared in your room in particular."

"So, what do you wanna do? For that matter, how's your sleep cycle going with the whole sun-in-the-sky thing?"

"Not yet in need of a nap." Snuggle. "Any more brilliant suggestions since the last one turned out so well?"

"Several, if you're still too shy to come up with your own."

"What can I say, I really like your suggestions."

"They're pretty good, aren't they?"

"They are very good!" Kiss.

Ashras appreciates her suggestions. They are such good suggestions. He also appreciates Sadde. He shall express his appreciation of Sadde.

And she will pay in kind, because she also really appreciates Ashras and would like to express it. Ashras is great and this is great and they'll save the wooooorld together!

And eventually Ashras will need to nap. Snuggly nap?

Snuggly nap! Since they ate and then jumped straight to... well, each other, she's also a bit sleepy.

Cozy snuggly nap. Yes. Perfect.

She'll sleep for about forty minutes to an hour.

And Ashras will sleep a while longer than that. Cozily.

She'll keep cuddling him until he wakes up. Maybe running her fingers through his hair, softly.

"Good not-morning."

Giggle. Kiss.

"Maybe! I am experiencing a moderate temptation to stay in and kiss you some more first."

She touches his chest with the tip of her index finger and starts trailing down. "Just moderate?"

"The temptation increases by the moment."

"Weeelll," she says, her finger slowing down and then stopping just shy of... "We wouldn't want to damage your moral fiber, would we?"

"Well, if we go weapons testing, we'll return home earlier and you can sleep over again and so we'll have longer uninterrupted time. Plus, I really like the effect explosions have on you."

"Weapons testing it is, then!"

So Sadde has to find clothes for herself because even if she's going out in costume, she shouldn't go naked under it.

Ah, yes. Clothes. What a terrible thing.

Verily. But being arrested for public indecency wouldn't look good in either of their resumes so, clothes it is. "Ready to go? What's the testing schedule?"

"Lots of personal weapons, stuff I could theoretically take on patrol, not necessarily to an Endbringer fight."

"Cool. Any particular reason?"

"I'm annoyed by my current scarcity of options."

"Fair enough, I suppose." She grabs her keys and opens the door and asks, "Shall we?"

Off they go!

And eventually Sadde suits up and flies them out into the ocean again.

"I can't make people."

"Are you sure?"

"I haven't been able to."

"How hard have you tried? I mean, I don't necessarily want you making real people, but fake or decoy people seem like a useful resource. And you can already make objects that do things. Propellers that propel, that sort of thing. I bet you could make a copy of your suit that behaved in a plausibly you-like way without a you actually in it."

"...maybe. I hadn't thought of the suit idea."

"Let's see if it works! It's going to work."

She grins and kisses him. "There's no reason why I could conjure my suit on me and not not on me. So I'm gonna conjure it not on me," she reasons, and—

—there it is!

"Adorable," pronounces Ashras, gazing at the suit, which is obviously going to behave just as Sadde does when Ashras calls them adorable.

"You're adorable," Sadde and suit say at the same time, then look at each other and blink. "Whoa," they say at the same time.

"Did I not say it would work? I definitely remember saying it would work," says Ashras.

They eye each other and the original says, "You don't do anything," to the suit before pouncing on Ashras.

Ooh. Pounces. Ashras approves!

"You're great. Do you have any other amazing ideas hiding in your sleeves?"

"...Well, I know what I'd do if I suddenly discovered I could duplicate myself..."

"Do tell."

"I and my copy would make out. While plotting how best to use this ability to become unstoppably powerful and save the world. Naturally."

"...that's a very good idea, but what sounds like an even better idea is making a copy of you and watching you two make out."

...Ashras laughs. "You're right, that does sound like a good idea."

"Are you insufficiently convinced?" he wonders. "Should I make out with your copy as an intermediary step?"

"My copy's just a personless suit," she points out—" Oh. Um. I suppose that's not the correct frame of mind."

"I haven't been thinking of it as a personless suit since you made it. Want to find out who's right?" He pauses just a moment, then adds, "It's me. I am the one who's right."

She giggles. "You can make out with my copy but I want to make out with you first," she points out, and proceeds to do just that.

Entirely reasonable of her.

She pulls away and says, "I think this will work better if I close my eyes."

"Sure."

So she does. The copy raises its hands to take off its mask—

And Ashras is, of course, right.

"Yes," says Ashras, smugly.

She does, and blinks at her other self, and reaches out to touch it—

—and it does the same in turn, mimicking her movements precisely.

"Wicked," they both say at the same time, and giggle.

Ashras giggles, too.

They both turn to eye him speculatively.

He grins at them. "Yes?"

"Well—" they say at the same time, but stop and look at each other.

"Are you—" starts original.

"Nope," interrupts copy.

"Are you sure?"

"Quite sure."

"If you say so. We'll need to explore this at some point."

"Yes, we will, but for now we should make out with our boyfriend and possibly other copies of him and ourselves."

"That's a terribly good idea."

They look at him again.

"Are you what?" wonders Ashras.

"Sapient," both of them answer at the same time.

"Oh. Yes, that would be unsettling."