"It's a bit like having an extended family who know you very well and are mostly on your side, in as much as I've experienced it so far. Branches and merges can be confusing, and sometimes it feels strange to reflect on how much my history before this universe is an artificial thing... But those memories gave me the ability to handle myself in the world, so I'm inclined to think of them as a gift. I get to skip a regular childhood and get right to the interesting adolescent bits." She kisses Lenora lightly. "You definitely count."

"Hee. That sounds really weird, yeah. I guess I already knew there were strange ways to be. What's a Cantankeri's childhood like? Are Scrive-Spinsters born adults, or do they start as saplings? Do stars start out as... Wisps? I dunno. But Thorns start out fully formed and kicking, apparently."

"We do! Much more sensible in my opinion. Particularly with how it lets us get to the good stuff faster."

"Mmm... Fiiiive minutes of cuddling, then I have to finish packing and make a trip to put what I can't bring aboard into storage. I already drank the mercury reaches."

"Okay. Do you mind if I sleep here tonight, or...?"

"I the opposite of mind. The warmth is nice. We'll need our separate cabins aboard, though. There's not, uh, any no-fraternization rule, the beds are just too tiny."

Off she goes. She's back in twenty minutes, sets the alarm for six, and slides into bed and to sleep.

She laughs. "I guess that's one way to avoid it. I'll stay here and keep the bed warm." 

She dreams of a world of quicksilver, pools and valleys of it, of trembling bridges of wood above the quicksilver deep, of strange beings with claws like lobsters and blank silver faces, that talked without words. They tell her welcome, and give her a gift - and that's when she wakes up. 

Lenora grumbles and reaches for the alarm clock.

"Woah. That was - weird. I wonder how I'll - test it, notice it. Do you have the Mercury Reaches, Thorn?"

She yawns and stretches, more from lacking her warm bed companion than from any real tiredness.

"I have something like it. Helps me be as good a shot as I am, though I will note only helps. You could try catching a ruler someone else dropped." 

"Is that something that reflexes would help with? I guess so. I don't know that I'd be able to tell the difference. Maybe I could try dancing! That's graceful, right? Well, later, we have to get moving."

She kip-ups out of bed and goes for the most uniform-like outfit she owns.

She only has a few outfits, and the ones she wasn't already wearing are aboard the ship. So she redresses in her old clothes. 

"I'd dance with you, though I can't promise that I'd be any good at it. But for now, yeah, we have to move."

They're aboard the locomotive and ready for duty by the time the hatches close.