-she should just look at Cricket, is what she should do, if she's looking at him it'll be less startling when he talks. She doesn't want to be flinchy every time Haru's roommate-pet-friend talks, that is bad guest behavior. So she will just look at him. 

...she does not seem to be moving her head. ah well. so much for that plan.

Wait, shit, she just heard her name. 

"-sorry, say again?"

"...is it a problem if there's TV or a movie on, and the characters give each other instructions. I can have Cricket watch TV in my room, if it might be."

Mildly alarmed petting.

Oh, questions are good! She can answer questions. "I really don't think it would be! You've said things to Cricket and to Lucy that we know are the kinds of things my backlash treats as commands, and I haven't followed them, so it clearly distinguishes based on intended audience. Maybe something like the Blue's Clues genre of children's' TV shows that address the audience could do something, but I assume that's not what we're dealing with here, so it should be fine!" ugh. babbling.

 Whatever, it's better than clamming up. It's okay. She's okay.

(she's also clingy!)

"Okay, go ahead, kitty."

Cricket hesitates, then jumps off his window seat and approaches the cuddlepile only just close enough to bonk his forehead into Haru's knee, and then returns to his windowseat and puts on Groundhog Day.

topic change, topic change, topic change...

...too much work.

Instead she will boop Lucy's nose and whisper "boop"

“You okay?”

ah... busted. and... she really shouldn't lie.

She shrugs. 

"... I think it is probably going to take a little while for me to get comfy with being around Cricket, is all." she says quietly, after a long pause. "it's not his fault, of course, he didn't know, but...  my midnight snack misadventure was. really bad for me?" She tries to force a bit of lightness into her voice, but it comes out sounding wrong, even to her. 

Haru pets her arm. "I'm really sorry about him."

“Actions still have consequences, even if they weren’t intended.”

She places her other hand on Haru's, stroking it gently, and shakes her head. "He didn't know. I didn't explain my backlash, so nobody knew, not him and not either of you." 

She leans into Lucy. "And... yeah, they do. He - I got hurt, and maybe it'll take me a while to feel safe around him. And that's sad. But it'll be okay." 

The smile on her face is a little sad, but it's genuine, too. 

Okay but maybe he should have considered being less of an asshole probably not constructive to say.

“It’d suck if you were traumatized. I bet a lot of people are traumatized by hellweek though.”

"It is not uncommon."

"I'll be okay! It sucks a bit right now, but I'll be okay." She's gotta be. She's gonna be an esper. She can handle this. 

She does her best to pull them both closer to her. "And I'm real optimistic about this week! Like yeah, the backlash sucks, but. I get to snuggle and talk with the two of you a lot? And I get lots of guiding? And at the end I get to be an esper! We get to be espers!" She grins.

“We get to be espers! I really hope I don’t get a mind control power! Unless I can cure Alzheimer’s with it!”

"Man. Big mood on the mind control power..." Should she say it? She wants to say it. She's gonna say it.

"...If you do get one, you can test it on me, if you want. I trust you."

“…Yyyyyeah no offense but you’re gonna need to say that totally unbacklashed before I take that seriously.”

"Good call."

Oh no they're both so gooooood she is fallllllling for them both  they should kiss. each other. and also her.

She nods agreeably. "Of course!" She'll agree, obviously, but they have no way of knowing that! And so they're being careful.

Happy wiggling Cara.

And then she's distracted by the movie! Like many contemporary classics, Cara knows the basic premise of Groundhog Day, but since nobody ever sat down and made her watch it, she hasn't seen it. 

(And if she's much less chatty than she usually would be, in this scenario - well, there are a lot of reasons why that might be true, and she's definitely enjoying herself, and this snuggle pile.)

It's not a great angle from the couch to Cricket's laptop screen but she can follow the dialogue, at least.

Then the markers are delivered.

"....Ooooh, markers!" She looks at Lucy excitedly.

“Markers! I don’t know much about body art markers but probably my hair is where it’ll be a little trickier to maintain contact.”