"Built for adventure is a good shape to be. I'd go stir-crazy eventually, too. It's nice to have a break sometimes, that's all. A weeklong vacation, not a month or year's stay."

"Yeah, I could see a weeklong vacation to unwind and not have to deal with anything weird or unexpected. Like..." She thinks better of bringing up Captain DeVries. "Like the scrive-spinster. I was fairly rattled after that. It was exciting in the moment, but the fact we could've been torn apart..." She runs a hand through her hair. "Maybe not good dinner table conversation."

Lenora munches bacon.

"It's fine. I'm... Sort of over it? Danger is all over the sky. Starlight makes me emotional and fighty but I bounce back from stuff pretty well. Just coming home has done most of it already, it's safe here. The Spatchcock you were looking at will be less nice than the Clockwork. It was a Pelignore-class. Better plating, more space inside, smoother, better heating, flush toilets and a proper galley. Just to warn you in advance. If you want a drilling rig to go after Hour-rocks or Bronze driftwood, one can be got secondhand for three hundred, maybe. It'd be profitable if we manage to use it at least three times."

Thorn munches eggs.

"Being safe matters, yeah. I can deal with reduced amenities but didn't even consider getting a mining rig. Where do you usually find Hours and Bronzewood?"

"You can find Hours all over, except right near Port Prosper or New Winchester. Most commonly near Lustrum and other non-verdant bits of the Reach. Bronzewood is most common near the Nature Reserve, Magdalene's, and Titania, and Traitor's Wood - that whole north-eastern area."

"Sounds like a drilling rig might be a wise long-term investment, if there's that much to use it on out in the sky. Is there anything else you can think of like that? Good job on the charts by the way, they're beautiful."

"It's mostly Hours and Bronzewood, I think. At least for mining rigs. It's most useful in the Reach. There's - assaying devices, to get a good look at things from a distance, that can be used for salvage. Less directly useful, I think. And butchery devices, to scoop up pardoner-eels, or Cantankeri insides, though that's awful and ghastly. You can find Hour-geodes in Albion too. It's handy to have favors to call in, right? I did kind of get lucky, though."

"I plan to stay in the Reach for some time building up funds," she says. "I don't want to venture to Elutheria without flush toilets if I can avoid it. And yes, I'm very lucky to have happened across you."

"See, I consider myself lucky to have a chance to buy from OTC. I've noticed what Mercury Reaches does for me by now - I want a Ka sooner rather than later, after some reflection. I'm not in desperate need of it at all yet, but it can't hurt and it might make me a little more spry, right? It's a lot of pain to get it just through pain, though. Even spread out. And you don't really want to suffer while you're sailing, seems like it'd make the starlight worse. But also, I've been thinking, that thing that does mental influence resistance - that might help against low-level star-madness after all. I dismissed it before because something that can screw with your head directly can probably ignore most protections about it, but isn't star-madness just relatively subtle head-screwing?"

"It's best practice to spend a few ka just to keep yourself in fighting shape, yeah. I can mint you one from this body's lifespan, actually - the OTC builds things to really last, I'm good for a millenium. So here, take this." She makes a pulling motion above her heart, and a glittering pink heart-shaped crystal appears in her hand; she offers it wordlessly.

"If there's a way to insulate against star madness in the catalog - and I don't doubt there is, it just might be out of our price range - then I want it. And my budget is bigger than yours. Let me have a look at my mental catalog here... the Rod of Freedom? That would probably work, the only trouble is you'd have to carry the rod all day long. I bet that could be worked into a tattoo though, something along the spine near the nape of the neck... We'll need to get it done in the demiplane, of course."

She looks a bit taken aback as she accepts the crystal. "So how do I...? Yeah, the rod of freedom. I'm just guessing, it could do nothing to help. But... Seems likely, my intuition is saying? Also, ooh, magical tattoos."

"Just snap it in half, it's designed for that. Once it's snapped it'll vanish, that's how you know it worked. And yeah, I think it's worth trying as well. I notice you're a bit surprised at "last the millenium" - do you want to know the full list of how this body differs from "normal"?"

She snaps it. "I just thought it was touching that you'd give away some life to me. That's heroic ballad stuff. But also, very yes."

"I have a lot of life to give away. You have eighty years, give or take on most worlds. Eighty versus a thousand, the answer is easy. It helps that I love you, but..."

She coughs. "Alright, the list. It should be noted that this is a lot less than the OTC can actually do, it's just they want something that works in most worlds, which includes "looks like a human." To start with I'm just made of better materials. My bones are stronger and lighter than human ones, more like a bird's. My muscle is more densely packed than human muscle. I can see in black and white by starlight almost as well as in the daytime - you can spot the eyeshine if you're looking closely in the dark, it's something that I take precautions to conceal. I can control the length my hair will grow to, and its color, though that starts from the roots and takes time to change. I get finer sensory detail from most things - not range or volume, but more fidelity in what's there. Which I understand is a present from Greater Me and mostly for fun, though it's occasionally useful for tasks like lockpicking where very fine attention to detail is needed. I only need half as much food, water, air and sleep as a normal human, though I can choose to do more than my limit." 

She touches her tattoos. "These give me a basic selection of spells, literally binding them to my skeletal structure so they're part of me and not the universe. The spells I have are Rite of Recall, Overland Flight, Make Whole, Levitate, and Prestidigitation. Rite of Recall is a lengthy ritual whereby I can vanish from where I am and reappear at any location I've been; it takes about an hour of preparations, it's a very crippled version of the greater Teleport. You take compromises when you're trying to fit everything into a human-sized package. Overland Flight is how I can fly; it's fast, close to engine speed I think, and controlled by thought. Make Whole lets me mend almost any broken device within a certain size limit. Levitate lets me pick up an engine and move it ten feet to the left if I need to; it's for clearing obstructions and making carrying heavy things easier, primarily. Prestidigitation is my proof-of-magic spell, it lets me make dancing sparks and ghostly flames and a host of other tiny effects. Good for starting a fire if you've lost your flint and steel."

She runs a hand through her hair. "I think that about covers it, though then there's the pendant and that's a whole other kettle of fish."

Lenora blushes a bit at the mention of love. As Thorn continues she 'hmm's thoughtfully.

"That's seriously impressive. I'm not sure what else to say besides that... When you do that to your hair it makes me want to do it too, by the way."

She smiles. "You're welcome to come over here and do it if you want to."

"Since you're inviting me... Done eating anyway."

She stands behind Thorn and gently runs her hands through her hair.

"Still a bit damp or I'd ask if you want me to braid it... Say. What is love, to you? I don't know if I want to use that word, but... I definitely like you a lot. Words are hard."

"... Love is that little fluttery feeling I get in my chest whenever I'm around you, and wanting to kiss you, and... other stuff, besides. Love is wanting you to have lovely and wonderful things. Love is the thing that sent me hunting a "woojack" without any clue as to what it meant or where I was going, only that it was into the worst part of town. Love is wanting more of you, and more for you. For me it's a very... generous emotion. And... it just kind of slipped out, honestly, but I do love you."

She tilts her head. "My... family... would say that for us as a whole, we tend to think of love in terms of what we're willing to sacrifice for another. I can't begin to calculate that for you. It's too early, and too ineffable. But... I want to explore the stars with you. So... Half a train? I love you half a train much?" She giggles. "It doesn't make sense. Maybe it will once we get out among the stars. I don't know."

"I don't really know what love... Is. If I had to put it into words I'd say it's something like that, yeah. I just... Hmmm."

She hugs Thorn from behind.

"I like you a lot, we fit well together, I wanna make you smile, I want to see what you do next, we're going to have great adventures together - that's probably love, right? But, I guess I'm a little concerned that you're pretty new. I don't know how your memories really work, but you mentioned you don't know 'and more', so... It's almost like, you're my newest love, but I'm your first love? But I don't think that's actually true? I'm not gonna be able to explain why it feels... Ish."

"It's probably best to call this my first love, yeah. Maybe with some scattered dating on my end, I'm not innocent, but... I don't know what I'm doing here. I trust you, though. You're worth caring about. And the rest... will fall how it will fall, you know? We don't have to have things all neatly sorted out just yet. It has only been a few weeks. Maybe after a month or two we'll be able to tell where this is going."

"That's nice to hear. I don't think... It's not going to be perfect forever right? I'll annoy or hurt you with something or vice versa and we'll have to deal with it. But it'd be worth dealing with and figuring out. So. We have tomorrow. And the next day, and the one after that..."

She unhugs and moves to wash her plate. "The call of the bed is increasingly loud. Don't think I can resist anymore."

"Yeah. We'll still be there, even with the problems. I'll definitely come with you to bed. It's nice to sleep holding you."

And so they sleep. Just sleep.

...Maybe one kiss. But then sleep.

Thorn probably wakes up first, as usual.

She stays snuggled up and waits for Lenora to wake. It is so good to have her girlfriend like this again.

Lenora wakes up with a startle about when the sun is rising and starts trying to sit up, flails a bit, then catches herself and flops back down.

"-Bleh. Safe. Sorry."