Thorn snuggles in. "Nightmares? You tried to say the starlight didn't have a real effect on you, but..."

"Didn't feel like one. Felt more like a regular bad dream... I've been thinking about my past. But if it was, that's what recuperation is for."

Sigh. Snuggle. "I want to get that freedom tattoo. Starlight is terrible. But, I'm holding my weight, right? It's like four hundred..."

"Ah. Well, either way it makes me want to pet you, so..." She gently strokes Lenora's back. "Don't worry too much about the cost; the charts alone are worth enough to cover it."

"Yay. If you say so... Should copy 'em. Safekeeping."

"Definitely. Even though my memory's good, I never got a really good look at them, just flipped through. I'd love to see them properly."

"And I should exercise. 'Cept I want to keep snuggling and maybe go back to sleep instead."

"Hmm. I've been thinking I should get out my beacon again. Not just for the tattoos, but so that you can 'meet the family' as well, and I do have, like, a standard report to make. So how about I do the standard report while you exercise, and I'll pop my head in once we've got some of the family to talk to?" 

"Fiiiine. We really should start the day, I guess. We can snuggle more later."

Kiss.

Then she gets up and starts getting dressed. "What, are you going to set up the beacon in my bathroom or something?"

"No reason not to, it's a reasonably private space and that's the main criteria. No risk of room service coming in to a glowing portal and everyone having to do some serious explaining."

"Heh. Sure. I'll just be out here exercising, then. It took a while to find a routine I can do without a gym."

She gets out her beacon, sets it in the bathroom, and boots it up. It spucks down its stabilizer pads, and the portal forms almost instantly. 

She steps through.

Eva looks up from her desk. "Ah, Thorn! How are things going?" 

"I have a headful of experience and charts. Swap me stones." 

There's a brief flicker around her necklace. "There, done. And you have had fun, I see. Titania seems like it kind of suits you."

"Yeah, I've been noticing an artistic lean in my personality. And there's also some local mental influence there - starlight here is infectious, it gets under your skin. I've been considering taking Rod of Freedom's effect as a nape tattoo for the both of us."

"Yeah, I got that conversation too. You wanted to introduce her to some of the family? I can raise Hannah on short notice."

"Hannah would work, though I only remember her fuzzily. It'd give her some idea of our range. Do you think you could raise a Clematis as well?" 

"We'll see if that works out or not, there's fewer to call on. But I'll grab Hannah now."

And a girl wearing a black fur coat lined with dozens of tiny pockets appears from thin air. She has an apple in one hand and a knife in the other, and is carefully peeling the skin off the apple and stuffing it in one of her coat pockets. 

"Hey," she says. "So I'm here to say hi to the girlfriend, huh? Suppose there's worse things I could do with my time. Might get a sneak peek of an unscouted world, so there's that." 

"Be nice, Hannah." 

"What do you mean "be nice", I'm always nice."

"I'll take her. Let me just go ask Lenora if it's okay to bring a stranger into her apartment."

"Kay kay."

Thorn steps back out through the portal. 

"Lenora," she calls, "Is it alright if I bring my sister into the apartment?"

From where she is doing push-ups comes, "Sure! I thought that was part of the point!"