"I get the impression you get used to it, and casualties tend to be low among those who're well armed and who've survived once or twice. Nothing's really safe... Is it easier, uh, other places?"

"It is. There are whole worlds to explore there, I think."

She hands over a little narrow decorative vase with a rubber neck to hold the flower in place.

"Hopefully I'll get to see something like that some day. D'you want some company, or should I let you enjoy it by yourself?"

"Company would be delightful. I seem to have more or less exhausted everything I was reccommended, except for someone who offered a quote "visceral experience" unquote. I am currently seriously considering wether I want to take them up on their offer."

"I mean, my first three guesses are... Some exotic drug like Red Honey or Starshine - don't try Red Honey, it's evil - a whorehouse or some kind of orgy, or some kind of weird and pagan ritual meant to be thrilling and transgressive even to Titanian sensibilities. Or a fighting club, maybe. Four guesses."

"I might be interested in a fighting club, but aside from the question of "what is red honey anyway" I'm entirely satisfied not indulging in the other three options. Despite sex being lovely and all, I'd rather not dive into the deep end this soon."

"Red Honey shows you snatches of someone else's memory with great immersion. Apparently it's heady and visceral and thrilling, being someone else. But it's - incredibly painful for whoever's memory it is, when you do that. If you drop hints about whether it's a fight club, you'll probably get hints back. What'd the guy look like?"

She pulls out her chain and shows her memory crystal. "Same thing but better. Speaking of which, he looked like..."

The suspicious-looking dark-haired trenchcoated guy is nowhere to be found.

After a few minutes of searching Lenora opines that they should forget it and just relax. 

"Hey, maybe I should try to learn woodworking while we're here. That uses a knife, and I like knives, so it ought to be doable right?"

Thorn laughs. "Might as well, there's no reason not to try!" 

"Ooh, who do you think I should ask? Is there a place for sculptors, you think?"

"Well, there's the prophouse where I just came from - they were doing sculpting in warm amber, and I know they use beaverboard in their set dioramas, so it's possible they could teach you something. Or at least know someone on the crafting side who'd be able to teach you."

"If you don't mind going somewhere you've just been that could be interesting. It's mostly whim, I admit."

"I'm the type to indulge my girlfriend's whims! I won't even charge you a kiss. This time."

"Ha. You'll probably get one sooner or later anyway~"

At the prophouse, 'George' is gone and a few other people have joined Sergo. They are trying to figure out what kind of effects they can do for a mad scientist's weapons. Transformations by clever outfits with pull-tabs? Sudden frost and snow using some chemical melange? Multicolored beams with suspended dust and stained-glass spotlights?

One of them will show Lenora the basics of whittling with a chunk of scrap pine lying around for a couple of her shillings, but proper woodwork is really not the kind of thing you learn in a day. She has fun listening.

She has such a hard time not suggesting things from the range of exotic weaponry she knows, as it doesn't have much bearing on the problem and in any case doesn't exist on this world. And these people probably would take the idea of a tasp too far. 

She sits and watches and plays with her amber and tries not to dwell too much on how attractive her girlfriend looks with a knife in hand whittling. She fails.

Lenora does a little flourish with the blade and winks at one point, then looks a bit sheepish when her tutor gently chides her.

Eventually she wants to go get dinner. And hold Thorn's hand on the way.

She would definitely like that. She is on a date on Titania with her hot girlfriend and everything is right with the world. 

Her hot girlfriend keeps flirting with her... And has found a room. And has slept in until almost noon due to the shift schedule.

Wandering the gardens after midnight with Thorn, by gaslight and starlight, is fun. They're almost ethereal and unreal this way. After that she goes back to the rented room to sleep for real - and after a lovely if slightly shorter than ideal sleep, back to the locomotive for their journey to continue.

The gardens at night are wonderful, as are other things that happen to be in them. 

The next morning, Thorn thinks: That day was better than anything in my memories. 

She laughs to herself, and makes sure she's on the engine in good time. It's a shame to leave it all behind, but maybe next time.

The engine's crew have accepted her into their routines, more or less. Chat in the engine room today is about Magdalene's - do they really have fancy treatments for sky-madness? This guy went in once and it all seemed like utter farce, just people pretending to be someone important to the 'patient'. It was pretty and relaxing, though.

Boy do these people ever need memory crystals.

"If it helps, then it helps," she says. "I think it's fine to get a little solace from escapism every now and then."

She keeps to the routine.

On the way to Magdalene's, they encounter a Dreadnought and two Tackety scouts fighting. The fight is somewhere between the slow dance of naval combat and the frenetic pace of duelists. The captain judges it... Safe-ish to just go right past them and hope none of the three decide to get distracted.

A couple hours later, though, one of the Tackety scouts is gaining on them. The captain sends for Thorn.

"You say you're a good shot with that pistol, and Lenora says it too. Think you can snipe a headlight at a few hundred yards? We're being followed, and I think that'd be sufficient discouragement."

"Might take me a bit of ammo, but I think I could land a shot. Is there a convenient place I can stand to shoot, or will I have to get kitted up and go outside?"

"You'll have to lean out, or stand on the boot plate just behind the deflector if the wind is a problem. We'll keep the train as steady as possible and you'll have two lines tied to you either way. It's up to you if you want goggles or a thermal suit."