Okay! Then she can lean against him while writing inscrutable things.

"Copper's easy, iron's just following the train of logic, nature is, uh, essence and, something, definitely a fast growing plant?" she mutters, writing in a somewhat shaky shorthand. Then she stops and takes a deep breath. "Augh, no, just. Stop. Breathe. Materials to figure out what I have to work with, not the specific ratios and ingredients for actually making everything out of dust and dead trees." Deeeeeeep breath. "To see what's in things I'll need glass and a kiln, so - coal and clay, and I need to gather enough unprototyped essence to make some proper essence seeds and fry the absolute shit out of the least opinionated seeds I can find..."

She's going to be muttering to herself for a while.

Sendhei will watch in fascination for a while but eventually get bored and mutter a "good night" before retiring to his bed downstairs. Taharqi can stay here a while, although he will eventually unhug and take a seat on one of the chairs around.

(She is of course welcome to a chair, too.)

She distractedly echoes Sendhei's "good night" back to him, but continues to mostly be distracted! Not completely distracted, though. When Taharqi unhugs she makes an unhappy grumbly sound, grabs something flat to write on, and then follows him to the chair to be cuddled while she writes. It involves mostly being in his lap, but whatever, she wants cuddles.

Okay sure. It's not a sofa but it is a reasonably large chair made of sturdy polished and insulated wood. He will absently pet her and try to follow what she's writing for five seconds before realising he does not understand a single word she's writing.

Eventually, she huffs a sigh, and gets up to put away the writing utensils and flat surface, and then comes back to Taharqi for Pensive Snuggles. While peering at her newly written notes.

"Hi," she mumbles, leaning on him. "Thank you for the moral support, it's appreciated even if I've been shit company and muttering witch things to myself."

"It was actually kind of endearing," he admits, "even though yes I have no idea what your witch things meant and found out that whatever translation thing my bracelet does does not work on writing."

"Aw, thanks. It doesn't translate? That's a pity. You're not missing much with this, anyway, it's not written to be legible. I think upon reflection I'm probably going to be okay? Mostly. I expect I won't be able to do any of the fiddly fancy stuff, but I did actually specialize in material recreation. Making bodies will probably take me actual years, though, that was mostly following instructions instead of direct problem solving. I think I should focus on figuring out how to make your bracelets not suck instead of trying to re-engineer that one from the ground up."

"You said your dream world had a forest, right? And you don't need a body to be in it?"

"Correct. Why?"

"Is it... much worse to be in than your original world? Or here?"

“No. It’s fine. Downright pleasant, really,” she says, sounding a bit confused. “Sleeping and eating and such are optional.”

"So... why resurrect people at all?"

“Oh. Not everyone likes it? Some people find the lack of physicality really upsetting. It’s also impossible to have children, and impossible to do magic there. You also can’t detach yourself from inside, so if everyone is there, everyone is stuck.”

"Huh. I guess I do not really know what it must feel like, then. The dreams I remember usually feel okay to be in, I think."

“Compared to normal dreams it’s a bit more, mm. Solid? Lucid, maybe? And cognitive functions are definitely better, there’s more self awareness and control than I remember ordinary dreams having. But it’s been a while since I had ordinary dreams, not since I was a child.”

"Which sounds better. Right?"

“I think so, yeah. I did mention I wanted to consensually steal everyone into the dream world, didn’t I?”

"You did, it's true," he says, grinning. He runs a hand through her hair and adds, "But for now we should sleep."

“Mmm. Yeah, I suppose. It’ll be weird, though. For me, I mean. I guess I can do a lot of sightseeing of dream locations. Or nap until I wake up.”

She scoots off of him so he can, in fact, stand up! Look at her, so thoughtful and kind.

He can get up! And if he's slightly stiff from it, that's only to be expected.

"You can also sleep in the dream world? You mentioned it, didn't you—it seems so strange. You probably have lots of habits about sleeping that we just... don't, huh?"

“Yeah, probably. The cultural divide is uh. Definitely present.” No, bad Saevetei, do not look at his penis! This would be so much less awkward if they’d actually fucked.

“Damn it,” she realizes. “I had the terrible river bath for nothing, that’s so upsetting.”

"...terrible river bath. I'm getting some mixed signals here, you know," he says, folding his arms and cocking his head a bit. But now that she gave him the look again and he's not in Business Mode, the look has... an effect. "I think I am going to go with my gut, here, please tell me if you don't actually want this."

And with that he steps closer to her again so he can tip her chin up and kiss her.

Bwuh?

She is actually too confused to kiss him back! Instead she pulls away slightly to peer at him in utter bafflement.

“... I’m getting some mixed signals too!” she says, a little exasperated. “I thought you weren’t very interested? I’d rather have sex with someone that wants to have sex with me, not someone who seems kind of ‘eh’ about the whole affair. Are you not eh about the whole affair?”

He looks utterly baffled. "No? I just figured you needed some space after your, you know, dream revelation," he says, waving a hand around vaguely. "Or exhausted, since you fell asleep there at all, one of those."

“Space after the dream revelation is totally fair, and it was absolutely a mood killer that might tank my ability to fuck for the rest of the night! But I’m talking about before?” She blinks at him, brow furrowed.

“... I fell asleep on purpose, it wasn’t a matter of exhaustion. I wanted to be sure that if I died I’d come back here instead of potentially back with the cannibals. I’ve never died twice in a row without falling asleep at all, I was a bit worried I’d get pulled back to their camp instead of getting brought back where I stood again. Plus you were taking a while and I was bored and wanted to check my notes? Is getting clean that important for sex in the waking world, that sounds aggravating.”