"About six months."

"Six months?! That's forever, however did you save up that much time -"

"I'm a dimensional mage. I make apartment complex demiplanes by the block. My services are rare and hotly in demand. So I get to spend basically every other year in the Bowers."

"Every other year. Wow. That's something. Is everyone around here that wealthy?"

"All the fixtures of the place. Me, the staff, the escorts. Some of my longer-term friends like Rose, she's a very successful musician/mage. But we get a lot of people on two-week stays, too."

"So wait a second. If you use Dyne to preserve your time here and you've been here for six months, does that mean you haven't slept in six months?"

"Yeah, my schedule is all kinds of out of whack. But it doesn't matter because this is the Bowers and everyone else is just as out of whack as I am."

"Isn't it supposed to be dangerous to use Dyne for long periods?"

"Yeah, there's some crackpots who believe that but I've never had a problem."

"Mmm, alright then. What do you think of Aurica?"

"She's really kind of condescending, isn't she? I can look past that, but she's so shy. She's her own worst enemy in a lot of ways."

She nods. "I agree, her little lecture about respecting escorts was just. Completely off-base. I think she just likes to bully people."

"Says her alt. Pot calling the kettle black?"

"Maybe. It was definitely fun to be in control when we did it the third time. I still need to relax more, but... There was something real, there."

"We could maybe dig into the accessories, start introducing you to some actual kink. A pair of padded handcuffs wouldn't be too weird, would it?"

"For you, I assume? That could be fun. And I could get out my massager and then..." 

She drifts off dreamily. "Yeah. Could we... make that a date?"

"Definitely. After dinner."

"After dinner." 

Audrey finishes her steak and gets started on her chocolate cake.

Hannah goes and gets some ice cream for herself out of the buffet. 

There's another quiet period as Audrey shovels cake into her mouth.

But it seems more of a companionable silence than an awkward one.

Hannah is licking her ice-cream cone rather salaciously. 

Audrey laughs, and finishes her cake. "Nice technique there," she says.

"Thank you," says Hannah seriously. "I've had a lot of practice." 

She finishes her ice cream cone quite efficiently, taking big bites of the ice cream.

"Don't you get brain freeze?"

"Nah," replies Hannah. "So, about that date...?"