Tintin is entirely amenable to sleeping wherever is most convenient.

Raziya wants to be downstairs with Sendhei so Horan and Tintin can go upstairs. Taharqi has a "bed" that's basically a tight hammock tied to short wooden legs, and it's only marginally more comfortable than the furs themselves but he says he can build ones for the others the following day if they want.

Tintin loves hammocks, as it turns out. "I don't see why we ever stopped using this technology," he says delightedly, swinging gently back and forth.

"I would have expected some not-magical bed of super comfort, personally."

"Oh, they're comfortable, but they don't move! Unless you pay entirely too much for one that moves on its own, and those mostly just rumble discomfitingly. I'm sure you can get a hammock - maybe even one more comfortable than this, this feels like it's probably hemp and I might expect synthetic silk for a high-end modern hammock - but I never considered them, mostly if you want to sleep in the field you'll just have a sleeping bag and if you're sleeping at home you have a mattress. If I ever get home I will certainly invest in a hammock."

"The moving is not so great for when you're trying to actually sleep but thankfully I don't personally move that much in my sleep."

"Speak for yourself, I'm used to sleeping on starships - you can't really feel the inertia because of the artificial gravity and the closed reference frame but if it's an old ship you can feel something."

"Well, far be it from me to discourage you from enjoying it."

Tintin presses a quick kiss to Taharqi's lips. "You have a lovely home," he says, "and you have been very patient while I acclimated myself to it."

"Thank you! But we should abandon it soon anyway and move north, I think.

"—oh, wait, I want to introduce you to my friend the demon staff."

Well that's a sea change.

"I'd... be delighted? I have no idea what those words mean in context, though."

"Did I forget to mention? I found this broken staff a while ago and he turns out to have been an advisor to the giant-kings way back when. He's told me about the bracelets and how to break them."

"Oh, fascinating! Yes, I would love to meet him. Perhaps he'll know a bit more about the workings of magic."

"This way." To the alchemy back room, hidden behind one of the benches, covered with a tarp. "Fair warning, he's a lecherous asshole." And then he pulls the tarp off to reveal a roughly 1.5 meters tall silver-and-black staff, the top shaped like a cobra's head.

Its eyes light up red. "Oh, hello! Back from your trek already. And who is that beau...ty? Wait is that a man or a woman?"

"A man. Thank you for the dubious compliment. Are you the kind of lecherous magic expert who professes to lechery but is easily distracted by magic or the kind who professes to magical expertise but is easily distracted by lechery, please, I need to calibrate based on how irritated I will be while speaking with you."

"I think he's only interested in women."

"You're a pretty boy but he's right," says the staff.

"Excellent! I am from another universe where sorcery does not exist. I would like to know more about it, please. I'm told you advised the giant-kings?"

"Oh, yes! I was a gift, you see. The serpentmen sent me, to help our allies the great giant-kings, and to act as their ambassador and voice."

"So... were you a serpent-man in life?"

"—what? Oh no no no, I'm not dead. I'm—something else."

"Oh. For some reason I assumed that - well, actually I assumed that your attraction to human females stemmed from having been a humanoid male. If you're some kind of void spirit then I have no idea why you'd have a libido in the first place, let alone why it would be restricted to those among us with tits."

"I am not a void spirit either!" he says, sounding terribly amused.

"...I'm assuming that's not merely a taxonomical complaint? I meant, you know. Void spirit or demon or angel or other form of spirit from the unseen aether."