The door stands there, glowily. It definitely doesn't match its surroundings - in fact, it's hard to conceive of what surroundings the kaleidoscopic crystal could match. Much more new-age ones than these, most likely.

Looking at it side-on, it's less than paper-thin: looking at it from behind, it goes away completely. It's definitely not a normal sort of door.

Inavet is the type of person that can see it from multiple angles at once. The uses of magic. She stops, peering at it cautiously, swallowing the urge to drop everything and flee immediately.

Despite its impossibility, it doesn't look like an illusion. And when it doesn't look like an illusion to her, that means quite a lot. The arcanists that could successfully trick her with an illusion could be counted on one hand, and none of them are anywhere near here.

... She shoves a breeze at it anyway, to see if the breeze passes through it, just in case.

That is very definitely a solid door.

...

Could be a trap. Probably is a trap. They've found her, somehow, in this dinky town no one cares about. Do not walk up to the trap and try to open it, Inavet, that would be stupid. That would get you killed.

But what if it isn't a trap? It could be - anything at all. She doesn't know.

She stands in the road for a minute and a half, fidgeting, before she beats herself in a debate and cautiously, cautiously goes to open the door. ... With a vine. Not her hand. No one's nearby to see her obviously do arcany.

The door opens.

There appears to be a store behind the door.

What.

How?

She - hesitates a little, then carefully steps inside. Cautiously. Looking like she's ready to bolt at any time.

Someone is sitting at a counter across the store, apparently doing paperwork.

Not an arcanist. Anything else, Inavet would have to touch her to find out.

"... Um?" she asks, because her hair's still brown and her face still doesn't look like her own, she can pretend to be a confused citizen, "Excuse me? Why is there a door to a store in the middle of the street?"

The woman looks up with a smile. "Oh, I'm sorry: that must have been awkward. Still, it can't be helped now. Welcome to the OTC, purveyors of fine multiversal goods. How may I help you?"

"How does the door work, exactly? Is it just permanently going to be in the middle of the road for anyone to find and enter...?"

Because that combined with 'fine multiversal goods' is about the worst thing ever.

"Feel free to close the door, it shouldn't be in the middle of a street anyway."

"... And what happens if I close it?"

"The end in the street will go away. Don't worry, I'll be happy to make another door for you as a convenience."

She peers at the woman at the counter. "And where precisely will the new door be?"

"Where would you like it?"

What kind of minefield is this conversation, is she trying to see how she'll react? Is she expecting her to say the location of her safe house or something similar? Is she about to be marked as a delinquent if she asks for the door to be in a non-standard place?

"... Where do these doors typically go?" she asks, because she can't figure out if this is a lie or if it's real and what to do about it either way.

"Wherever the OTC would prefer to place them. And since I'm the OTC here, that means wherever I'd prefer to place them."

She frowns a little at Inavet.

"... Is there a reason why you're so jumpy?"

Shit shit shit she didn't think her acting skills had deteriorated that much from stress, augh, why.

She shifts a little and contemplates bolting. She doesn't, but she thinks about it.

"I'm concerned about causing a ruckus," she lies, because that is a suitably brainwashed explanation for a suitably brainwashed individual, "and haven't exactly done this before, so I don't want to mess it up."

"Well, I don't think anyone from your universe has done this before: you're my first customer. Anyway, should I close the door or not?"

This definitely does not feel like an ordinary thing, there's an entire store where there shouldn't be. Even with aura, Inavet thinks this kind of thing is just impossible with arcany. Besides, the aura's - not accounting for this at all.

But it's probably a trap, and she's probably being an idiot by not bolting immediately. But if this is for real think of what she could get from it. But if it's a fucking trap think of how she could die horribly. But it does not make sense by the rules she knows! Oh yes, because she knows all of the rules of magic, hmm? Knows more than every other arcanist combined, even though many of them dwarf her in age and experience? Well, no, of course not, but one does not need to know literally everything to know something's completely impossible, she doesn't understand how the world trees work but she can theoretically see how they could do the things they do.

Yes but isn't her biggest flaw how arrogant she can get, isn't it jumping to conclusions to think that she knows everything about everything?

Doesn't that apply to her current situation, though, thinking she can go up against a totalitarian government that's ruled for tens of thousands of years without a hitch and win? Doesn't she actually really need help?

Isn't she arrogant to think that she's the one single person holding a not-quite-rebellion together? Hasn't she gone and made herself expendable by getting other people through competent arcany rituals and explaining the logic behind them?

She actually needs help. They actually need help. And she is - somewhat expendable. Not replaceable, but - expendable. And this would be a hell of a boon, if it's not a trap. And if it is - well, maybe she can get out of it. She's gotten out of others.

"..... Close the door," she says, "and I can decide where to put the other side of it later?"

The woman smiles. "Certainly!"

And the door disappears.

Inavet looks at the place where the door was, expressionless.

"... Right, okay." Don't freak out, don't freak out, you just asked her to close the door. (Yes but 'close the door' and 'make the door disappear entirely' are two very different things) "So what do you sell?"

"It would probably be shorter to list the things we don't sell. We don't sell people, and as a general rule we don't do services. Otherwise? Well, it depends on what you have to trade. Would you like me to explain our standard currencies?"

"Yes, please."

"Since we trade in many worlds, the OTC has to trade in currencies that have inherent value to all sentients. There are seven primary currencies: the Takkarash, Dyne, Ka, Izikiel, Chron, Udi, and Buddhitanka. They represent pain, fatigue, lifespan, dead enemies, vital time, dreams, and knowledge, respectively. We also offer our own currency, the Oifeili Trade Credit, which represents a portion of the value of our multiversal enterprise as a whole."

Sloooooow blink.

"... So if I were to pay you in, Takkarash, what would happen...?"

"You would experience pain of an intensity proportionate to the price of your purchase. I recommend against minting more than perhaps a thousand Takkarash at once, even if you enjoy pain. If you don't, I would recommend keeping it down to a two-digit number."

Nod. "I see. And if I were to buy Takkarash? Or is it only available as payment?"

"Then you would receive a shield against pain in your future, or anesthetic for pain that you were currently experiencing. Possibly in the form of a physical coin."

"And similarly I could sell or buy the others. ... What do you typically accept as trade, aside from the standard currencies? Or is that another 'it's easier to say what we don't'?"

"Basically, yes. We do purchase services, but again do not purchase sophonts. I can valuate almost anything you care to name."

"Mm. What are examples of things that are valued highly?"

"Magic that the OTC has had little prior contact with. Physical objects that are multiversally rare - which generally means manufactured objects, though you should probably list the common materials in your world in case one of them turns out to be rare in the multiverse at large. Skilled services are valuable regardless of the field of study - you would be surprised at the mileage you can get out of being a successful author, on some worlds. Unique experiences in general - worlds with interesting weather are in vogue this century. And so on, and so on. Basically, ask about anything you think might be valuable."

Pensive nod. "I'll keep that in mind."

"... Not interested? That's unusual."

"Not necessarily not interested, but I think I'd like to see what this place has to offer along with the slightly terrifying money types before throwing ideas for what I could sell around."

"I should have an abridged catalog of our recent best-sellers around here somewhere... Ah, here it is."

The clerk pushes a heavy tablet of black stone across the glass counter towards Inavet.

"Sorry about the format."

She raises an eyebrow at the heavy tablet, but says, "It's quite all right."

She gets to reading it! How does it work?

Poking confirms that it's a touch-sensitive tablet. Lines of incised letters slide back and forth, displaying a rather extensive spreadsheet.

This is fairly familiar territory to her! Sort of.

What's on the spreadsheet? Anything good for overthrowing an oppressive totalitarian magically empowered government that controls the climate, the populace, and all information ever?

There's a truly impressive array of weaponry and mercenary services, some of which's stated capabilities are absolutely absurd. There are also umpteen different methods of information gathering and propaganda dissemination. Weather control is rarer, but there's still a section with a good half-dozen options.

....

She likes these options. Many of them are expensive, however.

"How common is it to get doors to - here?"

How many trips can she do this in does she have to get what she needs in this one trip or...?

"We're just moving into this universe, but I can give you my card and that should let you call a new door whenever and wherever you like."

"That would be wonderful," she says, blinking. "... Just moving into this universe? What does that mean? Are other people going to get doors, too?"

"Oh, probably. Whenever I get around to it."

Pause.

"Could you take a while to get around to it?"

"Um, maybe? I mean, my superiors will eventually get annoyed with me if I'm not making sales."

"I," says Inavet, "will be sure to get you a lot of business."

"Then sure, probably!"

"Excellent, thank you."

"Um, I don't mean to pry, but... Why exactly is it important to you that I not invite other customers in, though?"

She considers.

"Well, because the totalitarian oppressive government that controls all of the media and most of the world and routinely permanently handicaps the abilities and senses every magic user that isn't specifically chosen to be one of their favorite pets might get in. And I'd rather they didn't."

"... That sounds like quite the problem. Do you maybe need some help with that?"

"I would certainly appreciate it."

"Well, I can start by extending you the use of my employee discount." She grins.

Inavet grins. "Thank you. That won't get you in trouble, will it...?"

"Not unless I make a serious habit of it, and I have not so far. 'Saving a world' counts as more important to me than maybe getting chewed out, anyway."

"Mine, too, but I can't exactly go barreling into people's lives and go, 'Drop everything help me save my world'."

"... Were you asking? Because I would totally be interested."

".... In that case. Yes! I am! Would you like to drop everything to help me save my world?"

"Well, I can't drop everything but I can definitely send a me with you."

"'A me'?"

"Yep, you heard that right! I have spares. Or, um, am spares?"

"... Multiple bodies all with the same consciousness?" clarifies Inavet.

"Yes, but no? Like, that's generally correct but probably not accurate to how it works in practice? We're... More like really really similar people who all get along and share memories, maybe."

"... Huh. Okay. I'm mostly concerned about, uh. The one helping me dying and being lost forever."

"That's... Not really an issue for us. We know Greater Us will survive, so any individual one of us dying is only a little bit sad."

The clerk pulls out a hexagonal crystal pendant.

"Would you like to see?"

Blink.

"Sure."

The clerk carefully, carefully unclasps the pendant and sets it on the counter.

"Just touch it and think of the kind of memory you want to experience. I will warn you though, it can be kind of surprising the first few times - you might not want to start with 'how an Eva dies.' "

Eyebrow raise, solemn nod.

She reaches out and touches the pendant. An Eva's - time at the beach?

She's lying on a beach of fine black sand, a towel spread out beneath her, her fingers twined in her long, silvery hair. A blocky moon sets over the waves, dyeing the ocean silver. The salt wind on her skin carries the chill of the ocean, but she doesn't mind: this world was never one for warmth even on the best of days, and she's long grown used to the faint numbness.

Closing her eyes, she listens to the surf.

"... Oh," says Inavet, blinking. She removes her hand from the pendant. "That's - yes, that does make the prospect of losing Eva's less - uh, complete." Pause. Small smile. "And it's really cool."

Eva grins!

"It is! This instance of me here, that you are talking to, is a bit special, because she's - er, I'm - well, you get the idea, personal pronouns are kind of an issue for me sometimes - anyway, this instance of me is the archivist whose job is to keep the collective history of Greater Me."

Nod. This sounds very reasonable to her.

"Do all of the others regularly get updates?"

"Generally they come back and sync with me every year or so - we play rock-paper-scissors and have a discussion to make sure we're both still me in the senses that matter, and then we merge and re-fork. If a me diverges a lot - has a really significant, life-changing experience - then we do a poll and also ask them if they would like to be re-merged, and if they don't, or Greater Me doesn't want them, then they get a living allowance from OTC and transport to wherever they would prefer."

"Huh. ... Has one wanted to be re-merged and then Greater You didn't want them? That sounds... Sad."

"It happens occasionally, mostly with Evas who encountered something addictive or brainwashy or otherwise horrible. We do the best we can for those selves of us, since we know that we could just as easily be them. Usually they understand. The ones that don't... Well, most of them really don't count as us anymore."

Solemn nod.

"Do you often encounter things of that kind...?"

"We live interesting lives. There's another archivist-me whose job is to keep the Restricted Section of my memories - all the petty little addictions that I've built up over thousands of years of accumulated parallel lives, which independently were perfectly alright but together would be completely incapacitating."

Inavet considers this, then nods.

"That sounds annoying, but a good way to deal with an annoying problem."

"Those of me who are still functional but not mergeable often spend some time in that role, since we can trust them to look after us just as we would ourselves - just not to be us."

Another nod! This sounds like a good use of resources to her.

"How do you - fork and re-merge, exactly?"

"Forking is easy - I would do it right now, but it would likely just confuse things. The OTC is very good at duplicating things. Merging is a little more involved, which is why we do it less often - it takes more finesse to only discard the duplicated memories so that the resulting self has a coherent mental history and self-concept."

Nod. "How much would it cost for a non OTC employee to have - maybe not the exact thing you have set up, but something similar?"

"Um... That is a really good question, and my immediate answer is 'lots', but it probably depends on how many forks and merges you would be planning on."

"I'm not sure. But with a multiverse instead of just the one universe..." She shrugs. "It seems wise to - the term I want to use is scale accordingly? And if I get killed I'd like to not permanently die. Some part of me, anyway."

"We have a really quite good solution to the death thing! It turns out that it's a lot easier to make a lump of magical rock practically invulnerable than a person. When Evas go missing, we're generally able to retrieve their memory crystals and reinstantiate them. That's, um, how we got our rather extensive library of 'interesting ways to die.'"

"Aren't I glad I took your word for it and didn't pick a death memory," says Inavet dryly. "Can I set up a, a 'in case I die' situation with a memory crystal and a me that's in stasis and will be woken up and handed the memory crystal upon my death?"

"That would definitely be cheaper, though you'd naturally lose a little in security."

Nod.

"I should probably figure out what budget I'm working with before going with the cheap option," says Inavet wryly.

"Probably!" Eva smiles.

"So, first of all, my name's Inavet, I don't actually look like this at all." She drops the illusion, holding it up was annoying.

She is noticeably prettier without the illusion.

"And what I can do besides that is - sort of complicated. Illusions, things that do illusions, communication networks based on crystals, plants that do - uh, strange things, long story short 'whatever I want when I can directly control them, simplistic tasks that require no movement when I mass produce them,' some things with memory and sound and then a whole list of stuff I'm not as good at but could work at for a while to get something. Somewhat hilariously, the most easily-sold thing is - I have an extra set of magical senses? And you mentioned that might be something people are interested in."

Eva nods approvingly. "I kind of expected that that wasn't your real face. You're a lot prettier this way." She smiles. "But the magic and the technical expertise are even prettier! And - did you really say something about new senses?"

"Thank you," she says, ducking her head a little. "And - yes, I did. Why, is that definitely a likely candidate for making money?"

"Unique experiences are valuable to the OTC, and especially to me. In my off-time, I volunteer for the Society of Sensation."

"On principle I'm pretty okay with everyone being able to experience my senses if I get to pick what they do and do not experience from me. I'd hand it over to you right now for free if there's a way to keep it from undercutting my major source of income."

She looks apologetic.

"Would you mind describing these new senses you have to me?"

"I have - something that lets me perceive all light within a certain radius of me, sort of like seeing it, but not quite. Then something similar for sound and temperature and air currents. I have a sense of my own body, how it functions and how it works and what it's doing, and something similar and more exact for nearby flora. Then I have a vague sense of - this one's hard to explain, it's kind of like how large systems work together? How my environment functions around me? I can perceive a lot of weird things here, for instance."

"... I see! Would you be willing to give me, oh, ten seconds of your current experience in exchange for, hmm... A thousand buddhitanka? That's being quite generous in my opinion."

"... I'm actually not out to wring you out of your money," says Inavet, "is there a way to hand it over to you, specifically, without you being able to go immediately sell it? Then I'd be happy to just give you ten seconds for free."

She'd also like to see what it's worth from separate sources, before selling it.

"Certainly! I should have a spare crystal here somewhere..."

She clunks the chunk of quartz down onto the counter.

Inavet considers if she should trust this or not - she's inclined to, and ten seconds isn't a ton. If it happened to get out to the multiverse - again, not the end of the world. She can definitely sell some amazing extra-sense sensations. Just a 'this is what life is normally like for me' is not her big seller.

She steps over to the chunk of quartz. "What do I need to do?"

"It's set to record by default: all you need to do is hold it for a few seconds, then set it down."

"All right. Just sensations, not thoughts, too?"

"Just sensations."

Nod!

She picks up the chunk of quartz. Going all out for the best set of sensations possible isn't the point of the exercise, but she doesn't want to make this just 'Inavet stands stock still for ten seconds.' To keep it interesting, she hums a faint tune of a popular song, and echoes a bit of the instrumental part around her to go along with it. If she sat down and focused, she might be able to pull off copying the song completely, but this is a nice demonstration and a sort-of-present for a not-quite-friend.

And then ten seconds are up and she offers the quartz to Eva.

Eva manages to keep herself from snatching the crystal out of Inavet's hands, but it's a close thing.

... oh. Oh wow.

"... You said you could give copies of this magic to other people?"

"Yes, I can. Though - the senses they get won't work quite like mine, some of them might be more or less attuned to certain things in comparison. And I'm highly nervous about knowledge of how to get this magic being used to give horrible people magic, because you can actually do some pretty horrible things with it."

"... Do you trust me enough to let me massively overpay for this? Because I will massively overpay for this."

"Getting you the magic unfortunately means you will know how to get other people the magic, though maybe not competently, and if you mess it up you magically cripple the person forever. If it were just getting you the magic -" she hesitates, then says, "... Yes, I trust you enough to let you massively overpay for it."

"... Believe me, the absolute last thing I would ever want to do is cripple someone else's senses."

"I believe you. I just - take it all very seriously."

Eve nods. "And I understand that completely, if this kind of magic can accidentally cripple people's senses."

Nod.

Not entirely why she wants to keep it from spreading all over the multiverse, but - yes. That's a good reason.

"I can do it properly, I've had several hundred years of practice," she promises. "But - is there a contract of some kind I can have you sign that'll stop you from infusing other people with the magic...?"

"Oh, yes, OTC does that all the time. Would you like to sign in blood, or is that a bit archaic for you?"

Blink. "I don't really have a preference, is blood easier?"

"No, we just offer that service for our more traditional clients. Ink's just as good for the contract magic."

She pulls out a piece of parchment.

"This is one of our standard NDAs - it should be appropriate for this. Read it over and see if the terms are agreeable to you."

Nod! She reads over it.

Anything weird?

It is really absurdly thorough about the list of methods by which the information cannot be communicated.

Other than that, it appears to be a fairly reasonable contract.

This is pretty agreeable to her, then! She is impressed with the list of methods by which information cannot be communicated. Good contract.

"This works for me, but before I sign it I should check to make sure I actually can get you magic. May I have your hand?"

"Well, if you insist..."

... Is she blushing? She is definitely blushing.

Inavet doesn't actually find this blush worthy, she has had to awkwardly hold hands for magic reasons for a good amount of people. But she does find it kind of cute that Eva blushes at this.

She closes her eyes and pays attention to how Eva feels to her magic.

"... Standard ritual," she pronounces. "So I don't need to figure out how to account for things and it should be relatively simple to do. Right then, anything specific to signing this, or is it literally just signing it?"

"It's literally just signing it, the contract does all the magic."

Eva seems to be having some trouble meeting Inavet's gaze now.

... That's terribly adorable. Inavet's not sure what to do with it, but it's adorable.

"All right then." She picks up a pen and signs contract.

Eva grins, and whisks the contract away into one of her many desk drawers.

"Okay! So, um, now what do I do?"

"Okay, so. We need a wooden bowl, distilled water, a stick of graphite, a bit of copper, a quartz crystal, and a sharp object that you feel strongly about in some way. I can help if you don't feel strongly about any sharp objects."

The required objects appear as she names them, just suddenly there in places where no-one was looking - save for the quartz crystal and the sharp object.

"... There have definitely been sharp objects that I've felt strongly about, but the one that comes to mind is attached to a person. As for the quartz - will my pendant do?"

"Is there a sharp object that's not attached to a person that you feel almost as strongly about? And I can check the quartz, I don't mind it recording my sensations for a little while."

Eva hands over the pendant. "Don't worry, it's only programmed to record me."

She hums. "Um... Oh!" She rummages through a desk drawer, and comes up with a letter opener. "Would this do? I use it all the time to receive mail from myself."

"Ideally, you want something you feel really strongly about. Just being around it a lot is better than nothing, but if it's just a prop that you use you should go with something else."

Is the quartz weird to her magic senses?

It's definitely quartz, and it definitely has magic on it and in it.

Eva smiles. "This letter opener is a link to Greater Me - of course I care about it."

"That'd be fine, then," says Inavet. She considers the quartz. ".... I think you should use another bit of quartz, to have this one work I'd have to tweak the ritual a bit, and that's somewhat risky and I'd like to avoid it if I can."

"Alright."

A new piece of quartz appears as Eva puts her pendant back on.

"All right then. Now, you'll be doing the ritual some place outside that you find speaks to you or thematically appropriate for you, at a time that you find most appropriate to yourself - mostly time of day, but if you particularly favor Tuesdays for some reason you might want to wait until a Tuesday just in case. I'll check the place to make sure it's not going to cause anything weird, and then I can walk you through exactly what you'll be doing."

"Alright! I'm going to want this at the root of my self-tree, so it makes the most sense for me to come along with you personally - just give me a moment, here. Angie!"

A woman who looks exactly the same as Eva steps out of the back room. Despite her similar face, something seems a bit off about her. Her pupils are just a bit too dilated, her skin a little too flushed.

"ITOLDyounottocallmethat."

"Sorry, Ura. I just needed you quickly, that's all. Do you mind watching the store while I'm gone?"

"Ohsurenoproblem. 'Snotlikeyouevergetcustomersanyway."

She smiles, leaning over to get a better look at Inavet. "Whosthecutegirl?"

"Inavet," says Inavet, sounding vaguely pleased at being described as 'the cute girl.' "Nice to meet you, Ura."

"WelltechnicallymynameisEVANGELINEjustliketherestofusbutweletterourselvessopeoplecanaddressusindependently-"

"You're going too fast again, Ura."

"OhamI? Sorry... This is a sideeffectofa... Stimulant. A really good stimulant, I haven't slept in...?"

She looks over at her other self.

"I think it's two decades now. Great for productivity, but..."

"Notsomething I'd want to... Contaminate the self-tree with. I like talking to people. And thismakesit... Difficult, sometimes."

Nod. "Understandable."

"Also, as Restricted Archivist, Ihaveto..." She closes her eyes for a moment, then carefully enunciates her next sentence. "I have to handle dangerous memories a lot, so I have had a certain number of... incidents. Theyarenotfun. I'm on my... Fourth restore?"

"Fifth, remember the Haronshemp?"

"Ohyes. My-memory-suffers-a-little-between-the-restores-and-the-stims." She bites off the last word, then sighs. "Youseemyproblem."

Solemn nod. "I do, yes."

"It's not... sobadwhenI... Am doing filing. Busy work. Keeps me occupied. Less talking." She smiles, perhaps a shade too widely. "Gohavefunyoutwo, I'll.. Hold down the fort."

"Thanks so much, Ura. I owe you one."

"Donmention it."

Inavet smiles at Ura, and then - she guesses she follows Eva?

Eva has appeared a new door: a vaguely-medieval city of wood-and-stone buildings sits beyond. She beckons with a smile. "Stick close - the Laugh's near and dear to my heart, but it's a bad neighbourhood for outsider cutters without the knowledge."

Nod! "I'll stay close. Outside 'cutters'? And knowledge of what, the area?"

"Cutter - generic term for a competent sort, as opposed to a Berk, who's a fool, or a Blood, who's an expert. Sorry, I grew up around here, and still slip into the cant sometimes. And yes, the Cage - by which I mean Sigil, the city of doors."

She steps out into the street, and smiles. "That was one, now."

Inavet dutifully sticks close to Eva. She glances up at the city above them, but doesn't stray two feet from Eva's side.

"Ah. That - sort of explains things, but this city is very distracting."

Eva nods as a black-winged thing wrapped in chains shuffles past. "Yeah, it's very disorienting for people who aren't used to it. Lots of berks from the Prime end up wandering around asking barmy questions like 'how is there city overhead' and 'what gods exist here?' Be careful, don't get separated, practically anything could be a door to somewhere else around here. We're just going to cross the plaza to the Society of Sensation's gardens, and then we can relax a bit."

"Your entire lingo's changed completely," says Inavet, faintly amused. "How lost am I going to be if I do get separated from you?"

"Potentially catastrophically, so don't."

She nods, and scoots a bit closer to Eva.

... Eva will take her hand, because it is necessary for safety and not for any other reason.

... Inavet quirks her eyebrows and disguises a smile, but yes. Handholding. For safety.

Okay. Across the plaza we go!

There are really a very large number of... People... around, and not all of them have much manners. The handholding proves necessary at one or two points.

Inavet doesn't stare at any of the people. Well, with her eyes, anyway. She suspects it would be a bad idea, and besides, she's much too busy keeping up with her guide. Her magic senses are less constrained, but it's hard to focus with them at all. There is a truly astounding amount of stuff. Magic stuff, non magic stuff - it's hard to tell what she's even perceiving. Like staring at the sun when you've been in darkness for a year, and not being able to look away. Scrunching her eyes shut doesn't help, and she doesn't try.

She's surprisingly good at dodging people without manners, even while holding hands. And she's not going to stop holding hands with Eva, she's been made very aware that this is quite a good idea, Sigil is kind of terrifying and getting lost is incredibly, laughably easy.

Fortunately, the plaza isn't too large: before long, the two of them are ascending cut-stone steps into a large, domed building. Eva flashes her pendant at the man at the door, and he nods and lets the pair through.

Inside, there is a small garden, dotted here and there with crystals on pedestals. Eva smiles.
"Welcome to the private sensorium of the Society of Sensation. This is the catalog of some of the rarest memories we've collected."

She points to a small marble plinth nearby. "That one's mine."

This place is much quieter than the plaza. Inavet sighs a sigh of relief, and smiles a little.

"It's lovely," says Inavet. "... Normally I'd say inside wouldn't work, but to be frank, I think you are absolutely fine doing the ritual indoors in this city." Pause. "Everything is very - it is very itself."

"It is. Sigil is... An experience in itself. It's no wonder the Sensates decided to base themselves here."

Eva lets out a happy little sigh. "It's nice to be back here every so often - it reminds me of my roots."

Inavet nods, smiling a little. Aw.

"It is going to be very - loud, is the word I want to use, when you complete your ritual, though. Especially outside. Especially in the plaza. I'm used to my extra senses and it was like looking at the sun."

Eva giggles. "I'm glad you're worried, but I'm a Sensate - honestly, that sounds like a fun experience to me!"

"Well, you're going to have a lot of fun," says Inavet, a little dry.

"... Hmm, on second thought, maybe I should actually use a fork for this. I mean, it would be fun, but it would also be embarrassing to get my root self run over by a cart because she was too busy experiencing the pretty things."

Inavet disguises a snicker, and nods. "Yeah, a bit."

Eva nods, then sighs. "It gets annoying not being able to do these things myself, though..."

"I'm not actually sure how one of your forks getting arcany would carry over to the rest of you, or when, or even if it would transfer," says Inavet. "My admittedly incomplete understanding of the theory of it is that when you're merged back together you should get it, and then any forks from there also would have it, but it's also possible that your root self might need to be the one to do the ritual, for it to transfer to the others neatly."

"... In that case, it's probably best if I have someone else there to look out for me after the ritual. Maybe one of my forks... The ritual shouldn't affect them, right?"

"Nnnno, but they shouldn't be present for the ritual itself, the magic might get confused and that would be bad."

"... Perhaps it would be best if you were my spotter? After all, you know how the ritual goes and can make sure I don't get it wrong."

"It is actually traditional for there to be an arcanist spotter present during the ritual, and I was just - expecting to be there," says Inavet. "To make sure everything goes right, to make sure you know exactly what you're doing before the ritual, and to - erm, this is a permanent change. If you were to mess up part way through, it's my job to try my hardest to try and save your magic."

"That's... A very good plan, then."

Smile.

"And - I'm going to explain exactly what's happening before the procedure itself, is here a good place to explain it all?"

"Sure, that works!"

"Okay. So there are two parts of the ritual, and both are important. The first is - basically balancing the aspects that my magic sees, so the magic can better see you. That's what all of the items are for - people show up very much as a certain type of thing, but not as something that's balanced. So we need to add non-people things to balance it. If you showed up as something other than the standard to my magic, I'd need to compensate by changing what items are used, or if it's extreme enough, need to change the procedure of the ritual itself. Make sense?"

Eva nods along. "Makes sense: go on?"

"The second part is expressing to the magic who you are. Part of the procedure of the ritual involves thinking about who you are as a person - your values, what's important to you, your personality, what you think you're like, how other people see you - so on. The better it knows you the more it can - fit to you? And give you magic that'll fit you. You shouldn't try to lie about who you are to it, either, it'll - basically confuse it, because it's not just accepting what you're telling it, it's also looking at you. In order to actually get it to assign you things that didn't fit you, you'd have to actually be a different person, or screw it up. Screwing it up overall nets you less power and detailed senses, so - honesty is important, here."

"I can manage that."

Nod. "The second part is why having forks present might confuse it. Because it'll look for you and instead of just finding you, shining and at your best, it'll find - two of you. And not know what to do, and try to give them both magic, probably, but mess it up with both."

"I see. That definitely sounds like something to avoid."

Little smile, then back to business. "Yes, a bit. Uh - and we should possibly also test to see what forking does to one's arcany, because I don't actually know. I haven't dealt with forking before."

"Would you like me to fork you?"

... Is that the face of minor amusement? Yes, it looks like it. She doesn't point out the innuendo or laugh at it, but she can find it funny.

"Yes, please."

Eva notices Inavet's mirth, and then notices the words that just escaped her mouth. Her cheeks redden.

"Um... Okay. Stand up, away from the bench, and hold very still."

Up Inavet gets! She moves away from the bench, and then keeps very still.

"Ready."

Eva pokes Inavet in the shoulder, and then there are two Inavets.

There are! Only one of them is being poked, and they both immediately decide that clearly that one is Inavet-Prime, and react accordingly.

Inavet #2 tilts her head, and then says, "Arcany's all in place where it should be. So that's nice."

Inavet-Prime nods, then adds, "But we should probably also see how merging works with it, too."

"Kind of a pity," says the second, "the multitasking of two me's would be so nice, but - there will be time for other forks."

Eva bites her lip. "I did tell you that merging takes more effort, right? We're going to need to go back to the store for that part."

"Hm," says Inavet-Prime. "We really should have tested this before coming out here."

"To be fair," says Inavet-the-second, "we did definitely call the ritual location being weird, we just didn't know the type of weird and if it would work. Checking before saying we could wasn't a bad call."

"Yes, thank you, let's keep the rampant egotism to a minimum and not get too self congratulatory."

"Ha. Sorry, yes."

"I mean, since forks obviously work, we can postpone figuring out merging and have two non-essential forks merge after the ritual, so we're not extra-testing with prime anyones and there's no, uh."

"Horrible explodey arcany results that can't be undone and are stuck forever with the person?"

"Yes. That. Let's not do that."

"So," says Inavet-the-second, "How about this, we ritual a fork of you," she points at Eva, "then fork the fork, and combine those to see what happens? Or she gets forked again and the two of us get merged, that way there is no horrible explodey arcany results with prime people."

"It's kind of disturbing how easily you go 'Why yes I will do this incredibly risky thing,'" says Prime-Inavet.

Inavet-the-second shrugs.

"It would probably make more sense to merge a fork with arcany and a fork without arcany, since if we then merge in the resulting Eva they will theoretically have arcany? Also, what should I call you for disambiguation purposes? I mean, Ina-one and Ina-two gets awkward after a while, I would know." She smiles sheepishly.

"Yeah, good point," says the Inavet that has been arbitrarily picked to be the main Inavet purely because she was the one who was poked.

"Um." The second considers. "... Iris? I can grow the appropriate flower and put it in my hair, make it super obvious."

"Are we going to be flowers?" wonders the other.

"Unless you have a better idea. Though, to be fair, it makes more sense if you get something else, if you're going to be the main one."

"... Fair enough. Okay."

"Is there a good place to speed-grow a plant and make it look like an iris?" asks she-of-that-name-now.

Eva gestures at the garden all around. "Knock yourself out, nobody is going to notice another exotic flower in the Sensorium."

"Awesome. Okay." Off goes Iris, to grow a flower. She pulls a seed from her pocket, drops it onto a good patch of grass, waters it, and gets to poking at it with magic. A little green sprout pokes up from the soil.

"So, ready for the ritual procedure?" asks the other.

Eva nods eagerly. "Definitely!"

"Okay, so. Before the ritual even starts, you'll need to draw on your bowl with the graphite. Whatever you draw needs to be abstractly represent or express yourself - symbolism is a definite no. So, no drawing trees or flowers or the like - there's a bit of leeway if you don't intend to symbolize anything. You can't draw diamond shapes on it because you like diamonds, but you can draw diamond shapes if they seem like they're appropriate with the rest of what you're drawing. If there's any large landmarks nearby, though, you should stay away from drawing anything like them, because that might confuse the magic a bit - I'd stay away from rings if you can, for example."

"... Huh, okay. It's going to be hard to stay away from symbolism when basically everything looks like something I've seen at some point, but I guess I'll manage. Go on?"

"That's the only ritual prep you need to do, but part of the ritual's under a time crunch. The beginning part you can take as long as you like with, though. You take the quartz and put it in the center of the bowl. Then, you pour the distilled water into the bowl, covering the quartz but not overflowing from the bowl. It's perfectly okay for the distilled water to get mixed with, say, the graphite, or other things present on you, it being distilled is to prevent other unsanctioned materials from getting involved and potentially messing things up. After that, you poke yourself with the sentimental sharp object, and bleed into the bowl, starting the time crunch. The blood's actually crucial here, so - if you want to do every other part of the ritual but that for practice, you can. With me so far?"

"I'm with you so far, but the letter opener's going to be a bit awkward to cut myself with."

She holds it up for inspection: the sharp bit is wedged behind a long thin wooden piece, probably to prevent one from cutting oneself on it. Irony.

"... A bit, yes. I'm not sure how to help with that, for my ritual I didn't have a sharp object I felt anything towards, I had to specifically go out of my way to get a knife, get an emotional connection with it, and then used that."

Eva sighs.

"... I'm going to have to use my proper athame for this, aren't I."

"Not if you feel more strongly about your letter opener. But it does sound like it'd be easier to cut yourself with it."

"The reason I didn't offer the proper athame in the first place was because it was too importantly personal to mention casually to a stranger."

Eva produces a black-handled knife from a pocket of her dress. Unfolding a small piece of rawhide from around the blade, she lays it out flat on her palms. The black stone blade gleams dully, the scalloped indents of hammer-blows evident along its length: solidly wrapped twine affixes the blocky wooden handle.

"Here it is. Please don't touch it, or I'll have to reconsecrate it. Will it work, do you think?"

"..... Possibly." She peers at it. It's hard to get a good idea of what this looks like, magically, when she's not touching it, but it's possible.

"It could work," she decides, "if I were to tweak the ritual. Which is worth it, I stress, if you care about this more than the letter opener. I have actually tweaked rituals before, and none of the people I did it for had any trouble with the results."

"I'm not sure I want to risk a 'possibly'... Do you need to examine it more closely? I remember you did that with the crystal."

"I actually can tell things about stuff magically without touching it, it's just harder. Also a bit more margin for error, if I'm honest. Which, I am."

Eva looks at knife, then at Invavet, then back at the knife. "... Then examine it more closely. I give you permission to touch it for that purpose."

Inavet - senses that this is a lot of trust. She swallows, then nods solemnly.

And then she pokes it with a finger.

"... It's not unsuitable," she decides, un-poking it, "there is nothing that I can sense in it that would prevent or screw up a ritual, it's that I might have trouble balancing the ritual with it involved. ... I think I can, but I'll need to sit and calculate things and possibly poke some strange materials to see if I can find new multiverse puzzle pieces instead of making due with the ones I have, to know for sure."

Eva puts the knife away again for the moment, carefully rewrapping it in its rawhide sheath.

"I work for the OTC, and I have some discretionary spending for self-improvement: I can probably get you close-to-ideal items if you know what you're looking for."

"I'll know what I'm looking for, but know what I'm looking for in - weird magic terms, not 'I need an item with these physical properties,' but - that does sound ideal, yes." Smile. "And I could incorporate the quartz while I'm at it."

"That would be wonderful." She smiles. "And if you can tell OTC what you need - even in weird magic terms - it should be able to find it for you."

Nod!

"Then - I suppose I'll be a nerd for a while, holed up in -" Pause. "... Is there a place I could stay while I am a huge magic nerd?"

"The Society has rooms, and as a member in exceedingly good standing I can almost definitely find you one at short notice. Do you have any preferences for your amenities? View of the streets, a garden? Near a library?"

"I'm not really picky anymore. Uh. View of a garden, near a library?" she attempts.

"Alright!"

Eva opens a side door from the courtyard and beckons for Ina and Iris to follow.

Iris actually needs to be prodded by her fork to stop staring in fascination at plants. They are all just so interesting.

But then both of the Inavets follow Eva out of the courtyard.

There are some uncrowded hallways, and then a room! It has a big huge queen-sized bed, a window overlooking the gardens, a complex arrangement of hovering purple rocks on the bedside table, a nice comfortable desk for writing on, and a whole wall dedicated to books.

Eva encompasses the room with a casual wave. "Does this work for you both?"

... They glance at each other for confirmation about the queen sized bed, and then realize that it's kind of pointless to do that, and instead Inavet just says, "It'll be fine, thank you."

"What do the purple rocks do?" wonders Iris.

Eva shrugs. "I'm not sure, to be honest: we get all sorts of curiosities displayed in these rooms from time to time."

"Is it ill-advised to poke it to see what it does?" asks Inavet.

"It might be painful, but it's almost certainly not going to injure you. The guild doesn't leave actual health hazards lying around like this."

Both of them nod.

"Thanks," says Inavet, smiling a little.

"Um... I guess I'll get out of your hair, now."

Eva stands there with her hand on the doorknob.

"I mean, you can stay, but it'd mostly be watching me mutter things and swear at paper," says Inavet.

"Says you," snorts Iris, "I didn't touch the athame, and we want me to check your work anyway, so I've got nothing to do." She looks at Eva. "I - hesitate to actually ask 'can I explore the city with you' because it's probably very dangerous, but..."

"Well, if you stick close you might be alright... But it would be awful to accidentally lose you somewhere. Perhaps I could show you around the Sensates' guildhall? It's probably safer, and likely to be just as interesting."

"Sure, that'll be fine," says Iris. "I'm mostly just annoyed on principle about being in a city and not being able to navigate it. Safer option's better. I'm needed to check over the ritual!"

"And also, to, you know, be a person. You don't have a memory backup that will ensure your survival at the moment, don't start doing ridiculous things just because you're not prime. We tried that already, and we don't recommend it."

"She's joking," affirms Inavet, "she does actually acknowledge herself as a person that matters, it's just we've gotten a bit - uh."

"My standard danger level from day to day is 'almost everyone in the world is trying to kill me, because I am the most famous criminal on the planet,'" finishes Iris. Cough. "Sorry about being flippant. I am definitely a person that matters."

"... Yeah, I can see that giving you a dark sense of humour." Eva raises an eyebrow. "Care to tell me about how that happened sometime?"

"I can explain it as we tour?" offers Iris. Since her primary self will be busy being a huge nerd and is only barely still paying attention to them out of politeness and wants to nerd right now.

Eva casts a glance past Iris to Ina, and the corners of her mouth twitch upwards. "Sure, certainly."

Ina has the courtesy to look apologetic, but - she must nerd. It is calling. The puzzle's rules are in front of her and she wants to solve it so she wants to solve it now.

"All right," says Iris, and she goes to follow Eva. She waves to her fellow. "Have fun! Don't fuck up!"

Inavet snorts. "Have fun. Don't die."

Dark sense of humor? Her? Naaaaah.

"Yeah, fucking up and dying would be terrible."

Eva grins, and beckons Iris to relatively-safe adventure!

"Just a bit," agrees Iris, and she follows Eva to have a relatively-safe adventure.

With tragic backstories.

"So," says Iris, "Totalitarian government. It's actually not as bad as totalitarian governments could go? Everyone's been magically engineered to have long lives, war's not really a thing that happens anymore, everyone's reasonably well taken care of - physically, anyway, and natural disasters have been prevented on a large-scale through giant magic trees that we call world trees. ... They also keep the sun from eventually dying, because screw entropy, but that's somewhat off topic."

Eva's shoes click on the stone floor as the pair may their way through the hallways.

"Okay, yeah, so far I don't see the problem?"

"Yeah. Except also the media is terrifyingly censored, most of the people the government goes to give arcany to get purposefully-wrong rituals meant to cripple them, so that their properly ritualed arcanists will always win against them, and - this one's harder to explain, it's like. People are sort of - the term I want to use is made safe. And not allowed to grow. They can be creative, but only with - painting or music or cooking or any number of things that are safe and sanctioned. Exploring is only allowed in designated exploration locations that are patrolled regularly and cleaned free of litter and have clearly marked and well-taken care of paths and you must follow the signage or you'll be fined - that sort of thing?"

Eva takes a moment to consider this.

"... Your government is terrifying and horrible and I want to introduce a vast library of unapproved media to their petty little planet."

Giggle.

"I don't actually want to start a bloody revolution or major earthshaking immediate social upheaval, but - yes. That. Long story short, I was competent enough and - well, a lot of the problems are hard to see when you live in the middle of them? So. Um." She swallows and looks a bit ashamed. "I was competent and loyal enough to get a proper ritual, and then I realized what was going on and, ah, left. They were upset with me, but that's not why I became the most famous criminal in the world.

"You see, I didn't just stay in exile in some backwater town, or something. I gave other people the ritual, too." She smiles, a bit. "And got them magic. And that is when I really pissed them off."

Eva grins.

"You are an excellent and wonderful person, and I was right to offer you world-saving help. I was kind of planning to sort of treat it as a hobby, but... for this, I feel like it might be worth spending some of my 'wish time.'"

Iris smiles and ducks her head.

"Wish time?"

"I work for a multiversal company. Immortality is the standard health plan. I make enough multiversal currency to afford things that people from other universes would never even dream of. That's what the OTC does just for cashiers."

She grins. "But I'm not a cashier - I'm a metaphysical exploration executive. That means I get fully half of the maximum wish time allotment. That's a full minute and a half per year when the OTC itself has to pay attention to what I want."

Eva's hand rises to her pendant.
"Setting up and maintaining my entire self-tree is ten seconds of that."

"Oh my," says Iris, faintly. "Yes, that. Would. Probably overthrow the government pretty handily, wouldn't it."

Eva is having some trouble keeping a straight face, despite the seriousness of the discussion. "Yeah, I try not to let it go to my head."

Giggle.

"I feel justified in getting you arcany, because - that - is definitely a lot of power you already have at your fingertips all the time."

"Let me tell you, it's hard sometimes, deciding what to spend it on... And worse to run out before the end of the year. But for this? For a world that doesn't know what it's lost? Oh, I have a special hatred in my heart for those who put life before living."

Nod. "That - thank you, for that. ... If you don't spend all of your wish time it doesn't roll over to the next year?"

"There's no need to thank me, you're just a messenger — okay, a very attractive and interesting messenger — but I wouldn't have done this if I didn't genuinely believe your world needed my help."

She tilts her head. "As for rollover - no, it doesn't. The last month of the year gets called 'wish season' by a lot of employees because of it."

Iris smiles at 'attractive and interesting' but she is actually over a thousand years old, it takes slightly more than that to make her giggle like a schoolgirl.

"Well! Then I'm happy to be your messenger for using your wish time," she says, bowing. "They send the attractive and interesting ones for the special people, didn't you know?"

Eva smiles back, and manages not to blush this time. "I hope I'm special in a good way."

"I'm inclined to think so!" says Iris.

"Excellent!"

Oh, and here is a door back to the Sensorium.

Oh right, they were on that tour thing, weren't they. Better actually do that!

She is interested in what this place is like, just. Tragic backstories and mild flirtation are both a bit distracting.

Garden again!

Iris has probably had a look at all the flowers here by now, but it's really the pedestals that are more important. The gardens are laid out in an interesting tangle of loose gravel pathways, with screening vegetation here and there. Eva stops at a three-way junction in the path.

"Hmm. Would you prefer something exciting, something pleasurable, or something intriguing?"

"Intriguing," she decides, because she has had quite enough excitement for the next five cycles, and something pleasurable is - well, her mind goes to exactly one place after sort-of-flirting with a pretty woman that wants to help her save the world, she thinks she'll just not touch that.

"Alright then!" Eva takes a right turn and walks on along the gravel path. "You know, there are a lot of people who assume the Sensates are just hedonists, that 'exploring life to the fullest' just means we party a lot. That's... Pretty dumb in my view, honestly? Most of the multiverse doesn't consist of parties."

"That's a silly thing to assume. I expect I'd get quite bored if it did consist entirely of parties," snorts Iris. "There are only so many ways to support a wall."

Eva raises an eyebrow. "I feel like your kind of party is a different kind of party from mine, if your kind of parties involve a lot of architecture."

Giggle.

"There are actually types of parties I like, but I was thinking of the stereotypical hedonist party, where I would find the most out of the way wall and watch everyone else act like idiots while reading a book. Or something."

"Yeah, I have days like that too. Anyway! To get back to the point, a lot of the experiences we have stored actually come with negative emotional context. Would you rather avoid them for right now, or do you feel like you want a challenge?"

She considers. "... I think to start, I'll avoid them. I'll likely be curious later, if this turns out to be my proverbial cup of tea, but I might as well be practical about this and slowly ease into it."

"Alright then, we won't do 'waking up in the morgue' today." Eva smiles lopsidedly as she skirts an overgrown rhododendron. "Shall I surprise you, or...?"

"No surprises just yet, please. Maybe later."

"Alright then, let's see. At the highest filing level, we have objects, environments, and events. I would probably recommend an object or environment to start with."

"Object," she agrees. "Much as I'm curious about the environment."

"Alright then! We also file by primary sensory component - touch, taste, smell and so on. Any preferences?"

"It'll probably be really weird if the primary sensory component is vision," she admits, after a thoughtful pause. "You've seen my vision, and while I don't mind downgrading temporarily, I might find it underwhelming when I'm supposed to be amazed at an amazing thing to look at when I'm actually going, 'Yeah, the colors are off, bleh.' Other than that, no."

"That makes sense. So... Tactile or auditory primary, maybe olfactory. It's probably not a good idea to start with an exotic taste."

"I mean, I bet I would make a really entertaining face," she says lightly, "But no, let's not. Gentle introduction and all."

"Yeah, we want something at the low end of the shock spectrum. Hmm, I can think of one or two things..."

Eva takes a turn into a small alcove amid the bushes, and suddenly mahogany shelves full of faintly-glowing jewels surround them on three sides.

... Iris is mildly freaked out by this. She did not see them before this.

She fidgets a bit with her sleeve and tries to figure out how to see where things abruptly change with her magic, but otherwise doesn't react.

Eva doesn't notice Inavet's fidgeting: she's too busy browsing the shelves. Yellowing labels crackle gently beneath her fingers.

"Hmm... Exotic fruit? Interestingly shaped jewellery? Stimulant incense? Gravity generator?"

"... Gravity generator," she decides, because that sounds interesting.

Eva taps the rightmost crystal on the third shelf, and a small device of black, smooth material appears in her hand.

"Here you are, then. The left buttons rotate gravity left-to-right: the right buttons rotate gravity back-to-front. I reccomend you start slowly." She proffers the device.

She takes a minute to inspect it so she actually knows what's she's working with (it's heavier than it looks, and while it looks smooth it's got enough of a texture to easily hold onto, and it has a hair-thin seam down the middle) and then -

Geeeeeentle gravity tweak?

The whole world tilts very slightly.

That is incredibly weird. She brushes hair that tilts left for no reason behind her ear, and then puts it back to 'no gravity change.' It seems like a good idea to pull her hair back, so she does with an industrious use of nudged iris-alike vines to hold it up. Then, after another moment to adjust, she sloooowly shifts the gravity again.

...

It's rather fun.

She's slow and methodical, but she doesn't shy away from experimentation. One such experiment ends in her slowly sliding across the floor, surprising a giggle out of her.

Eva happens to be standing between her and the shelves full of crystals! She catches Iris in a loose embrace, before she has a chance to really pick up speed.

"Having fun?"

... She maybe should have planned out the direction of the slide. Because she did not do this on purpose.

"I um," she says, with as much eloquence and grace as can be expected under the circumstances. "Yes, thank you."

Iris fixes gravity and rights herself. Is that a blush? It's hard to tell.

Eva is maybe also blushing a little. Iris' face is really quite close at the moment.

"You're welcome," she says.

And then: "Would you, um. Would you mind if I kissed you?"

That earns a surprised blink out of her!

After an equally surprised pause, followed by an assessment of how she really hasn't had any romantic relationships for a damn long time and it's kind of overdue: ".... No! Please, kiss away!"

And there is a kiss!

Eva does not really know what she is doing, but that's okay, they can learn together.

Correction: Iris can demonstrate, because she has more than a theoretical idea of what to do. She's about three hundred years rusty, and needs a bit to recall how this is supposed to go, but she thinks she'd like to equate it to riding a bike. You don't really forget.

Eva recalls some branches of her that have had occasion to kiss people as well.

This kissing thing seems to be rapidly improving.

Excellent, this can only mean good things.

...

Or maybe not.

She has gone a long damn while without anything in this category. It was never a huge issue before, she wasn't going to go fling herself at a random stranger or anything, but now that she's kissing a pretty unobjectionable person it's becoming very clear that A: thinking about things further than this is kind of absolutely terrifying, especially the parts where she is naked and therefore without her knife and poisons, and B: she really wants them anyway.

That's confusing, and a complicated emotional bundle like that is a bit of a mood killer. Geeeentle kiss end, even as she smoulders a bit in Eva's direction. Want. Or - not want? Want in a confusing, complicated, slightly frightened of fashion. Yes. That.

"Um," she says, "wow that several centuries of celibacy is biting me in the ass now. You are very nice to kiss."

Eva was feeling a little hesitant herself, but Inavet's words wipe all that away and put a big goofy grin on her face.

"Um. Thank you?"

It's been a while since she has had a person she found attractive enough to want to share her messy, complicated, honestly kind of all over the place self with. Now... Well, she really doesn't care, except for the part where she really absolutely cares.

... cross that bridge when she comes to it, she would like one more kiss right now but it is more important to listen to lovely kissable Inavet. Iris. Whichever.

Iris giggles a bit at the 'thank you.'

"Sorry, I realize that's sort of a strange thing to say, even if it's true, um." She is torn about the urge to nuzzle and the urge to definitely not nuzzle, what is this, why is it so confusing. She hadn't been confusing before, when did this happen. Oh right, trauma. "Right, so, apparently I am now slightly complicated than I thought I'd be when it comes to, uh, this. Which is not your fault, you haven't done anything wrong, you're really great, and I would like to - keep kissing you in the foreseeable future, but if you want to opt out of it I will totally understand because. Um. Well, I was sort of treating things like I could just put myself on hold and pick it back up when I was safe again, and surprise surprise, three hundred years of people trying to kill you has some effects that make you complicated. I'm not sure how to word the complicatedness, but it's present and relevant and you really deserve to know."

"Um. Okay, maybe you should go on about the complicatedness? Like, I don't think it's likely to be the kind of thing that makes me want to not kiss you, I really kind of doubt there are many things at all that could make me not want to kiss you. And, um, I'm kind of used to having a complicated sort of life already?"

Another giggle. Eva is so great. Iris wants to kiss her terribly, but talking is really important and not talking is how a relationship explodes. Especially when she is apparently Complicated.

"Fair enough, um. Trying to word the complicatedness is hard. It's. I both want to tackle you to the ground right now, and also go hide in a corner and freak out a bit? I am, uh, sort of starved of pleasant physical contact and dearly want it, but at the same time it's unutterably terrifying. So, um, to guess at what this means without properly sitting down and figuring out what I want, I, think I would need it to be very slow? With some understanding in case I freak out, because I very well might. ... I'm not freaking out right now but I'm sort of close." Pause. "And things other than that will take a bit for me to figure out, I just hit this emotional iceberg about a minute ago because I was not prioritizing 'analyze self for romantic relationship potential' since it was just, uh. Not happening anytime soon." Cough. "Well, before I found the door in the middle of the street to the OTC, that is."

"Okay, um... Why is it terrifying? Because it's hard to be vulnerable when you've been on the run for so long? I mean, I don't want to push you for answers here, feel free to just shake your head if I'm being nosy, I just want to maybe know if there's something more specific I can do to help? Because, like, while I don't have a huge problem with going slowly, my hindbrain is going 'kiss her, kiss her more, kissing will clearly fix everything' and I would like for this to actually be a solution or at least not make things actively worse."

Iris smiles a bit. "I - yeah, the vulnerability, I think. I wish 'kiss me more' were a valid solution to fix it all, that'd be much nicer."

"... Are we talking about emotional vulnerability, or are you afraid of being caught off-guard because distracted by... by me? And yeah, it would be so much easier if all problems were solvable by kissing."

"Um. The - first problem was actually physical vulnerability. I think I can do emotional - reasonably well, I'm actively talking about my feelings instead of going, 'Excuse me I need to go hide behind my fork' and bolting. Which is a good sign, I think."

She gently un-hugs, this conversation is not a while-hugging conversation.

"I, don't know about the distraction part. Maybe? I still haven't sorted this all out."

Eva looks a little mournful at the unhug, but lets Yvette go.

"Wellllll, I can probably fix physical vulnerability pretty effectively, if you're willing to let me spoil you drastically with my personal fortune. I don't generally spend a huge amount of what OTC pays me?"

"That - I mean, I'd be very grateful, but I don't think it's quite that simple. Just because I would be safe doesn't mean I'd - feel safe."

"That... does kind of make sense, yeah." Eva furrows her brow. "So I guess we'll just have to, you know, take it one step at a time?" She manages a smile.

Iris returns the smile.

"Yeah. I'm - sorry I'm not simple and straightforward."

"Honestly, I don't think you would be you if you were. So - don't apologize for it."

"I mean, I wasn't always this complicated. I'm - I don't want to say less than I was, because I'm not, but my growth as a person has not been universal victories in becoming better, and this bugs me a bit. The me that I was is still a very valid me. I'm sorry you didn't get to meet her."

"... I mean, it might be technically possible for me to meet her, but I don't think that would be a good idea. The mistakes are a part of who you are: you wouldn't be the you you are today without them."

"Not exactly mistakes in this case, but - yes, agreed. I don't want to create a fork of myself that only has the memories of up to before I had my arcany ritual - for one, she'd be incredibly annoyed about not knowing of everything that's going on, and more importantly..." She trails off, then looks away, toying with the hem of her jacket absently.

"It would be sort of like, saying that everything I am now is. Lesser. In comparison to who I was, before. And I don't think that's true, I'm not - broken beyond repair, or a write off, or - any number of other things I could be. And I don't want to act like I am. But I am a bit dented, and the dents are annoying, even if - something something being prettier for being through the fire."

Eva sighs. "Yeah, I've had this conversation with myself a few times, and it never gets any easier. I think... The thing to remember is that you're a different person from her, now. She's a root of your self-tree, but that's like saying that you're a monkey because you're descended from an ape, that doesn't mean either side is better... Ugh, I'm talking about this all wrong. The thing to remember is that she's in the past, which is a different country."

"Right. It would be complicated."

"Believe me, it is. That's why it's important for you to not stay forked for too long, otherwise... Well, you ought not to end up permanently forked over something as small as a single ritual."

"Not to worry," says Iris. "We'll both be fine with it if we don't end up merged again."

"I hope so!" Eva smiles, a little nervously.

"We will," assures Iris. "Our parents would be a bit weirded out but ultimately adjust, we understand the basic principles of the concept of sharing - and I mean, I don't exactly have a comparison point, but I felt that we got along very well, especially since we're kind of new to" she motions around them, "all of this."

Eva seems to relax a little, and manages a more genuine smile. "Those are good signs, yes."

"And besides, I can't imagine why we wouldn't tell each other everything about what happened in our day. Even if, say, I didn't want to talk, she could figure out the broad strokes of what happened based on how I acted. So - probably not going to drift apart. Not without being separated for years, or something."

"You might be surprised how fast small changes accumulate, but a few months is usually safe. And I mean, I do tend to accumulate new experiences faster than most."

Giggle.

"A bit. But yeah, fair enough. I'll let her know, and we'll watch out for it."

Eva grins, and takes Iris' hand in hers. Then she looks at her hand, and back up at Iris. "Um. Oops?"

Iris laughs.

"Handholding is allowed," she says, wryly. "Maybe don't, say - tackle hug me from behind, or something, but handholding's fine." Smile. "Encouraged, even."

Eva squeezes Iris's hand!

"Excellent!" She tilts her head. "Um, would you maybe like to fix your gravity now? I'm starting to get a crick in my neck looking at you like this."

"Oh. Oh, yes, of course."

Obligingly, she fixes gravity.

"That was very fun," she says. "Thanks for showing me."

"It was no problem, especially if it means I get to kiss an attractive Iris.~" Turning her head, she leans over and plants a chaste peck on the flower that nestles in Iris' hair.

Iris cracks up.

Eva cracks up as well, and maybe takes the chance to get a few covert nuzzles while she's leaning against Iris.

Aww, covert nuzzles. Iris can make these less covert and just - gently hug Eva. That seems like the thing to do.

Hugs!

Possibly gentle snuggles?

Gentle snuggles: also fine. Iris demonstrates, by snuggling back.

This is excellent.

Eva is content with gentle snuggles for the moment.

Iris is, too. It's nice. Soothing, even. A reminder that the world isn't just running for your life from terrifying people trying to kill you. It also has snuggles.

And that the world isn't just explosions and double double quadruple googolplex chocolate and giant hell-beasts and the moons of Askytherion. There are also snuggles.

What a wonderful world they live in! With snuggles.

"I'll work on getting you a list of what's likely to freak me out," says Iris. "Okay?"

Eva nods. "That's very okay. If you'd like, maybe I could give you a memory crystal...? They're sometimes useful for getting across things that are hard to put into words."

"That'd be wonderful, actually, if you're willing to. It's okay if you're not, I'm quite sure I can still figure it out, just. It might be easier to show you things."

Eva takes a crystal from the wall, leaving behind a little empty space on the shelf. "Here. This one should be empty."

She takes the crystal, smiling a little. "Thanks. Um, now how do I use it besides having it set to 'record' all the time?"

"Just... Think the memory at it?"

"... Okay, I can do that. Do I retrieve memories the same way?"

"Yes. Be careful not to retrieve everything at once, though: even with a small crystal it can give you the most terrific headache."