"Tattoos."

She grins and pulls up her shirt's left sleeve.

"Anchor chain, one link per year I'm a sailor, on both sleeves. These squares and diamonds list my family, sort of. Parents, brother, sister. Powder horn and pistol here, that one's obvious-" She points at a symbol, triangle-within-circle, "Mark of the deeps, for hearing whispers. On my other arm I have a mailed fist and fangs for helping kill a dangerous turtle, and a stylized sloop on the wind, for being loosed."

"Beautiful. Your skin tells the story of your life, just like the scrimshawing on a harpoon." 

She taps her memory crystal. "My life's story is right here."

She blushes and smiles and tugs her sleeve back down and sort of wishes Thorn had... Traced her finger along the tattoos or something.

"I wonder what's appropriate for... All this. We're leaving standard symbology territory, here. Maybe a swallow, 'great journey'. Or sword, 'dungeon diver'."

Thorn takes a drink of her smash while she thinks. 

"A lotus blossom means 'welcome pain' to me; that might be an option for you. Thorns, both for 'travails' and for the obvious reason. Ivy, for endurance and growth. Sorry if I'm being too floral here."

"I'm not used to floral and that's not the Fischer tradition, but it does have a sort of appeal. Speaking of growth, did you notice how many levels you got down there? It can be hard to tell. I'm trying to guess whether your, uh, your family tendency to level quickly is an innate thing or a thing because you find yourself in high stakes a lot."

"Give me a moment to check my memory."

She taps her chronobank and plunges into her memory stone, searching for moments where things became abruptly easier.

Shooting, twice. Dodging, twice. Reloading, once. Knifework, once. Spotting monsters and intuiting their next move, once. Her physical toughness seemed to go up once, too.

"Eight levels in all across six skills - shooting and dodging levelled twice."

"-That's a lot for what it was, wow. Unless you're surprisingly low level in everything, which is a maybe, I guess. Okay. I think I'm going to keep up with you, too, that's how these stories tend to go. I wasn't paying close attention to myself, though."

"I'll do my best to make sure you keep up." Is that a flicker of a smile?

Abyssia nods and walks along silently for a while.

"Hey, we could get more powder and rounds there," she points out a gun shop eventually. "Maybe a couple of enchanted rounds just in case. And tomorrow I'm not sure if we should go in the dungeon again, or look for something else to do - there's lots of jobs for adventurers above ground too-"

She can wait for Bys. She's worth it. 

"Probably for the best," says Thorn. "I'd prefer the dungeon just to get used to it, but I'm not against other jobs."

"Dungeon is fine. ...And we should probably find inn rooms before they all fill up, come to think of it."

"We should."

She pauses.

No, this is a practical, money-saving question.

"How many?"

"Yeah, that's the question isn't it?"

What am I so afraid of? It's OBVIOUS, Hero aside. It's not just because she's important or I would think it but not feel it.

I'm just being a coward.

"Thorn...?"

She turns and holds her hand with the one not occupied by a drink, and looks into Thorn's eyes. Then she leans forward and kisses her.

Thorn can see her make the decision. The hand-holding makes it obvious. So she meets her lips halfway, and kisses her softly, not meaning to disturb the fragile courage Bys has gathered. 

"... that's still not an answer," she chides. "Though it's certainly somewhere."

"One. One room."

She grins. "It's just practical at this point, I agree. And the rest can be sorted out later."

She smiles back. "Yeah. Let's go buy some ammo. It's right there."

"Definitely."

They head in and restock. After spending most of their dungeon funds on ammo, the pair look around for a room together. After discarding a few too-upscale options and one too-disreputable one, they settle on a double room in a decent adventurer's inn for twelve copper. 

Thorn's first across the threshold; she discards her pack onto the closer of the two beds and sits down. She beckons to Bys. 

Abyssia's pack thumps to the floor just inside the door. She stretches her arms, rubbing her shoulders, before sitting by Thorn.

"...So. Hey."

"Hey." 

Thorn closes the distance first this time, shifting in for a lingering kiss. 

When she's done, she smiles, pulls back, tilts her head a little. 

"So... more than kissing. What would you want there? I think it's a little early for... everything... but I think I'd still like some things."

Like I'd like to kiss your tattoos, she thinks but doesn't say.

"I don't want to have sex yet either. You're right. Just... Too soon. I think I'd like to kiss a little more? And maybe, uh... Cuddle. After a bath. But it's not like I've done this sort of thing a lot."

"Let's snuggle and kiss some more, then. I..." She hesitates. "...would like to kiss your tattoos, if you'll let me."

She blushes blue. "...That sounds nice. After my bath. I'm sure they sell those here. And maybe you should get one too."