Emira looks at Piae and subtly points towards the tent's entrance, a gesture clearly intended for an audience of one, though not hidden from the room's other occupants.

"Quinn used to have that problem, actually.  I'm not sure what exactly E did to fix it . . ."

Emira points at Aiu, more overtly, then pats the back of her own right shoulder.

Aiu mirrors the second gesture before realization dawns on him.  " - Oh, a tattoo?"

She nods.

"I don't follow."

"Probably a talented enough tattoo artist could make you able to use pockets."

"Tattoos are magic too?"

"All sewing is magic."

"I didn't think tattoos were sewing!"

"What . . . else . . . would they be?"

"They don't leave thread, right? They just - poke you and there's ink -?"

". . . No, there's definitely thread - "  He shrugs out of his jacket-outershirt-thing and turns his back to her, pushing aside the strap of his tanktopish-thing to reveal - yep, that's embroidery done in his skin.  It's of sort of an abstract 3d puzzle, partially complete but with most of the pieces falling in a cascade down his back, the lower ones disappearing behind his undershirt.

"Whoa, weird. I don't think they do those where I'm from."

"They're probably less of a good idea when they aren't magically durable and can't heal themselves after they're put in - gosh, what do you folks do when people get big cuts, if you can't just stitch them up?"

"...bandages?"

"We have those too, but they're mostly used for smaller wounds, I think, and pain relief."

"Ours don't do pain relief."

"Does anything else, or . . ."

"...beer?"

"Darn."

"I mean, I didn't have any beer even when I had Cathei and it was fine?"

" - Yikes.  Uh, E is a treasure and a gem and my life's thread, and a prodigy who's going to revolutionize the frontier of sewing, and I can't imagine life without her and all that sappy stuff - but if I'd thought ahead of time that I was going to have to have her without painkillers she probably would not exist.  Sorry kiddo."  She reaches over to ruffle Emira's hair, who ducks partially out of the way so Piae's hand connects with her shoulder instead.  Piae seems not at all surprised and ruffles that instead; Emira seems to find that satisfactory.

"How would you do that?"

"Well, there's magic for it."