Eyes slide close for a moment, tender scared smile. 

Her fingertips traced across her chest, for a moment, adjusting the covers up and letting out a small current of her inborn qi to wash away the grime of the work out, before sliding back to brush lightly across her forehead. 

"Sleep well, Moonsilv."

Her lips twitched automatically into a cached response. 

"goodnight." 

Her head slumped down, a little, as she fell off to sleep with a smile.

She woke up slowly, drifting back awake as a pleasant scent drifted into her nose, as she nuzzled idly into the covers that wrapped so warmly around her. 

She let her eyes stay shut for a while, ignoring the slight bit of the dingy light of the garage that seeped in nonetheless.

It was... comfortable, despite how rushed together the whole set up was, from the looseness and limberness in her muscles to the total lack of any aches from restraining herself too much.

It felt like home, somehow, a place where she could breathe and prosper and work and feel and...

She flushed a little as her eyes fluttered open. 

She fiddled with a long box in her hands, pressing her fingers across a few different spots on it, humming focusedly, before she let out a little satisfied grunt and perked up to see her. 

"Hey Moonsilver - should I even call you that - 't's just your forum name, but don't really have anythin' else to use - have another cuppa ready for you. Oh, and pills are coming for tommorow from Topaz, that's handled." 

She stretched out languidly, and lifted the thermos gently to her lips, releasing the button to let the sweet taste pour down her throat.

She drank deeply, a contented sigh escaping her lips-half conciously as she took the time to rouse herself back up properly. 

"Thank you for managing that. It really helps when..." 

"You're chasing the cultivator high? You're new and lost and confused? You're tired and exhausted and just need stuff to be dealt with?"

Slow nod slower deep sip contented shiver. 

"...Yeah. All of those, really."

"Please don't worry about it - 'm a senior, in a bunch of ways, and the immortal perspective's still trickling into my head a lil, so..." 

Shrug. 

"It's just like a week, when my lifespan, even if I somehow didn't break through ever again, , I have another like 500 years to my life. Besides, it seeds good Karma and I can consolidate my cultivation here 'bout as well as anywhere else."

"Sure but..." 

"Mortals are dicks. I get the whole thing with scarcity mindset with your time but like come on." 

Bemused wordless sigh. 

"I suppose." 

"There's just... more room to be nice, I suppose, when most QoL stuff is easy. But prob. isn't the best time to dwell on those thoughts. How d'ya want to cultivate while 'm here?"

"I want.." 

Hum rest back. 

What does she want? 

She wants progress, obviously, and to be impressive to her potential and present sponsors, but the whole idea of tolerances and such for this is... a lottle out there. 

"I don't really know how to decide. I want to make good progress, and I'm okay with it basically being my days but..."

"So. Risk tolerance?"

"I don't want to do the maximally cautious thing if that has a neglible benefit, and I know that I can compensate reasonably well for the normal risks but..." 

Nod.

"Sensible. In practice, looks like your daily limit before probably hurting yourself rn is 4 - you spent... basically every waking moment you could training, yeah?"

"...Basically." 

"And that's with what 'm nearly sure is a bunch of excess mental energy in your head, the tea, good natural compatibility, the circle..." 

"Prob. that's your current sustainable max? Like, you didn't use your circle for all of it but needed intervention for it to stay basically healthy and ok and still burning off your starting reserves. Might even be three, though of course it's hard to calc when each thread means so much for your general capacities. I suggest... Try three, see where you get, then four next day, and that sorta thing. You won't be able to go up one each, but it's not super uncommon for people to get to tend strands by the end so..." 

"And that's... what? An hour or two for each strand, two hours for another sparring session each day." 

"Yep. You just need to well... 'rest hard'." 

She snorted. 

"And I remember you mention something about weapon affinity testing...?" 

"Oh yeah. Cultivate a bit first? Wanna see if you can do it without having to recover too much, then 'll do the run down." 

"Okay - though..." 

Drink...

"How do I even know if I'm doing it right?"

"If you make a thread."