He turns the tablet. It's a map. "I do the woodcuts, for the paper."

"Neat. Do you have much standing for that?"

"Enough to know my domain's mushrooms and not anything convenient, but not as much as her."

"My condolences, but at least you get the health benefits. I was fairly lucky, leather is a good domain for a soldier."

"Is it? I guess you could... fix your boots?"

"Leather armor is flexible enough for me to move easily, and my standing makes it tough enough to stop most things steel would. Also leather makes slings, and whips, that let me fight from more distance than most illustrati. Plus I don't stand out from my squad unless I want to. I envy fire or air or steel sometimes, but it has a lot going for it."

"Yeah, I guess that would be convenient if you're a soldier. Ky's really happy with hers. She'd be happy with ink too though. Or one of the generically good ones but she might've done something besides the library and newspaper if she had water or something."

"Probably still something more useful than violence. Even when it needs doing, it's - eh."

"Yeah, nah, she's rather against violence. I have designed her a stylish paper arsenal if the need arises but hopefully it won't."

"Better to have it and not need it. Do you do other styling for her? I mostly muddle through with the tweaked uniform."

(Tanner wears a lightly-decorated long leather coat, vest, and straight pants, with the main color being accents present on Chellas's standard uniform, including the rank insignia of a captain. There's an twined leather bracelet wrapping his left arm, and he has a somewhat bulky shoulder bag which currently contains his helmet, whip, and big sling.)

"Yeah, she's terrible with clothes, if she had her way she'd go around in completely normal clothes and a paper sunhat. I shop for her and design the hat to be more interesting. She's got a cape, too, lots of little folded up paper bits look like scales, it's real keen."

"I never know how much that actually matters. All the really famous people do, but they also get it cheap, so maybe they would anyway."

"I think it makes her more recognizable, more memorable? But yeah I don't know either, it just seems dumb for her to go around dressing like a random person."

"Well, it surely doesn't hurt. Did you two grow up here in the city, or somewhere smaller?"

"Born somewhere much smaller! But moved here when we were babies." He gestures a medium-baby-size.

"I lived in a medium-sized town until the wars, myself. I'd probably have moved even without the obvious fame benefits, cities feel more alive. I partly ask because Chellas is going to love the newspaper, and I'm sort of - composing my thoughts for when they ask me whether we should copy her idea or try to induce her to move. Anything I should be tempting you with?"

"Art and dance scene?"

"The university has lots of artists around it. Some of it's pretty good, though I don't have a great eye for it. Not sure about dance, but I suppose I'll check if they send me back."

"I'm not hard to please on the dance front. Ballrooms with events I can get into more'n once a week and pretty girls will do it."

"I'm pretty sure we have that much. I just stay clear, I had to do dancing lessons when I was younger and I soured on it."

"Yeah, Ky doesn't dance either even though she could now."

"The balance thing? Makes sense."

He glances over at the stacks, a little restless.

"Go ahead and look up your legends, don't let me stop you."

"Should get around to it, there's the quest to consider. But I try not to be rude."

"Quest away, I won't tell Ky to rip up her article or anything."