Time to pick up some backlash to get closer, then. She imposes the familiar sequence of folds for a simple cube on the first sheet of paper, which begins to execute them. She starts a few marbles in a square loop to maintain through the air over the nightstand to cover more of the difference, while she looks through the pdfs of geometric patterns she's saved for a more appealingly complicated one. 

The guiding is quite nice indeed.

Over the next ten minutes, her body language becomes more tense as her backlash climbs, but she doesn't otherwise take observable actions or react to Emily's power or phone use.

This is good! They can just hold still and use powers and stay in contact, like they're supposed to. Emily makes a more intricate cube, with two layered sheets of paper, then spiky waves in a flat sheet, before switching back to the two-layered cubes while browsing other patterns. Completed pieces tuck themselves into the nightstand, out of the way.

About a minute later, Causal Web stops accruing backlash.

"...done using my power," she says quietly, after a bit. (She's backlashed enough that this takes her real effort, but she has a lot of practice in making herself follow protocols even when she's pretty sure it doesn't actually matter.)

Emily puts her phone and objects down, adjusts positions for better access to Causal Web's face, and initiates more active guiding. Moving tongues against each other produces more saliva than holding them still, so she is doing so, although she isn't particularly applying further technique than that. Her other arm is now also available and is additionally in contact.

- Oh. Right. 

Causal Web gradually becomes a more active participant in the guiding as her backlash drops. 

After a minute, the finger she was controlling her commscreen with begins twitching purposefully, though she doesn't let go of Emily's hand. 

Participation definitely somewhat improves the efficiency! Emily slightly loosens her grip in case Causal Web wants her hand back.

Nah, she doesn't actually need to move it beyond what she's already doing, and interleaved fingers increase guiding contact. 

It'll take them another ten minutes of this to clear her backlash. 

Mostly still handholding and contact along with more active other guiding activities it is!

Causal Web finishes her notetaking and pulls up a newsfeed to skim for the last few minutes of guiding. (She remains an involved participant in the process, of course, but it's clear her attention is elsewhere.)

Is Emily's backlash also cleared?

Yes: she'd guessed conservatively about how much backlash to pick up, and as they get near the end she needs to move some objects around a touch more.

Okay, good. She disengages as the last bit of backlash leaves her, sighing in relief. 

She rotates and pulls up her notes, making some typo corrections and grouping things better.

Some briefly visible text:

Baxter opposed audit

Wentworth quick to point fingers

look into July 12th meeting

Emily reads the text before looking away. And then yes it is a time for doing other things with their hands and mouths, such as drinking water and doing more interesting things on a phone. Perhaps there will be something new and available on Zooniverse!

Causal Web takes about five minutes to organize her notes and review some other documents. When she finishes, she dismisses her commscreen and glances at Emily.

Emily puts the water bottle down and prepares to resume contact.

She swaps the broken pencil with the cell phone and then nestles back into Emily's arms. "Ready?" 

"Ready!"

"This one might take longer."

And she closes her eyes and drops into her power. 

"Understood."

Emily was a bit too conservative last time, and so sets the marbles to a more complicated twisting loop, and starts folding her cubes.

Time passes. Her backlash levels climb. 

Ten minutes... twenty minutes...

She does her best to match backlash levels. She marks the locations of fish in images, and annotates species, which is the closest she can do to what she should be doing about the ocean, and at least gives her more information. The text on the page is blocked by the script, but she can still count.

The only thing she should do that is fully available to her is to touch the living entity next to her. She holds her phone at a worse angle that increases the amount of skin contact slightly.

Thirty minutes...

Thirty-five minutes...

...and then her backlash stops climbing.

No access to the top transcription projects, and the plant labeling project doesn't work with the text blocked, but about half of the camera trap project interface still works. In the night photos, animals mostly face left, while in the day photos, they mostly face straight toward it, or there are no animals and the movement of plants in the wind was captured.

She rearranges the cubes in the cubby, and replaces moving paper with moving more marbles once they are correctly configured. She can't do anything else that she needs to, about it.

She puts the phone down to wrap her other arm around the body next to her, and press her face against it, the only thing she needs to do that she can progress further on.

When it stops being more efficient to keep acquiring more backlash, she puts her marbles away, and stops.

...she remembers what she's supposed to do at this point but it's so obviously pointless....