"I'm okay, I ate earlier."  She flops onto the couch, taking up about two-thirds of it in the process.  It's kind of nostalgic, how these couches are all the same.  They might be different colors or makes, but they all have that 'guiding couch' feel to 'em.  She pats the couch next to her invitingly.

"I'll want coffee later, we'll probably be working into the evening unless they get lucky and find the portal they're looking for quickly, which I doubt, and my time zone is three hours ahead of here. But for now..."

She sits down and leans against Sinkhole a little.

She's going to put an arm over Overcoat's shoulders, but she's going to do it very slowly and telegraph it a lot.  It's always nice to be guided.  "I don't think it's a good idea for me to match your backlash, but I usually try to get it a little up here, make the guiding go quicker?"

"That would be very helpful, if you're comfortable with that. Don't make yourself miserable on my account though."

She'll be miserable enough for any two people once they've been here a while.

"I won't, promise."  Pinky?

Not if Sinkhole has anything to say about it, she won't!

That gets a bit of a chuckle out of her.

"I'll hold you to it. Did you ever hear the saying 'put on your own oxygen mask before helping others'"

"I've said it myself, once or twice.  I won't let it get too bad."  For me, anyway.  Can't take responsibility for you.  Unfortunately.

"Right, anything last minute to cover before we start or shall I tell them to send the first lot in?"

"Think I'm good.  If you ever need, uh, platonic makeouts, just nudge me.  Okay?"

"I will try, but do remember what I said earlier."

She hits buttons on her phone and then returns to snuggling.

Nod.  Carol drapes herself all over Overcoat, rather like a blanket.

"Morning, ma'am.  Three okay to start with?"  God I hope we can get more than three.

"Three is fine."

Then two kitted-out DRT woman enter, followed by a man.  The redheaded woman asks, "Uh, how do we - get the buff?  Touch?"

"Yes. It'll last about eight hours but don't cut that close."

"Got it."  Overcoat shall become the recipient of three low-fives.

Carol, meanwhile, is trying to gauge how much power usage that was.  Is matching Overcoat going to be easy or hard?

She has good efficiency. Sinkhole could match her current level pretty easily, but it's going to start adding up.

Then she'll start plotting the demise of her popsicle sticks.  And snuggle really aggressively up to Overcoat.  As Overcoat sits back in the chair, Sinkhole winds up laying sideways across her lap, her face pressed into Overcoat's stomach.  Her arms are wrapped around Overcoat's waist, her legs flopped out on the rest of the sofa.

It's comfy for Carol.  All she has to do is match Overcoat's backlash and not spiral out.

And all she has to do follow protocol. If she follows protocol everything will be fine.

A riddle: how many people can Overcoat low-five before calling for a pause?

She can do two dozen. By then she's very tense and speaking almost mechanically.

Two dozen isn't enough, because it's never enough.  But it's twenty-four more than they had this morning, and they sincerely appreciate the effort Overcoat's putting into this.

Sinkhole, meanwhile, is attempting to merge with Overcoat.  She's slipped her hands under Overcoat's tank-top and splayed them flat for maximum contact.

... it's a little heartbreaking, seeing Overcoat go from 'driven and dedicated older woman' to 'tense, stressed-out shell of a woman'.  But.  She can't just randomly mack on the other esper, even though she haaates seeing this.  That would be fucked up.

...appreciate it." it would be better if Sinkhole was doing this for somebody who deserves nice things.

She squirms to make more skin contact more conveniently.