"Yeah."

Notate notate. Thank you.

"You're welcome!  I like the thing."

Do you think it'd be widely popular if I advertised? she wonders idly.

"Could be."

Is there an obvious way to do that?

"Normally I just hear about new fun drugs from people offering them to me."

Uh-huh. Some people got really touchy about me talking to them at all.

"Sometimes people are like that," they nod.  "You've just got to find the right places with the right people."

Maybe. Yeah.

Are the capsules private or do they look at you like the eye and fingerprint things look at you?

They think about this.  "At least some chains have cameras in the hallways and elevators but not the pods or the bathrooms.  Maybe all of them but I'm not sure."

As in, you think some of them might have pod sensors, "camera" isn't really translating, or you think some of them don't have hallway and elevator ones?

"All I know is I used to hook up with this guy who would only make out with me in the pods and bathrooms.  Because of privacy.  I don't remember all the chains we tried; maybe all of them are like that."

Do you believe that the pods are private?

They shrug.  "What does that even, like, mean.  What is privacy.  ...The soundproofing in these ones is pretty good, at least for how much you can hear what's going on with people next to you.  That's why I like this one."

Privacy is when people can't see me.

The person thinks.

"Cameras look like that," they start, pointing to a shiny black thing mounted on the ceiling.  "When they want you to see them.  There are smaller ones that corpos hide places.  But those can still get noticed by sniffers, so the richies would notice if there were cameras in the pods and not come here.  But maybe they don't come here; I wouldn't know."

Yeah. Me either.

At least no one here can read Pax and magic is ?illegal? or something so they can't even cast comp lang on it.

Whatever.

Thank you for all your help.

She will go through the process of getting a capsule.

"Thanks for the drug!"  They watch to make sure she does everything right through getting in the elevator.  "Have a nice night."

You too.

She goes in a capsule.

There are two rows of them per floor; she's in a top one.

The sheets are sterile white and so is the heavier blanket.  She can sit up with a spare foot and a half above her head but not stand.  There are buttons which she can figure out pretty easily operate the lights (which she can set to the full grid of {cold | neutral | warm} and {bright | medium | dim}) and a little fan which is capable of making a fair bit of noise.  The purpose of some things on the walls are less clear.  - Oh, that one unfolds out into a little table that fits just above her lap when she's in a sitting position.

It's kind of a cunning arrangement, really. She writes. Then she knocks herself into sleep so she will be making the most of this borrowing.

When she wakes up she can feel two people loitering on the other side of the hall from her.

No reason to expect that's weird. She writes a bit, fingercombs her hair, inventories all her stuff three times, and exits.

There's one human holding a box standing there.

"This is for you," she says, holding it out.