He very gently presses her thumb against the brass clasp, which gives, just the tiniest amount. There is a nearly inaudible click as though a lock engaged, which repeats a second later as though the lock disengaged again.

"Access set," Prometheus said. "As of now, only you can open that lock. Well. I can, but that is because I built the coding for it. But apart from that, just you. You can designate other users-"

'Sidora laughs. "'Metheus, perhaps give her the basic use tutorial before skipping on to the admin stuff."

"My apologies. I was getting excited."

He opens the journal. At first glance, it looks like two blank pages. "So. If you press here-" he presses the upper right corner. "Everything boots up." The pages polarise to reveal a simple user interface and a keyboard. "Regrettably a touch screen keyboard for ease of concealment but also if you touch here..." He presses a button on the lower right hand corner of the keyboard screen, and the vast majority of the keyboard vanishes. "You can use a stylus to write by hand. The stylus is concealed in the hinge. It will take a little while to properly translate your writing to the correct letters, so I would advise not writing anything important until it is reading it correctly. Just in case."

He proceeds to give Isabella a full tutorial, show her where to find a tutorial on the journal-computer, and also how to give other people access should she so desire.

"You can set level of access, but I would advise not giving anyone else administrator rights."

Raven, as usual, listens carefully and takes detailed notes when she remembers. She starts tentatively fiddling with the computer, typing on the keyboard and flicking through the options in fascination.

Cat leans over to watch, but doesn't touch.

"I think I will share this with Cat, and no-one else," she decides, poking through the settings to authorise him for everything except admin rights. 

"Thank you, Prometheus," she says when Cat prods her to do so. "This is wonderful!" 

"You are welcome. I do enjoy building things. And I felt like you would appreciate this."

"I appreciate what you make, 'Metheus. I just don't appreciate being woken up two hours after I finally get to sleep."

"Sounds like someone I know," Joss says lightly, aiming a pointed look at Rex, who looks innocently back. "Although he normally wants scratches, or to go for a run." It's clear she doesn't actually mind this.

Cat is relaxed enough to chuckle at the byplay. 

"I used to be woken up at all hours because Rae just had to tell someone about the part she just read in some book," he contributes, with a fond look at Raven.

"That doesn't happen so much these days; I think she's learned the value of sleep."

"Or perhaps I learned that if I wanted a vaguely interesting conversation partner, I needed to wait for a time that you considered reasonable," she replies.

Honour thus defended, she returns to investigating the many functions of her new computer. 

"You would not think that I am older by nine months, would you?" she remarks to Joss. "He thinks of himself as the big brother, when he is in truth the youngest of us all."

Rex shifts back into human form, still leaning against Joss' legs. "In my defense, the few times I did that, I hadn't realised that you'd only got to sleep two hours before?" He pokes her knee. "You're normally up at five for runs either way. ...I am guilty of the waking up for scratches charge mind..."

"How many of you is there?" she asks, slapping Rex's finger away, playfully, but also almost absentmindedly.

'Sidora goes back to staring into his coffee, slightly morosely, now that the conversation appears to have turned to family.

Cat counts. "Me, Rae, Sam, Danny, and then Eliza's pack but not really a sister. So, four or five, depending on what you were asking," he concludes.

"Katherine lives with us as well but she's not a sibling. She's only just pack."

"Big families are good," Rex says, smiling widely. "Big packs are better. Stronger."

"Only child," Joss says, looking slightly wistful. "Fully adopted by at least three different large families now. Are all of you adopted? I mean, I know it doesn't change whether or not you're siblings, just, I remember Isabella saying something earlier about being adopted? And what's the differentiation between being siblings and being pack? I know the hellhounds don't really differentiate, if you're pack, you're family, and that's that?"

"Big families are good," Cat agrees.

"All of us are adopted or fostered, except Sam. As for the family or pack distinction... Father is family but not properly pack, because he's human, and Katherine's half-in the pack as well but without being family - she started living with us later. Eliza is family and pack, but she's not our sister because that's not the relationship she wants with us."

"Relationship is one word for it," Raven puts in archly. 

"Sounds complicated," Joss says with a slight grimace.

"Bit like you, Ex and Dale then," Rex teases, but his head tilts back till he's looking at the other three upside down.

"You guys okay over there?"

The two AGIs stay silent.

'Sidora sighs. "We're...okay. Just...we lost two of our siblings. And our parents. It's...hard to talk about family sometime. But that doesn't mean you guys shouldn't do it. Just means we're going to be a bit silent."

Epime rests her hand gently on his back.

Cat has been deliberately ignoring 'Sidora and his probably-siblings for the last few minutes, as the topic of family seems to have set off a lot of emotions in all three of them. Epimetheus is still the easiest to block out, but that's not saying much any more. He can manage it, but only if he doesn't interact with them at all. 

Now that Rex has brought his attention back in that direction, he winces slightly as his grasp of his shields slips. 

"Or...shit, empath. We can go if you want?" he points a thumb over his shoulder.

(Simultaneously, the emotional feed from both Prometheus and Epimetheus drops considerably, as though they just switched their emotions off.)

Joss gives them a suspicious look, but doesn't actually say anything.

He heaves a sigh of relief when the pressure from Epimetheus and Prometheus drops considerably.

After a moment, though, he processes the implications. It's unlikely that they figured out how to shield their emotions that fast, so they must have decided to - turn them off, not feel them -

"You, you don't need to not feel things!" he tells them, sounding quite passionate about it.

"I can handle it, or I'll go outside for a while if not."

Prometheus' emotions return, although to a slightly lower level than previous. Epimetheus' do not, in fact, change.

"Apologies," Prometheus says with a very slight head dip. "We felt that, given the topic, and our emotions on the matter, it might be the most expedient thing to do. I also cannot say that I do not occasionally switch my emotions off when considering the other AGIs. It is...not a pleasant topic. And besides that, I dislike distressing people I am on amicable terms with."