<I'm not sure the room has much space for a rock collection. Maybe we could mount some shelves.>

Wow, Ashkon is kind of like Nocawe in that both of them have this uncanny knack for thinking of ways things could be better. He should maybe try to imitate them.

He wasn't especially counting on a rock collection and in fact hadn't considered the idea at all and anyway he, uh, doesn't have much time to go collecting them, but maybe? Maybe at some point when Ashkon is ?drinking? sludge (what the fuck) he'll figure out how to visit a canyon? Or they could go together if Ashkon is interested but he's not assuming that.

<I don't drink the sludge. We absorb rays like plants do. The sludge is just the most comfortable place to hang out doing that. We can see what opportunities come up!>

Apparently learning that they're autotrophs is the thing that changes his mind about Yeerks having the worst form factor and now he wants to know all about that.

Aww. Ashkon can explain about their homeworld's sun having wonky rays while they stroll around campus building up endurance.

If that worked it would also have worked when he was assigned absurd amounts of floor-scrubbing and to the best of his knowledge he has never gained strength or stamina since dying except in the sense that he's recovered from acute injuries.

But at any rate that's fascinating.

<If it doesn't work I'll see if there's magic for it or something.>

<Next time you're out I'm going to go look for my friend to let him know what happened to me and I shouldn't look even more different for that but after that you can change whatever you want, I'm not attached to almost anything about this body. It sucks.>

<Okay. That's probably easier than finding magic that'd let you get stronger. I'll need to see what the current state of the art is for morph while you've got a Yeerk, you might have to do it while I'm not in you or I'd get morphed along with the rest of you and not be able to come out again.>

Hot. That would be a bad outcome.

<What does it feel like?> Every time his body has been changed permanently or semi-permanently since dying it's involved being repeatedly injured.

<Morphing? I've never done it. It doesn't hurt, is what I hear, but it supposedly seems a lot like it ought to.>

<Creepy.> At least a little bit in an exciting way but mostly not, mostly that sounds fucked up.

<Some people can do it so it looks pretty and not horrifying.>

He doesn't really have a strong preference to not look horrifying. (It hasn't quite occurred to him that this is something he'd have to take actions about, as opposed to sit still for.)

<Oh, speaking of, I'm going to grow your hair out, it'll make the Elves feel better.>

He cut it for a disguise and because it was a lot of work to take care of but he doesn't actually like having it short. Now he's starting to mentally plan out sets of hair ornaments like all these ridiculously overdressed locals are wearing. It doesn't grow as fast as it used to but it does grow.

...He's not sure if he should proactively think about things they could change or if he'll just end up attached to ideas Ashkon wouldn't like when he'd be fine* if he didn't encourage himself to go around wanting things.

*miserable

<The Elf thing is that they have, like, erogenous hair, so it's part of their nudity taboo - they don't actually have a regular nudity taboo - to keep it braided or put up or covered. Besides that I think we can do basically whatever with it.>

A very long time ago he thinks he ascribed gender to specific hairstyles but it was so long ago, and he also hasn't had aesthetic opinions about his personal appearance in about that long. He's just kind of going off of things he's seen here so far and what he saw on Earth and general aesthetics. What if he had a steampunk headband with delicate filigree? What if his hair were blue? Except he likes wearing green and that might clash. What if he had an absurd number of hair dyes so he could color-coordinate with arbitrary outfits?

Does any of this trade off against something important like ending all the multiple fucking hells.

<No, it doesn't trade off.>

<If you run out of stuff to do and give me back my body and some paper I’ll sketch some ideas but only if you run out of things to do. You know of cooler things to do anyway, I’m not missing out if you’re busy.>

<Maybe I'll run out at some point but right now I'm still getting used to being able to see! I love it!>

Imaginary mad cackling. <It has a lot to recommend it here.>

<It was still pretty cool from a perspective of never having been able to before even back in Tide. Colors!>

<It was fine there.> It was not fine when the ambient lighting was designed to cause eyestrain and people were playing tricks with illusions to make him doubt his sanity and he had to copy books that might have been full of lies. But maybe that’s all in the past and not worth worrying about. <I’m glad you don’t have my associations with it.>

<Yeerks don't really pick up trauma or anything from our hosts. It's enabled a lot of bad things but it's convenient now.>