"Okay."

"Hey hey hey whoa I didn't mean —" 

She holds her hands up. "You don't need to — drop everything just like that —" 

She takes an unsteady breath. 

"I don't want to just... pause everything at once and drop the story and... hide. I love you. I want to spend time with you. I want to learn you, and to keep building, and to keep — making things together. I want to be yours. I don't literally mean I want to take a month off, I just..." 

Hyacinth looks away. "... It's just, you know. A lot to deal with all at once. Help me? Pick one thing, maybe. One thing, and then one thing more, and more, and — on like that." She tears up a little. "Okay?"

She puts her spoon down, pulls Hyacinth close, and draws her into a tender hug. "That's what I meant, silly girl. We just stay in the house and pick one thing. Everything else stays on hold until we both feel like we've got a tolerable handle on that one, and then we add the next. Questing? On hold. Level grinding? On hold. Hunting for party members? On hold. We have enough groceries for a week or two, and enough gold to buy several more rounds of that. I think we start with life in VR and discovering Hibiscus first."

She takes a sharp breath and presses into Sable hard. There are still tears in the corners of her eyes. 

"Thank you."

Sable squeezes her tightly and nods, murmuring into her ear, "Always."

"Okay," Hyacinth says. "Okay." 

She withdraws and returns to her stew. 

"Let's... take this one day at a time."

Sable is so kind...

She manages a smile. 

"Do you have any ideas for what to do today? Once we finish lunch, I mean? I could sit around and read, but that's not super interesting, and I'm not really up for anything kinky just yet. I don't want to quest until we have our scene. So that leaves... getting to know your other selves? Finding more stuff to do in the house? I'm used to filling my days with questing in ROD, so I don't know what to say..."

She tilts her head. "We could maybe try looking around at the social channels. I think... I'd feel less scared if there were people here I could rely on who weren't just you girls. I'm used to having a... community. And while there are NPCs and all, they... don't really count the same way, you know?"

"That does sound worth doing, and it's a way to work on the party acquisition problem a bit without leaving the house," Sable agrees. "Streamers might be a good start there; I know some have collections of resources and contacts to refer people to, and I'm pretty good at talking my way from fan chat to actual friendship if I try."

"... Do you know any plural, kinky streamers...?"

Hyacinth frowns. "That seems like a small category."

"Or rather than and, but yes. The kinky streamer I know of has a big resource list and people she refers viewers to if they need help."

She blushes. "You ever watch Ishaza?"

"Wait, seriously —"

Hyacinth pauses. "You know, I never actually considered the possibility Ishaza might be trans. She just seems so natural with her CORA body... but she never has done a realspace reveal..."

"Doubt she ever will, regardless of whether she's trans or cis. It would go against her whole 'this is my real body' thing. Gender questions aside, though, I know she's fiercely protective of her queer viewers, and tries to make sure people can find groups that they mesh with. We're actually out as plural in her community, and it gets respected."

"... do you just hang around for the atmosphere, or, um." 

Hyacinth looks away with a deep blush.

She blushes a bit brighter.

"Um. Both. It has definitely ever been both reasons."

"I, um. Mostly I watch... the edited down versions... rather than catching her stream directly... But same."

Hyacinth looks down at the floor.

Shifting so fast there's almost an audible pop, Hailey switches in, smirking and laughing.

"You adorable fucking dorks. So you both get off to the sexy darkling porn streamer. Is that a reason to blush hot enough to run a steam turbine?"

She shakes her head and grins.

"H-hey, that's no fair —"

"— alright, alright, let's both put our cards on the table."

"Yes, let's. And when I said dorks, I was talking about Hya and Sable, by the way. She's been spluttering about that back in mindspace."

"Heee. Of course she is." 

"So Hya's favorite of Ishaza's is the Under The Table series — it's a little older, before she really blew up. Do you know it?"

"Ooh. That's definitely a fun series. We definitely caught that one. Also, we catch a lot of her daily life streams, used to keep them on in the background a lot."

"Is someone perhaps a bit of a voyeur?~"

Hailey snickers and nods, blushing a bit herself. "Most of us are, at least a little bit. Sable is more than a little."