"Impressive! And highly useful!"

She is going to temporarily put the potential lewd uses of such a power out of mind.

"Hmm. Good hit by human standard or vampiric ones?"

The distant sign dissolves into shards of pink hardlight that quickly fade away, with a faint sound of shattering glass. The sign in Neo's hand gets flipped around again.

Human.

And then Neo conjures a steel rod and hands it to Alethia. It feels like steel, while she's holding it.

Sign flip.

Try smacking that against something?

She will whack a tree!

It feels like a solid whack, up to a point. Then the rod shatters in her hand. The shards feel like they're only partially present, and certainly not solid enough to cut anyone, and quickly fade.

Neo flips her sign again.

I can deliberately reinforce it, but that's tiring.

"That's so cool! And flexible! There are so many things you can do with that! Illusions, props, tools on-demand."

She grins and nods and bounces in place. And flips her sign again.

I know, right!?

The bouncing combined with the very loose dress maybe has effects.

Oh no, effects.

It, uh, takes her a moment to stop Noticing the effects. But she does manage it! Uh, mostly.

Neo has noticed Alethia noticing the effects, judging by the smug expression on her face. She takes a moment to slowly adjust the dress to a position of more effectiveness, then flips her sign again.

Oops~

"Truly, you are evil beyond compare."

She nods, a mischievous smirk on her face, and flips her sign.

You get me.

"You showed up and decided you would Cause Problems On Purpose. For thus, you shall be consigned to The Mines."

You'll have to beat me in a fight if you want to spank me send me to the mines.

"Despite your impending mine visit you continue your evil. Truly, your sentence shall be long!"

Ha! See, she can banter through blushing, nothing can stop her now!

Promises, promises~

She grins.

"So! As much as I love bantering with you, Neo- uh, I should probably be introduced to more of you lest we get caught in Infinite Banter like I was during my date with Sable."

As fun as infinite banter is, you're right.

Allow me to introduce Hailey.

She bows dramatically, giving Alethia a bit of a view, and straightens back up.

And by the time she's straightened up, the black-haired girl from earlier is back. She's two inches taller than Neo, a little more petite in build, and smiling warmly at Alethia.

"Hey there, I'm Hailey."

Her voice is a little sharper than the others, just naturally, but absolutely filled with fondness.

"Normally I have a whole thing about taking my time getting used to touch from someone new, but apparently mate bonds cheat gloriously at that. Lucky us."

The hints of snarky amusement in her tone are laced with a warm delight that suggests that while she finds the change a bit bizarre, she's sincerely glad for the result.

"It's nice to meet you, Hailey! Oh, that's good news about the touch thing. Or, well, I'm glad for you that things were convenient."

She's not going to ask why Hailey has a touch thing, it's probably something sensitive from their shared past.

It is, yes.

"Likewise, Alethia! And yes, it's rather convenient. Do you have a favorite board game? Or computer strategy game?"

"I have a deep and abiding love for the Total War series! Board games- I don't really have much experience with those, honestly."

"There are a couple I'll have to introduce you to, then. We haven't tried the Total War series yet, but we've heard good things about it. Wanna introduce me sometime?"

Somehow that last sentence manages to be snarky and a bit lewd at the same time. Maybe it's something in the mix of snark, smirk, and a faint hint of lilt.

How did she manage to add lewdness to that!? 

"I'd like that. I really enjoy them, and sharing them would be- nice."

She smiles warmly. "Sounds like a date, then. I'd love to learn about your favorite games. You're taking all this impressively well, you know."

She smiles softly.

"I try. And a date it shall be!"