"Nine's when I get on, but feel free to text before then if you want to shift my day later."

"Nine works. We'll be up before then, almost guaranteed. Anything in particular on deck for tomorrow?"

"Probably the bloodwork, getting you cleared for off-the-complex stuff. Any remnants of banking that still need to be dealt with. And then I think that's all that's compulsory, though you'll still have me available as an educator and cultural guide."

She nods. "Makes sense. Probably after those we'll bother you intermittently about ideas for next steps and general tips. But we'll see." she stretches.

"Have a good night, Mentera Clematis."

"Have a good night, Dolorate Hailey."

And Clematis walks away.

Hailey flops tiredly on the bed couch thing. Today has been a day, and it's not done yet.

This place is pretty cool though.

After a few minutes rest, she stands back up and grabs a persweet to snack on while she thinks.

It's sweet and rich, distinctly tangy like an earth peach with an undertaste of butter. It doesn't have fuzzy skin like an earth peach either. That's probably the nectarine cross.

Tasty.

<So now the fuck what?>, Hailey asks internally.

Maya replies, <There is the rec room and the library, as Clematis suggested.>

<Or you could work on cooking something,> Ruby pipes up.

<Hailey, you know I love your cooking,> Sable starts, <but can we meet people please?> Her tone's a bit pleading.

<Fine,> she replies. <Rec room it is.>

She finishes off the persweet, washes her hands, and heads down the hall to the elevator. 

The rec room has a loungiere in front of a large plasma TV, which is currently unoccupied; there's also a foosball table, several small tables with tabletop games and cards set out on them, one of which is occupied by two pink-haired women in shorts and t-shirts playing a card game, and a small garden of what looks like tomato plants by the windowsill. There's also a second loungiere by the wall, which is presently occupied by a brown-haired woman wearing blue earrings, currently reading a book. 

Huh. Inserting themselves into this would normally be Sable's job, but eh. Well, wait, do they want to set themselves up for eventual plural explanations by introducing her right now rather than Sable?

They don't have Sable's clothes, though.

Eh. New world. They don't wanna try very hard to keep anyone who can't deal with the plurality, and Sable's tired, so fuck it.

She walks up to pinkettes. "Hi. What're y'all playin', if you don't mind my askin'?"

"Hey," says one of them. "We're playing a maid-collecting game, sort of like Dominion if you've played that. Want to join us for next round?" 

The other girl looks up. She's wearing similar clothes to Hailey, including a pendant of a knife. "Hey," she says. "Another Dolorate?" 

Hailey sits down with a grin. "Love to," she replies to the first. Turning to the second, "And sometimes Dolorin, as the mood strikes me. Hailey, good to meet y'all."

"Good to meet you too. I'm Rose, she's Audrey. We're both from earth just like you. It's been a process of adaptation, but..." Rose gestures to her black and red clothing. "There's definitely some advantages."

"There really are," she agrees with a light smile. "Lucked out and got an interpreter who understands plurality, too."

She examines the cards for a bit to try to get a sense of how the game is played, and lets herself check out both girls a bit more blatantly. They're cute.

Is Audrey's outfit pleat-legible at all, to her extremely limited training on the subject?

Audrey seems to be wearing a lot of pink and purple, in a shapeless, soft sort of style. She's got on arm warmers, a pair of striped stockings, and a one-piece dress that comes just to her thighs. 

"Plurality?" Rose hazards. "You mean like the thing in voting...?"

She laughs sharply and shakes her head. "I mean in the 'secretly five girls in a trenchcoat' way."

"Huh! Interesting. I'll try not to bombard you with questions." Audrey gives Rose a small Look.

Rose looks away and nods.

Hailey cocks an eyebrow curiously, but doesn't address the Look.

"We mostly don't mind questions. Long as they're not asinine shit like 'have you considered that you're completely delusional and the other people sharing a brain with you are just figments of your broken imagination', at least."

Audrey laughs. "Yeah, no, I think we can manage not that." She finishes her round and starts dealing out stacks of cards to the table.

"So the goal of this game," Rose says, "is to employ the most victory points of maids as you can. You get a private maid and as many public staff as you want. — It's an Earth board game. The maids have different powers to earn money or victory points." 

She gestures to the table. "You get a recruiting pool for each game that's different and you have to figure out what's efficient for that round."

"Interesting. Looks like fun. We've played Dominion, so it should be pretty easy to get a handle on it. Go 'head and deal me in for the next round, after y'all finish this one?"

She looks over at Audrey. "I think I can guess what Rose's favorite thing about moving to Forest is, and frankly mood, but what's yours, Audrey?"