"Yeah, sorry. I wonder if there is a way to work around that, but I can't think of anything... simple."

"It's all right. I'm sure Dusk will share." She's fond, still, and a little amused.

"You two sound really close."

"Yeah. We've been through a lot together. She raised me, through a really tough time in her life."

Nod. "Well, can only get better from now on."

"Mmhmm." She sounds pleased.

A few minutes later they reach the pair's home, an unassuming adobe house paired with an unassuming adobe garage, facing a dusty yard that hosts a thin spire of metal that seems to twist in the shuttle's headlights. Daisy brings the shuttle in carefully, opting to crush some of the nearby vegetation rather than take up the main part of the yard. "I should see to the animals, first thing, will you be all right for a few minutes?"

"Don't mind me. I'll be fine."

"All right; I won't be long." And she bustles off behind the house.

"I think we'll be all right," she reports when she returns a few minutes later. "We'll lose some of the garden, but we can recover from that. Would you like to come inside?"

"Of course."

She picks Dusk up out of the bed - still carefully, but less hesitantly - and heads for the house; opening the door without putting her down is a bit of a juggling act, but she manages it. The room beyond is dominated by a huge square table, big enough that people sitting on the benches surrounding it wouldn't be able to reach things in the center. It's obviously a worktable, stained and scarred with the signs of its use, but it's empty at the moment. The bins on the wall to the right, on the other hand, are full and neatly organized, some by color, some by some less obvious system. The back wall holds a pair of large machines and a decorated wooden cabinet, along with a closed door that must lead to the rest of the house. A small galley kitchen takes up most of the left-hand wall, with another door just beyond it. Wherever there's free space on the walls, the room is decorated with draped bits of brightly-colored cloth.

"Make yourself at home, I'll be back in a second," Daisy says, heading for the back room.

Well, he was going to offer to help with carrying Dusk, but there might be an obvious reason why that isn't a good idea.

He removes his shoes, but doesn't touch anything.

She's not gone long.

"All right, everything urgent is taken care of. What can I do for you?"

"Well, we should look around to see if the dreamshard is around?"

"The crystal Felix mentioned? I can look - it's not dangerous, or especially fragile, or anything?"

"It's only dangerous to sleeping people. And it's harder than it looks."

"All right. You can - sit, or look around, if you'd like, nothing in here is fragile or anything."

"Sure..." Then he blinks. "I just realized that I don't have a name."

"Yeah." She'd noticed; she's not to happy about it. "I expect it'll be a while before that gets inconvenient, if you need time to think of one."

"Yeah, don't worry. This situation is bizarre, but I think it's for the best. Felix doesn't need to worry about being alone."

"You seem to be doing okay, yeah. Though I hope he won't be alone regardless."

"Yeah, he just needs time to adjust to the idea of being stranded in this universe for who knows how long."

"Yeah, that's - going to be rough."

Slow nod.

"I can't speak for Dusk, but I'll do my best to help him."

"Well, thank you."