When Dolly returns to her quarters, she's chewing over her own thoughts. The distance between the hangar and the door feels like it slipped away, that she didn't truly experience it. The handle's real, and the way the door slides to one side, and the lights turning on automatically, as dim as twilight back home. Her pupils widen to drink in the half-lived room, and the emptiness. It's a terrible thing to come back to an empty house, isn't it?

But she knows the secret way to make it not empty. Although maybe there's more than one way, too.

"Jade?" She takes a seat on the couch, stretches her hands and feet, wiggles into a comfortable position. "I was thinking, would you like to have Ksharta or Angela over? I'd like to watch something. With buttered corn, and blankets, and maybe we can make it one of the big historical epics, like [i]Sun Match[/i]? Or maybe a frontier romance?"

[i]The goddess drapes herself onto the couch, and even that seems exhausted. After all, interaction for her is something that has to be intentional, all the time. She can't not think about her body, and how it exists in relation to other bodies, and how it only appears to exist at all. It takes her a little bit to render the effect of weight.

"Mmmngh," Smokeless Jade Fires, glorious hunt-goddess, murmurs. "Why should I share tonight?" Unspoken: can I even dominate tonight? Do I have the reserves to put all of my delicious brides-in-training in their places? Do I have the reserves to even appear to them, after being so thoroughly manhandled by the engineers of the Trickster-cult?[/i]

"Because I think they'll love you as much as I do," Dolly says, and offers a hand. "And it would be nice for us all to be together for a while. With you. Here. In blankets." And she pats her lap, an open invitation. She doesn't push, she doesn't impose, she doesn't reach out; she just is, and offers her time, her space, her attention.

[i]"...I suppose it would be good for them not to wander too far. And you clearly need it." Jade dramatically sweeps her hair back. "After all, you were so deeply affected by that... link. Whatever will everyone think?" She flashes a tired smile.[/i]

"They already saw," Dolly says, trying her best not to look away. "I. Well. I... thank you, Jade. For, for this, for these chances, for making me show off, for being here with me, for everything. For the dances. And for the future. And..." She trails off into awkward kneading, realizing too late that she didn't have anything more on the tip of her tongue. "And anyone who deserves you in your glory deserves you in, like, in this. When you're the quiet moment on the hunt, too. This can be our camp."

[i]Smokeless Jade Fires considers this for a moment. "...as a camp. Tonight. For you."[/i]

And the high priestess blinks adoringly at her goddess, and almost bounces over to the kitchen to prepare the buttered corn.