[b]Green[/b]

Fiona gives Pink a tight hug and a squeeze. "I've got this from here for a while. Thanks for taking me." She thinks. "I should spin a private server back up later for ERP. I was just baiting Green with the 'wanna fuck' line to get a reaction out of her but now..." She trails off, shrugs. "I'm going to be honest, eighty percent of learning to hack started with ripping the DRM protection off stuff for erotic mods. But that's always been a 'solo' experience, you know? Maybe..." She blushes, clears her throat, looks to the side. "Yeah, okay, talking too much. Ignore me." She turns to go, stops, turns back. "Just, how do you feel about futa nagas? I was thinking- Fuck, sorry, the ocean thing got to me, just-" she gives Pink one last parting kiss deep enough to stunlock her, then [i]runs[/i] before Pink can think of an answer that would keep her longer.

Fiona leans against the bed and reads without having to use her eyes. Her eyes never see the words on the page normally, either, in here she just gets to skip having to filter them out. Jailbreaking her tethers been good for that, too, now.

She sits just inside the edge of touch radius, and makes herself comfortable. She knows this, too. Threading the needle between the feelings when someone needs to be alone, but needs to not feel lonely.

I'm here, but I'm over here. You're fucked up, but you haven't fucked up. I'm here for you, but you're not keeping me up. It's a gesture that's like an optical illusion - to the anxieties that you are a burden on someone else, this is nothing at all. To the anxieties that you've pushed people away, this is everything.

Crystal is better at this. She can close the touch gap, stroke your hair for hours, and still feel like she's completely outside of your personal space while she does it. She's magic. Fiona's just paying it forward.

[b]November:[/b]

Crystal's exhibition takes place in Annwn Castle, in Aphrodite. Pink would remember building part of this, this is part of the station that wanted rolling hills and what passes for a mountain when everything else is flat. The castle is built on one of its peaks.

The castle is most obviously based on [url=https://c4.wallpaperflare.com/wallpaper/858/182/430/neuschwanstein-castle-in-germany-wallpaper-preview.jpg]Neuschwanstein[/url], the original fairy tale palace, but the architects definitely improved and embellished on it to make it more dreamlike. It pulls as much from French castles like the [url=https://www.expatica.com/app/uploads/sites/5/2015/10/chateau-de-chaumont-sur-loire.jpg]Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire[/url] as it does from Disney cartoons. From Australia they've taken the practice of mixing mother-of-pearl into the mortar, to make the walls shine with accents like glitter lipgloss. From space they've taken brilliant white silica asteroids for the brickwork and polished them to a sparkle and shine that makes it look like the light is always hitting the castle at a perfect angle, like white marble undergoing a magical girl transformation sequence. 

The roof, the caps on the turrets, those are a dull blue alloy by contrast. It's the opposite of a cathedral effect - the fairytale points of the minarets give beauty to the shape, but the dullness of their details directs your eyes back down, lower, inside, to remind you that that is where you want to be - that is where the joy is.

The convention center is Crystal's ideal venue for two reasons, two powerful statements: These inhuman creatures are the things of fairytales, something wonderful and magic. This is a castle and we are defended here, siege us if you dare. Beautiful and without compromise.

The first night is quiet. The long winding garden path is not filled with paparazzi, tickets have not yet sold out. This night is safe. This night is the night to attract interest, to draw the crowds on subsequent nights. Tonight is your night to see what everyone else is missing and just enjoy the exhbition. 

How does November dress for a fancy event like this? What stagecoach does she arrive in?