“Which isn’t important!” Dot exclaimed. “What’s important is you were colorful and now you’re boring!”

“I’m extra exciting, but it’s only for the people who deserve it,” Sveta said. She altered her hand, but she wasn’t looking at it, so the camera didn’t catch more than a bit of it.”

“But what about the colors?”

“I’m going to add colors. Right from the beginning, I’ve been deciding. See? I have sample pictures on my phone of things I like.”

Dot was reluctant to leave Engel’s arms, but she did eventually rouse. Engel made it a difficult process, nuzzling Dot with her face, which Dot seemed to love. But then she lifted Dot up to her shoulder.

The little goblin leaped over to Sveta’s shoulder, then peered over, her leaf-shaped ear blocking a significant portion of the camera and Sveta’s view. Sveta pulled it down and away, hand resting on Dot’s head. She flipped through a gallery of really cool images. It wasn’t her usual art style, which surprised me. A little darker, a little less nature-themed.

“Everyone should do it,” Dot was whispering, but her mouth was closer to the microphone, so it was distorted in volume. “Fill in the canvas.”

“I kind of agree,” Sveta whispered back.

“My Queen did it.”

“Hm… that’s for her sake. I’d be doing this for mine. But I want colors and art good enough to keep forever. One day, after everything settles down.”

“Uh huh,” Dot mumbled. Her head flicked left-right-left-right as Sveta dialed through the gallery of pictures, her whole head moving to track the images as they flew by.

“Speaking of,” Sveta said, her voice louder. “How’s your Queen doing? Victoria asked you to keep an eye on her, right?”

I tensed at the mention of my name, at seeing Amy’s head turn ninety degrees.

“Uh huh. She’s okay. I like the giants. They’re something special.”

“She’s taken about ten times longer to work on this giant than she took on the last one, and she took twice as long as normal for that one,” Sveta remarked.

“You’re distracting me,” Amy said.

“I thought you said your control and concentration were good now,” Sveta said.

“They are.”

“But you’re slower?”

“What does it take to get you out of my hair?” Amy asked.

“Again, we want to see the lab. We want to vet the giants in progress.”

“Lab Rat doesn’t trust you.”

“We don’t trust you!” Sveta exclaimed.

“We don’t even know what your powers do. Would you submit to me touching you to—”

Fuck you, Amy.

“Ha!” Sveta barked. “No. Hell no.”

Good.

“Then what?” Amy asked. “Because no, we’re not going to bring a bunch of unknown powers into a sensitive area, especially considering Shin’s perspective on foreign powers.”