“Yeah,” Chris said. “I knew there was a risk I might be useless for the day, putting myself in a state where I just sit around, eat, play games. So I fucked off. I’ll hit anxiety a few times in the next while, but I’ll make it mad twitchiness so there’s some more motive behind it, instead of it being paralyzing. That’ll be fun.”

“That sounds like you’re going overboard. Shouldn’t you be balancing things out?” I asked.

“Shouldn’t you be minding your own business?” Chris asked. “Go talk fashion. I’m fine.”

He walked over to his corner, near where his whiteboard was. Kenzie moved to follow, and Chris turned around, reached out to grab her by the shoulders, and turned her to face us, before going back on his way, to his whiteboard.

“Fashion,” Tristan said. “Okay. We’ve got some stylish and artsy people here. I’m not so up there on girl-fashion, but I’ll contribute what I can.”

“Ashley is married to this look,” I said.

“Married is the wrong word,” Ashley said.

“How would you put it?” Sveta asked.

“A long time ago, when I was still finding my way, I didn’t even have the clothes on my back, not intact ones. I had no friends, no family, and law enforcement was after me. I had nothing. I spent a lot of time thinking about who and what I wanted to be. Characters I liked, clothes I liked, people I’d thought were elegant and imposing. I found this. I built this,” Ashley said.

What had her role models been, for aesthetics? Cartoon movie villains? Evil sorceresses and witches?

“When you had nothing, you found this, and you want to hold onto that,” Sveta said. “I can understand that. I hold onto things that were important to me once.”

“Like Weld,” Kenzie said.

“Among others,” Sveta said, giving me more of a hug.

“I don’t want to hold onto anything,” Ashley said. “I am that. People spend their entire lives trying to find the right image for themselves and I found it when I was Kenzie’s age.”

“I don’t think you’re going to win this one, Victoria,” Tristan said.

“Theoretically speaking,” I started.

“Alright. I’m getting out of the line of fire,” Tristan said.

“Don’t be mean,” Kenzie said.

“Call with Auzure in a short bit. Rain might miss it,” Tristan said.

“Theoretically speaking… can I put something out there?” I asked.

“Can I stop you?” Ashley asked.

“Tell me to and I’ll stop right here. You can do your thing.”

Sveta rocked her head left and right on my shoulder, chin digging in, until I shrugged her off. Ashley considered.

“Theoretically,” Ashley said.