"Ok, then," Carver said smiling. Privately, she was relieved. She would have done it, and probably made the prettiest girl-parts ever, but she was just as happy to not do so. "I think that I know mostly what you'll look like when we're done, but I could be off here and there. As we talked about earlier, this isn't an exact science.

"Anytime you're ready, we can start again," Carver said, waving toward the platform. "And one last question - should I detail your hair, down to the strand, or would you like the, um... I can't think of the right word... uni-helmet?"

"If it's not too much work, let's go with real hair this time," Meghan considered. "Um, that is what you'd imagined, right?" Meghan was, as always, afraid of exerting too much influence on the outcome. Somewhat unreasonably, she'd come to believe that Carver had some kind of special nova ability in these matters, and she was reluctant to jinx it.

Carver nodded. "Yeah," she said, "I was kinda seeing the hair, but I knew you had the helmet thing going, and if that was what you preferred, I didn't want to spoil that for you. Of course that will take longer. I don't mind, but you will have to stand still longer." Carver doesn't think it will be a problem, for the girl; she was really focused on doing this right.

"No problemo," Meghan said, grinning. "Honestly, I don't know why I looked the way I did when I erupted. The theorists and the philosophers say that some subconscious drive shapes our bodies in the same way that it shapes our abilities, but I think they're full of poop."

"Full of poop, huh?" Carver said with a grin. "Well, you should hear some of the theories that they've developed for me." She rolled her eyes. "They psychobabbled the hell out of me, especially since they think I have more taint than I display. But I feel fine."

*Don't talk to her like that. She's not our friend. She doesn't need to know enough to start to suspect you're - we're anything other than Jane Q. Nova,* Jael grumped. *Gonna share cookie recipes next?*

"Sooooo..." Carver muttered, realizing that she may have indeed said too much. "Ready to go again?"

"Is that so?" Meghan said blandly. She let the topic fall, as if it was of no interest to her. However, Meghan made a mental note to investigate this later.

"Ready when you are," Meghan said, clambering yet again onto the pedestal. She made a conscious effort to avoid glancing at her reflection in the windows.

With a nod, Willa got back to work. It was easier to forget that she was working on a person, rather than on metal; Mithril could literally stand still for hours without moving. Willa wondered if she ever got bored, just standing and standing.

*We'll kinda own her image now,* Jael chuckled softly. *Does that mean she'll have to pay us royalities every time she is seen in public?*

*She's paying us for that,* Willa pointed out. *The purchase gives her the right to use and display the art, but - You know what? You're retarded. And mean. I'm not talking to you anymore.*

*Fine!* Jael hissed, her voice full of anger and wrath. And then she was gone.

Willa's claws faltered, and she pulled them away from Mithril before she made a mistake and ruined Mithril. *Jael?* There was no answer, and suddenly, her heart was pounding in her ears. There was nothing to do but keep working.

"I could try talking, now, if you'd like," Willa said as the loneliness in her head translated into loneliness in her heart.

"Okay sure," Meghan said cheerfully as ever. When she spoke, she was careful not to move lest she spoil Carver's work. Instead, she projected her voice from a nonspecific point on her body. Since she was made of the same substance throughout, any part of her body could be called upon to serve any function. After a pause, Meghan realized that Carver was waiting for her to speak next.

"I'm really surprised in a good way at how you dropped everything else and started on me," Meghan said conversationally. "I wasn't expecting that, and it's really nice of you. Do you keep busy with commissions, or do you make a lot of art for yourself?"

"Not much for myself, no," Willa answered softly. "When I do, it's usually like a doodle; just a tiny thing no bigger than a deck of cards. I just do it to do it, and even those I usually don't keep for myself.

"To be honest, I didn't have any time-sensitive work," Willa admitted. "I try not to get a huge time-crunch going, because I don't like spending days and days on end working on stuff. I will when I have a big project, but I don't want to do it often. I just... I guess I keep my art in my head, and I don't need it with me." She laughed suddenly. "You've reminded me: I've never done a piece for Harry yet. I offered to, and I think he's interested, but he hasn't told me what yet."

"Maybe you should surprise him," Meghan suggested, continuing to hold completely still.

"Maybe," Willa sighed, feeling the tension in her shoulders ease as Meghan talked. She was still worried about what had happened to Jael, but she couldn't call a stop and tell her subject that she had to go find her other personality. "But I don't know what to get him, and the last time we talked about it, he said to just surprise him. That was after I offered to make a fan-thing, like a Bobo Feta statue." Unaware that even a year later, she still had the name wrong, Willa giggled a little and said shyly, "And when I'm thinking about surprising him, I'm not thinking about statues."

Meghan, for all she'd gotten around before finally settling down with Flicker, was breathtakingly naive.

"What are you thinking about when you think of surprising him?" she asked, completely innocently.

"Uh..." Willa was admittedly more easily flustered than her darker headmate; while Jael would have laughed and told Mithril something horrible or scarring or both, Willa couldn't. So she blushed a vivid red color and said, "Ummm... couple stuff. You know... surprises couples do together. In their... home. You know, right?" Please don't make me have to explain further...

Meghan snerked out loud and stifled a giggle.

"I'm learning all about that," Meghan said, proudly. "Flicker and I have officially been an item for a few weeks, you know. She's made an honest woman out of me."

"Uhhh..." An honest woman? Willa was floored; Mithril's reputation was well-known around the nova community, as well as her preference for woman. Willa shook herself mentally, unsure what to say. "Congrats! Are you guys making any plans? Plans that involve... bells?"

Geez, I sound like a 1950's grandma.

Meghan did her best not to faint and to continue to hold still for Carver, who was finishing some of the delicate tracery around her hairline. She'd only just given up on loving the whole world, and already Carver was asking about marriage!

"Wedding bells?" Meghan asked, her voice squeaking. "No, no plans for wedding bells just yet. I mean, it could be a possibility in the future, I guess." Meghan paused to collect herself, mindful not to let her mouth run on when she had nothing to say.

"We'll take it a day at a time and see what develops, I guess." Despite the need to hold still, Meghan produced a tiny smile.

"Oh, I didn't mean to push," Willa said, giggling a little. "I just thought... ok, maybe I did mean to push. I'm just curious. I mean, Harry and I haven't really gone there yet, but we've discussed it a bit here and there. We're not ready, and that's ok, right?"

Willa grinned, a bit micheviously. "But you have moved to Cleveland with her, right? I remember what that was like, when I went to New York with Harry."

"We're still working on the move," Meghan replied, glad to be away from the subject of marriage. "We've got a pretty nice place downtown and we're about half-moved into it. It takes up a whole floor on a high-rise, can you believe that? I have no idea how we're going to use all the space, but Nova seems to think that we'll be a lot more social now that we're no longer down in South America. I mean, lots of novas get around just fine by teleporting or flying or whatever, but for the rest it'll be better that we're closer at hand again."

"Harry and us weren't sure what to do with all our space either," Willa said idly, most of her concentration going to the delicate work she was performing on Mithril's ear. "But I've found that having a lot of open space gives you a sense of openness, even in a large city. It does feel weird, empty, but it's also refreshing. Think about how wonderful it is to spread your arms and spin in place without worrying about hitting something? And if you like exercise, then you can do a lot in your own house. So it has benefits."

She stopped for a moment to admire her work, then moved to the front of the woman to compare the symmetry of the ears. "How many piercings do you want, and where? Might as well do them all, if I'm working at it."

Meghan had never understood piercings, even in her rebellious phase. Still, she had to hold her tongue, considering the many piercings which Carver wore. As always, being around diplomats as a teenager helped her to find the way.

"No piercings for me, thanks," she said with a smile. "At least, no permanent ones. If I decide I want one later, I can make the little hole myself."

"I definitely like having more space to live in," Mithril continued, picking up the prior thread of the conversation. "I intend to have a library--a real library of printed books I mean--like Regina Newcastle does."

Meghan had checked herself. She almost had slipped and said "like Pachacamac does," meaning the alternate version of Procyon who lived in the alternate history which Timeslip had shown her, but to reveal even the existence of that world would be a grave mistake.

"Printed books can be interesting," Willa remarked, a bit distracted by her work on making Mithril's face symmetrical. It required the stripe-haired nova to stop and step back frequently to check to make sure things were flowing right. "I like that they don't vary in color, the way that a computer screen can."

She worked in silence for a moment before asking, "What will you put in your library? Popular fiction? Classic literature? Or a mix?"

"I'm a pretty hardcore science fiction nerd, actually," Mithril said cheerfully, glad to discuss the topic. "Especially the old-school stuff like Heinlein and Niven and Ellison and William Gibson. The newer stuff just leaves me flat. Ever since N-Day, there's been no good science fiction. It's like novas just sucked the wind out of the sails of speculative fiction. Suddenly anything that can be imagined can be done! How can you have science fiction in a world like ours?"

Meghan had to remember to hold still, lest she begin waving her arms and gesticulating in her enthusiasm.