... Yeah, and ears. Like a cat. Natsuno too.

I don't know, Cap. I think your ship got infected with highly contagious furry disease.

To be fair, the unhinged coping strategies are proportionate to the increasing levels of stress.

Plus I think there was some weed involved.

[and he wouldn't have noticed this time either if she hadn't just pointed it out...]

Well, you did tend to just dump everyone into the recycling and start again... How many Avas have you gone through without realizing, huh?

So based on that very scientific calculation... [counting on her fingers]

That's at least three missed birthdays we can celebrate now. [grin]

... Ah, no no not like that. I wasn't here for gifts. That's really the best one, you know? [one for a lifetime is perfectly acceptable if it's the gift of not horrifically deteriorating!]

I thought maybe some party games. It's been awhile.

Spin the bottle could only go one way and no offense but ew. Don't have a pinata to take all my pent up aggression out on. Not enough people for musical chairs. Pin the tail on the Catduggy is probably abusive.

So... truth or dare?

If we make it to next year, we can start calling it a tradition. [grin]

Ah. So which is it then? Truth... or dare?

Hardly have the- You were JUST saying how bored you were up here.

... my ideas are fun and engaging. [small pout] But if you don't enjoy them that defeats the purpose. [or is the purpose of truth or dare to make people do things that make them uncomfortable so that they chicken out and you win? but she's not cared to keep score.]

Okay. And you can't answer with "I don't know" this time... if you could do one thing differently, what would it be?

Ah, moss piglets are rather charming lil fellows.

Sure, but isn't complicated self awareness what allows for such potent emotional energy?

Hmm. Truth.

The firs- [ah, squeezes Catduggy tightly as she realizes what he must be referring to, a little shyly because it's a rather sensitive sort of desire given the impossibility of everything they're up against to reach a circumstance that might make such a thing viable or even practical. and yet the phrasing. what are you going to, not even what she might or would that leaves room for doubts. like it's a certainty she can grasp onto, something to believe in. it's not outright reassurance, but she wonders if he knows how much it's appreciated when her own head is always drowning and ifs and whys and buts and hows.]

I don't know... [and then realizing she just answered the way she said he couldn't! huffs lightly in defeat] Because I don't know if it'll be a boy or a girl. And also I think you have to really... see somebody first. To know if a name suits them. [you know, as if newborn babies somehow have fully developed personalities but whatever!]