"I don't usually read that kind of thing." Nomf nomf. "Maybe if he has written about whether gnomes would be tasty. I think it would be a lot of fun to catch a gnome."

"I like reading aloud, if that's easier!" Hmmm. She doesn't love that, but it makes sense. "I don't think he's written about the tastiness of gnomes, though he's active on twitter, so I suppose I could ask him for you." She grins.

"They would make such funny noises while they ran away on those little legs!"

Play in the space, Cara. "The funny noises enhance the overall experience, I take it?"

She tilts her head, thinking. "...Actually, this is making me wonder about what kinds of video games you'd maybe like, if they had input methods that worked for you."

"Oh, I've tried video games but they lack visceral appeal."

She nods thoughtfully. "I suppose that makes sense! They're tuned for a human sensorium, and are generally made for humans who've had a media diet contains a lot of other video games."

"I like watching things, and I like doing things. I don't like watching myself do things."

She nods thoughtfully. "That makes sense!" 

And they chat more about Gravity Falls, and some of the other cartoons Cricket's seen and enjoyed.

The next few days go by in a pleasant blur.

Cara meets Ren, is charmed by her approach to life, and says lots of effusive things about her son.

She and Haru do more backlash testing, filling out the spreadsheet they designed together. She watches a fair bit of anime while he writes in his notebooks (journaling, he tells her when she asks, and it makes perfect sense to her).

She keeps him posted on the assembling zoo non-profit - by Wednesday they have a professor, a group of students, and a grant application filed they expect to hear back from soon - if they get it, it should cover the majority of the costs. They're pretty excited about it, and look forward to chatting with him sometime. 

They go flying once or twice a day. They make out... a good deal more than that. 

It's medicinal! And fun! And he only sometimes has to disappear to be incredibly silent in the bathroom for a few minutes afterwards!

...When he gets back from one such bathroom session, she wraps herself around him happily, and then says "...You know, I could help you with that, next time."

"...beg pardon?"

Aaaand now she is blushing a lot. Was that not clear enough? "...Um. I like you a lot and the makeouts are very fun and I would like to maybe. Escalate from there? If you would be okay with that?"

She buries her face in his neck.

"...impatient, huh? You'll be all awake soon."

She sighs. "I knowwwwwwwwwww, and if you want I can wait till then! But I do feel like - basically the same arguments for makeouts in the first place apply? And. It sounds. Nice." Very very blushy blue girl.

"I confess it sounds nice to me too, it's just - I can wait and there are good arguments for waiting, like, if we're not completely correct about what your backlash is and there's some other aspect to it -"

She tilts her head in thought. "...Yeah, that's fair. I think it's unlikely, but you're right there's no harm in waiting. I should finish up tomorrow night."

Wiggly Cara. 

Kiss. "It sounds really really nice, I just have this mental image of you suddenly being at lower backlash than you have been since you started and going 'wait, why did I do that, oh no'."

She pets his face gently. "I think what will actually happen is that I'll notice some mild itch that's been bothering me all week."

Kiss. "I really appreciate your carefulness. It's one of your many very delightful traits." 

He scritches her on the head in case that's where her mild itch is. "I try."

!! Headscritches !! "hhhhhmmmnnnm.." 

(he may recognize this as a boneless Cara noise, from the massage session.)

She leans into his hand.

"Oh, a discovery." Scritch scritch scritch.

"My dark secr - hnmmmmmhghgnmmmmm..." 

She gets floppy pretty quickly with additional headscritching. 

"Chemical fact sheet: liquid at room temperature."