Kareen picks it up. “They’re so cute. Is Disney Princess working, do you think, or are they like this with everyone?”

"They're small and they're harmless, but not everyone likes them."

“That doesn’t prove anything. Not everyone likes cats.”

"They might try to escape from some people and Disney Princess can make sure that's not you? But they don't particularly try with me."

“Fair.” She puts the agglo back, slightly reluctantly. “They’re cuter than I expected, anyway.”

"It depends what you give them but I give them lots of embroidery floss, it makes them colorful and fluffy."

“Googley eyes. Pompoms. Rhinestones. Sparkly yarn.”

"Do you want one of the baby ones that doesn't have anything stuck to it yet? To decorate to your heart's content?"

“Yes please!”

Bella plucks an agglo grub out of the control tank.

Kareen pets it gently. “I assume they’ve got to be more tolerant of a wide array of conditions than fish are, but is there anything I should know about setting up an agglo tank?”

"Other mals will eat them, so you want it to be robust to outside intrusion, or I guess keep it in your pocket dimension in which case you can probably let it free range if you only have things you'll allow it to agglomerate in there and it'd be fine."

“Definitely keeping it in my pocket dimension.”  It vanishes. “Much safer that way. Plus if I decide to put anything valuable on it I also don’t have to guard it against other people.”

"They reproduce asexually, if you feed it plenty you will soon have lots."

“That will make my ambitions of having a terrarium full easier.”

"You can have a sequin one and a yarn one and a rhinestone one and a gold leaf one and whatnot." She pinches some of her orts and other oddments into each non-starvation compartment, then shuts the terrarium and shoves it back under her bed. "Intro mal studies, here."

“Thanks. You are an excellent native guide.”

"Doing my best! Anything else I can get you? I assume you either don't need to use the bathroom or by now somebody's shown you to one?"

“I have found the bathrooms. I can’t think of anything right now. Is there anything I can get you, I don’t want to assume any given person only has a use for the things it makes sense to hand out in bulk.”

"Hmm." She looks around her room thoughtfully. Fluffs her new pillow into place on the head of her bed. "...if I take off my shoes, can you copy them? They're magic, and I live in fear that something will happen to them."

“Sure, I can do that. What do they do?”

"That's a rather personal question."

“—Oh. S’pose it would be. Sorry.”

"It's okay."

She sits on her bed and unlaces her shoes like it hurts and hands them over.

Kareen picks them up very quickly and briefly and hands them back immediately before pulling a couple of sets of spares out of the Santa sack.