The designs page for her left upper arm opens. Color: Black and Color: Violet are still selected, but the other tags drop out. There seem to be three major categories here - "Encircling" shows a woven ring of thorns, a ring of purple-glowing circuitboard, and a repeating circle of waves in the preview, while "Spot" shows an 8-bit violet heart, an anchor, and a Master Ball. "Partial Sleeve" shows a dragon whose tail wraps around the arm four or five times, stopping just short of the elbow, a purple fox whose nine tails similarly wrap around, a larger tattoo of crashing waves with a stormtossed ship caught among them, and the emblazoned number 257,000 written vertically from the side of the shoulder to the elbow. 

These are great options (and not stylized wombs at all). The encircling thorns and waves are very pretty, and the circuitboard is so ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ. The spot options are nice, but not quite capturing her. The partial sleeves are gorgeous, though. The joke briefly flashes through her mind that the purple nine-tail is what she wants to be when she grows up. The storm-tossed ship is achingly lovely. And then she chokes on seeing 257,000. But maybe she does need to remind herself of that. Perhaps on her forearm or wrist so it's easier for her to see it herself, rather than advertising it to everyone else. It's not other people who've been underestimating her value. Why does she keep coming back to the ship and waves, though? What's captivating her about those?

She shakes her head, then taps an icon — a stylized heart made of rose petals — to save her favorites: the encircling thorns and circuitboard lines, the storm-tossed ship, the purple nine-tail, and the number. Those last two she's mostly saving to consider trying in different sizes and shapes and placements.

Then she flips through to some more encircling and partial sleeve options.

Under Encircling, the first page offers:

- A ring of braided tentacles, with octopus or squid suckers or neither;

- A dozen variations of celtic knotwork, working in the love knot, the shield knot, and the Dara knot, among others, most interwoven into a backing of the fisherman's knot; 

- A ring of black teeth, with human, vampire and shark variations.

- A stylized bank of capsule-hotel windows, like those used to temporarily house refugees who have been evacuated but not yet been settled in a new world. 

- A ring of twining violet fox tails, sans fox. 

- A row of keyboard keycaps. The keys currently spell out 257,000, but there's an editing field to put in your own word.

- A black chain with a sharp break in the center separating it into two falling-apart halves; the whole version is also available. 

- A black iron arm-ring inset with sparkling amethysts; 

- A weave of glowing runes and inscribed lines that suggests a pentagram drawn around the arm; the runes are editable. 

- A ring of weathered black stones, suggesting a well; 

- A ring of blackviolet dragon scales, drawn so as to give the illusion that the skin is peeling away to expose the scales beneath. There's similar illusions with violet foxfur and mechanical parts as well.

- A console prompt: "Sable@Tattoo:/RUArm:$ Sudo, Bitch"

- A simple purple ribbon wrapped around the arm, with a bow; 

- A series of black ropes with elaborate knots in them, giving the impression of rigging;

- A simple pattern of glowing lines, emphasizing the firmness of her muscles and the smoothness of her skin.

The first page of partial sleeves offers:

- Elaborate squid, octopus, tenta-pet, or tentacle-girl options. For the tentacle-girl options there's a range of explicitness and options for where the tentacles come from. (Lower body, from her back like wings, from her long hair...) 

- More elaborate broken-skin illusions, "exposing" much more scales, mechanical parts, or fur; 

- A black iron pauldron with dark leather straps attached to the shoulder and upper arm. 

- A tall quill along the upper arm with the number 257,000 written in cursive below; Once again, the text is editable.

- A row of carefully braided and managed cables "plugged into" the skin, imitating corded muscle; 

- A broad pool of spilt ink spread from an overturned inkwell, which drips down into the number 257,000 (again editable.)

- A large area of completely blacked-out skin, which gleams slightly with ink. 

- A braided lace pattern with a cup of tea cradled amid it all; 

- A pattern of dark stormclouds, with a glowing bolt of violet lightning crashing down her arm to the elbow; 

- A "torn" part of her shoulder, overlaid with black clawmarks; 

- A dark-feathered raven perched on a branch, with an amethyst key in its mouth; 

- The two kanji "Tsuyoi" (strong) and "Kokoro" (heart), written in brushwork calligraphy from the shoulder to the elbow.

Her jaw drops as she starts scrolling through the options. Those tentacles are kinda hot. The Celtic knots are beautiful, too. She favorites those and keeps going.

...She needs to not be standing. She absently steps back to the bed and flops down onto it, pulling a few pillows under her chest to lay on and resting the tablet on the bed in front of her. Her feet kick idly in the air and her tails swish excitedly. What an amazing array of designs! Nnnff, wearing a ring of teeth like that isn't quite right for her but they're so hot.

At the hotel windows she starts to tear up, grinning fiercely. Yeah, she's definitely seen quite a few of these hotels, and helped both fill and empty them. That's part of what's up with her, isn't it? She's carrying the refugees with her all the time. Maybe carrying them visibly on her skin will help her give herself credit for that.

The ring of fox tails is gorgeous, and it feels very personally fitting. Maybe save it for a day she's not going for the nine-tail sleeve design. The keycaps make her swallow hard. Those are a lovely way to display that number, but... she likes the other one she's seen better so far. The broken chain is teary again and very satisfying to see — her work helps lots of people reach freedom, and she's apparently in need of finding her own freedom from her struggles with shame.

The iron and amethyst arm-ring and the glowing pentagram are both gorgeous and worth trying at some point, and something about the black well-stones makes her heart ache with familiarity. The exposed scales, fur, and mechanisms get a bright grin, and at the console prompt she can't help but giggle. The ribbon and lines are very pretty, as well, and the rigging hurts like she's missing something.

She shakes her head and starts looking at the partial sleeves. Wow, those tentacle-girls are hot. The exposed insides are even lovelier in larger form, and the pauldron is just badass. And then her breath catches in her throat.

This, this quill design... she swallows and tries to steady her suddenly shaky breathing. This is right. It's... this number is something Sunaira wrote to her — wrote on her — to remind her of her value and guard against her shame. This is a good way to capture that. And then there's another one, right after the fun cable design, ink spilling out to write that number again. Gorgeous.

She takes a few deep breaths before continuing.

The blacked-out design with gleaming ink is fascinating, and she's not even sure why. The lace and tea is lovely, too. The stormclouds and lightning are riveting. The raven is fascinating, and then the kanji just stop her.

She slides the tablet away for a moment, sighing tenderly and flopping a bit lower on her pillows. Wow. Wow. She's in the Rose Bowers, having been given — by a goddess — a number of incidental lives she saved in one day, and being shown tattoo designs featuring this number and calling her things like "strong heart" to remind her of her value ongoingly.

What even is her life?

After a few moments letting that sink in, she shakes her head with a giggle, propping herself back up and sliding the tablet back into place. She's seen enough designs at this point, she needs to start putting them to use. Her fingers dance across the screen, first saving the search results into a combined palette at the edge of the view, then expanding her rendered form to take up the majority of the view, and finally dragging the body-region selector off the edge of the screen and dropping it onto her avatar. Faint highlights paint across her body, mapping the overlapping regions in different colors, before fading from view.

She grins.

Okay, what's first? She flips through the palette of designs and grabs the nine-tailed fox, dragging it high on her left arm, high enough that the tails mostly can't fit and will have to sprawl across the rest of her body. She pulls the quill design out next, drops it onto her right arm, and drags the elegantly-written number down onto her forearm. She keeps flipping between the Celtic knot designs and the black well-stones, unable to decide between them, then grabs them both and squishes them onto each other in a blank area, before dragging the result mid-high on her right arm.

She hums, nodding to herself, tapping her lips thoughtfully. What else? Ah! She grabs the capsule-hotel windows and drops them low onto her left bicep, wrapping around her arm just a bit below the fox, and then drags the storm to her left forearm, twisting it so the lightning runs down the inside of her forearm.

She finds herself coming back to the broken chain design again and again, unsure where to put it, and then blushes, giggling softly. Yeah, that might work. She drags it onto her left thigh, then pulls it down nearly to her knee and toggles her skirt visible again on the model. She slowly drags it up her thigh until it's just peeking out below the skirt, and will show if she moves at all. A grin stretches her lips. Yeah, that fits.

Hmm, that's the body-art done. What else does she want here? Oh! She zooms in on her face, taps her lips, and quickly finds a wet-looking, glossy violet.

She takes a deep breath, nods to herself, and then taps in a final instruction to refine and balance everything from her rough placements and sizes and then apply it. Then she stands up and heads to the mirror again.

There's another soft flash of warmth, this time distributed all across her body.

The kitsune perches high on her left shoulder, tails spilling down her upper arm and mixing with the storm-clouds that gather along her bicep and lower arm. The capsule-hotel windows gleam amid the storm, held close by the kitsune tails like a surreal cloudbank; electricity crackles along the lowest of the fox tails, lashing out into violet lightning that ends at her wrist. 

On her right arm, a well engraved with celtic-knot designs circles her forearm, a black quill pen crossing it at an angle. The number 257,000 is written below, in delicate script from her elbow to her wrist. 

The broken chain wraps her left thigh, the break in the chain along her inner thigh and scattering fragments everywhere. Above it, near her navel, the inky heart still drips its ink down to her sex. 

Her violet nail polish and lipstick complete the look, matching perfectly with the tattoos engraved all across her body.

There's a prompt on the mirror; "Show back?"

This is even better than she expected! Her tails start wagging excitedly. It's interesting that the system put the kitsune facing her up her arm rather than down, but she can't argue that the resulting tail/cloud tangle works far better than what she was originally envisioning. She twists her arms and leg variously to get a better view of a few spots, then gulps and blushes hard. That is not where she expected the break in the chain to wind up. Um. Um. It's not wrong, though. If anything this placement is better.

She gulps again, then nods and squeaks a "yes" at the mirror.

A little inset in the mirror pops up, displaying her from behind. On her left side the storm and tails spill across her shoulder and onto her back, and cover her full arm as well, the capsule-hotel windows still visible. The chain is visible on her thigh as well. On her right, the engraved well-stones make a band around her upper arm; the quill and the number can't be seen from this side. 

Gorgeous design. She twists this way and that, checking herself out. True Persona is really a marvelous piece of magic, and this combination of tattoos suits her so well. It still shocks her a bit, even months later, that this is her. She gets to look like this. She gets to go to places like the Rose Bowers and get lovingly bullied into being nicer to herself.

How is this her life?

She blushes, grins, and starts getting dressed. Shimmies into the panties — those little bows look even cuter in person, blush — pulls on and clasps the bra. Steps into the skirt and slides it up over her hips, then fits her tails into the little hole for them. Finally she tugs on the shirt, slips her hourglass over her head, and puts on the socks and boots.

Okay, one last look at the completed ensemble. Damn, who said she was allowed to look this good? (Sunaira, apparently.)

Okay, purse, phone, deeeeep breath, and out the door. Let's go find Club Coze.

After a few turns through the hallways, she comes to a small café, which seems to be mostly empty at the moment, just a few people sitting around eating waffles and chatting.

Across the room, there's a whiteboard set up against the wall, above a large pit full of pillows and stuffies. Written on the whiteboard are the words PET THERAPY. 

A dark-furred kitsune in a pink kimono lounges underneath the sign, and waves at Sable when she sees her looking.

She smiles shyly and waves back, walking curiously up to the cuddlepit, then takes a steadying breath and speaks, her tails swishing slowly with nervous excitement. "Hi. I'm Sable, new here. I saw this listed in the schedule and was kinda curious?"

"Hey! I'm Kumi, I run this group from time to time. You're the first to arrive. The general idea is to give and get light petting from a bunch of other people - it's a really good antidote to touch starvation and a good way to ease into feeling more comfortable with acts of affection. I'll go over the ground rules once everyone arrives - it'll probably be another ten minutes or so. In the meantime since you've got me, anything you'd like to ask a Bower Escort?"

She giggles softly, and flops into the pit before she can question the decision. "Yeah, makes a lot of sense." And then her mind freezes up at the last part. Um. Um.

She manages to reset past the sudden nerves, and asks, "Um, what's it like, being a Bowers Escort? And, um, do y'all mind getting recommended at people?"

"It's not so different from being a permanent visitor. There's no quota or anything, you're free to fuck who you want. Sometimes the system matches you with people, same as if you were a guest, but that's just a recommendation, you don't have to follow through. I happen to like organizing soft stuff like cuddlepiles and petting sessions, so I do it pretty regularly. Other escorts have their own styles."

"Huh, okay, cool." Her expression turns thoughtful, drifting for a moment. She snags a plushie to still her mind a bit. Her hand lands on a pink shark with a familliar cutely derpy expression, and she clutches it to her chest with a giggle.

"That makes a lot of sense," she continues after a snuggly moment. "I should've expected it, honestly. S'very like Her to make sure y'all get the same kind of sexy paradisical life She insists visitors be able to enjoy, at minimum."

Squeeze. Mildly anxious trans girl squishes a blåhaj against her chest, news at eleven.

Across the room, a gaming group breaks up, going their separate ways. One of them comes over to the cuddlepit, her crimson tail swishing behind her. She's wearing a shapeless black bathrobe, tied off at the waist, and nothing else. 

"Hey," she says. "Pet Therapy soon?"

"Another ten minutes or so. Want to introduce yourself?"

"Anna," she says with an easy smile. "And you two are?"

"Kumi, Sable." She points at herself and Sable in turn. "I'm the organizer."

"And I'm the newbie," Sable adds. One of her tails has curled up around her, while the other two spill out into the pit next to her, trying not to take up too much room. She gives the shark in her arms a reflexive squeeze.

"How new, exactly?"

"I checked in maybe a couple hours ago?" She tugs her phone out of her purse and looks. "Two hours and forty-eight minutes."

"Gosh, this must be practically the first thing you've done. I'm flattered."

"Feels like a good introduction, to me at least. But then I love petting."