"Bitches love skritches." Anna grins. 

"Mmmhm." Kumi raises her hand and waves to somebody across the room.

A feather-winged girl in a purple dress and a tiara comes across the room from the door, fidgeting with the cuff of her dress. 

"Um, hello?"

"You look like you could use some gentle petting and comfort."

"Is it that obvious? Ummm..." She looks down at the floor.

"Come on in, the pillows are soft and the company's good. Nobody's going to do anything weird."

Weird? What counts as weird? She probably counts as weird. She—

Stop.

She squeezes the shark tighter, smiles shyly, and waves with a tail since her hands are occupied.

The winged girl hesitantly settles herself into a pillowdrift next to Sable. 

"Um, hi," she says. "What's your name?"

She twists in the pile a little bit to face the winged girl better. "Sable. Yours?"

"Well, you can call me Pigeon." She looks away, only to end up looking at Anna on her other side; she looks back at Sable, then back at Anna, then down into her lap.

"Don't worry, Pigeon, you're in good company. I'm staff, and it's Sable here's first day, so everything will be soft and gentle, alright?" She looks over at Anna.

"Didn't I already say that? But yeah."

"This is Anna, I'm Kumi. How long have you been here?"

"Um. A couple days, maybe? I've been... kind of... hiding."

"Oh, you poor thing!"

Kumi frowns at Anna. "Everyone is allowed to progress at their own pace. Don't make a big deal out of it."

Pigeon shrinks down into the pillow pile.

"You're right, I'm sorry."

"Thank you. Now, our ten minutes of waiting for people are almost up..."

A gold-furred kitsunemimi in a kimono much like Kumi's wanders across the floor and bellyflops wordlessly into the pile of plushies. 

"Oh, hi Aya."

"Mm."

Kumi casually reaches down and skritches Aya behind the ears. 

"Mmmmmmmmmmm."

"This, ah, is Aya, my coworker. She does this."