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Tanya hasn't been completely isolated. The new Willworker has been out and about lately, and has become familiar with the basics of terminology and ideology among their new social circle. Tonight, they're flopped back in bed inside the guest room they stay in, the door open to invite company. Tanya's clothed, at least in colorful socks and a pastel pink t-shirt. One hand taps on their smartphone, and one hand types on their laptop, their unfocused gaze sitting between both screens.
Their mentor arrives! Fox spends a lot of time wandering around as a fox, treating that as normal extension of who they are. This is their normal self, after all. They pap pap pap across the floor and hop up nimbly, brushing their tail against her as they come to plop down next to her.
Tanya smiles at Fox. Mentor or not, their normal form is a cute animal who likes affection, and they reach out to gently pet Fox's head and scritch behind his ears. "Hang on," they murmur, closing their eyes a moment, a faint drone in the air from their nimbus slipping away into silence. "There. You deserve my full attention. And trying to pet you while keeping that spell going made me wanna throw up."
There's another flare of Nimbus, all petrichor and warmth, and they can understand Fox when she yawns and leans into the scratching. "What spell were you keeping up?" She asks, cuddling comfortably in against Tanya, lazy and comfy.
Tanya focuses a bit in order to intone the name of the spell in the High Speech. "One Mind, Two Thoughts," they say with a little smile, slipping down to scritch Fox under the chin. "I was reading wikipedia on my phone and watching a video on my laptop at the same time. Like, actually at the same time, not just flicking between them and missing half of each."
"Mind isn't easy for someone like me, so I've never been able to manage it," Fox offers thoughtfully, briefly distracted by the petting. She yawns comfortably, stretching her front legs out and resting her head on Tanya's chest. "I am sure I could if I wanted to, but I never wanted to. Not compared to being good at other things." Stretch. "How are you settling in? Do you think you want to go back to school?"
The petting doesn't go much further than one would wisely pet a cat, or fox for that matter, but Tanya is practiced in kitty scritches. "I read that dogs and cats like chin and ear scritches because it's a part they can't easily scratch themselves," they murmur. They may also be a little stoned on top of their mind adjusting to no longer being split. "I'm fine. I'm understanding my inner scape. I was so focused on going out that I didn't look in enough. I don't think there's much point in going back to school," Tanya adds, pausing the scritches to look over at their tiny teacher. "Not to finish my ridiculous thesis, at least. Why bother? Appearances? Pride? It wouldn't change me or the world, or teach me anything. Not anything real."
"Yes, that's true," agrees Fox. "I can scratch my ears with my hind feet, but not nearly as well as a human can scratch my ears." She yawns comfortably once more, her eyes slowly closing and then opening again, her green-gold eyes focusing on Tanya. "You can do whatever you need to do. We are rich enough to take care of each other forever. At least... Zoya and Vasha are. I don't have any money. If you want to do school, you can. There's a lot to learn without that, for certain."
The human scratches the fox's ears deftly, flopping back on the bed fully and turning towards him. "I was going to school because my continued comfort and ability to participate in society was contigent on doing what other people wanted," they say matter of factly. "I hoped to get some things out of it, like meeting new people and learning new things, but the scope of both of those has expanded just a bit beyond. I could always go back later. But yeah, right now, knowing about the secret magic conspiracy enslaving all of reality seems more important."
Soft gekkering Fox laughter, and she noses in against Tanya. "I'm glad you see it that way. The Lie can be hypnotic, and it can be difficult, if you are drowned in it. I am happy to take you to meet with some of the elders, and help you learn more and get settled so you can move forward with what matters to you."
Tanya laughs, and noses back against Fox as she gekkers, eyes closing. There's something a bit more weary than their usual fresh-faced expressions, after thinking about Fox's words. "Knowing it was a lie was a relief. I thought I was a failure. Believed I was. Flawed beyond measure, unable to live up to basic expectations." They suck in a long breath and exhale it towards the ceiling. "Realizing that all those expectations and flaws were bullshit was a huge relief. Which is good, because that helps balance it out a bit."
"Balance what out?" The way Fox asks, it sounds like She Knows, or thinks she does, but she's asking because it's important for Tanya to come to those conclusions themself. She snuggles in against them.
Tanya smiles a bit. "The outrage, of course. The anger. The horror of realizing true, shameless evil exists on a cosmic scale, and the shame of finding out I've been conned my whole life. Being given control over the situation, and more freedom than I've ever had before, puts all that in...a different light," they say, their voice becoming soft and calm again by the time they've finished.
"Mmm. It's a lot to deal with," Fox agrees. "But... the control changes a lot of that." They stretch again, and rest their head against theirs, yawning more and letting out a long, slow sigh. "Let's spend more time at the Lodge. You need more voices than just mine." Sleepy Fox.
Tanya is plenty tired too. They stretch their arms out and snuggle the Fox up against them like a stuffed animal, though with far less squeezing. "That's a good place to start. That's what I need right now, good places to start. Least we've got time..." There's a biiiig yawn.
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