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Bella is seriously considering refusing to tell anyone else what her major is. Honestly. The way people flinch -
Well, no, that's not fair. She'd flinch too if she were unprotected and a subtle artist walked by. Just because most don't, in fact, casually or unintentionally read thoughts, doesn't mean that none of them do. Her tutor back home thought that her aversion to having her mind read was why her arts were set up so defensively and everything else was secondary for her.
She doesn't like the flinching, but it is fair. Maybe she'll go to the lab and scribe off a few copies of a mini fact sheet so she can hand them out when she meets people. No, that would be obnoxious.
She'll wait for it to wear off. Eventually she'll make some friends who'll know how she works. Or who are other subtle artists; she's probably more likely to make friends in classes than in the dorm, anyway.
She's not sure how she feels about the mixed-sex dorms. The rooms are singles, at least - that's why she's in Thatcher Hall, automatic single rooms for no extra charge at the price of having to maybe live next door to somebody who's not all human. There's a short list of species who qualify to be out of Harlowe and in predominantly-human Thatcher. None of them scare Bella. The orientation guide called Thatcher a "salad bowl". The junior who was wandering by at the time called it a pit.
The building looks nice. Bella's room looks nice. She unpacks her stuff and then goes back out to explore a little and encounters a stark naked man.
"Dude!" she exclaims. "Put some clothes on! This is a mixed sex hall!"
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subtly_artistic
Celo giggles.
subtly_artistic
Bella collects little stacks of each kind of cookie, gamely attempting to float them and failing, and carries them back to her room.
She's up a bit later, reading ahead in Intro to Psychology for Subtle Artists, and Miki, the other nice girl from the end of the hall, drops by to chat. She wants to know if Bella wants to go to the elementalism club with her, on the grounds that Bella was in AP magic classes in high school.
"I have a six-course load this semester," Bella apologizes. "Even if my lab is only once a week and Basic Knife doesn't exactly give homework, I don't think I want to commit to any clubs while I'm still settling in. Maybe in the spring."
She's up a bit later, reading ahead in Intro to Psychology for Subtle Artists, and Miki, the other nice girl from the end of the hall, drops by to chat. She wants to know if Bella wants to go to the elementalism club with her, on the grounds that Bella was in AP magic classes in high school.
"I have a six-course load this semester," Bella apologizes. "Even if my lab is only once a week and Basic Knife doesn't exactly give homework, I don't think I want to commit to any clubs while I'm still settling in. Maybe in the spring."
"You're in Basic Knife?" comes a familiar voice from just down the hall.
subtly_artistic
"Considering that I need enchanted damn boots to walk down the hall without breaking my neck, yes, I am in Basic Knife!" Bella calls back.
Miki titters.
Miki titters.
Just-down-the-hall laughs good-naturedly.
subtly_artistic
"Well, if you change your mind about the club let me know," says Miki, and she wanders off.
"Will do," promises Bella. She even writes this down.
"Will do," promises Bella. She even writes this down.
Celo appears in her doorway.
"Basic Knife," he says, shaking his head. "Can I come in and mock you some more?"
"Basic Knife," he says, shaking his head. "Can I come in and mock you some more?"
subtly_artistic
"I'm not kidding about needing the boots," Bella says. "I was exempted from high school melee because I was a lawsuit liability. My knife is enchanted not to cut me, but that won't stop me from getting a serious bruise when I fall on it or accidentally fling it into my forehead. Basic Knife is a joke, but I'm not equipped to do anything with a sharp object other than standup comedy, you know?"
He grins.
"Okay, okay, fair enough. Not everybody can live through a class with Coach Sadist."
"Okay, okay, fair enough. Not everybody can live through a class with Coach Sadist."
"The first thing she ever said to me was - well, no," he amends, "the first thing she said to me was 'Fucktoy! Catch!' The second thing was 'And here I thought you'd be a solution to all those regulations against killing students for effect.' She's been doing her damnedest to send me back to my garden ever since."
subtly_artistic
"Okay, that would be inconvenient, I imagine, but it wouldn't be killing you in the ways that most matter. Isn't it a rule that teachers have to use formal address? I've been called Ms. Swan so many times in the last couple of days that I keep expecting to sprout wings and fly."
"Yeah," says Celo, "the question is, does Coach Sadist care? The answer is no. The answer is always no."
"Because she is insanely fucking good at it." He grins. "And I think her bosses are a little bit afraid she'll kill them if they fire her."
subtly_artistic
"She's good at her job and her way of being good at her job involves verbal abuse and the next step down from death threats?"
"Yep," says Celo. "I like her."
He shrugs. "If that's what floats your boat."
subtly_artistic
"I can live without finding out what repulsive nickname she'd give me and worrying if my parents are going to spend the rest of their lives in debt to the friendly neighborhood clerics trying to get me rezzed," Bella says.
"I'm not totally sure she'd kill you," he says. "But I bet she'd try at least once."
subtly_artistic
"Yeah, I don't want people to try to kill me. I want to live."
"If you expect somebody to try to kill you, taking Jillian's classes is a great way to make sure they won't succeed," he says. "Kind of why I'm in 'em."
subtly_artistic
"Except," says Bella, "that I am an embarrassment with weaponry. I'd be much better off taking Arcane Self Defense, which I might actually do. Or learning to teek or pyro, like, at all."