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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
subtly_artistic
Bella grits her teeth and concentrates and writes single topical thread common to many thoughts (focus issue? individual/species trait? unknown)
He wonders whether the part that's getting under her skin is the violence, how much he likes it, or something else he hasn't thought of.
subtly_artistic
Bella writes subject curious about my visible reaction to thoughts - work on suppressing that? focus of healing sessions = subject, not me
"No, really, which is it?"
subtly_artistic
"I show up to skirmish games sometimes like everyone else. If you weren't a nymph I'd think it was sketchy to react like you do to something ostensibly for a non-sexual purpose, in public, and I'm reserving judgment given that you are a nymph." She almost, but doesn't quite, lose concentration.
People react sexually to things in public all the time, and given the wide range of people's sexuality, those things are only usually things that are commonly acknowledged as sexual in purpose or nature. Celo sure isn't bothered.
subtly_artistic
Bella supposes he would know. She keeps her arts fixed on his thoughts carefully.
Anyways, if it bugs her when he thinks about sex, he'd rather think about something that's not sex.
Cooking! Cooking is not sex. (It can be combined with sex, but he'll leave that alone for now.) Cooking is fun. Eating is fun. Bodily skills and bodily sensory experiences are fun even when they're not the ones nymphs are known for. He thinks about domestic arts - baking muffins and cookies and cakes, making pancakes or hot chocolate. He has an extremely vivid memory for taste and smell. Also, his muffins are fucking delicious.
Cooking! Cooking is not sex. (It can be combined with sex, but he'll leave that alone for now.) Cooking is fun. Eating is fun. Bodily skills and bodily sensory experiences are fun even when they're not the ones nymphs are known for. He thinks about domestic arts - baking muffins and cookies and cakes, making pancakes or hot chocolate. He has an extremely vivid memory for taste and smell. Also, his muffins are fucking delicious.
subtly_artistic
Bella doesn't mean to visibly relax - she does mean to be a healer; this will require being calmly able to hear thoughts and if she couldn't avoid tensing she can at least avoid slumping gratefully in her chair. She writes vivid sense-memory.
Sewing is also among the domestic arts. Celo is fond of handcrafts. (Despite her efforts, he notices her relief.) He thinks he'd like to be a clothing designer when he graduates. A nymph in fashion should get people's attention nicely, and he bets it'll be fun, not to mention the wicked little thrill he gets when he imagines wearing his own creations.
subtly_artistic
Odd. She wonders but doesn't ask why he takes such exception to people who don't identify his species opting to ask that he put pants on.
It occurs to him that she saw that thought, and that she was there when he threatened to kill and eat the next person who orders him to clothe himself, and that she might be curious; consequently he thinks about his reasons.
The parts that aren't heavily signposted are not especially comprehensible or articulable.
He consciously chooses to go back to thinking about muffins.
The parts that aren't heavily signposted are not especially comprehensible or articulable.
He consciously chooses to go back to thinking about muffins.
subtly_artistic
Bella steers clear of the signposts, but in so doing drops out of his mind altogether. She drops her hand, writes down 3:17, and starts up again.
Chocolate-chip banana muffins with coconut flakes and ground almond. Carrot muffins with cinnamon. He remembers eating those with significantly more loving detail than he gave to his memories of classes.
subtly_artistic
Those do sound tasty...
She writes Some contagion of sense-memory interests; unsure of potential extent.
She writes Some contagion of sense-memory interests; unsure of potential extent.
They tasted tasty. And they had that warm fresh smell, and they were springily soft in his hands when he broke them open to put a little butter in the middle.
Well, now Celo's kind of hungry. He wonders if he has time to find a kitchen he can use and whip up another batch of those before his next class with Coach Sadist. Probably not.
Well, now Celo's kind of hungry. He wonders if he has time to find a kitchen he can use and whip up another batch of those before his next class with Coach Sadist. Probably not.
subtly_artistic
Bella watches him think about muffins. She thinks about lunch. She peers at her timer occasionally.
Muffins. Tasty muffins.
He wonders if he should come back and do this again later. It pays pretty well. But despite having looked it up, he doesn't have a clue how to shut off his sense of sexuality, so Bella probably doesn't want him around.
He wonders if he should come back and do this again later. It pays pretty well. But despite having looked it up, he doesn't have a clue how to shut off his sense of sexuality, so Bella probably doesn't want him around.
subtly_artistic
"There are other students in psionics lab, it's not just me," says Bella.
"Yeah, but you're here and I'm also here," he points out.
subtly_artistic
"You probably wouldn't be assigned to me again. The point of hiring people is variety or we'd just work with each other all the time. There's also another section that meets Tuesdays, I think."
"Okay," he shrugs. That works out nicely, then.
Intense mouth-watering sense memory of delicious food!
subtly_artistic
Bella's stomach growls, she winces, and she loses the read. 2:59, she writes.