[What’s gauche about it?]

[The implied contempt? Like, some people love putting themselves through the wringer, but people who don't aren't under any obligation to expand their comfort zone there. I guess maybe this etiquette lesson matters more for doms, I guess subs could be trash talking each other's accomplishments of masochism all in good fun at parties I am not invited to... I can't actually tell if you're a dom or a sub because all the signaling's so cultural.]

[...I... guess if you don’t have any gods around who really like torture and will bless your crops for it, and you don't have any gods around who really hate torture and will give you healing magic but take it away if you ever lay a hand on anyone... then you would just end up hurting each other exactly as much as everyone finds most fun or as much as you can afford healing for, huh... That sounds really nice. Anyway, I'm not sure what you mean by "dom" and "sub"?]

[In the aforementioned consenting intimate relationships the dom dishes it out and the sub takes it, to give the most reductive possible gloss.]

Sigh. [I have no idea how to navigate this place and have been noticed by a powerful magic-user and will presumably want whatever you find most convenient going forward since you don't even have will saves, so I'd think you'd have a better idea than I do what I'll be going forward, but I guess historically I've been a sub.]

[I do not have mind control magic. If you want you can walk out of this restaurant into the wilds of New York City without me and you'd probably eventually find another psion who could communicate with you, or maybe you'd manage well enough without communicating that this wouldn't even come up as anyone's action item. People get to discern for themselves if they're doms or subs. Or switches or nondynamics.]

[I don't have much reason to prefer anyone else? You seem really nice. I... guess people I've met have been way more impressed with how I never scream and almost never beg for mercy than they have been with my kind of mediocre skills as a torturer, so I suppose I'm a sub?]

[This decision is not in the ideal case mediated by what characteristics other people find attractive in you, though some people who are, like, a Kinsey five or whatever probably lean into it more if they think they'd be more sought-after in a specific role? - you do not need to have a decision now, you don't need to present clearly or have a good answer for random people any time soon.]

[...Wait, is the question which end of the whip I'm usually on, or which I like better?]

[Second thing. But also not every consensual intimate relationship features violence! Some people just like being ordered to fetch snacks and hold the door!]

He smiles shyly and blushes and shows no sign of having contemplated this possibility before. [That's sweet.]

[Anyway, role affects a lot of things about how people talk to you even in professional or platonic settings, and it matters to people a lot, but you're going to look like a space alien for a while and you can present as "role: space alien" while you get used to Earth, it's fine.]

[That makes sense. ...Thank you.]

[You're welcome.]

[...So... what do you actually want with me, then? Just information about Golarion?]

[Pretty much, yeah. Eclipsed make a lot of money, I can afford to put you up while you're finding your feet.]

[Huh. Well, thank you.]

[I'm going to be at work a lot so you'll have some time to kill but I'm a precog and I can plan to check in often enough that I'll notice if anything awful is going to happen.]

[Okay. ...How do I get my feet under me here?] He had been expecting that she didn't really want him to, so he'd be in need until she got tired of him, but maybe she's very nice. Some people are very nice. - Or he's charmed, he could be charmed. [I'm only decent with a sword. I've waited tables and stuff and I've farmed but that's probably different here. I can read but probably not anything local.]

[Swords are obsolete, but if they're not on Golarion, it's possible that your 'only decent' is very competent indeed here, maybe you could teach people your style of swordfighting, some people learn it as a hobby. I would recommend learning English and learning to read it while you're at it but I don't know how quick you are at languages.]

[I think I'm okay at languages. I guess I could try teaching people.]

[Probably hard to do while you're not fluent in English yet so I guess start there no matter what kind of life plan you're leaning toward. If you had your own magic I could probably justify getting English dropped whole into your head by a psion who can do that, as an expense, but it would be really pricey even for me.]

[I can... try? I have managed to cast a spell a couple of times, I'm just not good enough at it to actually study, and I don't have a spellbook, and I don't know how to draw spells even if I did have a spellbook, and I'm out of practice and when I wasn't out of practice I had a tendency to just straight up fail a lot even though I was trying to prepare a cantrip. but I almost feel like I could draw one from memory if I did know how to draw them and have the right materials, which I also don't know how to recognize. It does sort of feel like it might be the kind of thing I could make progress on if I let it steep for a bit while I go for long walks in the woods and maybe help defend some farms.]

[Defend the farms from...?]

[...You'd know better than I would? I just got here, why would I know what kind of monsters you have?]