"I've never tried the stuff, I like my brain and if I ever decided to like it less for recreational purposes I'd do more flying."

"That seems very reasonable - it was socially encouraged to drink when I was at school in certain contexts and I was not under the impression a small amount would impact me as much as it did."

"Natural lightweight, I guess. I do think practice helps a lot, with managing psychological backlash."

"I suspect it will be useful once I've stopped being backlashed and can re-evaluate what happened? I could probably do better than I am doing right now but I don't think I can do so without risking making really horrible decisions."

"I can warn you if you seem about to make a horrible decision."

"That would help but I'm not sure how much.... oh you said you were going to look up what I did in the Philippines when we got here."

"You're right, I did say that." He pulls out his phone. Tappety tap. "Looks like it was a typhoon."

"... How did I cause that again?"

"You didn't. It's the weather."

"Hmmmm..."

Lucien looks at Haru for a moment.

"... What if I touched your abs, instead of thinking about whether or not I can control the weather."

"...you had seemed inclined to save decisions in that vein for when you're saner?"

"I'm not sure whether that falls in the category I was avoiding?"

"Well, I'm not sure either. I don't mind on my own behalf."

".... Taking shirts off felt better than I was expecting.... I'm not sure whether to re-evaluate my previous decision in the light of that information or to refuse to do so on the grounds that I'm not thinking straight now."

"I mean, I didn't think you were deciding to be restrained based on your guess about how nice guiding can get at the high end."

"Uh, I think anxiety about things played a role in my decision and now I feel less anxiety so my decision is different, is a thing that's going on?"

".... Also I really want more. Which. I think is a point in favor of trusting my past self since probably my decisions now are more biased."

"...not necessarily, since the guiding is making you less backlashed than you were then. But, like, it'll still be great in a week if you play it safe and wait a week."

Lucien is going to look at Haru's abs forlornly for a bit.

Hoooooooooo boy.

And then just flop back against him like before without moving to touch them.

"How are you going to want to handle sleeping arrangements tonight?"

"Um...."

"I think your backlash ticked back up a little when I went to the bathroom, so if we sleep separately it'll have hours to do more of that, plausibly all the way back up to full awakening levels, but, uh, this is not really a decision you get to make sane since this will happen all week or till I get you to zero, whichever comes first but I don't think I'm zeroing you out before Thursday."

"I think I would prefer to try not sharing a bed with you?"

"Okay. I'm gonna recommend the guest room in case you change your mind after some tossing and turning, rather than putting you back in your AirBnB."