"She can't stand interacting with people. She hides under a blanket and sticks out her feet and has headphones on so she can pretend I'm not there or something, I don't know the details because I've never had a conversation with her."

“Anyway, I recognized him from his blog. He has an amazing blog.”

To Haru: "That sounds awful. That poor woman."

Then she processes what Lucy said and wiggles happily. Jackpot!

"Oooh! How'd you find it? What do you like about it? What's your favorite post and why?" 

“Oh, man, how did I find it originally? I’m not sure I remember, I think I was just fucking around on the internet and I found a link and then I forgot what I had been doing because the blog was really cool. I’d be hard-pressed to pick a favorite favorite but the ‘Yelling About Basic Research’ series is so good.”

Oh is he blushing? This is great. 

"Well, my phone is mysteriously absent! I will have to check them out when I can be trusted with it again."

She sighs dreamily. "Dungeon rescue meet-cute with a favorite blogger, huh..."

“…I feel like ‘meet cute’ has, like, connotations.”

"Well! Unfortunately I've never read a work of fiction in my life, so I wouldn't know anything about that", she says serenely. 

"If the denotation of 'meet cute' is anything other than 'meeting, cutely' it's lost on me."

Whooooops. "Ah, sorry - a 'meet-cute' traditionally refers to a scene in a work of fiction where 2 characters who will usually go on to have some kind of relationship, typically romantic, meet for the first time in some unusual or humorous way. Running into each other on foot and falling down together is a traditional one. I did not actually mean to imply that you two are or at some point will be dating," though at this point she would bet on it and also is hoping for it "but the scenario as described is both a literal cute meeting and also the kind of thing I could see employed as a meetcute in esperfic?"

She shoots an apologetic look at Lucy.

“That much is definitely true.”

Hmm... "Speaking of esperfic, maybe I should give some another try! I never got into it because I kept bouncing off written descriptions of guiding, because - well, I kept getting really sad thinking about how I'd never get to experience it." She wriggles a bit, relishing the cuddle pile skin contact. "I have to say, it lives up to the hype."

"This is pretty high-end, my secondary in B.C. is less than half this compatible."

“Huh. I’ve never had sex, but I read smut all the time.”

She shrugs. "Yeah, I dunno! I was reading smut before I was having sex, but it was with the understanding that I would have the opportunity to change this state of things in the future, if I wanted to. And with esperfic... there was only a very tiny chance I would be able to experience guiding, and no actions I took would change this, and it made me sad to think about."

She turns to Haru. "That makes sense. And I think Lucy and I are even more compatible than you and I are? I can feel it when she's nearby, even when we're not touching."

"I have that with June, but the limitations on how she can put up with guiding are so bad that it adds up to worse."

"Look at all this non-feet skin, available for guiding!" Also, she could hmmm maybe don't think about that in the cuddle pile!

She sighs. "Man. Poor June."

“A backlash that actively interferes with guiding does sound like a special kind of hell.”

"I get the impression that it sucks, via her brother, yeah."

This train of conversation gets her thinking about her own backlash, and also how she spent her morning.

...she shivers.

Pet pet.

Oh no!

”So obviously your hair is already delightfully decorated, but I still felt like it was worthwhile to ask what color of marker you wanted, since it’s temporary anyway and, like, purple streaks, or something, would totally work.”

...awww. she doesn't have to - "...Hmmm. I would do some black streaks, for enrichment? No purple, though, I am pretty committed to the blue bit, purple is Fraternizing With The Enemy." 

“What.”