"Go ahead." She sets the plate on the standing desk. "And no, I don't know what calculus is. I know some approximation methods that are pretty good but nothing that'll give an exact answer."

He will totally explain calculus between bites of sandwich!! That's distracting! He draws helpful graphs. One approximation method is to draw a graph and take vertical slices of it, right, well, what happens if you keep making the vertical slices smaller and smaller? They get more accurate. Calculus is a branch of math that, for reasons he doesn't quite understand, will get you the exact area under a curve, among other useful things, it's somehow taking infinitely small vertical slices and adding them all up. Though you need a precise definition of the line you're calculating under and it doesn't work for all possible definitions of curves. It works like this!

Fascinating! Can it go the other direction?

Sort of. Here is how derivatives work. They're rates of change. Jerk is the derivative of acceleration is the derivative of speed is the derivative of position. And limits let you determine how a function behaves if you let it continue to infinity.

He sobers up some when he finishes explaining limits. "That is about all I know... Actually, I wonder... Uh, what to check... Satura-anske Frankenstein by Mary Shelley."

He gets a mental copy of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

He literally jumps in the air in excitement. "-Holy shit I can get books from my world. At least one book."

"You're a data admin and the SYSTEM has access to your world, so..."

"We don't have any rel'he. We don't have Hymnos or core draw, where I'm from, so why can it read...? Why did it bring me here- Can I go home and bring the Hymn, I wonder, it'd save so many people- This is taking me back into thoughts that are way too big."

Sigh.

"I think I'm calmer now, at least. Food and math, that's the ticket. A-and hugs."

"If you'd like more hugs I can provide more hugs. I don't know how other worlds work; only mamria-shaldea would know, and there hasn't been one in a thousand years." 

"I don't know how other worlds work either. At least not the getting between them... More hug would be nice. I really do need a distraction, and- You're hot, and I'm a young guy, so obviously I want that kind of distraction on some level, it's just that I was raised to think sex is something you do with your wife, or at least someone you are in love with, and don't talk about, so even if I think that's stupid and backwards and rel'he do it totally differently... It feels scary and wrong. You know?"

She steps in and hugs him. 

"Yeah, I can get that. It's that way for most new rel'he, the transition can be scary. Because, well - you can get by with the inefficient methods for a while, but the muse system exists for a reason, you know."

Hug good. "I really do need to get it back to zero. And be careful about how I use it, not waste core draw. I would be - comfortable enough I think, holding your hand while you... Have fun, and then maybe doing the same thing alone, I think. Especially if you have, er, lube and a shower."

He is blushing the color of a fire.

(He could use the SYSTEM to look up porn from Earth if... Listening to Hannah isn't enough. This doesn't feel like as much of a push somehow.)

"Exposure therapy. Get used to it bit by bit."

"We have those things, what do you take us for, savages?" She smiles. "And you're very brave, being willing to... take the first step, like that. It's a little weird for me too, since you're so young, but... I think we can come to an arrangement."

She gets down on her hands and knees and fishes underneath the bed, and comes back with a glass bottle full of a pink oil. "Lube. And there's a shower room down the hall, the door locks. Do you want to see where that is right now?"

Oh yeah, she could be anywhere from twenty to a hundred, couldn't she? This is a magic world, where normal rules of aging don't apply.

"Probably a good idea. I, uh- Only have this set of clothes. They cost three core draw to make."

"Make!" She whistles. "Not a usual command. But I can get you another set pretty fast I bet, by one method or another. Might be a little hard to do it conventionally this late, but..."

"There's a command to teleport in my userdocs but it probably takes multiple core draw, that's extremely overkill. I could probably just - clean them? Or," blush, "Use tissues so they don't need cleaning."

"I um. I have an exceedingly washable blanket I put on the bed when I'm using it for sex, you could use that...?"

"-Hymn this is embarrassing to talk about. That sounds like the best plan on short notice if you don't know where to find a spare male outfit on zero notice which um where's the shower?"

"I'll show you, it's just down the hall." She leads him out onto the balcony again, heads past a few doors, then opens a sturdy oak door on her left and lets it swing open to reveal a tiled room with a large bath - big enough for three or four people - and an overhead shower. The taps are right in plain view. 

"Here. I could start knocking on doors for a loaner outfit but I don't think it's worth waking people up."

"Okay. So- I'm very anxious. I know this is weird. So, thank you for trying not to be weird about it. I'll wrap myself in the blanket when I'm done and dress in here, I guess?"

"Works for me. Nobody's likely to see you. I should get out the blanlet for you."

Back to Hannah's room. She pulls out the neatly-folded blanket from beneath the bed.

"In case it wasn't clear, don't go reaching around under my bed or else you might lay your hands on something personal." Hannah halfsmiles. 

"I, uh, wasn't planning on snooping through your stuff. If you're not comfortable with this-"

"No, I'm fine, it just occurred to me that you might want to put the blanket back afterwards or something. Sorry."

"I know what a dildo is," he blurts out, then blushes. "And other stuff. -Okay, shutting up now, stupid..."

She laughs. "Well now you know where to find one."