"I'm not saying that guy deserves to be enslaved, but he was super racist and definitely not someone who objected to the basic point of this place, so I don't think rescuing him is likely to be our highest priority."

"Might need to do a longer term feasibility study on whatever it is Lady Clara did to him. It can't be that broadly applicable or she'd probably have added it on top of the wand thing, right? So there's some kind of limit - exposure time, maybe, or knowledge of the target, or it's draining to do, or it's conspicuous somehow, or - could be almost anything, really."

"Or she's like me and Erek's robot-ness confuses her somehow, in which case we can't rely on it continuing over the long term as she figures out robot stuff."

"That would imply that catching Erek was planned, not opportunistic, is there any reason to single him out?"

"It didn't seem like she knew I was inorganic to begin with. So if I throw her off and that's what led her to me she may have been trying the same thing on everyone."

"I know she has some kind of passive thing that isn't as strong as me when I'm trying because I kept it bottled up during orientation." 

"I don't remember feeling anything before you came in..." 

"It might not have been noticeable without interacting with her." 

"Can you elaborate on 'some kind of passive thing'."

"She seemed to expect everyone around her to arrange themselves for her convenience without her having to do anything specific about that." 

"...I see. So she might have noticed Erek didn't, I don't know, get out of her way promptly or something. Anyone else seem to throw her off?"

"Not that I noticed but we came in last."

"I don't remember anything that seems obviously in retrospect on-theme for that."

"I vaguely recall her sitting alone...that might be relevant. I don't know." 

"She sat alone," Erek confirms.

"So we have some but not a comprehensive idea of what she can do, and her minion has some kind of magic wand...now I'm wishing I had done more mind-reading of the obvious hostiles." 

"Can you not do it any more? I mean, I don't like it, but I think I'm going to have to get used to going with lesser evils."

"I can't mind-read someone who's in their own dorm room who hasn't given me explicit permissions." 

"Right. Class, maybe?"

"Yep. Assuming nothing goes wrong. I bet any of these teachers could keep me from mind-reading the whole class if they wanted to." 

"Maybe they'll surprise me."

"Maybe they'll happen to suck in a way that doesn't interfere with mass invasion of privacy!"

(Emily stifles a giggle.)

"Okay, so... we should travel in pairs at least, probably have some kind of protocol for checking each other over and also checking Edie's roommate - does she have a name? - and Mewtwo, even if they don't count for buddy system purposes... and we should have a way to summon company for trips to the library or into town or anything, which - always alerts the whole group, maybe? So it can't be used to lure a single person into a compromised situation. But I don't know how to set that up, I think the triangle guys had something like it but it was technology I couldn't make sense of."

"I can construct communicators like that."