"It's not a secret particularly, just... most senses of humor differ so I suppose it goes unnoticed."

She nods, her head brushing against his outer layers. "-the secret thing was a joke, yes." 

Hmmm. How to put it.... "I think it's just very... unobtrusive? Every joke I've heard you tell was also a true statement, and your delivery is pretty deadpan. It doesn't surprise me that people mostly don't pick up on it."

"I did on occasion do much the same thing with lies but that was when I was allowed to do that."

Venn grins. "Luckily, Iomedae does not forbid Her clerics from truthful jokes." 

He's so warm.... She nestles deeper into his arms, sighing happily.

Blai would wonder why this is happening except actually he can reconstruct the entire sequence of events pretty darn well so there is no question to go with the question mark. "It would be difficult to adapt to since so many of them are things I would also say for other reasons."

"You would have to simply fail to notice that they could be interpreted humorously." (It's hard to get a read on how he feels about this in this circumstance beyond 'not obviously uncomfortable', which is not a gold standard for snuggling with the fort commander you're on loan to but she is cold and also she likes him a lot, okay,) 

"It sounds challenging. Perhaps not impossible, I have not given it serious thought. Or humorous thought."

She nods absentmindedly, some part of her brain chasing down that last train of thought before it can get away.

(...No. Come on, Venn. Don't make excuses like that. Use your words.)

"...So, I usually rely on body language to figure out if people are comfortable with current amounts of hugging and snuggling and such, and I am pretty good at that, but it is actually hard to tell through your armor," she says lightly. "So - if you have opinions or questions I am happy to hear them and make adjustments."

And a good thing about the armor too but he should not think that too loudly or she will notice because apparently she is the kind of adventurer who can cast Detect Thoughts as an extraordinary ability.

There isn't a lot of room in a quinzee and she was shivering. This is true and also if you say that out loud to the kind of adventurer who can cast Detect Thoughts as an extraordinary ability it will be a really obvious deflection because that is NOT what she is probing about.

Isn't reading his mind really unpleasant. It has not exactly calmed down in there since he was twelve.

He has to say SOMETHING.

"Noted."

...something about that bothered him? Maybe not bothered, just, made him guarded? Her... relying on body language? Why...

They read people's minds in Cheliax, for loyalty tests,

She shuffles words around in her head for a bit and then comes up with "Do you want me to try and pay less attention to your body language?"

"- that would hardly be reasonable. Though I have been told I'm unpleasant to mindread."

She sighs. "I - look, I know I'm obnoxiously good at this when I try, even if I'm not doing anything so precise as reading your mind. You're allowed to ask me to not try, if the alternative is me learning things you would rather I don't. I wouldn't want to do that to you." 

She looks up at him seriously. "But please know: the things I do get, when I read you? They're certainly not unpleasant." Quite the opposite, actually, she doesn't quite say, but she isn't saying it pretty loudly. 

"...no?"

"Not even a little bit." She hugs him tighter for emphasis.

"I suppose it would not be very bizarre for it to be a matter of personal taste," he says dubiously.

She tilts her head and looks up at him. "So, just to be clear. You were told your thoughts were unpleasant to read by people who were being forced to screen thoughts for a living, right?"

"- they don't check clerics very much and if they did check me at some such point they didn't follow up with me about anything I was thinking. This was when I was twelve and being checked for wizard potential and no one else in the entire room bore comment at all."

Shrug. "I admit that it is possible I would have found your body language at twelve a bit much? But I read people because I want to get to know them better, and I do think that affords different and healthier perspectives than someone who has to regularly to screen through the thoughts of young people in bulk."

She looks at him curiously. "Do you find your own thoughts unpleasant?" She doesn't get that impression from him, but sometimes it can be hard to tell.

"...not all of them."

...oh.

She can't immediately think of something to say to that, so she just holds him tightly, doing her best to tell him with her arms that she's here for him, here with him because she wants to be.

This experience is weird on axes he did not know experiences even had.

... oh, he's so overwhelmed.

 She stops squeezing him. Doesn't let go of him just yet.

 "So," she says with a lightness she doesn't entirely feel, "I'm all warmed up now, thank you. And while I have enjoyed this and would be happy to do it again if you decide that that's something you might want, it's not something we'd be doing at this time if I hadn't been freezing, and I think that means we should stop now." 

She waits for him to process this before she starts withdrawing her arms. 

"- all right." He retrieves his hands and scoots back.