"So is that... a family, a clan, a government...?"

"All of those. I... don't really want to get into the details of Morrowind politics. My family is important, and they're all mages, and they want all of us to be mages and be important and compete with each other and become powerful and I just... I don't. So I left, first one of my family in a long time."

"And so everyone who sees you here in Skyrim's College wonders why you're learning magic here, and pesters you with all sorts of questions."

"Yeah. It gets tiring, explaining all of this."

Another smile. "Well, my apologies for making you explain again."

"It's fine. It's... different, when you really don't know, and aren't making all sorts of assumptions."

He can tell she's getting a bit uncomfortable about all of this anyway, though, so he decides to change the subject. "I'm not sure what I want. I haven't even seen a map of the country to know where we are, in relation to everywhere, and I don't have a... history. What I do have is some sense that I should be here. If that makes sense?"

"No, not really."

"Yeah." Shrug. "It was just a very strong feeling I got, that the College was where I was meant to go. Enthir—that's one of the researchers here, at least I assume—said that I could be some sort of sleeper agent."

"Like, to try to infiltrate the College or something? What would be the point?"

"No idea."

"It's not hard to get into the College and it's not like they keep secrets. And they're independent of the Empire, so honestly I have no idea why even the Thalmor would be interested let alone wherever you'd supposedly be from."

"That's what Mirabelle said. —except for the Thalmor bit, I guess she did mention Ancano but I have no idea what a Thalmor is."

"Oh you'll have to ask someone else about that, they're Skyrim business."

Soon after, the half-hour bells sound and they get out of the tub. Brelyna knows that spell that gets one dry and uses it on herself and Ruby, then both of them go back upstairs to their rooms to put their clothes on and grab whatever else they want to bring to their first lesson.

And when Ruby steps out of his room Onmund is also getting out of his, and this time he's wearing the "uniform".

Ruby quite literally freezes and stares. His only coherent thought is "By all the gods I want that inside me." He can feel himself stiffening but can't actually unglue his eyes from it.

Onmund notices, obviously, and the continued staring starts getting to him too. He clears his throat and says, "Good morning?"

That snaps him out of it. "Good morning," he says, almost automatically, as his brain boots back up. "I see you got the school garb."

"I think everyone did, yeah." He shuffles his feet kind of awkwardly but he can't deny that he actually enjoys the attention. "I figured... might as well get used to it, you know?"

"You could've also worn the other piece," Ruby points out.

Well what does he say to that. "You continue to be very direct."

"It's a gift."

J'zargo steps out of his room then and a second afterwards so does Brelyna. If J'zargo is fazed at all by the other two clearly having a moment there it's hidden in cat body language. Brelyna does kind of look a bit but approximately in the same way someone else might look at, say, exposed cleavage: eye-catching, attractive, but fundamentally not particularly remarkable.

"J'zargo thought he would be arriving in class early, but clearly everyone had the same idea."

"It'd be pretty bad to be late to our first lesson. So, shall we?"