I put my eyes out when I lived in a human city but it wasn't about hair. The instrumental music's good sometimes, I kind of wish I'd bothered to learn the names of any of the pieces I liked.

If you can think a few bars I can try singing them into my tune recognition app!

It transpires that he likes Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals though he's rarely in the mood for the lion part, and he has strong opinions about how Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata fails to live up to its artistic potential, and he's a big Chopin fan, and he likes some of Peder Helland's ambient music in a kind of nonspecific way where it's notable for how no part of it is in any way unpleasant. ...Actually he likes a lot of forgettable chill ambient music on the grounds that it doesn't sound unpleasant and is nice and boring-in-a-good-way without being boring-in-a-bad-way. Actually he'd also like to know the name of this one Quenya song they were playing for him when he first visited Tide.

Also he's curious about Tulindo's taste in music. He hasn't gotten to discuss music before but it feels more like the kind of thing he can improvise than discussing math.

Tulindo can find all those titles for him. She likes barbershop harmonies (she's usually not into the lyrics) and circle singing and ragtime.

He thanks her.

Ragtime is sometimes good though he's not nearly as familiar with it as he'd like to be. He's not in a great position to take a lot of recs but he could take some.

(He's definitely not going to have answered her question by the end of class but. Well. He has a lot more of these to get through.)

Afterward he would very much like for something nice to happen. He's not picky about what kind of nice thing it should be, he just feels like after getting through all that the next thing that happens should not be the sort of thing he would describe as something to get through.

<I have melodic dictation next, so we get to listen to Elves sing and you don't have to be the one paying attention to exactly which notes, how's that for something nice?>

< ✨They're really good singers.>

<Aren't they just??>

Melodic dictation ensues.

It’s so nice. His imaginary body language is stretching and smiling dreamily and leaning on Ashkon's shoulder. And he doesn’t even have a real body to worry someone will see relaxing and hurt him, and if he were inclined to worry anyway there’s only so worried he could get when Ashkon's heart won’t start racing. It still feels unreal that the teachers don’t hurt their students but he doesn’t expect them to; he just distantly expects good things to happen, and they do.

Ashkon periodically goes <3 at him and raises his hand to ask questions about the notation and to ask that phrases be played or sung an extra time, as do the other students.

He enjoys most of what happens more than he thought was possible. When he doesn’t he thinks about math. He keeps an eye out for people he could talk to but doesn’t really know how to identify people like that or how to have conversations. He doesn’t ask about sleeping again soon; he likes what it does to him but every day is pretty excessive when he doesn’t need it and almost everything in waking life is more pleasant than almost all his dreams. He doesn’t ask to borrow Ashkon's body again before Ashkon needs to feed.

He feels like an imaginary friend that nothing bad can happen to.

<I only strictly need a bit less than an hour. Do you want me to come right back as soon as I'm done or do you want some time to yourself?> Ashkon asks as they're on the bus back to Tide.

<...I don’t know.> He will probably care and he’s started thinking of that as important but that only gets him as far as considering the question enough to know he doesn’t know yet. <I think if you don’t have any reason to think this is a stupid idea you should do what makes you comfortable this time and I’ll know next time?>

<Okay. I'll send you a message through the pool attendants when I'm ready, if you hang around, but if you do want to tell them that you'll be back later, I'll be okay, I don't have a class till tomorrow.>

<<3!>

<3!

And into the recliner, and - Ashkon is out and his host is all alone.

And he’s supposed to get up, probably. He does that. He looks for someplace else to sit.

There are plenty of benches and chairs; it's basically a luxe waiting room around here. There's a fishtank.

He likes the fish. He could stare at the fish for hours. Presumably over the course of Ashkon's education he will.

In addition to fish-watching he emails Nocawe to let her know that he's fine.

Nocawe gets back to him very promptly, apparently she's a fast emailer - I'm delighted that everything's working out for you with Ashkon! Don't hesitate to let me know if you need anything else. Do you still want to be on the waiting list for subtle artist help with the nightmares?

Yes but if it's important prioritization information I feel like I can live like this. Not literally, I can be dead like this.

I don’t think I need anything but we helped my friend move here and he might need help. Should I give him your email if he needs anything?

I’m too busy for it now but if I'd realized what teachers are like here I wouldn’t have been worried about language classes. I’m learning a lot. Some of it is even related to Ashkon's classes.

Thank you.

Feel free to refer your friend to me! What were you expecting teachers to be like, that might be important for anyone working with other people who've been through what you've experienced.

They'd provide information to learn and give me time to memorize it, and then quiz me and punish me for wrong answers. (For big topics like entire languages they'd break it up and give me a dictionary first, and when I had that memorized they'd give me a book about grammar, and then there'd be a chance to practice having conversations.) When I had to work for another dead human that would vary more. They were also much worse at explaining the reasons for things.

Thank you for telling me, that sounds awful. I'm really glad you're getting along with Ashkon! Do remember that if you ever start thinking you want to do something else, you can end your agreement any time.

Yep, it’s been made very clear to me that if I decide I don’t like the best thing that’s ever happened to me and want to suddenly interfere with Ashkon's studies I can do that. Unlike any of the things I’ve ever wanted to stop happening.