"Naturally." Pat pat.

"I love you." Tears are welling up in her eyes.

"You are the cutest peanut butter cup ever to come down with Stockholm syndrome."

"You too." Out go the tears.

Monoceros giggles and pets her.

"It sucks because all the other stuff looked cool. I'd love to see more of it, but..."

"But a convention of biotinkers isn't exactly profligate with the trigger warnings. You could plot a route with your map."

"I forget the exact definition of profligate, does that mean they do or don't have them?"

"Profligate is like liberal. Not profligate means they don't have many."

"Yeah, that's what I was guessing. I'll figure something out. How long until lunch?"

"Hour or so."

"Yeah, let me look at my map and see if i can find something to do that won't risk further freakouts."

There are lots of things on the map and most of them aren't spiders!

Katie gets up and has another brief wander of the place, avoiding spiders to the best of her ability.

Winged mice! Vat chicken! Glowing bonsai! An edible mold that tastes like cheese and will turn random kitchen biomass placed in its container into more of itself, except for citrus, it's allergic! Ostensibly telepathic dogs! Fuzzy caterpillar-looking things that eat dust! Bees that make maple syrup!

She sits down on a bench to rest and takes out her phone.

guys i'm at the con and i saw a spider and got freaked out and mo comforted me but like she wouldnt outright say she loved me even when i prompted her to and it has me very anxious

Mezzopiano: do you have reason to believe that she like, does
grape_fruit: it's not cool to pressure people about that
pithy: honestly if she said it at this point I'd be worried that she was lying to make you chill

I know I know I know I'm stupid I'm crazy etc

But like

I just want to be loved

That's all I've ever wanted

And like she's doing all the right things superficially, far moreso than I could've reasonably expected before, but like

Does she love me?

pithy: sounds like... no...
grape_fruit: give her time! some people take a while!
spirulinagalaxy: she's your type but are you hers the same way/amount? do you want to be doing more romantic things somehow idk

Ok

Yeah

Yeah

I just need to give it time

Not everyone is as stupid and desperate as me

I mean, I've barely talked about my interests or anything with her

Oh God what if she thinks all my hobbies are dumb

pithy: does she have hobbies
unicorn: yeah what does she do besides science and eating and dubcon

I don't actually know!

Mezzopiano: so you don't have much relationship foundation! but you can build one, if you want to.

i really really really want to

spirulinagalaxy: I mean you could also enjoy this as a sex fantasy or whatever and hold out for someone you click with with less effort but your options are pretty limited if you are held captive