View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Bella is seriously considering refusing to tell anyone else what her major is. Honestly. The way people flinch -
Well, no, that's not fair. She'd flinch too if she were unprotected and a subtle artist walked by. Just because most don't, in fact, casually or unintentionally read thoughts, doesn't mean that none of them do. Her tutor back home thought that her aversion to having her mind read was why her arts were set up so defensively and everything else was secondary for her.
She doesn't like the flinching, but it is fair. Maybe she'll go to the lab and scribe off a few copies of a mini fact sheet so she can hand them out when she meets people. No, that would be obnoxious.
She'll wait for it to wear off. Eventually she'll make some friends who'll know how she works. Or who are other subtle artists; she's probably more likely to make friends in classes than in the dorm, anyway.
She's not sure how she feels about the mixed-sex dorms. The rooms are singles, at least - that's why she's in Thatcher Hall, automatic single rooms for no extra charge at the price of having to maybe live next door to somebody who's not all human. There's a short list of species who qualify to be out of Harlowe and in predominantly-human Thatcher. None of them scare Bella. The orientation guide called Thatcher a "salad bowl". The junior who was wandering by at the time called it a pit.
The building looks nice. Bella's room looks nice. She unpacks her stuff and then goes back out to explore a little and encounters a stark naked man.
"Dude!" she exclaims. "Put some clothes on! This is a mixed sex hall!"
+ Show First Post
subtly_artistic
Celo laughs. "Maybe I'll bake cookies for the hall tonight."
subtly_artistic
"I'm sure they'd be delicious." She underlines her remark about contagion and starts up again.
"Do you want some?"
The association to innuendo is automatic, but the innuendo is not actually intended; he literally does just want to know if she is interested in eating his literal cookies.
The association to innuendo is automatic, but the innuendo is not actually intended; he literally does just want to know if she is interested in eating his literal cookies.
"Course they are. I'm a nymph. I always bring enough for everybody," he jokes, grinning.
Celo cracks up.
subtly_artistic
Bella resolutely continues to read him. But humor is nearly as contagious as sense-memory, and she cracks a smile.
The joke wasn't that hilarious, but the face she made at it totally was. Celo giggles.
She has a cute smile, too. It gives him nice feelings to look at.
Well, now he's not sure if he just weirded her out or not.
"Okay," Celo says agreeably.
In that case he can go back to having nice feelings about her smile.
In that case he can go back to having nice feelings about her smile.
subtly_artistic
And Bella will go on reading them. They're easy to pay attention to.
That works out nicely then!
Nice warm snuggly happy feelings. (Not sexy ones. By now he has figured out enough about Bella that if they were sexy ones, he would not be dwelling on them in front of her.)
Nice warm snuggly happy feelings. (Not sexy ones. By now he has figured out enough about Bella that if they were sexy ones, he would not be dwelling on them in front of her.)
subtly_artistic
Bella sustains five minutes, and is so surprised by having managed to do so that she loses her concentration right then. She writes 5:01 and positive attention easy to focus on; part of the importance of telepath/client rapport? and then picks up again to see if she can repeat the feat.
Celo is distracted; now he wonders if it would help or hinder her purpose if he was talking more.
subtly_artistic
"I cleared five minutes, which was my assignment. I'm getting an A for the day," says Bella. "At this point learning to multitask will help me in general and trying for it won't hurt my grade."
"Awesome," he says. "What do you wanna talk about? I guess the topics that get the best result so far are muffins and how cute you are, but it's probably different talking about it."
subtly_artistic
"Not overwhelmingly different. In my Utility Psionics class we're learning to have relatively ordinary conversations in perfect silence. By the time I'm a sophomore all my psionics classes will be conducted silently."
"Not the direction I meant," he says, and illustratively renders a sense memory of drinking rich creamy bittersweet hot chocolate at a not-quite-scalding temperature. (It's impressive how he almost manages not to consciously entertain any sexual associations to the act of swallowing.) "Put that in words, I dare you."
subtly_artistic
"I'm actually memorizing an impressive glossary of subtle artist jargon for Intro Perception, but I don't have it yet, and it would lose something in translation, I give you that."
Celo grins.
"Hey, did I ever give you my name?"
"Hey, did I ever give you my name?"